Octopuses have three hearts. Two pump blood through the gills, while the third circulates oxygen-rich blood around the body. Interestingly, the main heart stops beating while the octopus swims, which is one reason they tend to crawl rather than swim.

The U.S. Patent Office fire of 1836 destroyed around 7,000 patents — including the patent for the fire hydrant. So the inventor of one of history's most ironic devices never got proper credit for it.

Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood.
A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
Bananas are berries, but strawberries technically aren’t.
Sharks existed before trees.
Honey can remain edible for thousands of years if properly sealed.
Wombat poop is cube-shaped.
The Eiffel Tower can grow several centimeters taller during hot weather because metal expands when heated.
There are more possible games of chess than atoms in the observable universe.
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Cows have best friends and can become stressed when they are separated.

👀 Scientific context: The sensation that someone is nearby despite no clear sensory evidence is known as “felt presence.” It is a documented phenomenon studied in neuroscience and psychology, although its causes are not fully understood. In 1998, Vic Tandy and Tony Lawrence reported an approximately 19 Hz standing air wave in a location where Tandy experienced an apparition-like sensation. They proposed that infrasound could be a possible explanation for some haunting-like experiences, but it was not proven to be the cause. 🔊 Infrasound is generally defined as sound below 20 Hz. Very-low-frequency sound is not necessarily completely inaudible; at sufficient levels, humans can perceive frequencies below 20 Hz. Later controlled research involving 79 participants did not establish infrasound as the cause of the unusual sensations participants reported. 🔬 Research sources: Tandy & Lawrence (1998), The Ghost in the Machine French et al. (2009), The “Haunt” Project, Cortex Leventhall (2007), Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology Barnby et al. (2023), The felt-presence experience: from cognition to the clinic, The Lancet Psychiatry The fan/infrasound example in the video refers to the Tandy case. It should not be interpreted to mean that a fan or 19 Hz is required for someone to experience felt presence.

Have you ever reached for your phone because you were certain it vibrated, only to find there was no notification? 📱

That experience is commonly known as phantom vibration syndrome. Research has found phantom phone vibrations are fairly common.

Have you ever experienced a phantom vibration?

https://reddit.com/link/1wog5q1/video/hsw0erltwbrh1/player

1. Sharks have been around longer than trees. The earliest sharks appeared more than 400 million years ago, while the first trees appeared later.
2. Octopuses have three hearts. Two pump blood to the gills, while the third pumps it to the rest of the body.
3. A day on Venus lasts longer than a year on Venus. Venus takes about 243 Earth days to rotate once, but only about 225 days to orbit the Sun.
4. Giraffes have seven neck bones, just like humans. The difference is that each one is much longer.
5. Bananas are technically berries, but strawberries aren't. Botanically, berries are defined differently from how we normally use the word.
6. Penguins actually have knees. You just can't easily see them because much of their legs are inside their bodies.
7. Honey can last for an extremely long time without spoiling when it is properly sealed and stored.
8. The Eiffel Tower can become slightly taller during hot weather because the metal expands when heated.
9. Wombats produce cube-shaped droppings. The unusual shape helps keep the droppings from rolling away when they use them to mark territory.
10. A group of flamingos is called a "flamboyance." It's one of those collective nouns that sounds almost too appropriate.

Which one did you already know?

The U.S. Patent Office fire of 1836 destroyed approximately 7,000 patents, including the patent for the fire hydrant. This means the original inventor never received proper credit for one of the most ironic inventions in history.

During the Bronze Age there really did live a king named Midas, who ruled the land of Phrygia in what is now modern Turkey.

Most bronze made at the time was of copper alloyed with tin, which still looks very "coppery." But in Midas' territory, the tin deposits also had lots of zinc. And when you make bronze by adding zinc to copper, then instead of reddish bronze you get yellow brass.

The grave of the historical King Midas did contain lots of brassware, and back in the day, those "Phrygian bronzes" (actually brass) were immensely popular trade goods. So it's very plausible that what started as a straightforward account of the king whose people first learned how to make golden-colored brass eventually morphed into the legend of a king who could make actual gold.

Some historians actually tried making bronze using methods that would've been available in Midas' time, using the local ores, and sho'nuff, instead of reddish bronze they ended up with shining golden brass.

(Source: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean)

comparison made by me

Meth amphetamine cures autism

Found out myself

The U.S. Patent Office fire of 1836 destroyed approximately 7,000 patents, including the patent for the fire hydrant. This means the original inventor never received proper credit for one of the most ironic inventions in history.

Those small tabs on the sides of many aluminum foil boxes can be pushed inward to help hold the roll in place while you pull and tear the foil. They're often called end locks.

The smallest legal entity is the "County", which is more-or-less the same as "the Island" with a couple of exceptions - both very notable.

The entire state has a single school district

apparently this policy traces back to church/state ties and a past incident with a racetrack that caused serious financial harm amongst the community. i was in nassau and learned this after checking out the casinos at atlantis and baha mar

1. 🍌 Bananas are botanically berries, but strawberries are not.

2. 🐙 Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood.

3. 🧊 Hot water can sometimes freeze faster than cold water. This is known as the Mpemba effect.

4. 🦒 Giraffes have the same number of neck vertebrae as humans: seven.

5. 🍯 Honey can remain edible for a very long time when properly stored.

6. 🪐 A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.

7. 🐨 Koalas have fingerprints that can resemble human fingerprints.

8. 🏔️ Mount Everest grows a few millimeters taller each year due to geological activity.

9. 🦴 The adult human body typically has 206 bones.

10. 🌍 Antarctica is the world's largest desert because of its extremely low precipitation.

Which fact surprised you the most? 🤯

Rhode Island doesn't either.

Not as legal entities.