In 2005, Sony shot a commercial where they launched 250,000 bouncy balls down a San Francisco hill. They then paid $74,000 to repair all the broken windows it caused.
The owner of the New England Patriots had his Superbowl ring stolen by Vladimir Putin. After being shown the ring, Putin put it in his pocket instead of handing it back. The White House later called the Patriots owner and encouraged him to publicly state that the ring was a gift, to avoid an international incident.
A tiger’s stripes look bright orange to humans, but their prey can’t see the color orange; it looks green to them. Because of this, a tiger is well-camouflaged in the jungle.
Martin Luther King Jr. had his hotel rooms bugged and his home and office phones tapped by the FBI, who considered him a subversive threat to America. He was especially disliked by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who once called him “the most notorious liar in the country”.
Gallium metal will melt in your hand. But it takes a long time, so I prefer to use hot water to melt it. It is also nontoxic and fun to play with.
Me holding melted gallium metal.
Each language version of Wikipedia is unique. If you navigate to the article in a different language, then the way the article is written could be completely different.
A polar bear liver contains dangerously high levels of vitamin A, enough to poison and kill 50 adult humans.
In 2023, hundreds of artificial intelligence experts and other influential figures signed a statement saying that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” Signatories included Nobel laureates, CEOs of top AI companies, Bill Gates, and many other well-known figures.
Bulls are (mostly) colorblind, the color red on a Toreador's cape is to help mask the bloodstains.
There are about 4 times more chickens than there are humans on Earth.
According to one source, the biggest loss of human health due to climate change will be from drought-driven famines in Africa. The second biggest will be from malaria. Heavier rains and flooding will allow malaria-carrying mosquitos to spread to new areas.
Most plants are both male and female, but some species have different sexes, where some plants only produce pollen and others only produce seeds. A few will even change sex if stressed or injured.
If you spin a penny, it will land on tails 80 percent of the time. This is because the side depicting Lincoln’s head is slightly heavier, which biases the center of mass to make the penny tend to land on that side. (If anyone wants to spend an hour spinning pennies, please tell me if you can manage to replicate this result!)
Russia spends millions of dollars sponsoring internet trolls, or people who are paid to spread disinformation and pro-Russia propaganda online, on platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and TikTok. It has been described as an “informational-psychological war operation”, and one Russia expert says that the goal is to “trash [the truth] with conspiracy theories and rumours”.
Birds and bees have eyes that pick up UV light, which lets them see patterns on flowers that are invisible to humans.
Many reptiles have their sex determined by the temperature of the egg during incubation. Because of climate change, there are now some beaches where 99% of sea turtles are being born female.
Lemmings do not jump off cliffs; this is an old misconception that was reinforced by the Disney documentary White Wilderness, which showed lemmings falling to their death because the filmmakers pushed the lemmings off a cliff.
Distracted driving now kills more people than drunk driving. This is partly because drunk driving fatalities are declining, but mostly because distracted driving has become so common.
The average American eats 7000 animals in their lifetime, including 11 cows, 27 pigs, 2400 chickens, 80 turkeys, 30 sheep, and 4500 fish.
The scientific name of the boa constrictor is Boa constrictor.
Three artists tried to “scientifically engineer” the worst song in history. Among other things, it includes an opera singer rapping cowboy lyrics with bagpipe in the background.
In the original Greek myth, Pandora's box was actually a vase.
Sunflowers are known to turn during the day so that their flowers are always facing the sun, but this is only true of young sunflowers. Mature sunflowers tend to face east, because it allows the morning sun to warm up the flowers more quickly so they attract more pollinators.
Wild animals only make up 4% of the world’s mammal biomass. Humans make up 34%, and livestock make up the remaining 62%.
I flipped a penny 10 times, 6 landed on tails. Needs more research 😄