Interesting Facts and Trivia

Reading about interesting facts and trivia is one of my favorite hobbies. And the internet has helped me a lot in finding these informations. Today, I would like to share to all of you some of the best facts and trivia that I've read throughout the net.

- In "Smooth Criminal" Michael Jackson uses the same dance move that the Tin Man uses in The Wizard of Oz. Michael Jackson actually learned a lot of his dance moves, including this one, from singer/dancer Jeffrey Daniel. Strangely enough, Michael Jackson was in a musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz called The Wiz. But, instead of the Tin Man, he played the Scarecrow.

- Adam Rainer was both a dwarf and a giant in his lifetime. At age 21 , Adam Rainer of Graz Austria was only 3 feet 10.5 inches, making him a dwarf. But during a sudden growth spurt in his 20 s he started growing at a rate of 3.6 inches every year. By age 32 he was 7 feet 2 inches tall! When he died at age 51 , he was 7 feet and 8 inches tall. That's nearly twice as tall as he was at age 21! Sadly, he spent his last years in bed, unable to walk, because his excessive growth rate damaged his body. This makes Adam Rainer the only person to ever be classified as both a dwarf and a giant!

- There's a spider in Brazil whose bites can cause an erection that lasts FOR HOURS. A bite from the Brazilian Wandering Spider can cause pain, an increase in blood pressure, and an erection. Victims have to to go to the hospital. The chemical that causes these erections, which can last for hours, is being researched for treatment of erectile dysfunction.

- Actually, lightning CAN strike the same place twice! This is a common misconception. There is no reason why lightning couldn't strike the same place twice. The Empire State Building for instance, gets struck by lightning 100 TIMES EVERY YEAR on average.

- Shaving doesn't cause hair to grow back thicker. Your hair's thickness depends on your genetics and your hormones. Whether you shave makes no difference. It also doesn't make it grow back faster or make your hair rougher. What really happens is that as your hair grows it tapers off at the end. The ends of your hairs are thinner and appear less coarse. When you cut that part out, what's left is the thick part of your hair. So it seems like it got thicker and coarser.

- The Pokemon Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are based off of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

- Chocolate can help you live longer. Chocolate has antioxidants that can protect you against heart disease. Dark chocolate has 8 times the amount of antioxidants than strawberries. The flavonoids help relax blood pressure by producing nitric oxide. A small bar of dark chocolate every day can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. Chocolate also has serotonin which acts as an antidepressant. Also, while chocolate has fat, most of the fat in chocolate does not impact your cholesterol. Chocolate is still high-calorie and high-fat, so you need to eat in moderation. You don't need more than about 3.5 ounces of chocolate to receive the benefits. If you want to eat chocolate to improve your health, eat dark chocolate because it has the most antioxidants, don't eat too much of it, and don't eat it with milk. Milk can prevent your body from processing the antioxidants.

- Teddy bears and other toys kill more people than REAL bears. In the last 89 years 82 Americans have been killed by bears. Compare that to the 22 deaths caused by toys like teddy bears EVERY YEAR. Children are at most risk from death from their toys. For instance, small parts in a teddy bear can be a choking hazard (like its eyes). Also, children can trip on teddy bears and fall down a flight of stairs or hit their head on a sharp corner of a table. Also, a teddy bear once killed 2,500 fish! A teddy bear fell into a pool at a trout hatchery, clogging the pipes. The fish all suffocated and died.

- Bart Simpson from "The Simpsons" is voiced by a 52-year-old woman named Nancy Cartwright. Nancy Cartwright has been the voice of Bart Simpson since "The Simpsons" started back in 1987 . She's the voice of several other Simpsons characters (Ralp Wiggum, Nelson Muntz) and she provided the voice for Chuckie Finster in "Rugrats". She's also the author of a book, My Life as a 10- Year-Old Boy. Cartwright is a prominent member of the Church of Scientology. She was once the center of a controversy because she used the Bart Simpson voice in a robo-call about Scientology.

- Carrots used to be purple, not orange. Purple carrots used to be grown in the Middle East and the Far East, as early as 1 ,000 years ago. The Dutch introduced orange carrots in the 16th century. Purple carrots have become rare because intensive breeding has made the orange carrot more widespread.

- The first ever video uploaded to Youtube was that of a man at the Zoo, titled "Me at the zoo." It is 18 seconds long and has over 3 million views. It was uploaded at 8 :27 pm on April 23 , 2005. The video features Jawad Karim, one of YouTube's founders.

- Paul Hunn holds the record for the loudest burp, 107.1 decibels. That's LOUDER THAN A MOTORCYCLE and almost as loud as a CHAINSAW. The 107.1 db number comes from the Guinness World Records website.

- If Facebook were a country, it would be the THIRD LARGEST country in the world, BIGGER than the U.S. and Indonesia. In 2009 , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had 200 million users, which (if Facebook was a country) would make it the fifth largest in the world. That was back then. Now, Facebook's statistics page claims that there are more than 400 million active users (twice as many as last year!). This means that there are more Facebook users than people living in the United States (309 million) or Indonesia (231 million). The only countries with bigger populations than Facebook are China and India.