The Origin of Countries Names – A

A country’s name can elicit incredible pride and patriotism in its inhabitants. The origins of those names can be varied and interesting. In this series we will explore the meaning behind the name of every country in the world. From Afghanistan. To Zimbabwe.

 

Afghanistan

 

We start our journey in Afghanistan which is one of the stans in Central Asia. The suffix stan can be traced back to Persian and means place of. Whereas the Afghan portion of the name relates back to ethnic pashtuns. Therefore together the Afghanistan means place or land of the pashtuns.

 

Albania

 

The name Albania likely refers back to the latinised name for the Albani who were an Illyrian tribe conquered by the Romans at the turn of the first millenia. Over time this developed while maintaining the same starting word structure. Historians noted cities like Albanopolis and Albanon around the 10th century AD. Modern day Albanians have refered to themselves as Shqipëri or Shqipëria since at least as early as the 17th century. This translates as Land of the Eagles and Children of the Eagles. Eagles are synomymous with Albania and relate back to an old folk talk in which a youth rescues a baby eagle from a snake. The eagle features heavily in Albanian culture and most obviously in their flag.

 

Algeria

Over to Africa now for the North African nation of Algeria. The name Algeria is taken from the nations capital of Algiers which has played several important roles in history as a phoenecian port, a carthaginian city before being claimed by the Roman empire, an Ottoman nation during the Islamic expansion through Africa and finally as a major hub for the French empire in Africa.

The base form of Alger is a French interpretation of the Arabic name Al Jazair which translates to The Islands. The islands refers to four islands that used to exist prior to 1525 before their became part of the mainland. The name Al Jazair is a shortened version of Algeria’s medieval name which was  Jaza’ir Bani Mazghana or in English, The islands of the sons of Mazhana. The Mazhana was another name for the Sanhaja people, who would have lived in the area during the medieval age.

 

Andorra

 

The Name Andorra is of unknown origin, although there a few theories. The small european nation played a role in the punic wars standing against the Carthaginians. The greeks called the people who lived in the area, the Andosins. Another theory suggests that during the period of muslim iberia, it was named al-durra, arabic for the forrest. Other theories suggest it comes from the Navvaro word of andurrial, which means land covered with bushes.

 

A widely rejected folk story claims that King Charlemagn named the region Andorra in reference to the Cannanite valley of Endor discussed in the bible.

 

Angola

 

Angola was named by the portuguese during their occupation of the African region during the 16th century. The name is derived from the name of the king of Ndongo, which was the name of the region before colonosation. The kings were refered to as ngola’s of Ndongo.

 

Antigua and Barbuda

 

The word Antigua is Spanish for ancient. It was named by Christopher colombus as Santa Maria la Antigua, after a church in Seville, Spain. The island of Antigua is named Wadadli by those that live there and is a word from the indigenous Arawak peoples vocabulary. The word Barbuda is Spanish for bearded.

 

Argentina

 

Argentina is a South American nation and therefore it’d be safe to assume that Argentina comes from the Spanish language or the Portuguese language. However that’s not the case as the word actually comes from Italian. The word Argentina in Italian means made of silver. This is likely a reference to the Venetian and Genoese myth of there being mountains of silver.

 

Armenia

 

Armenia is known natively as Hayastan and will be one of the first of several stan nations that you’ll see on this list. The prefix stan is a Persian which means place of. The name Haya can be traced back to the 5th century in several great works of literature from the middle east. The name Haya comes from the name Hayk, who is viewed as the patriarch of the Aremnian people and also the great -great grandson of Noah from the story of the flood. Thus the term Hayastan means the place of hayks people. Now what about the exoynm Armenia? Quite similarly the name can be traced back to another of Noahs decescendants. Aram is a member of Noah and Hayks ancestral line. The ancient greeks refered to the nation as Armenia, the nation of the Aramites.

 

Australia

 

The ancient greeks referred to a hypothetical continent in the southern hemisphere known as Terra Australis or ‘The Southern Land’. When explorers landed on the continent in the 17th century, it was naturally refered to as Terra Australis. The name New Holand was used in the following century until in 1824 the name was changed to Australia due to it being more agreeable to the ear based on the suggestions of explorer Matthew Flinders.

