Fascinating Facts and Trivia

In addition to humans and chimps, the African grey parrot has been found to be able to reason—approximately at the level of a three-year-old kid.

In an experiment, the parrots were presented with a pair of closed canisters, and shown that there was food inside one of them.

When the parrots were given the chance to choose between canisters, they consistently selected the one with food.

230873 is the military number of Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor

Cousins whose parents are identical twins share 25 percent of their DNA, instead of the usual 12.5 percent.

While full-siblings share 50 percent of their DNA, half-siblings share 25 percent.

That's why, though children of identical twins are legally cousins, they are genetically the equivalent of half-siblings.

If you got into your car, turned on the ignition and drove up to the sky at 60 mph, it would take just one hour to get to outer space, according to astronomer Fred Hoyle.

Of course, this is purely a theoretical, but it sure is fun to think about!

In March 2019, the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans decided to celebrate its 125th anniversary by offering a free seven-night stay in its presidential suite, along with complimentary private dinners and spa treatments worth a whopping $15,000.

But this wasn't a standard giveaway: The prize was only available to the person who returned the "most outrageous" item ever stolen from the hotel.

When William Shakespeare died at 52 years old on April 23, 1616, he was buried in a tomb that featured an epitaph meant to ward off grave robbers: "GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE / TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE / BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES / AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES."

Or more clearly: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear / To dig the dust enclosed here / Blessed be the man that spares these stones / And cursed be he that moves my bones."

You'd think if a spacial body met a phenomenally fiery fate right above our heads, we'd notice. But when a meteor hit our atmosphere on Dec. 18, 2018, and exploded with a force that was 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, it wasn't discovered by NASA scientists until after the fact.

Turns out, it went largely undetected because it took place over the Bering Sea in an area that was close, but not directly on, the path of commercial planes flying between North America and Asia.

London's Brompton Cemetery inspires some strange beliefs. It's the final resting place of Hannah Courtoy, who had a well-known respect for ancient Egyptians' astrological (and perhaps mystical) knowledge. She's buried there, along with two of her daughters, in a massive 20-foot granite mausoleum that includes a pyramid peak and a bronze door decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The entryway also features a keyhole, but the key that unlocks it was lost, which—along with Courtoy's history—sparked the tomb's peculiar reputation.

Because no one can get inside to confirm or deny superstitious suspicion, there's a local legend that says it isn't a tomb at all, but a time machine. However, historian Stephen Coates stated, "It's not a time machine - It's a teleportation chamber."

Avoiding an issue or answering a qustion by changing the subject is a rhetorical technique called hetrogenium.

There are more possible iterations of a game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe