Weird Facts & More 17

weird17Weird Facts 17

  1. New York Times Reporter William Seabrook, in the interests of research, obtained a chunk of human meat from the body of a healthy human killed in an accident, then cooked and ate it. He reported, “It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef.” Source
  2. The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes to take off could throw a pickup truck over a mile.
  3. Sears used to sell entire houses in a ‘Do It Yourselves’ kit. Source
  4. Aircraft windows are rounded because the square windows used in early planes concentrated stress on the corners. Read More
  5. The longest U.S. highway is route 6 starting in Cape Cod, Massachusetts going through 14 states, and ending in Bishop, California.
  6. A senator from Nebraska tried to sue God. Source
  7. There are stars in the known universe that are cold enough to be touched by the human hand. Source
  8. Before 1956, troops of people went around detaching doors and smashing locks on abandoned refrigerators because refrigerator doors could only be opened with a latch from outside and children would often die after locking themselves inside during play. Source

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  9. The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
  10. Gravity does some weird things to the universe. The power of gravity bends light, which means that the objects astronomers are looking at might not actually be where they appear to be. Scientists call this bizarreness gravitational lensing. Source
  11. In 2007 a soldier in the British army was declared dead after he was caught in an explosion in Afghanistan. When his body was being washed for the body bag, they noticed a pulse. He was flown to hospital where he recovered and went on to take part in the 2012 Paralympics. Source
  12. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
  13. The US gives Israel a combined $15-20 billion in aid every year, despite Israel being one of the wealthiest nations. Source
  14. The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.
  15. Pizza Hut once made a delivery to the International Space Station in 2001. They paid the Russians $1 million to transport the Pizza (and make a commercial from it). Source
  16. The Nobel Prize resulted from a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite.
  17. 68% of American women “say they would have an affair if they knew they would never get caught”. Source
  18. The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
  19. Sleeping on the job is acceptable in Japan. It is viewed as exhaustion from working hard. Some people fake it to look committed to their job. Source
  20. The NY phone book had 22 Hitlers before WWII. The NY phone book had 0 Hitlers after WWII.
  21. A British soldier who fought in both World Wars and the Boar War was shot in the face, head, ankle, leg, hip and ear, survived a plane crash, tunneled out of a POW camp, and bit off his own fingers when a doctor wouldn’t amputate them. He later said “frankly I had enjoyed the war.” Source
  22. The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.
  23. Japanese folklore contains a creature known as Ashiarai Yashiki, a giant foot that crashes through the roof in the middle of the night, demanding the terrified homeowner wash it. Source
  24. If North Dakota seceded from the Union, it would be the world’s third strongest nuclear power. Source
  25. A high-school girl derived equations showing that in order to fold anything in half, it must be pi times longer than its thickness. Source

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