// Melanesians are the only dark skinned people to naturally have blonde hair!//

Melanesians are an ethnic group from Melanesia, an island around Australia, and what is amazing about these people is that they are the only dark skinned people in the entire world to naturally have blond hair!

Blond hair is a trait that is seen naturally only in Europe, so how could these people so far away also have blond hair? It all has to do with genetic makeup.

Recent studies suggest that all humans outside of Africa have genes that have been passed down from Neanderthals, yet Melanesians are the only known humans whose prehistoric ancestors are slightly different, most likely an interbreeding with the Denisova hominin, a cousin of the Neanderthal.

Because of this they received slightly different genes, one of them being TYRP1, which is unique to them and grants them blond hair!

(Source)

// A man named Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger in a concentration camp.//

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar. Born January 8, 1894 as Rajmund Kolbe, he was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1982 for taking a stranger’s place in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

To the Catholic readers, this may not be a surprise, as he is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement. The late Pope John Paul II even declared him “The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century.”

During World War II, Kolbe provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including more than 2,000 Jews that he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary. He was also an anti-Nazi radio host during this time. On February 17, 1941, however, he was caught and arrested by the Gestapo.

On May 25, he was moved to Auschwitz. In July of that year, a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, in what was believed to be an escape attempt. In order to discourage further attempts, the deputy camp commander picked ten men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13, which was notorious for torture.

One of the chosen men, named Franciszek Gajowniczek, was hysterical over the idea of never seeing his family again. Kolbe took his place. During the starvation time, Kolbe led the men in song and prayer. After an incredible three weeks, Kolbe and three others were still alive.

They were all killed by an injection of carbolic acid. The worst part was that the man who was thought to have escaped was found drowned in the latrine. Gajowniczek survived to be liberated from Auschwitz, though, which means Kolbe’s sacrifice was still worthwhile.

Though his sons had died, Gajowniczek’s wife had survived. He lived with her until her death in 1977. Gajowniczek himself died in 1995.

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// Checkers, like Tic-Tac-Toe should always end in a tie if neither player makes a mistake//

Checkers, despite being played on the same board as Chess, is infinitely less complex than the latter game. In fact, it’s so relatively simple, that it should always end in a draw.

You’ve probably played Tic-Tac-Toe hundreds of times with a friend and after a few games, neither one wins because they don’t make any mistakes. The case is the same with Checkers.

In 2007, the University of Alberta announced that their program, Chinook, had solved the game. This meant that, if both sides played perfectly, the game would always result in a draw.

Now, this is much more difficult than it sounds, because the game has 10 to the 20th power number of legal positions. This is much larger than Tic-Tac-Toe, which is why it’s much easier to tie at that game. However, it doesn’t compare to Chess, which has an estimated 10 to the 50th power legal positions.

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// Winston Churchill’s severe stutter made him a great speaker!//

Most people don’t know that Winston Churchill, a man who’s speaking abilities have become a sort of legend, had a severe stutter and was originally unable to carry a simple conversation.

How exactly did this make him a great speaker? His story is slightly different than King George VI of the King’s Speech. Churchill had a severe fear of not being able to respond in an intelligent way when asked a question, which resulted in his stutter.

In response he made sure he would never have to think too hard when speaking. Almost every single witty retort or ingenious speech was written days in advance to being said. Churchill would spend hours and hours studying a topic and writing down an answer to any question he might be asked.

The result? Besides becoming one of the most eloquent speakers of all time he also became one of the best-educated and well-informed world leaders. To this day his dedication is revered.

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// Woman are lighter skinned than men in all human populations (generally)//

Scientists originally made this observation before modern science could test why, yet it has since been proven that on average males have darker hair and skin than their female counterparts.

The difference is mostly due to the higher levels of melanin in the skin, hair, and eyes of males. Men also tend to have redder skin because of their greater blood volume. The reverse is also true.

Women tend to have blonder hair and green or blue eyes and lighter skin. Both of these are a result in lower levels of melanin.

While the reason originates from melanin differences, scientists are not sure exactly why men and women have different levels. However, they have noted that the difference in skin color tends to be more pronounced in populations that are neither very light nor very dark skinned.

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// There’s a worldwide photography project happening on May 15th and you can participate//

Aday.org is a worldwide photography project that is being organized by the Swedish non-profit foundation ‘Expressions of Humankind.’ Their goal is pretty simple, but ambitious: on May 15th, they want everybody that joins to take a picture of their daily life and send it to them.

After they gather all the pictures, they will put them up online, in books and exhibitions as a way to preserve time for future generations. They want the images to serve as inspiration for future generations.

The project is gathering attention from some prominent people, like Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and even singer Robyn.

If you wanna join, you can sign up on their site. Tell us in the comments if you participate!

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// The first diamond found in South Africa was 21.25 carats and was given away by a farmer!//

South Africa became famous in the 19th and 20th centuries for its copious amounts of diamonds, yet the first one found has an interesting history.

It is called the Eureka Diamond, and a boy named Erasmus Jacobs first discovered it in 1867 near Hopetown on the Orange River. Jacobs was only 15 at the time and had no idea what he had found on his farm.

He took the diamond and used it in a game called “5 Stones”, when it caught the attention of his neighbor. Erasmus’ mother, believing the stone to be worthless, gave it away to their neighbor who presented it to the Civil Commissioner who in turn declared, “I believe it to be a diamond.”

The diamond was so amazing it was presented to Queen Victoria and displayed at the 1867 Paris Exhibition. 100 years after its initial discovery, the diamond was purchased and donated back to the South African people and is currently on display at the Kimberley Mine Museum.

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// Hedy Lamarr, once voted the most beautiful woman, invented a torpedo navigation system!//

Hedy was born in Austria and began her acting career as a teenager after dropping out of school. She was in over 30 films. She chose her stage surname in homage to Barbara La Marr, a beautiful silent film actress who died of tuberculosis in 1926.

She played Delilah in the 1949 film Samson and Delilah. The film was the highest grossing film of the year. Lamarr went to her composer neighbor, George Antheil, with her idea and together they submitted the idea of a secret communication system.

Lamarr and Antheil patented the idea in 1942. It was the early version of frequency hopping and used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies. It was intended to make radio guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect and jam. It wasn’t used in the military until 1962, though.

Their idea is the basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology such as Bluetooth.

(Source)