They say you learn something new every day but that doesn’t mean it will be something interesting.
Here are some facts that are definitely going to have you saying, “Today I learned something INTERESTING today!”
1. Water as a herbicide.
Water is used in rice fields to prevent weeds. Rice doesn’t actually need that much water, but since it can thrive in such conditions, whereas weeds cannot, it’s a natural protection against them.
typowilliams
2. Going into deep cover to do what they loved.
50 years before women were allowed to enrol into medical school, Margaret Ann Bulkley dressed as a man for 56 years to study medicine and become her alter-ego, Dr James Barry. It was only when she died in 1865 that her secret was exposed after 46 years working as an army medical officer.
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homosapien12
3. This is one way to characterize bad movies.
The “idiot plot”. The term was popularized by film critic Roger Ebert, who defines it as “[a]ny plot containing problems that would be solved instantly if all of the characters were not idiots”.
jack__gladney
4. A duel! With musical instruments?
When Beethoven was challenged to an improvisation duel by one of his rivals named Steibelt, Beethoven took a piece of Steibelt’s music, turned it upside down, played it, then improvised on that theme for over an hour. Steibelt simply left halfway through.
Tokyo-SexWhale
5. He must have had a lot of faith in his writing.
While penniless and dying, Ulysses S Grant wrote a book of memoirs so his wife could live off of the royalties. Mark Twain heard the best royalty offer was 10% and immediately offered Grant 75% (story continued on the next page…).
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Grant’s book, was a critical and commercial success giving his wife about $450,000 in royalties.
EZ_does_it
6. A truly kind and important service.
Anybody can walk into a Sikh temple after prayers and partake of the free communal meal called langar. The meal, a symbol of equality and community is given to anybody who wishes to partake, without any expectation of payment.
EtOHMartini
7. May have a real impact to global greenhouse emissions.
That adding a type of seaweed to the diet of cows reduces their methane production by 70%.
paprikashi
8. Asking the important scientific questions.
A nurse wanted to know if her farts were contaminating equipment in the lab. The doctor and a microbiologist tested the hypothesis by having a colleague fart clothed then naked onto two Petri dishes. The conclusion was that clothing acts as a filter, but naked farts can cause contamination.
ThePharros
9. Send in the stem cells!
If a pregnant mother suffers organ damage during the pregnancy the fetus can send stem cells to help repair the damage.
xiibo
10. Chess master.
Ossip Bernstein, a famous chess grandmaster, who was sentenced to death by the Bolsheviks in 1918. While he was facing the firing squad, a Russian officer that heard his name offered him the chance to prove his identity. All he had to do was… (story continued on the next page…).
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All he had to do was beat the officer in a game of chess. He beat the officer and was released.
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kyS_
11. Now this is wild.
Over 40M people of Irish descent are in the United States, 8x more than the population of Ireland.
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lostprudence
12. The student becomes the teacher.
Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Wall, got a “B” in her architecture class for her design from her professor who also submitted a design for the wall – losing to his student.
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13. ‘What won’t Bryan Cranston do??”
The writers of Malcom in the Middle had a game called “What won’t Bryan [Cranston] do?” that culminated in him wearing the infamous suit of bees. They gave up and changed it to “What can’t Bryan do?” which saw Hal disco-skating, washing a car in Daisy Dukes, and painting with his full body.
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ElMangosto
14. A true appreciator of art.
Keanu Reeves turned down a $10 million offer for the main role in Speed 2, in favor of touring with his band and playing Hamlet in a theater production.
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KillingCountChocula
15. Turned out well in the end!
Brian May’s dad helped him build his famous guitar, but was upset when Brian abandoned his PhD program to join Queen (story continued on the next page…).
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Brian went on to write “We Will Rock You”, “Fat Bottomed Girls”and eventually “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud”, the thesis he finished 36 years later.
BP0413
16. Always fully stocked.
A Russian MIG Pilot defected during the cold war along with his aircraft. When he arrived in the USA he was convinced the CIA had specially stocked the grocery stores he went to because he couldn’t believe the vast array of products for sale.
OnlineJethro
17. I guess it’s all about perspective…
70% of millionaires do not consider themselves “wealthy”.
schoolboy43
18. From wrestler to head of state.
Abraham Lincoln was an elite wrestler in his days before politics. He once challenged a crowd, saying, “Im the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns. The challenge went unanswered.
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RJNavarrete
19. I don’t want to drink soda anymore…
That a man once tried to sue a soda company because he found a mouse in his can of soda, but they defended the case by proving that the soda could dissolve a mouse in a few months.
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Tectonic_Cat
20. It’s about the exploration, not the art.
James Cameron made the movie Titanic to get a dive to the shipwreck funded by the movie studio; not because he particularly wanted to make the movie.
iLaBisback
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21. Nerds party harder.
After sweeping the 2004 Oscars, Peter Jackson & Elijah Wood skipped all official celebrations in favour of attending a LOTR fan party.
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el___diablo
22. Real life Lion King.
10,000 years ago, lions were the second most widespread land mammal, after humans. They existed across Africa, Eurasia and America.
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Hannibal_Barker
23. Taco Thursday.
The the term “Taco Tuesday” is legally owned by Taco John’s and they have issued hundreds of cease and desist letters demanding companies stop holding Taco Tuesdays.
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Gnilleps
24. How to get your face on currency.
Franklin D. Roosevelt founded an organization to find a cure for polio, and believed that if everyone gave only a dime, polio would be eradicated. Because of this motto, after his death in 1945, FDR’s face was put on the dime, and his organization was renamed “The March of Dimes.”
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wut_m8toe
25. Woodstock wouldn’t have happened without him.
Max Yasgur, the man who hosted Woodstock on his dairy farm (story continued on the next page…).
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He got threats from his neighbors, but said “if the generation gap is to be closed, we older people have to do more than we have done.” He also got angry when people were trying to sell water and provided it free of charge.
AlphaWolf101
26. War zone right on home soil.
The US military sends its doctors to Chicago to give them practice for gunshot wounds.
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Cranyx
27. This is the only ethical way.
The Guinness World Records stopped awarding records to the fattest animal to avoid forced over eating.
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andypandycaktrak
28. First time spam has done something good.
A suicide bomber planning on detonating in Moscow at New Year’s Eve, used her phone as the trigger. When her mobile phone company sent her a spam message, the bomb detonated, killing only herself.
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GamingCoyote
29. Walk, bike, skateboard, take transit. Just don’t drive.
Parking in San Francisco is so scarce that the parking spot attached to your property can add up to 100K to the property’s value.
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thesehandsfix