Smarter Than Yesterday: Facts, Trivia, and General Knowledge (The Smarty Pants Series Book 2) by Elsmere Gracey

Author:Elsmere Gracey [Gracey, Elsmere]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

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Australia supplies about 50% of the world’s legally grown opium for the pharmaceutical markets. Five hundred farmers grow the crop on a total of approximately 49,000 acres.

Wallabies have developed a taste for opium and have been spotted in poppy fields feeding on the plants, getting high, and hopping around in circles. However, the recreational activities of the tripping wallabies are having an impact on local businesses due to the destruction of crops.

Wallabies originated in Australia and Tasmania but are also found in New Zealand after being exported during the 1870s. They also reside some 10,000 miles away on the Isle of Man! The reason for this is that a pair escaped from a wildlife park during a storm, and without any natural predators, they were able to successfully establish themselves on the island. It is estimated the population has increased to 120.

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Most pufferfish contain an extremely potent poison called

tetrodotoxin which causes paralysis as a result of interfering with the transmission of signals from nerves to muscles.

Tetrodotoxin is considered to be 120,000 times deadlier than cocaine; it is said that a single pufferfish carries enough of the neurotoxin to kill thirty humans.

While conducting research on dolphins, a zoologist observed the calves in the pod gently chewing on a pufferfish and passing it around. Once the dolphins were high, they became fascinated with their own reflection on the water’s surface.

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Nepeta Cataria, the plant commonly known as catnip, has had various uses over the centuries.

Besides being used in herbal teas it has been used for medicinal purposes, e.g. to treat cramps, diarrhoea, and colic, to ease indigestion, and to cure symptoms of the common cold. During the 1960s it was used recreationally for its euphoric effects.

Catnip works as a psychoactive drug for all cats (which include domestic pets, cougars, leopards, and servals). They experience a sense of euphoria followed by calmness; some observers think that during the trip they chase imaginary mice.

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The German political party, known in English as the Nazi Party, was officially called the National Socialist German Workers Party (National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).

It was rumoured that Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was a Nazi spy during the Second World War due to her romantic connection

with the German aristocrat, Gunther von Dincklage. Chanel was reported to have backed the Nazi’s seizure of all Jewish-owned property and businesses regardless that Chanel No. 5 had been entirely financed by a Jewish family, the Wertheimer’s, who fled to France. During their absence, Chanel took the opportunity to try to seize the rights to the product for herself by claiming that it had been legally abandoned. However, the Wertheimer’s had taken precautions before the war and before fleeing had temporarily turned their business interests over to a trusted Christian businessman. After the war, the Wertheimer’s and Chanel came to an agreement whereby she received wartime profits; in today’s currency, the amount would equate to approximately $9 million.

Chanel was interrogated twice and confronted accusations made against her for being a spy. She escaped prosecution due to a lack of documented evidence.

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