What are useless facts of our life?

eBaum’s World (

) had Microsoft put some useless facts into a slideshow. I’ll list the facts here (you can go to the slideshow to see if the slides make the facts more useful):

In 2003, two men stole an empty Boeing 727 from the Luanda International Airport and flew it into the sunset. They have never been found.

Unaware that the bail was set at only $2, a man once spent 5 months in prison.

In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded research that downplayed the risks of sugar and highlighted the hazards of fat.

I actually remember this from Adam Ruins Everything, but it’s not important ‘why they made sure to get it wrong’ but just remember that ‘the sugar contributes more to obesity than the fat does.’

King cobras aren’t actually true cobras and are called that because their diet consists of other snakes, including cobras.

Interesting, but only needed if I had to go into ‘herpetology’ (the study of snakes, yes?)

In the 19th century, Squirrels were introduced to parks in the USA for entertainment purposes. They were rarely found outside of the forest beforehand.

The only Japanese person who survived the Titanic lost his job becaus he was known as a coward in Japan for not dying with the other passengers.

A pollination technique invented by a 12 year old slave named Edmond Albius in 1841 is the reason vanilla is commonly available today.

The second American in space had hayfever and was almost disqualified from astronaut training until NASA realized the absence of pollen in space.

The Dutch city of Utrecht celebrated George Orwell’s 110th birthday by putting party hats on surveillance cameras.

40% of patients who were victims of medical malpractice reported that if they had received an explanation and apology, they would not have felt the need to follow suit.

Useful for doctors (encouraging them to explain themselves to patients), but not to most ‘regular people.’

The beat of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE theme spells out the letters “mi” in morse code.

The revolving door was invented because the inventor disliked the social convention of holding doors for women.

A chimpanzee was observed wearing a piece of grass in her ear, with no apparent function. After other members of her group started imitating her, researchers realized it to be the first “fashion statement” observed in other mammals.

The Austrian wine market collapsed in 1985 when it was discovered winemakers were adding antifreeze to artificially sweeten the wine.

Falcons on the Moroccan Island of Mogador catch small birds, then remove their flight and tail feathers and imprison them in crevices in the rock to eat later.

Portobello, cremini, and button (white) mushrooms are all different stages-of-maturity for the same mushroom.

In just 36 years, the average price-per-gigabyte of hard drive storage fell from over $400,000 to $0.019.

In 2015, NOBODY climbed to the top of Mount Everest.

In 2011, a 55-year-old man died after drinking $54,000 worth of methamphetamine (mistaking it for fruit juice).

“Mean world syndrome” is a phenomenon whereby the violence-related content of mass media makes viewers believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is.