Facts You Never Knew

[01dragonslayer]

Bro this has quickly become my favorite thread to check out on all the boards. So far that I say Thank You!!!

Definitely some interesting facts....

 

[01dragonslayer]

The slang term for dollars, “bucks”, originates from the early 1700s.​

It refers to deer skins from male deer, or bucks as they’re commonly known.

This is because during these early times, deer skins were used as an informal currency.

In fact, a diplomat in 1948 noted that 5 Bucks would buy you a cask of whiskey.

 

[01dragonslayer]

40 million years ago penguins were 6 feet tall.​

This was discovered from bones found at Seymour Island dating back to 37 – 40 million years ago.

These gigantic penguins would have weighed up to 250 pounds!

 

[01dragonslayer]

Beer was classified as a soft drink in Russian until 2011.​

Before 2011, anything with less than 10% alcohol was classified legally as a soft drink.

 

[01dragonslayer]

25% of all mammal species on Earth are bats.​

There are a whopping 1,200 different types of bat!

They range in size from a Bumblebee Bat – the world’s smallest mammal – all the way up to the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Bat which has a huge wingspan of almost 6 foot!

 

[01dragonslayer]

Jellyfish are 95% water.​

Not surprising, given that they have no brain, no blood and no heart!

The other 5% is made up of what little solid mass jellyfish possess.

 

[01dragonslayer]

Fortune cookies are an American invention.​

They were invented by Makoto Hagiwara of San Francisco in the 1890s and sold at the Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden.

 

[01dragonslayer]

When Nintendo was formed, there were only 38 US states in the Union.​

The company that would go on to bring us Super Mario and Pokémon was formed in September of 1889.

By the end of that year there were 42 US states in the Union!

 

[01dragonslayer]

On statues, a horse’s legs tell you how the statue figure died.​

If a horse has both its front legs in the air, then the person died in battle.

If the horse has one of its front legs in the air, they died of wounds received from a battle.

And if the horse has both its front legs on the ground then the person died of natural causes.

 

[01dragonslayer]

Japan has a roaming deer infestation.​

Because of this, the Japanese government has set up the National Wolf Association, which is focused on reintroducing wolves to Japan to help reduce the amount of wild deer.

 

[01dragonslayer]

The pH scale was invented by the Carlsberg brewery.​

It was the brainchild of one Søren Sørensen who invented it in 1909 while researching the best proteins, amino acids and enzymes in the Carlsberg brewery laboratory.

 

[01dragonslayer]

Most perfume is made from Sperm Whale puke.​

Known as Ambergris, this waxy secretion belched out by Sperm Whales is a core component to making any perfumes due to its pleasant smell and is often found floating in tropical seas.

 

[01dragonslayer]

In the Californian White Mountains, there are trees older than history.​

These wise old trees, known as Pinus longaeva, have been aged at up to 5,060+ years old!

Written history is believed to have begun roughly 5,000 years ago – back then these magnificent trees would have just been starting out their long lives!

 

[01dragonslayer]

“Mountain Dew” was originally a slang term for moonshine.​

Used as a bit of slang for mountain-brewed moonshine, the hella sugary drink we know and suffer through today was originally marketed as a whiskey chaser.

 

[01dragonslayer]

No number from 1 to 999 includes the letter "a" in its word form.​

Unless you live in the United Kingdom where it's proper to write 101 as "one hundred and one," there is no number from 1 to 999 that includes the letter "a" in its word form, according to longtime math teacher Jonathan Garnett-Smith. One, two, three, four, five, six… twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty… You can keep going, but you won't find the first letter of the alphabet until you hit "one thousand."