One of the threats to the economy is Friday the 13th. Superstition, which forces millions of people around the world to stay away from public places, behave more carefully, travel less, gives a sharp decline in profits for shopping and entertainment companies. Someone believes that on this day 12 witches gathered for the sabbath and Satan joined them on the 13th. In Orthodox culture, there is an opinion that it was on this day that Adam and Eve were kicked out of paradise, and then on the ill-fated Friday, Cain killed Abel. In alternative history and esoteric theories, in 1307, on Friday the 13th, the French king ordered the arrest of all representatives of the Templar Order, thereby destroying the brotherhood. The true origins of the belief are unknown, but statistics confirm that accidents and accidents on this day occur much less than usual, and air tickets are sold at a good discount.
The first translator of the novel «Dracula» into Icelandic in 1901 actually changed the plot to make the story the way he liked it. And no one has known about it for almost 100 years. The story of Valdimar Asmundsson turned out to be more fan fiction than translation, but it was brighter, more erotic and scarier. If we were Icelanders, we would check the rest of the translations of the world classics.
Archduchess Matilda of Austria died from setting fire to her dress while trying to hide a cigarette from her father, who forbade her to smoke. She received second and third degree burns and died on the same evening on June 6, 1867. She was 18 years old. Her death was a great grief for the father, who had already lost his wife and son.
One day Vladimir Mayakovsky gave his beloved — Lila Yurievna Brik — a ring with her initials: L Yu B. Since the letters were arranged around the circumference of the ring, they formed the word «love».
Chimpanzees are much better at plotting than humans. The reason is that chimpanzees live in a competitive social environment where it is necessary to constantly try to outwit their fellows, and people, on the contrary, are inclined to cooperate from birth.
In 1995, the Nobel Prize was awarded to scientists from Keio University. Experts showed the birds slides with paintings by Picasso and Monet. If a Picasso canvas appeared on the screen, pigeons were given seeds, if a Monet painting, they were given nothing. The birds were taught to press a button if they saw slides with paintings by a Spaniard. Then the pigeons were shown Picasso paintings that the birds had not seen before. They had to distinguish the canvases of a Spanish artist from those of a Frenchman. Then the birds had to distinguish Picasso's paintings from those of Georges Braque and Henri Mattis, and Monet's canvases ― from canvases by Paul Cezanne and Pierre Renoir. The pigeons coped with the task.
There is an anechoic chamber in the Minnesota Orfield Laboratory, the background noise of which has a negative value: -9.4 dBA. It is considered the quietest place on Earth. According to the designer of the room Stephen Orfield, no one can stand in absolute silence for longer than 45 minutes. Sooner or later, in a cell where you can clearly hear the beating of your own heart and the noise produced by your lungs, you become uncomfortable. Hallucinations appear, terrible anxiety covers. In addition, you cannot move normally, since usually the brain «reads» information about the position of the body in space, guided by sounds and echoes. Anyone who finds themselves in the room is forced to sit on the floor, which increases the feeling of «wrongness» of what is happening and the helplessness of a person who has suddenly lost his hearing.
In 2013, Belgian club FC Racing Boxberg signed a contract with 20-month-old Bruce Brights. The coach of the Belgian team said that the control of the ball at Brights is simply incredible for his age. At that time, Brights was the youngest member of the Belgian Football Association and the youngest professional footballer in the world.
The filming of the movie «Gravity» cost $27 million more than the Indian orbital mission to Mars. Speaking about the launch of the Indian PSLV launch vehicle with satellite vehicles from France, Germany, Canada and Singapore, which took place in 2019 on the island of Sriharikota, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the space agency for maintaining control over costs. «I've heard about the movie Gravity. I was told that the budget for launching an Indian rocket into space is less than the cost of making this Hollywood movie,» he said.
The Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, but in 2011 it was received by the American immunologist Ralph Steinman, who had been dead for three days at the time of the award, but the Nobel committee did not know about it. Steinman received the prize «for the discovery of dendritic cells and their role in adaptive immunity.» Dendritic cells play a crucial role in the functioning of the immune system, as they are necessary for the activation of the T-cell response.
