12 Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, April 4, 2024
Rich People’s Shit Is Contaminating the Watershed Around Mount Everest
It’s hard enough to stay alive on Everest, let alone house clean, so the rich schmucks who get themselves ferried up to the top tend to leave all their trash (including bowel movements) scattered on the face of the mountain. Nepal has just started requiring hikers to bring all of their waste back down with them.
Pick a Random Number From 1 to 100
A survey asking 200,000 people to choose a random number found that 7, 73, 77 and 37 were selected most often, while 90, 40, 70, 80 and 60 were selected least often. For some reason, 37 seems to be an especially important number to the human psyche.
Some Pigeons Can’t Fly, but Can Backflip
Parlor Roller pigeons, a type of domesticated pigeon, have been selectively bred to be able to do technically impressive little backflips. The five or so genes responsible for their unique acrobatics also happen to make them incapable of flight.
Consulting Firm McKinsey Is Paying Employees to Kick Rocks
The enormous company is offering to pay employees in the U.K. nine months of salary to go find a new job. They also had to push back start dates for new hires last year, so, something is afoot.
The Heart-Eyed Hypnotoad
The yellow-bellied toad has distinctly heart-shaped pupils, but no one really knows why. Pupil shape can help animals detect predators or prey, but it’s unclear what evolutionary edge the heart shape provides.
New Ocean Just Dropped
In 2014, Northwestern University researchers detected a tremendously huge body of water, 700 kilometers below the surface. They say it holds more water than all the surface oceans combined.
Cicadas Have the Strongest Stream of Pee on Earth
A study of urination flow in animals found that the cicada has the fastest, strongest flow in the animal kingdom, at 10 feet per second. A researcher in the Amazon encountered what locals referred to as a “weeping tree”; it was covered in urinating cicadas.
The Unfortunately Fascist Font of Germany’s National Soccer Team Jerseys
The team is working on a redesign of their official jerseys because people pointed out that the number 44 looks a whole lot like a Nazi SS insignia.
The 1939 World’s Fair Featured a Cigarette-Smoking Robot
Elektro and Sparko were two state-of-the-art androids featured at the New York World’s Fair. Elektro could move his limbs, speak 700 words, blow up a balloon and smoke a cigarette, while Sparko could bark, sit and beg.
Scientists Have Invented Smart Contacts Powered by Tears
The latest breakthrough in contact lenses that can monitor vital signs and drug levels is a novel way to power the devices. Researchers from University of Utah have developed a way to keep them powered through a combination of two things found in abundance in the eye: light and electrolytes from tears.
The Official Copaganda Word for ‘Looting’
During the upheaval after Hurricane Katrina, local storm victims were shamed for “looting” stores. But when a dozen cops were caught by a news crew robbing a Walmart, Deputy Chief of Police Marlon Defillo referred to it as “appropriation of nonessential items.”
Botswana Threatened Germany With a Plague of Elephants
German officials want to put stricter legislation on importing the spoils of overseas trophy hunting. The President of Botswana says that could financially ruin his country, which has a third of the world’s elephant population (more than they can safely and cost-effectively manage). He’s threatening to forcibly gift Germany 20,000 elephants, so that they can “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to.”