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The U.S. government issued Santa Claus a pilots license and the FAA tracks Santa's location

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15th, 1865, just months before the Secret Service was founded. The legislation to create the Secret Service was on Lincolns desk on the night he died, perhaps if they were created a few months earlier they might have foiled the plot to assassinate him.

A Civil War veterans widow died in 2020:

Jackson, the last known living widow of a Civil War veteran, died in 2020.
To be fair, she was 101 years oldand shed married her late husband when he was already in his nineties. When Jackson was a teenager in 1930s Missouri, her father asked her to do some housework for James Bolin on her way home from school every day. Bolin was an elderly widower who served on the Union side as a private in the Missouri Cavalrys 14th Regiment.
Though he accepted the help, he didnt like being a charity case. So he eventually presented Jackson with what was basically a business proposition: Marry me, and youll get my military pension when I die. Jackson later told historian Hamilton C. Clark that It was during the depression and times were hard. He said that it might be my only way of leaving the farm.

Starfishes do not have blood.
Starfishes get their nutrients by using the seawater found in their vascular systems. If you were to cut one of its legs, blood will not spill out. Instead, they simply regrow their lost limbs as if nothing happened.

Mexican prisons do not punish you for non-violent attempts to escape.
This is because it is part of human nature to want freedom, and therefore is not seen as a crime. However, factors such as property damage and violence will cause prison guards to practice the necessary punishments.

The release of Pokemon GO increased game-related accidents by 26.5%.
During the first 5 months of its release, damages over $25.5 million had occurred. 2 deaths were also reported to have taken place while the individuals were playing Pokemon GO.

Sourtoe cocktails are served in Yukon.
The drink containing a shot of whiskey and a human toe floating inside the glass has been served since the 1970s. All toes that are served with the drink have been mummified beforehand.

The official language of Ireland is not spoken by most of the country.

More people speak Polish than Irish in Ireland. The most common spoken language is English.

The happiest countries in the world have the highest antidepressant consumers.

This paradox has of late become the focal point of the criticism directed at studies of happiness, with people from around the world, including Finns themselves, pointing out that the measures used often dont account for such things as loneliness in highly-developed societies and the fact that material well-being does not preclude conditions like clinical depression.What they really rank is how well each nation has created the conditions for happiness among its citizens. Because happiness itself is too ineffable, individual and elusive to be contained within such prosaic things as rankings and measurements.

Every decade, brain fibers lose 10% of their strength.
At times of acute stress, they shrink even more than the average amount. This decline continues between the age of 20 to 80.

Minnesota has the worlds quietest room.
The noise in this room is measured in negative decibels. It is so quiet, that you are able to heart your own heartbeat and as well as the sound of your bones moving. People say that this room is so quiet that it can also drive you crazy within 45 minutes.

12 plants and 5 animals make up 75% of diets around the world.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization states that this lowers major health risks. By concentrating our diets to this specific group, we become more resilient to diseases, pests, and climate change. On the other hand, monocrops leave us wide open to complete devastation. Never forget what Panama disease did to the Gros Michel banana

Around 50% of the mined gold on Earth comes from one source.
This gold all once came from a single plateau located in South Africa. This plateau is known as the Witwatersrand.

The planet was named Pluto thanks to an 11-year-old girl.
Venetia Burney Phair named the planet after the Roman God of the underworld because the planet was found to be frozen and lonely. Previously to this, the planet was referred to as planet X.

Conservative women are considered prettier and smile more often according to data collection analytics from social media

Son Doong is considered to be the largest cave in the world based on its volume of 38.5 million cubic meters.

https://youtu.be/VGQDBYNyh9E

The systematic training of dogs leading the blind began after the First World War in Germany but history of service dogs goes back two thousand years:

The story of dogs being used as service animals begins in Pompeii in 79 AD. Excavations have revealed a wall-painting of a dog leading a blind man. Over the course of history there are records from Asia and Europe of dogs leading blind men.
The systematic training of dogs leading the blind began after the First World War in Germany. Many men were returning from the front line blinded by poison gas. A German doctor, Dr. Gerhard Stalling, got the idea of training dogs quite by coincidence. He and his dog were walking with a blind patient on the hospital grounds when Dr. Stalling was called away on an emergency. He left the patient with his dog and upon his return, he could see that the dog was looking after the blind patient.
Dr. Stalling began working to determine ways to train dogs as reliable guides and opened the worlds first guide dog school in 1916. The school grew and new branches opened across Germany, training 600 dogs a year primarily for servicemen, and later for civilians.
Over the next ten years, thousands of guide dogs were trained and working as service dogs, but the quality of the dogs had declined and the business venture failed. Luckily, another guide dog training center had since opened in Potsdam, Germany in 1923, run by the German Shepherd Dog Association.
In 1927, Dorothy Harrison Eustis, an American dog trainer visited the training center in Potsdam and was so impressed with it, she wrote an article for an American newspaper describing the methods and success of the training center. After hearing about the article, an American blind man, Morris Frank, contacted Eustis and told her he would like to introduce guide dogs to the United States. Eustis took up the challenge, trained a dog (Buddy) for Frank. Shortly after, Eustis established two guide schools; one in Switzerland and another in Morristown, New Jersey. Realizing the need for properly trained instructors, she established a training school for instructors in Switzerland.

The correct English translation for Jesus is Joshua.
You are only able to get Jesus if you originally translate it from Hebrew to Greek, then Latin, then English. Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua, which explains why google translate leads you to Joshua.

The boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 takes a week to beat.
The player can either defeat them by not playing for one week or simply by changing the date on the console. Battle the boss as you would normally until it is almost beaten after that quit the game and change the date one or two weeks later.

Jack Daniels died from a toe injury.
The founder of the famous whiskey injured his toe after kicking a safe. This then later led to an infection until he eventually died of blood poisoning.

Spiked collars were meant to protect dogs' necks from attacks.
This iconic accessory was invented by the Ancient Greeks to protect their dogs against wolves when attacked. The spikes would prevent predators from instantly causing heavy damage to their dogs necks.

A Polish doctor once faked an outbreak to keep the Nazis away.
Eugene Lazowski announced that there was a typhus outbreak that ended up saving over 8,000 people during the second world war. At the time, this was considered to be a smart move because Lazowski decided to tug on the Germans phobias about hygiene.

A jockey from 1923 managed to finish a race after dying.
During the middle of a race, the jockey suffered from a heart attack. However, his horse was able to finish the race on its own and won. This event in history is the first and only time it has ever occurred since.

The first statues of Buddha did not appear until after Alexander had conquered parts of modern day India and had statues of Apollo put up. The first statues of Buddha actually copied the features of the statues of Apollo, and were made to contest with the foreign religion.

Pointing your car keys at your head can help you find your car from farther away.
The fluid in your head is part of what protects your brain, and it's also what increases the range of a remote's signal. It can actually increase the reach by a few car lengths.

A single strand of spaghetti is individually referred to as spaghetto. Spaghetti is a plural word in Italian.

Calling shotgun for the front passenger seat comes from having guards on stagecoaches.

The original term is the shotgun messenger and it was a term used to call the person who sat next to the driver. These messengers would act as guards and use a shotgun to prevent criminals from getting too close. Due to Hollywoods influence, this term eventually made its way into our society.

Only one letter in the English alphabet cannot be found on the periodic table.
Can you guess which? The letter J is the only letter in the English alphabet that isnt used for any of the elements in the periodic table.

St. Lucia is the only country that is named after a real woman.
Saint Lucia and Ireland are the only two sovereign states in the world named after a woman (Ireland is named after the Celtic goddess of fertility Eire) and Saint Lucia is the only one named after a human woman.The French named this country after Saint Lucy of Syracuse. Lucy was a Christian martyr who had died during the time of the Diocletianic Persecution.

Ben & Jerrys made a graveyard for their former flavors.
These flavors all consist of discontinued ice cream flavors. Each flavor has its photo and as well as its life span. Each one even has its epitaph for people to remember it by.

https://www.benjerry.com/flavors/flavor-graveyard

Red Solo Cups are popular souvenirs for people visiting America.
For many, this is considered a novelty as many party scenes in movies use these cups. It is also one of the most iconic cups in modern cinema.

Dr Pepper does not have a period.
This is mainly due to the font of the logo that would make it look like Di: Pepper. Many were confused by this, hence the change.

A Norwegian Island made dying illegal.
It is illegal to die in Svalbard because they are unable to safely bury the deceased due to the permafrost ground. When people on this island are about to die, they are brought to mainland Norway to pass away there.

TheHoldSteady posted...

Jackfruit crabcake

How was that? Was is prepackaged?

Having surgery tomorrow and decided to treat myself to this bomb ass lasagna from a local vegan restaurant before I have to fast.

Hope the surgery is minor and goes well

Stephen Hawking held a reception for time travelers in 2009.
However, he did not publish news of this until after the event so that only real-time travelers were able to know about it. No one attended the event.

Honeybees can recognize human faces.
Bees see in a compilation of over 5000 individual images. They combine all of these images to recognize their surroundings.

The Antarctic glaciers are made up of 3% penguin urine.
Due to the extreme temperatures in this region of the world, the urine cannot evaporate. Hence how they freeze and mold with the glaciers around them.

The Mayo Clinic made glow in the dark cats while trying to find a cure for AIDS.
This was mainly due to the specific protein in their bodies that was fluorescent green. They also used this protein to discover if their tests worked out or not. Glowing was a sign that the tests were successful.

Up to 20% of power outages in the U.S are due to squirrels.

The premiere of the TV reality show 16 and Pregnant helped lower the rate of teen pregnancy.
Statistics show that the rate dropped by 5.7% within the 18 months that the show was airing. I guess kids don't copy everything they see on TV.

The U.S. Navy uses Xbox controllers for their periscopes.
Instead of using a control stick, the Navy opted for this controller so that the learning time could be reduced. This was also the least complicated way of controlling the periscopes.

The common kestrel is known as the windfucker

The roar of a lion can be heard up to 5 miles away.
Its roar is about 114 decibels. This is roughly 25 times louder than a gas-powered lawnmower.

An eagle is capable of killing a young deer and flying away with it.
Bald eagles especially are one of the strongest and most aggressive species of eagles. These birds are capable of swooping in and carrying away your baby.

Sloths hold their breaths longer than dolphins.
On the rare occasions that sloths leave their trees to go for a swim, they hold their breath underwater for up to 40 minutes long. This is 20 minutes longer than the average dolphins record.

TheHoldSteady posted...

I definitely get the hype behind rice paper bacon

That sounds interesting

The chicken is the closest living relative to the T-Rex.
Recent studies have now accepted that prehistoric dinosaurs have more in common with present-day birds than they do with reptiles. Research has found that their genetic makeup is shared more with chickens and ostriches rather than lizards.