Random facts.
February 1, 2026
A massive 243-kilogram (535-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market.
Interest in nonfiction books has waned, as publishers note that readers have shown a preference for escapism and gather their information from podcasts.
40% of Americans didn’t read a book in 2025.
Saks, the parent company of the luxury department stores Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, filed for bankruptcy.
An Austrian cow named Veronika has surprised scientists by using sticks to scratch herself. Reported in Current Biology, the behavior qualifies as multipurpose tool use and suggests cows may be smarter than previously believed.
Morgan Stanley’s annual survey of audio habits revealed that younger Americans are listening to roughly three hours of AI-generated music each week.
An original Star Wars movie poster sold for $3.88 million at auction, surpassing Darth Vader’s lightsaber as the most valuable piece of franchise memorabilia.
The Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke, India, is home to around 20,000 rats who are believed to be reincarnated devotees or family members of Karni Mata, a Hindu sage considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Durga.
Doctors in the U.S. perform about 100 infant heart transplants every year.
Walt Disney has taken home more Oscars than any other individual, with 26 wins, while “Ben-Hur,” “Titanic,” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” are the most-awarded films with 11 Oscars apiece.
The world’s tallest, longest, and fastest roller coaster—standing 640 feet high, stretching 2.6 miles, and reaching 150 mph—opened last month at Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia.
1 million seconds = 11 days. 1 billion seconds = 31 years. 1 trillion seconds = 31,000 years.
Microsoft said it would use 28 trillion liters of water for its data centers in 2030.
Stanford researchers have developed a flexible material that can quickly change its surface texture and colors like an octopus, offering potential applications in camouflage, art, and robotics.
The city with the highest cost of living is Zurich, followed by five more Swiss cities—Geneva, Basel, Lausanne, Lugano, and Bern—before New York City comes in at #7. Reykjavik, Honolulu, and San Francisco round out the top ten.
Serbian donkey cheese, known as pule, is the world’s most expensive cheese, produced by just one farm from rare Balkan donkey milk and selling for up to $600 per pound.
China recorded its lowest birth rate since official records began in 1949. The drop aligns with global trends, though China remains an outlier with one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
Stephanie Okechukwu, who signed with Texas Tech, stands 7-foot-1 and will become the tallest player in the history of women’s college basketball.
Charles Darwin studied goose bumps by scaring zoo animals in London with a stuffed snake.
About 97% of the galaxies in the observable universe are moving away from us faster than the speed of light due to the expansion of the universe.
Japanese researchers are moving a promising, tooth-regrowing medicine into human trials. If the trial is successful, the researchers hope the drug will become available for all forms of toothlessness sometime around 2030.
France is the most visited country in the world.
A recent study of 40 million papers found that AI use made individual scientists more productive, but tended to channel researchers into similar areas of study, reducing the breadth of science’s output.
Kyle Tucker, Major League Baseball’s top free agent, agreed to a four-year, $240 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
More than half of all grades given to Harvard undergraduates this fall were A’s — 53.4 % — fueling concerns about grade inflation and prompting a proposal to add an A+ to distinguish truly exceptional work in what critics call a “sea of A’s.”
Fossils unearthed in a Moroccan cave and dated to about 773,000 years ago may represent a missing link in human evolution, potentially reshaping theories about the emergence of early human ancestors.
MIT has created a smart pill with a biodegradable antenna that sends a signal when it’s swallowed, helping verify that medications are taken on schedule.
The Eagles’ 1976 album Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 has become the first album certified quadruple platinum, reaching 40 million U.S. units and remaining the RIAA’s top-selling album in sales and streams.
Most commercial planes are struck by lightning multiple times a year.
A new app called “Are You Dead?” has hit #1 on China’s paid charts by acting as a “dead man’s switch” for the country’s 200 million solo dwellers, automatically alerting emergency contacts if the user fails to check in every two days.
“What a long, strange, trip it’s been.” RIP Bob. And thanks!
“I’ll say this: I look forward to dying. I tend to think of death as the last and best reward for a life well-lived. That’s it.” — Bob Weir, 2025 American Songwriter Magazine
Stay passionate!
