16-20 Kickass Random Facts
16. Large sections of Montana and Washington used to be covered by a massive lake held back by ice. When the ice broke it released 4,500 megatons of force, 90 times more powerful than the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, moving 50 cubic miles of land. – Source
17. After experiencing headaches Gerardo Moctezuma consulted doctors who performed an MRI revealing a tapeworm in the middle of his brain. It was removed in one piece during surgery. Doctors said it had been there for a decade and the rare condition was caused by eating under-cooked meat. – Source
18. The United Kingdom hasn’t really required people to pay for bail since 1898. This was to help reduce the number of people remanded in custody simply because they were poor. Nowadays, bail is automatically given unless said person has a risk of absconding or is a risk to the public. – Source
19. The French revolution gave us the metric system and almost gave us metric clocks, too. They had 10 hours in the day, 10 days in the week, and even 30 days each month. – Source
20. An oil exploration company dug up Seamonkey cysts in the 1990s while drilling near the Great Salt Lake that was radiocarbon dated to be 10,000-years-old, and when the cysts were placed in water, some of them hatched. – Source
21-25 Kickass Random Facts
21. The incisors of Beavers are orange because they contain iron. That iron strengthens the teeth and better able to cut through wood. – Source
22. When Apple ads claimed the iPhone X took “studio quality photos” there were complaints to the UK’s advertising standards about misleading statements. These were was rejected because there isn’t a technical definition of what “studio quality photos” is: it’s completely subjective. – Source
23. The Ginkgo Tree is unique, not obviously related to any living plant; a “living fossil,” unchanged in 200 million years. – Source
24. “Nitrate free” labeled cured meats often use celery juice, which is naturally high in nitrates. – Source
25. In 1987, a stock exchange forbade Thomas Peterffy to use the fully automated algorithmic trading system he had designed, as all trades needed to be typed in manually. Consequently, Peterffy designed a system where a camera read the terminals and mechanical fingers typed in the trade orders. – Source
