Chances are good that you know that the Starbucks logo is a mermaid, even if you never buy coffee there. The mermaid, though, is actually a siren. Before 1987, it was super controversial, because the siren was naked and had exposed nipples. In 1992, they changed it to be a little more covered up.

Take speed-reading classes if you enjoy reading and are concerned about your vision. It has been found that this ability aids in the preservation of the vision and even doubles your recall speed. It is a win-win situation!

The greenish-brown dots next to the antennae are lobsters' antennal glands, and it's common practice for them to urinate at one another during conflict or courtship. A male enters a pheromonal state of calm when the female, who initiates contact, repeatedly urinates in his shelter.

Without a single piece of wreckage being found, the riddles of what happened to almost a hundred distinct planes remain a mystery to this day. Nobody knows where they went or what happened to the planes that vanished.

Throughout their lives, clownfish experience what it's like to be each gender. They are all born male, but some of them mature into girls (a process known as sequential hermaphroditism). Both are born with both male and female parts, and some males become alpha females if alpha females die.

The Wankaner House, which covers 10,000 square yards, was erected in the 1930s. It was sold to the American government in 1957 for Rs. 18 crores ($ 4 million) since the royal family could not afford to maintain such a large property and there was a large tax owed. Another building owned by the Wanaker royals was the Amar Building on Firozsha Mehta Road in Bombay. It was sold to the government of India for Rs. 19 crores ($4.2 million) and presently houses the Reserve Bank of India's foreign currency department.

Ashwagandha has been utilised in Ayurvedic medicine for about 3000 years. Isn't that a really lengthy amount of time? According to claims, it was used to treat a variety of health problems and diseases, including stress, insomnia, arthritis, snake bites, constipation and other gastrointestinal difficulties, fever, memory loss, and infertility. It's a diuretic, an aphrodisiac, and a Rasayana - a treatment that boosts vigour and health. It is still used to relieve tension in India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

Toby Gard hacked together Lara Croft Manor, one of the most iconic locations in the original Tomb Raider, in a weekend, and it was based on the actual building Core Design was headquartered in. Yes, even indie video game developers can stay in castles in England.

Contrary to popular belief, the last Egyptian queen was not born in Egypt. According to historians, Cleopatra VII (her official name) was Greek. She was a descendant of Ptolemy, Alexander the Great's Macedonian general.

Shinto gods range from ancestors of the family, the locality, persons who died tragically or accomplished great things for the world, ancient gods from ancient books, nature itself, the weather, topography, and so on. Shintoism has so many gods that there is a term in Japanese called "Yaoyorozu no Kami." Yaoyorozu translates to "eight million."

You’ve heard of monkeys and dogs in space, but did you know that a cat braved the great unknown too? On October 18th, 1963 Felicette, also known as ‘Astrocat’ was the first and only cat to go to space.

Unlike the majority of other whales, belugas can swim backwards as well as forward.

By the late nineteenth century, lipstick had grown in favor as all the beautiful and stylish Victorian-era girls began to wear it. The first commercially successful lipstick made from grapefruit and butter was produced by the French cosmetic firm 'Guerlain' in the 1880s. Thank god for ingredients that don't make you puke. While lipstick began to appear in department shops, applying lipstick was still considered an extremely intimate process. In the 1800s, actress Sarah Bernhardt provoked a tremendous incident merely by wearing lipstick in public. That may sound incredibly typical to us moderns. It would have been some extremely hot gas if you were an 1800s person.

Wayanad is Kerala's sole district that shares boundaries with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As a result, visitors from these states frequently visit.

Tianna Marsh's year was manufactured by a BMW dealership in New Zealand. The BMW Newmarket dealership advertised in the New Zealand Herald, claiming "April Fools' Day Promotion - Bring your automobile and this voucher to the BMW Newmarket shop this morning, ask for Tom, and we'll trade your old car, whatever it is, for a fresh new BMW." Although it was mostly dismissed as a hoax, Marsh and her buddy went to the dealership expecting to be offered a toy vehicle in return for her old Nissan. Instead, she abandoned her 15-year-old Nissan Avenir and sped away in a brand-new BMW 1 Series.

Passport has been around for quite some time! In fact, it is mentioned in the Bible for the first time. It is found in The Book of Nehemiah, an Old Testament tome. Around 450BC, Nehemiah, an official in the service of King Artaxerxes I, the sixth King of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, granted passage to Judea via a royal missive addressed "to the governors of the province beyond the river." The permission to freely circulate, granted in response to the royal request, is the beginning of what will formally become the passport, this laissez-passer that we know today.

Nepal has broken records for its enchanting natural beauty, housing the world's deepest lake, Shey Phoksundo; the tallest grassland, Chitwan; the deepest gorge, Kali Gandaki Gorge; and harboring the highest altitude lake, Lake Tilicho. Arun Valley, the world's highest valley, is also in Nepal. It is the only country with such a wide range of altitudes, ranging from 59 meters to 8,848 meters. If you visit Nepal, your social media posts will be filled with pictures of these ultimate destinations.

It's not cool to blow out a candle since soot and smoke are produced. Additionally, you run the risk of releasing hot wax droplets into the neighborhood.

It may appear obvious because many of us are familiar with witchcraft through films such as The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, and others. However, in real life, witchcraft has a very negative connotation, so much so that witches were sentenced to death in order to cleanse society. However, white magic practitioners have existed throughout history. Witchcraft is not the same as black magic. It is an umbrella term for both white and black magic.

An adult rattlesnake typically passes two weeks or so without eating because they only eat when they are hungry. The precise length of time depends on how much they ate for their last meal. Rattlesnakes mainly prey on mice, rats, squirrels, and rabbits, but if they can capture them, they will also consume birds. Young rattlesnakes typically consume more food, up to once a week.

Several famous couples have won Oscars, but only one Hollywood family can claim to be truly Oscar-winning - The Minelli's. Liza Minelli, daughter of Vincente Minnelli (who won Best Director in 1959 for Gigi) and Judy Garland (who received a miniature Juvenile Award in 1940), won Best Actress for Cabaret in 1973.

Spiders come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each with their own distinct appearance and characteristics. There are currently over 35,000 different species of spider known. Some scientists, however, believe that there is much more to be discovered.

The employee said black aprons are reserved for "coffee masters." Starbucks baristas have to become certified coffee masters to wear black aprons. Once they're approved by a manager, they have to learn basically everything there is to know about coffee before they can officially call themselves a coffee master. So, if you have a question about something specific, look for a barista in a black apron. 

I thought it was only available in South Africa. Think again. Particularly Namibia has a sizable population of Afrikaans speakers, which is a neighbour of South Africa. Argentina, more specifically Patagonia, where a tiny community of Afrikaans-speaking farmers live, is unquestionably the most intriguing region. They are descended from an Afrikaner migration to South America that took place between 1903 and 1909, following the Anglo-Boer War, and involved roughly 800 people. Amazingly, the language has persisted among a select few of them up until this point.