12 Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, May 23, 2024
The Fastest 90-Year-Old on the Planet
Italian nonagenarian Emma Maria Mazzenga holds five world records, including her most recent 51.47-second 200-meter effort. After her race, she said, “I didn’t think I went that fast.”
What’s the Deal With That One Horizontal Buttonhole?
The average shirt has mostly vertical buttonholes, but one horizontal hole at the bottom. That one is horizontal to allow for waist-level movement without stretching the hole or popping the button off. In fact, there would be less wear and tear if all the holes were horizontal, but that would cause your shirt to get all jacked up and uneven.
It Took This Woman Almost Half Her Life to Earn Her Doctorate
To be fair, she started college at the age of 10, and graduated at 17. Dorothy Jean Tillman II just graduated from Arizona State University with a doctorate in integrated behavioral health, after starting on her bachelors in fifth grade.
The Continents Yearn for Pangea
Models show that continental drift will likely lead to all landmasses crashing back together into a supercontinent once again in about 250 million years.
Someone Just Found a D-Day Pigeon Parachute
A shoebox in an English woman’s attic was found packed full of D-Day memorabilia after her death. Among more boring items was a pigeon parachute: a cloth device that allowed pigeons to be airdropped from a plane before returning to their roosts. They would carry written messages back to their handlers, detailing the locations of sensitive enemy infrastructure, and when to bomb them leading up to the big day.
‘60 Minutes’ Is Number One for the 50th Consecutive Season
60 Minutes is Nielsen’s number one-ranked TV news program for the 50th time in a row, a spot it’s held every single year since its seventh season.
A Raccoon Made Major League Soccer History
A rogue raccoon stormed the field at a Philadelphia Union game, evading stadium workers for 161 seconds. According to MLS public relations, that’s the longest raccoon appearance in league history.
Europe’s Nuclear WALL-E
The European Space Agency is working on a Mars rover that’s powered by americium, a radioactive element that emits heat as a by-product of its radioactive decay.
Diamonds Just Became More Worthless Than Ever
The normal process of creating synthetic diamonds takes about 12 days of exerting nearly incomprehensible pressure. But South Korean scientists just developed a way to make diamonds in just two and a half hours, using tens of thousands of times less pressure.
Scales or Feathers? Why Not Both?
Scientists seem to vacillate between being convinced that dinosaurs had scales, and being convinced that dinosaurs had feathers. A 130 million-year-old fossil was just discovered that features both scales and feathers, and seems to be a crucial piece of evidence in the quest to map out dinosaur evolution.
Who Throws a Shoe? (Dong Dong Does)
Dong Dong, a chimpanzee in a Chinese zoo, took interest in a sandal that had been accidentally dropped into his enclosure. He started chewing on it, but when prompted by a zookeeper, immediately chucked it back up to its owner.
The Vatican Is Finally Updating Its Magic Evaluation Guidelines
Last updated in 1978, the Vatican has issued new rules and regulations for investigating claims of miracles. They’re largely laying off of explicitly declaring something to be supernatural, although they also caution against “stifling the Spirit.”
