Tag: Did you know

April Fools Day~ Did You Know

If you have a reputation of a prank master among your friends and you think that you haven’t pulled the best one yet, roll your sleeve up for Sunday is the April Fool’s Day.

Sometimes referred to as All Fools’ Day, April 1 may not be a national holiday, but it is widely recognized as the day when people pull pranks on their friends, co-workers and even at times on strangers, and thanks to this odd tradition, no one takes it to his heart. While playing a little ruse on others always gives you fun, ever wondered how and why did it get started?

According to some people, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 1392 holds the earliest recorded association to the April Fool’s Day. However, some other credit Pope Gregory XIII, who in the 1500s gave the world the Gregorian calendar.

In 1562, the Gregorian calendar went through a reformation, according to which the first day of the year was moved from April 1 to January 1. But many people remained unaware of the change and continued to celebrate New Year on April 1. Thus, they became the April fools, promptly made fun of by those in the know. Here’s a video that gives more explanation on The History of April Fool’s Day: SKIP AD

Starting from historical facts to odd hoaxes, the Fool’s Day has many fascinating things associated with it. Here’re some very interesting ones you might not be aware of.

When Royals Lie

Royal family and courtiers under the Joseon dynasty of Korea were permitted to lie and fool each other on the first snowy day of the year, regardless of their hierarchy. They used to send snow-stuffed bowls to others and the recipient of the snow was thought to be the victim of the prank. Being the looser in the game, the victim had to grant a wish of the sender.

Danes and Swedes Have Double Fun

In Denmark, May 1 is known as Maj-kat, meaning May-cat, and is also a joking day. Sweden celebrates May 1 as an alternative joking day. When someone is fooled in Sweden on May 1, people say the rhyme, Maj maj måne, jag kan lura dig till Skåne (May May moon, I can fool you into Scania).

April Fool – A Spy?

April Fool was the codename for a spy, who allegedly played a key role in the downfall of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

According to General Tommy Franks, the commander of the US military in the 2003 Iraq conflict, April Fool was an American officer working undercover as a diplomat. He was approached by an Iraqi intelligence agent to whom he sold false top secret invasion plans provided by Franks’ team. Getting misled by the trickery, the Iraqi military deployed major forces in Northern and Western Iraq, anticipating attacks via Turkey or Jordan, which never took place.

This greatly affected the defensive capacity in the rest of Iraq, making it an easy prey to the actual attacks via Kuwait and the Persian Gulf in the southeast. Consequently, Baghdad fell to the US within a few weeks and Saddam Hussein’s government came to an end.

Pigasus Award

The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek award presented by well-known skeptic James Randi. The award seeks to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year. Randi makes his announcements of the awards from the previous year April 1.

Jafr alien invasion

On April 1, 2010, Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad published an article titled Jafr alien invasion and claimed that UFOs had landed in a desert close to the town of Jafr. The article even described the pilots as 3m (10ft) creatures and reported that all communications went down due to the effect generated by the objects.

The editors later said that the story was nothing but an April Fool’s Day joke. However, the story did anger the then Jordan mayor Mohammed Mleihan as it caused much public panic.

Google Fooled Us, But Not Always

Google comes out with some healthy pranks on every April Fool’s Day. So expect the search engine giant to have something in store this time too.

Yes, Google has fooled us many times, but it has chosen April Fool’s Day and the day before it to announce some of its actual products.

Remember when Gmail was launched? It was shortly before midnight on March 31, 2004. With free web-based e-mail with one gigabyte of storage, the service was first thought to be a hoax. Six years later on the same day (March 31, 2010), YouTube implemented its new video page design.

On April 1, 2010, Google Street View received a new feature to toggle anaglyph 3D images.

Flying Penguins

Can penguins fly? A BBC video footage on April 1, 2008 tried to make viewers believe they can. BBC announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history series Miracles of Evolution had captured footage of Adélie penguins flying. In the video, presenter Terry Jones explained that these penguins flew thousands of miles to the rainforests of South America where they spend the winter basking in the tropical sun. The BBC later said that it was a joke and offered another video explaining how the special effects made the penguins fly.

