Miscellaneous

Random Facts

Hi Everyone!

Here is a list of random facts to make your day that much more interesting:

• Did you know that parrots and dolphins will make up unique sounds and use them as names? They keep the name their parents give them for life. They do this in captivity as well as in the wild.
• Did you know that President Obama gave a presidential pardon to two turkeys this Thanksgiving? This brings his total pardons while in office to 52 people and 12 turkeys.
• Did you know that croissants are Austrian and not French?
• Did you know that more than a quarter of the total hazelnuts harvested each year goes towards producing Nutella?
• Did you know that Ebenezer Scrooge, from "A Christmas Carol" is based off of a real person? His name was John Elwes and he inherited his fortune (modern value of $28mil). He was commonly mistaken as a poor beggar because he wore rags and a wig that he found in a bush. He would go to bed early to save money on candles, and he would even complain about the small amounts of hay birds steal to make their nests.
• Did you know that in the 18th century it was fashionable in England for the wealthy to hire people to live in their gardens as "ornamental hermits"?
• Did you know that a 3500 year old Egyptian temple dedicated to Montu, God of strength and war, was disassembled in the 19th century to build a sugar factory?
• Did you know that Jimi Heselden bought the Segway company in 2010 then died that year from falling of an 80ft cliff on a Segway?
• Did you know that there is a place called Christmas Island where millions of red crabs have hatched and marched across the island?
• Did you know that the biggest solar storm recorded in history was in 1989? The storm was so massive that the Northern Lights could be seen in southern states like Florida.
• Did you know that Shakespeare was dyslexic?
• Did you know that Oxford University is so old that one of its constituent colleges called "New College" was established in 1379? Oxford was founded in 1167.
• Did you know that as a boy, Michael Bay attached some firecrackers to a toy train and filmed the ensuring fiery disaster with his mother's camera? The fire department was called and he was grounded.
• Did you know that rice alone provided more than one fifth of all the calories consumed by humans?
• Did you know there was a government funded project that cost $386,000 of taxpayer dollars to a company to give Swedish massages to rabbits 4 times a day?
• Did you know that Albert Einstein discovered the theories of general and special relativity at age 26? It wasn't at an old age like it's commonly depicted.
• Did you know that killer whales (orcas) are actually dolphins and not whales?

Did you know all that? No? Well, now you do! Comment below any other interesting facts that you may have!

- Felicinda J.