12 Farm-Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Wednesday, January 8, 2025
How’d your 2024 New Year’s resolution work out? Cool, very cool. One woman just ran one marathon a day for the entire year.
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The Book That Saved Ben Franklin’s Math Career
Franklin’s father took him out of Boston grammar school to go to a school more specialized in writing in math. He was decent in writing, but failed math twice in a row. He credits his turnaround to a textbook called Cocker’s Arithmetick.
A Woman Gave Birth to Two Sets of Twins
A Louisiana mother who gave birth to four babies found out that they’re actually two sets of identical twins. One doctor says the odds are “somewhere between one in 750,000 to one in a million.”
Overall, Americans Are Having Less Quadruplets
The amount of triplets (or more) born in the United States has declined by 62 percent since 1998. Only about 7 in 10,000 babies are born as part of a triplet (or higher order).
The First Woman to Run a Marathon Every Day for a Year
Fifty-five-year-old Belgian runner Hilde Dosogne accomplished her New Year’s resolution to complete a marathon every day in 2024.
The Biggest Wave Ever Surfed
The current world record is 86 feet, but a 23-year-old in Santa Cruz was recorded riding one that appears to be 108 feet tall. It’s in the process of being verified.
One More Thing We Have in Common With Ancient Rome: Lead Poisoning
Lead in paint and gasoline has caused generations of Americans to grow dumber and more violent, and a study has found that mining and smelting caused large swaths of Ancient Romans to decline in the smarts department as well.
A 1925 Book by a Joke Professor Predicted a Lot of 2025
“Professor” Archibald Montgomery Low’s 1925 book The Future made references to “automatic telephones (that) get the right number every time” and “moving sidewalks” and predicted that “wind and tide are also to be harnessed to the service of man.”
A Cop Got Drunk and Released 13 Criminals to Ring in the New Year
Zambia police say a detective got drunk, unlocked a bunch of cell doors and told the prisoners they were “free to cross over into the New Year.” They appear to still be on the loose.
You May Not Like It, But This Is the Perfect Body for Hula Hooping
Scientists ran 3D models to determine which body shapes make for the most efficient hula hooping, using an array of body types like “light bulb” and “egg,” laid out on a CURVATURE / SLOPE matrix. They found that any body with “sloping hips” and “sufficient waist” is a prime hooping body.
An Ancient Precious Metal Was Thought to Be a Myth Until 2015
Orichalcum was said to have been used in everything from Ancient Roman coins and temples in Atlantis, but modern researchers were unable to track any down. In 2015, a 2,600-year-old shipwreck was discovered with dozens of chunks of the stuff inside. It’s a brass-like alloy of copper and zinc.
What’s the Temperature on the Moon?
The surface of the moon has been recorded at anywhere from negative 148 degrees to 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Oscar, the Feline Angel of Death
Oscar was a therapy cat who lived in a Rhode Island nursing home as a soothing communal pet. He actually didn’t like people very much, but would warm up to residents that were especially sick, and stay there until they passed. Staff noticed a pattern, and used Oscar’s behavior to predict 25 deaths in a row.