Which of these foods can essentially never spoil?
Everyone’s had to deal with emptying a fridge of food that’s long since gone bad, but there’s one food that you don’t have to worry about: honey. Because of its unique makeup, it never spoils, and people have found pots of honey that are thousands of years old with the sweet stuff still perfectly preserved inside.
How many chromosomes does a typical human being have?
Although there is some variance when it comes to conditions like Down's or Turner's Syndromes, the vast majority of people on Earth are born with 46 chromosomes: 23 pairs of 2.
Which of these novels would be considered “dystopian”?
A dystopian novel is one that takes place in a future world in which society has become deeply undesirable, evil, or terrifying. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is a dystopian novel. It takes place in a creepy World State, where conformity is deeply discouraged.
True or False: Mozart was deaf
There WAS a famous composer who was deaf... but it was Ludwig van Beethoven, not Mozart.
True or False: Peacocks are all male
Peacocks are all male. They’re actually a kind of bird called a peafowl, and the females are called peahens.
What happened to most of the American flags on the Moon?
Red, white, and blue no more. In 2012, NASA confirmed that five of the six American flags planted on the moon by various lunar missions were still standing where they were. The catch? The flags don’t really look like American flags anymore. In the harsh radiation of space, and the bright sunlight on the moon, unfiltered by any atmosphere, the flags have been bleached completely white.
What is the English word with the most amount of different definitions?
English is a complicated language, and words like “set” and “run” don’t make it any easier. For years, set was considered to have the most meanings of any word, with the Oxford English Dictionary giving it 430 separate definitions in 1989. But according to OED’s chief editor John Simpson, the word “run” has surpassed it with a whopping 645 meanings as of 2011!
True or False: Hummingbirds are the smallest birds on Earth
The smallest birds on earth are hummingbirds. Although they come in a variety of sizes, the smallest weighs as little as 2.4 grams. For comparison, a US penny weighs 2.5 grams.
Which Dr. Seuss book uses only 50 unique words?
Green Eggs and Ham is one of the most popular children’s books of all time, and if you count them up, it uses exactly 50 different words. That’s because Dr. Seuss wrote it on a bet: his publisher bet Seuss $50 that he couldn’t write an entire book with 50 or fewer words.
Which fictional character was named by Forbes as the richest fictional character in the world?
Scrooge McDuck was named by Forbes as the richest fictional character in the world. They estimate his personal net worth to be $65.4 billion. They said he made his money in mining and treasure hunting, and that he kept most of his wealth, of course, in his gold coin swimming pool.
The biggest traffic jam of all-time last 10 days. Which country did it occur in?
The biggest traffic jam of all time happened in 2010 in China. Mostly taking place on China National Highway 110, it affected cars for over 60 miles. The jam lasted for more than 10 days, and some people were trapped in their cars for five days straight.
Which of these animals is NOT considered to be one of the most intelligent creatures on Earth?
Along with dolphins and chimpanzees, the Eurasian magpie is right up there with the most intelligent animals on earth. The mirror test (the ability to recognize yourself in a mirror) is seen as an important test in animal intelligence, and the Eurasian magpie is the only non-mammal that has passed it. It also has one of the largest brain-to-weight ratios in the animal kingdom and has been observed using tools, working in teams, playing games, and grieving.
True or False: scientists can confidently say that there are far more potential chess games than there are atoms in the entire universe.
It’s common knowledge that chess is a complicated game, but just how complicated is hard to imagine. In fact, there are so many different possible moves in a chess game that it isn’t even worth the huge amount of effort it would take to calculate it. But scientists can confidently say that there are far more potential chess games than there are atoms in the entire universe.
When was the first powered flight?
Before 1903, no human had ever achieved powered flight. But once we passed that barrier, progress started happening fast. Airplanes were used in warfare within a decade, and people had landed on the moon just 66 years after the first flight. Not bad considering people had been trying to fly for centuries.
Which of these animals cannot jump?
Elephants, rhinos, and hippos are some of the very few types of mammal that can’t jump. While rhinos and hippos will occasionally get all four feet off of the ground while running, the elephant never does at all, staying firmly landlocked at all times.
