← FACTSlides → Random Facts Page #53

Harvard University has the largest ant collection in the world.

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According to a study, coffee improves the reaction time of older adults.

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Carrier pigeons are regularly used to smuggle drugs across borders and into prisons. A single pigeon can carry over $3000 of cocaine.

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20,000 people attended a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939.

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65,000 more eye-care professionals are needed to provide eye examinations and glasses to the 703 million people around the world who need it.

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In Japanese, "e" can be translated to "image," and "moji" can be translated to "character", so "emoji" is literally "image character."

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Unlike in the "Cool Runnings" movie, the Olympic bobsledding community welcomed the first Jamaican team and offered them guidance and spare sleds. They went on to crash in the Qualifying Round.

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Oklahoma declared watermelon a vegetable and made it their official state vegetable.

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The navy blue uniforms adopted by many police departments in the U.S. were simply surplus army uniforms from the Civil War.

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All new FBI agents are required to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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Max Planck's physics professor advised him against going into physics, saying, "in this field, almost everything is already discovered." He went on to become the initial founder of quantum theory.

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If you bought $100 worth of Bitcoin in 2010, you'd have $75 million by May, 2017.

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In 2016, the World Health Organization spent more on travel than to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

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The U.S. private prison industry makes money by contracting cheap labor to private companies such as Starbucks, Boeing, Victoria's Secret, McDonalds and even the U.S. military.

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McDonald's was suppose to revamp the Golden Arches in 1960 but a psychologist argued to keep them in the form of the "M" because it resembled breasts.

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The Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy was the largest in history, and also the most lucrative one for lawyers and consultants, who made US$1.6 billion.

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It's estimated that more than half of all people claiming a new Ph.D. in the U.S. have a fake one.

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Libya's flag from 1977 to 2011 was the only national flag in the world with just one color and no design, insignia, or other details: green.

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A bidet is considered a key green technology and uses significantly less water, electricity, and wood than a single roll of toilet paper.

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In 2016, a 10-year-old Finnish boy was given $10,000 by Facebook for finding an Instagram bug that allowed him to delete other user's comments.

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Having no friends could be as deadly as smoking, a Harvard University study suggested. There's a link between loneliness and the levels of a blood-clotting protein which can cause heart attacks and stroke.

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The first "true" alphabet appeared around the 8th century BCE, when the Ancient Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet and adapted it to their own language, giving equal status to vowels and consonants.

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In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett signed the "Giving Pledge," promising to give half of their wealth to philanthropy, either during their lifetime or upon their death. Over 150 signers have joined since.

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Millennial college students are 40% less empathetic than those of the 1980s and 1990s, a University of Michigan study found in 2010.

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The measles virus erases the immune system's memory, leaving patients vulnerable to other infectious diseases for up to 3 years afterward.

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U.S. citizens can request a copy of the file the FBI have on themselves by sending a letter.

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Iceland is the only NATO member with no standing army. Its lightly armed coast guard is in charge of defense.

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A Courthouse in Boise City, Oklahoma, was mistakenly bombed by the US Air Force during a WW2 training mission. The city preserved one unexploded bomb.

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Scotland, then called Caledonia, was one of the few countries that was able to hold off being conquered by the Romans.

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Is Islamic law, money isn't allowed to generate more money by being put into a bank account or lent to someone else. Banks make their money by sharing the risk of their investments with investors, operating on a profit-loss basis.

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