Talking birds are birds that can mimic the speech of humans. There is debate within the scientific community over whether some talking parrots also have some cognitive understanding of the language. Birds have varying degrees of talking ability. Hill mynahs Hill mynahs (tropical members of the starling family of birds) are renowned for their ability to […]
Ancient Roman apartments, called insulae, could reach up to 9 stories, could have running water (fed by nearby aqueducts) and were often owned by the rich and rented out to the poorer roman citizens (from somewhat rich equestrians to pretty poor workers). In Roman architecture, an insula (Latin for “island”, plural insulae) was one of two things: either a kind […]
The author of Forrest Gump the source for the titular movie, was contracted to earn 3% share of the profits. The film made about $678 million on the budget of $55 million, but Paramount did not pay Groom, using Hollywood accounting to posit that the film indeed lost money. Winston Groom was paid $350,000 for […]
Ruby chocolate is a variety of chocolate introduced in 2017 by Barry Callebaut, a Belgian-Swiss cocoa company. The variety has been in development since 2004. It was unveiled at a private event in Shanghai on 5 September 2017. The chocolate is made from the “ruby cocoa bean”. “Ruby beans” are existing botanical cocoa bean varieties that have been identified as having […]
A mountain rescue dog Barry der Menschenretter (1800–1814), also known as Barry, was a dog of a breed which was later called the St. Bernard that worked as a mountain rescue dogin Switzerland for the Great St Bernard Hospice. He predates the modern St. Bernard, and was lighter built than the modern breed. He has been described as the most famous St. […]
There are 58 countries that still have the death penalty world wide, and in 1724 the death sentence was altered adding hanging until death after a woman survived the hanging . The execution of Margaret Dickson A popular story in Edinburgh is that of Margaret Dickson, a fishwife from Musselburgh who was hanged in the Grassmarket in […]
Due to a miscalculation, the largest nuclear bomb ever tested by the United States was accidentally three times stronger than expected. This resulted in most of the test equipment being destroyed or vaporized rendering the experiment a failure. High yield The yield of 15 megatons was 3 times that of the 5 Mt predicted by […]
Nellie Bly, a 19th century female journalist who went around the world in 72 days, pretended to be insane in order to expose the deplorable conditions in mental asylums, patented two designs for steel cans and ran a million-dollar iron manufacturing business, all before the age of 40. Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (May 5, 1864 – […]