Another fascinating Russian truth is that Russians learn not to grin as they get older. While many cultures consider smiling to be a sign of happiness and friendliness, Russians do not. Smiling, according to Russians, is a sign of weakness and not expressing one's actual sentiments. Russians grin when they see individuals they know and care about, but not when they see strangers, as many other cultures do. If you smile at a Russian on the street, don't expect them to reciprocate the favour; nevertheless, while driving around Russia, we noticed that many Russians smiled and waved back.

Not everyone like frightening movies, but for those who do, there are a few hypotheses as to why, with the major one involving hormones. You receive all the adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine from a fight-or-flight reaction when you watch a scary movie or go through a haunted house, but your brain knows that you're not truly in danger, so you get that natural high without the risk.

Curious about how Batman manages to achieve what he does? Do you want to know everything there is to know about the Dark Knight? The Science of Batman is a genuine subject offered at the University of Victoria in Canada. "The great range of flexibility of the human body explored via the life of the Caped Crusader," according to the course description.

The United States government physically poisoned booze during Prohibition. When individuals continued to drink alcohol despite its prohibition, law enforcement authorities were dissatisfied and decided to try a different form of deterrent—death. They directed the poisoning of industrial alcohols made in the United States, which were frequently stolen by bootleggers. The federal poisoning operation is estimated to have killed at least 10,000 individuals by the end of Prohibition in 1933.

Queen Elizabeth I used to use ceruse, a combination of white lead and vinegar, to paint her face. Despite how appealing these two components appear, you'll be surprised to learn that they are incredibly corrosive and ageing. "Those ladies that use it on their faces, do rapidly become withered and grey haired, for this doth so terribly dry up the naturall moisture of their flesh," one of her contemporaries observed of women who used ceruse. That sounds like a fantastic concept!

Seattle residents Peter Cicero and Richard Sclafani are credited with inventing the number-themed eyeglasses that are now seen at New Year's Eve parties around the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, their first set, which read "1991," sold 500 pairs. The following year, approximately 3000 sets were purchased.

This occurred while he was shooting "127 Hours." According to legend, Franco enrolled in an NYU acting class where the teacher gave him a "D." He was working 127 hours at the time. Another aspect of this incident is that the professor was eventually sacked for assigning a "D" grade to Franco's paper.

Ancient Egyptians regarded cats to be sacred creatures. Most households are said to have kept a cat as a pet because they felt it would bring them good luck!

If you're using romantic whispers to impress a potential partner, make sure to speak into his or her left ear. An MITCogNet study discovered that when emotion stimuli were delivered to the left ear, recall accuracy was more than 6% higher than when the same stimuli were delivered to the right ear.

During the first year of being in a romance, a protein in our cells called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) that is vital for the functions of particular sympathetic and sensory nerve cells, appears to thrive. During youthful love, our senses are heightened, and our fight or flight reaction system is activated.

Despite having one of Europe's oldest histories, Italy has only been a country since 1861. Italy was a unified entity throughout the Roman era. It was thereafter separated into independent states, which it remained until 1861. Because of this lengthy history of individualism, the country now has such a diverse spectrum of cultural variants.

This curiosity has a social explanation rather than a scientific one. For centuries, society and the media have pushed women to hold themselves to a certain standard, whether it's small feet or a perky behind, and the majority of women have chosen stylish presentation over comfort.

We frequently predict how we will react to a future event, only to find out that we reacted completely differently than we anticipated. We put our faith in the ability of a single event to change everything, but we frequently discover that it has little effect on how we feel.

Do you consider all of your decisions, weighing all of your options and calculating the impact of each outcome? You may believe you are, but you are incorrect. The majority of your decisions are made subconsciously because your conscious mind would be overwhelmed with information and you would likely become mentally frozen. This is because your brain receives over 11 million bits of information every second, and there simply isn't enough "brainpower" to process it all consciously.

Though concluding definitively that colour affects a person's psyche has proven difficult, there have been a plethora of studies — some official, some not so official — that have come close. These investigations date back to the 1930s, when neurologist Kurt Goldstein began experimenting with colour and appearance. Goldstein discovered, for example, that people automatically assume red objects are heavier, while green objects are lighter.

When it comes to the content of their dreams, researchers discovered some differences between men and women. In several studies, men reported dreaming about weapons significantly more frequently than women, while women dreamed about clothing references more frequently than men. Women have slightly longer dreams with more characters than men. When it comes to the characters that appear in dreams, men dream about other men twice as often as women, while women dream about both sexes equally.

The Salem witch trials took place between February 1692 and May 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts. Nearly 200 individuals, including the destitute, the elderly, and a four-year-old kid, were accused of witchcraft. The vast majority were imprisoned, and some were executed by hanging. However, none of these people were ever burned alive.

Austrians celebrated their victory over Hungary during the 1848 revolution by clinking their drinks during a toast. Since then, Hungarians have avoided clinking their glasses while toasting since it reminds them of their loss. Instead, if you're drinking a beer in Hungary, say "Egészségedre" while looking your drinking companions in the eyes.

The notion that Einstein struggled at school is a fiction. A pre-teen Einstein would study mathematics and physics for fun over the summers, finally mastering differential and integral calculus by the age of 15. But it doesn't mean he was a model student. Einstein despised rote learning and refused to study things that bore him. As a result, when the stubborn number-lover took the polytechnic school admission exam in Zurich, he flunked the language, zoology, and botany parts.

According to University of California researchers, we spend 30% of our time daydreaming every day. This proportion can go as high as 70% at times (for example, during long travels), but there's nothing wrong with it. According to studies, those who enjoy floating in the clouds are more creative. They're also superior at problem-solving and stress relief.

In terms of the most educated population, Ukraine ranks fourth in the world. 99.4% of Ukrainians aged 15 and up can read and write. 70% of adult Ukrainians have a secondary or higher level of education. Even Ukraine's current heavyweight champions, Vitali and Wladimir, have doctorates.

In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IV waged war against cats. He said that black cats were Satan's tools. He commanded the annihilation of these felines throughout Europe as a result of this notion. This strategy, however, backfired, resulting in a rise in the number of plague-carrying rats.

Stubbs, an orange cat, was named honorary mayor of the Alaskan town of Talkeetna in 1997. With a population of 772 in 2000, it would not have taken many votes to win the position (and the small town didn't have a real, human mayor anyway), but Stubbs proved adept at the role, gaining fans from all over the world and "serving" in the position for years, greeting tourists and becoming a beloved symbol of the town until his death in 2017.

Italy was a dictatorship until 1945, while having a royal dynasty until 1946. Following WWII, the country decided to become a republic, and King Umberto II governed briefly from May 9 to June 12, 1946. He spent the rest of his days in exile in Portugal. In Italy, he is regarded as "the May King," a reference to his exceptionally brief rule.