12 Curious facts about everything in the world

The world is full of surprises: a rainbow appears at night, coyotes are friends with badgers, people make a living by disturbing public order, and scammers fall into the traps of other scammers. In other words, nature, people and animals will always find something to surprise us, and we try to surprise and amuse our readers.

O awesome.club prepared yet another collection of interesting facts about our world and the life of its inhabitants.

Orangutans have a curious feature: males of this species sometimes show attention not only to orangutan females, but also to human females if their hair is red (like that of tree monkeys). For example, the orangutan Sin-Sin, from the zoo in Perth, Australia, tore a page with a photo of Nicole Kidman from a magazine and took it to her home, so much he liked the actress.

If a match had been held for the title of the happiest cheaters in history, perhaps two men from Spain would have had every opportunity to win. In 2003, they agreed to sell a fake painting that was supposedly a work by Goya, but in reality was just a copy of the portrait of the Spanish painter Antonio María Esquivel.

The buyer, a “rich Arab sheik”, acted through an intermediary who, in turn, asked the hapless sellers for a commission of €300,000. Interestingly, the scammers didn’t realize it was a trap, they borrowed that amount from a friend and went to close the “deal of the century”.

Initially, the Spaniards tried to sell the painting for 4 million Swiss francs, but in the end, they only received 1.7 million in this currency (which is equivalent to approximately 1.7 million dollars), but the money turned out to be fake, so as your commodity. The men were arrested when they tried to deposit counterfeit bills into a bank account in Geneva, and the broker who had escaped with the “commission” was never found.

A completely innocent episode of the children’s cartoon series has been banned from airing in Australia after many parents complained that the show misinformed their children, insisting they not be afraid of spiders. The fact is that in Australia there are not only the relatively harmless and small spiders known to all Europeans, but also poisonous species that must be treated very carefully.

Usually, firefighters put out fires, but sometimes things happen the other way around. In October 2010, in the American city of Pan, firefighters set fire to a house where a huge family of cockroaches had settled.

The decision was taken by the local administration after all attempts to get rid of the insects failed and the risk of infection in neighboring houses became too great. You can see how it went, but be careful: this video is not for the faint of heart.

Louisiana State Prison Warden John Whitley was so kind and fair to the prisoners that they sincerely became attached to him. Over the years of his work, John managed to reduce the frequency of aggressive demonstrations in the correctional facility, introduced a system of rewards for good behavior, helped students graduate, and carried out a number of prison reforms.

For example, on your initiative the most trusted of prisoners could leave prison to participate in sports competitions (you can see an example of a similar event in the movie Low Blow) and other events. It is therefore not surprising that when Wheatley decided to retire, the inmates, out of their own savings, organized a farewell party attended by prison staff and administration.

A resident of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was fishing in his boat when a storm suddenly broke over the lake. The boat was taken to a place completely unknown to the fisherman, where it got stuck in the bushes. The man couldn’t get out of the middle of nowhere alone, he was exhausted and had no idea where his whereabouts were. In desperation, he made an unusual decision: cut the powerline poles with the help of his ax and wait for the helicopter to arrive with a repair brigade.

His expectations came true: the helicopter arrived and the man was saved. True, he later had to pay a fine for damage to the pole and for the fact that residents of several cities were left without electricity for 30 hours. But life costs more than any good, right?

Fairy tales of the peoples of the world often tell about friendship between different species of animals. For example, in the stories of North American Indians, the friendship between coyotes and badgers is mentioned, which is completely true. These animals organize a joint hunt, as each of them has the advantages that the other lacks.

Badgers can trap prey in burrows, which is beyond the power of coyotes, which in turn are able to effectively track animals on the surface. Also, coyotes have better eyesight and badgers have a better sense of smell. Therefore, the badger can remove small animals from underground, forcing them to run to the waiting coyote.

The oldest pub in Europe is located in Ireland and is known as Sean’s Bar. It was built around the year 900 in the town of Athlone on the west bank of the River Shannon. Initially, the building was a construction made of twigs and mud, but in 1970 it was rebuilt. During the refurbishment, many old coins were found and some of them were sent to the museum, while the rest were left in the pub as decoration.

A group of California growers has obtained a variety of grapes that have 12% more sugar than regular grapes and almost no acidity. It took 12 years to obtain it, and in 2013 the new variety went on sale.

This grape looks and smells just like regular grapes, but its taste is almost indistinguishable from cotton candy. Producer David Kane believes that this fruit will be an excellent alternative to the usual sweets.

The World (O Mundo, in its translation into Portuguese) is a maritime passenger ship, or a residential yacht, designed as a private home. Its inhabitants have cabins — spacious and comfortable apartments. These people live on board all the time (or show up whenever they want), while the ship sails around the world, making stops of 2 to 3 days in various ports on the planet.

The cost of apartments on the ship is high: from 2.7 million to 9.1 million dollars. But it seems that the price has not become an obstacle for those who have always dreamed of this life: most of the cabins were purchased even before the ship was completed. Stateroom owners can bring their friends and family aboard, as well as rent out their staterooms. The average age of cruise ship residents is 64.

The night rainbow, or lunar, as you might guess from the name, is generated by the moon. It differs from the usual solar rainbow in that it has a softer glow and, to the human eye, is generally seen as white, although the colors can be obtained in a photograph taken with an extended exposure.

The lunar rainbow can be observed in places where there are waterfalls or it often rains under certain conditions: the full or almost full moon must be low in the sky, and the sky must be dark. This type of rainbow appears on the side of the sky opposite the moon and is comparable in size to the solar one.

You streakers these are odd (to say the least) people who disrupt sports competitions or other public events by running naked. They do it as an act of vandalism, or a protest, to attract attention or earn money. One such streaker, Mark Roberts, started his “career” by losing a bet to his friends during a rugby match in 1993.

Now Roberts has over 300 of these adventures under his belt and is paid well for it. Then, in 2003, he stripped down and ran down the field during Super Bowl XXXVIII. For this, he received from his sponsor, the Golden Palace online casino, 1 million dollars and front row tickets. The same firm paid the man one of the best lawyers in the United States, and in the end he was fined just $1,000.

Which of the facts impressed you the most? Or maybe you yourself know something very interesting? Tell us in the comments.