What do Orthodox Christians eat during Lent? What can you eat during Lent?

1. An oyster's eye is larger than its brain.

2. 97% of people who are offered a new pen will write their name first.

3. Before World War II, there were 22 Hitlers in the New York telephone book... and none after..

4. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian.

5. Your stomach produces a new layer of lining every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.

6. Currently living in China are: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.

7. To avoid the danger of being crushed in the mouth of a crocodile, experts advise piercing thumbs his eyes, and he will immediately let you out.

8. In the Czech Republic, Margaret Thatcher is called Malgorzata Thatcherova.

9. If the statue of a horse rider has both front legs raised, this means that the person died in battle. If a horse has only one leg raised, it means the person died from wounds received in battle. If a horse has all 4 legs on the ground, then the person died of natural causes.

10. Everyone knows that the English language is very poor. It is especially difficult for poets. It turns out that not a single word rhymes with the words "month", "orange", "silver", and "purple".

11. Men commit suicide three times more than women. However, women attempt suicide three times more often than men.

12. As you know, people are animals too. However, we are the only ones among them who can copulate face to face.

13. The most common name in the world is Muhammad.

14. Catholic priests, died during sex: Leo VII (936-9) died from heart attack, John VII (955-64) - beaten to death by the husband of the woman with whom he was at that time, John XIII (965-72) was also killed by a jealous husband, Paul II (1467-71) died during an outrage with a boy - pageboy.

15. The first bomb dropped on Berlin during World War II only killed an elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

16. Approximately 10% of people in the world are left-handed.

17. Sherlock Holmes never said: “It’s elementary, Watson.”

18. Soldiers in the First World War were the first to use the prototype of the modern flush toilet. Incredible but true!

19. Beware of riding donkeys. Every year, more people die because of this than in plane crashes. You are much more likely to break your neck if you fall off a donkey than if you fall off a horse.

20. In Israel it is forbidden to talk on cell phone while driving.

21. It takes an average person 7 minutes to fall asleep.

22. In 1880, cocaine was freely sold to treat colds, neuralgia, headaches and insomnia.

23. Every time you lick a postage stamp, you gain 1/10 calories.

24. A chameleon's tongue is twice as long as itself.

25. Ants never sleep.

26. In psychiatry, a syndrome accompanied by depersonalization, impaired perception of time and space, own body and the surrounding environment, officially (!) called "Alice in Wonderland".
Small intestine During life, a person has a length of about 2.5 meters. After his death, when the muscles of the intestinal wall relax, its length reaches 6 meters.

27. Man is the only representative of the animal world capable of drawing straight lines.

28.The shortest war in history was the war between Great Britain and Zanzibar on August 27, 1896. It lasted exactly 38 minutes.
Under Peter I, a special agency was created in Russia to receive petitions and complaints, which was called... racketeering.

On June 4, 1888, the New York State Congress passed a bill abolishing hanging. The reason for this “humane” act was the introduction of a new method death penalty- electric chair.

30. Only in 1947 in England was the position of the person who was supposed to fire a cannon upon entry into England abolished.

31. One of the American planes in Vietnam hit itself with a missile fired.

32. Abdul Kassim Ismail - the great vizier of Persia (10th century) was always near his library. If he went somewhere, the library “followed” him. 117 thousand book volumes were transported by four hundred camels. Moreover, the books (i.e. camels) were arranged in alphabetical order.

33.The Thai national anthem was written in 1902 by Russian (!) composer Pyotr Shchurovsky.

34. Until 1703, Chistye Prudy in Moscow was called... Nasty Ponds.

35. World population in 5000 BC. was 5 million people.

36.B Ancient China people have committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

37.In 213 BC Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi gave the order to burn all the books in the country.

38.Until 1361, legal proceedings in England were conducted exclusively in French.

39.The inscription “Allah Akbar” is repeated 22 times on the flag of Iran.

40.Japan includes more than 3,900 islands.

41.Less than 1 percent of the Caribbean islands are inhabited.

42.The first capital of the Russian state was Ladoga.

43.The center of Europe is located on the territory of Ukraine in Transcarpathian region between the cities of Tyachev and Rakhov, near the village of Delovoye, and the center of Asia is in the city of Kizyl, Tuva Republic.

44. Several buildings in Manhattan have their own zip code. And at the World Shopping Center there are even several of them.

45.7 The most numerous peoples of the world: Chinese (Han), Hindustani, US Americans, Bengalis, Russians, Brazilians and Japanese.

46.The inhabitants of the island of Lesvos are called lesboians and lesbosians, not lesbians and lesbians.

