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In Longyearbyen, Norway, it is illegal to die.

After sex, a ladybird’s orgasm can last for 30 minutes.

The Latin palmo means ‘to print the palm of the hand’ or ‘to tie up a vine’.

People with a rare genetic disorder known as immigration delay disease have no fingerprints.

The United States of America maintains a military presence in 148 of the 192 United Nations countries.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

Eating Carbs


Enhanced dribble
100,000 years ago

Your saliva contains an enzyme called amylase, made by the AMY1 gene, which digests starch. Modern humans whose ancestors were farmers have more copies of AMY1 than people whose ancestors stayed as hunter-gatherers. This digestive boost may have helped start farming, settled villages and modern societies.

See other: What Makes Humans Human?

Only Connect


An intelligence gene
3.2-2.5 million years ago

A gene called SRGAP2 was duplicated three times. As a result, our ancestors had several copies, some of which could evolve freely. One of the mutated copies turned out to be better than the original. It seems to have caused our brain cells to extrude more spines, allowing them to form more connections.

See other: What Makes Humans Human?

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Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism found enlightenment – as it is known in Buddhism – by sitting facing a wall for nine years.

Only 2% of our genes are specifically human.

If people stay in Japan for a long time, they tend to get used to the native way of thinking. For instance, they start to find it normal that books are always wrapped in plastic covers; they start nodding on the phone saying “te, te” when listening to someone; they start to use shoulder compressors for stiffness; and, they start to think that fried gyoza is normal food. This process of foreigners turning native is so real, the Japanese actually have a word for it: tatami. Curiously, tatami also means a type of rice straw mat which is often used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms.

The Swiss have gone over five centuries without a war.

American porn actress Lisa Sparks (also spelled Sparxxx) holds the world record for the largest gangbang (a sexual act in which one person has sexual intercourse with a large number of people from the opposite sex) – on October 16, 2004 she had sex with 919 men in Warsaw, Poland.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts