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Adam Trent played a trivia game with the delivery guy that changed his life in an instant

It was shared more than 600,000 times.

If you're like me and you'd never heard of Adam Trent before seeing this story, you may want to pencil in some time to check out his other videos after this. What makes this video different is that Trent's kind but simple gesture had the unintended consequence of literally changing one man's life for the better.

And it all started with a simple game of trivia and a few envelopes.

As the delivery man is preparing to leave, Trent opens his front door and asks if the man will stick around to play a game, telling him he can keep the contents of various envelopes taped to the wall … if he answers the question on each envelope correctly.

Understandably a little suspicious, the delivery man agrees to the premise. And it turns out he's pretty good at trivia! Some of the questions are deceptively simple, such as "how many points is a touchdown in football?"

And then there are other more challenging ones, like name the capital of Florida. It's a question that if you know it, it's incredibly obvious. And if you don't, well you might feel a bit silly for not memorizing your state capitals. But the delivery guy nails every question, impressing Trent. Until he doesn't.

It's the final question -- another of those "incredibly easy if you know it and impossible if you don't" ones that is entirely out of this guy's demographic: Name two members of the former boy band N'Sync.

Trent lets the doorman off the hook and gives him all the envelopes. It turns out that each one contains different denominations of cash: $20, $5 and $1. At the end, turning emotional, the delivery guy reveals that the small amount of cash made the difference in him being able to pay rent.

Obviously moved, Trent gives him the final N'Sync envelope, which contains the largest cash amount: $100. Speechless, the doorman turns away, kneels and the video cuts out.

It was an incredibly classy move by Trent. Yes, we're all entertained by the fun trivia and it's hard to not be hit by the feels at the end. Of course, we've seen enough seemingly heartwarming stories to realize there are often system problems on full display. In this case, why does a man hustling at his job have to win a random trivia game to pay his rent? It's a little dystopian if you stop to think about it. And that's why we'll give Trent more credit for not making the video about himself. There's no cheesy moment where Trent flips the camera around, no soapbox moment of lecturing us all about economics and no attempt to push out his social media channels, or whatever it is that so-called influencers are up to these days.

It's simply a human to human moment. Honestly, seeing these two men interact is itself special during the middle of a pandemic and a hugely divisive election season. The fact that it ends in a sweet moment that brings real, if temporary, change to one person's life just makes it all the better.

This article originally appeared on 9.3.20

From Your Site Articles

best of humanity

Pop Culture

A Twitter user asked people to share the most random facts they know. The answers didn't disappoint.

Why do people even know this stuff?

via PixaBay / Twitter

People started a viral thread about the most random facts they know

Certain people have an innate ability to remember random facts. They are great at trivia but can also be insufferable know-it-alls.

So why are some people better at recalling random facts than others? Researchers in Europe believe that it's because their brains are more efficiently wired than other people's.

"We assume that more efficient networking of the brain contributes to better integration of pieces of information and thus leads to better results in a general knowledge test," biopsychologist Erhan Genc, from Ruhr University Bochum, said according to Science Alert.

Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an MSNBC contributor, activist, and co-host of Crooked Media's "Pod Save The People," wanted to harvest the mind hive on Twitter and find the most random fact that anyone knows.

"I mean RANDOM random," she wrote.

The answers ranged from the utterly pointless to the truly amazing. There was also a generous helping of utterly disgusting answers thrown in the mix.

Almost every answer deserved the follow-up question: "Why in the world do you know that?"

Here are some of the most random responses to Brittany Packnett Cunningham's question: "What's the most random fact you know?"

What\u2019s the most random fact you know?\n\nI mean RANDOM random.
— brittany packnett cunningham. (@brittany packnett cunningham.) 1580180672

Most were utterly useless, but somehow still fascinating.

