I'm a know-it-all. Not the fancy kind who knows everything about everything. Not the annoying kind either, who rubs it in everyone's face. I'm the weird kind of know-it-all. The kind who knows that the sun is actually white, but for our eyes to comprehend patterns and details, scientists process the light in the deep space photos so it appears more orange. The kind who knows that approximately 40,000 Americans each year find themselves injured by their toilets. The kind of facts that make you go "and why do I need to know this?" So here's a fun idea; give me any subject you can think of (except for specific people unless they're very famous figures) and I'll tell you the most interesting fact I know about it. We'll see how much I manage to come up with before I fall flat and look stupid.
Did you know that, when they take photos for ice cream ads and marketing material, the photographers usually use mashed potatoes and food coloring for the photos? It looks identical, but the potatoes don't melt after hours of shooting under a hot lamp.
Did you know that Matt and Trey decided right from the very beginning that there would be an alien hidden in every single episode? And that to this day, there still is.
I'm just gonna leave this photo here, of a ceramic rabbit riding the shell of a ceramic turtle teapot.
Did you know that up until 2013, so just three years ago, physicists actually had no clue why teapots and kettles actually work. It didn't seem to make physical sense. Teapots were literally ahead of their time, and we've had them for over 5,000 years in one way or another. (Though only 400 years in the west). Think about that the next time you take your mug of Earl Grey for granted.
Bananas are actually radioactive. They contain potassium, of which about 0.001% are radioactive isotopes. That means that any banana contains about 0.1 micro sieverts. If you eat 70,000 bananas, you will receive the same amount of radiation as you do from a CT scan.
Lemons actually used to be so rare in the old world, that kings would gift them to one another to show a sign of riches and goodwill. Chocolate shares a number of qualities with drugs like cocaine, amphetamines and opium; in that it has a lot of ingredients that can make it very addictive. In fact, there are people in the world RIGHT NOW, being treated for chocolate addiction. It is estimated that we have only ever seen less than 10% of the art that would otherwise be priceless and famous today. When the Library of Alexandria was burned - most likely during the Muslim Conquest of Egypt around the year 640 - we lost over 90% of the world's saved art and literature. And that was back when books were written, painstakingly, by hand. Most of the lost works of art were never copied or recovered.
