We have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of Mental Floss throughout the year, from the most memorable fart moments in history to the novel foods that stimulate the taste buds since its debut in 2011, to the stories behind the inventions that changed the world. However, without giving up some fascinating facts and trivia tidbits, any floss celebration (and no floss celebration) is incomplete. Here are 20 of our favorite amazing random facts that we learned while working at Mental Floss, in no particular order. We encourage you to use them at your next cocktail party.
This pleasant word clearly originated in the army.
Urine comes from glands located near the antennae of crustaceans. As Bob Bayer, the former head of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, told us a few years ago, “They are greenish-brown spots. They actually look like two pieces of snot-this is the best way to describe them. You I will open them up." Peeing with each other is part of crustacean fighting and courtship.
John Taylor is not generally considered one of the most impressive presidents of the United States. After William Henry Harrison took office after his untimely death in 1841, Taylor was sometimes referred to as "his accident"-not the "great liberator" like the president's nickname. But Taylor did contribute one of our favorite presidential facts: Harrison Ruffin Tyler, one of his grandsons, was still alive when this article was published. Not a great-great-grandson-his father's father was the 10th president of the United States. President Taylor’s son, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, gave birth to his second son at the age of 74, which helped him a lot.
The author of Frankenstein liked her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley so much that after he drowned at the age of 29, she was said to have his heart-somehow survived the cremation ——Preserved in a poem wrapped in silk.
Nearly 1,400 pounds of cheese wheels were sent to Jackson by dairy farmer Colonel Thomas S. Meacham. At his last public reception as president, Jackson provided the masses with a large amount of raw materials, and the masses quickly wiped it away. As a contemporary prank pointed out, "There can be no difficulty in spending a more disgusting day at the Presidential Palace...Pockets, hats, handkerchiefs, everything is filled with cheese."
Happily, this is not the end of Meeachem's influence on the White House. As Eliza, wife of Senator John Davis at the time, wrote in a letter in 1838, Jackson’s successor Martin Van Buren “had a difficult task to remove the smell of cheese. He had to cut the cheese. The airy carpet in the room has been for several days." Let this be a lesson for all those who plan to cut cheese in the hallowed government hall.
In 1970, when a stranded dead whale sat on the coast south of Florence, Oregon, it began to emit a terrible stench. The Oregon Highway Department’s solution to this problem involved half a ton of explosives. Yes, they decided to blow up the whale. A group of onlookers gathered at the scene, but their hopes of the healthy transfer of the whale explosion were quickly dashed. When the explosion occurred, the smell of rotting whales engulfed the area, and a large piece of flying whale carcass caused severe damage to a 1969 Oldsmobile car parked nearby. Even with collateral damage, a large part of the whale still exists and eventually has to be buried in the sand. This is not the best time to solve the municipal problems, but the residents of the area obviously have a sense of humor about the whole thing. In 2020, Florence launched a new public space: Bomb Whale Memorial Park.
In 1948, beavers near Payette Lake in Idaho proved to be a nuisance to new (human) residents. Officials from the Idaho Department of Fisheries and Hunting wanted to relocate these small animals, but it would be difficult to take them through undeveloped mountains-past experience told the authorities that beavers do not like to travel in trucks or pack animals-especially there. There is no road to cross. Instead, they decided to use parachutes to take these animals to their new home in the wilderness. In the end, a total of 76 beavers were transported by planes and parachutes left over from World War II.
Gary Rydstrom, the sound designer of Jurassic Park, was partially responsible for some awesome movie moments. Think of the sound of a brachiosaurus in that iconic early scene, or the terrifying footsteps of a Tyrannosaurus rex. But when you hear the raptors barking at each other in the movie, Ridstrom's true genius is best reflected. The sound was captured in the Ocean World theme park-this is two turtles having sex. Rydstrom explained to Vulture, demonstrating a commitment to his craft, "The tortoises can take a long time to mate. You must have enough time to sit down and watch and record them." We salute you, Gary Ridstrom Hm.
Old Edison worked in the telegraph industry in his early years and seems to have fond memories of that time. He called his older children Marion and Thomas, Jr. "Dot" and "Dash", just like Morse code signals.
A group of researchers may have determined the cause of this unique stool shape. The intestines of wombats are elastic, but not uniform-the harder parts of the organs may contribute to the unusual side of the stool. This square stool may actually have evolutionary benefits. Science news shows that this shape is suitable for stacking, and is not as easy to roll off rocks as other feces. This helps wombats mark their territory, and the smell can even be used as an aid for cute marsupials to navigate at night.