Snails can sleep for up to three years when the weather doesn\u2019t suit them.
— \ud835\udc9f\ud835\udcb6\ud835\udcc3\ud835\udcbe\ud835\udc52\ud835\udcc1\ud835\udcc1\ud835\udc52 (@\ud835\udc9f\ud835\udcb6\ud835\udcc3\ud835\udcbe\ud835\udc52\ud835\udcc1\ud835\udcc1\ud835\udc52) 1580180829

pic.twitter.com/IhCEcPpVJN
— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8All AmErican New Year (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8All AmErican New Year) 1580499864

most mammals have twice as many nipples as their species' average litter size (e.g. humans mostly have 1 kid at a time, but 2 nipples), this is colloquially referred to as the 'half nipple rule'\n\nexcept opossums, which for some reason have an odd number of nipples
— Several Irate Bobcats (@Several Irate Bobcats) 1580184771

Muhammad is statistically the most common first name on the planet while Wang is the most common last name on the planet. But I still haven’t met anyone named Muhammad Wang.

Muhammad is statistically the most common first name on the planet while Wang is the most common last name on the planet. But I still haven\u2019t met anyone named Muhammad Wang.
— So There I Was... (@So There I Was...) 1580183727

The only word in the English language with all vowels+Y in alpha order is “facetiously”

The only word in the English language with all vowels+Y in alpha order is \u201cfacetiously\u201d
— christy mcguire (FinishEdD!) (@christy mcguire (FinishEdD!)) 1580181277

Queen Elizabeth is one of the only people in the world who doesn’t need a passport to travel. Everyone else in the royal family does.

Queen Elizabeth is one of the only people in the world who doesn\u2019t need a passport to travel.\nEveryone else in the royal family does.
— Connie B \ud83d\udc3b (@Connie B \ud83d\udc3b) 1580181326

NYE goes hard

NYE goes hard
— M\ud83d\udd4a (@M\ud83d\udd4a) 1580184004

In DNA, mushrooms are more similar to animals than they are to plants.

In DNA, mushrooms are more similar to animals than they are to plants.
— \u2728 No More Mayors \u2728 (@\u2728 No More Mayors \u2728) 1580181372

Some were pretty darn cool.

London Tube platforms have different tilings because when the Tube was originally built, a lot of people who used it were illiterate, and the different tilings helped them know what station they were at.pic.twitter.com/Yw8e04zCJA

London Tube platforms have different tilings because when the Tube was originally built, a lot of people who used it were illiterate, and the different tilings helped them know what station they were at.pic.twitter.com/Yw8e04zCJA
— Sahil (@Sahil) 1580195864

Some were thought-provoking.

You've never seen your own face. You've seen a reflection, and you've seen pictures, but you've never actually seen your own face!

You've never seen your own face. You've seen a reflection, and you've seen pictures, but you've never actually seen your own face!
— Ruby's Granddaughter (@Ruby's Granddaughter) 1580226748

When you look at a flower, some of the photons that entered your eye just ended a 100,000-year journey from the center of the sun. Nobody else sees them. Just you. 10% of THOSE will give up their energy to cause a chemical reaction that—literally—makes them a part of you.https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/1221992423905202176 …

When you look at a flower, some of the photons that entered your eye just ended a 100,000-year journey from the center of the sun.\n\nNobody else sees them.\n\nJust you.\n\n10% of THOSE will give up their energy to cause a chemical reaction that\u2014literally\u2014makes them a part of you.https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/1221992423905202176\u00a0\u2026
— \u2796Dustin Miller\u2796 (@\u2796Dustin Miller\u2796) 1580187100

Elephants are the only animals other than humans who have something like funerals. They cover the dead elephant gently with leaves and branches, then stand around in a circle for hours making sad noises.

Elephants are the only animals other than humans who have something like funerals. They cover the dead elephant gently with leaves and branches, then stand around in a circle for hours making sad noises.
— \ud83c\udf39Saffi \u2721\ufe0f (@\ud83c\udf39Saffi \u2721\ufe0f) 1580182116

There was a day when your parents put you down and never picked you up again.

There was a day when your parents put you down and never picked you up again.
— Bradley King (@Bradley King) 1580186315

Others were disturbing.

Humans have a coccyx (aka a tailbone) which is the remnant of, you guessed it, a vestigial tail. One of our several vestigial features.

