79 Short And Sweet Facts That Might Get You Questioning Everything You Know

Janus was the God of portals and new beginnings. A person who has all the keys controls the portals in a building. That's why we call them janitors.

Did you know that Viggo Mortensen wasn't going to take the role of Aragorn initially, but his son, who was a fan of The Lord of the Rings, insisted he did?

Did you know that dagger thrown at Aragorn was unintentional and Viggo Mortensen deflected it by reflex and they kept the shot in?

Did you know Viggo Mortensen actually broke his toe when he kicked that helmet?

Did you know that Viggo Mortensen developed such a close bond with his horse during filming that after it was done he bought both his horse and helped pay for the horse that Liv Tyler rode?

Did you know that I'm a huge fan of Viggo Mortensen and Aragorn?

To make nacho cheese, an emulsifier is used to stop the proteins and the fats from separating as the cheese cools down, which keeps the cheese creamy and dippapable. The emulsifier used is Sodium Citrate, which has a chemical formula of... NaCHO.

In the English language, two syllable words that are spelled the same but can be used as nouns or verbs are distinguished verbally in conversation by which syllable you emphasize. The first syllable emphasis is always the noun form, the second is always the verb. Examples: present, consult, project, produce, contract, etc.

We all do this constantly without realizing the rule exists.

Pine trees can change the weather. In large enough groups, when pine trees sense a long drought, they release pinene (the terpenes that make up the classic smell of pine) which evaporates into the atmosphere. The lightweight molecules attach onto ozone, which in turn latches onto water vapour molecules, making it the aerosol base of what will be a future raindrop.

Baby turtles communicate with each other inside their shells so they can coordinate their hatching.

The Appalachian Mountains, Scottish Highlands, and Atlas Mountains are the same mountain range, torn asunder by plate tectonics. The ancient Central Pangaea Mountains are older than the Rings of Saturn, trees, sharks, and bones.

The Romans built a massive network of roads to link their empire. Inevitably, smaller towns built their own access roads and connect to the main thoroughfares. So the entire empire was a collection of these meetings of three roads. These became gathering places where locals and travellers would exchange information. A lot of the mundane day-to-day stuff came to be known as “tri” (three) “via” (roads). Trivia.

Neil Armstrong had some woodchips from the 1903 Wright brothers propeller in his pocket when he stepped on the moon.

also some of the fabric from the wing.

Old people who own and care for pets have been shown to live longer than those who don't.

The blue whale is the biggest animal ever documented, bigger than any dinosaur.

A million seconds is about 11.5 days. A billion seconds is about 32 years. Helps to understand the vast difference between a million and a billion.

Porcupines can climb trees. But not only can they climb trees, they’re really good at it and especially in winter they spend a ton of time up there.

As someone who is not US/Canada based, that blew my mind. They do not look like the sort of creature that has anything to do with being higher than ground level.

Stephen King threw the first few pages of "Carrie" in the trash and his wife, Tabitha, saved the manuscript and insisted he finish it.

The German word *Backpfeifengesicht* means a face in need of a smack.

If you placed mount Everest in the deepest part of the Marianas Trench, and stood on the summit, you'd still be too deep underwater to see the sun.

That's not meant to be terrifying, but it always makes people uncomfortable

Edit: to add to this, Everest isn't exactly the tallest mountain, it's just standing on a plateau that makes it reach the highest point. Imagine standing on a chair and saying you're taller than someone standing on the floor.

David Attenborough and Marilyn Monroe were born less than a month apart.

Carrots don't improve your eyesight (or at least no more than any other vegetable) it was English WWII propaganda to explain how their soldiers were getting so good at "spotting " German airplanes. Really it was radar.

James Bond 007 author, Ian Fleming, also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which is a spy adventure with a beautiful woman, a car that has many hidden features and gadgets, and an evil villian and henchman ....in the movies, Gert Frobe plays the villian in both CCBB and Goldfinger.

The verb “escalate” was only coined after the invention of the escalator.