Back in the dark times before the internet, you generally had to look specific things up in books. Really, you had to kind of stumble across them because you couldn’t count always count on books to have the info exactly where you needed it, when you needed it.
Now the internet’s dark times are related more to the various comments sections. The bright times are random, unexpected, unusual facts. The thing that hasn’t changed is that you can still stumble on them. But you can look them up much easier now, so you have that going for you, which is nice.
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1. We’re used to seeing these in a much different state — usually getting spots on the counter within hours of getting home from the grocery store — but this is how bananas look early in their growth period.
You can sort of see them starting to come together.
2. If you’ve never seen it before, you would never guess that this beautiful flower would grow into a passion fruit.
Turns out they’re as gorgeous as they are delicious — who knew?
3. This sort of gross, sort of cool looking thing isn’t even a creature — it’s just part of a creature.
It’s a mosquito’s foot, showing in detail how it manages to latch onto so many surfaces so easily.
4. There is an undersea laboratory sitting 60 feet below the surface off the coast of Florida where scientists study and train.
Aquarius Reef Base has space for six people to live and learn under the sea.
5. American Express introduced its famous, exclusive black card for elite customers only after rumors started to circulate that it had a secret, exclusive black card for elite customers.
It’s officially known as the Centurion Card, and you can’t even apply for it; AmEx has to offer it to you.
6. Termites know the difference between load bearing and non-load bearing wood.
When you think about it, it’s in their best interest to know if their food will bring a building down on top of them, and studies have shown that they do, preferring to dig into wood that doesn’t bear weight first.
7. So, not to bum anybody out or anything, but this is how large the Earth is compared to a solar eruption that took place in March 2010.
That’s the sort of thing Earth’s magnetic field protects us from.
8. The American flags planted on the moon have all turned white.
Five of the six planted by the Apollo missions are still standing, but they have almost certainly been bleached white by exposure over the past 40+ years.
9. Artist and architect Alex Schweder collaborated with Ward Shelley to create this house balanced atop a column.
Called ReActor , the house turns when the wind blows and tilts like a seesaw as people inside move around.
10. Drinking milk that was taken from cows at night will make you sleepier than cow’s milk taken during the day.
Night milk contains higher concentrations of tryptophan and melatonin, imparting a sedating effect.
11. If you’ve ever wondered how bridge pilings get built in the middle of a river, here’s a look at a hole for a new bridge support.
The sheet metal walls get driven down first, then the water inside gets pumped out!
12. This Game Boy survived a bombing during the first Gulf War and, although it’s charred on the exterior, it can still play Tetris.
They don’t make ’em like they used to!
13. It is possible to make a battery from lemons — and the wall of lemons behind these two guys is an enormous lemon battery.
Mind you, even a lemon battery this big isn’t amazing — the 1200 lemons that went into this couldn’t outperform a single AA battery.
14. The record for endurance flying stands at 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes, covering a distance of about 150,000 miles.
Between December 1958 and February 1959, Bob Timm and John Cook flew a modified Cessna over the Southwest, taking on fuel twice a day from a truck that drove below them.
15. There is a species of tree with a surreal, magically colorful exterior: the rainbow eucalyptus.
These trees start to show off their colors when new layers of bark grow and the old, dull layers flake off.
16. Humans aren’t the only ones who stop everything during a solar eclipse — bees go silent, too.
It was observed during the 2017 solar eclipse over the U.S. — bees in the path of totality uniformly stopped what they were doing when the world went dark, like turning off a light switch.
17. In Paris, there is a street dedicated to Carrie Fisher.
Well, sort of. The 8-bit mosaic of Princess Leia was created by street artist Invader as a tribute to Carrie after her passing, and it’s fittingly located on Rue Princesse.
18. You wouldn’t know it from ground level, but there’s a high school whose footprint looks remarkably like the Millennium Falcon.
Although the architect behind the work said he was a Star Wars fan, he claimed the design wasn’t done on purpose.
19. Between 2000 and 2015, Lego sets were a better investment than gold.
Over those 15 years, the average value of a Lego set in pristine condition increased 12%, while investing in gold would only have earned you a 9.6% return.
20. If the analytical engine designed by Charles Babbage in 1837 had ever been built, it would have been able to multiply two 20-digit numbers in three minutes.
You have to wonder if any steam would have arisen out of that, but still, not bad at all for 1837.
21. Amateur British mathematician William Shanks spent 15 years calculating pi, finally expanding it to 707 places in 1873.
Unfortunately, he made an error after the first 527 places, rendering the rest of his calculations worthless.
22. The first passenger plane known to be shot down by military forces was the Kweilin, a DC-2 flown out of China and shot down by the Japanese in 1938.
The wreckage was salvaged, refurbished, and put back into action, only to be shot down by the Japanese again in 1940.
23. A semi cab expressly built for the movie Pet Sematary was found rusting in a field in Maine.
Seems like an odd fate for something custom built like that, but there it is.
24. This mountaintop town, where the houses extended literally to the cliff’s edge, is thousands of years old.
It’s easy to see why Amadiya , in Iraqi Kurdistan, was once an ideal spot for a fortress.