Tens of thousands of years ago, North American giant animals developed a keen interest in wild gourds (the ancestors of pumpkins and squashes). This makes these giant creatures somewhat unusual among animals, because the meat of these plants contains a bitter toxin that can keep many potential gourd gourmets away. By dispersing gourd seeds through feces, organisms such as mastodons help crops to multiply until humans decide to domesticate them (pumpkins, not mastodons).
Marinetti is a leading figure in the Futurist movement, a wide-ranging school of thought that originated in the art world and spread to other parts of society. Ultimately, the futurists advocate for the government to replace all food in the future with nutritional pills, powders, and other artificial substitutes. Before chemists could create such innovations, futurists advocated replacing pasta with rice, because rice is easier to produce in Italy. They believe this will "freeze Italy from expensive foreign wheat." Marinetti and Luigi Colombo co-authored the "Futuristic Culinary Manifesto". In it, they described pasta as a “ridiculous Italian gastronomic religion” and accused pasta lovers of “being bound by its balls and chains like a convicted life, or leaving its ruins like an archeologist [ Carry] in their stomachs." As if this is a bad thing?
One of Austin's specialties-in addition to the devastating romantic ceremonial comedy-is her spruce beer. Obviously, she is also a big fan of mead. This may sound like a strange hobby, but in the Regency era and a few years ago, it was not uncommon for women to brew beer.
In the late 1970s, when Frank Liberto, owner of Ricos Products, had the idea of selling corn flakes at sports events, he knew that customers would not wait for the cheese to melt. Adding certain types of salt can make the protein in cheese more soluble. This means that the emulsified liquid and fat are less likely to separate when melted, making it easier for the cheese to melt and remain liquid. One of the most popular compounds used to achieve this permanently melted cheese is sodium citrate, whose chemical formula is spelled NACHO.
You may think that Goodyear is the world's leading tire manufacturer, but to determine the real number one in this field, you must have a broader perspective. Or, smaller. They won't help you when your car has a flat tire, but Lego actually produces about 381 million small tires for their sets every year. Technically speaking, they are the most prolific tire manufacturer in the world.
Christopher Clayton Hutton (Christopher Clayton Hutton) was an intelligence officer during World War II. He helped Allied soldiers provide tools to escape German prisoner-of-war camps. Hutton's clever methods included hiding the piano cord in a pair of pants and the flashlight in a bicycle pump. Although the German authorities were able to stop many of Hutton's methods in the end, a special strategy avoided the intervention of the Axis powers. With the help of a manufacturing company in Leeds, Hutton hid an escape kit for prisoners of war in ordinary-looking board games such as Monopoly.
Games like Monopoly are often allowed to be used in POW camps because the Germans think it is a pastime for soldiers, otherwise they might use their free time to plan a prison escape. What they didn't know was that some prisoners actually received contraband in the game scene, such as silk maps-which could help them navigate safely outside the prison and be quieter than paper maps. Along with the map, the Monopoly board may contain a small compass, a saw, and a file. Real money can even be hidden in the game currency. This is a fascinating story, described in more detail in Hutton's biography "Official Secrets". According to historian Philip Orbanes, a total of more than 700 pilots used the kits prepared by Hutton to escape.
If you want to bring a pet fish on your next flight-who doesn't? ——There is no need to hide her in a board game. TSA allows people to fly with live fish as long as they are contained in water and in a transparent container. Yes, it seems that water can exceed the usual 3.4 ounce limit.
Buzz Aldrin’s suit did not have Armstrong’s special camera mount, so after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, Neal handled most of the photography. Due to the limited time of the astronaut on the ground, Armstrong focused on taking incredible pictures of his surroundings. Aldrin did spend some time as a moon shutter, providing us with a photo of Armstrong’s back, but we also have a front photo of Neil-it’s hidden in a very famous photo of Aldrin . If you look closely at Buzz's sun visor in this photo, you will find that it contains Neil Armstrong's reflection. The first self-portrait of the moon mirror: the amazing achievement of human wisdom, courage and collaboration.
Mr. Belvedere's producer Jeff Stein confirmed this absurd story. "He fell backwards in a convertible at the Hollywood Christmas Parade," Stan said. This incident forced the actors and staff to temporarily stop the production of sitcoms in the 1980s.
In our opinion, the best situation can be traced back to 1985, when an expert proposed to fill the wrecked ship with 180,000 tons of petroleum jelly in polyester bags. Theoretically, it would harden in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean and float the Titanic to a more accessible depth. Sadly, the Vaseline plan never materialized.