So, in the midst of all the gubernatorial elections, let's lighten up with some facts that you might not believe.

1.Someone tried to sell New Zealand on eBay:

Some odd things have been sold on eBay, from a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary to Justin Timberlake's half-eaten French toast. But one of the strangest listings ever had to be for the country of New Zealand. That's right: A man from Brisbane, Australia tried to sell New Zealand off on eBay in 2006.

The listing described the country as "the dodgiest American Cup win ever" and said it has "very ordinary weather." Despite those selling points, the ridiculous auction gained a ton of interest. The starting bid was 1 cent and after 6,000 hits and 22 bids, the selling price for New Zealand climbed all the way to $3,000. Eventually, eBay caught wind of the auction and pulled it from its site. "Clearly New Zealand is not for sale," a spokesperson for eBay Australia said at the time.

2.Sumo wrestlers make babies cry for good luck:
While most parents do what they can to prevent or stop their babies from crying, that's not always the case in Japan. That's because it's a 400-year-old Japanese tradition that if a sumo wrestler can make your baby cry, it means he or she will live a healthy life. During a special ceremony, parents hand over their infants to sumo wrestlers who bounce their precious tots up and down and sometimes even roar in their little faces to get the tears flowing. "He's not a baby that cries much, but today he cried a lot for us and we are very happy about it," mother Mae Shige said at a 2014 event.

3.A human could swim through a blue whale's vein:
The blue whale is the largest living creature—it's even larger than most dinosaurs. The biggest blue whales can be over 100 feet in length and weigh more than 100 tons. Their hearts alone can weigh 1,300 pounds, and are the size of a small car. Unsurprisingly, blue whales have enormous arteries, which pump blood through their massive hearts and into their vital organs. These arteries are so big that a fully grown human could swim through them, not that you should try it.

A 115-year old mousetrap caught a mice after over a century:
They say if it ain't broke, don't fix it—and that turned out to be the case for a very early design of the mousetrap. In the mid-1800s, inventor Colin Pullinger unveiled his Perpetual Mousetrap and claimed that it would last a lifetime. More than a century later, Pullinger could still make that claim.

The 155-year-old device, on display at England's Museum of English Rural Life, managed to catch a mouse that snuck into it in 2016—even without bait! The mouse entered the trap attempting to build a nest and ended up activating its see-saw mechanism. Sadly, the rodent didn't survive. But clearly, the perpetual mousetrap does!

Nairaland is really upgrading with some educative posts. kudos to Op.

Interesting compilation Op. Keep it coming!

If it's hard to believe,then it's probably not a fact.
I was going to slap you for saying that a human could swim through a whale's vein,but then you changed it to artery in the following write up (sensational headline).
Also I don't know what's your definition of the word fact.
To beat you dey hungry me but I must restrain myself.

Op keep it rolling...
We waiting bro

fun compendium Op. Keep it coming!

Rgade:
If it's hard to believe,then it's probably not a fact.
I was going to slap you for saying that a human could swim through a whale's vein,but then you changed it to artery in the following write up (sensational headline).
Also I don't know what's your definition of the word fact.
To beat you dey hungry me but I must restrain myself.

fem!

Where the rest??











I still sell affordable laptops with free delivery and pay on delivery

Details on my signature

weidest

Bigflamie:
Nairaland is really upgrading with some educative posts. kudos to Op.

But most of these threads don't make front page

Ikillbrokehoes:
But most of these threads don't make front page

As long as the thread doesn't contain the words then know that the thread will probably not make FP, such words include:

BOBRISKY

BBNAIJA

REGINA DANIEL

DJ CUPPY

TONTO DIKEH

SNAKE.

Sometimes i can't help but wonder if Nairaland mods are on drugs.

Educative

Nice

Ok, nice idea. Let me try and sell Nigeria on Jumia

lala front page pls

Ikillbrokehoes:
But most of these threads don't make front page

That's because NL is not just an educational website. That's why there are sections. Every type of news/info is welcome. It's left to you to stick to the section that interests you. As for the home page, all sections have a chance at it (almost all) but NL also needs to follow trends (what people seek the most) to stay alive so forgive the mods if entertainments, politics and sports trend more.

You're complaining that educational contents don't get to front page often yet your most frequently visited sections are celebrities and romance which means you click faster when news from these sections are presented to you. It's business so mods will keep feeding you whatever will make you click. Let's stop deceiving ourselves, if y'all like education so much, lighten up that section. The mods would have no choice than to follow the lead.

Authority1o1:
So, in the midst of all the gubernatorial elections, let's lighten up with some facts that you might not believe.

1.Someone tried to sell New Zealand on eBay:

Some odd things have been sold on eBay, from a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary to Justin Timberlake's half-eaten French toast. But one of the strangest listings ever had to be for the country of New Zealand. That's right: A man from Brisbane, Australia tried to sell New Zealand off on eBay in 2006.

