Wacky Facts

reCAPTCHA showed people words from scanned old books and newspapers that computers could not read, so every solved test helped digitise text.

Located in southern Siberia, Russia, Lake Baikal is both the world’s deepest lake (reaching 1,642 meters or 5,387 feet) and the oldest freshwater lake on Earth, estimated at 25 to 30 million years old. Containing roughly 23,615 cubic kilometers of water, it holds approximately 20% to 22% of the globe’s entire unfrozen surface fresh water—more liquid volume than all North American Great Lakes combined.

In the early 1900s, Bose built the crescograph to measure tiny plant growth and responses.

Motorola’s Martin Cooper called a rival engineer at Bell Labs from a street in New York using a prototype handheld phone that weighed about 1 kg.

The sculpture from Sarnath was adopted as the national emblem on 26 January 1950.

Pencil “lead” is graphite mixed with clay. The name stuck from ancient lead styluses.

From “paṇḍita”, meaning a learned person; in English it now means an expert commentator.

It produces the largest single flower on Earth, up to about a metre wide, and uses its smell to attract carrion flies.

The script logo was written in Spencerian script, a popular business handwriting of the 1880s, by bookkeeper Frank Mason Robinson.

Eid al-Fitr starts when the new crescent moon is sighted, so it can fall on different days in different countries.

Short answer: The Constitution of India is widely described as the world’s longest written national constitution. A safer precise description is that it is one of the longest: its text contains hundreds of articles, detailed schedules and many amendments, and the exact “length” depends on what and which edition is counted.

Why is it so detailed?

India’s founders were designing institutions for a vast, diverse federal republic emerging from colonial rule and Partition. The Constitution therefore covers the Union and states, legislatures, courts, public services, elections, emergency powers, language, disadvantaged groups and relations between different levels of government in unusual detail.

The framers borrowed and adapted ideas from several constitutional traditions, including parliamentary government, judicial review, federalism and directive principles. They also incorporated administrative provisions that some countries leave to ordinary legislation.

Who wrote it?

The Constituent Assembly first met in December 1946. Committees examined specific subjects, while the Drafting Committee chaired by B. R. Ambedkar prepared and revised the legal text. The Assembly debated the draft article by article over nearly three years. It adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949.

When did it take effect?

Several provisions took effect immediately, but most commenced on 26 January 1950. That date was chosen partly to honour the 1930 declaration of Purna Swaraj, or complete independence. India therefore celebrates 26 January as Republic Day and 26 November as Constitution Day.

What was in the original document?

The Constitution as adopted is commonly summarised as having 395 articles arranged in 22 parts and eight schedules. Amendments have since inserted, altered and repealed provisions. Modern editions consequently include additional parts, schedules and article numbers with letters, while some original numbers remain omitted rather than being renumbered.

Can Parliament change it?

Article 368 provides an amendment process. Some changes require a special majority in Parliament; federal changes also require ratification by at least half the states. The Supreme Court’s “basic structure” doctrine holds that Parliament cannot use amendment power to destroy essential constitutional features.

Key dates

• 9 December 1946: Constituent Assembly first meets.
• 29 August 1947: Drafting Committee appointed.
• 26 November 1949: Constitution adopted.
• 26 January 1950: main provisions commence and India becomes a republic.
• Today: the official text incorporates later amendments.

Evidence and limits

There is no universal international method for ranking constitutions by length. Researchers may count words, articles, pages, schedules or consolidated amendments, and translations format text differently. The important verified fact is the document’s exceptional breadth and detail; the superlative should not be treated as a timeless mathematical record.

Sources

• Legislative Department: official Constitution texts
• Parliament of India: Constituent Assembly

At 828 m, you can watch the sun set from the ground and then take a fast lift up and see it again.

In game 2 against Lee Sedol in 2016, AlphaGo’s “move 37” was so unusual that commentators were puzzled; AlphaGo itself estimated a human would play it about 1 time in 10,000. It proved decisive.

