It’s funny, I never know how much I’ve remembered from classes until a question is put to me. If it wasn’t for trivia nights, I would probably assume that my tuition was wasted — if not for the simple fact that I like learning for learning’s sake.
It’s also true that I don’t know how much I’ve picked up off the internet compared to classes, even on those trivia nights. I don’t know where it comes from. But a ceaseless fascination with the world helps, even when it’s completely random.
1. Koko, the gorilla who famously learned to communicate through sign language, once ripped a sink out of her wall and blamed it on her kitten, named All Ball, signing “cat did it.”
2. Nobody knows for sure why a hammerhead shark’s head is shaped the way it is, but there are a few theories.
Some say it improves its swimming performance, some say it helps the shark hunt, some say it improves vision and other senses, and some say it’s a bit of all of the above.
3. This history teacher is relying on a video game to teach his class about ancient architecture.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins contains a “Discovery Mode” that allows players to simply walk around the map exploring a richly detailed, well researched Ancient Egypt rather than engaging in any story lines.
4. In China, there’s a solar farm where the panels are arranged to form two panda bears.
The power plant in Daton, China spans 248 acres and was the brain child of a 15-year-old named Ada Li Yan-tung.
5. Airbus has designed a massive new cargo plane called the BelugaXL, big enough inside to carry sections of the world’s largest passenger plane, which is also made by Airbus.
Airbus employees voted on the plane’s design, with 40% choosing the happy beluga look.
6. The world’s largest and likely oldest living organism is a 106-acre aspen colony in Utah called Pando.
Although Pando looks like a forest, the trees share a common root system. Each tree is genetically identical to every other tree, making it a forest of one tree.
7. Before it was emptied in 1992, Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City was the most densely populated area on Earth.
The area packed 33,000 people into just two hectares, roughly the area of two major league baseball fields — not including the stands.
8. There are more people serving life sentences just in Philadelphia County than there are in any other country in the world.
In Philadelphia, 2,694 people areserving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
9. This massive quartz crystal cluster, dug up in Arkansas, could be worth as much as $4 million.
Although it looks murky yellow, after a proper cleaning with oxalic acid, it will be completely white and clear.
10. The world’s largest quartz crystal cluster, however, was found in Namibia in 1985.
Weighing more than 14,000 kilos, it took five years to excavate it completely and it sits in a gallery now.
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11. This is what a scallop farm looks like under the water.
And, unlike many other methods of farming, conservationists encourage this form of scallop farming, because traditional scallop gathering caused damage to seabeds, and these scallops still clean the water.
12. An Indonesian teenager survived 49 days adrift at sea after the mooring rope attaching his fishing hut to land snapped in a storm.
He survived by catching fish, cooking them on fires built with wood from his hut, and drinking sea water filtered through his clothes. At least 10 ships passed him over before he was finally rescued more than 1,200 miles from home.
13. These two were not so fortunate, as they found themselves in one of nature’s more unlikely battles.
The bee stung the spider after the spider caught the bee — a perfectly Tarantino ending.
14. This building in Dresden, Germany, was designed to play a tune when rain water falls down its series of tubes.
Whether it actually sounds like a soothing tune in the rain might be up to the listener, however.
15. Although this C-17 is clearly too large for the hangar, it’s not a design flaw.
Because hangars tend to be expensive, money gets saved on size by making sure the important bits are housed. It’s known as a nose dock hangar.
16. For colorful mating displays in the amphibian world, it’s hard to beat the male Yellow Blue Indian Bullfrog.
It’s normally a plain green, but during mating season it turns yellow and sports a massive blue sac on each cheek.
17. One of the oldest known musical instruments is this flute, carved from a vulture bone more than 35,000 years ago.
Researchers found this five-holed flute in a cave in Germany alongside a couple of other flutes made from mammoth ivory.
18. This unique statue features a man on one side and a woman on the other.
Carved from a single piece of sycamore, Mephistopheles and Margetta represents the evil and good characters from Goethe’s Dr. Faust .
19. For a graphic example of the effects of smoking, one of these ceilings is for a smoking area, and one for non-smoking.
We’re pretty sure you can guess which is which.
20. Nintendo, makers of wonderful high-tech games, is a surprisingly old company, having been founded in 1889.
Long before Mario came along, Nintendo made playing cards, instant rice, vacuum cleaners, and ran a taxi company and a chain of short-stay hotels.
21. This is not artwork — this is a real, living moth.
Although it looks like it was carved from wood, the tersa sphinx moth is harmless, but it’s large enough that it sometimes gets mistaken for small bird.
22. It’s hard to believe, but the chunk of tungsten and the chunk of aluminum it’s sitting on weigh exactly the same amount.
They’re both 292 grams, but tungsten has seven times the density of aluminum.
