- You already know what time it is.
Bring on the facts.
Here are 50 amazing facts to blow your mind.
(explosion booming)
Oxford University is so old
that it actually predates the Aztec Empire's formation
by over 200 years.
Teaching was being done at the school in the year 1096,
while the Aztec civilization didn't begin
until the year 1325.
In December of 2012 two neuroscientists
successfully implanted a false memory into a mouse,
causing it to become stiff and afraid
as it recalled something that never actually happened.
The late Michael Jackson composed much of the music
used in the video game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
but refused credit after hearing
how the song sounded when mixed in.
The country of Australia has 10,685 beaches,
so many that if you visited a different one every day,
it would take you over 29 years to set foot on all of them.
Since as early as 1872,
the character of Humpty Dumpty has been portrayed
as an egg in almost every medium he appears in,
yet the nursery rhyme contains no mention
of him being an egg.
On February 1st, 2005,
a picture of a captured American soldier
was posted on a website frequented by Iraqi rebels,
along with demands for prisoners to be freed
or else he'd be beheaded.
Soon after, Dragon Models, a U.S. toy company,
announced that the prisoner wasn't a soldier at all,
but an action figure doll that they'd made.
Situated on the border between Canada and the United States,
Lake Superior is the third-largest freshwater lake on earth.
In fact, there's enough water in the lake
to cover all of North America and South America
to a depth of up to 30 centimeters.
According to the American Chemical Society,
catnip is far better at keeping mosquitoes away than DEET,
a common ingredient used in bug repellents.
In the entire history of the NBA,
no player has ever worn the jersey number 69.
On multiple occasions,
nuclear reactors in different parts of the world
have had to be shut down due to overheating.
The unlikely culprits behind the events?
Jellyfish.
The animals actually clogged up water intakes
used to cool the reactors and had to be removed
before the plants could be operational again.
Baby rabbits are born without any fur, blind,
and so weak that they can barely move on their own,
while hares are born with plenty of hair,
the ability to see,
and with enough strength to bounce soon after they emerge.
As a joke, popular Australian comedian Hamish Blake
entered the New York bodybuilding championships in 2011,
after being challenged to do so.
Incredibly, Blake actually won,
because he was the only competitor
to enter in the over 200 pounds weight category.
A study involving 33 laparoscopic surgeons
revealed that the nine of them who were experienced
at playing video games made 37% fewer mistakes
and completed procedures 27% faster
than the 24 who rarely or never played them.
In January of 2016 a hound dog named Ludivine
snuck out of her owner's backyard in Elkmont, Alabama,
and chased after some runners,
accidentally completing an entire half-marathon.
She was awarded seventh place!
The first public anti-smoking and anti-tobacco movement
in modern history was actually started by the Nazi Party
after German doctors discovered a link
between smoking cigarettes and developing lung cancer.
According to a number of researchers,
American doctor Maurice Hilleman saved more lives
than any other scientist in the 20th century.
This is because he developed as many as nine
out of the 14 vaccines commonly given to children,
including ones for measles, mumps, and chicken pox.
Just outside of Alliance, Nebraska, in the United States,
there's a popular recreation of Stonehenge
made entirely out of old cars.
Carhenge consists of 39 different cars and trucks
from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s,
and has been arranged to resemble
the mysterious landmark as closely as possible.
In April of 2012 Mohammed Ashan,
a commander for the Taliban,
turned himself in to Afghan troops at a checkpoint
in an attempt to claim the $100 reward
that had been offered for his capture.
He was arrested and didn't receive the reward.
Back in the 18th century,
the cost of admission to the zoo
in London, England, was three half-pence.
But those who couldn't afford that were allowed entry
if they supplied a cat or dog to be fed to the lions.
Daniel Kish lost both of his eyes to cancer as a baby
but navigates today thanks to his mastery
of human echolocation,
an ability in which he sees
using the echoes of sound that bounces off objects,
similar to how bats move around.
On September 1st, 2009,
the city council of Madison, Wisconsin,
voted 15 to four in favor of making
the city's official bird the plastic pink flamingo,
and it's still the official bird today.
There are more plastic pink flamingos
in people's yards in the United States
than real living ones in the wild.
Polar bears can eat and store
an incredible amount of vitamin A,
so much so that if you were to consume a polar bear's liver,
you would more than likely die from hypervitaminosis A or,
simply put, vitamin A poisoning.
Over the course hof his life,
Walter Summerford was struck by lightning
on three separate occasions.
He died in 1912, but four years later,
his tombstone was struck by lightning as well.