Which of these iconic directors never actually attended film school?
Three of the top four highest-grossing directors of all time never went to (or initially completed) film school. Steven Spielberg (who dropped out and then finished his degree later), Peter Jackson, and James Cameron all began making movies when they were just kids and taught themselves the craft through trial and error. Not only were they not saddled with massive student loans, they didn’t have to sit through hundreds of hours of boring black-and-white French movies.
Which of these countries has a national anthem with no words?
Spain’s national anthem has no words. It’s called the “Marcha Real” and it’s one of four anthems on earth that’s entirely instrumental (the other countries are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and San Marino).
What are NFL footballs made from?
Despite the common nickname, NFL footballs are actually made from cow leather, and it takes 3,000 cows to supply the league with footballs for just one season.
True or False: Cleopatra’s reign was closer in time to the moon landing than it was to the building of the Great Pyramid.
The era of Ancient Egypt lasted for thousands of years, which can be hard to wrap your head around. To put it in perspective, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built roughly between 2550 and 2490 BC, while Cleopatra took the throne in 51 BC. That means that Cleopatra’s reign was closer in time to the moon landing than it was to the building of the Great Pyramid.
Before they left, Lewis and Clark were asked by Thomas Jefferson to search for evidence of...
The expedition of Lewis and Clark is famous for many reasons, but they had one goal you might not expect. Thomas Jefferson had a thing for mammoths (or, more accurately, American Mastodons). He was completely enamoured with the extinct behemoths, and held out hope that they continued to live many miles away in the west of America. So when he sent Lewis and Clark out on their famous expedition, he told them to look for mammoths. What a discovery that would have been!
In an effort to make the city more pedestrian friendly and to lower its carbon footprint, which city has plans to ban all cars from entering the city-center by 2019?
In an effort to make the city more pedestrian friendly and to lower its carbon footprint, the city of Oslo in Norway has plans to ban all cars from entering the city center by 2019. Though the revolutionary plan will allow, among other things, an enormous amount of real-estate taken up by parking to be repurposed, many residents are understandably upset that such a big change is going to happen so quickly.
What song was used as the secret signal to American troops that they were evacuating Viatnam?
If you were listening to the radio in Vietnam in April, 1975, you might have heard a surprising song: Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” That’s because it was the secret signal for Americans to evacuate the country in an event called Operation Frequent Wind.
Which US state has only two escalators?
The entire state of Wyoming has only two escalators, both in the city of Casper. They’re so rare that some Wyoming residents visit these escalators just for the novelty of it, with one of them describing it as “like riding a tilt-a-whirl, but only slower.”
Who invented Bitcoin?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the inventor of bitcoin. Nakamoto published a paper in 2008 that first described the currency, and released the first version of a bitcoin software client in 2009. But “Satoshi Nakamoto” is a pseudonym, and to this day no one knows who he or she is. The last anyone has heard from them was in 2011, and various sleuths have tried to uncover their identity (unsuccessfully) ever since.
True or False: the average weight of a cumulus cloud is actually 1.1 million pounds.
Clouds are made up of water vapor that’s collected in the atmosphere. Because they float in the sky, you might think that they’re light as a feather, but the average weight of a cumulus cloud (the really fluffy looking ones) is actually 1.1 million pounds.
Your lungs are filled with tiny sacs that draw oxygen from the air you breathe into your bloodstream. What are they called?
Your lungs are filled with tiny sacs called alveoli that draw oxygen from the air you breathe into your bloodstream. In total, the average adult has around 600 million of these alveoli, and their combined surface area is roughly the size of a tennis court.
What is the largest animal to ever exist on Earth?
The blue whale is the largest animal that’s ever existed, and it weighs almost twice as much as the heaviest dinosaur. An animal that big needs a serious heart to keep it going: The blue whale’s heart can be the size of a small car, weigh 1,300 pounds, and has vessels so large that a human could swim down them (though I imagine the whale would not be thrilled about this)!
What is the term used to describe most computer keyboard configurations?
The device you’re reading this one probably has a QWERTY keyboard. Many different arrangements were used by early typewriters, but QWERTY is the one that ended up sticking.
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Jeopardy Fan
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