The Duck-Billed Platypus Does Not Have A Stomach The duck-billed platypus is a strange creature. It has a duck-like beak, or bill, and a beaver-like tail. Plus, platypuses (not platypi) lay eggs, being oviparous mammals. Males also have a spur on the back of their hind feet, which is connected to a venomous gland. It's not life-threatening to humans, but can be very painful. They also don't have stomachs, meaning their gullet connects directly to the intestines. Scientists say it has something to do with diet, because a lot of fish also do not have stomachs. It could be connected to a calcium and mineral-rich diet, but for now, there are only theories. Another tidbit: Platypus babies are called puggles. The US Air Force Almost Nuked The Moon No, not accidentally. There was a plan and purpose behind the plan to nuke the moon, and it was mostly retaliatory in nature. Since the Soviets had slung Sputnik into space, the USA had to do something bigger and more visible. The idea was to shoot the moon with a hydrogen bomb for a visual spectacle - giving America the chance to thumb its nose at the USSR. The team involved Dr. Leonard Reiffel, Gerard Kuiper, and astronomer Carl Sagan. Thankfully, the plan disintegrated, mostly because the visual spectacle imagined was not as grand in reality. So they landed on it, instead, as option B. The Swish Of The Door In 'Star Trek' Is Paper Being Taken Out Of An Envelope Every time you hear the T-rex roar in Jurassic Park, you should think of Jack Foley. He pioneered the process of adding sounds to screen and radio once the silent era began to evolve into movies with sound. The very process of adding sounds to movies is now called "foley." And the props and sources used to create the sounds are often radically different from what you see and hear on-screen. For instance, in Star Trek, the noise of the sliding doors of the Enterprise is just a piece of paper slid from an envelope. And the T-rex roar is a baby elephant trumpeting mixed with big cat roars and an alligator. The Roman Catholic Church Classified Beavers As Fish When the Europeans came to North America and Canada, they brought along the Catholic Church with them. The Indigenous population slowly began converting to this religion, but the one thing that pained them was the no-meat rule during Lent. Back then, beavers were a favored treat in some areas of North America, so the bishop of Quebec asked his superiors for permission to eat beaver meat on Lent Fridays. The Church had a simple solution: Since the beaver is a semi-aquatic mammal, the Church decreed it was fish. Following the same logic, capybaras were also classified as fish. Both make for delicious Lent meals in many parts of the world today. Gargoyles And Gargling Are Related Terms The word "gargoyle" has become a rather loosely used term for any statue that's uglier than anything you've ever seen before. But architecturally speaking, a gargoyle has a function. As strangely as it may be carved, it's a water spout. A gargoyle, human or animal, is usually found on the roof and directs rainwater away from the building. The term comes from the old French word "gargouille," meaning throat, as does the word "gargle." Any and all other statues, no matter how ugly, carved into buildings are called grotesques. And this term comes from the Italian word "grottegargoysco." The Phrase 'Elvis Has Left The Building' Came To Be Because Elvis Never Performed Encores Elvis Presley was more than just a singer - he was a performer, "thank you very much." His persona and his mystique were part of his allure, as were the carefully curated clothes, the pompadour hair, and the fact that once his performance was over, Elvis left the building. As in, he never did encores. The fad started with Horace Lee Logan, his promoter, who announced, "Please, young people. Elvis has left the building. He has gotten in his car and driven away. Please take your seats." Later, it became the sign-off for Elvis's announcer, Al Dvorin, to signal to the hungry crowd that the evening was over. As Elvis exited the stage, he would say, "Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and goodnight." James Bond Was Chosen As A Name Because It Sounded Dull Ian Fleming was an ex-commander in the British Naval Intelligence Division during WWII. When he got down to writing his spy novels, he needed a name for the protagonist. He found his name, not in a spy, but in an ornithologist. Said Fleming: I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find. "James Bond" was much better than something more interesting, like "Peregrine Carruthers." That said, the ornithologist went by Jim, Jim Bond, and was a dapper fellow. The fleshing out of the character was inspired by many different real-life spies, as well as some top government officials, including a James Charles Bond. The 007 has meaning in military code, as well. 0070 was the first German diplomatic code decoded by the British. Taser Is Actually