Humans have a coccyx (aka a tailbone) which is the remnant of, you guessed it, a vestigial tail. One of our several vestigial features.
— Cat Noone (@Cat Noone) 1580181773

The act of touching glasses to cheers comes from medieval suspicions of poisoning each other, so youd slam mugs together to spill each others drinks into your own to show trust you werent trying to kill them. Europeans man...

The act of touching glasses to cheers comes from medieval suspicions of poisoning each other, so youd slam mugs together to spill each others drinks into your own to show trust you werent trying to kill them. Europeans man...
— james beard (@james beard) 1580182190

Male dolphins can ejaculate as far as 10' and with such force it can kill a human if that human was foolish enough to attempt zoophilic relations with dolphin.

Male dolphins can ejaculate as far as 10' and with such force it can kill a human if that human was foolish enough to attempt zoophilic relations with dolphin.
— dr. k still loves Richard (@dr. k still loves Richard) 1580180807

Artificial raspberry and strawberry flavoring comes from the anal glands of a beaver.

Artificial raspberry and strawberry flavoring comes from the anal glands of a beaver.
— \u2744\ufe0f\u2744\ufe0f Stephanie Nelson \u2744\ufe0f\u2744\ufe0f (@\u2744\ufe0f\u2744\ufe0f Stephanie Nelson \u2744\ufe0f\u2744\ufe0f) 1580236997

And some could be helpful down the road. You just never know.

If you are attacked by a gator and your arm is in its jaws, push, don't pull. If you can push the flap open at the back of its throat, water rushes in and it starts to drown and will open jaws, hopefully releasing you.

If you are attacked by a gator and your arm is in its jaws, push, don't pull. If you can push the flap open at the back of its throat, water rushes in and it starts to drown and will open jaws, hopefully releasing you.
— Anika Noni Rose (@Anika Noni Rose) 1580220908

The Phenomena: "The Doorway Effect" When you forget the reason you enter a different room. To retrieve the reason, walk backwards w/o turning around. It can trigger the memory.

The Phenomena: "The Doorway Effect"\nWhen you forget the reason you enter a different room.\nTo retrieve the reason, walk backwards w/o turning around.\nIt can trigger the memory.
— CK (@CK) 1580185439

This article originally appeared on 02.06.20

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random facts

Pop Culture

People are sharing the most random facts they know. Here are 15 of the most intriguing.

An 18" pizza is more than double the size of a 12" pizza.

via Sydney Troxell/Pexels, Maddie Franz/Pexels, Murray Becker/Wikimedia Commons

The Hindenburg disaster, a slice of pizza and a squirrel.

How is it that some people seem to know a lot of random facts and are great at trivia, while others can’t get a question right while watching “Jeopardy!”? A big reason is curiosity. People interested in many different subjects have a more significant knowledge base than those who do not.

Further, when people are genuinely interested in a subject, they retain knowledge much better than if they heard the information in passing. So, while two students may learn the same thing in class, the genuinely interested one will remember the information, while the other will quickly forget it.

Studies show that curiosity is one of the most significant predictors of having a high IQ.

A Redditor named TechSavvy_Ryan asked the curious folks on the platform to share the facts that “most people don’t know.” The post went viral, inspiring over 8,000 responses in just two days. So, we cobbled together a list of the 15 most intriguing facts so you can wow people at your next trivia night or cocktail party.

Here are 15 facts that “most people don’t know."

1. Hindenburg survivors

"Most the people involved in the Hindenburg disaster lived." — CaligulaMonkey

"It was said 62 of the 97 people survived. You can see them running away in the nick of time as they touched the ground." — Rook2Pawn

2. Freaky fish

"Irukandji jellyfish grow only to about 1 cubic cm in size, but have an incredibly painful sting. One symptom of the sting is a strong impending sense of doom. Victims have begged their doctor to be killed as they were certain they would die anyways." — NikkiRex

3. Dangerous laughter

"You can collapse your lungs from laughing." — ContentTask2032

"So you can technically die from laughing?" -PaptaLopikju-

4. Dark side of cruises

"The amount of murder, rape and suicide that happens on cruise ships. Most of them unresolved, too." — PeacefulKillah

"Most newer cruise ships also operate an onboard morgue, as they are now considered cheaper options to retirement homes. Last time I was on a cruise, a crew member let slip that there were 2 deaths from natural causes." — Kegman83

