Random Knowledge/Interesting Facts

Drop some random knowledge on a topic that you find interesting, that maybe a lot of people don't know about.

Examples:

Icelandic Naming system

The traditional Icelandic naming system goes like this:
There are no surnames passed down. The last name of each person is a combination of their father's first name and the word "sson" (for the males) or "dottir" (for the females). So if Magnus has a son and a daughter, and names them Gylfi and Lari, their names will be Gylfi Magnusson and Lari Magnusdottir.

This used to be common with all Nordic countries, but the majority have moved on from this. Icelanders, however, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional name system. Although there are some feminists in Iceland that are trying to move past the traditional Icelandic naming system.

Georgian Alphabet
The Georgian Alphabet is one of the most distinct in the entire world. It's not quite arabic, or Russian, or Turkish. It's a small country with a very unique language with many of the alphabetic symbols being unique to language. It consists of 3 different writing "scripts," Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and MkhedruliIt.

It's a 38 letter alphabet but 5 of the letters are now obsolete so the modern version now only consists of 33 letters.


The Iranian Cheetah
Most consider Africa to be the (last) home of the Cheetah, but this is not true. A group of cheetahs that split from African cheetahs between 30,000-60,000 years ago, currently lives in Iran. This is a small group and they may not be around for long. But yes, there are cheetahs in the Middle East.


Zoot Suits

These suits, popularized in the 1940's, which consisted of oversized coats and excess fabric in the pants, were actually legally prohibited during WWII because they were considered to be a waste of fabric. After police and military personnel began beating and assaulting wearers of the suits (who were mostly minorities) they were also the cause of riots in Los Angeles. This is known as the Zoot Suit Riots.



Wrangel Island Mammoths



Wrangel Island is considered by many to be the last place that mammoths survived. Some estimate that the mammoth survived on Wrangel Island as early as 3500 years ago. Isolated from the mainland for 6000 years, about 500 to 1000 mammoths lived on the island at a time.

At this time, the Egyptian pharaohs had reigned for 1500 years, and the Great Pyramids of Giza were already 1000 years old. While the rest of the world's civilizations were advancing, a group of mammoths lived quietly off the coast of Siberia.




Voynich Manuscript

An illustrated codex of unknown origin that has yet to be deciphered. The text is dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438).

Via wikipedia:
The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The mystery of the meaning and origin of the manuscript has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript the subject of novels and speculation. None of the many hypotheses proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.