An Acronym, And Named After A Book Taser is not a type of weapon, but rather a brand of weapons. But much like Xerox is to photocopies and Kool-Aid is to fruity drink mixes, Taser has become a proprietary eponym. It's even a verb today, considering you can be Tasered. The name itself, Taser, is an acronym for Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle. It's an ode from the creator, Jack Cover, to an adventurer named Tom Swift - the protagonist of Cover's favorite sci-fi book series. The World's Longest War Lasted 355 Years During the time of the English Civil War, between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists, the Dutch switched sides from the latter to the former. Furious Royalists raided the Dutch ships, but Oliver Cromwell’s successful military advance pushed them back. The Royalist navy retired to the Isles of Scilly. The Dutch decided it was time for payback, and sent warships to the Isles of Scilly. They demanded the loot from the raid be returned, but when nothing was forthcoming, Admiral Maarten Tromp declared war on the isles on March 30, 1651. But before any shots could be fired, the Parliamentarians turned up and took the isles under their control. So the Dutch headed home, except there had been no peace treaty signed. Finally, 335 years later, the Dutch finally decided the peaceful war had lasted long enough. In April 1986, Dutch ambassador Jonkheer Huydecoper flew to the Isles of Scilly. He then officially ended the strange, bloodless war. Saint-Louis-Du-Ha! Ha! Is The Only Town With Two Exclamation Points In Its Name If you cross into the Canadian border from Maine, you’ll find the only town in the world with two exclamation points in its name. And it’s a Guinness World Record Holder for that reason. Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! was founded in the mid-19th century as a Roman Catholic mission, and today has a population of more than 1,300. The name might come from the old French word "ha-ha," which means a cul-de-sac or a dead end. The end may refer to Lake Témiscouata just beyond the town, while Louis is thought to be the name of one of the town's founders. Arnold Schwarzenegger Brought Us The Hummer Arnold Schwarzenegger is not just a Hummer fan - he's one of the key people who convinced the makers of the Humvee to make a civilian Hummer. He contacted AM General, who made the military-grade Humvee, and requested that they make him a civilian version of the same. By 1992, the Hummer was launched to the public, officially. Schwarzenegger went on to own a fleet of Hummers and even teamed up with Kriesel Electric for the first electric Hummer. He proudly shared it on Instagram, as well. Afraid of Summoning Bears, People Used to Say "Brown Ones" Instead Ever wonder why the English word for “bear” sounds nothing like the Latin word ursus or the Greek word arktos? According to Ralph Keyes’s Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms, the oldest known euphemism was the Proto-Germanic beorn (literally "the brown one") which early Northern Europeans used a thousand years ago or so instead of the “real” name for a bear. Why? Because uttering their equivalent of "bear" might summon them. The Online Etymology Dictionary claims the “blood-thirsty beast that shall not be named,” therefore fear was pretty common. The Irish name for a bear was "the good calf," the Welsh called it the "honey-pig," the Lithuanians called it "the licker," and the Russians said medved, or "honey-eater.” Fearful Doctors Used to Write "Σ" Instead of "Syphilis" This one is about being terrified of writing a word, but the idea is the same. The fear of syphilis was so strong in the 15th and 16th centuries, according to Paul Chrystal’s In Bed with the Ancient Greeks, that doctors would use the Greek letter sigma as a symbol for syphilis for fear that writing the word might somehow evoke it. Syphilis - or, uh, “Σ” - is named after a mythological shepherd named Syphilus "who was cursed by the god Apollo with a dread disease." Even modern medical textbooks (such as David Allison and Dr. Nicola Strickland’s Acronyms and Synonyms in Medical Imaging) still advise students of the possible use of “Σ” in place of the word syphilis. Actors Think Saying "Macbeth" Will Curse a Production Unless you are rehearsing or performing Macbeth, saying "Macbeth" in a theater will bring bad luck at the least and outright disaster at the worst. Actors believe the play is cursed because of its history; two different actors have actually died on stage while performing it. The play also was at the center of a deadly riot. Some believe Shakespeare was cursed by witches offended by the play - or even that the playwright intentionally cursed the play himself by putting real spells into the witches' dialogue. If you must allude to Macbeth in a theater, it's better to call it "the Scottish play" instead. Chanting "Bloody Mary" Is a Bloody Bad Idea Urban legend has it that if you look into a