This semester, I decided to write down one thing I learned every day that I had class. This made for a very interesting semester, and I now know so many wonderfully useless facts. I highly recommend that you try to learn one thing every day for a semester because it is a blast, and it is so easy to do in this day and age. All of these facts are 100% true and wildly interesting (in my opinion). I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
1. 94% of all people who go on welfare are off of it within two years
– contrary to the popular belief that people on welfare are lazy.
2. Women show different signs of heart attacks than men
– symptoms can be as simple as a head ache, and because of this, women are much more likely to die from a heart attack.
3. One out of every eight U.S. residents lives in California
– it is a big state, but it is also way too crowded.
4. Boys grow their first teeth quicker than girls, but girls are faster at developing everything else
5. Vladimir Lenin was snuck back into Russia in a closed-off train container
– he was helped by the German government and he went on to become the president of the Soviet Union.
6. We as a society went to the moon before we thought to put wheels on suitcases
7. The cotton candy machine was invented by a dentist
8. The man who first cured cholera was named Jon Snow
– he then went on to become the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (jk haha).
9. When we look at the stars we are looking at the past
– some of those stars don’t even exist anymore.
10. Baby carrots used to be really ugly carrots
– they are now a billion-dollar industry.
11. The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn
12. The word Drag (as in Drag Queen) is an acronym meaning Dressed Resembling A Girl
13. A group of pandas is called an embarrassment
– now I know why I relate to pandas so much.
14. Finland has banned all Donald Duck cartoons because the character doesn’t wear pants
15. The oils found on your nose, chin, and forehead is called sebum
16. Children in indigenous societies often don’t receive a name until 6-10 months, and then they may receive a new name at childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
17. 1 in 16 women say their first sexual intercourse was rape
– this needs to end.
18. 90% of the world’s population lives in the northern hemisphere
19. There are more trees on earth than stars in the Milky Way
– that is A LOT of trees.
20. Koala fingerprints are indistinguishable from human fingerprints
– if a Koala committed a crime, would a human be framed?
21. In Utah, the two highest searched things on Google are: Porn and Jesus
– this is one of my favorite facts for sure.
22. Vending machines kill 4x as many people as sharks each year
– watch out next time you try to buy your favorite snack.
23. More than 2,500 left-handed people die each year using equipment made for right-handed people
24. Brett Favre’s first completed pass as a Packer was to himself.
– this is definitely a YouTube video worth watching.
25. Dick Clark, MLK, and Anne Frank were all born the same year
– 1929 was a wild year.
26. Uruguay has the longest national anthem
– it takes six minutes to perform.
27. Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world
– and most Americans couldn’t even locate it on a map. Thanks public school system.
28. When you get a kidney transplant, they usually just leave your original kidneys in your body and put the new kidney in your pelvis
29. The CEO of Food for the Poor, the largest international relief and development organization, is named Robin Mahfood.
30. Russia has a greater surface area than Pluto
31. The total amount of time that World of Warcraft has been played around the world is over 6 million years.
– how is this even possible?
32. Australia once lost a prime minister
– he has never been found.
33. If there are 23 people in a room, there’s a 50% chance two of them share the same birthday
– Google the Birthday Paradox.
34. A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus
– it takes 243 Earth days for Venus to rotate one time, and it takes 225 Earth days for Venus to orbit around the sun.
35. Hippo milk is pink
36. From the time it was discovered to the time it was stripped of its status as a planet, Pluto hadn’t made a full trip around the sun
– aka, rough year for Pluto.
37. Every day, there are 6 years worth of video being published on YouTube
38. Cows have best friends and get stressed out when they are separated
– another reason why they are one of the best animals on Earth. If the cow’s bestie dies, they usually follow within a week.
39. Mammoths were alive when the Great Pyramids were being built
40. The terminal velocity of cats is non-lethal
– they literally can’t fall to their death.
41. There are only two sets of escalators in the entire state of Wyoming
42. Green Eggs and Ham started as a bet between Dr. Seuss and his editor
– He bet Seuss he couldn’t write a book using less than 50 words; he lost $50.
43. Oranges aren’t naturally occurring fruits
-they are a hybrid between tangerines and pomelos.
44. Napoleon and Hitler were born 129 years apart, came into power 129 years apart, and invaded Russia 129 years apart
45.There are enough saunas in Finland for everyone in the country to take a sauna at the same time
46. There are more tigers in captivity in Texas than in the wild worldwide
47. Dogs typically use the bathroom in alignment with the north-south axis
48. It would 22.7 years to eat at every restaurant in NYC
– a new restaurant for every meal, three meals a day. That’s longer than most of us have been alive. Who’s down to do a 23 year eating spree?
49. The average human grows around 600 miles of hair in their lifetime
– that’s enough hair to stretch from Salt Lake City to Denver
50. It would only take you one hour to drive to space
– assuming you could drive at 60 mph straight up
I hope you found these facts super interesting. Feel free to Google any of them to confirm they are true or to learn more about them (some of them are almost unbelievable). Good luck with the rest of this semester, and try to use some of these facts in any finals you may have! Never stop learning, children!