 

Austria

 

The Name Austria is a latinised translation that comes from the German language name for the country Ostereich, which means the Eastern Realm or the Eastern Mark. The country was named as such because it was the Frankish kingdoms Eastern defences against the Avar invasion from the east. Charlemagne also supposedly refered to the nation as Avar Mark.

 

Azerbaijan

 

Azerbaijan like most other nations in the middle east has a name that dates back to ancient times. Azerbaijan can be traced back to a persian governor of the archeminidian empire who controlled the region under Alexander the greats rule. The governor Atropates took his name from the greak phrase atropatan which means ‘protected by the holy fire’ or ‘The Land of the holy fire’

 

Thanks very much for watching! This series has been posted simultaneously on my main channel Tidus_Mino and my secondary channel Mino Productions. From June all non gaming videos will only be posted on Mino Productions, so if this is your thing, please do go and subscribe over there! The next episode will be posted next Sunday as we look at all the B’s! Until next time, bye!

Aha! 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 10 – Geography!

Welcome to Episode 10 of Aha 10 Fascinating Facts. This episode will be focused around geography!. I hope you enjoy and please do comment down below and subscribe to the channel.

 

1 The continents shift and grind each other constantly. The speed they do this at is minute. The continents move roughly at the same rate as the speed in which your fingernails grow.

 

2 The distance between Russia and the USA is only 2.4 miles. The diomede islands lie between Alaska and Russia.With big diomedes being A Russiand Island and diomedes an American island. During the winter period it is sometimes possible to walk between the two due to the water freezing in the Bering straight.

 

3 Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, can fit inside the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean.

 

4 Nauru is the only nation that has no official capital.

 

5 Los Angeles full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula” (in English, “town of our lady the Queen of Angels of the River Porciúncula”).

 

6 Instanbul is the only city situation over two continents. Europe and Asia.

 

7 . RENO, NEVADA, IS WEST OF LOS ANGELES.

Even though it is in Nevada and nearly 300 miles from the ocean, Reno is roughly 86 miles farther west than the coastal city Los Angeles.

 

8 AUSTRALIA MAY BE SURROUNDED BY WATER, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE THE WORLD’S LONGEST COASTLINE.

Being completely surrounded by water, you would have thought Australia would easily have the honor of being the country with the longest coastline. However, that title goes to Canada. Canada has 152,100 miles of coastline, in comparison to just 16,000 miles for Australia.

 

9  Russia is so large that it spreads over 11 different time zones. When one side of Russia has a morning breakfast at 7 am; the other side enjoys evening snacks at 6 pm.

10 the driest place on earth is McMurdo dry Valleys in Antarctica where it hasn’t rained for 2 million years. Only anaerobic bacteria are able to survive in the extreme conditions. Scientists also consider the area terrestrially closest to Mars on earth.

Aha! 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 9 – Science!

 

Welcome to Episode 9 of Aha 10 Fascinating Facts, and the first episode to be themed. Each episode will featured 10 facts around a singular theme, starting with Science. I hope you enjoy and please do comment down below and subscirbe to the channel.

 

1 the Himba tribe in Namibia has no word for the color blue. In research, when shown 11 green squares and 1 blue, they couldn’t pick out which was different. The research suggests that without a way of identifying the color as different, it’s harder for our eyes to notice it.

 

2 The “Flynn Effect” shows the average IQ is rising steadily with each generation. IQ tests are continually made harder to keep the average at 100. Today’s children that take tests from past decades are averaging significantly higher than 100

 

3 Probiotics can evolve inside the body and have the potential to become less effective and sometimes even harmful.

 

Researchers studying a strain of E. coli which had been sold in Europe as an anti-diarrheal probiotic, found that the bacteria’s DNA changed after living in mice’s intestines for a few weeks and caused distress

 

4 As temperatures continue to rise due to global warming, an estimated 1 billion people are likely to be opened upto the risks of new diseases like dengue fever that currently are restricted to hotter climates.

 

5 A Woman with ‘mutant’ gene who feels no pain and heals without scarring was recently discovered by scientists. She reported numerous burns and cuts without pain, often smelling her burning flesh before noticing any injury, as published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, and could open door to new treatments.

