Arabic numerals were developed in India in the V-VI centuries AD and spread throughout the world by Arab scientists who made visits to India and translated mathematical works into Arabic. Over time, these figures became known precisely as Arabic. In Europe, they were popularized by Fibonacci — he learned about them when he studied mathematics in Algeria.
As with humans, the genetic factor is important in the color of cats' fur. The black color is due to the dominant gene, however, if a black cat has a dominant gene of striped color, under prolonged exposure to sunlight, the cat can become brown-red [and striped]. This is due to the destruction of the pigment eumelanin in wool.
In the USA in 1913, it was possible to send not only letters and parcels, but even children with the help of mail. Postage stamps were attached to children's clothes, and then the «cargo» was placed in the bags of postmen who traveled by train. Such a service cost only 53 cents. It is believed that this is how parents saved on train tickets.
In the II century A.D., a physician Galen lived in the Roman Empire. He studied medicine in Alexandria, was the personal physician of Marcus Aurelius, developed new methods of treatment, which included medication, diet and gymnastics. During his life, Galen wrote more than 500 works on medicine, in which he described his scientific research and experience in the treatment of diseases. So he had to write two more books: «About my own Books» and «About the order of my own Books.»
For the rental of the cartoon «Puzzle» in Japan, in one of the scenes, broccoli was replaced with green capsicum. It turned out that Japanese children have nothing against broccoli, and in order for them to get into the scene in which Riley refuses to eat this vegetable, it was replaced with green pepper — it is this capsicum that children in Japan do not like.
In 2001, PizzaHut delivered pizza to the ISS. This delivery took several days and cost the company $1 million. In order for the pizza not to lose its taste qualities, more salt and spices were added to it. The pizza was eaten by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.
The famous American rapper Tupac Shakur [2Pac] could play a Jedi in Star Wars. George Lucas considered the candidacy of Tupac, also known as a Hollywood actor, for the role of one of the Jedi in the movie «Star Wars. Episode I: The Hidden Menace.» Tupac himself reacted positively to Lucas' proposal. The shooting of the film was supposed to begin in 1997, and the rapper did not live up to them quite a bit — he was shot on September 13, 1996.
The Python programming language was not named after the snake at all. Its author Guido van Rossum said that he named it after the British comedy TV show «Monty Python's Flying Circus». Of course, in the vast majority of cases Python is still associated with python — the file icons in KDE and Microsoft Windows, as well as the logo on the official website depicted a snake. However, since the release of version 2.5, the logo on the site has been replaced.
Popeye the sailor owes his existence to a mistake made in 1870. Then the German scientist Erich von Wolf measured the iron content in vegetables and, rewriting the data from the notebook, missed with a comma and wrote down 35 mg of iron per 100 g of spinach instead of 3.5 mg. When his research was published, spinach acquired legendary status. And that's why, when Popeye was invented [1929], someone advised him to make spinach his favorite food. The data was rechecked and corrected in 1937, but the myth still lives.
Psychologist William Marston, known as the inventor of the polygraph [«lie detector»], was also the author of comics, the most popular of which is about «Wonder Woman». Initially, Wonder Woman's name was Suprima. Marston's experience with a polygraph convinced him that women are more honest and reliable and can work more efficiently. «Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for a new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world,» Marston wrote.