47. In Moscow there is a river called Los, and the largest of the streams flowing into it is called... Losenok.

48.Unlike most African nations, Ethiopia was never a European colony.

49.In France, Italy and Chile, the existence of UFOs is officially recognized.

50.Apple vodka is called Calvados.

51. In Ukraine it’s called varenukha alcoholic drink from vodka, honey, dried apples, pears, and cherries boiled together.

52. The Hungarian artist M. Munkacsi has a painting “Desert Storm”, painted in... 1867.

53.Leonardo da Vinci spent almost 12 years painting the lips of the Mona Lisa.

54.Impressionism got its name from the painting “Impression” by Claude Monet.

55. Just one drop of oil makes 25 liters of water undrinkable.

56. In addition to fingerprints, the tongue print of each person is also unique.

57.In the Roman Catholic Church, the highest bishops are called... primates. It is for this reason that the first classification of the animal world, created by Carl Linnaeus, was anathema.

58.Chinese sages claimed that saints sleep on their backs, sinners sleep on their stomachs, kings sleep on their right sides, and sages sleep on their left.

59.The # symbol, often called the hash sign, number sign, or pound sign, actually has official name- octothorp.

60. The Greek philosopher Anacharsis divided all people into three kinds: those who died, those who are alive, and those ... who swim in the sea.

62. The usual “bow” on which boots are tied is called by sailors nothing more than a “reef knot”.

63. The most popular in the world female name- Anna. Almost 100 million women wear it.

64.The millionth resident of Moscow was born in 1897.

65.Two most high rates IQs ever recorded on Earth belong to women.

66. Every second, over 200 lightning flashes on Earth.

67.Over the past 500 years, the mass of the Earth has increased by a billion tons due to cosmic matter.

68.The world's largest planetarium is located in Moscow.

69.The most large number, which has a name - centillion. This is a one followed by 600 zeros. It was recorded in 1852.

70. Baghdad University awarded Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, who did not even have a secondary education, a doctorate in political science. His dissertation was entitled "The Decline of American Power by 2016."

From the moment of birth, there are already 14 billion cells in the human brain, and this number does not increase until death. On the contrary, after 25 years it decreases by 100 thousand per day. In the minute you spend reading a page, about 70 cells die. After 40 years, brain degradation accelerates sharply, and after 50 neurons ( nerve cells) dry out and the volume of the brain decreases.

The most psychedelic writer

Did you know that Lewis Carroll, a shy British mathematician who wrote fairy tales about Alice, should be recognized as the most psychedelic writer of all time? His writings were inspired by the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Tim Burton and others. Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He had the church rank of deacon, and also in personal diaries Carroll constantly repented of some sin. However, these pages were destroyed by the writer’s family so as not to discredit his image.

Poe's Source of Horror

Did you know that Edgar Allan Poe was afraid of the dark all his life? Perhaps one of the reasons for this fear was that as a child the future writer studied... in a cemetery. The school where the boy went was so poor that it was impossible to buy textbooks for the children. A resourceful math teacher taught classes in a nearby cemetery, among the graves. Each student chose a tombstone for himself and calculated how many years the deceased had lived, subtracting the date of birth from the date of death. It is not surprising that Poe grew up to become what he became - the founder of the world's horror literature.

Unexpected guest

Did you know that in 1857 Hans Christian Andersen came to visit Dickens? Andersen and Dickens met back in 1847, were completely delighted with each other, and now, 10 years later, the Dane decided to take advantage of the invitation given to him. The trouble is that over the years in Dickens’s life everything has changed and become more complicated - he was not ready to accept Andersen, and he lived with him for almost five weeks! “He doesn’t speak any languages ​​except his Danish, although there are suspicions that he doesn’t know that either,” Dickens told his friends about his guest in this way. Poor Andersen became the target of ridicule from the numerous descendants of the author of Little Dorrit, and when he left, Dad Dickens left a note in his room: “Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed like years to our family.” And you also ask why Andersen wrote such sad fairy tales?

About love for our smaller brothers

Did you know that the great poet Byron loved animals very much? The romantic poet adored animals and even kept a menagerie in which a badger, monkeys, horses, a parrot, a crocodile and many other animals lived.

About birth and death

Did you know that William Shakespeare was born and died on the same day (but, fortunately, on different years) - On April 23, 1564, he was born and, 52 years later, died on the same day.
On the same day as Shakespeare, another great writer died - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. The author of Don Quixote died on April 23, 1616.

Nobel laureate

Did you know that in 1925 Nobel Prize on literature
awarded to Bernard Shaw, who called the event "a token of gratitude for the relief he has given the world by not publishing anything this year."