 

6 Doing just 10 min to 1 hour of leisure time physical activity such as dancing, walking, or gardening each week is associated with an 18 percent lower risk of death. All exercise, even the smallest, easiest amount, can have lasting benefits.

 

7 Scientists studied a “super-smeller” who claimed to smell Parkinson’s disease. In a test, she smelled patients clothes and flagged just one false positive – who turned out to be undiagnosed. The study identified subtle volatile compounds that may make it easier for machines to diagnose Parkinson’s.

 

8 In 2010, OxyContin was reformulated to deter misuse of the drug. As a result, opioid mortality declined. But heroin mortality increased, as OxyContin abusers switched to heroin. There was no reduction in combined heroin/opioid mortality: each prevented opioid death was replaced with a heroin death.

 

9 The success of an environmental charge on plastic bags in supermarkets. Before the introduction of the bag charge, 48% of shoppers in England used single-use plastic bags, while less than a year after the charge introduction, their share decreased to 17%
10 Risks for autism and depression are higher if one’s mother was in hospital with an infection during pregnancy. This is shown by a major Swedish observational study of nearly 1.8 million children. The increase in risk was 79 percent for autism and 24 percent for depression.

The Berlin Airlift & The Candy Bomber

Following the end of the second world war, the German capital of Berlin was divided into allied controlled regions, with the British, the Americans and the French dividing West Berlin between them and the Soviets controlling East Berlin. As time progressed relations between the east and west began to deteoriate as the cold war got into full swing. In the 1960’s the Soviets cut off access to east berlin via the construction of a large wall dividing the capital with a non mans zone police by the military. The wall came up overnight on 13th August 1961  and left thousands cut off from friends and family for decades. However tensions had been building before that and this wasn’t the first conflict between east and west Berlin. On 24th June 1948, the Berlin Blockage began. This blockade was caused by the Soviets who blocked the western allies trade route access, meaning the west were unable to send goods to their people by rail, road or canal. The soviets demanded that the west remove the newly introduced deutsche mark, in favour of the eastern deutsch mark which was known as the Ostmark.

 

The Berlin blockage was one of the very first crises of the cold war. Rail, Road and Canal routes into the city were blocked and this left only one solution. Air. A coaltion of airforces incuding the US Air Fairce, Britains Royal Air Force, The French Air Fiorce, The Canadian Air Force, The Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the South African Air Force combined to drop care packages to the people of Berlin. These packages contained everything they would need to survive. Food and Fuel. The soviets did not intervene or attempt to shoot down any of the allied plans for fear of causing war between both sides. The day the soviets began the blockade, west Germany had enough food to feed their population for 36 days and enough coal to last them 45 days. It was clear that the allies would need to act fast.

 

US commander General Clay approached the British air force commander Sir Brian Robertson to begin an airlift, only to find out that the British had already set one up and were airlifting aid to British troops stuck inside Berlin. The Royal Air Force had already been dropping a sizeable chunk of goods before the joint expedition but those numbers would have to increase drastically. The US calculated that to support the city with a daily ration of 1,990 kilocalories it’d need to deliver daily supplies of 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese. In all, 1,534 tons were required each day to sustain the over two million people of Berlin. Also for heat and power, 3,475 tons of coal, diesel and petrol were also required daily. Due to the postwar shrinkage of the militaries, both sides scrambled to get enough aircraft to deliver the massive number of goods needed by the people of Berlin.

On 25 June 1948 General Clay gave the order to launch Operation Vittles, the name the airlift was known by. The following day 32 C-47s lifted off for Berlin hauling 80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour, and medicine. The first British aircraft flew on 28 June. At that time, the airlift was expected to last three weeks, it would last almost a year.

 

Hundreds of planes were arriving in Berlin from neighbouring airports. The US flights would come in from Rhein-Main Air base and Wisebaden, while the British airports flew in from Hamburg. This caused a logistical nightmare to avoid crashes and a complex system was created known as the block system was put in place. It involved three 8 hour shifts of C-54’s flying into Berlin followed by a shift of C-47’s. The airstrip was scheduled to see a plane take off every four minutes and planes were expected to fly 1,000 feet higher than the flight in front.

