The Great Fire of London (1666): Strange Facts Behind the Famous Disaster
The Great Fire of London wasn’t just a disaster—it was full of odd decisions and strange moments. Here are the quirkiest facts from 1666.
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With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?
Read more: With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?“He has no enemies, but he is intensely disliked by his friends.” — Oscar Wilde
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How To Learn To Like Someone
Read more: How To Learn To Like SomeoneMark Twain summed up his disdain for one woman when he said, “I could never learn to like her except on a raft at sea with no other provisions in sight.”
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Mouth-watering Aquatics
Read more: Mouth-watering AquaticsIn your lifetime you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. An average human produces between 1 to 2 liters of saliva each day, which is a maximum of 730 liters per year. The average life expectancy is just over 70 years, which gives a maximum of 51,100 liters of saliva produced in…
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How Thor Bjørklund Revolutionized Kitchens with the Cheese Slicer
Read more: How Thor Bjørklund Revolutionized Kitchens with the Cheese SlicerIn what was surely one of the most important leaps forward in human technological advancement, Thor Bjørklund of Norway invented the cheese slicer in 1925.
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Lanjaron, Spain: Where Dying is Illegal
Read more: Lanjaron, Spain: Where Dying is IllegalTo address cemetery overcrowding, Lanjaron’s mayor declared dying illegal, urging residents to prioritize health until more burial land is acquired. This unusual edict was inspired by a similar initiative in a Norwegian town.
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Elves Have Rights, Too — At Least in Iceland
Read more: Elves Have Rights, Too — At Least in IcelandWe are used to seeing public works projects halted or delayed out of concern for an endangered species or because of other environmental issues. The government of Iceland took this concept one step further when, in 2013, a judge halted the construction of a road out of concern about the environmental and cultural impact of…
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No Chasing Z’s on the Cheddar!
Read more: No Chasing Z’s on the Cheddar!Under Illinois law (410 ILCS 650/9) it is illegal to take a nap in a cheese factory.
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To Battle… By Car?
Read more: To Battle… By Car?In the movie Braveheart, Sir William Wallace gives a stirring speech at the beginning of the battle of Stirling Bridge that motivates the Scots to fight to victory. Perhaps they were so overcome with patriotic enthusiasm that they failed to notice the white van in the background (pictured above in the lower, left corner) —…
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Now Hear This…. Loudest Sounds In History
Read more: Now Hear This…. Loudest Sounds In HistoryAll of us think the loudest sound in the world is the phone that rings in the middle of the night or the dreadful music the neighbor kid blares on his car radio, but there are some sounds that drown out even those painful interruptions. Human speech is typically at the level of 25-35 decibels.…
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Two-Wheeled Commute
Read more: Two-Wheeled CommuteIf you are traveling in Tokyo, Japan, and the trip is for fifty minutes or less, a bicycle is, on average, faster than an automobile. source
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If He Doesn’t Get the World Record For Most Lawsuits, He’ll Probably Sue
Read more: If He Doesn’t Get the World Record For Most Lawsuits, He’ll Probably SueIn 2014 the total number of lawsuits filed in the US District Court of Arizona was 3,772. One person was responsible for 79.4% of them. Dale Maisano is serving a 15-year prison sentence for aggravated assault. He has been flooding the US District court with lawsuits to the astonishing tune of 2,995 separate cases in…
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English: No Suspicious Alien Activity Here! Welsh: Oes estron weithgaredd amheus yma! Klingon: pagh pIH nov activity naDev!
Read more: English: No Suspicious Alien Activity Here! Welsh: Oes estron weithgaredd amheus yma! Klingon: pagh pIH nov activity naDev!When Welsh Assembly Member Darren Millar asked Economy Minister Edwina Hart about unidentified flying objects, he got a surprising answer. The official response from the Welsh Government was, “jang vIDa je due luq. ‘ach ghotvam’e’ QI’yaH-devolved qaS,” which, in the language of the Klingon Empire, translates as “The minister will reply in due course, however…
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The Fabled Bridge of Doggie Suicides
Read more: The Fabled Bridge of Doggie SuicidesFor as far back as the 1950’s, Overtoun Bridge in Dunbartonshire, Scotland has developed a reputation for luring dogs to their death. At the astonishing rate of as much as one per month, dogs have been leaping off the bridge, falling 50 feet to the waterfalls below, to their deaths. While a few of the…
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The Bristlecone Pine That Is Older Than Methuselah
Read more: The Bristlecone Pine That Is Older Than MethuselahLearn about the bristlecone pine that is the oldest living thing on earth.
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Shipwrecking A Widely-Held Belief
Read more: Shipwrecking A Widely-Held BeliefContrary to popular belief, ship captains do not have the authority to solemnize marriage. The belief persists so widely, however, that both the US Navy and British Mercantile Marine Office have adopted regulations that specifically prohibit captains from performing weddings. (see, for example, 32 CFR 700.716). source
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A Buttload is an Actual Unit of MeasurementFebruary 5, 2020
