Fresh food for thought: 30 random facts about everything in the world (31 photos)

Although we are often threatened that curiosity does not lead to anything good - this is especially true for furry and tailed animals - it can, nevertheless, be a useful quality. For example, if you give him free rein and let him wander around the Internet, you can learn a lot of interesting things on a variety of topics - from psychology and popular culture to the animal world and even outer space.





1. In Finland, fines for speeding are calculated based on the offender’s earnings. Because of this, some Finnish millionaires are facing fines of more than $100,000.



2. When Liechtenstein last participated in the war, 80 soldiers went to fight, and 81 returned. They brought with them an Italian soldier, with whom they managed to make friends. He dreamed of living in Liechtenstein.





3. Sicilian schoolchildren invented a vending machine that turns trash into phone cases. The machine shreds plastic bottles into pellets, which are melted and reused by a 3D printer, which in turn prints cases for various phone models, thereby encouraging schoolchildren to recycle their waste.



4. One millionaire said he wanted to be buried with his Bentley so he could drive it in the afterlife. After an extremely negative public reaction, he announced that in this way he wanted to draw attention to the issue of organ donation: “People bury with them something that is much more expensive than cars, and no one cares.”



5. A stray dog appeared near a Hyundai car dealership in Brazil. One rainy day, one of the employees let the stray inside, gave him food and water, and the dog completely charmed the entire staff. They named it Tucson Prime, after the car, and he became the salon's mascot - he was even tasked with greeting visitors. And now the dog will star in a national Hyundai advertising campaign.



6. Harper Lee was able to write her famous novel thanks to the best Christmas gift in history. In 1956, friends gave her a card that said: “You have a year to write what you want. Merry Christmas!". They covered her year's salary, allowing her to write To Kill a Mockingbird.



7. Soldiers of the German army have the right to refuse to carry out an order if they feel that it violates human dignity.



8. In England, two thieves entered a private home and stole, among other things, the owner’s laptop. But when they found child abuse material on it, they took the laptop to the police. The pedophile was given three years in prison, and the thieves were given only 12 months of community service for their noble deed.



9. When Sharon Osbourne was battling cancer, at some point a particularly difficult period came for her - she did not get out of bed for a week and practically gave up. Then her husband, Ozzy Osbourne, invited Robin Williams to visit. When the actor arrived, the family quickly went from tears to uncontrollable laughter. Sharon was so inspired by Robin's visit that she resumed chemotherapy the next day.



10. In 2004, 200 women in India took matters into their own hands and, armed with kitchen knives and ground pepper, arrived at the courthouse and killed a serial rapist on the spot. They each then took responsibility for the murder.



11. After being bullied by her peers, 9-year-old Milla Bisotto began training for the extreme 24-hour marathon BattleFrog Xtreme, an obstacle course developed by American special forces. As the youngest competitor in history, she ran 58 kilometers, swam 8 more and overcame 25 obstacles in the six-lap race.When Milla was asked what motivates her, the girl said: “I want to set an example for other children and show them that they can do anything and become anything.”



12. Rainbow Lattice Sunstone is an incredibly rare gemstone that is renowned for its otherworldly beauty. It can only be found in a tiny patch of remote desert in northern Australia.



13. Flounder are so good at camouflage that they will try to match a checkered pattern if placed on a checkerboard.



14. A 9,100-year-old skeleton nicknamed "Cheddar Man" was discovered in a cave in Somerset, England. Scientists conducted a DNA study and discovered that a local schoolteacher named Adrian Targett was a direct descendant of Cheddar Man. They are connected by 300 generations.



15. Between 1888 and 1912, a dolphin named Pelorus Jack accompanied ships crossing the dangerous waters of French Pass. It got to the point that the ships specifically waited for the dolphin to see them off. In 1904, after a Pelorus Jack was shot by a passing ship, New Zealand passed legislation protecting the animal.



16. In 2011, Australian comedian Hamish Blake jokingly entered into the Mr. New York heavyweight bodybuilding competition. However, it turned out that Blake was the only competitor in this category, which resulted in him safely winning the title.



17. During the Korean War, to avoid boredom in a prisoner of war camp, Lieutenant John Thornton rode around the grounds on an imaginary motorcycle. He did this every day until at one point the guards took him to headquarters and seized his imaginary motorcycle, saying it was against the rules.



18. A school teacher has been photographed for his graduation album in the same outfit for 40 years.



19. Lake Michigan becomes so clear after winter when the ice melts that you can see sunken ships in it at a depth of 90 meters.



20. Actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Paul Rudd have owned a candy store in New York City called Samuel’s Sweet Shop since 2014. They bought the store so that it would not close after the sudden death of the previous owner, who was their mutual friend.



21. After four months of planning and two months of working every day from 10 pm to 5 am, a group of hackers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology turned one of the buildings on campus into a giant colorful Tetris game that could be played.



22. Hippos can sleep underwater thanks to a reflex that allows them to surface, inhale and dive back without waking up.



23. Once a year, on November 11 (Veteran's Day in the United States) at 11:11 local time, the sun is in the ideal position for a ray of sunlight to pass through the Veterans Monument in Antem in the form of columns symbolizing the 5 branches of the military, and illuminate the Great USA seal on the ground



24. In 1986, Californian farmer Mike Yurosek realized that he was throwing away about 400 tons of carrots that were too “ugly” to sell. Then he used an industrial machine to cut the green beans and a potato peeler to polish them down into cute little carrots. Thus the baby carrot was born, and Yurosek himself was nicknamed “the father of the baby carrot.”



25. On the Mars rover "Perseverance" there is a touching family portrait of all the rovers, explorerswho visited the red planet before him.



26. On April 18, 1930, the BBC announced that there was "no news today" and instead played piano music all day.



27. Denis Vashurin looks like a 14-year-old teenager, but in fact he is 34 years old. Due to a rare disease, Denis stopped growing around adolescence, although he is otherwise completely healthy.



28. A 67-year-old man born without depth perception—the visual ability to perceive reality in three dimensions—was cured after watching a 3D movie. Something clicked in his brain, and, leaving the cinema, the man saw the world in 3D.



29. A New Jersey woman won the dice game 154 times in a row, breaking a world record. The probability of this happening was approximately 1 in 5.6 billion.



30. The tallest basketball player in NBA history is Sudanese Manute Bol, whose height was 231 centimeters. He is also the only player in NBA history to kill a lion with a spear and buy a wife for 80 cows.