It’s that time again, time to fill your brain with information that you’re sure has go to come up at trivia at one stage or another. Maybe the cute girl that always goes to pub trivia with her friends will finally notice you and your fun facts prowess. Or maybe not. It doesn’t hurt to try.
1. Should you be doing something else other than reading fun facts on the internet right now? Well, there’s a word for that- akrasia– which describes acting against what’s best for you through a weakness of will (like texting that boy you know is no good, or blowing $200 dollars online buying metal slinkees).
2. Avocado trees contain enzymes that stop avocado fruits from ripening while still on the tree, meaning our favourite fruit is always in season and the tree can effectively be used as a storage device. Handy and delicious.
3. Surprisingly, there’s a hotline in America that filmmakers can call if they ever need advice on how to incorporate accurate science into their films. I don’t think its very popular.
4. Bugs don’t usually come across as the longest living things. However, a single queen ant can live to be up to 29 years old. That means there could be insects with more life experience than you.
5. Medicine might seem a little hit and miss now, but we’re doing better than the vikings. When a viking warrior got injured they were given a strong smelling onion broth. If the broth could still be smelled after they’d finished it showed that the warrior had serious abdominal injuries and were going to die.
6. In 2015, Oklahoma State University did a survey that found that over 80% of American’s supported mandatory labeling of food that contained DNA.
7. Around 22,700 bees are needed to fill a single jar of honey. Maybe the Bee Movie had a point.
8. I’m not sure if this is a fact or just a life pro-tip, but Firefox, Opera and Chrome limit Netflix to 720p. Might be time to crack out Internet Explorer again for that 1080p glory.
9. London was so devastated by the Second World War that it only reached it’s pre-war population again in Janurary 2015.
10. The Peregrine Falcon has earned a spot in the coolest animals hall of fame. It kills its prey by literally punching it to death with the ball of its foot as it plunges down through the sky at over 370 km/hr. Nice.
There you have it. While you’re at it chuck CSIRO a like on Facebook for some actual proper Australian research. You (probably) won’t regret it.