 

The airlift started off slow, delivering only 90 tonnes a day during its first week, but this would rise tenfold to 1,000 tonnes by the second week. 6 weeks into the operation, a new commander from the US camp would be sent in to take over the airlift. Major General William H Tunner was embarassed by the inadequacy of the setup of the airlift and began making major changes. This became known as Black Friday and Tunner noted that it was from this date that the airlift became a success.

 

By the end of August 1948, a month after Tunners Black Friday changes, the airlift saw more than 1,500 flights a day and 4,500 tonnes of cargo delivered, which was enough to keep west Berlin supplied. By January of the following year this improved to 5,000 tonnes a day. The allies had refused to bow to the Soviets demands and were keeping their people alive at all costs.

 

One of the most notable stories to come from the Berlin Airlift is that of the Candy Bomber.

A US Air Force pilot named Gail Halvorsen decided to use his off time from work to fly into Berlin and try to make movies using his hand held camera. On the 17th July 1948 he arrived at Berlin airport and was greeted by a large group of children. They were curious about the aircraft and Gail took the time to answer all of their questions. He gave the children two packs of his Wrigleys Doublemint gum and was so moved by the childrends generosity and graittude as they divided the gum into the smallest pieces they could to provide everyone a piece, that he promised he’d return to drop off more. Before take off one of the children asked him how they would know it was him. He replied that he’d wiggle his wings.

 

The next day on his approach to Berlin, he wiggled the aircraft and dropped some chocolate bars attached to a handkerchief parachute to the children waiting below. Each day the crowd of awaiting children grew larger and larger. The US Air Force base began recieving stacks of thank you mail addressed to “Uncle Wiggly Wings”, “The Chocolate Uncle” and “The Chocolate Flier”.

Halvorsens commanding officer was upset when the story appeared in the newspaper, but when Major General Tunner heard about it, he approved of the gesture and immediately expanded it into “Operation Little Vittles”. Other pilots joined in and began to drop their own care packages to the children of Berlin, and when news reached the US shores, children all over the country sent in their own candy to help out. Soon, major candy manufacturers joined in the effort and over twenty three tons of candy were dropped on Berlin.

 

Things carried on this way until the 15th of April 1949 when the Soviet news agency Tass announced a willingness for the end of the blockade. The four powers immediately began negotiations and by 1 minute to midnight on 12th of May 1949 the blockade was lifted. The first truck carrying supplies entered the city seconds later and the first cargo train arrived at 5:32am. The airlift didn’t stop as it was essential for the city to build up a comfortable surplus, should something similar happen again in the future. By the end of the airlift on the 30th of September 1949, a total of 2,326,406 tonnes of goods have been delivered by the airlift. 101 fatalities were recorded as a result of the operation, including 40 Brits and 31 Americans, mostly as a result of non flying accidents. One Australian air force member was killed in an aircraft crash as well as seventeen Americans and eight Brits that also lost their lives in crashes.

 

The cost of the airlift split between the US, the UK and Germany was estimated to have been between $224 million and $500 million, which equates to $2.6 billion and $5.27 billion adjusted for inflation. However the saviour of two million lives as well as an early defeat for the soviets in the cold war was well worth the cost to the taxpayer.

 

Thanks for watching the video, I hope you enjoyed this little slice of history. Again it’s something a bit different to the content most of you are here for, but it’s something I enjoy making and will make more of. If you want to support me then please do subscribe to the channel and ring the bell to be notified when I go live. If you want to support me financially then i’ve setup a Patreon. I have grand plans for the channel with the eventually goal of doing this full time and increasing the quality of my videos, but both of those things cost money. I’ll see you next time bye!  

Aha! 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 8

1 physicist Nikola Tesla once paid an overdue hotel bill with a box containing a working model of his ‘death beam‘, warning employees never to open it because of the danger. They hid the box & when it was discovered years later & opened, found to contain old (harmless) electrial parts.

 

2 Paul McCartney, as a vegetarian and animal rights activist, only agreed to appear on The Simpsons if Lisa’s decision to become a vegetarian in that episode was made permanent. He is literally the only reason Lisa is still a vegetarian.

 

3 Communist leader Stalins grandaughter is an alternative, buddhist that runs an antique store in Portland Oregon.

 

4 the Queen logo, called the Queen crest, was designed by Freddie Mercury himself, who held a degree in graphic design. The logo combines the zodiac signs of the four band members.

