12 Trivia Tidbits for Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Greetings, traveler! You look dumb as a rock! Please, nourish your ailing brain with some tidbits and factoids.
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Climate Change Is Killing Cheese
The latest victim of decreased biodiversity due to the climate crisis is cheese. The bacteria needed to create several French cheeses like Brie and Camembert has been declared on the “verge of extinction” by the French National Center for Scientific Research.
Scientists Are Getting a Jump on Space Crime
There have been very few crimes in space thus far, but scientists are beginning to focus on the field of astroforensics, by seeing how modern forensic science will need to adapted to the physics of space. Two British universities teamed up to study bloodstain patterns in microgravity, for example.
It Took a Decade to Debunk a Harvard Quack’s Idiotic Claim
In 2014, astronomer Avi Loeb claimed to have scrounged up a recently fallen meteor from the ocean floor and that, miraculously, he could tell that it was made of alien technology from a distant star! Lots of people took his weak measurements and outlandish claims at face value, because Harvard, but a team of scientists finally spent the time and effort necessary to officially debunk it.
A Guy Just Had One of the Best Days It’s Possible to Have as a Magnet Fisher
After spending most of his day unearthing old, illegally dumped scaffolding from under a bridge, Trevor Penny suddenly dredged up an 1,100-year-old Viking sword from a river in Oxfordshire.
The World’s Dumbest Meal
For $495,000 each, you and five friends can have a meal in a weather balloon at 100,000 feet, cooked and served by a Danish thirty-something who has not one but two Michelin stars back on Earth.
Real Madrid Is Technically As Valuable As the Washington Commanders
If you’ve ever met a European, you know that futbol is more popular and more exciting than our childish “American football.” But we sure do know how to make money. The top 10 most valuable franchises in the world are football, basketball and baseball teams. Real Madrid comes in at number 11, virtually tied with the Washington Commanders.
We Just Found Out the Government Is Paying Elon Musk Almost $2 Billion to Make Some James Bond Shit
A classified contract from 2021 has just surfaced, showing that the Department of Defense is paying SpaceX $1.8 billion to launch a secret network of spy satellites.
There’s a Conspiracy Theory That Says Hyper-Nazis Colonized Mars
According to this theory, the Nazis had a space program that colonized Mars (and maybe the Moon) by launching missions out of Antarctica. It was so secretive, even the German military was kept in the dark.
We Can Heal Coral Reefs by Reminding Them What Healthy Reefs Sound Like
Scientists have found that blasting the sounds of a healthy coral reef to an ailing one can help the sick guy start to recover. Just by hearing fish sounds and other signs of a healthy reef, coral larvae are sort of compelled to act like everything is okay, and start recolonizing damaged parts of the reef.
A Group of Senior Citizen Snorkeling Hobbyists Helped Preserve Toxic Snakes
A bunch of local seventy-somethings in the islands of New Caledonia volunteered to fill in the gaps on some vital research being done on the deadly greater sea snake. Researchers only saw about 10 per year, but these ladies saw them every day while snorkeling, and offered to photograph them, delivering more data on the reclusive creatures.
Oh, So It’s Illegal to Clone Giant Sheep From Smuggled Testicles Now?
An 80-year-old “alternative livestock rancher” got ahold of the balls of some giant sheep, and implanted that sheep spunk into his own sheep, hoping to make a herd of big, scary, huntable sheep for cheap. That’s apparently illegal, and he pleaded guilty to two felonies.
A Woman Got Away With Murder Because She Thought She Was in the Matrix
In 2002, a woman murdered her landlord, and plotted to kill her husband, believing them both to be digital enemies in the hyper-realistic network she was plugged into. She had become obsessed with The Matrix after it came out in 1999, and had spent the next three years coming to believe she was the nonfiction version of Neo and it was her responsibility to free humankind. A judge agreed with her insanity plea.