15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, August 31, 2024
We have some facts about eyes for you today. Those include the eyes of babies, the eyes of fish and the eyes of just plain everyone. They will be of interest to all our readers who have eyes, and the rest of you will learn something as well. For example, read on to hear about the worst place to commit arson, or maybe about a conspiracy of buses.
Spartan Garb
The ancient Greeks considered trousers to be ridiculous for men. The garments seemed barbaric and feminine compared to cloaks and capes.
Castle Doctrine
In 2018, evicted Oregon man Gregory Rodvelt filled his home with traps for the agents pursuing him. The most theatrical one was a round hot tub placed on its edge, to roll and flatten intruders like a boulder. The most effective one was a shotgun in a wheelchair, which actually did shoot an FBI agent.
Filthy Brits
During World War II, British soldiers were allotted three squares of toilet paper a day. This wasn’t very much, considering that their American counterparts received 22 a day.
Five Easy Pieces
If you buy a jigsaw puzzle that says it has 1,000 pieces, it likely doesn’t have that exact number. And no, the issue isn’t simply that they rounded to a simple number. Based on the way most jigsaws are arranged, and the ratio of the height to width, it’s mathematically impossible for it to have 1,000 pieces even if they want it to.
Mouse-on-Mouse Action
The science of genetics goes back to Gregor Mendel and his experiments with pea plants. He wanted to use mice, which are somewhat closer to humans, but he was conducting these experiments in a monastery, which forbade him from using mice since that would require sexual intercourse.
Junk Food
In many cities in China, street food vendors have a cheap source of cooking oil. It’s called gutter oil, and it’s made from literal garbage, as well as from sewage. Trading this has long been illegal, but it continues.
Tear-Free
Despite being famous for crying, newborns generally can’t shed tears. Their tear glands aren’t developed enough yet.
War Memorabilia
Some 20,000 people died in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, but the remains of only two of them were found at the site in the centuries that followed. When the media reported on this oddity last year, a Belgian man came forward and revealed that he had the bones of four more in his attic.
There’s No I in Fish
There’s a type of catfish in Namibia that’s able to breathe air. One thing it can’t do, though, is see. That’s both because the cave where it lives has no light and because it has no eyes.
Watching Paint Dry
Norway has a tradition of Sakte-tv, in which networks broadcast continuous live coverage of some utterly mundane event. They broadcast footage of a moving train for seven hours straight in 2009, and 20 percent of the population tuned in.
Perverse Incentives
San Francisco had a problem in the 1980s with vandals slashing the seats of buses. It turned out that nearly all these vandals were being paid by the company who supplied the city with new seats.
Getting You Both Ways
When mail delivery began in the U.S., you didn’t just need to pay to send mail. You also had to pay to receive it, or else the mailman would never show up to your house.
Cleanliness Next to Godliness
In 1956, the Secret Service discovered a woman in the White House setting fires, including one 80 yards from where President Dwight D. Eisenhower sat. She said she was doing so to dispose of some trash that she was carrying.
Crying Shame
Scientists don’t know why we blink. Oh, blinking obviously lubricates the eyes, but we blink more often than is required for that. Blinks are triggered by some unknown additional stimulus and seem to play some role in consciousness that we don’t understand.
The Ol’ Switcheroo
A pair of twins ran a competitive marathon in 1999, with one of them running half and then the other running the second half in the first one’s place. They’d have got away with it, too, but one wore a watch on his left hand and the other wore his on his right, so photos of the entrant revealed he was two different people.