The grass family includes rice, wheat, maize and bamboo and covers a large share of Earth’s land.

Jungle, pyjamas, loot, thug, shampoo, cot and avatar all entered English from Indian languages.

The liver can regenerate to its full size even after a large part is removed, which makes living-donor transplants possible.

During the African Humid Period, roughly 14,500 to 5,000 years ago, the Sahara had lakes, grasslands and hippos.

A coast redwood named Hyperion in California is about 116 m tall.

The cells lining the stomach are replaced frequently so its strong acid does not digest the stomach itself.

Short answer: Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority counted 14,125 islands under its current mapping method. The much older figure of 6,852 changed because digital maps can represent coastlines and small landforms in greater detail.

How was 14,125 calculated?

The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) used the national digital base map as it stood in January 2022. It counted islands specifically named in relevant laws, plus naturally formed areas of land shown on the map with a coastline circumference of at least 0.1 kilometre. Islands in lakes and other inland waters were excluded from this published count.

Did Japan discover thousands of new islands?

No. GSI’s own frequently asked questions explain that the change from 6,852 to 14,125 does not mean thousands of islands suddenly appeared. The earlier total came from a 1987 Japan Coast Guard survey. Modern mapping captures coastline detail and separates features that older datasets represented less precisely.

What is an island?

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines an island as a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, that remains above water at high tide. GSI’s 0.1-kilometre circumference rule is a practical condition for this particular count, not a universal definition. Smaller natural islands still exist even when they are outside the published total.

Why counting rules matter

Two perfectly competent surveys can produce different totals if one includes lake islands, applies a different coastline threshold or works at another map resolution. Erosion, volcanic activity and crustal movement can also reshape land. A useful island statistic therefore needs the responsible agency, method and survey date.

Japan’s count at a glance

• Current published figure: 14,125.
• Previous widely used figure: 6,852.
• Map reference date: January 2022.
• Minimum mapped coastline used: 0.1 km.
• Artificial and inland-water features: excluded under the stated method.

Evidence and limits

“Japan has more than 14,000 islands” is accurate under GSI’s method. It should not be turned into an absolute claim that there are exactly 14,125 pieces of land under every possible definition. GSI explicitly notes that future mapping improvements and natural change may alter the count again.

What to remember

The revised total is mainly a story about better geospatial data. A digital coastline can reveal separations and shapes that a coarser paper-era survey could not represent consistently. The increase did not enlarge Japan’s territory or territorial sea, a point the official FAQ states directly. Counting improves the description of the same national landscape; it does not create legal land by arithmetic.

Sources

• Geospatial Information Authority of Japan: island count and method
• GSI: island-count FAQ

It was created by Forethought Inc. and released for the Mac in 1987 as “PowerPoint”. Microsoft bought the company the same year.

The 13th-century temple in Odisha has 24 carved stone wheels; some act as sundials.

On 17 December 1903 the Flyer covered 37 m in 12 seconds. A Boeing 747’s wingspan is about 60–68 m.

A strong valve at the entrance to the stomach and the angle of the oesophagus make vomiting almost impossible for horses.

Launched on 30 November 2022, ChatGPT was estimated by analysts to have hit 100 million monthly users by January 2023 — at the time described as the fastest-growing consumer app ever.

Ada Lovelace published notes on Charles Babbage’s proposed Analytical Engine in 1843, including a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers — widely considered the first published algorithm intended for a machine.

Traditional gulal came from flowers like palash (flame of the forest), turmeric and other plants.

James Gosling named it after an oak tree outside his office. The name was already trademarked, so the team renamed it Java — after the coffee.

The word “tittle” comes from medieval Latin and also appears in the phrase “to a T”, which some believe comes from “to a tittle” — meaning exactly.

Before video games, Nintendo made hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto. It also tried a taxi company and instant rice before becoming a games giant.