5. Happy birthday

"A company called Warner Chappell Music collected licensing fees for use of the song 'Happy Birthday to You' all the way until 2015. That’s why characters in movies often sing other songs like 'For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”'and restaurant chains often have their own birthday songs they sing to customers." — ItsMeCourtney

6. Burial facts

"A burial plot is called a graveyard if it's part of a church lot. It's called a cemetery if separate." — Missusmidas

"The backyard is only a graveyard if they can find the body." — Diels_Alder

7. Spanish Africa

"The only Spanish-speaking country in Africa is Equatorial Guinea. Its capital, Malabo, is on an island slightly northwest of the country’s mainland." — Dre_Lake

8. A case of bad nerves

"If your nerve is broken in the wrong way, the nerve will send a pain signal to the brain and it won't stop." — RhiannonCrystalLady

9. Pizza truth

"An 18-inch pizza is more than two 12-inch pizzas. To do the math, the surface area of a circle is pi x r squared. Pi is the constant. 18 in pizza has a 9 in radius, or r. 12 inch has 6. 9 squared is 81, 6 squared is 36. 36 x 2 is 72. 81 is greater than 72." — Who_Else_But_Macho

"Not only that but if you assume that each pizza has a 1" wide crust all the way around, the 18-inch pizza is 79% toppings and 21% crust, while the two 12-inch pizzas are only 70% toppings and 30% crust. So not only do you get MORE pizza, you get a more efficient pizza with a greater toppings-to-crust ratio." — Tajwriggly

10. Declare your pacemaker

"When a body is to be cremated, the funeral director will first ensure that any rubber sole shoes, watches, phones, glasses, and sealed glass/metal containers are removed. Any sealed container becomes a pressure vessel when exposed to temperatures exceeding 1000°c. These will explode and do significant damage to the crematorium. This is the same reason why any electrical devices or items with batteries are removed, including most watches, and also pacemakers. When an undertaker asks whether your loved on had any medical implants or pacemakers, this is the reason why.
Glasses often tend to leave a silica residue on the bottom of the cremator which is just awkward to clean up and can build over time. Rubber soles are just incredibly polluting and are often not caught by the many filtration systems. This usually results in a black plume of smoke coming from the chimneys. Also, all metal residues and materials which are collected after the cremation is completed are gathered up and can either be returned to the family (upon request) or else treated and recycled, with proceeds from the recycling going towards a worthy charity." — Flaky_Tumbleweed

11. Scuba or S.C.U.B.A.?

"Scuba is an acronym, standing for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus." — JackCooper_7274

12. Squirrel speed

"Squirrels run faster up trees than on flat surfaces." — sstebbinss

13. Battleships

"Battleships in museums/ on display that are WW2 and later cannot start their engines because they have preservative grease inside in case the Navy has to bring the ship back into service." — Stravata

14. Sharkgevity

"Sharks predate trees." — External_Crazy_6568

"Well duh, they're predators." — Flowcahrt83

15. Code-shifting cells

"Your immune system has at least 1 cell to combat every single infection that could ever exist. Your T-cells are cells that, when created, go through a sort of training phase in the thymus where they are allowed to change their genetic code at random, in order to be able to battle 1 random very specific disease. During this, the body also kills any T-cells that are accidentally adapted to kill human cells. Then the T-cells are sent to lymph nodes, to be found later by presenting an antigen (a part of a pathogen) to it. Basically, you have something for everything in your body, the problem is just finding it, as it takes a good few days for your body to locate the specific one." — Chipperland4471

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facts

Pop Culture

These fun facts about how 5 well-known things got their names are blowing people's minds

Did you know that the name "Idaho" was made up by a con artist who tried to pass it off as a Native American word?

Photo by Karen Green on Unsplash, Merriam-Webster/Facebook

From how Idaho got its name to why we capitalize "B" in "dB," here are some fascinating factoids.

The "I was today years old when I learned" meme might be a bit overdone at this point, but thanks to the random factoids people share on the internet, it's a near-daily reality. Rarely do we go an entire day without seeing some surprising, delightful or head-scratching piece of info cross our feeds.

