Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 34
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.
Open AI company has to spend $2.35 to make one dollar.
Taylor Swift passed Rihanna to become richest female musician in the world with an estimated net worth of $1.6B
Why? Raw (unpasteurized) milk sales are up, despite health experts’ warning that raw milk could contain high levels of the avian influenza, (bird flu), along with many other pathogens. Raw milk comes from animals such as cows and goats. It is not pasteurized to kill germs.
Some people think raw milk tastes better than milk that has been pasteurized. Among the health claims surrounding raw milk are that it can cure lactose intolerance, treat allergies, and support gut health. However, extensive research has shown that none of these myths are true.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-drinking-raw-milk-can-be-dangerous
Here are six scientific reasons you should be picking up more books:
Reading reduces stress.
Reading (especially reading books) may add years to your life.
Reading improves your language skills and knowledge of the world.
Reading enhances empathy.
Reading boosts creativity and flexibility.
Reading can help you transform as a person.
~ https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/scientific-benefits-of-reading-more
The United States Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron first flew in 1946. The Blue Angels came to my current town, Kelowna, BC for an exhibition. Here’s the newspaper write up from August, 1969:
"On Thursday afternoon and evening, thousands of eyes will move skyward, to watch one of the most spectacular aerobatic teams in the world. The famous United States Blue Angels will fly for Okanagan residents and visitors during the 63rd edition of Canada's greatest water show. The Blue Angels, officially known as the U.S. Navy flight demonstration team, have for 23 years thrilled millions of spectators with spectacular demonstrations of precision acrobatics and formation flying. The manoeuvres, taught individually to every naval aviator during flight training, are exhibited to perfection when flown by the Blue Angels in their Mach 2 Phantoms." - August 6, 1969 - The Kelowna Daily Courier”
During a pre air show practice on the morning of the 7th of August; Capt. Vince D. Donile flying Right Wing #2 in his F-4J Phantom was setting up inbound for the Four Plane Cross maneuver when he noticed he had fallen behind in positioning. Compensating for his tardiness, Capt. Donile elected to light up his over 36,000 pounds of thrust with afterburners, quickly accelerating towards the crossing point at show centre.
Unfortunately, Capt. Donile was only moments too late when he deselected his burners, and his USN F-4 Phantom announced his error to the world as it shattered the morning air with a deafening sonic boom. Even more unfortunate, was the fact that Capt Donile exceeded the speed of sound directly over the downtown core of Kelowna BC. The shock wave produced by the supersonic jet blew out thousands of windows on homes and shop windows in a radius of the downtown area. Hundreds of Canadian residents gathered to survey the damage. Many armed themselves with the first thing they had available to clean up the shattered glass...snow shovels.
In 2018, Captain Donile issued the following correction on some missing aspects of the story:
The United States Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron has been seen by well over 260 million people since their first airshow. The Blue Angels have demonstrated an impressively high safety record of operations...and although breaking the sound barrier is an effective way to announce an airshow, this was a one-time occurrence for the Blues. One that is not likely to be repeated.
Excusez-Moi? The country with the most French speakers isn't France but the Democratic Republic of Congo. Likewise, there are more French speakers in Kinshasa than in Paris Of the 212 million who use French daily, 54.7% are living in Africa.
The Volkswagen Type 1 was not officially called the Beetle until 1968; thirty years after the first model was built.
A zeptosecond is a trillionth of a billionth of a second. It is the smallest unit of time ever measured.
Birds can live between 2 and 100 years, depending on the species. https://abcbirds.org/blog21/bird-longevity/
The average life expectancy of some bird species:
10 popular dog breeds and their average Life Expectancy:
Vulcan Point, In the Philippines, is the world’s largest island that’s within a lake, on an island that’s within a lake, on an island.
Some Brand Names that have become Generic Trademarks
Here are some examples of Generic Trademarks, where a brand name has become synonymous with the product itself.
1. Band-Aid – commonly used to refer to adhesive bandages.
2. Velcro – often used to describe hook-and-loop fasteners.
3. Jet Ski – widely used to refer to personal watercraft.
4. ChapStick – frequently used to describe lip balm.
5. Bubble Wrap – commonly used to describe air-cushion packaging material.
6. Tupperware – often used to refer to any type of plastic food storage container.
7. Post-it – widely used to refer to sticky notes.
8. Laundromat – used to describe a self-service laundry facility.
9. Thermos – often used to describe insulated beverage containers.
10. Popsicle – commonly used to refer to frozen ice pops.
11. Q-Tip – commonly used to refer to cotton swabs.
12. Jacuzzi – often used to describe any hot tub or whirlpool bath.
13. Xerox – widely used to mean making photocopies, regardless of the machine brand.
14. Kleenex – frequently used to refer to facial tissues of any brand.
The FBI secretly created NexFundAI, which is an Ethereum-based token/coin to investigate crypto pump-and-dump investment schemes. As predicted the FBI, they uncovered a sophisticated trading scheme that bilked honest investors out of millions of dollars. The FBI charged the leadership of four cryptocurrency companies, and four crypto market makers and their employees. Trading was disabled for the token after 25 million dollars was recovered and will be returned to the investors.
There's an annual 3100 mile ultra-marathon race in which runners run around a city block in Queens, NY for 5649 laps. The record finish is a little over 40 days. Run Forest Run!
Chamoy Thipyaso. She is known for receiving the world's longest prison sentence (not of lifetime imprisonment) at 141,078 years for her involvement in a pyramid scheme that defrauded more than 16,000 Thais and is estimated to have been worth between $200 million and $301 million.
Turn this into a quiz at your next party - A kilogram of uranium-235 (U-235) converted via nuclear processes releases approximately three million times more energy than a kilogram of coal burned conventionally.
