A list of curious facts
One: This is apparently the ugliest Rolls Royce ever made. It’s named Camargue, and was the first ever designed by Italians back in 1975. Also: Like many appalling things of days gone by, the car is a hot commodity now. Bloomberg News has more on that auto trend.
Two: Data visualisation nerds went through the IMDB database and crunched the most filmed locations in the world. The winner: The Big Apple’s Central Park, followed by Niagara Falls. The winner in Europe: Trafalgar Square in London. In Asia/Oceania: the Sydney Opera House. See the full report here.
Three: A hospice doctor has made a comforting discovery about our last moments on Earth—after studying 1,400 hospice patients:
“Over 80% of his patients—no matter what walk of life, background or age group they came from—had end-of-life experiences that seemed to entail more than just strange dreams. These were vivid, meaningful and transformative. And they always increased in frequency near death.
They included visions of long-lost mothers, fathers and relatives, as well as dead pets come back to comfort their former owners. They were about relationships resurrected, love revived and forgiveness achieved. They often brought reassurance and support, peace and acceptance.”
All we can say is ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ The Conversation has more on this research.
Four: Billions of insects are accidentally having ‘gay sex’. The reason: They are in such a rush to reproduce that they don’t take the time to inspect their potential mate’s gender: “The cost of taking the time to identify the gender of mates or the cost of hesitation appears to be greater than the cost of making some mistakes.” The Independent has more.
Five: Not sure why we never knew this, but houses in Bhutan have decorative phalluses to ward off the evil eye: “Walk just about anywhere in Bhutan… and you’ll likely find large, ejaculating penises with hairy balls. They’re painted on the exterior walls of buildings, perched on the roofs of houses and fixed in front of doors to ward off bad luck.” Really? Well, we can’t exactly dispute the proof below. Mel Magazine has more on the country’s phallic obsession.
