Facts You Probably don’t Need
- Vampire bats’ saliva contains a protein that prevents their prey’s blood from clotting while the bat is drinking. This protein is called draculin.
- In the 1850s, the entire city of Chicago was raised five to 10 feet with hydraulic jacks to improve drainage and make room for water and sewer lines, in response to outbreaks of typhoid fever and cholera.
- Pixar spent three years studying the physics of curly hair in order to correctly render Merida’s hair in “Brave.”
- A leopon is a hybrid resulting from the crossing of a male leopard with a lioness. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the body carries similarities to leopards.
- In Japan, if someone on trial is filmed while in handcuffs their hands have to be pixelated to be shown on TV. This is because a man named Kazuyoshi Miura brought a successful case to court arguing that the image of him in handcuffs implied guilt and had prejudiced his trial.
- Christopher Lloyd was only 46 years old when he filmed “Back to the Future.”
- Listerine popularized “halitosis” in order to boost the sales of their mouthwash by telling people that they had a health condition.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
