In my country, we have the world's largest ball of twine.

I "think" the Dutch invented "shares".

Wait, is that actually a good thing? 😊

Another random fact: Back when The Netherlands gained independence from Spain, it was a republic amongst mostly kingdoms.
And now it's a kingdom surrounded by mostly republics...something like that 🤣

And the Dutch invented the copper wire (2 Dutch people fighting over a stuiver).

And it's very common for Dutch people to speak (or "speak") a second language.

Kodai wrote:

In my country, we have the world's largest ball of twine.

Do you live with Sam & Max? How much time until earth goes off orbit?

Some random facts...
- My country was non-beligerant on both world wars.
- Because it was non-beligerant on first world war, it published somewhat accurate statistics about a pandemic (=did not hide the number of victims), so it was called the "spanish flu".
- Although it was non-beligerant on second world war, the government supported Germany and allowed volunteers to fight on his side, it was called "La división azul".
- Although it was non-beligerant on second world war, soldiers from the republican army found his way to fight on allied side.
- Although it was non-beligerant on second world war, one men received high decorations from both sides (MOBE and Iron Cross).
- No, there are no bulls running on streets every day on every street.
- Yes, that things are dangerous and everyone that runs the bulls on Sanfermines can be hurt (or dead).

The USA is really 50 glommed-together countries called states.

My state, Illinois, is where Abraham Lincoln is from. Barack Obama was a senator here as well. Ronald Reagan was born here.

Before Utah became the home base of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), they called Illinois their home in a town called Nauvoo (formerly, Commerce). Joseph Smith was killed here, and this is what prompted the migration to Utah and the selection of Brigham Young as their new leader.

Many people are ignorant of Native American history and only know what they've seen in bad old movies. In reality, Native Americans were an advanced civilization and culture before whites committed genocide against them. Illinois is home to the ruins of Cahokia, their largest city.

Chicago is our largest city. It is the 2nd most surveilled city in the world. (London is #1). For a long time, the Willis Tower (formerly, Sears Tower) was the tallest building in the world.

Navy Pier is currently a huge tourist trap, but it used to be where pilots trained during WW2. There are supposedly still parts from WW2 planes in Lake Michigan from training accidents. President George H. W. Bush crashed a plane there.

There is a huge network of abandoned train tunnels under the city of Chicago. They were built to bust labor unions and ferry crap from site to site. They haven't been used in decades, and you'll get arrested if you go down there now. They were responsible for the great Chicago flood of 1992.

There is a statue of Lincoln in Grant park, and a statue of Grant in Lincoln park.

If you ever visit downtown Chicago, you might wonder why all the bronze statues of mounted Native Americans appear to be raging at the sky. They were originally designed with bows and arrows, but those were removed decades ago. Now, they look like an homage to Grandpa Simpson.

Australia has a fascinating history pre-European settlement too - Aboriginals have been here for 30,000 years+, shaping the land with fire, battling giant crocodile sized land lizards and massive marsupial lions. Each tribe's culture and history was intimately connected to their territories, meaning of course that moving somewhere else wasn't conceivable and of course we Europeans couldn't conceive of sharing. Same old story.

The returning boomerang - if it was used back in the day - was most likely just a toy. Hunting boomerangs were heavy and designed to throw straight for clonking prey - either to kill it or injure it enough to slow it down.

KT7AGuy wrote:

If you ever visit downtown Chicago, you might wonder why all the bronze statues of mounted Native Americans appear to be raging at the sky.

These two guys are what I was talking about:

TheMobRules wrote:

My country hosted (and won) the first FIFA World Cup in 1930.

A former Uruguayo! How cool is that. 😁

Was once home to the biggest mobile phone manufacturer that refused to release a tablet computer they had finished, or make a clamshell phone when Motorola/Samsung was flooding the market with them because "no one would buy these" 😵

Home to two of Earth's oldest languages, one of them still survives.

My country includes the North Pole. (Be nice, or I will tell Santa.)

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Unarguably the magnetic north pole. It wouldn't surprise me if rights to the north pole get parceled up like Antarctica, though.

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My country was the birthplace of Gravis, Matrox, ATI and Blackerry/RIM .

And poutine!

Microsoft, Bungie, Amazon, and Boeing. Oh, country? Ya. . .still applies.

- Two of the seven wonders of ancient world was supposed to be built in my country.
- You can go from one continent to the other just by driving a 1km long bridge.
- Yoghurt is one of the most well known inventions(?) of my people 🤣

Coldest city on Earth is located in Russia.

Coldest city > 500k people is located in my country (but respect to people in Yakutsk).

bristlehog wrote:

Coldest city on Earth is located in Russia.

That was a great article! Thanks!

I lived in Anchorage, AK for awhile. I remember a few days where it would get down to -25F, and your first deep breath outside would feel like a kick in the chest. One time, I didn't let my car warm up inside and I tried to use the turn signal in those temps and it just snapped off.

Oymyakon and Yakutsk must be unbelievable. -58F is some seriously cold weather I just can't even imagine. The photos are beautiful, but I really love my indoor plumbing.

We eat a lot of pork, cow, sheep and chicken. Not so much fish and horse.
Horsemeat are still not made of unobtainium yet. (though close to)

A songwriter from my country, wrote the tune "Alley cat", wich were used in
the 1984 dos game, with the same title.