 

5 ‘kangaroo words’, that is, a word that contains a synonym inside it, i.e MAscuLinE, BLOssOM, cHickEN or hoNOuraBLE.

 

6 The bezel on a dive watch only turns counterclockwise so that if the bezel is bumped accidentally during a dive it will only move in one direction, subtracting time from the dive and prompting the diver to surface early rather than staying under for too long.

 

7 John Scott, a pro hockey player who got voted by the people (as a joke) to be the captain of the All Star team. The NHL didn’t want him to play, so he got sent to the Minor Leagues. There wasn’t a rule against a minor leaguer playing in it though, so he played, scored twice and won MVP.

 

8 before Paris was liberated from the Nazis, Hitler ordered military governor Dietrich von Choltitzthe to demolish the Eiffel Tower and other major landmarks. He refused this direct order, and surrendered to the Allies instead, saving the tower.

 

9 When babies are born in Thailand, it is common for people to say the baby is ugly. There is a superstition that attractive babies will be taken by evil spirits. It is impolite to say positive things about the baby.
10 bees dance to each other in the hive to tell each other where to find good pollen. The angle of the dance is the angle relative to the sun, the tempo of dance is the distance, the duration of dance is the quality of the pollen, and the dancer hands out free samples to whoever’s watching!

Aha! 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 7

1 A castle in portugal was under siege in Moncao during the 14th century as the Spanish tried to starve out the inhabiants. Using the last of their flour supplies, a local woman baked some cakes and had it thrown over the castle walls exclaiming ‘if you need anymore, just let us know’. The bluff worked and the Spanish, fearing a long term siege withdrew from the battle. You can still buy the cakes in the town today.

 

2 The word Anti social is often mis-used to describe someone that is reclusive and keeps to themselves. The correct term for this is a-social. Someone that is antisocial is disruptive and maniupulative.

 

3 Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Sherlock saved a cyclist from attempted robbery by fighting off a gang of muggers in London. He was traveling by Uber when he spied the muggers assaulting a delivery cyclist. He jumped out of the car screaming obscenities at the attackers while dragging them off the victim… badass.

 

4 In 2008 Blink 182 Drummer Travis Barker was tragically involved in a plane crash that saw 4 of the 6 people on board perish. Travis Barker suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns among other injuries. In the year that followed his pain was so intense that he repeatedly offered friends a million dollars if they would assist him in ending his life. Eventually hospital staff had to confiscate his phone.

 

5 In LA Libraries there is a program called the great read away program that allows children to read additional books to clear any late fee’s they may have. The first six months after the programs inception saw 3,500 accounts had been cleared and reportedly parents were 80% more likely to let their kids go to the library.

 

6 The Gretzky brothers of hockey fame hold the NHL record for the most combined points by two brothers (2,857 for Wayne and 4 for Brent)

 

7 Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar made more money on the stock market than he ever did from music. He sold his 80% share in the Cabo Wabo Tequila company to Gruppo Campari for $91 million

 

8 Most representations of neanderthals depict them as hunch backed or at least hunched over. This is because the first neanderthal skeleton found was arthritic.

 

9 in 1981 a man named Roger Fischer had an idea for a volunteer to have nuclear launch codes put in their chest cavity. In the event of an emergency, the volunteer would carry a knife to be killed with. It was meant to force the personal killing of one man to start the impersonal killing of millions.

 

10 if My Name Is Earl had not been prematurely canceled the creator planned to end it with Earl being unable to finish his list but realizing that his original list had started a chain reaction of good in the world

Why is Washington D.C. the capital of the USA?

Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. These are all cities you might expect to be the capital of the United States if you were only just introduced to the nation. Cities that have had huge impact and importance throughout the life cycle of the USA with New York and Philly being important at the beginning of the nations life, New York especially. However the capital is instead a small piece of land in between Virginia and Maryland. Why is that?

In the late 18th century when the country was young, important political meetings where carried out in New York and Philidelphia. This was a problem for many of the southern leaders such as Thomas Jefferson who owned slave plantations in the south which required them to frequently travel back and forward between Virginia and the northern states. A trip that took quite some time before the train and plane were invented.

