A list of curious facts
One: Scientists recently discovered why whales don’t choke when they swallow gallons of seawater while trying to feed. The reason: “a large, bulbous structure that they’ve termed the ‘oral plug’—a structure never before described in any other animal.” It blocks off a tube-shaped structure that leads to both the respiratory and digestive tracts—so they aren’t flooded with water. (New York Times)
Two: Back in 1972, an air stewardess plunged more than 33,000 feet from an exploding airliner—landed in a Czechoslovak mountain range… and survived! It is the highest fall a human has survived without a parachute. The Drive has this crazy story.
Three: In this excellent Twitter thread, historian Manu Pillai tells the intriguing story of painter Raja Ravi Varma’s mother-in-law—who was implicated in a murder where the weapon was a jackfruit. You really should read it for yourself.
Four: Did you know that there is a correlation between the songs that people in a country play on Spotify and the performance of their national stock market? The conclusion: When people listen to happy songs, the market outperforms. The authors explain their findings to Harvard Business Review.
Five: Last not least, your beloved pair of jeans are made of material originally intended for tents—to be sold to miners during the California Gold Rush. But Levi Strauss couldn’t find any takers. So he repurposed his stock into sturdy pants—made of material so thick that they had to be held together by iron rivets. Gaurav Sabnis has the colourful details in this thread.
Bonus fact: The first pair of designer jeans made to fit women was a collaboration between American heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and an Indian-origin businessman named Mohan Murjani. Just as fascinating: This history of the highly successful Murjanis of Hong Kong who built a global garment empire.