12 Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, September 12, 2024
Rachel “Raygun” Gunn cannot be stopped.
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Lemurs Have Two Tongues
They have what’s called a sublingua underneath their normal tongue. This one doesn’t have taste buds, or aid in eating in any way, but is more like a built-in toothpick to maintain their teeth while grooming themselves and others.
Charles Darwin’s Oddly Defiant Last Words
Darwin told his wife, “I am not the least afraid to die.” Sounds like something you’d say if you were pretty afraid to die but wanted to look cool in front of your wife.
Interplanetary Manhunt
NASA just gave the go-ahead for a mission to search for life on Jupiter’s moon Europa, with plans to build the largest-ever spaceship for a planetary mission.
For the First Time, More 9/11 First Responders Have Died From Exposure to Toxins Than in the Actual Disaster
The FDNY has announced that 370 first responders have died from illnesses brought on by exposure to toxins and carcinogens from the aftermath of the Twin Towers collapsing, compared to the 343 who died that day. Congress is currently set to let the World Trade Center Health Program run out in 2028.
Scientists Just Found an Express Highway for Pathogens
For the first time, scientists have detected live viruses, bacteria and fungi floating around at nearly 10,000 feet. The fact that they can survive that high up has troubling implications for the global spread of disease.
Apple Had to Pay Ireland $15 Billion, and No One’s Happy About It
The EU ruled that Ireland gave Apple illegal tax breaks totalling $15 billion, and ordered Apple to pay it back. Apple would rather continue to have this $15 billion, and Ireland is worried this expensive fiasco will disincentivize companies from doing business there.
What Are the Best Colleges in America?
The Wall Street Journal and College Pulse have announced their annual ranking of U.S. colleges, with Stanford, Babson and Princeton ranking number three, two and one respectively.
Crypto Is Fertile Ground for Scammers, Surprising No One
The FBI says that crypto scams are the source of 50 percent of personal losses from scam artists. Americans collectively lost $5.6 billion to crypto scammers in 2023, up 45 percent from 2022.
Airbus Keeps Making Airplanes That Look Like Sea Creatures
Following in the footsteps of 1965’s Airbus Super Guppy (which look like a huge, fat fish), the Airbus Beluga (which looks startlingly like a beluga whale) was built in 1992, and has recently been spotted flying airplane parts around the country for planes that get beat up in accidental collisions.
A Viral Salad Is Causing Iceland to Run Out of Cucumbers
Tiktoker Logan Moffitt regularly goes viral for slicing up one big cucumber and adding various dressings to it, then eating it with chopsticks. That’s about it. The one cucumber salad trend has caught on in a big way in Iceland, to the extent that local farmers are struggling to produce enough cukes.
Surfing Was Probably Invented in Peru
Peruvian fishers have been navigating the big waves off the coast with small reed boats for over 3,500 years. It’s thought that this unique navigation is the root of modern surfing.
Raygun Is Number One
In a blow to like, literally every breakdancer on the planet, the World DanceSport Federation has ranked Rachel Gunn, of Olympic meme fame, the number one breaker in the world after winning the 2023 Oceania Continental Championships. A quick refresher: She was awarded exactly zero points at the Olympics.