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21Instead of saying "cheese" before taking a picture, Victorians said "prunes."Man taking photo with vintage cameraShutt...
17/08/2022

21Instead of saying "cheese" before taking a picture, Victorians said "prunes."
Man taking photo with vintage camera
Shutterstock
We say "cheese" because the word leaves us with a big smile on our faces, but if Victorian-era folk were to see our gleeful expressions, they'd scoff. Once upon a time, smiling in photos was considered undignified and reserved for the poor and the drunk. To retain a more serious look in their photos, they would say "prunes," a word so dull, the chances of it inciting a smile were slim to none.

22Roosters have built-in earplugs.
Rooster at sunrise
Shutterstock
Considering a rooster's call can reach 140 decibels or louder, it might leave one to wonder how the rooster itself keeps from going deaf when that noise is coming right out of its beak. It turns out, the farm fowl have built-in earplugs. Researchers found that when a rooster opens its beak to crow, its external auditory canals close off, preventing sound from coming in and doing any damage.

23The Netherlands is so safe, it imports criminals to fill jails.
The bars of a jail cell
Shutterstock
The Netherlands has enjoyed a steady drop in crime since 2004, and has become so safe that it's closed down one jail after another—23 prisons shut their doors since 2014. To help mitigate the job losses that this has created, the country has taken to importing prisoners from other countries, bringing 242 inmates from Norway in 2015.

24One journal published a fake paper about Star Trek.
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek
CBS Television Distribution
To help expose how easily false or flawed research could make its way into supposedly peer-reviewed journals, an anonymous biologist managed to get a paper about one of Star Trek's most infamously silly elements accepted by four journals and published in the American Research Journal of Biosciences. The biologist explained that he did so "to expose predatory journals that claim to offer peer-reviewed open-access publications but will publish anything for a fee."

10David Bowie helped topple the Berlin Wall.nRuins of Berlin WallAlberto Loyo/ShutterstockWhile David Bowie's trio of al...
14/08/2022

10David Bowie helped topple the Berlin Wall.
n

Ruins of Berlin Wall
Alberto Loyo/Shutterstock
While David Bowie's trio of albums recorded in Berlin are considered among his best work, it's not the only legacy he has in the German city. In 1987, his performance of "Heroes" in front of the Reichstag as part of the Concert for Berlin, was loud enough and close enough to the wall to be heard in East Berlin (where such music was forbidden). It sparked a police crackdown, and, according to The Guardian, "Many of the eyewitnesses claim that the violent police crackdown on the third night of the concerts… were crucial in changing the mood against the state."

11Cherophobia is the word for the irrational fear of being happy.
Woman holding a smile face against a pink background
Shutterstock
No, it's not the fear of Cher, as the name might lead you to believe. It comes from the Greek word "chero," which means "to rejoice." People who suffer from cherophobia are often afraid, cripplingly so, of doing anything that might lead to happiness. This includes participating in fun activities and rejecting opportunities that may lead to positive outcomes.

12You can hear a blue whale's heartbeat from two miles away.
Whale underwater
Shutterstock
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, weighing up to 150 tons and measuring up to 90 feet long. Naturally, an animal this massive would have an equally huge heart. Roughly the size of a small car, the blue whale's heart weighs about 1,300 pounds. To move blood through its colossal body and arteries, its heart beats so powerfully, you can hear it from two miles away. You just might miss it, though, as its heart only beats eight to 10 times per minute.

13Nearly 30,000 rubber ducks were lost at sea in 1992 and are still being discovered today.
Rubber ducks floating in water
Shutterstock
Over 25 years ago, a cargo ship traveling from Hong Kong to the United States accidentally lost a shipping crate in the Pacific Ocean. Inside that crate were 28,000 rubber ducks unwittingly about to embark on many long journeys across the globe. As rubber ducks continue to pop up on shores from Australia to Alaska, they've enlightened our understanding of ocean currents. Some have made it all the way to the Atlantic Ocean while others have been found frozen in Arctic ice.

36Sears used to sell houses.Exterior of Sears storeShutterstockBefore every city had a Walmart, most Americans got their...
14/08/2022

36Sears used to sell houses.
Exterior of Sears store
Shutterstock
Before every city had a Walmart, most Americans got their stuff from mail-order catalogs, such as Sears. Among its many, many offerings were so-called "kit houses," or entire homes that were shipped on a train. You had to assemble the house yourself using the 75-page instruction book. It was like Ikea on steroids.

37There's an encrypted monument outside the CIA.
Kryptos sculpture outside CIA building
Carol Highsmith via Library of Congress
A sculpture outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, fittingly includes un-cracked codes. Created by artist Jim Sanborn, the Kryptos sculpture features four inscriptions, three of which have been cracked, but the forth is still a mystery. (Though in 2010 the artist offered one clue: The letters NYPVTT are an encryption of the word BERLIN.)

38Manhattan tap water isn't kosher.
Kitchen sink
Shutterstock
Tiny crustaceans have been detected in the tap water of New York City, and while these creatures pose no health threat, they technically disqualify the water from being considered kosher.

39Timothy Leary busted out of prison.
Timothy Leary
Shutterstock
That may be a dramatic way of putting it. In fact, the psychedelics advocate, serving a sentence for ma*****na possession, simply walked away from the minimum security prison in which he'd been placed in September 1970 by changing out of his prison uniform at a nearby gas station.

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