12 Farm-Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Friday, January 10, 2025
The U.S. military contracted Hershey's to make the most disgusting chocolate on the market.
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Engineers Are Attempting to Build an Underwater Condo That Can Hold a Permanent Population of Dozens of People
A modular underwater habitat called Vanguard is under construction, with a team of six scientists expected to move in by the end of 2025. They hope to host many more people for years on end by the end of the decade.
A Michigan University Has Been Calling Out Annoying Words Since 1976
Lake Superior State University publishes a yearly tongue-in-cheek Banished Words List to draw attention to words that everyone needs to quit using due to “Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.” The 2025 list includes “cringe,” “era,” “IYKYK” and “sorry not sorry.”
The O.G. Banished Words
The tradition started in 1976, but it looks like 1979’s is the earliest list on record. That year, “I feel” received an Unconditional Banishment, “irregardless” got Dishonorable Mention, “ambiance” and “opt” received a Two-Year Probation.
Utilizing the ‘Toxic Male Technique’ to Eradicate Disease
Scientists are engineering male mosquitoes to produce spider venom and sea anemone venom during sex, killing the mate immediately. This is way faster than other approaches to genetically modifying mosquitoes, which usually just make their offspring all janky.
Newly Discovered Punk and Emo Mollusks
Scientists uncovered fossils in the U.K. of two ancient spiked mollusks. The spikes resemble punk and emo haircuts, so they’ve been named Punk ferox and Emo vorticaudum, respectively.
The Military Fed Soldiers Gross Chocolate on Purpose
The U.S. military worked with Hershey’s during World War II to create the Ration D bar: a hard, unmeltable and bitter chocolate ration. The whole point was to carry a lightweight source of nutrients in the event of an emergency, and they needed to make sure soldiers wouldn’t sneak one as a li’l treat on a good day.
Coffee May Help Prevent Heart Disease, But the Time of Day You Drink It Is Important
A study has shown that people who drink coffee only in the morning had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than people who drink it all day long. One hypothesis is that late-day coffee drinking messes with your circadian rhythm.
The British Coast Guard Was Deployed to Rescue a Real Dummy
A witness called emergency services when they saw something in the water that “was suspiciously person-shaped, but clearly not a person.” The Coast Guard’s training kicked into gear, and they successfully rescued what turned out to be a training dummy.
America’s Slowest Cities
A study of how long it takes on average to drive six miles found that Honolulu (20 minutes), San Francisco (25 minutes) and New York (30 minutes) are the worst to maneuver a motor vehicle in.
The Belgian Government Is Begging Residents to Stop Eating Their Christmas Trees
...which only makes me want to eat them more. The city of Ghent encouraged folks to recycle their trees by, among other things, making a Scandinavian-flavored butter out of them. But the national food agency has warned that some trees are poisonous in and of themselves, and many are coated with a poisonous fire suppressant.
U.K. Homeowners Are Making Citywide Sonic the Hedgehog Maps
Homeowners in the U.K. are helping to combat the urbanization that they’re guilty of by creating “hedgehog highways,” webs of interconnected, hidden paths that allow the animals to continue navigating their territory as homes and businesses are sprouting up.
The Dinosaur Superhighway
Nearly 200 fossilized dinosaur footprints were just discovered in a limestone quarry in England. The 166-million-year-old prints are close to another set of prints discovered in 1997, leading researchers to conclude they’re two points on a path that was well-worn by several different types of dinosaurs.
