- Today the knowledge whale turns 30!
(whale singing)
Here are 50 amazing facts to blow your mind.
An entire decade after 9-11,
the New York Times created Portraits of Grief,
an archive of articles about every 9-11 victim
and how the families are coping.
This is the Barcode Building in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Freddy Mercury's favorite song was Somebody to Love,
but he didn't want to say that publically
because he didn't want people think
he only liked his own music.
Actors who become extras as zombies on The Walking Dead
actually have to go to zombie school
where they're graded
on whether or not they're convincing as zombies.
Human evolution has favored brain over brawn.
Meaning as we become more intelligent,
our muscles actually become weaker.
In 2013, a man in China hired gamers
to kill his son's avatar in video games
in order to discourage his video game habit
and to get him to look for a job.
Believe it or not, crocodiles can climb trees,
and they do it often.
Vladimir Lenin, the Russian communist revolutionary
was placed on display when he died
in Red Square Moscow against his wishes
which were to be buried next to his wife.
In January of 2015,
the Japanese army used 3500 tons of snow
to create a massive Star Wars sculpture
for the annual Sapporo Snow Festival.
When he was only 14, Malawian engineer William Kamkwamba
used blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and other scraps
to build a windmill for his family
to power the electrical appliances in his house.
According a study conducted by Oxford University
in 2013,
men need to have at least two guys' nights a week
to stay healthy.
Ha! I should probably get out of the house more.
Texas A&M once conducted a study
where they asked participants
to try wines labeled France, California and Texas.
And while most people said the French wine was the best,
in reality, they were all the exact same Texan wine.
Vantablack is known as the blackest black material,
able to absorb 99.965%
of visual light,
and looking into it is like looking into an abyss.
When the Titanic sank,
its sister ship the Olympic offered
to take in the survivors.
The Captain of the ship Carpathia
rejected the original offer
because he was afraid that the survivors would panic
when they saw a virtual mirror image
of the ship that had just sunk asking them to board.
Credem Bank in Italy takes cheese
from local Parmesan producers
in exchange for cheap loans,
and currently holds 430,000
wheels of Parmesan cheese,
worth up to 190 million Euros.
I mean, I know cheese is expensive, but damn!
A Swedish man named Roger Tullgren
was given disability benefits when his obsession
with heavy metal music was officially declared
as an addiction.
I'm a little bit addicted to YouTube,
can I go on disability?
In 2012, Italy officially made it illegal
to tell a man that he has no balls
because it hurts male pride.
Adjusted for inflation,
the Dutch East India Company was the most valuable company
in history in 1637,
worth what would today equal
$7.4 trillion.
Crystal the monkey has starred in over 25 movies,
including Night at the Museum
and the Hangover II,
and in 2015 was awarded the Poscar,
the animal Oscar.
According a study published in January 2015,
men who take a lot of selfies are more likely
to exhibit higher levels of narcissism.
(chuckles) That's good.
A Swedish woman named Lina Poulsen lost her wedding ring
for 16 years before finding it growing on a carrot
in her garden in 2011.
Our brains are like nuclear reactors
in that they can heat up and cool down,
and if you let your brain overheat
you can literally experience a meltdown.
The richest superhero is actually Black Panther,
king of the Wakanda.
He has an estimated worth of $500 billion,
while Tony Stark is estimated at only 100 billion,
and Bruce Wayne at only 80 billion.
Research done in Britain in 2011 shows
that the average family of four will lose
up to 60 socks a year.
In 2012, the creators of the Anti-Piracy ad were fined
for using stolen music in their ads.
Vikings used ravens to find land
by following the direction the ravens were flying,
which is why it became their favorite symbol
and ultimately landed on their flag.
74% of Japanese households have high-tech toilets
which eliminate the need for toilet paper,
and have features such as seat warming,
self-cleaning, and deodorant spritzing.
Bill Haast, also known as the snake man,
was bitten by venomous snakes over 120 times in his life.
