What are some curious things that you found out about today?

[tfortable]

I had some random TED Talks playing on YouTube while organising my files when an American woman I didn’t recognise came up. She began sharing a story about her father, who had fled his home country, Bulgaria. This immediately caught my attention since Bulgaria is also my home country. I found myself thinking ‘wow, life must have been hard during that time (under Communism) for everyone, not just minorities.’ I am ethnically Turkish I.e belong to a minority group.

I enjoyed her talk and decided to Google her. To my surprise, she turned out to be Tom Hanks' wife (Rita Wilson). The most intriguing part was that her maiden name is the same as mine - her father was most likely also ethnically Turkish. That might explain the appalling treatment he faced and his drive to flee, so I wish she had mentioned it. Overall, I found it all very curious/ fascinating.

Has anyone else come across surprising little discoveries today?

Kangaroos can jump 10 metres long and 3 metres high!

The man driving the car that crashed into James Dean's car was called Mr Turnipseed.

I follow a lady from Bake Off on FB. Briony May. I found out today that you can make scones from pretty much anything.

Seven Nation Army was originally written to be a James Bond theme. Mind blown.

Hedgehogs are close to being endangered and one reason is robot lawnmowers not being able to detect them and people strimmimg them as they sometimes sleep in long grass:(

Not exactly sure it's curious, but that some people love to put others down with a snide remark just because they can. Actually I knew that already because my mother did it all the time but was a bit taken aback when a random male stranger did it this afternoon.

The Kate Bush track 'Why should I love you', which I know and love, features not only Prince on guitar, but Lenny Henry on vocals! I kid you not.

That all pigeons and all doves are the exact same bird. Even though they’re different, they’re also the same.

That there is a group of American Old Order Mennonites (rather like Amish) called’Black Bumper Mennonites’ who split off from their parent group in the 1920s by allowing the use of cars, but painting the flashy chrome bumpers black for the sake of modesty.

Kangaroos are dickheads

Sincerely an Australian

Commercial airline pilots get paid a base salary and extra for hours that they fly. The base salary is a much smaller percentage with budget airlines.

Sorry that happened. What a miserable, insecure man.

In Bulgarian and Turkish you’ve got one word for both. Dove is simply a ‘white pigeon’. :)

I have never met a kangaroo but I really don't like the look of them and would definitely not go near one.

What are your views on wallabies?

Wallabies are more likely to run away if they're cornered whereas kangaroos will face up to you and will want to have a punch up but like kangaroos, wallabies don't respect the rules of the road and will jump in front of cars because for some weird reason they seem to have a death wish. If I came across a kangaroo in the wild there is no way I'd approach it. In zoos and other wildlife parks they're a bit more docile because they're used to humans but even then I'd be wary of them as they have the ability to disembowel people.

That buying a book nook kit at 2am is a very, very bad idea because they are bastards to assemble and you can't return the kit when your fat fingers have broken most of the parts.

A dry skeleton ie no bone marrow etc is only about 9 to 11 lb
I thought it would be much heavier

Great white sharks can go through 30,000 teeth in their lifetimes.

Bar tailed godwits fly from Alaska to New Zealand without stopping. Their gastrointestinal tract shrinks before they go and they lose half their bodyweight on the way. The flight takes about a week.

I found that my family thought it hilarious that i bought a robot vacuum cleaner that charted out my house .. they think that the Chinese will be very interested to find out where I keep my other vacuum ....

That Tony Hart from Vision On (this one is for older mumsnetters) used to be in the Gurkas.

A fellow Richard and Marina fan I assume 😊

That Superdrug offer prescriptions for shingles antivirals for £35.

How did I not know this about Lenny Henry??!!