25 Fascinating Facts You Probably Don't Know
1.
McBarge is the name of an abandoned floating McDonalds restaurant anchored just outside Vancouver, British Columbia.
2.
In Tudor England, white teeth were considered a trait of the poor, since the teeth of the well-to-do frequently went black from sugar. This started a short-lived fashion trend of ladies blackening their teeth to give the impression they were rich enough to buy luxury goods.
3.
Wealthy landowners hired garden hermits in the 18th century. Such hermits would be encouraged to dress like druids and remain permanently on-site, where they could be fed, cared-for and consulted for advice or viewed for entertainment.
4.
Sweat itself is odorless. It's the bacteria on the skin that mingles with it and produces body odor.
5.
Legendary strongman Milo of Croton trained by carrying a calf from its birth until it became a full-sized bull. Then, while trying to rip a tree apart, he got stuck and eaten by wolves.
6.
Redheads need 19 percent more anesthesia than their dark-headed counterparts. Because the MC1R gene belongs to the same family of genes that play a role in pain, the mutation causes redheads to be more sensitive to it.
7.
President Coolidge was a prankster who liked to buzz for his bodyguards and then hide under his desk to make them believe he'd been kidnapped.
9.
Actress Julie Newmar, best known as Catwoman on TV's Batman, received two US patents: one for pantyhose, described as having "cheeky derriere relief" and promoted under the name "Nudemar" and one for a brassiere, described as "nearly invisible".
10.
The Gombe Chimpanzee War was a conflict between two communities of chimpanzees in Tanzania that lasted 4 years and included violent skirmishes, numerous deaths and kidnappings.
11.
Before alarm clocks there were 'knocker-ups' in Britain and Ireland who went knocking door to door with a large stick.
12.
Dolphins enjoy masturbation and have a long penis that can be manipulated like an arm. A dolphin was once filmed masturbating using a decapitated fish.
13.
During the Battle of Yongqiu (756 C.E.) commander Zhang Xun needed arrows, so he ordered his troops to lower 1,000 scarecrows over the fortress wall, and later retrieved the arrow laden decoys to replenish their supply.
14.
Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova was born with a medical complication causing her to have no belly button. An artificial navel is photoshopped into each of her photographs.
15.
Female ferrets will die if they go into heat and can't find a mate (their death is due to high level secretions of estrogen that can cause a severe anemia).
16.
The' Night Witches', a Russian all female bomber squadron in WW2. The 80-woman group flew 23,000 sorties and received 23 'Hero of the Soviet Union' honors. They earned the name from their technique of shutting the engine off and gliding over their targets to drop bombs silently.
18.
The term "junkie" comes from the fact that recreational heroin users in the early 1900s would collect and sell scrap metal to pay for their heroin.
19.
Several squirrels can accidentally get their tails stuck together from tree sap, forming a "squirrel king".
21.
Nyotaimori is the name for a traditional Japanese practice of serving sashimi or sushi off of a naked women's body.
23.
Alfonso Ribeiro, Carlton from the Fresh Prince, had his own instructional dance book called 'Breakin' and Poppin' at 13 years old.
24.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story about 4 crewman who are lost at sea and turned to eating the cabin boy named Richard Parker, 46 years later, an English Yacht sank and the remaining 4 survivors in a life boat turned to eating the Cabin Boy after he fell ill, also named Richard Parker.
25.
There is an optical illusion called the McCullough Effect that is so powerful, ten minutes of exposure can cause you to see colors that are not there for up to a month.
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