Weird interesting facts you've heard/read

[Wazzzup]

Every now and then I hear something and I think "Huh I didn't know that.  That's odd."  So I thought maybe we could have a thread for those kind of things.

[Wazzzup]

To start things off



The Romans made a kind of concrete that would even set under water

The Egyptians knew how to make colored glass

A group of crows is called a "murder"

[Anonymous]

There is a Species of Jellyfish that Never Dies

Known as Turritopsis dohrnii—or colloquially, the immortal jellyfish—this animal is able to revert back into its adolescent state after going through adulthood, and repeats this process for all eternity.



People in Medieval England had rap battles.

Before rap battles, there was "flyting," a type of trading of insults that was popular from the 5th to the 16th centuries in England and Scotland. As Atlas Obscura describes it, "Participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric, and early bathroom humor to publicly trounce opponents," and even society's elite would join in these battles of wits.



The first interracial TV kiss was on Star Trek.

While being mind-controlled by aliens, Kirk and Uhura (played by William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, respectively) made television history by having the first-ever interracial kiss in a 1968 episode of the Star Trek television series.

[Wazzzup]

There is a Species of Jellyfish that Never Dies

Known as Turritopsis dohrnii—or colloquially, the immortal jellyfish—this animal is able to revert back into its adolescent state after going through adulthood, and repeats this process for all eternity.

I did not know that very cool.

People in Medieval England had rap battles.

Before rap battles, there was "flyting," a type of trading of insults that was popular from the 5th to the 16th centuries in England and Scotland. As Atlas Obscura describes it, "Participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric, and early bathroom humor to publicly trounce opponents," and even society's elite would join in these battles of wits.

I wonder if they had yo mama jokes back then?

The first interracial TV kiss was on Star Trek.

While being mind-controlled by aliens, Kirk and Uhura (played by William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, respectively) made television history by having the first-ever interracial kiss in a 1968 episode of the Star Trek television series.

Another cool fact.  This one I had heard about.  I imagine at the time it was pretty controversial.

[Anonymous]

There is a Species of Jellyfish that Never Dies

Known as Turritopsis dohrnii—or colloquially, the immortal jellyfish—this animal is able to revert back into its adolescent state after going through adulthood, and repeats this process for all eternity.

I did not know that very cool.

People in Medieval England had rap battles.

Before rap battles, there was "flyting," a type of trading of insults that was popular from the 5th to the 16th centuries in England and Scotland. As Atlas Obscura describes it, "Participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric, and early bathroom humor to publicly trounce opponents," and even society's elite would join in these battles of wits.

I wonder if they had yo mama jokes back then?

The first interracial TV kiss was on Star Trek.

While being mind-controlled by aliens, Kirk and Uhura (played by William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, respectively) made television history by having the first-ever interracial kiss in a 1968 episode of the Star Trek television series.

Another cool fact.  This one I had heard about.  I imagine at the time it was pretty controversial.

i don't know why, but I thought the first interracial kiss would have involved Sidney Poitier.

[Anonymous]

Most toilets flush in E flat.



Cap'n Crunch's full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch.



The Vatican City is the country that drinks the most wine per capita at 74 liters per citizen per year.



"Almost" is the longest word in English with all the letters in alphabetical order.



f a female ferret does not have sex for a year, she will die.

[Anonymous]

Homosexuality was still classified as an illness in Sweden in 1979. Swedes responded by calling into work "sick," saying they "felt gay."



 It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.



Human birth control pills work on gorillas.



The "hashtag" key on your keyboard (#) is called an octotroph.



Alaska law says that you can't look at a moose from an airplane.

[Frood]

A vacuum pack wrapped candle doesn't lose its form in the heat.

[Anonymous]

For every human on Earth there are 1.6 million ants. The total weight of all those ants, however, is about the same as all the humans.

[Anonymous]

A strawberry is not a berry, but a banana is a berry.

[Wazzzup]

Nice contributions all.  Fash you really know a lot of odd and interesting facts. Well done. ac_drinks

[Anonymous]

Nice contributions all.  Fash you really know a lot of odd and interesting facts. Well done. ac_drinks

This is a very good thread Wazzzup..



But, I Google for bizarre facts.

 ac_blush

[Anonymous]

A ten-year-old mattress weighs double what it did when it was new due to debris that it absorbs over time. That debris includes dust mites (their droppings and decaying bodies), mold, millions of dead skin cells, dandruff, animal and human hair, secretions, excretions, lint, pollen, dust, soil, sand, and a lot of perspiration, which the average person loses at a rate of a quart a day.



Every year 16 million gallons of oil runs off pavement into streams, rivers, and eventually, oceans in the United States. This is more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

[Wazzzup]

This is a very good thread Wazzzup..



But, I Google for bizarre facts.

 ac_blush

That's okay.  They're good that's what matters.  The first ones I posted I heard on tv shows, but I googled these--



Octopuses have three hearts and an earthworm has five.



Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.



If you shrunk the sun down to the size of a white blood cell and shrunk the Milky Way Galaxy down using the same scale, it would be the size of the continental United States.



Humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas.



Honey never spoils. You can eat 32,000-year-old honey.



There are more atoms in a glass of water than glasses of water in all the oceans on Earth.



The probability of you drinking a glass of water that contains a molecule of water that also passed through a dinosaur is almost 100%.



This is what sand looks like under a microscope--



https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2014-03/enhanced/webdr06/18/14/enhanced-buzz-30426-1395167929-10.jpg?downsize=800:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto">

[Anonymous]

They look like hard candies.