The longest novel which exists is ‘In Search of Lost Time’ by Marcel Proust. This masterpiece has made its mark and left its essence in the Gunnies Book of World Records. The whole novel is contained in 13 volumes clocking up nearly 1.3 million words. Isn’t this amazing?

The number four (‘shi’) is widely avoided in Japan since it sounds too similar to the Japanese word for death. Keep an eye out in Japan and you’ll notice buildings don’t have a fourth floor, items are sold in sets of three or five and special care is taken to avoid encountering the number in daily life.

The French army is the only one in Europe that still employs carrier pigeons. These pigeons, which are housed at Mont Valérien near Paris, can be deployed to carry out broadcasts in the event of a severe disaster.

However, Moldova's second language, Gagauz, is on the verge of extinction. The Turkic language, which is spoken in the Autonomous Region of Gagauz, is classified as severely endangered by Unesco.

Folk dance is a significant aspect of Russian history and culture. One of the most popular styles of Russian folk dance is khorovod. People dance in a circle while holding hands in this kind of dance. Folk dances are performed by Russians during festivals, marketplaces, and in the theatre. If you have the opportunity to visit Russia, make sure to attend a Russian folk dance performance to learn more about Russian culture and traditions.

Though pig includes some sodium naturally (as does all meat), the saltiness we appreciate in ham, bacon, and a variety of other pork products is really the result of curing and brining procedures. After soaking in salt or salt water, fresh meat gets dehydrated, seasoned, and preserved. This is also the method used to make salami, pepperoni, and other cured meats.

Everyone knows Lake Superior is vast (it's not called one of the Great Lakes for nothing), but few people realise precisely how big it is. Lake Superior is not only the world's biggest freshwater lake, but it also carries three quadrillion gallons of water. That's enough liquid to submerge North and South America under a foot of water. It's no surprise that Lake Superior has seen so many shipwrecks.

William "Willy" Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's half-brother, was born in Liverpool to a British mother and a German father. Willy wrote an essay in Look magazine titled "Why I Hate My Uncle" when Anglo-German ties began to deteriorate as a result of his uncle's flamboyance. As the war broke out, he relocated his family to the United States, where he attempted to enroll in the United States Navy but was denied. After the Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt reconsidered Willy's application and ultimately authorized him to fight the Nazis.

Lepioshka, or good luck bread, is a regional bread. An age-old tradition states that it should never be put upside down, since this is said to bring ill luck. Even if it's in a bag, you shouldn't leave it on the ground!

Francesco Illy, the founder of the Italian coffee roasting company, was actually born in TimiÈ™oara, Romania. He later moved to Vienna, and then the Italian city of Trieste. He didn’t make a 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Romanians, however, which was topped by Stephen the Great and featured the likes of Nadia Comăneci and Gheorghe Hagi.

On the tragic evening of April 14, 1865, Samuel J. Seymour was just five years old when he went to see a play at Ford's Theater. He was sitting directly across from the president in the balcony and claims to have heard the gunfire, seen Lincoln fallen over, and seen John Wilkes Booth climb onto the stage before leaving. Seymour related the incident on the CBS TV show I've Got a Secret on February 9, 1956, two months before his death. History is closer than you believe!

Since you were a child, you've probably heard the phrase "candy will rot your teeth." However, there are many foods that are worse for your dental hygiene than candy, such as crackers. This is because acid, not sugar, is the leading cause of tooth decay.

In subtropical growing regions (such as Brazil, which grows the most oranges in the world), temperatures are never cold enough to break down the chlorophyll in the fruit's skin, so it may still be yellow or green even when ripe. However, because American consumers are baffled by such a phenomenon, imported oranges are treated with ethylene gas to remove the chlorophyll and turn them orange.

18-year-old The youngest player competing in the 2022 World Cup is a German named Youssoufa Moukoko. He contributed three assists and six goals to Borussia Dortmund in the 2022 Bundesliga. Essam El-Hadary, an Egyptian goalie, is the

Mesopotamia, along with the Nile Valley Civilization in Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization in the Indian subcontinent, and the Yellow River in China, was one of the four riverine civilizations where writing was invented. Around 3400 BC, the Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia invented the cuneiform script. Cuneiform is a Latin word that means "wedge-shaped." Sumerian writing evolved from pictograms to become a full-fledged writing system capable of producing works of literature as well as prayers and laws. Despite not being the oldest example of writing, cuneiform script is regarded as a significant milestone in human history.

Honey is very low in moisture and very acidic in its natural state, which are two primary defences against food spoilage. According to the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California, bacteria will die almost immediately in a low-moisture, high-acid environment such as a sealed jar.

According to scientists, all of the pyramids were erected between the 26th and 23rd centuries BC. Mammoths first arose approximately 1.6 million years ago and were extinct in the 10th century BC. This indicates that when Cheops was ecstatic about a new pyramid named after him, enormous beasts were terrorizing our forefather's thousands of kilometers distant.

Mount Hoverla is Ukraine's highest peak, standing at 2061 meters. Mount Hoverla is a Carpathian mountain range. Mount Hoverla has been a popular tourist destination since the late 1800s. Mountain has grown in popularity as an extreme sports destination throughout the years.

From 1935 through 2018, the Los Pinos presidential palace served as the official residence of Mexico's presidents and was off-limits to anyone who were not officially invited. This changed in 2018, when Andres Manuel López Obrador was elected President of Mexico, campaigning on pledges to eradicate corruption. As a gesture of goodwill, he elected to live in a humble apartment in Mexico City's central sector rather than the palace. To give you a sense of what the Mexican president sacrificed, the presidential mansion is 56,000 square feet in size.

If you ate a Macintosh apple and planted the seed, the tree that grew would produce apples that didn't look or taste like Macintoshes. Instead of planting seeds, growers graft a cutting from a genetically desirable tree onto an existing branch or sapling (called the "rootstock"), resulting in apples that are genetically identical to those on the tree from which it was cut. If you look closely at the tree in the photo, you can see that there are several different types of apples on the various branches, all of which are grafted onto the same rootstock tree.

The novel's working title was The Dead Undead, which was subsequently abbreviated to The Un-dead. Stoker then changed the title to Dracula just before it was released. What really is in a name? It's difficult to say. Dracula received positive reviews at its initial release, but sales were disappointing, and by the end of his life, Stoker was so penniless that he had to apply for a compassionate grant from the Royal Literary Fund. The Gothic tale did not become the legend it is today until theatrical and film versions began to appear in the twentieth century.

Japan values good manners highly, but when it comes to chowing down on bowlfuls of noodles, there’s only one way to eat: noisily. Slurping is a sign of enjoyment and also cools down the noodles as you eat. Get your chopsticks in one hand and lean over your bowl. Bibs are sometimes provided for foreigners, but by the time you leave, you should be able to polish off a bowl in a white top and walk out spotless.

During International War I, Europe was at war, and world powers like Britain were organizing their armies. By 1917, one renowned British admiral of the Royal Navy had retired and wrote to Winston Churchill to express his thoughts on the day's headlines, some of which were so thrilling that he wrote, "O.M.G. (Oh! My! God!)." How could he have realized that the acronym he created would go on to become one of the world's most-used phrases?

There was a Canadian soldier who bought a black bear cub from a hunter at the time of World War I. Gradually that cub became his pet and mascot for his troop. The bear was named Winnipeg and was later given to the London Zoological Gardens where Christopher Robin Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne's son developed a great liking of the bear that he named his teddy bear after that cub bear.