Collection of Insane and Fun Facts
Something astoundingly huge in a distant region of space is attracting whole galaxies towards it. Known as “The Great Attractor”, it must be monumental in size to generate such a gravitational pull; in fact, many physicists argue that it is physically impossible for such a massive object to exist at all.
Despite popular belief, El Dorado was not a legendary city of gold in South America, but a person. El Dorado was a tribal chief of the indigenous Muisca people, and the initiation rites to becoming chief included offering immense amounts of gold to their gods by throwing it into a holy lake, Lake Guatavita. The Conquistadores eventually found the lake and reclaimed the gold, meaning that every expedition which has set out to find the city of gold afterwards has been in vain, because the mythical riches of El Dorado have actually already been found.
Iceland has such a small population that an Icelandic company has released an “Anti-incest app” which prevents Icelanders from accidentally dating their relatives.
In the early 20’s, inventor Thomas Midgley Jr. discovered that he could make car engines more efficient by adding Tetraethyllead to gasoline, and was awarded a Nichols Medal. Later, it was discovered that the chemicals had filled the atmosphere with lead, leading to worldwide lead poisoning.
In the late 20’s, the same inventor synthesized one the first Chloroflourocarbons, known as CFC, and received the Perkin Medal. It was later discovered that the immense amounts of CFC produced by hairspray and other everyday products had reduced the ozone layer by 4% every decade since the invention. The wound is not expected to heal fully within our lifetimes.
At the age of 51, Midgley contracted polio. Unable to get out of bed by himself, he constructed a machine which could pull him out and help him stand without his family having to help. He got entangled in the wires, and died of suffocation. It is now believed that Midgley has affected our planet’s atmosphere more than any other organism that has ever existed.
Due to the fact that radio broadcasts robust enough to reach deep space was first used in the 1940’s, it is very likely that the first message potential aliens would hear from us would be made by Hitler.
Aztec warriors wielded swords embedded with small blades of obsidian, a kind of volcanic glass, making them the sharpest swords in history. They were so effective they could decapitate humans and even horses in one blow.
During the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar, between 14-37 AD, a craftsman created flexible glass which was shatterproof, and would only produce slight dents when dropped, which could be easily repaired with a hammer.
The Emperor, fearing that it would devalue gold and silver, had the craftsman executed. To this day no one knows how the legendary material was made.
Littlewood’s Law states that if humans are awake for at least eight hours every day, and we experience one event or incident per second, and if extraordinary or seemingly unlikely events are “one in a million”, every person should experience an incredible moment every 35 days.
The feeling you get when you say a word over and over until it stops sounding like a real word is called Jamais Vu.
Sean Connery was offered the part of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and 15% of the box office takings of the movies, but turned it down because he didn’t understand the script. The 15% ended up being nearly 450 million dollars.