Dickens' sad childhood

Did you know that Charles Dickens had a very difficult childhood? When his dad went to debtor's prison, little Charlie was sent to work... no, not in a chocolate factory, but in a blacking factory, where he stuck labels on jars from morning to evening. Not dusty, you say? But stick them from morning to evening instead of playing football with the boys, and you will understand why Dickens’ images of unfortunate orphans were so convincing.

Stendhal syndrome

Did you know that the French writer Stendhal, after his visit to
Florence in 1817 wrote: “When I left the Church of the Holy Cross, my heart began to beat, it seemed to me that the source of life had dried up, I walked, afraid of collapsing to the ground...” Masterpieces of art that excite a writer can have a similar effect on other people, causing rapid heartbeat and dizziness - such psychosomatic disorder called Stendhal's syndrome. The person who has “picked up” it experiences extremely heightened emotions from contemplating the paintings, as if transported into the space of the image. Often the feelings are so strong that people try to destroy works of art. In more in a broad sense Stendhal syndrome can be caused by any observed beauty - for example, nature or women.

Death of a pseudonym

Did you know that in the 1970s, American publishers considered it undesirable for authors to publish more than one book per year. Stephen King, who wanted to be published more, began writing some works under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. In 1984, a bookstore clerk became suspicious of the similarity in the authors' literary styles and discovered a record in the Library of Congress that King was the author of one of Bachman's novels, notifying King's publishers of his discovery. The writer himself called this seller and offered to write an exposing article, agreeing to an interview. It resulted in a press release announcing the death of Richard Bachman from “alias cancer.”

Cat lover

Did you know that Ernest Hemingway had a weakness for cats and He constantly kept several pets in his house. One day he was given a Maine Coon named Snowball, who, due to genetic mutation He was polydactyl, meaning he had extra toes. Today, more than 50 cats live in the Hemingway House Museum, half of which are also polydactyl, as many are descendants of Snowball. A significant part of tourists visit this museum primarily because of the cats, and not in order to join the writer’s heritage.

About the strange story of Jekyll and Hyde

Did you know that Stevenson’s first manuscript of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was burned by his wife. Biographers have two versions of why she did this: some say that she considered such a plot unworthy of a writer, others say that she was unhappy with the incomplete disclosure of the topic of split personality. Nevertheless, Stevenson, suffering from tuberculosis, re-wrote this novella in three days, which became one of his most commercially successful works and allowed his family to get out of debt.

The shortest correspondence

Did you know that Victor Hugo in 1862, while on vacation, wanted to know about the reaction of readers to the just published novel “Les Miserables” and sent his publisher a telegram consisting of one character “?”. He sent a telegram in response, also with one sign - “!”. This was probably the shortest correspondence in history.

Twain's pseudonym

Did you know that Samuel Langhorne Clemens' pseudonym, "Mark Twain," comes from his work on steam ships on the Mississippi River?
The safe water depth was considered to be a mark of 2 phantoms (3.6 m), which the boatmen measured using a stick with markings. In those days, the word "twins" (then spelled "twain" in English) usually meant "two", so boatmen would shout when they reached a safe depth: "There are two on the mark" (which in English was "by mark twain" ).

Addiction

Did you know that Charles Dickens drank half a liter every day? champagne. To take his popularity to a new level, he decided to give lectures. And where there is a lecture, there is a subsequent meeting with readers! How can we live here without champagne? Besides, personal life Dickens was extremely disorderly

From 15 pages to 200

Did you know that the film " Mysterious story Benjamin Button" (2008) was based on the story of the same name by Francis Scott Fitzgerald? An interesting fact is that the creators of this film liked the story so much that they turned the several-page work into a 200-page script describing 80 years of Benjamin's life.

The Science of Love

Did you know that the world-famous book “Kama Sutra” includes not only a description of sexual positions (to which only 15 chapters out of 64 are devoted), but also reflections on the topic of relationships between men and women and life in general? Most of the book consists of reflections on love in general, on girls, on men, on relationships between the sexes, on courtship and charm. The word “Kama Sutra” is translated as “instruction on kama,” that is, on all aspects of love. For scientists, it has another value: the book describes interesting facts about life in India at that time.

"In the mountains of my Scotland..."

