“Finger-Lickin’ Good” had a bit of a mishap when translated to Chinese for their first KFC outlets in the country, the famous phrase became “eat your fingers off.”
100 Mind-Blowing Bit Facts
There’s enough gold inside Earth to coat the planet. Turns out, there’s quite a bit of gold on—or, really, in—our planet: 99 per cent of the precious metal can be found in the Earth’s core, Discover Magazine reports. How much is there? Enough to coat the entire surface of the Earth in 1.5 feet of gold.
Japan released sushi-inspired Kit Kats. For a limited time in 2017, Tokyo’s Kit Kat Chocolatory shop made three types of chocolate bars that were inspired by sushi but didn’t taste like raw fish. The tuna sushi was raspberry, the seaweed-wrapped one tasted like pumpkin pudding, and the sea urchin sushi was the flavour of Hokkaido melon with mascarpone cheese. All were made with puffed rice, white chocolate, and a bit of wasabi.
Irish bars used to be closed on Saint Patrick’s Day. You might associate Saint Patrick’s Day with wearing green and drinking so much you think you see leprechauns. But until 1961, there were laws in Ireland that banned bars from opening on March 17. Since the holiday falls during the period of Lent in the heavily Catholic country, the idea of binge drinking seemed a bit immoral.
Water makes different pouring sounds depending on its temperature. If you have a keen ear, you’ll notice that hot water and cold water sound a bit different when being poured. Heat changes the thickness or viscosity of the water, which gives its pouring sound a different pitch. Cold water is more viscous and makes a higher-pitched sound.
Beethoven could still hear after going deaf. If you’re wondering how Beethoven still managed to be a great composer even when he was deaf, it was because of this method: He bit onto a metal pole connected to his piano. He then felt or heard his music through the vibration in his bones.
Bananas are radioactive. Because bananas are rich in potassium, they are a little bit radioactive. But don’t worry about this weird science fact. You’re already 280 times more radioactive than a banana.
If you have ever received a speeding ticket, it was likely a bit higher than 8 miles per hour, which was the first recorded speeding ticket in 1896.
Most people are aware that Beethoven was deaf. However, the musician figured out a way to hear even after losing the ability to hear sounds. If Beethoven bit into a metal pole that he connected to his piano, then he could hear through a process called bone conduction.
Stephen Hawking was rumoured to run over the toes of people he didn’t like. The world-renowned physicist used a wheelchair from the age of 22 due to a severe form of motor neuron disease. This didn’t stop this from having a bit of fun, crushing the toes of many who drew his ire – including the UK’s Prince Charles himself! When confronted about this tendency, Hawking passed it off as a “malicious rumour” before jokingly threatening to run over the toes of anyone who repeated it.
Stan Lee created the character for Iron Man as a challenge. Stan Lee had been playing around with the idea of a businessman superhero for a while and finally bit the bullet in 1963 when he came up with the concept for Iron Man. Marvel’s readers at the time were very much against war, so he thought it would be a unique challenge to create a character who fans would originally hate but come to love – and it worked!
The first online gaming was before the year 2000. Sega Dreamcast was the first 128-bit console to hit the market. Released in 1999, it was the first console that allowed real-time online play. Unfortunately, it was a little too early for its time, as back then, most Internet connections were not reliable enough.
Sonic the Hedgehog’s full name is Ogilvie Maurice Hedgehog. This is a bit of a contentious one, though, as some fans claim that it isn’t canon. This is because Sonic’s full name was never published. Archie Comics, who published two different Sonic comics, released a comic that mentions that Sonic’s middle name is Maurice but never mentions his first name. One of the Archie Comic writers has since shared that Sonic’s first name is Ogilvie. Fans disagree, as they say, that Archie Comics’s Sonic isn’t true canon, only the video games and the Japanese manga are.
Because astronomical time and atomic time don’t always line up, every so often, we get a leap second. Earth’s spin speed can be a bit unpredictable. Atmospheric winds, Northern Hemisphere winters with heavy snow, and other big weather systems can affect how fast the planet rotates. To keep the difference between astronomical time and atomic time to less than .9 seconds, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service will occasionally announce the need for a leap second. Most people won’t notice a leap second, but they can be a huge pain for tech companies. Because leap seconds are added irregularly, developers have no way of working them into their codes, which has caused websites like LinkedIn and Reddit to crash in the past. A bug caused by 2012’s leap second created so much chaos on Qantas’s servers, more than 400 flights wound up being delayed.
The length of a year on Earth can also get a bit complicated. The original Roman calendar was a bit of a mess, so much so that in 46 BCE Julius Caesar mandated a 445-day-long year to help bring the calendar back in sync with the seasons.
But Sosigenes made a bit of a miscalculation, so the calendar continued to be a little off. He thought a year lasted 365.25 days. It’s around 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds, equivalent to about 365.242 days. This tiny error had some pretty big consequences: By 1577, the Julian calendar was off by 10 days, meaning key Christian holidays were being celebrated on incorrect dates. Pope Gregory XIII took issue with this and established a commission to get the calendar back on track. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was created. Rather than having an extra day every four years without exception, years that are divisible by 100—like 1700 or 1900—skip leap year. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, like the year 2000, in which case the Leap Year is back on! Even this system isn’t perfect, though: It has an error of one day in 3236 years.
Time zones can still be a bit complicated. Big countries like Canada and the United States have multiple time zones, whereas China, another large country, only has one. China adopted the Beijing Standard Time to foster unity, but the effect can feel a bit uncanny—two cities in the country can be at roughly the same latitude, but experience sunrise hours apart, according to their clocks. In some parts of China, for example, the sun doesn’t rise until nearly 10 a.m.
You Can Make Your Money Crisp by Ironing It: Ready for a surprising money fact that involves a little bit of fabric know-how? If you’ve got a creased, crumpled, or wrinkled dollar bill, you can make it look new by pressing it with your iron. As mentioned earlier, U.S. dollars are 75% cotton and 25% linen, so it’s fabric. To iron the money, dampen the dollar bill slightly with a spritz bottle, sprinkle water by hand, or use the spray function on the iron itself. Set the iron to low heat, put a towel under the bill and another on top of it, and then iron the money in a circular motion. Set aside to air dry. Presto! You should have a nice flattened bill.
Remember “Charlie bit my finger?” The video racked up so many views that the family was able to purchase a new home with over $1.3 million in royalties and ads as of 2017.