5. A Saudi billionaire donated himself out of the billionaire’s club Over the course of his life Saudi bank-owner Sulaiman bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi has donated $5.7 billion to charity. Now you may say what about Bill Gates who donated $27 billion or Warren Buffett who has donated $21.5 billion and who promises to …
Shoelace tying calculations Let’s presume that you take around 20 seconds to tie your laces and you you take your shoes on and off twice a day, that you learnt to tie your shoelaces at the age of 5 and you live to age 85. 20×2 = 40 seconds per day40*365 days of the year …
You spend at least two weeks of your life tying your shoe laces Read More »
Muscle strength in 10 year olds has fallen by 20% to 30% over the 16 year period between 1998 and 2014. Researchers from the University of Essex took a random sample of ten-year old students from students in Chelmsford, Essex in 1998, 2008 and 2014. They had the same number of boys and girls and …
Children are a third weaker than twenty years ago Read More »
The Basenji is the only type of dog that doesn’t bark. Instead it ‘sings’ to express itself. Originally from the Congo and used to chase rodents, the Basenji breed is unable to bark. But, lovers of peace and quiet, before you go and buy one bare in mind that it can still make a range …
You may have heard the saying: ‘Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight’ but does a red sunset really mean you are going to have good weather? Yes! The colour red indicates that dust particles are suspended in the atmosphere under the effect of high pressure. This mass of air coming from the west means that …
Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight (is it true?) Read More »
The average count of viruses in 1ml of surface layer water is about 10,000,000. The world’s oceans are teaming with viruses. A litre of seawater typically contains billions of viruses – the vast majority of which remain unidentified. Viruses: Essential to human existence Viruses play an essential role in the life of microorganisms like plankton. …
There are 10 million viruses in one drop of sea water Read More »
Luke Aikins had made over 18,000 skydives in his life but in 2016 he made his first jump without a parachute. He reached speeds of 150 mph as he plummetted for two minutes, always keeping an eye out for the tiny square of net that he needed to land on. The daredevil jumper was accompanied …
A skydiver jumped 25,000 feet without a parachute, check out the video Read More »
Hamburger University is a corporate university owned by the McDonalds fast food chain. The university began with a meeting in a in suburban Chicago basement in 1961 between Fred Turner and Ray Kroc. Kroc was CEO at the time and Turner would later become CEO. During his lifetime Kroc took the franchise from 6 to …
Hamburger University is harder to get into than Cambridge, Harvard or Oxford Read More »
And before you start saying what about Wales? Wales is a constituent country of the United Kingdom and is not recognised as a sovereign state! Out of the 195 sovereign states in the world recognised by the United Nations, there are no countries that begin with the letter W. What about Wales? Wales is politically …
There are no countries in the world that begin with the letter W Read More »
The largest line dance in multiple locations took place in 2016 in China. 50,085 people took part in the synchronised line dance which took place simultaneously in twelve cities across the country. Sports stadiums and public squares were filled with dancers all wearing the same red costume. The dancers were mostly from local line dancing …
Blonde hair is extremely rare globally. 84% of the world’s population have black or dark-brown hair, including most of Africa and Asia. Blonde hair is most common in northern European regions. https://www.holleewoodhair.com/hair-color-statistics/ Why do people have blonde hair? People evolved to have blonde hair because, as they migrated north, the lighter the skin and hair, …
Only 2% of the world’s population have blonde hair Read More »
An undertaker in France is called a ‘croque-mort’. ‘Croque’ meaning to nibble or bite and ‘mort’ meaning dead. It is thought that the word comes from the middle ages when undertakers used to bite the toe of the deceased to check that they were definitely dead. In France the word ‘croque-mort’ is given to employees …
Why the French for undertaker is ‘croque-mort’ (bite the dead)? Read More »
If you’re on medication, maybe think twice before tucking into your morning grapefruit. Taking drugs at the same time as eating grapefruit can exacerbate the effect of the drugs and cause serious side effects. Grapefruit contains a chemical that affects your enzymes and makes the effect of many medicines much stronger than normal. The chemical …
Why you should never eat grapefruit before taking drugs Read More »
Rabbit Show Jumping (or Kaninhop in Swedish) began in Sweden in the late 1980s and is now an international sport with tournaments being held around the world. The sport began from a rabbits enthusiasts club in Sweden who decided to hold a tournament to see whose rabbit could jump the highest/furthest. The first national championship …
Welcome to the wonderfully cute world of Rabbit Show Jumping Read More »
When staff at Kansas Zoo noticed that their Peruvian penguins seemed to be a bit bored and perhaps missed having visitors, they decided to take them to the museum. The three penguins, called Bubble (5), Maggie (7) and Berkley (8) had the Nelson Atkins Museum all to themselves due to the Corona lockdown and were …