Let's take the etymology of words, for example. Did you know that the word "jumbo" originated from an exceptionally large elephant named "Jumbo," and not the other way around? Or that the word "muscle" comes from the Latin musculus, meaning "little mouse," because the Romans thought that muscles moving looked like mice running under the skin?

It's fun to see where things come from, but sometimes we can be surprised by an origin that we thought for sure couldn't be right, but actually is. For instance:

Michelin star ratings for fancy restaurants come from the Michelin tire company.

Yes, really. The assumption many of us have been operating under is that Michelin the restaurant review guide must have been founded by some hoity toity French restaurant critic and not the tire company with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man mascot. Yet here we are, being all wrong.

They don't even try to hide it, so it's surprising that many of us don't know this. The logo and the Michelin man are right there at the top of the Michelin guide website, and the story of how the guide came about is shared on the About Us page:

"It all started in Clermont-Ferrand in central France in 1889, when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin founded their eponymous tire company, fuelled by a grand vision for the French automobile industry at a time when there were fewer than 3,000 cars in the country. In order to help motorists develop their trips - thereby boosting car sales and in turn, tyre purchases - the Michelin brothers produced a small guide filled with handy information for travellers, such as maps, information on how to change a tyre, where to fill up on petrol, and wonderfully - for the traveller in search of respite from the adventures of the day - a listing of places to eat or take shelter for the night."

The Michelins gave away the guide for free until one of them saw a tire shop using them to prop up a workbench. They decided to demonstrate the value of the guide by charging money for it. They also started sending mystery diners to review restaurants anonymously, and over the next hundred years they'd hone the star rating system that restaurants now aspire to impress with.

The "Guinness" of The Guinness Book of World Records is actually the same Guinness as the beer company.

Similar story here—who knew this was the same Guinness? Only this time, the offshoot was founded not by Guinness himself but by British engineer and industrialist Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery. He conceived of the idea in the early 1950s to satisfy bar patrons who asked trivia questions.

The impetus was Beaver himself getting into an argument over what was the fastest game bird in Europe during a shooting match. But he couldn't find the answer in any reference books. So he decided to create a book with the help of a couple of sports journalists, and the Guinness Book of World Records was born.

The first book was 190 pages and had 4,000 entries. As of 2022, more than 60,000 Guinness world records had been catalogued in the world records database.

The reason the "B" in dB, the abbreviation for "decibel," is capitalized is because it's named after Alexander Graham Bell.

This is one that came out of left field for a lot of folks. How many years did we spend in school without learning this simple fact?

Remember Hansen's Natural soda? It morphed into Monster.

If you were a child of the 80s or 90s, and especially if you had parents who were anti-Big Soda or anti-high fructose corn syrup, you probably drank your fair share of Hansen's Natural soda.

If you weren't paying close attention, you may not know that in 2012, Hansen's Natural Corporation officially changed its name…to Monster Beverage Corporation. That's right, as in Monster energy drinks. Apparently, they found that energy drinks had become their bread and butter, so they leaned into it full force.

Talk about a wild pendulum swing of a rebrand.

"Idaho" was made up by as sketchy congressional delegate who tried to pass it off as a Native American word

There are some unclear spots in the story, but the gist is that back in 1860, the Western territory of that would become Colorado was soon to become a state and needed a name. Congress wanted the state to have a Native American name and someone suggested Idaho, a name allegedly coined by congressional delegate George M. Willing, who claimed it was a Native American word from the Shoshone that meant "Gem of the Mountains." It wasn't and it didn't. He totally made it up.

Congress approved "Idaho" as the name for Colorado at first, but then took it back after they found out it wasn't actually a Native American name. (Did they then choose a Native American name? No, they went with the Spanish name of Colorado.)

In the meantime, someone had named a steamboat in the Pacific Northwest "Idaho," and then some mines got named after the steamboat, and after a few years and several "named after" iterations, people forgot that Idaho was a fake, made-up word, and Congress gave the state its name.

And now, Idaho is not only a state but the last name of a fan-favorite character in one of the best loved sci-fi stories of all time that takes place 10,000 years into the future. A conman's word forever immortalized. God bless America.