During the recent brief International Longshoremen’s Association strike, people were worried that there might be a banana shortage. Like toilet paper and semiconductors were during Covid.
The banana supply chain has evolved to become more resilient to disruptions in some key ways:
Companies have become more adept at navigating supply chain disruptions. They have implemented strategies such as diverting shipments to other ports and stockpiling imports in anticipation of potential disruptions. This experience in dealing with challenges like the pandemic and geopolitical tensions has forced companies to develop more resilient systems operations.
Big Banana (the banana industry) benefits from technology and the banana's unique characteristics. The banana's peel acts as natural packaging, and ripening rooms allow for the manipulation of the ripening process using ethylene gas. This enables companies to control the pace of ripening at different stages of the supply chain, providing flexibility in purchasing and distribution.
Leading banana suppliers have adopted a "portfolio approach" to their supply chains. This involves diversifying their sourcing and distribution networks to reduce reliance on single ports or suppliers. This strategy helps mitigate risks associated with disruptions like port strikes or geopolitical instability.
These factors all contribute to a more resilient banana supply chain that can withstand disruptions and ensure a consistent supply of bananas to consumers. While other, more "exotic" fruits might be the first to be affected by delays, the banana supply chain is robust.
Oliver Stone originally wanted Jim Morrison to play Charlie Sheen's role in Platoon. He had a copy of the script with him (titled 'Break' at the time) in Paris when he died.
Betty Lou Oliver from the USA survived a record breaking fall of 75 stories (over 1,000 feet) in an elevator at the New York Empire State Building on May 28, 1944. This happened after a B-25 bomber accidentally crashed into the building during heavy fog. The elevator fell all the way to the basement, and rescuers had to cut Betty out of the wreckage. All the cables, including the safety cable, had snapped, causing the elevator to drop freely. Thankfully, the cables that broke piled up at the bottom of the elevator shaft like a spring, softening the impact. Air pressure in the closed elevator shaft also helped slow the fall.
Looking for cheap flights to Listenbourg? Hope not. Listenbourg is a fictional country created as the subject of an internet meme in October 2022. It is depicted as an extension of the Iberian Peninsula. The fake country was intended as a joke to test the stereotype of Americans having a poor grasp of European geography. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listenbourg)
When I want to send a webpage link from my MacBook to my iPhone, I mail it by the shortcut:
Shift-⌘Command-i
Then it pops open the link in my email and all I have to do is fill in which email address to mail it to.
Various artists audition for Drew Carey's band, the Horndogs, for a gig at the Ramada Inn, in 1998. These are the artists:
Slash, Rick Neilson, Dusty Hill, Matthew Sweet, Joey Ramone, Lisa Loeb, Dave Mustaine, Roy Clark, Jonny Lang, Michael Stanley, and Joe Walsh.
Here’s an interesting bit of fun. The website is called itty.bitty
Here is an example of what you can do with it. The password is
hokeypokey
Click this link I made for you:
Top 5 Most Profitable Substack Newsletters (unverified)
5. The North Star with Shaun King
Number of Subscribers on Substack as of February 18, 2024: 345,000
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1. Letters from an American
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A study of jazz guitarists in 2023 found that better improvisation comes from automatic, unconscious brain processes, not overthinking. This insight supports the idea that deleting newsletter drafts can free up creativity, allowing creators to take risks and move beyond perfectionism. Rediscover creative freedom by discarding drafts and letting go of audience expectations. https://mashable.com/article/delete-your-drafts
Any cell phone!
If you need emergency services and you don't have a cellular or Wi-Fi connection, you can use Emergency SOS via satellite. Try calling 911 (In North America) or emergency services. Even if your normal cellular carrier network isn't available, smart phones will attempt to route the 911 call through other networks, if available.
A popular food dye, Tartrazine - Yellow No. 5, used in Cheetos can turn mice’s skin completely transparent — making their organs visible, researchers have discovered.
Researchers were even able to see muscle pulsations and blood vessels in mice brains. Luckily a mouse’s skin is 10 times thinner than a human’s. But if you ate 10 times more Cheetos you still couldn’t see inside a person’s body. Whew…
I’ve written about the “The Cultural Tutor” before: “How David Perell found and hired The Cultural Tutor” (https://pau1.substack.com/p/how-david-perell-found-and-hired) He writes:
“Charles Dickens wrote fifteen novels, dozens of short stories, numerous articles, and a handful of plays, altogether amounting to several million words. And across all those thousands of pages, despite narrating and discussing in some depth the darkest underbelly of 19th century Britain, Dickens never once used a swear word. From time to time there was language that might, in the most roundabout way, be described as coarse or even vaguely blasphemous. But, as far as rude words go, saying, "what the blazes?!" is magnanimously polite. And it goes beyond specific words; Dickens' work also tends to lack the gory and carnal specificity that fills modern literature, cinema, and television.” ~ https://areopagus.culturaltutor.com/posts/areopagus-volume-lxxxix
More than 50% of North Americans have a College or University degree of some type.
But 44% of jobseekers regret their choice of degree. Because they were not trained to adapt to the changes demanded of them at their jobs. “Degree Regret” is a thing. And 65% of young people will do jobs that don’t exist yet.
An actual AI photo of an ex-president comforting endangered pets in Ohio 😃 :
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
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Interesting (and very tricky) example of brand names used generically.
In the UK, most people say Sellotape for any sticky tape.
In Australia, (maybe not so much nowadays) they called it Durex ( which was the best selling brand).
Trouble is, in the UK, Durex is a generic reference to condoms.
I remember a young UK teacher assistant, working in Australia, being very embarrassed and confused when her supervisor (innocently) asked her to go to the supply office because he "needed some Durex".
I understand that the Big Bang took less than a zeptosecond.