5 things you didn't know...

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things you didn't know about South Korea

1. In Canada, many people believe the number 13 is unlucky. But in South Korea, it's the number four that's considered to be bad luck. As for why it's thought to be unlucky? That's probably because the Korean word for "four" sounds a lot like the Korean word for "died." In a lot of elevators, they will use the letter "F" instead of the number four.

2. K-pop is a super popular music genre in South Korea. Its name is short for Korean Pop. The music is a combination of hip-hop, pop, rock and R&B. Thanks to the internet, K-pop is now a big hit with music fans all around the world — even with those who don't understand the lyrics!

3. South Korea is home to some of largest shopping malls in world. And customers can do some serious shopping, since many malls stay open until the wee hours of the morning — that can mean until 4 or 5 a.m.!

4. South Koreans use an alphabet called Hangul for writing. It was created in the 15th century and consists of 19 consonants and 21 vowels. Instead of being written in a row, like the letter you use in English to form words, Hangul letters are grouped into blocks of syllables. So, when you see a letter like this — 한 — it's actually a block of letters.

5. Kite flying is a popular pastime in South Korea. During the Lunar New Year, kite-fliers cut the strings on their kites so that they soar away. It’s believed that when the kites drift off in the wind, all bad luck floats away with them.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 "interesting" facts about... LADYD GAGA:

1. Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.
   
2. She is 34 years old and was born on 28th March 1986.
   
3. In 2010, Lady Gaga was ranked as the second most powerful musician in the world.
   
4. Gaga appeared on a 2008 episode of The Hills.
   
5. The “Lady” part of Gaga was actually a texting error – Rob Fusari typed “Radio Ga Ga” in a text and it autocorrected “Radio” to “Lady”. She texted him back saying, “That’s it. Don’t ever call me Stefani again“.

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things you didn't know about Metal

1. No one knows the name or current whereabouts of the mysterious woman seen on the cover of Black Sabbath's debut album. She has literally vanished from public record.

2. While serving time for petty theft as a teenager, Ozzy Osbourne used a piece of graphite to tattoo the letters O-Z-Z-Y across his knuckles.

3. Iron Maiden cover artist Derek Riggs inserted secret messages in his detailed 'Powerslave' artwork, including Mickey Mouse and silly phrases like "Bollocks" and "Indiana Jones was here."

4. The title track of Megadeth's 'Countdown to Extinction' album was awarded the Humane Society's Genesis Award in 1993 for raising awareness about animal rights.

5. When Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister tried to follow Keith Richards' lead and get his blood changed, the doctors refused. They said Lemmy's blood was so toxic with drugs that normal blood would probably kill him.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 interesting facts about... EARTH:

1. The Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing.
   This deceleration is happening almost imperceptibly, at approximately 17 milliseconds per hundred years,
   
2. Earth is the only planet not named after a god.
   The other seven planets in our solar system are all named after Roman gods or goddesses.
   
3. The Earth was once believed to be the centre of the universe.
   Due to the apparent movements of the Sun and planets in relation to their viewpoint, ancient scientists insisted that the Earth remained static
   
4. There is only one natural satellite of the planet Earth.
   As a percentage of the size of the body it orbits, the Moon is the largest satellite of any planet in our solar system.
   
5. Earth has a powerful magnetic field.
   This phenomenon is caused by the nickel-iron core of the planet, coupled with its rapid rotation. This field protects the Earth from the effects of solar wind.

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things You Didn't Know About Darth Vader

1. He Wanted Master Rank to Save Padme
Anakin is haunted by visions of Padme dying in childbirth, and he's desperately looking for a solution. Within the Jedi Archives lie a number of ancient holocrons about hidden Force techniques, some of which Anakin believes may help him save his wife. When he first learns that Palpatine has elected him to the Council, he's elated, believing he's found a chance to save Padme, only to have his hope shattered when the Council informs him he's not receiving the expected status. This provides a superior motive that turns Anakin's outrage from childish complaint to sympathetic frustration.