From Your Site Articles

fun facts

Internet

People are sharing the most random facts they know. Here's 20 of the most interesting.

All animals pee for the same amount of time?

via Pixabay/Pexels and Voyager 2/Wikimedia Commons

A penguin and the planet SAturn.

Some folks just have a knack for remembering all sorts of random facts. They're the stars at trivia nights, but sometimes, they come off as too much of a know-it-all.

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to be better at recalling random facts than others? Monica Thieu, a multi-time “Jeopardy!” contestant, studied the phenomenon and found that people who are great at trivia and remember random facts could also recall the situation and content when they first learned the fact.

So, someone who is excellent at remembering random facts won’t just remember that Grant is buried in Grant's Tomb. They will also remember that they learned it on a sunny day while on a walking tour of Riverside, New York.

(President Ulysses Grant is buried in Grant’s Tomb, which is located in Riverside, New York.)

A Reddit user challenged people on the AskReddit subforum to share the most random facts they knew, and the responses were both educational and head-scratching. Many people shared facts that didn't seem true at first, but after some thought (and Googling!), they really are true.

The most mind-blowing fact is about Reno, Nevada and Los Angeles. (Read more about it at #6.)

We looked at the responses and shared the 20 most interesting “random facts” shared on Reddit.

1. Match works too well

"The guy who started Match.com made his wife family friends and employees sign up to increase traffic to the site. His wife later divorced him for someone she met on match.com." — Acrobatic_News_9986·

2. The world is buzzed

"On average, 0.7% of the world's population is drunk at any given time." — Maleficent_Nobody_75

3. Cold desert

"Antarctica is the world's biggest desert." — NarkOne

"I always have fun with people's initial reactions to this one: What continent has the highest average IQ?" — Apple-Hair

Answer: Antarctica because of all the researchers.

4. Everyone pees (for the same amount of time)

"Almost all mammals pee for 22 seconds with a full bladder (I tell this to everyone I meet)." — ART_IS_IN_THE_SKY

"Not if you have a problem prostate." — JohnKnightuk

5. The good side of eugenics

"Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad, a founding member of Swedish pop band Abba, is the product of a Nazi breeding program where German men were sent to Norway to impregnate Norwegian women. She was one of the children that was resulted." — Ov3rStt1mulate3d

6. The west is further west than the west coast

"Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles." — SeahawksWin43-8

"In the same vein, Seattle is further north than Toronto, as is Portland. And Salem. The southern tip of Canada is further south than the northern border of California. Maine is about 1000 miles closer to Africa than Florida is. The South American continent is east of Orlando, Florida." — Drone30389

7. Laser facts

"The acronym for 'LASER' means light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." — FatCatLaundromat

8. Redundant names

"Not really a single fact, but just the concept of tautological place names for various features that are just the word for that type of feature in a different language. Some examples:

Gobi Desert (Desert Desert)
Lake Michigan (Lake Large Lake)
Mississippi River (Big River River)
The La Brea Tar Pits (The The Tar Tar Pits)

One of my favorites is The Los Angeles Angels baseball team, or The The Angels Angels." — Locclo

9. We smell dirt

"Human's ability smell petrichor (smell of wet earth from rain) is greater than a Shark's ability to smell blood in water." — ParticulaWR

10. The most terrifying word

"The fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia." — NemoTheOneTrueGod

11. Hell does freeze

"There's a town in Norway called Hell' and it freezes over every winter. Talk about a cold and hellish place to live." — Unpredictablecutie

"The place name in evolved from the Norwegian word 'heller,' meaning a cave under a rock overhang. There are, however, several hundred places in Norway named Helvete, the Norwegian word for Hell." — Apple-hair

12. Trees > Stars

"There are more trees (about 3 trillion) on Earth than stars (100-400 billion) in the Milky Way Galaxy." — Moon_Jewel90

"I didn't believe you, I had to Google it. You're right! The idea of there being 3 trillion of anything on Earth, let alone something as big as trees in a world as deforested as it is, is incredible!" — _MrGullible