Did you know that one of the ancestors of M.Yu. Lermontov was legendary Scottish mystic poet? The poet always knew that his father, Yuri Petrovich Lermontov, traced his family back to the Scottish officer Georg Lermont. He served as a mercenary in the Polish army, and in 1613, while defending the White Fortress, he was captured and went over to the side of Russia, where he became the ancestor of numerous descendants. But about his most famous ancestor - Thomas Learmonth, a poet of ancient Scotland who lived in the 13th century, M.Yu. Lermontov most likely had no idea. Only a few poems by Thomas Learmonth have survived to this day, often framed as predictions; many more legends about him have survived. It is said that on the ancient Eildon Hill, where, according to legend, King Arthur and his knights rest, there stood the Eildon Oak, which contained the entrance to the kingdom of fairies. In his youth, Thomas fell in love with a fairy, and she took him to her kingdom for 7 years. There he received his prophetic gift, and, upon returning, prophesied about the outcome of wars, about the fate of kings and cities, and then again went to his fairy - forever.

The most unusual book.

Did you know that one of the most unusual books in the world is Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” written on a sheet of paper measuring 80 by 60 cm by the Benedictine monk Gabriel Celani. All 14,000 verses can be easily read with the naked eye, and if you look at the sheet from some distance, you see a colorful map of Italy. Celani spent four years on this work.

Baby books.

Did you know that the twelve smallest books in the world fit into one tablespoon. Among them there is a miniature edition of the Koran, a dictionary English language 12 thousand words and the French Constitution.

You can't strangle this book, you can't kill it...

Did you know that an ordinary book of a standard format of 500 pages cannot be crushed, even if you put 15 wagons loaded with coal on it?

The longest work.

Did you know that the longest a work of artis the novel “People goodwill» Romain Jules. It was published in 27 (!) volumes in 1932-1946. The volume of the novel was 4959 pages, and there were approximately 2,070,000 words in it (for example, the number of words in the Bible is approximately 773,700).

The most prolific writer.

Did you know that one of the most prolific writers is Jose Carlos Rioqui de Alpoim Inue from Brazil. He wrote 1,046 science fiction novels, westerns and thrillers, which were published between 1986 and 1996.

The most popular book.

Did you know that the most popular book remains the Bible. Between 1815 and 1999, 3.88 billion copies were sold.

Writer-leader.

Did you know that Agatha Christie has remained the absolute leader among the most popular writers for several decades now. Its 78 detective stories have been translated into 44 languages ​​and have sold more than 2 billion copies.

About the name Svetlana...

Did you know that the name Svetlana is not originally Slavic? It was invented and first used by the poet Vostokov in the romance “Svetlana and Mstislav”, and gained wide popularity after the publication of Zhukovsky’s ballad “Svetlana” in 1813.

Detective's fictitious address.

Did you know that at the time the stories about Sherlock Holmes were written, the house with the address Baker Street, 221b did not exist. When the house appeared, a flood of letters fell to this address. One of the rooms in this building is considered the room of the great detective. Subsequently, the address 221b Baker Street was officially assigned to the house in which the Sherlock Holmes Museum is located. Moreover, to do this, they even had to break the numbering order of the houses on the street.

Hot Italian Othello.

Did you know that Shakespeare's hero had a real prototype? Italian Maurizio Othello. He commanded the Venetian forces in Cyprus and lost his wife there under extremely suspicious circumstances. The diminutive name Mauro in Italian also means “Moor,” which led to Shakespeare’s mistake in assigning such a nationality to the hero.

F Rankenstein - a simple student?!

Did you know that Frankenstein is not the name of the famous monster? In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein or Modern Prometheus“, which first saw the light in 1818, this very monster was simply called “Monster”. Victor Frankenstein was the name of a young student scientist from Geneva who created a living creature from non-living material.

A terrible continuation of the legend

Did you know that the American writer William Burroughs was inspired by the legend of the medieval Swiss archer William Tell, who, for disobedience to the German governor, was forced to shoot at the apple on the head of his own son, and Tell did not miss. Interested in this story, Burroughs wanted to surprise the guests at one of the parties. The writer put a glass on the head of his wife Joan Vollmer and fired a pistol - the wife died from a hit in the head.

Jules Verne Card Index

Did you know that Jules Verne spent many hours a day studying scientific literature, writing down facts that interested him on special cards. The card index he compiled could be the envy of the scientific community: it contained more than 20 thousand cards.

Life is like a novel

Did you know that Danielle Steele's life is like one of her many stories. She was married five times, her second husband robbed a bank and was later convicted of rape, the third was a drug-addicted burglar. Everything is like in the song of the Via Gra group - “But my fifth is not at all like that, in his hands I melt like ice...”

The thorny path to fame

Did you know that Nora Roberts, the author of several hundred romantic short stories, and for several years included in the list of the most popular writers according to the New York Times, long time tried to get some publishing house to publish her novel. One of the publishing houses, Harlequin, refused the future celebrity for the reason that “they already have an American writer” with whom they are collaborating.