2. He Was Surprisingly Loyal To Darth Sidious
Darth Vader is far from stupid. By the end of Episode 3, he realizes how Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) has manipulated him with unfulfilled promises; Padme ended up dying despite Sidious's claims. Still, while Vader and Sidious would carry a strained relationship in the following years, Vader was surprisingly loyal to Sidious, neglecting to take several chances to kill his master. He sticks with him because he's got no one else; the Emperor is sadly the closest thing to a friend Vader has remaining.

3. Darth Plagueis Is Vader's "Father"
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, where Anakin's mother, Shmi Skywalker, informs Qui-Gon how she miraculously carried Anakin without a father. Creating life isn't too far a stretch from unnaturally maintaining it, leading many fans to speculate Darth Plagueis (who was as much scientist as Sith), whether inadvertently or purposefully, had directed Anakin's birth through his experiments. Although now part of the legends timeline, the 2012 Darth Plagueis novel confirmed this, revealing Anakin was an accidental result of Plagueis's research. This novel isn't canon, but the 2015 Tarkin novel is, which used many elements of Plagueis's story, so regardless of which continuity you're exploring, you could definitely call Plagueis Anakin's "father".

4. He Rarely Uses Force Lightning to Avoid Ruining His Armor
Expanded Universe stories reveal Vader actually does know Force Lightning, but he wisely avoids using it to prevent short-circuiting the life support systems in his armor. Vader's black suit offers a degree of protection, physical enhancement, and oxygen, but it's vulnerable to electric blasts or sufficient force, a weakness that's hindered the Sith in battle more than once. Besides, Vader has enough proficiency with Force Push, Force Choke, and Saber Throw to round out his ranged arsenal without needing the move, so he's not missing out on much.

5. He Once Fought Boba Fett
Although the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunter was a frequent client of Darth Vader, and the two shared a generally positive relationship, in the legends comic Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire #4, the pair enter an interesting battle. Fett carries a chest bearing an item Vader is searching for, but isn't willing to give it up (it's part of a separate bounty contract). Fett tries to blasts Vader with a variety of projectiles but is quickly overpowered by Vader's might. He eventually manages to land a shot by tricking Vader, but the Dark Lord quickly recovers. Fett tosses the chest, prompting Vader to telekinetically secure it, which allows the Mandalorian to escape.

 

[MissMarvelous]

aka Darth Sidious

Oh, why so Sidious???

Facts about WATER:

1. The average human body is made of 50 to 65 percent water.

2. Newborn babies have even more, ringing in at 78 percent water.

3. A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds; a cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds.

4. A liter of water weighs 1 kilo; a cubic meter of water weighs 1 tonne. (The rest of the statistics are in imperial units since they are U.S.-based and so is this site; but the original metric system was created with base units that could be derived from the weight of a specified volume of pure water ... hence the nice round numbers.)

5. An inch of water covering one acre (27,154 gallons) weighs 113 tons.

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things You Didn't Know About The Soviet Union

1. The Soviet Union loved Bollywood
Bollywood offered respite from the frequent hardships of day-to-day life for many Soviet citizens, and an opportunity to escape into vibrant musical worlds filled with elaborate drama and dramatic love stories. The Soviet audience was also sympathetic to Indian partition and desire for independence from British rule. The reoccurring themes of triumph of good over evil also resonated with the crowd. So strong was the love for Indian cinema, that actor Raj Kapoor was as popular in the Soviet Union as he was in his homeland.

2. Sweden, not the USSR, was the first to acknowledge the Chernobyl disaster
In Soviet Ukraine, On April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and the result was catastrophic. Even though the explosion was on Soviet territory, the regime ignored it. Within days, the radioactive plume triggered Sweden’s radiation alarm, which forced the State to finally acknowledge the incident. Even then, the regime denied the disaster until Sweden threatened they would file an official alert with the International Atomic Energy Authority.

