1. Did you know that every year on the last Wednesday of August the people of the Town of Bunol which is near Valencia, Spain celebrate the festival of throwing tomatoes? This festival originated in the year 1945 when angry city dwellers were upset at the corrupt and lazy city workers and they protested by throwing tomatoes at them! Since then it has become an annual event and such a large tourist attraction that the city must limit how many tourists can enter the town to join the festival!
2. Did you know that the most dangerous jellyfish is smaller than your pointer fingernail? The Irukandji jellyfish lives on the Australian and US pacific coast but has even been spotted on the coasts of the British Isles! It is the most venomous jellyfish with venom believed to be 100 times stronger than cobra venom. It is only 5 to 10 millimeters in size but it is still fatal. Getting stung by it brings on great back pain, painful muscle cramps, convulsions and vomiting. If treated it isn’t fatal but if not the possibility of death brings one in five patients to the hospital needing artificial respiration to survive.
3. Did you know that the first computer in use outside of the US and Europe was in Israel in 1955? The Vizek computer was built and used in the Weitzman institute in 1955. Up to 1061 it was Israel’s only computer and it was joined by another purchased for the IDF.
4. Did you know that Scotland’s national animal is the Unicorn? To their credit this animal was chosen in the 15th century when the western nations still believed the unicorn to be a real animal. It was only in the 20th century that it was proven by scientists to be fictitious.
5. Did you know that there’s a saline lake called Lake Hillier on an island off of Australia that’s famous for its red colored water? Though there are different bodies of water with different colors, scientist still haven’t figured out why this lake has pink water. They think the bacteria in the water causes the salt to turn pink.
6. Did you know that the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, since July 1997 is a cat named Stubbs? Every day tourists come to see the cat mayor of the town in his full splendor!
7. Did you know that an Afghani Taliban terrorist named Mohammad Ashan was so desperate for cash that he turned himself in to get the $100 reward for the person leading to his captivity?