He injected himself with snake venom every day
for over 60 years to build an immunity,
and with his antibody-rich blood,
he managed to save 21 snake bite victims around the globe.
The extreme winter weather in early 2015
actually caused parts of Niagara Falls to freeze over,
a very rare occurrence.
The traffic flow on Google Maps
is actually a real-time display
of the number of Android phones currently making the journey
that you're looking at.
The Chicken of Tomorrow contest in 1948 was created
to develop superior meat chickens,
and now most of the chicken that we eat today came
from the winner of that contest
whose genetics dominate global poultry farms.
That's kind of weird, but delicious!
In Poland, instead of saying "Not my problem,"
they say the idiom, "Not my circus, not my monkey."
I'm gonna have to start using that one. (chuckles)
Sand castles are more likely to kill people than sharks are
as more people have died from falling into holes
that are dug for building sandcastles
than they have from being attacked by sharks.
Liam Neeson was actually up for the role of James Bond
but turned it down when his late wife Natasha Richardson
told him that she wouldn't marry him if he took the role.
According to dermatologists,
daily showers can cause dry skin and irritation,
and technically humans should only take showers
every two to three days in lukewarm water.
That's kind of gross, though, I like my daily showers.
In German, the word Schadenfeurde
means "pleasure from seeing others fail
"or suffer misfortune,"
it literally means "harm-joy."
Apple doesn't ship their products.
Instead, to cut down on delivery time,
they actually fly their stock first class.
Four college football players were caught being honest
in 2013 when they went into a closed convenience store
that left its door unlocked,
and left cash on the counter for the items that they took.
The store's owner rewarded each of them
with a $50 gift certificate.
Roald Dahl's last words were, "Ow, (bleep)!"
which was his reaction to when the nurse stuck him
with the morphine needle.
In March of 2015,
researchers reported that humans use more of the DNA
that's passed on from their fathers than their mothers,
so genetically speaking you're more like your father
than you are your mom.
Daniel Radcliffe celebrated winning the role of Harry Potter
by staying up an extra half hour past his bedtime
and watching Fawlty Towers.
Ooh, party animal! We got a bad ass!
The most expensive bottled water in the world
is the Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani,
which is priced at $60,000
per 750 milliliters,
and is sourced from either France or Fiji
and contained within a 24 karat solid gold bottle.
In the last 90 years, bears have killed 82 Americans,
but teddy bears cause 22 deaths every year.
Mark Zuckerberg has publicly claimed
that he would never allow a dislike button on Facebook
because he thinks it wouldn't be good for the world.
That, despite the recent rumors,
that they are in fact working on a dislike button.
Lucy and Maria Aylmer are actually twins.
They simply have mixed race parentage.
A study done in 2014 found
that there is a correlation between sleep deprivation
and brain shrinkage,
it's just not known which causes the other.
In 2008, Felix Batista,
a hostage negotiator and expert on kidnappings,
was kidnapped in Mexico
after giving a presentation on surviving being kidnapped.
He is still missing to this day.
Hashtag irony.
A book called Becoming Batman The Possibility of a Superhero
was published in 2008 by a neuroscience professor
and covers how much an ordinary person would need
to train and adapt to become a superhero like Batman.
The Gretzky brothers hold the NHL record
for the most points scored by a pair of brothers,
together scoring 2,861 points.
Brent scored 4 of those points,
Wayne scored the other 2,857.
Studied have shown
that when female servers draw a happy face on the bill,
it can actually increase their tip by as much as 20%.
Look for it next time you eat out.
♫ And now
♫ You're just a little bit smarter
♫ Smarter from the knowledge whale ♫
(whale singing)
My friends, if you enjoyed this, give it a like,
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as well as my vlog channel so that you never miss a video.
That's all for now, thanks for watching,
and I'll see you soon.
(whale singing)
Knowledge whale loves you. Slap, slap.
(whale singing)