 

So why did the congress change the capital from two established areas that had been active during the revolution and change it to a completely new piece of land ceded from Maryland and Virginia? Well there are a number of reasons. An act during 1783 created discontent between congress and the state of Philidelphia. The nation had issues paying the continental soldiers who’d been active in the revoluotnary war. Tensions built and things came to a head as a crisis broke out known as the Philidelphia mutiny of 1783. 400 Soldiers marches on the Independence Hall and barricaded the doors, locking those inside until they were paid. A young political leader who’d been a soldier himself and was known for his quick wit and golden tongue was dispatched to deal with the situation. Alexander Hamilton met with the troops and convinced them to stand down and to allow the congress some time to resolve the matter and pay the troops. They agreed to this but instead of carrying out what they had promised, congress got out of dodge and moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Over the next few years they’d move to Trenton, New Jersey, Annapolis, Maryland and New York City.

 

While all this moving about was going on, the French ambassador for the United States and one of the key figures in securing funding and troops for the revolutionary war, Thomas Jefferson had returned to the United States. Jefferson was a southern leader much like president Washington and owned ranches and plantations in Virginia. Virginia was at that time arguably the most important state, holding half a million of the 2.5 million Americans at the time and holding a great deal of its wealth. Alexander Hamilton believed however that the future of America’s wealth was not in exporting products but in borrowing from other nations. He wanted to found the first bank of America but did not have enough backing from other congressman. Although Jefferson was not a fan of Hamilton, he and close friend James Madison felt that they could swing the votes in Hamiltons favour if he agreed to back their bid to move the capital from the North to a new plot of land near Virginia and Maryland along the Potomac river. What was said for the two groups who notably had bad blood between them is not known as, nobody else was in the room where it happens.

In 1790 Congress passed the Residence act which gave both parties what they wanted. Jefferson and Madison had the capital moved to a new piece of land taken from both Virginia and Maryland and named Washington after president washington and the the District being named Columbia after Christopher Columbus. While Hamilton was allowed to pass the Assumption bill that would allow him to found the first bank of America and assume control of all states debts.

 

Both plans worked out rather well as Washington DC grew into a thriving city that boasts global renown and relevance and America benefited greatly from their new financial systems and over the following two hundred years they were able to become the financial powerhouse of the world.

 

I hope you liked the video. It’s something a little different to the content I usually post but it’s something that interests me and i’d like to keep doing. Leave me your thoughts and opinions down below and please do make sure to subscribe!

Aha! 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 6

1 John Cena is proficient in Mandarin and was able to live there for a 6 month stint during 2018. Learning the language was encouraged by WWE management as they are trying to make a big push into the chinese market.

 

2 A company in Japan has awarded it’s non-smoking employee’s with 6 days of extra anual leave a year to make up for the frequent smoke breaks that their smoking colleagues take.

 

3 planned obsolescence is illegal in France; it is a crime to intentionally shorten the lifespan of a product with the aim of making customers replace it. In early 2018, French authorities used this law to investigate reports that Apple deliberately slowed down older iPhones via software updates.

 

4 in the 1950’s, donut shops were some of the first food businesses commonly open late at night. They became hot spots for police working the night shift since it gave them a place to grab a snack, fill out paper work, or even just take a break. This is why donuts became associated with cops.

 

5 here’s a restaurant in New York that doesn’t employ chefs; they employ grandmas. Every day, a different grandma from around the world designs her own menu.

 

6

Prince William and Prince Harry pulled a prank on their grandmother the Queen in their teen years , by changing her voicemail answering message to say, “Hey wassup! This is Liz. Sorry I’m away from the throne. For a hotline to Philip, press one. For Charles, press two. And for the corgis, press three.

 

7 a group of undercover Detroit police posing as drug dealers tried to arrest another group of undercover police posing as drug buyers.

 

8 that in 1825 painter Samuel Morse received a letter which read that his wife was sick. The day after that a new one said that she was dead. When 2 days later he went to his wife, he discovered that she was already buried. Pissed off for the slowness of communications, he invented the Morse code.

