In the United Arab Emirates, the week begins on a Sunday! Sunday in the UAE is just like any other day, with children going to school and adults going to work. Weekends are Friday and Saturday for them. Because Friday is a special religious day in Islam for afternoon prayers, many Middle Eastern countries follow this timetable.
Santa Claus parades are held in a variety of places, and each one is unique in its own way. The parade in Peoria, Illinois, on the other hand, is the oldest of its sort in the United States. It's been going on every Christmas season since 1888—that's well over a century of festive pleasure!
The world we "see" is a figment of our imagination. Our minds do not generate images in the same way that a video camera does. Instead, the brain builds a model of the world using data from modules that measure light and shade, edges, curvature, and so on. This allows the brain to easily paint out the blind spot, which is the area of your retina where the optic nerve connects and has no sensors. It also compensates for our eyes' rapid, jerky movements, known as saccades, creating the illusion of steady vision.
The Nazis pondered releasing an army of potato bugs on their adversaries, which they felt might be dumped on England to ruin its crops and bring severe starvation. However, experts recognised that almost 40 million insects would be required for the operation if it was to be successful—though several million had been hoarded by the time the war ended.
During the feudal period, rich Japanese lords constructed residences with purposefully squeaky flooring (known as Nightingale Floors) to deter ninjas. The fabled, highly trained mercenaries of mediaeval Japan were so entrenched in myth and tradition that they were thought to be capable of walking on water, becoming invisible, and controlling natural forces. That has to be enough reason to lay down some new flooring.
If you go to Moldova for a vacation, you won't have to compete for space with other tourists: just 121,000 foreigners are believed to have entered the nation in 2016 (according to the UN World Tourism Organization), making it the least visited country in Europe. According to Priceonomics, only Bangladesh and Guinea are less touristic places on a worldwide scale (in terms of tourists per inhabitant).
During the Classical Period, Ancient Sparta was a colossally rich kingdom. Mostly because of their conquest and dominance over a nearby people known as the Helots. When a Spartan boy attained maturity and became a man, the Spartan state bestowed upon him a grant of public farmland. They also sent him a contingent of Helot slaves to work it. This effectively transformed every Spartan citizen into a rich member of the traditional upper class. As a result, they did not have to work for a living. Private property still existed, which is significant because...
Edison was, without a doubt, one of the world's most renowned intellectual property thieves. He stole nearly all of the 1,093 things he smashed a patent on from real geniuses like Nikola Tesla, Wilhelm Rontgen, and Joseph Swan – the latter of whom invented the lightbulb!
In 2012, when Boeing wanted to test its wireless signal on new planes, they placed massive piles of potatoes on the seats. Potatoes absorb and reflect radio and wireless signals in the same way that humans do due to their high water content and chemical makeup.
Cocoa beans contain pathogens that are potentially harmful to humans, and raw cocoa beans do not taste like chocolate. When cocoa beans are roasted, they go through a chemical process, and proper roasting is essential for producing flavorful chocolates.
Few odours are as appealing as "new car smell," and it's not just because it's nice to be in a brand new car. However, while the scent may be strangely satisfying, it is actually a combination of 50+ chemicals (known as "volatile organic compounds") that are released into the car and decay quickly over time. The concentrations found in a typical new car are not dangerous, but VOCs found in nail polish, auto fuel, and petroleum contribute significantly to the new car smell.
Malaysia is home to the world's biggest cave chamber. The Sarawak Chamber at Gunung Mulu National Park is enormous, with enough capacity for 40-50 Boeing 747s. It's another matter if you could actually park these jets in the Sarawak Chamber...
It's amazing how ancient some of Europe's structures and cities are. Pharmacies are no different. The Raeapteek on Town Hall Square, according to VisitTallinn, is one of Europe's oldest continually running pharmacies. This institution appears to have been in operation since 1422.
A local winery erected a fountain in the northern Italian town of Caldari di Ortona that splashes red wine instead of water 24 hours a day. The fountain is intended for pilgrims walking the Cammino di San Tommaso, a 196-mile journey from Rome to Ortona in the footsteps of St. Thomas the Apostle. Wine is a pleasant way to celebrate after such a long hike.
The lone resident of Monowi, Nebraska, is 83 years old. She is the mayor, librarian, and bartender of the city. Elsie Eiler is her name, she pays her own taxes, and she considers individuals who live 40 miles away to be her neighbours.
Christian Dior technically invented designer sunglasses when, in the early 1960s, they licenced their brand to be used to produce luxury sunglasses for discerning fashionistas. Using Optyl, his own lightweight thermo-hardening material, he converted expensive sunglasses into more wearable everyday items. The properties of this material also allowed for a wider choice of models, from broad and original lines to previously discovered hues and delicate degradé of translucent, brown, green, and grey colours that still mark Dior's beautiful and refined style.
Under the sea, there are more historic artefacts than in all of the world's museums combined. There are approximately 1,000 shipwrecks off the Florida Keys alone, some of which are protected by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Other underwater museums have opened in recent years, including Christ of the Abyss, a submerged bronze statue in the Mediterranean.
It goes without saying that the ancient Babylonians were excellent mathematicians. They understood the Pythagorean theorem, for example, nearly 4,000 years ago, or more than a millennium before Pythagoras himself was born. Their mathematical prowess naturally extended to astronomy, where they routinely used arithmetic to catalogue celestial body movements and improve their astronomical predictions.
Rivers and lakes can be found beneath the ocean. When salt water and hydrogen sulphide combine, it becomes denser than the surrounding water, forming a lake or river that flows beneath the sea.
Shellac is also known as "confectioner's glaze" because it gives candies like jelly beans and candy corn a shiny coating. However, shellac, which is also used as a brush-on colourant and a wood finish, is derived from the excrement secretions of female Kerria lacca insects. In other words, it's bug excrement.
These bizarre facts may cause you to alter your eating habits. Those fresh apples, on the other hand, aren't all that fresh. They're typically picked between August and November, waxed, hot-air dried, and shipped to cold storage. They finally appear on grocery store shelves after six to twelve months. These apple might not keep the doctor away....
The tides are caused by the tiny changes in gravitational pulls of the Moon and Sun, as well as centrifugal forces in opposing directions. The tides on Earth are at their greatest when the three bodies are aligned, which occurs near the full and new Moons. The Earth is then expanded along that line.
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