mirror in a room lit only by a candle and chant "Bloody Mary" repeatedly, an apparition will appear in the mirror. What exactly you will see varies from teller to teller, but most agree that a woman will appear and do something absolutely terrifying. An older version of this myth said that if young, unmarried women looked into a mirror while holding a candle, they could catch a glimpse of their future husbands. In Japan, a similar legend is told about Hanako-san, a young girl who appears in the mirrors of school bathrooms when students call her name. Scientists have suggested that staring into a mirror in a dimly lit room and chanting can cause one to hallucinate, or even to hypnotize themselves - a more probable, if less spooky, explanation for this effect. Some Aboriginal People Won't Utter the Name of the Recently Deceased Sir James George Frazer’s classic comparative religion tome The Golden Bough relates that a custom “most rigidly observed amongst Australian aborigines” is to never, ever utter the name of the recently dead. Not only is it a “gross violation of their most sacred prejudices,” but it also might evoke a ghost. One of Frazer’s colleagues once unknowingly shouted a dead man’s name, the story goes, and one man in the tribe “took to his heels and did not venture to show himself for days.” The so-called “power of the malign spirits” are so strong, apparently, that the dead are referred to as “the lost ones” until “Couit-gil, the spirit of the departed” departs, himself, “towards the setting sun.” In South America, among the Goajiros of Colombia, Frazer reports, “to mention the dead before his kinsmen is a dreadful offense, which is often punished with death.” Wishing an Actor "Good Luck" Is Bad Luck Every thespian knows that it's bad luck to wish an actor "good luck" before a performance. Instead you should say "break a leg." One possible explanation for this superstition is the belief that the theater spirits will always cause the opposite of what you say to happen. This is a variation of the evil eye, an idea common to cultures all over the world, that wishing for luck or boasting about good fortune will curse you, so one should wish for misfortune or criticize their blessings aloud instead. Some Papua New Guineans Believe Uttering the Names of Certain Relatives Will Make You Ill Roughly 1,000 residents of the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea, according to linguist Bernard Comrie, are customarily forbidden, in their native language of Haruai, to say the names of cross-cousins - “one’s father’s sister’s or one’s mother’s brother’s children” - or in-laws. Violating this taboo could make the violator sick or “might cause one’s crops to fail.” Getting around this taboo is a tricky task: Haruai names are often “identical to that of an ordinary lexical item,” meaning if you have an in-law named the Haruai equivalent of “mountain,” for example, you would have to find a substitute or euphemism for the word in order to avoid tempting fate. Taking the Lord's Name in Vain In Judaism, it is believed that the true name of God is YHWH, sometimes spelled or pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah. But the true pronunciation of the name has been lost, most likely because people simply stopped saying it. In daily speech, Orthodox Jews may refer to God as HaShem, or "The Name." Many Orthodox Jews also avoid writing the name of God, preferring to write "G-d" instead. Why? It's considered a form of "taking the Lord's name in vain," which is not cool: “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” That's Leviticus 24:10-16. Beliefs about the consequences of "uttering the Name of Heaven uselessly" vary, but considering it's one of the Ten Commandments, it's safe to say that most practicing Jews and Christians of all denominations take it seriously. Hell Hath No Fury Like a Lilith Scorned According to some religious beliefs, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, who was cast out of the Garden of Eden because she refused to submit to him. The Munich Manual of Demonic Magic contains instructions on how to create the Mirror of Lilith, also spelled "Lylet." Once you have made a mirror according to set specifications, including writing certain magic words on it, you must then conjure Lilith by saying the words of a spell which begins, "I conjure you, Lylet, and your companions..." But be careful: once Lilith is conjured, she is capable of causing catastrophe. According to various religious texts - such as the anonymous medieval text The Alphabet of Ben Sirah - Lilith is, in the words of The Straight Dope, “a she-demon.” She’s “the night demon,” a vengeful spirit also known as “The Howling One,” forever wailing through the night (a plea for her to stay away - "Lilith - abi!" or "Lilith - begone!" - may be the source of the word “lullaby.”). A book of Jewish mysticism from the 12th century, The Zohar, calls her the “Angel of Death” or “Wife of Satan."