 

9 Grand Theft Auto V cost $265 million to make — the largest budget of any video game at that time — but turned around and made $1 billion in its first 72 hours

 

10 when pimps get arrested, their cash can legally be confiscated but not their jewelry. This is why pimps wear lots of jewelry so that they can “re-pawn” it for bail money.

Aha 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 5

Episode 5

1 A man in London created a fake restaurant on TripAdvisor and asked around to his friends for good reviews. Eventually, the fake restaurant was the #1 restaurant in London on the website, and was being called 100s of times daily for bookings. For a single day, the man set up a “cafe” in his backyard and served frozen food to rave reviews using a DJ to pump up the music everytime the microwave dinged to disguise it.

 

2  Kate Winslet keeps her Oscar in her bathroom so that her guests can hold it and make acceptance speeches in the mirror.

 

3 A Swedish man named Peter kyllberg survived for 2 months snowed into his car by eating snow and maintaining his body temperature. The snow insulating the outside of his vehicle kept warmth within the car and 2 months is the upper limit of how long the human body can survive on only water.

 

4 during the filming of the Sound of Music, the city of Salzburg refused to allow Nazi flags to be hung off buildings for filming. The director threatened to instead use real newsreel footage of the city enthusiastically greeting Hitler. The city quickly backpedalled and allowed the shot.

 

5 Hersheys can not legally be called a chocolate bar in the UK as it does not meet the minimum cocoa content to be called chocolate.

 

6

in January 2014, seven-year-old Charlotte Benjamin sent a handwritten letter to Lego complaining there were “more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls”. In June 2014, Lego announced a new “Research Institute” collection featuring female scientists which sold out within a week.

 

7 A brewery in florida managed to create edible rings for beer cans that feed animals instead of killing them

 

8 in 1833 Britain used 40% of its national budget to free all slaves in the Empire. The loan for the Slavery Abolition Act was so large that it was not paid off until 2015.

 

9 All the castles displayed in the holy grail and monty python are in fact the same castle known as Doune castle in Scotland from many different angles.
10 Alan Rickman who played Snape and Alfonso Cuaron the Director of Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban played a practical joke on Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe while making the film. They placed a fart machine in his sleeping bag, positioned himself next to a girl he fancied, and set the farts off during filming.

Aha 10 Fascinating Facts – Episode 4

Episode 4

 

1 – Peanuts are not really nuts. They are legumes.

 

2 – The Taste of foam banana sweets doesn’t taste like the banana we know today. That’s because it was based on another breed of banana that unfortunately went extinct in the early 20th century due to the panama disease.

 

3 – Sweden held colonies in both New Jersey and Delaware. One of the biggest impacts that these colonies had on America was the introduction of log cabins to American architecture. These traditionally Swedish log cabins were prevalent all over colonial America.

 

4 – The Triceratops could move it’s head almost 360 degree’s in the same way an owl can. Triceratops bones restructured from archilogical digs have discovered the dinosaurs possessed a ball and socket joint at tehe base of it’s skull. This would have allowed for not only the ability to move in almost any direction, but to do so in a fraction of a second.

 

5 – A doctor on an air canada flight was faced with a toddler suffering an asthma attack and had to attempt to save the childs life with very few medical tools. Dr Kurshid Guru, the director of Robotic Surgery at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute managed to create a nebulizer using a water bottle, a cup, an oxygen tank and an inhaler. The child made it off the flight perfectly safe.

 

6 – Two identical twins were suspected of committing a jewelry heist for $6.8 million in 2009. DNA testing found evidence that one of the twins was present for the crime. However only 1 set of DNA was found and it was impossible to ascertain which twin commited the theft. Therefore both twins were acquitted so as not to put an innocent man in prison.

 

7 Lake Superior contains an island known as isle royale. This island has a lake known as lake siskiwit. That lake has an island known is Ryan Island. That island has a pond known as the moose flats. That pond contains a boulder that is large enough to be considered an island. Therefore it’s an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island in the largest lake in North America.

 

8 Plankton produced 50-85% of the words oxygen and because of global warming this is at risk.

 

9 To stop the advance of the Japanese army in 1938, the Chinese government breached a dyke of the yellow river and caused a flood that lasted 9 years and killed half a million people.

 

10 In 1971 Pink floyd played a gig in London that was so loud that it killed all the fish living in a pond just 100 yards away.