Interesting Facts - Page 102

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506

Not counting war deaths, life expectancy in the U.K. increased during WWII because people ate a much healthier diet due to wartime rationing.

507

More than half of unsheltered homeless people in the U.S. live in California.

508

Steller's sea cow was a giant relative of the dugong and manatee that grew up to 9 meters in length. It was first discovered in the Bering Sea in 1741. Sadly, this slow-moving and easily caught mammal was hunted to extinction within 27 years of its discovery.

509

A single hunter is reported to have killed over 3 million passenger pigeons, thus hastening the extinction of the species.

510

To spawn, some salmon swim as far as 1400 kilometers upriver, all the way from the Pacific Ocean to central Idaho.

26 Comments

Level 21

Oct 25, 2020

Guangzhou is closer to London than madrid

Level 73

Oct 26, 2020

How can that be possibly true?

Level 65

Nov 15, 2020

It is true, because of Mercator map stuff. It's the reason why Reykjavik and Wellington, NZ is 17,243 km and Madrid to Wellington is 19,843 km (a huge difference).

+12

Level 79

Jan 6, 2021

I think meant was 'the distance between Guangzhou and London is smaller than the distance between Guangzhou and Madrid'. Maybe you read it like I did at first: the distance between Guangzhou and London is smaller than the distance between London and Madrid.

Level 73

Feb 24, 2021

yeah, that is what I saw

Level 51

Jun 15, 2021

boston is actually closer to london than to washington dc

Level 65

Aug 14, 2021

That makes total sense, what are you saying?

Level 55

Oct 26, 2020

Both Brandy and Champagne were made by accident.

Level 72

Aug 12, 2025

they were trying to make a cheap substitute for holy water

Level 73

Oct 26, 2020

Picasso's painting, The Old Guitarist, has a faint face over his head. People x-rayed it and found another painting under it.

Source: https://daydreamtourist.com/2012/08/22/the-painting-under-the-painting/

Level 65

Mar 25, 2021

Not here to argue that the life expectancy didn't go up during WWII, however I would argue that it may not have been due to war time food suply. Instead I beleive that the life expectancy went up due to the fact that many men, who typically live shorter lives, died in the war, meaning that less men brought down the average those years.

Level ∞

Mar 30, 2021

I don't think that makes sense. Old men weren't going to fight in WWII.

Level 36

Jun 15, 2023

Well isn't that the reason it increased? It was the young that went and died, while the old remained.

Level 83

Sep 5, 2024

I think what he’s probably saying is that unfit people (or that people who have high levels of cortisol or some other comorbidity like depression or risk-taking) were far less likely to survive the war, skewing the life expectancy by removing those who’d have died early of other causes.

Level 82

Oct 1, 2021

fewer*

Level 48

Jul 6, 2022

@chad *believe*

Level 90

Mar 29, 2021

Hate to be that guy, but it's Steller's sea cow, not Stellar's

Level ∞

Mar 30, 2021

Fixed

Level 47

May 21, 2021

lmao california moment

Level 66

May 27, 2021

clown politics 🤡

Level 60

Mar 7, 2022

Yay, Idaho!

Level 66

Apr 22, 2022

I've heard stories of my grandma's brother catching eel, despite being in the mountains of Virginia, about 400 km inland

Level 54

Jun 17, 2023

why do they swim 1400 km when you can just use a spawn egg🤦

Level 73

Aug 13, 2025

A single hunter is reported to have killed over 3 million passenger pigeons. Baloney. Do the math

Level 57

Nov 21, 2025

Can someone confirm the three million pigeon one? It just doesn't seem possible... You'd have to kill over 100 pigeons every day for 82 years. in a row??? (3000000 / 365 / 100 is 82.20)

Level 87

Nov 28, 2025

Passenger pigeons used to travel in huge flocks of sometimes literal millions. Hunters didn't really have to aim, just shoot randomly with a shotgun and a dozen birds might fall from the sky. I'd say it's pretty plausible for a single hunter following a large flock to kill thousands in a few days.