7 fun facts you don’t know

1.Banging your head against a wall for one hour burns 150 calories.

Banging your head against a wall for one hour burns 150 calories.

If you’re not keen on losing brain cells, you might want to give this calorie-burning idea a miss.

A safer way to burn 150 calories would be to take your dog for a walk for 45 minutes.

2.In Switzerland, it is illegal to own just one guinea pig.

In Switzerland it is illegal to own just one guinea pig.

While this may sound like an odd law to try and enforce, it makes perfect sense! Guinea pigs are social animals and easily feel lonely or depressed, which is basically a form of animal cruelty.

The real question you should be asking is why this isn’t a law everywhere?!

3.The color orange was actually named after oranges.

Orange named after fruit

The color orange didn’t exist in the English language until the late 15th century when the first oranges began to appear in England. Of course, there were many things before this that today would undeniably be called orange, but there wasn’t a name for the color back then.

So instead, orange-colored things would be called ġeolucrog (yellow-saffron), or if something had more of a red tinge to it, it was called ġeolurēad (yellow-red).

4.Snakes can predict earthquakes.

Snakes are able to predict earthquakes.

Many animals are able to predict earthquakes to varying levels of success. Yet, snakes are the most reliable, sensing earthquakes from as far as 75 miles away (121 km). They can even sense an earthquake five days before it actually occurs!

When snakes sense an earthquake, they often leave their nests, even if the temperature is too cold.

5.Crows often hold grudges against specific people.

Crows often hold grudges against specific people.

Crows are excellent at recognizing people’s faces and are able to remember people for a long time! This can be either a negative or positive fact, depending on how nice you are to them.

While crows can tell us apart, we would find it difficult to distinguish one crow from another.

6.The oldest “your mom” joke was discovered on a 3,500-year-old Babylonian tablet.

The oldest "your mom" joke was discovered on a 3,500 year old Babylonian tablet.

In 1976, archaeologists discovered a tablet in Iraq, which has since been lost. But, researchers were able to analyze and translate the text from a photograph of the tablet.

The results? We know that the tablet does indeed contain jokes, but the full meaning has been lost in translation. The translated form of the world’s oldest your mom joke is “…of your mother is by the one who has intercourse with her. What/who is it?”

Do we understand it? Not a chance, but we recognize a “your mom” joke when we see one!

7.You get Goosebumps when you’re scared to make yourself look bigger.

Two infectious diseases have been successfully wiped out: Smallpox and Rinderpest.

If you look at a cat that’s facing off against a dog, you’ll often see its hair standing on edge. But you don’t see the goosebumps hidden underneath their fur, which they also get when they’re scared.

Goosebumps are a reaction to increased adrenaline, which is why we get goosebumps when cold or emotional. Although we don’t really need them now, our ancestors would have needed them when facing off against large beasts before the age of humanity began!u