3. A government department was founded to study Lenin’s brain
Although the rest of the Soviet Union’s founding leader remains embalmed and on display in the mausoleum in the Red Square, his brain does not. Lenin’s brain lives in the Moscow Brain Institute, a government department that remains open today. The institute was established because scientists thought that the study of Lenin’s noggin would reveal his genius. However, the study of Lenin’s brain revealed that it is just a fairly standard brain. The institution has also studied and preserved the insides of several other people of note, such as Stalin, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and scientist Andrei Sakharov.

4. The Soviet Union was littered with secret bunkers and underground escape tunnels
The secret tunnels and bunkers that remain in Russia today serve as memorials to the paranoia of the Soviet times. In Moscow, underground tunnels led from the Kremlin to secret train stations in case of the need to flee. Stalin even had plans drawn up to create a secret, truncated metro service below the existing system. In the Volga port town of Samara, a bunker was found after the Soviet Union collapsed, despite being built in 1942. It can hold up to 115 people for up to five days before air supply runs out.

5. Mikhail Gorbachev recorded an album of romantic ballads
The last leader of the Soviet Union not only introduced perestroika and glasnost, but he released an album too. The one-off album was sold for around £100,000 ($130,000) at an auction to an unknown bidder in 2009. In memory of his wife, the sentimental former head of state called the album, Songs for Raisa, and it contains some of her favourite songs. The money the album raised went towards a charity in her name, which was set up to fight childhood cancer.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 Magical, Mind-Blowing Facts About Disneyland:

1. Disneyland was almost built in Burbank, California
   
2. Disney nicknamed the park’s opening day “Black Sunday”
   
3. Walt’s brother purchased the first Disneyland admission ticket
   
4. The most popular attraction at Disneyland, and in the entire world, is Pirates of the Caribbean
   
5. The fastest ride in the park is no roller coaster—it’s Splash Mountain

23 Magical, Mind-Blowing Facts About Disneyland

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things You Didn't Know About... Science Fiction

1. Arguably the inspiration for much science fiction traces back to classical mythology. Think of it—Earthlings abducted by beings from the sky, humans morphing into strange creatures, and events that defy the laws of nature.

2. Birth of the (un)cool: In 1926 writer Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories, the first true science-fiction magazine.

3. Gernsback loved greenbacks. He tried to trademark the term science fiction, and he paid writers so little that H. P. Lovecraft later nicknamed him “Hugo the Rat.”

4. Rat’s revenge: The most famous sci-fi writing award is called the Hugo.

5. Writers for the early pulp magazines would often write under multiple pseudonyms so they could have more than one article per issue. Ray Bradbury—taking this practice to another level—used six different pen names.

...and 5 More Things

6. Serious science-fiction heads say sci-fi carries schlocky, B-movie connotations. Many prefer the abbreviation SF.

7. Prominent physicists and space travel pioneers have (often secretly) contributed to SF lit. German rocket genius Wernher Von Braun wrote space fiction and was an adviser to sci-fi movies such as Conquest of Space.

8. During the 1960s, James Tiptree Jr. penned sci-fi classics like Houston, Houston, Do You Read? but was so secretive that people suspected he was a covert government operative.

9. At age 61, Tiptree was outed — not as a spy but as outspoken feminist Alice B. Sheldon.

10.One of the more famous works in the growing field of gay sci-fi is Judith Katz’s Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound, about a woman who bolts from her overbearing Jewish family to the mystical all-lesbian city of New Chelm.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 Fun facts about hair...

1. Next to bone marrow, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body.
   
2. Hair is like a chemistry project–here is its composition: 50 percent carbon, 21 percent oxygen, 17 percent nitrogen, 6 percent hydrogen, and 5 percent sulphur.
   
3. Hair is more elastic than you think! It can expand by up to 30% of its original length when wet.
   
4. Hair can grow just about anywhere on the body, except for the palms of your hands, the soles of your feet, and on your lips and mucous membranes.
   
