Strange But True #36 · 12:09am Nov 10th, 2020
Next batch of weird facts, fresh from the internet! Enjoy!
1. A man in 2007 tried to fake his own death to get out of a cellphone bill. It didn't work.
2. Light doesn't always necessarily travel at light speed - light has been recorded moving as slow as 38 mph in a controlled vacuum medium.
3. Casu marzu is a Sardinian cheese that contains live maggots.
4. Scientists have discovered that male rhesus monkeys will look at the bottoms of female rhesus monkeys in photographs. Bunch's deviants!
5. The Fulgates of Troublesome Creek (a family of blue skinned people who lived in Kentucky for generations) are thought to have gained their blue skin through combination of inbreeding and a rare genetic condition known as methemoglobinemia.
6. "Blood Falls" is a glacier in Antarctica that while melting appears to be pouring blood into the ocean. The red color is oxidized salt.
7. The katzenklavier is an instrument made of cats. Designed by 17th-century German scholar Athanasius Kircher, it consisted of a row of caged cats with different voice pitches, who could be "played" by a keyboardist driving nails into their tails.
8. The Romans used to clean and whiten their teeth with urine. This works, but should not be practiced nowadays. :)
9. There is a single mega colony of ants that spans three continents - Europe, US, and Japan. Yes - it's all one colony.
10. Placing your hands in ice cold water and flexing them can instantly relieve a headache.
So that wasn't made up for The Last Jedi! The more you know...
Adding onto this: When something travels faster than light in a polarizable medium, it releases Cherenkov Radiation. This helped give rise to the depiction of radiation something that glows, even though it's normally invisible. In certain Nuclear Reactors and a few other places, Cherenkov radiation has a blue glow.
I don't think I'd call it a single colony if it's separated by the ocean. Could you link an article on this?
I'm pretty doubtful of this one.
>using your urine to clean your teeth
They, along with the Greeks before them and the Persians, also used asbestos for things like towels, napkins and even head scarfs and clothing because it could be cleaned by tossing it into a fire (easier and more "pure"). Respiratory trouble was notably more common among the nobility and their households. These two facts are not unrelated.
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So very sorry for the super-late reply! The ant colony is actually listed in the Guinness World Records.
As far as the ice thing, it's probably more of distracting your brain from the pain than an actual relief method. :P