15 Fascinating Facts That Really Tilted At Our Windmills

The Patriot Act has a long, stupid official name.
15 Fascinating Facts That Really Tilted At Our Windmills

I enjoy this list of odd facts. It has been in my head for years, but it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I decided to actually sit down and make a list. 

The story is that my brother sent me an email asking about something I had posted on Facebook, and I thought it would be fun to send him back a list of strange things that I've noticed over the years. He seemed to enjoy it, so I started thinking about writing a book with some of these things. The list grew longer and longer, until it was just too long to post in one sitting. And then it got even longer. I'm a person who has a lot of thoughts floating around in my head, and this project has helped me sort through all the weird ideas in my head, and put them into order.

So… enjoy. And remember: Everything you hear on this list is true.

The first baby-boomer was Kathleen in Philadelphia.

The first baby-boomer was born in Philadelphia in 1946. CRACKED COM Kathleen Casey-Kirschling was born seconds past midnight on January 1, 1946, in St. Agnes Hospital. About 3.4 million babies arrived in that first year of the baby boom generation.

AARP

The Patriot Act

The USA Patriot in USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym. PROTECTIN CRACKED.COM It stands for Uniting & Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Re- quired to Intercept & Obstruct Terrorism.

DNI

‘War and Peace’ was written out by hand seven times.

Tolstoy's wife hand wrote the first drafts of 'War and Peace.' CRACKED.COM At over half a million words, the novel is the 15th longest in the world. So- phia Tolstaya had to metic- ulously write it out by hand seven times before Tolstoy was happy.

History

Facebook had an Awesome button before ‘Like.’

The Like button in Facebook originally was going to say Awesome. GRAGKED.COM Zuckerberg eventually vetoed the Awesome button in favor of the shorter Like, accord- ing to Facebook Engi- neer Andrew Во- sworth.

TechCrunch

Van Buren is our first really “American” president.

Martin Van Buren is the first president born in America. CRACKED.COM Не was the first to be born an American citi- zen, as opposed to be- ing born English. Не also is the first U.S. President not to be of English or Irish ancestry. His ances- tors were Dutch.

Britannica

A chemical in spit is a natural painkiller.

A chemical in human saliva is more potent than morphine. CRACKED.COM Gram for gram, opiorphin is six times more powerful a painkiller than morphine and may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers without the addictive and psycholog- ical side effects of the tradi- tional drug.

NewScientist

The bible does not say anything about three wise men.

Nowhere in the bible does it say there were three wise men. CRACKED.COM Still, most western Chris- tian denominations have traditionally assumed them to have been three in number, based on the statement that they brought three gifts.

Snopes

Lyme disease is named after Lyme, Connecticut.

Lyme disease is named after the town where it was first recognized. EMERSON CEMETERY CRACKED COM The disease takes its name from Lyme, Connecticut, where the full spectrum of illness was first de- scribed in 1975.

CDC

Sperm travels the equivalent of 100 Olympic swimming pools.

Human sperm cells travel about 7 to 8 inches per hour, on average. CRACKED.COM Sperm has about a 15cm to 18cm journey to the fallopian tubes, which is like an adult swimming an Olympic swimming pool 100 times.

News Patrolling

Batman founded Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne, Australia used to be named Batmania. CRACKED.COM Australian entrepreneur and explorer John Batman signed a deed with the men of the local Dutigullar tribe in 1835 to found a new colony, that would be- come Melbourne.

The Age

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