10 Random Facts - August 2020 Edition

1. Beluga whales have some cool advantages when it comes to hunting.

Beluga whale's neck vertebrae isn't fused together so this means that they can turn their head from side to side as well as up and down. This feature comes in handy when they're locating their prey in the icy waters of their natural habitat. They also travel in small groups called pods so there are normally multiples. In addition to all of that Belugas can also swim backwards.

Bonus Fact - When they catch their prey they eat them whole despite being a "toothed whale".

2. We have been fed false information about pirates.

I for one feel betrayed, but it turns out that pirates actually didn't make people walk the plank very often. IF they were going to kill someone they just did it straight up, or if they preferred torture then they would probably opt for a good ol' keelhaul. The reason I say "IF" is that usually pirates actually took a lot of prisoners and kept them alive. The reason for this being strategic. If the opposing pirates knew they were going to be killed then they would fight that much harder instead of just surrendering if things looked bad, and that would just waste precious resources.

3. An important character in Dora the Explorer could've been a rodent.

A mouse to be exact, and the character in question... None other than everyone's favorite monkey, Boots. You see Dora was originally going to be a bunny and her sidekick a lovable mouse. Then after they changed Dora to a human Boots was changed to his present form of a monkey. Except there was another difference, he was going to be yellow monkey. We have preschoolers to thank for Boots turning out purple. The show creators had a group of them give their opinions on the show, and that was when a lot of the final changes were made.

4. Your fingers couldn't win any body building contests.

Because they have no muscles. It sounds ridiculous because hello I'm using them to type out this blog post, but the muscles that move them are actually in your palm and the mid forearm. Tendons connect the muscles to the bones in our fingers, and they control our fingers similar to a puppet on a string. Pretty cool huh?

5. The ancient Romans loved their free entertainment.

I mean who doesn't? Roman emperors knew this fact and used it to their advantage in gaining popularity. They would let anyone into the Colosseum to watch the games for free, courtesy of your local emperor. There was occasionally even free food, now how's that for a sales pitch. To add to the already lush environment there was also a velarium, which was an awning that could be pulled out over the seating area to protect viewers from the sun.

6. There is a library of magic but it isn't at Hogwarts.

It's called the Conjuring Arts Research Center but it's located in Manhattan, New York and sadly there's no Hagrid. It is impressive in its own right though, housing over 12,000 books on magic and all things related such as sleight of hand, hypnosis, juggling, and ventriloquism. Some of the texts date back to the 15th century. The center also includes things like magic periodicals and manuscripts featuring magic methods among other things.

7. Zumba is for people of all ages.

I'd wager a guess that most people have heard of Zumba, and a lot of them have probably tried it themselves so this fact is probably obvious. I bet you didn't know there was something called Zumbini though (can we all take a moment to appreciate how cute that name is). There are different names for different zumba classes geared toward specific ages. Zumbini is for toddlers, 4-6 years old is Zumba Kids Jr, and 7-11 is simply Zumba Kids. There is even something called Zumba Gold which is for active older adults.

8. Hugh Grant had his doubts about a famous Love Actually scene.

I'm sure you know the one, after all it's a classic moment but Grant had his doubts.Apparently he thought that shooting that infamous dancing scene would take away from the seriousness of his character, but in the end the director of the film won that argument and they went with a more lighthearted approach. Something that wasn't helping matters was that Grant wanted a Jackson 5 song for the iconic scene, but unfortunately they couldn't secure the rights and had to go with "Jump (For My Love)".

9. Carrots come in many colors.

To be exact they can come in purple, black, white, red, yellow, and of course orange. In fact, purple carrots were the standard back in the day, but then they mutated into a yellow carrot. Finally in the late 16th century some Dutch farmers took the mutated version of the purple carrot and began to gradually grow the strain into the famous orange carrot.

10. Drinking fountains are underrated.

Drinking fountains, also known as water fountains and in some places "bubblers", went out of style after people started testing them for lead in the 80's and found that they contained dangerous levels of the substance. Manufacturers have fixed the problem, but it damaged their reputation quite a bit, and the popularity of bottled water hasn't helped much. In the past decade however, people have been attempting to revitalize the fountains in hopes of going green. They argue that drinking fountains are far more sustainable in the long term than bottled water.