The listing described the country as "the dodgiest American Cup win ever" and said it has "very ordinary weather." Despite those selling points, the ridiculous auction gained a ton of interest. The starting bid was 1 cent and after 6,000 hits and 22 bids, the selling price for New Zealand climbed all the way to $3,000. Eventually, eBay caught wind of the auction and pulled it from its site. "Clearly New Zealand is not for sale," a spokesperson for eBay Australia said at the time.

Make person help us sell Nigeria, Nigeria don rotten

Openbusiness:
Ok, nice idea. Let me try and sell Nigeria on Jumia

I bid #100 for 9ja, but you go minus some states oh

Where d rest dey

5.crying makes you feel happier:
They don't call it a "good cry" for nothing. Studies suggest that crying stimulates the production of endorphins, our body's natural painkiller, and feel-good hormones, like oxytocin. In short, crying more will ultimately lead to smiling more.

Sorry guys for the delay. I was banned by antispam bot so I couldn't continue. I'm back any ways.
6.The electric chair was invented by a dentist:
In 1881, dentist Alfred P. Southwick witnessed a drunk man die quickly after touching a live electric generator. Southwick soon realized that electricity could be a quick and more humane alternative to hanging for executions. And thusly, the electric chair was born, and was first used in 1890. Though it wasn't an initial success—a second jolt needed to be used—Southwick eventually worked out the kinks. Cotton candy and electric chairs: What will dentists think of next?

7.International astronauts must be able to speak Russian:
As the International Space Station (ISS) has modules and operations in Russian, all astronauts going to the ISS must know how to speak Russian. Some astronauts have claimed that learning this new language was the biggest challenge of their training. According to the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Institute, English-speaking astronauts can expect to spend 1,100 class hours to reach a reasonable level of fluency in Russian. That's twice as many hours as it typically takes to learn other languages like French, Spanish, and Dutch.

Lalasticlala, mynd44.
8.Even the man who created comic sans only used it once:
Comic Sans is the classic cute, lighthearted, informal, good-for-a-child's-birthday-party-invitation font. But it also comes across as immature and unprofessional, and has been called the world's most hated font. Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare in 1995, and even he isn't a fan. "I've only ever used Comic Sans once. I was having trouble changing my broadband to Sky so wrote them a letter in Comic Sans, saying how disappointed I was," he told The Guardian. "I got a £10 refund." Worth it, we guess.

9.At least one of the colors of Olympic flag appears on every flag of all the countries:
Fresh aristocrat Baron de Coubertin designed the Olympic flag in the early 1900s, and he was very intentional with his creation. At least one of the colors on the Olympic flag appears on the flags of every nation that competed in the games at the time (but only if you count the white background of the flag itself). "A white background, with five interlaced rings in the center: blue, yellow, black, green, and red … is symbolic," Coubertin said in 1931. "It represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time."

10.Australia has pink and purple lakes:
Lake Hillier sits on the edge of Middle Island, which is off the coast of Western Australia. It's known for its vibrant pink color, which is due to the presence of the algae Dunaliella salina. It causes the lake's salt content to create a red dye, which helps produce its bubble gum color. And despite the high salt levels, Lake Hillier is safe to swim in.

Hillier also has a purple-ish lake sibling. Hutt Lagoon, in Port Gregory on Western Australia's Coral Coast, has a large amount of Dunaliella salina, too. Depending on the season and the amount of cloud coverage, Hutt Lagoon can be different colors, ranging from red to pink to lilac.

11.The teabag was an accidental invention:
This one tire me special!

In 1908, New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan sent samples of tea leaves to some of his customers in small silken bags. Many of the recipients assumed that the bags were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers. So, they put the entire bag into the teapot, rather than emptying out its contents.

After such positive feedback from the happy accident, Sullivan designed intentional teabags for commercial production. In the 1920s, his sachets made of gauze—and later, paper—included the string with the tag hanging over the side so the bag could be easily removed. Some things really do stay the same.

12. The Russians arrived 12 days late to the 1908 Olympics because they were using the wrong calendar:
Over 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar promoted the use of the Julian calendar, a 365-day calendar that didn't account for leap years. Eventually, the calendar fell out of sync with the seasonal equinoxes, and holidays—like Easter—didn't land where they should. Finally, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII mandated that Catholic nations switch to a new Gregorian calendar that solved the problem.

But for many countries, including Russia, the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian took centuries. As a result, in 1908, the Russians missed the first 12 days of the Olympics, which was hosted in London, because they were still using the Julian calendar. The country finally changed over in 1918 after the Bolsheviks took control. Fun bonus fact: Greece, the country where the Olympics were born, was the last nation to make the switch in 1923.