13. Forever honey

"Did you know that honey never spoils? It's like the eternal optimist of the food world—forever sweet and never bitter, just like my outlook on life... well, most days." — TheLatinaFemdom

14. Who killed the moose?

"One of The only predators of the Canadian moose is the orca; whilst there have been no sightings of a whale attacking a moose, there have been moose carcasses torn up in the ocean, and it is the only logical conclusion. Also, moose can swim." — NegrosAmigos

15. Saturn floats

"50% of the sun's mass is focused in just 2% of its volume and if you put the planet Saturn into a bag to keep it together, it would float in water (assuming a suitable body of water could be found)." — Ben_M31

16. Penguin hydration

"Penguins have an organ above their eyes that converts salt water into fresh water." — DowntownFarmer2615

17. This gun's for hire

"Someone made a 'rent a hitman' website that actually got people arrested." — SolarVisor23

18. High 5

"That the 'high 5' was started accidentally during an LA Dodgers game in 1977 when a player raised his hand before another player crossed home plate. The runner slapped the raised hand without any thought. It became a dodgers ritual that permeated into popular culture." — Swel403

19. Skeeter facts

"Only female mosquitoes bite. They are attracted to people with type o blood and those who release more carbon dioxide. The reason a mosquito bite itches is because they inject their saliva to clot the blood when they're done." — Fallowsong

20. Schizophrenia facts

"Schizophrenia can lie dormant in your body. It can be triggered by certain things. For example, if someone has done a specific drug and they say 'I haven’t stopped tripping since.' They’re no longer 'tripping.' Their schizophrenia was activated." — Inner_Earth4710

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facts

Education

5 fun facts about St. Patrick's Day to wow your friends and family

Saint Patrick wasn't Irish and neither is corned beef.

Canva

Several St. Patrick's Day traditions didn't originally come from Ireland.

Shamrocks, leprechauns, corned beef and cabbage, pinches for those who forget to wear green—St. Patrick's Day is filled with traditions that have passed down from generation to generation. What began as a religious holiday in Ireland over 1,000 years ago to honor Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, has morphed into a raucous celebration of all things Irish here across the pond.

Ironically, however, some of those traditions and "all things Irish" didn't actually come from Ireland—including Saint Patrick himself.

If you want to impress your friends with some interesting St. Patrick's day trivia, here's a handful of fun facts to put in your pocket.

1. Saint Patrick wasn't actually Irish. He was British.

Born in Britain in 386 A.D., St. Patrick was captured by pirates and brought to Ireland at age 16, where he was sold as a slave. For six years, he worked in the fields, tending sheep and praying. One night, he dreamt that God was directing him to a boat that would take him home, and in 408 A.D., he escaped Ireland. Then, after being ordained as a bishop in 432 A.D., the Pope sent him back to the Emerald Isle to spread Christianity.

"Patrick became inflamed with the desire to help alleviate the suffering of the Irish people who were burdened under the yoke of slavery, brutal tribal warfare and pagan idolatry," Matthew Paul Grote, a Catholic priest with the Order of Preachers, shared with USA Today. Saint Patrick incorporated pagan rituals into Christian worship practices to ease the resistance to Christianity. Even when he was attacked and captured by Irish clans, he would respond with non-violence and share his Catholic faith peacefully, always treating non-Christians with fairness.

He is credited with the spread of Christianity in Ireland, but he himself wasn't Irish.

2. The legend about St. Patrick driving all the snakes out of Ireland? Literally impossible.

Legend has it that St. Patrick was fasting for 40 days on a hilltop when he was attacked by snakes. With a sermon and a wave of his staff, he drove all the snakes in Ireland out to the sea where they all drowned, which is why, according to the lore, there are no snakes in Ireland.

Except there were never any snakes in Ireland, according to the fossil record. The cool climate and being part of an island make Ireland uninhabitable for snakes. Scholars today generally view the snake story as a metaphor for driving paganism out of Ireland.

3. St. Patrick's Day was not traditionally a festive holiday.

Parades filled with floats, pubs filled with festivity, parties filled with frivolity—all of that fun, celebratory St. Patrick's day revelry is fairly new. For the vast majority of the holiday's history in Ireland, it was a somber, quiet religious holy day spent in prayer. It wasn't until Irish immigrants to America began celebrating their Irish pride in the 1700s with parades and such that the holiday became more of a festive occasion.

