Interesting Facts - Page 61

In 1952, in response to worries about lung cancer caused by cigarettes, Kent introduced the world's first popular filtered cigarette. Unfortunately, the filters contained asbestos which likely caused a different type of cancer.

Sufism Reoriented is a California cult which, despite its name, has no connection to traditional Sufism. Instead, it follows the teachings of Meher Baba (1894–1969), a man who claimed to be God in human form. Meher Baba's most well-known contribution to the world was inventing the catchphrase "Don't Worry, be Happy". Today, the cult is building a giant compound in the Bay Area, funded mostly by money from the owner of the Cheesecake Factory.

The word "soccer" was invented in England as a shortening of "association football". Until recent decades, British people used the words soccer and football interchangeably.

"Tsar Bomba" was the most powerful weapon ever detonated. A hydrogen bomb tested by the Soviets in 1961, it had the power of 50 million tons of TNT. This was over 3000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and forty times as powerful as the nuclear weapons in the current U.S. arsenal.

During the most recent Ice Age, the continent of Eurasia was dominated by the "Mammoth steppe". This huge grassland, teeming with bison, horse, and wooly mammoths, stretched from Spain to China. Most of the steppe abruptly disappeared around 12,000 years ago, possibly caused when humans killed the animals whose grazing prevented forests from growing.