5. When a hair falls out, it will usually re-grow. It can do this up to 20 times in a lifetime

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things You Didn't Know About Isaac Asimov

1. He was an exceptionally prolific writer. He wrote or edited over 500 volumes and an estimated 90,000 letters or postcards and has works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy. His personal papers archived at Boston University’s Mugar Memorial Library consume 464 boxes on 232 feet (71 meters) of shelf space.

2. Early life: Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five. His interest in science fictions magazines led him to write his own, and by his mid-teens he was selling his stories to pulp magazines. “Marooned Off Vesta” (1939) was his first published story, written when he was 18. Two and a half years later, he published his 32nd short story “Nightfall” (1941), which is considered by some as one of the most famous science fiction stories of all times. In 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted it to be the best science fiction short story ever written.

3. In his robot series “I, Robot”, he developed the “Three Laws of Robotics” - a set of rules of ethics for robots and intelligent machines that has greatly influenced the way writers and thinkers in the field look at the subject.

4. Asimov has been criticized for the lack of sex and aliens in his science fiction. He explained the reason behind his overlooking of aliens to an incident early in his career when a story of his was rejected because he portrayed aliens to be superior to humans. So rather than depicting aliens as weak, he decided to not write about them at all. In response to all these criticisms, he wrote “The Gods Themselves”, which contained aliens, sex and alien sex. He considered a part of this book to be one of the best he had written.

5. He considered the 1950s to be his “golden decade”. He wrote science fiction mostly in the first two decades and in the last decade of his life. For the rest of his life he wrote non-fiction, mostly in the area of popular science - explaining science to the common man.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 fun facts about cats:

1. The technical term for a cat’s hairball is a “bezoar.”
   
2. Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10
   
3. Approximately 24 cat skins can make a coat.
   
4. A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.
   
5. A cat’s back is extremely flexible because it has up to 53 loosely fitting vertebrae. Humans only have 3

Source: 104 Interesting and Fun Cat Facts | FactRetriever.com

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Things You Didn't Know About the Month of August

1. Sextilis was the name of the month before it was renamed in 8 BC.

2. August is named after Augustus Caesar, founder and the first emperor of the Roman Empire, who was posthumously adopted by his maternal great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar.

3. On Aug. 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Gallery and not recovered for two years.

4. Peridot, sardonyx, and spinel are the birthstones associated with the month.

5. ‘August’ is a popular baby name in Sweden.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 Totally awesome facts about TURTLES:

1. Just like your bones, a turtle’s shell is actually part of its skeleton. It’s made up of over 50 bones which include the turtle’s rib cage and spine.
   
2. Contrary to popular belief, a turtle cannot come out of its shell. The turtle’s shell grows with them, so it’s impossible for them to grow too big for it!
   
3. Turtles are ‘amniotes’ – they breathe air and lay their eggs on land, although many species live in or around water.
   
4. These cold-blooded creatures have an incredibly long life span. The oldest ever recorded, named Tu”i Malila, of Tonga Island, passed away at the grand old age of 188!
   
5. These creatures date back to the time of the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago – woah!

 

[Rozen Thorne]

Five Facts About Burritos

The word “burrito” means “little donkey” in Spanish, being the diminutive form of burro, or “donkey”. The name burrito, as applied to the dish, possibly derives from the tendency for burritos to contain a lot of different things similar to how a donkey would be able to carry a lot.

An oft-repeated piece of folk history is the story of a man named Juan Méndez who sold tacos at a street stand in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Ciudad Juárez during the Mexican Revolution period (1910–1921), while using a donkey as a transport for himself and his food. To keep the food warm, Méndez wrapped it in large homemade flour tortillas underneath a small tablecloth. As it grew in popularity, “burrito” was eventually adopted as the name for these large tacos.

In 1956, Duane R. Roberts invented the frozen burrito after success selling frozen burger patties to McDonald’s.

The origins of the Mission burrito or Mission-style burrito can be traced back to San Francisco, in the Mission District taquerías of the 1960s and 1970s- it is arguably the most popular style of burrito in the United States.

