Rats, mines, tuberculosis and other unpredictable things related to each other

What do dogs and Velcro have in common? And between painting and nuclear weapons? If you say nothing, you will be very mistaken. In fact, without some things, others simply wouldn't exist.

It is about them that we will discuss in our material. Be ready to dramatically expand your horizons and stock up on a couple of stunning facts to maintain smart conversations.

Roller Coasters and Piety

At the end of the XIX century, the inventor LaMarcus Thompson gave Americans the largest amusement park — "Coney Island". The purpose of its creation was not at all to entertain the people. In fact, in this way Thompson was trying to distract them from the popular entertainment at that time - visits to brothels and saloons.

Vikings and advertising

Many years ago, the Scandinavian navigator Eric the Red founded the first settlement in Greenland. Having discovered a new land, he called it "Green". Without knowing it, at that moment Eric used one of the most effective and popular marketing techniques that is still actively used: "the right name is the first step to success."

The thing is that the name "Green Earth", about the relevance of which disputes still persist, was invented by Eric the Red in contrast to the white ice of his homeland. He thought that in this way he would be able to attract as many colonists to novaya zemlya as possible, and he was absolutely right. A year later, dozens of ships with settlers moved to Greenland (literally translated as "Green Land"). That's what the right name means!

Dogs and Velcro closure

"Well, what kind of connection can there be here?" you ask. And she is! And the answer will surprise you greatly.

It turns out that Georges De Mestral was prompted to invent Velcro fasteners by a walk with a dog. Returning home, the man decided to examine under the microscope the burdock thorns, which all the time clung to the fur of his four-legged friend. This observation prompted him to use a similar principle in the textile industry.

So, after decades of research, by trial and error, De Mestral created Velcro fasteners for shoes, for which we are very grateful to him.

Sun and sneezing

Did you know that on average every fourth inhabitant of the planet sneezes while looking at the sun? But it's not even that that's interesting, but the fact that this feature is inherited.

Printers and fingerprints

Did you know that most laser printers are endowed with their own "fingerprints"? These special labels (often called "yellow dots") are a digital watermark and store data about the serial number of the device, the date and time of printing. If you look closely, all over the page, in places where the text is located, you can notice small yellow dots at a distance of about 2.5 mm from each other.

These tags are designed to help in the fight against counterfeiting. In addition, there are cases when, thanks to these tags, crimes related to data leakage were solved. Now similar technologies are being developed for 3D printers.

Olympic Games and art

We are used to the fact that the Olympic Games are exclusively sports competitions that have nothing to do with art. This is not quite true. In the middle of the XX century, art competitions devoted to sports topics were held as part of the Olympiad. Thus, the founder of the games, Pierre de Coubertin, wanted to strengthen not only the physical, but also the spiritual state of their participants.

Olympic art competitions were held from 1912 to 1948. Medals were awarded in a variety of fields, ranging from painting to architecture and music.

Pink and masculinity

Now, when choosing things for a newborn boy, you will probably give preference to the blue color. But before, blue, on the contrary, was associated with girls, and "girly" pink, as many of us used to think, was considered a shade of "masculine" red and was traditionally intended for boys. The color that was suitable for both sexes was white.

Pigeons and cancer

American scientists were able to teach pigeons to recognize malignant cells from histological studies. This became possible due to two features of these birds - a complete lack of imagination (unlike humans, birds do not tend to "think out" something) and enhanced color perception.

During the experiment, scientists fed pigeons according to a certain system (when the bird found the right answer, it was given a treat), and after a month of training, each pigeon in 80% of cases gave the correct conclusion. Surprisingly, the analysis of the overall result showed 99% accuracy.

Telegraph and Grief

Few people know, but Samuel Morse, the creator of the Morse code, used to draw pretty well at one time. He had every chance to become a great artist, but, by the dictates of fate, the man became famous in another field.

One day Morse was away from home for a long time, and the only way to communicate with his family was by mail correspondence. At first, he received news that his wife was ill, but was recovering, and three days later another message fell into his hands: it said that his wife had died suddenly.

When, seven years later, Morse had a casual conversation about the possibility of transmitting messages at a distance using electricity, he was very excited about this idea. 12 years later, in 1844, the first message was sent in Morse code from Washington to Baltimore with the words: "Wonderful are Your works, Lord."

Rats, mines and tuberculosis

Giant hamster rats are considered the most valuable workers in Tanzania, and all thanks to their amazing intelligence and sense of smell. These animals are involved in the work to search for mines and to diagnose tuberculosis.

Captcha and old books

An indistinct set of characters, which we used to call a captcha, serves not only to confirm the user, but also for more noble purposes. It turns out that some of the words in the pictures are fragments of phrases from old newspapers and books that the computer could not make out. Only a person can cope with such a text.

When the user gives an answer to the captcha, the gaps in the digital versions of the books are finally filled with the missing words. Every day, Internet users around the world solve about 200 million such "micro-tasks". Amazing!

Tights and speed skating

Thanks to the ingenuity of the Soviet speed skater Viktor Kosichkin, the "age of nylon" began in Soviet sports. He recalled: the realization that synthetics works wonders came to him at the World Championships in Davos. There Kosichkin performed in the second group, so in the evening he faced a big problem — the cold interfered with a normal race.

The athlete wondered how to solve this issue. He didn't have any spare clothes, so he went into the locker room, where German and American women were at that time, and asked them for "some kind of "dress"." The astonished girls gave him tights. "Damn, they're small!" thought Kosichkin, but then he cut them off and pulled the upper part over his legs.

Painting and nuclear weapons

After the first use of nuclear weapons, new isotopes appeared in the world - strontium-90 and caesium-137. These two substances are contained in insignificant amounts in paintings painted after 1945, since the vegetable oil used in the manufacture of paints absorbed them from the soil.

That is why it is almost impossible to forge the canvases of old masters now. When checking, the radiation examination will show that these isotopes are missing in the paints.

Which of these facts surprised you the most, and which ones were you already familiar with?