We say "cheese" because it makes us happy, but if Victorian-era people saw our delighted grins, they'd laugh. Smiling in pictures was once considered demeaning and reserved for the impoverished and inebriated. To maintain a more serious appearance in their photographs, they would utter "prunes," a word so uninteresting that the odds of it eliciting a grin were minimal to none.

So, sort of. During the Great Depression, a local, trusted banker in Quincy, Florida, advised anybody who would listen to buy in Coca-Cola stocks, which were then selling for $19 per share. Many people took his advise, and when the company's stock rose as he predicted, more people followed. Soon, at least 67 people (in a community of less than 7,000) had become "Coca-Cola billionaires," making Quincy the richest town in the United States per capita.

Finding previously unknown organisms in the depths of the ocean may sound like something out of a science fiction horror film, but a 2020 study of a deep-sea volcano near New Zealand, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, uncovered "over 90 putative bacterial and archaeal genomic families and nearly 300 previously unknown genera." Hydrothermal vents, like deep-sea volcanoes, have been connected to the "beginning of life" in certain studies. So, are we seeing the beginnings of future land-dwellers? We'll have to wait and see what happens.

According to the 'Food and Agriculture Organization' (FAO) of the United States and The Economists, global meat consumption has increased over the last 50 years. And India has the second-lowest percentage of meat consumption, at roughly 4.5 kg per person. Despite the fact that India has approximately 400 million vegetarians, 71 percent of its population primarily consumes meat, according to a 2014 survey by the Register General of India.

Think again if you believe that spicy food is the only type of Indian food. According to food theory, all Indian food contains six primary tastes or rasas: sweet (madhura), salty (lavana), sour (amala), pungent (katu), bitter (tikta), and astringent (tikta) (kasya).

Ayurveda, India's ancient medical system, divides food into three categories: Satvic, Rajasic, and Tamasic. Satvic food is made up of all natural and minimally processed ingredients, such as vegetables, and is thought to have a positive, calming, and purifying effect on the body and mind. Rajasic food is spicy, oily, salty, or bitter, and it fuels ambition, competition, and egotistical desires. Tamasic food is highly processed, toxic, and difficult to digest, and it has a negative impact on both the mind and the body.

India is home to one of the world's hottest chillies, the bhut jolokia or ghost pepper, which is 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The chilli, which is grown in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur, was certified as the world's hottest in 2007 by Guinness World Records, but it fell out of that position in subsequent years.

To create the flavour base, you mix the seasoning each time using masala, chilli powder, coriander, cumin, and other spices. The proportion of each spice varies depending on the dish, resulting in a balanced flavour that complements the ingredients.

Do you enjoy the satisfying crunch of samosas when you take your first bite? Yes, me as well. And, contrary to popular belief, samosa is not an Indian delicacy. It is a fried/baked pastry that originated in the Middle East.

We all know that the Peepal tree produces a lot of oxygen during the day and a lot of carbon dioxide at night. So, while there is no truth to the belief that a peepal tree is inhabited by spirits and ghosts, the aforementioned reason is most likely why and how this superstition arose.

More than 70% of the world's spices are produced in India. It has the widest range of spices of any country. Black pepper is regarded as the "king" spice, with origins dating back to 2,000 B.C.E. Black pepper was highly valued in ancient times, almost as valuable as black gold. Although salt can be found all over the world, black pepper is native to a province in South India.

Mithais are Indian desserts and sweets. Although many buffets focus on Kheer, a traditional rice pudding, or Gulab Jamun, Indian milk balls served with honey syrup, the country has a wide variety of desserts. Because sugar was introduced to the country by the Portuguese, the most traditional desserts are made with fruit and honey.

Chai, a spiced tea drink, is thought to be a healing beverage that dates back over 5,000 years to an ancient royal court. It wasn't until the 1930s that black tea was added. Coffee was most likely introduced to Indian culture by the British.

According to Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources from the United States Geological Survey, the seas hold slightly more than 96 percent of the total amount of water on the planet (USGS). However, that is mostly seawater. You must go to the poles to find the majority of the world's freshwater, as 68.7 percent of it is buried in ice caps, permanent snow, and glaciers.

Though best known as the creator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, the author also served as a spy for the British Security Coordination during World War II, gathering intelligence. One of his talents was seducing society ladies, maybe for intelligence gathering, possibly for his personal pleasure.

Eggshells have a porous structure. That is, they allow air to pass through. As eggs age, they absorb air and form an air pocket. In general, you can test the freshness of an egg by placing it in a cup of water. If the egg floats, it means it is old and has a large air pocket, and you should avoid eating it. If the egg remains on the bottom, it is usually safe to eat. You can smell an egg before eating it to ensure that it is fresh. If it smells sour, you should avoid it.

Have you ever come across a blue chicken egg? There's an interesting storey behind how these eggs got their brilliant blue colour. A virus infected a species of native South American chickens over 500 years ago, according to a PLoS ONE study. This infestation caused a genetic mutation that caused an accumulation of a pigment known as biliverdin, causing the chickens to lay blue and green eggs!

Brown eggs have thicker shells than white eggs, contrary to popular belief. In reality, the thickness of an egg is solely determined by the age of the chicken: younger chickens lay eggs with thicker shells, while older chickens lay eggs with thinner shells. This thickness will occur regardless of the breed of chicken or the colour of the egg.

The colour of a chicken's earlobes—yes, chickens have earlobes—is a good predictor of the colour of the eggshell it will lay. Chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs, whereas chickens with red or brown earlobes lay brown eggs.

This was certainly a surprise to us! Each egg white and yolk contains 3 grams of protein. So, while egg whites are traditionally associated with protein, they don't have a significant advantage over their yellow counterpart. The main distinction is in the number of calories. A single yolk contains 3 grams of protein for 60 calories, whereas an egg white contains 3 grams of protein for only 15 calories.

This is an unfortunate fact because many of us have been told the opposite and have tried to cut it far too frequently. However, it is important to remember that split ends prevent our hair from growing, which means that we must cut them as soon as they appear.

Let's use a mental image to put this into context. If each strand of your hair can support 100g, and most people have 100 000 to 150 000 strands of hair on their scalp, your entire head can support the weight of two elephants - wow!!

Water also changes the hydrogen bonds in our hair, making it flatter after a shower. This could explain why some women dislike humidity: the water in the air changes the silkiness and structure of the hair, causing some hair to become frizzy or puffy.

Have you ever been dissatisfied because your freshly cut wet hair appeared to be longer than it was? Then you discovered it had shrunk unexpectedly after the hairstylist had blow-dried it? Don't worry, you're not alone; water causes hair to grow longer than it naturally would!

Onions have the ability to make you cry and make your breath smell horrible. Believe it or not, the reason onions do those things is the same reason onions are healthy. Over 100 sulfide-containing compounds can be found in onions. These have a variety of health benefits, including the prevention of asthma and certain types of cancer. Onions are related to garlic, leeks, chives, and scallions. While they do not all provide the same level of health benefits, they do provide comparable health benefits.