March 2011
A glass ball will bounce higher than a rubber ball, provided that it does not break.
It all goes back to how much energy is lost or retained by the ball you are bouncing. The more energy gets lost to the surface you are bouncing on, the less bouncy your ball will be. If the ball is able to retain that energy, it will bounce higher.
You can test how bouncy your glass is at home. Tap a glass...
February 2011
It has been almost a year since a fact has made the “Top Facts” category on OMG-Facts.
We would like to thank “Ray D from Valparaiso, IN” for the submission of this fact - very clever. However, we must admit that we did tweak his original wording a bit. Ray originally said that “it has been almost a year since a fact has been GOOD enough to make the “Top Facts” category. But that can’t be true....
Charlie Chaplin’s dead body was dug up and held for ransom for over two months.
Weird story, but it’s been fact-checked by Snopes and and it’s totally true!
Chaplin died on Christmas Day in 1977 at the ripe old age of 88. This did not mean that he would ‘rest in peace’ right away, unfortunately. Nine weeks after his burial, a pair of Eastern European men dug up his coffin and hid...
To feed the world’s ever-growing population, we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000.
This is according to estimates that by 2050, the Earth’s population will jump to 9 billion. This is also based on the (somewhat dubious) assumption that in that same period of time, incomes will rise, tripling on average, with incomes quadrupling in the developing...
Elvis Presley won three Grammys, but they were all for his gospel music.
(source)
Apple used to sell a featureless iPhone app for $999.99.
The application, called “I Am Rich,” was developed to serve the purpose its name suggests - simply as a distinction that the user who purchased it is wealthy enough to do so! When activated, the app just shows a glowing red gem onscreen - that’s it. $999.99 is apparently the highest amount a web developer can sell their applications for...
The first successful blood transfusion in a human used blood from a sheep.
The first successful transfusion in general was performed by Robert Lower in 1665, and took place between two dogs! Two years later, Dr. Jean-Baptiste decided to take the process a step further and perform the feat with a human. A drowsy and feverish young man received about 12 ounces of blood from a lamb! After the...
The IRS will still collect taxes after a nuclear attack.
The United States Internal Revenue Service manual lays out the basic ground rules for “continuity planning”, which ensures that the IRS will still be able to function under any number of extreme circumstances. This includes wars, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, pandemic influenza, and yes, even nuclear explosions. (You can read all...
Albert Einstein’s brain was stolen after he died.
The man who performed the autopsy on Einstein’s body shortly after he died was a Princeton pathologist by the name of Thomas Harvey. Harvey removed the brain for examination, as is customary during autopsies, but he never replaced it. At the cost of his job and reputation, Harvey instead placed it in a jar of formaldehyde and took it home!
Over...
The human nose can distinguish more than 10,000 different smells.
There are hundreds of different kinds of neurons in the nose that specialize in recognizing different odors and transmitting those signals to the brain. This occurs when molecules of the things that you can smell travel to your nose. Whatever thing you are smelling (a flower, a piece of fruit, an onion, etc.) gives off light,...
The changing of the seasons can actually cause some individuals to become clinically depressed.
This condition, called Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD for short…it’s funny) results in episodes of depression that typically occur each year beginning in the fall or winter. Sufferers usually feel lethargic and are prone to mood changes. Treatment for this disorder includes light therapy,...
We were wrong. Elvis made a music video before the Beatles did.
Elvis Presley’s 1957 single “Jailhouse Rock” predates the Beatles’ music videos by 8 years! That means that our story from October, where we credit the Beatles with making the first music video, was actually incorrect. (You can still read it here though).
While we were right to credit the Beatles for being ahead of their time, the...
The Internet is running out of space.
This is assuming that computing continues to evolve at the rate predicted by Moore’s law, and with more and more people transferring larger amounts of data, including video files. Without a massive investment from Internet service providers to accommodate the increased demand from users, Internet service will be inadequate to address our needs in 3 years. It...
Quebec attempted to secede from Canada in 1995, but the vote fell short by less than 1%.
A referendum in Canada to determine whether Quebec would become a sovereign state or remain a Canadian province ended up being a nail-biter. Only 50.6% of the voters voted “No” with 49.4% voting “Yes” on the 1995 Quebec referendum. The federalists ended up with just 54,288 more votes than the separatists....
In Belgium, there is what looks like a real Super Mario underwater level!
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A plane in China had to be pushed half a mile by its passengers after landing.
Chinese Shandong Airlines Flight CRJ7 arrived at its destination at Zhengzhou Airport in September 2008 with no problems…until breaking down shortly after it landed. The plane had to be removed from the runway, and the only way to do it was to have passengers and airport staff push it! The arduous task of moving...
A billion-dollar yacht has been designed that will look like a mini version of Monaco.
A British firm called Yacht Island Design has drawn up a blueprint for what could be the world’s first billion-dollar yacht, and it is a veritable city on the sea. The “Streets of Monaco” would be a four-level, 500-foot long vessel with to-scale replicas of the country’s most famous landmarks. It would contain...
The world’s strongest beer will put you over the legal blood alcohol limit with just one gulp.
“Sink the Bismarck,” a beer brewed by the Scottish company BrewDog, is 41 percent alcohol. To give you an idea of the potency of this potable, that’s like drinking your typical vodka, rum, or tequila!
This beverage contains four times the amount of hops as ordinary beers and has a resealable lid...
Koi fish can live for over 200 years.