Dubbed the largest battle in the history of the internet,
Battle B-R5RB was a player-versus-player fight
in the game Eve Online that took over 21 hours to play out
and consisted of over 7,548 player characters.
In Japan it takes longer to become an itamae, or sushi chef,
than it does to become a doctor.
Some work for as long as 20 years
to receive such an honorable position.
Female dragonflies have been known to fake their own deaths
in order to stop their male counterparts
from trying to initiate mating rituals.
In 1951, after missing a golden plover with a shot,
managing director of Guinness Brewery Sir Hugh Beaver
got into an argument over whether the bird
was the fastest game bird in Europe.
After realizing there was no resource to resolve the matter,
he decided to create his own,
so he started the Guinness Book of World Records.
In July of 2013 scientists in China
successfully grew teeth using stem cells
that they collected from human urine.
There are some mad scientists out there!
Misomaniacs are people
who literally hate everyone and everything.
It can often stem from the fear
that everyone already hates them,
so they simply hate them back.
In 2008 a survey conducted in Coos Bay, Oregon,
revealed that panhandlers asking for money
outside of the local Walmart made far more money
than most of the employees working inside the store.
In some cases the daily amount was reportedly
more than employees make in a week.
For their entire life,
a swan will only ever have one partner.
When that partner dies,
it's possible for the surviving swan
to also pass away from brokenheartedness.
In 2014 to protest the craziness of Black Friday shopping,
the company behind the game Cards Against Humanity
decided not to put any products on sale,
but instead sold and shipped out
30,000 boxes of bull excrement.
What a crappy deal.
Each year May 29th is celebrated
as Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day
in many places in Europe and the United States.
It's meant to bring good fortune and prosperity
and literally all that you have to do
is put your pillow on your refrigerator.
There is a small number of human beings
who are born with the resistance, or even total immunity,
to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Sadly, that number is estimated to be less than 1%.
According to an online survey
commissioned by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy,
around 7% of American citizens believe that
chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
When spelled out properly,
40 is the only number to have its letters
already arranged in alphabetical order.
One is the only number
with its letters in reverse alphabetical order.
Though they're mostly decorative today,
spiked and studded dog collars
originated in Turkey many years ago,
when shepherds placed the protective pieces
around their sheepdog's necks
in order to protect them from wolves.
During an early writers' room meeting
for the animated show The Simpsons,
series creator Matt Groening claimed
that if the character Marge were to ever let her hair down,
it would be revealed that she had rabbit ears.
The idea was obviously abandoned for being too ridiculous.
There was once a court case
called Batman versus Commissioner,
but instead of the Dark Knight
suing the leader of Gotham Police,
it was a farmer named Ray Batman
who was trying to appeal a decision
to increase what he'd been taxed by the IRS.
The hair on a sloth is so long and coarse
that it's the perfect place for algae to flourish.
The algae actually helps camouflage
the animal so well that some sloths
have been known to grab their own arms,
thinking that they're branches instead of limbs,
and end up falling to their own deaths.
Almost exclusively found in and around the state of Vermont,
witch windows look like normal house windows,
except that they're turned 45 degrees.
Legends say that if a window was angled in such a way,
witches have a hard time entering the home
through them on their broomsticks.
The richest animal on the planet is Gunther IV,
a German shepherd that received an inheritance
of over $300 million from his canine father, Gunther III
who, in turn, inherited the fortune in 1992
from a German countess named Carlotta Leibenstein.
Studies have shown that significantly more
serial killers and mass murderers
were born in the month of November than any other month.
After the Cult Awareness Network labeled Scientology
as ruthless, dangerous, and terroristic,
the network was sued by the religion
and was forced into bankruptcy.
Shortly thereafter, a group including several Scientologists
bought the CAN's assets to silence them.
In Japan, golfers often purchase a strange type of insurance
that covers them if they get a hole in one.
Traditionally, getting one means
that you have to buy drinks and gifts for your friends,
so this insurance covers you
for up to $3,000 towards that expense.
Nearly every armadillo that belongs
to the genus Dasypus gives birth to quadruplets.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
students can fulfill their physical education requirements
with archery, fencing, shooting guns, and sailing.
Doing so will earn them the official Pirate Certificate.
The word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron.
It's derived from the ancient Greek words oxy,
which means sharp, and moros, which means foolish or dull.
And that's it!
50 amazing facts to expand your gray matter.
I hope you guys enjoyed this,
and I hope that you have a fantastic day,
and also that you learned something,
'cause that's what these videos are about.
I'll see you next time, bye-bye, now.