Did you know that the Chinese written language assigns a single distinctive character to each word of the vocabulary?  That’s right, it takes knowing 2000-3000 characters just to read a newspaper. Just think, you only have to know the 26 letters of our alphabet to read this article. Understanding it’s humor, however, isn’t quite that simple.

Did you know that the novel "War and Peace" contains 559 characters?
Just imagine it, 559 characters. The literary masterpiece created by Leo Tolstoy is also considered to be one of the greatest novels ever written, primarily due to its realism. In the novel he writes of important military battles (of the Napoleonic invasion) and historical figures as well as the lives of 5 aristocratic families. I guess you’d have to include a variety if you want to utilize 559 characters.

Did you know that during World War II, US agents developed plans to drop live bats from airplanes, for the purpose of scaring the Japanese?
It’s true. The plans were even approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But the plans were abandoned because the bats froze at high altitudes. Now if they had planned to drop something considerably more fearsome that could deal with the cold a lot better, the plans might have had some merit. Like, let’s say, polar bears (obviously by parachute). I think that live polar bears would scare me much more than a bunch of dead, frozen bats. Especially once they hit the ground. Even more so if they were hungry.

Do you know why some coins have ridges on the edges?
Well quarters, dimes and other coins with ridged edges were originally minted in silver. If somebody acquired one, they could shave a little silver off of the edges and if they did it to enough coins, they could accumulate quite a bit of silver. Well the ridged edges made it a little more obvious when that was being done. But I still haven’t figured out why Ruffles potato chips have ridges.

Did you know that President John Tyler was the first vice-president to succeed to the office of the presidency, due to the death of his predecessor?
Yes, it’s true. He became the tenth president of the United States when William Henry Harrison died about a month after his inauguration. Okay, so maybe you knew that one. But did you know that President John Tyler had actually served as a member of the congress of the Confederate States of America? Bet you didn’t know that one.

Did you know that the Secret Service was founded, in 1865, primarily for the purpose of combating the counterfeiting of US currency?
In fact, counterfeiting became so widely spread that almost one-third of the currency in circulation at the time was believed to be counterfeit. It wasn’t until 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley, that the Secret Service was charged with the protection of the president and vice president. The Secret Service also protects the following: The president’s and the vice-president’s families, the president-elect, the vice-president elect, former presidents and their wives, widows of former presidents (until they die or remarry), children of former presidents (until they reach the age of 16), presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the major parties, and visiting heads of foreign governments. Basically, the only thing they don’t protect is the US taxpayer.

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