The fastest time to eat a burrito is 44.20 seconds and was achieved by Leah Shutkever in Birmingham, UK, on 1 May 2019.

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 mind-blowing facts that you didn't know:

1. Black apples exist - These are called Black Diamond apples, they're found in Tibet and are from the Hua Niu family of apples, also known as Chinese Red Delicious.
   
2. Cucamelons (or "mouse melons") look like grape-sized watermelons but have a citrus flavor.

3.Walt Disney World would fit inside Canada 81,975 times.
4. The Ethiopian calendar is seven years behind the rest of the world.
5. Incredible Hulk was originally supposed to be gray

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Medical Facts Because I'm Lazy.

Operating rooms tend to get loud.
When you've watched doctor shows on television, surgery scenes are always intense, aren't they? Doctors are painstakingly working on their patients, the room is filled with silence, except for the occasional indication that the surgeon is ready for another tool. These scenes are great for dramatic television programs, but they really don't come very close to what happens in reality. Operating rooms are generally quite loud, and surgeons are known to let their hair down, crack jokes with their teams, and even play heavy metal music. It might be a little bit shocking, but it's the truth.

Surgeons are paranoid about leaving tools behind.
If you've been contemplating a career in medicine, then your eyes are probably glued to any type of news regarding a malpractice case. You want to be sure you're not implicated in such a case, and surgeons feel the same way. How many articles have you read where pieces of gauze, scissors or other sponges get left behind inside of a patient's body after surgery? If you become a surgical technician, your job will be to make sure all of the correct tools are present, both before and after surgery. It's an important job, so don't be surprised when the surgeon you're working with asks you to count everything again and again.

Forget everything you ever learned about the human body from anatomy class.
When you look at an anatomy book, the pictures seem cut and dry. In fact, the inside of the human body looks fairly neat when you base your views off of what you see in books. The problem is that, while human anatomy books are good, the pictures aren't exactly true to form. The inside of the human body is much more complex than what you may think. Veins and arteries tend to vary as far as their location goes, and just as we all have our differences on the outside, we all have some minor differences on the inside too. Human anatomy will teach you the basics of what you need to know, but there's really nothing quite like real life experience.

The patient's stitches are vitally important.
Once you begin working with a surgeon, you may notice that he spends a significant amount of time working on his patients' internal organs, but you'll also notice that he spends almost as much time stitching up the outside of the patient once the surgery has been completed. That's because patients and their family members tend to judge the success of a surgery (at least in part) by how the stitch looks from the outside. Of course, the surgeon wants to be sure everything is done correctly, but they also want to reduce the look of any scars their patients may develop. When it comes to surgery, neatness really counts!

Most surgeons are thankful they work with people under anesthesia.
You might think that the "easier" physician positions would be seeing children in a pediatric facility or helping minor cuts, bruises, and colds at a local urgent care clinic. However, once you start talking to a few surgeons, you'll realize that's not the case at all. They generally love what they do because many of them lack the patience it takes to deal with these minor ailments. They love that they don't have to prescribe antibiotics or treat young children with strep throat all the time. Surgeons embrace what they do with all their hearts.

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 Random Things You May Have Not Known About Dublin

1. The natives speak “Dublinese”, a mix of Dublin slang and curse words like this phrase: “I’m on the lash,” which translates to “I’m out drinking!”

2. Dublin or “Dubh Linn” is an Old Irish Gaelic phrase that translates to “Black Pool”.

3. Dublin was founded by Vikings, who settled in what they called the “Norse Kingdom of Dublin” in the 9th century.

4. Dublin’s oldest known pub is the Brazen Head, established in 1198 AD as a coach house.

5. Very often described as square, the O’Connell Bridge is actually wider than it’s long. This is quite a unique fact about Dublin as it is the only bridge in Europe with this particularity.
The O’Connell Bridge is also one of Dublin’s most popular landmark. You can take it to cross the river Liffey. It marks the limit between Dublin North (working-class district) and Dublin South (wealthy part of the city).

