12 Trivia Tidbits for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
You know that trope where somebody gets shot, and some little knickknack or tiny book in their pocket stops the bullet? That could be you! Or maybe the wi-fi will go out at work and you need something to do to kill two minutes. Either of those situations can be excruciating, but both are easily subverted by printing out this list of facts, wadding them up and stuffing them in your pocket.
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Paris’ Century-Old Waiter Race Is Back, Baby!
In 1914, Parisians started a yearly competition where waiters would deliver trays of coffee, water and croissants over somewhat long distances, as fast as possible, without spilling. It was put on hiatus in 2011, but was revived to begin hyping up the 2024 Paris Olympics.
You Like This Planet So Much? Great. Stay Here As Long as You Want
Researches have quantified optimism and pessimism, and found that people who lean more optimistic have better cardiovascular, pulmonary, immunological and metabolic performance, and tend to avoid age-related illnesses. Good, optimists can have this planet, we hate it here.
British Bullies Make More Money
A five-decade study in the U.K. found that adults with higher paying jobs started out as aggressive kids, and adults who make less were much more reserved or emotionally unstable.
What’s the Empirically Fastest Languages on the Planet?
Multiple studies over the past couple of decades have shown that native speakers of Japanese are able to pronounce the most syllables per second. One study had Japanese at 7.84, Spanish at 7.82 and English further down the list at 6.19.
Cleopatra Ate the Most Expensive Pearls in the World, Maybe
Pliny the Elder told an anecdote about Cleopatra, one of the wealthiest people in history, having in her collection a couple of the largest natural pearls ever found. The story goes that, on a dare, she either had them crushed or dissolved in vinegar, and ate them. It was kind of the gold leaf-covered wagyu steak of its day.
Biologist-Philosophers Have Proposed That the Sun May Be Conscious
As is their wont, intelligent weirdos who hate the current state of the world and humanity have revived a theory from a dumber age, and restated it in more modern language. An Ancient Greek school of thought, panpsychism, more or less said that we’re just a bunch of random molecules that achieved consciousness, and therefore, consciousness is possible in any random group of molecules. Biologist Rupert Sheldrake has taken that a step further: “The link between minds and physical systems seems to be through rhythmic electromagnetic fields, which of course are present in our brains. They are also present in and around the Sun…”
The Netherlands’ Three-Century Poem
The Letters of Utrecht is an art project where a poet carves a poem into the cobblestones of the city’s streets, one letter per week, indefinitely. The project began in 2012, and the current poet in charge has it all mapped out through 2350.
A Startup Is Trying to Invent a Fountain of Youth for Dogs
A startup called “Loyal” has raised $125 million to develop an FDA-approved drug that will keep dogs alive and healthy for longer.
The U.K.’s Answer to Punxsutawney Phil Got Death Threats
Wiarton Willie is an albino groundhog who also predicts the weather based on the cloudiness of the sky when he leaves his burrow. In 1996, he wrongly predicted an early spring, and when it stayed chilly and grey in Britain, of all places, a few people threatened to murder Willie and his handler.
The Longest and Shortest Commutes in the United States
The three counties with the longest average commutes are Monroe County, PA (70 miles), Coconino County, AZ (68 miles) and Parker County, TX (66 miles). The three counties with the shortest commute are all in New York City: Manhattan (12 miles), Brooklyn (15 miles) and the Bronx (16 miles).
Italy’s Oldest Canoes Were Just Discovered
A set of 7,000-year-old wooden canoes were discovered at the bottom of a lake near Rome, and were likely used by people in the Neolithic era for fishing and transportation.
Archaeologists Just Discovered a Medieval Bone Ice Skate
Czech archaeologists were sifting through some dirt in an old basement when they found the lone, extremely metal ice skate among some pottery fragments that date it back to around the 10th century.