A fish’s age is determined similar to the way a tree’s age is estimated - by counting rings! Most fish have a series of growth rings on their scales called annuli that can be used to calculate their age. Hanako (meaning “flower maid), the world’s oldest koi carp, died in 1977 at the ripe old age of 226!
(source)
The world’s largest touch screen is 10 meters long and can accept up to 100 multi-touch inputs at one time.
The screen was developed by a group at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In order to create the behemoth, the school modified a 3D theatre’s screen using infrared lamps and cameras. The screen is used to teach students interactivity.
(source)
Happy Valentine's from Love Gives Me Hope →
etoduarte:
Hey everyone! We’re decided to do something a little special for this Valentine’s day. One of the most requested features we have for our sits is to be able to see the stories that you’ve already submitted, but haven’t made it to the front page yet. Because of this, we’re launching our new LGMH…
A woman has filed a $1 trillion lawsuit against P. Diddy, and claims that he caused 9/11.
Valerie Joyce Wilson Turks also claims that she and Diddy dated and have a 23-year-old son together (that means Diddy would’ve been 18 when the child was born). She asserts that the rap mogul broke both of her child’s legs and stole a poker chip worth “well over 100 zillions of dollars.” Through the...
The initials of Homer Simpson’s creator are hidden in his ear and hair.
If you look closely, you can see that Homer’s little squiggle of hair and right ear resemble an ‘M’ and a ‘G.’ Those letters stand for the name of his creator, Matt Groening! Groening originally designed the features to resemble the letters much more closely, but he thought the ear was too distracting. He still draws the ear...
Luke Skywalker’s light saber sold for $240,000.
In 2008, a huge Star Wars nerd bought the Jedi weapon at an auction in Los Angeles put on by a company called Profiles in History. Around $3.5 million in Hollywood memorabilia was purchased, including C-3PO’s helmet for $120,000 and $72,000 for the costume worn by Marlon Brando as the Man of Steel’s father in the movie Superman.
(source)
Astronauts can burp in space.
This isn’t usually as fun or pleasant a sensation as it is on Earth though! The lack of gravity in space makes the contents of an astronaut’s belly float near a valve at the top of their stomach. This valve does not close completely, as it typically relies on Earth’s gravity to keep all the digesting food down below where it belongs. This means that in zero gravity...
Refrigerating batteries will not improve their performance.
In fact, extreme heat or cold can actually hamper a battery’s ability to hold a charge! This is not to mention the risk of condensation in a refrigerator or freezer corroding the battery’s metal housing. Both the Energizer and Duracell battery companies recommend storing batteries around room temperature with moderate levels of...
Led Zeppelin got their name from Keith Moon, drummer for the Who.
The band was originally conceived by Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja after their original group, the Yardbirds, broke up. The Yardbirds were still booked to perform a series of Scandinavian concerts, so Page and Dreja put together a new band called the “New Yardbirds” to fulfill the commitment. This band consisted of Page on guitar,...
Tim Roth had to be peeled off the floor while filming Reservoir Dogs.
If you’ve seen the film, you know that Roth lays in a pool of his own blood for most of it. The blood was fake, of course, and Roth spent so much time laying in it that it dried and he stuck to the floor! Another interesting tidbit about these scenes is that a paramedic was kept on set to ensure that the amount of blood being...
Cocaine can attach itself to a drug user’s sperm.
A study found that direct exposure to cocaine by sperm cells lead to trace elements of cocaine binding themselves to the cells. Conceivably this could lead to an embryo being exposed to cocaine..
Still, there is no evidence that the presence of cocaine in sperm either damages the sperm or slows down its movement. Nor is there evidence yet that...
The model for the Mona Lisa may have been a man.
An art historian believes that Leonardo da Vinci based his most famous painting on one of his favorite young models, a young man named Gian Giacomo Caprotti. Caprotti, also known as Salai, is thought to have served as the inspiration for several of Da Vinci’s pieces, including a painting of John the Baptist and a drawing called Angel Incarnate....
Gorillaz produced an entire album using an iPad.
The album “The Fall” was released online this Christmas. Aside from a few instruments the album was composed entirely with an Apple iPad. The entire thing was recorded and produced in just 32 days, and it was written while the band was touring for its previous album “Plastic Beach”. Apparently, band founder and frontman Damon Albarn fell in love...
There is a person who was legally recognized as genderless.
Norrie May-Welby was officially recognized as sexless by the New South Wales registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The 48-year-old was born a male but had a sex-change operation in 1990. Norrie currently identifies as neither male nor female and had Australian officials alter Norrie’s birth certificate to reflect that. May-Welby...
Only male turkeys gobble.
Female turkeys make a gentler clucking or clicking noise.
(source)
On February 1, 2011, kids in Chicago, IL had their first snow day since 1999.
This week’s blizzard has been so intense that teachers, students and school staff have been unable to get to the schools. 26 school buildings in Chicago went without electricity yesterday. A lot of people weren’t even able to find their cars!
Chicago is normally very reluctant to close its public schools...
The nude sketch of Kate Winslet in the film Titanic was drawn by the film’s director, James Cameron.
Cameron actually drew all of the pictures in Jack’s sketchbook! The hands that were filmed sketching Winslet’s naked form do not belong to Leonardo DiCaprio; they are Cameron’s. However, James Cameron is left-handed and DiCaprio is not, so in post-production these shots had to be mirror-imaged!
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