According to History.com, the invention of the television let Irish people see how the U.S. celebrated the holiday, which led to the party atmosphere making its way to Ireland.

4. The traditional color associated with St. Patrick was blue, not green.

St. Patrick's Day is all about green green green, from the shamrock shakes to the leprechaun coats to the Irish flag. But the color Saint Patrick himself was actually associated with is blue. The earliest depictions of the patron saint of Ireland show him in blue garments, and according to The Smithsonian, when George III created the Order of St. Patrick, a new order of chivalry for the Kingdom of Ireland, its official color was known as "St. Patrick's Blue."

Green is more of a political color than a religious one, as it became the color of Irish nationalism in 1789 with a series of rebellions against the UK. And really, green makes the most sense as a symbol for a place known as The Emerald Isle. The shamrock helps, too. (Another fun fact: The green, white and orange flag of Ireland was officially adopted in 1937 and points directly to the contemporary history between the Catholic and Protestant branches of Christianity in the country.)

5. The tradition of eating corned beef didn't come from Ireland, either.

For many Americans, a St. Patrick's Day meal simply must include corned beef and cabbage. Traditional Irish fare, right? Nope.

Though the Irish produced some of the world's most sought-after corned beef in the mid-1600s, they didn't eat it themselves. Due to England's oppressive laws, Irish people couldn't afford beef, and when they could afford meat, they ate salted pork or bacon. (The reason they produced corned beef was due to some complicated history with the UK and cattle shipping restrictions.)

Two centuries later, Irish immigrants who had a bit more money started buying kosher beef from their Jewish immigrant neighbors in America. According to The Smithsonian, what we consider Irish corned beef today was really Jewish corned beef tossed into a stew with some cabbage and potatoes—truly an example of the American immigration "melting pot."

In Ireland today, you'd most likely be served lamb or beef stew for a St. Patrick's Day feast. (However, much like our St. Paddy's Day revelry, the American tradition of corned beef has slowly made its way into Ireland's celebrations as well.)

It's a wee bit funny to dive into the history of St. Patrick's Day and find that many of the things we typically think of as old Irish traditions are neither particularly old (compared to Saint Patrick himself) nor purely Irish. That's not to say these traditions are not worth celebrating; Irish Americans have their own storied history in the U.S., after all, and who doesn't love a dyed green river or a green-themed parade with lucky shamrocks and leprechauns?

No matter how you celebrate, have a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! Or as they say in Irish Gaelic, "Beannachtaí na Féile Padraig ort!" (Watch how to pronounce it below.)

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Video explains the surprisingly cool way U.S. highways are numbered

CGP Grey/YouTube

How U.S. highways are numbered is surprisingly systematic.

A bunch of years ago, our family traveled around the United States as nomads for a year, driving thousands of miles through dozens of states. And throughout the entirety of that kind of epic road trip, I never once learned that there's a system for how our highways are numbered. It always seemed random, but it's so very not.

A viral Facebook post sharing just two basic principles of interstate highway numbering blew my mind, and also the minds of approximately 196,000 other people who shared the post in the past few days. Rich Evans included two images showing the East-West interstate highways and the North-South interstate highways with this explanation:

"I always knew there was a logic to it, but I never saw it explained so well until I stumbled upon this delightfully informative short video on how the US interstates are numbered.

Those with 2-digits traverse the entire country.

If they end in "0" they run East-West (10, 20, 30, ..)

If they end in "5" they run North-South (5, 15, 25, ..)

Those with 3-digits are bypasses and contain the last 2 digits of the interstates they bypass.

That's it! (plus exceptions ) Neat!"

It is neat, actually. But it's even a bit more complex than that, and the video link Evans shared explains it all in a clear (usually) and funny way. "The Interstate's Forgotten Code" from CGP Grey uses animation to show that the numbering system does indeed have a rhyme and reason, despite there being a few notable exceptions. (A highway system would be boring if it always followed the rules, wouldn't it?)

Enjoy learning something new if you didn't already know this:

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