12 Trivia Tidbits for Monday, May 27, 2024

“Digital decay” is the phrase that’s been assigned to the phenomenon of websites winking out of existence. Researchers have found that 54 percent of Wikipedia pages, 23 percent of news sites and 21 percent of government pages contain broken links to a bygone era of the internet.

Humans have never witnessed the birth of a great white shark, a blue whale, a whale shark, a snow leopard or a Javan rhino. Then there’s the saola, or “Asian unicorn,” a horned yak-like animal we’ve only ever seen in trail-cam footage.

In 2022, a Citi trader meant to sell $58 million worth of shares, but somehow typed in $444 billion instead. That caused a panic among European markets for a day, and U.K. regulators are now demanding $75 million in fines.

The outer layer of a chunk of ice can begin to melt at a much lower temperature than the rest of the ice. That’s why a hunk of unbearably cold solid state water can slip out of your hands more easily than basically any other rock you handle on a regular basis.

Congress just declared New Haven, Connecticut the Pizza Capital of the United States, which may be its most out-of-touch act in its embarrassing 235-year history.

Until recently, scientists were under the impression that only humans are capable of significant counting beyond “there’s one food in my dish” and “there’s zero food in my dish.” But a recent study found that crows are clearly able to count, as they’re able to make a certain number of caws on command.

A new survey found that, for the first time in history, more Americans report smoking cannabis than drinking any kind of alcohol.

Panera, Chipotle and Shake Shack are among the chains that are confirmed to source their meat humanely. It has yet to be confirmed by the company, but there’s currently a viral story about how Taco Bell gets its meat from end-of-life dairy cows. That type of beef is famously, like, not the best, which makes it very believable that that’s what’s hiding in the center of your soft taco.

PetSmart is searching for two new “Chief Toy Testers,” pets who will get to play with proposed new toy lines before they launch. Sounds adorable, right? Not so fast: They want to pay these animals $10k per year. Hardly a living wage. Do better, PetSmart.

On four occasions over eight days, rat snakes that snuck into a substation have slithered over the wrong lines, and acted like a circuit breaker, getting zapped and knocking out power in and around Franklin, Tennessee.

A British broadcaster recently recalled a special taping with the Dalai Lama in 2013. He condemned violence against Muslims, then once the taping was done, pointed to a camera guy out of nowhere and said, “You’re fat, you need to go on a diet.” What the hell, man?

Recent polls have shown that the majority of Americans seem to think the economy is tanking, despite an avalanche of data to the contrary. Fifty-six percent of people believe we’re in a recession, despite an actively growing GDP. Seventy-two percent believe inflation is on the rise, despite a precipitous drop from 9 percent to 4 percent in the last two years. Forty-nine percent say unemployment is at a 50-year high, when it’s actually at a 50-year low. The reason seems to come down to two familiar factors: media coverage and gas prices.