 

[MissMarvelous]

5 Ridiculous things you didn't know...

1. A single sneeze travels 100 miles per hour and shoots 100,000 germs into the air.
   
2. You’re born with just 1 pint of blood, but by the time you’re an adult you have 4 to 5 quarts
   
3. All humans have an automatic dive reflex. When your face is submerged in cold water or when you hold your breath, your heart slows and your blood vessels narrow to conserve oxygen.
   
4. Your stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve metal.
   
5. The human body contains enough fat to make seven bars of soap

 

[Rozen Thorne]

5 More Things You Might Have Not Known About Star Trek

1. In the mid-60s, when Gene Roddenberry was trying to get Star Trek on the air, it may have been the early stages of the freaky-deeky psychedelic, free-love era, but much of America was still living under the super-conservative 1950s mindset. So it’s not too much of a surprise to know that NBC executives at first wanted to cut the Spock character from the show because he looked too Satanic, with his pointed ears and eyebrows. It was producer Oscar Katz who helped convince those execs to let the Vulcan’s freak flag fly, “evil” angular features and all, despite him saying those execs were afraid “the ‘guy with the ears’ would scare the sh*t out of every kid in America.” Still, in early publicity photos for the series, Spock just looked like another guy in a Federation shirt, albeit one with oddly high-cropped bangs – the points of his eyebrows and ears were airbrushed out.

2. It may be difficult to imagine anyone but Leonard Nimoy as the original Spock, but the original choice was Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy himself, DeForest Kelley. It certainly would’ve been a lesser world without McCoy’s hilarious jabs at Spock coming out of the mouth of Kelley, and without Spock jabbing right back with his fellow blue-shirt. Take this classic: Spock: “Random chance seems to have operated in our favor.” Bones: “In plain, non-Vulcan English, we’ve been lucky.” Spock: “I believe I have said that, Doctor.”

3. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was insistent that Spock would have pointy ears. He was an alien, after all, so he shouldn't look too human. So a number of concepts were created before the iconic, slightly curved ears were settled upon. Nimoy wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of wearing them – after all, they took about 45 minutes to apply in the early days. But a producer told him, “‘If, after episode 10 or 12, you’re still unhappy, we’ll have Bones do an ear-job operation.”

4. The now-ubiquitous Vulcan salute first appeared in the first episode of the second season of the original Star Trek series, way back in 1967 – that means it turns 50 years old next year. Made by spreading your fingers into a V, with the ring and pinky fingers together on one side and the middle and index on the other, it’s intended to be both a greeting and a gesture of farewell, sometimes accompanied by the words, "Live long and prosper." And it was created not by a writer, director, or anyone else behind the scenes. It was created by Nimoy himself, based on a gesture he learned as a child made by a Jewish Kohanim (priest) as part of a blessing. It means Almighty God. While the Vulcan salute uses just one hand, the original blessing uses both hands performing the same gesture and represents the Hebrew letter Shin. The salute, of course, became massively popular and was even done by astronauts to honor Nimoy upon his death in 2015, and President Obama gave Nimoy the salute when the two met.

5. After the first feature film, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Leonard Nimoy was done with all the hand gestures, pointy ears, neck pinches and logic. He didn’t want to play Spock anymore. If he hadn’t, Star Trek history would be vastly different. And we wouldn’t have had one of its greatest scenes: the Spock death scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). But part of the reason that scene at the end of the movie is so great is because that’s how Nimoy was convinced to come back: he was promised a super dramatic death scene. The first film was expensive to make and didn't quite make as much as anticipated, plus critics were lukewarm on it, so Khan was originally going to be the final Star Trek movie and Nimoy felt the heroic death scene, sacrificing himself for his friends and crew, would be the perfect way to go out. And it sure was. It’s a touching scene of friendship and heroism amidst all the space adventure, ranked the best scene in Star Trek history by IGN.