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PAGE 335!
HYPE REMINDER!
Did you know... The first commercial passenger flight lasted only 23 minutes
In 1914, Abram Pheil paid $400 (which would be $8,500 today) for a 23-minute plane ride. The Florida flight flew between Saint Petersburg and Tampa, where only 21 miles of water separate the cities. Pheil, a former mayor of Saint Petersburg, and the pilot, Tony Jannus, were the only passengers. This momentous flight paved the way for air travel as we know it.
Did you know... The world’s first novel ends mid-sentence
The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is considered the world’s first novel. After reading 54 intricately crafted chapters, the reader is stopped abruptly mid-sentence. One translator believes the work is complete as is, but another says we’re missing a few more pages of the story.
Carbon stocks in vegetation have a key role in the climate system; humans are responsible for reducing it by over 50%.
Did you know... The French-language Scrabble World Champion doesn’t speak French
New Zealand native Nigel Richards memorized the entire French Scrabble dictionary, which has 386,000 words, in nine weeks to earn his title. He has also won the English World Scrabble Championship three times, the U.S. national championships five times, and the U.K. Open Scrabble tournament six times. This comes 20 years after a 28-year-old Richards first played the game.
Did you know... A woman called the police when her ice cream didn’t have enough sprinkles
The West Midlands police in England released a recording of a woman who called 999 (the U.K. version of 911) because there were “bits on one side and none on the other,” she says in the recording. She was even more upset when the ice cream truck man did not want to give her money back.
Chuck Berry had a degree in hairdressing.
Did you know... Uncle Ben’s rice was air-dropped to World War II troops
German chemist Erich Huzenlaub invented a process of parboiling rice to keep more nutrients in the rice and lessen the cooking time. The “Huzenlaub Process” had another unexpected benefit: It stopped bug infestations. The quick-cook, bug-free rice was a big advantage during World War II, and converted rice (as it was then known) was air-dropped to American and British troops. After the war, the company rebranded itself and became Uncle Ben’s Original Converted Brand Rice, named after one of the company’s best rice suppliers. The product hit grocery store shelves in 1947.
Did you know... The British Empire was the largest empire in world history
The British Empire was most powerful in the 1920s, when it controlled 23 percent of the world’s population and approximately 13.7 million square miles of territory—or nearly a quarter of the Earth’s land area, according to a report from Statista.
The longest war in history lasted 335 years, between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.
Did you know... South American river turtles talk in their eggs
Turtles don’t have vocal cords, and their ears are internal, so scientists believed that turtles were deaf and didn’t communicate through sounds. But research has found that turtles actually communicate at an extremely low frequency that sounds like “clicks, clucks, and hoots” that can only be heard through a hydrophone (a microphone used underwater). These sounds even come from the egg before the turtle hatches. Researchers hypothesize that this helps all the turtle siblings hatch at once.
Vladimir Putin's grandfather worked as a chef for Stalin and Lenin, and Rasputin.
Did you know... Penicillin was first called “mold juice”
In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming left a petri dish in his lab while he was on vacation—only to return and find that some liquid around the mold had killed the bacteria in the dish. This became the world’s first antibiotic, but before naming it penicillin, he called it “mold juice.”
Adults spend more time each morning checking emails and using the internet than eating breakfast, according to a study.
Did you know... The first stroller was engineered to be pulled by a goat (or animal of similar size)
William Kent, a landscape architect, invented the first stroller for the third Duke of Devonshire in 1733. But upper-class parents were hardly expected to put effort into transporting their children around, so Kent designed his model to be pulled by a small animal, like a goat.
Did you know... May 20, 1873, is the “birthday” of blue jeans
According to the Levi Strauss company, this was the day that Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, the innovators behind the sturdy blue jeans we all love, got a patent on the process of adding metal rivets to men’s denim work pants. The pants were called waist overalls until 1960, when baby boomers began calling them jeans. And FYI, this is why blue is the most popular denim color.
"Stan", from the Eminem song with the same name, was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, defining it as "an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity"
Did you know... 170-year-old bottles of champagne were found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea
The bottles of bubbly are believed to have been traveling from Germany to Russia during the 1800s when they sank to the bottom of the sea, according to New Scientist. It turns out that the bottom of the sea, where temperatures are between two and four degrees Celsius, is a great place for wine aging. Wine experts sampled the champagne and described it as “sometimes cheesy” with “animal notes” and elements of “wet hair.” Mmm.
Corporatocracy is a term used to refer to an economic and political system controlled by corporate interests.
Did you know... The MGM lion roar is trademarked
At the start of any movie made by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, the iconic lion roars at the audience. While MGM has gone through several iterations of lion mascots, the sound of the roar is always the same. The company trademarked the “sound mark” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the 1980s. Believe it or not, these famous phrases are also trademarked.
Did you know... Neil Armstrong’s hair was sold in 2004 for $3,000
The lucky buyer, John Reznikoff, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of hair from historical celebrities, reports NBC. But Armstrong’s lawyers threatened to sue Marx Sizemore, the not-so-lucky barber who cut the former astronaut’s hair; they said he violated an Ohio law that protects the rights of famous people. Sizemore said he wouldn’t pay, and Reznikoff said he wouldn’t give back the hair but that he’d donate $3,000 to charity.
Obdormition is when your arm falls asleep from lying on it.
Did you know... Irish bars used to be closed on Saint Patrick’s Day
You might associate Saint Patrick’s Day with wearing green and drinking so much you think you actually see leprechauns. But until 1961, there were laws in Ireland that banned bars from opening on March 17. Since the holiday falls during the period of Lent in the heavily Catholic country, the idea of binge-drinking seemed a bit immoral.
Did you know... Nikola Tesla hated pearls
The electrical engineer paved the way for current system generators and motors; the way electricity gets transmitted and converted to mechanical power is thanks to his inventions. But despite his patience with scientific experimentation, he apparently had no tolerance for pearls. When his secretary wore pearl jewelry one day, he made her go home.
Quantophrenia is an obsessive reliance on statistics.
Did you know... Thomas Edison is the reason you love cat videos
After inventing the kinetograph in 1892, Edison was able to record and watch moving images for the first time. He filmed short clips in his studio, some of which feature famous people like Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill. But the real stars of these early videos are the Boxing Cats—adorable cats that he recorded in a boxing ring circa 1894.
Did you know... Brad Pitt suffered an ironic injury on a film set
In Troy, based on Homer’s Illiad, Pitt plays the brave (and buff) Greek hero Achilles. Legend has it that Achilles could not be defeated unless hit in his heel. (It’s where we get the term “Achilles’ heel,” meaning a vulnerable point.) While filming an epic battle scene, Pitt ironically hurt his Achilles tendon—an injury that set back the film’s production by two months.
Did you know... Pregnancy tests date back to 1350 B.C.E.
According to a document written on ancient papyrus, Egyptian women urinated on wheat and barley seeds to determine if they were pregnant or not, reports the Office of History in the National Institutes of Health. If wheat grew, it predicted a female baby. If barley grew, it predicted a male baby. The woman was not pregnant if nothing grew. Experimenting with this seed theory in 1963 proved it was accurate 70 percent of the time.
The “Latte Index”, developed by The Wall Street Journal, compares the cost of a tall Starbucks latte in dozens of cities around the world to estimate which currencies are overvalued and undervalued.
More countries are now democratic than at any point since WW2.