Edible Book Day

Edible Book Day, also known as The International Edible Book Festival is held on or around April 1. It’s celebrated in various parts of the world where edible books are created, displayed and then consumed.

According to the official Web site www.books2eat.com, the International Edible Book Festival is held to commemorate the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826).  April fools’ day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the books are consumed on the day of the event, says the Web site.

Did You Know

This is a neat idea! Roses are my favorite:)

Did You Know?

Magnetic resonance image (MRI) of the brain (sagittal view)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/your-“forgetfulness”-could-be-a-sign-of-a-another-problem—and-its-not-alzheimers/ar-BBTYBSn?ocid=spartanntp

Memory loss and confusion are among the most frightening aspects of aging: Is it a sign of dementia? Alzheimer’s disease? A new study from the University of Toronto suggests that at least some forgetfulness may be due to hearing troubles.

The research, published in the Canadian Journal on Aging, analyzed cognitive screens in a group of elderly people who were complaining about forgetfulness and other mental processing issues that suggest dementia. The researchers found that while most of the patients’ brains were functioning fine—it was their hearing that was suspect. Yet only 20 percent were wearing a hearing aid. The researchers point out that you can’t remember something you never heard. Plus, following directions is tough if you can’t hear them. Look out for the 5 signs of hearing loss many people ignore.

The Canadian research builds on previous studies linking hearing loss to dementia. If you feel like your memory is giving you trouble, talk to your doctor about a hearing screen. According to a report on the study, people that have untreated hearing loss could eventually lead to dementia. People who have trouble communicating are at risk for social isolation and loneliness—conditions that can contribute to dementia. Only a fraction of the people who need hearing aids wear them—it’s a national healthcare crisis.

31 Weird Science Facts


  1. The moon is moving away from the Earth at a tiny, although measurable, rate every year. 85 million years ago it was orbiting the Earth about 35 feet from the planet’s surface.The star Antares is 60,000 times larger than our sun. If our sun were the size of a softball, the star Antares would be as large as a house. In Calamba, a town in the Atacama Desert of Chile, it has never rained. At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth’s atmosphere. Erosion at the base of Niagara Falls has caused the falls to recede approximately seven miles over the past 10,000 years.
  2. A ten-year-old mattress weighs double what it did when it was new due to debris that it absorbs over time. That debris includes dust mites (their droppings and decaying bodies), mold, millions of dead skin cells, dandruff, animal and human hair, secretions, excretions, lint, pollen, dust, soil, sand, and a lot of perspiration, which the average person loses at a rate of a quart a day. Good night!
  3. Every year 16 million gallons of oil runs off pavement into streams, rivers, and eventually, oceans in the United States. This is more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
  4. In space, astronauts cannot cry because there is no gravity and tears can’t flow.
  5. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
  6. A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time: 1/100th of a second.
  7. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies you have $1.19. you also have the largest possible amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
  8. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors.
  9. Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to operate a television for three hours.
  10. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
  11. The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch a year. When it was designed engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
  12. A category three hurricane releases more energy in ten minutes that all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.
  13. There is enough fuel in full jumbo jet tank to drive an average car four times around the world.
  14. An average of 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
  15. Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.
  16. The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth 2 moves only six inches for each gallon of fuel it burns.
  17. San Francisco cable cars are the only National Monuments that can move.
  18. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
  19. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
  20. A rainbow can be seen only in the morning or late afternoon. It can occur only when the sun is 40 degrees or less above the horizon.
  21. Lightning strikes the Earth 100 times every second.
  22. La Paz, Bolivia has an average annual temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it has never recorded a zero-degree temperature. Same for Stanley, the Falkland Islands, and Punta Arenas, Chile.
  23. There are over 87,000 Americans on waiting lists for organ transplants.
  24. Catsup leaves the bottle at a rate of 25 miles per year.
  25. Toxic house plants poison more children than household chemicals do.
  26. You are more likely to be infected by flesh-eating bacteria than you are to be struck by lightning.
  27. According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

https://owlcation.com/misc/Over-200-Odd-Facts-Did-You-Know-Them

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