Dominik Hofer

Rivers of Babylon

The famous song by is based on psalms (19 & 137) from the Hebrew Bible.

Source: https://pca.st/8ypfdts9

You have a Jennifer Aniston neuron

This hypothetical neuron is officially called a “grandmother cell”, but I like the other name more. Research has shown, that when presented with a concept you already know, the same very specific set of neurons fires in your brain (no matter if you see Jennifer Aniston in an Episode of Friends or on a gala photo). It’s like a little detector in your brain.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother_cell

Memories are essentially replays of neural firing patterns

That’s also how déjà vus work. Your brain plays a similar pattern to one it’s played earlier, and you feel like you’ve experienced it before (I’m not sure though if that’s really based on the newest scientific findings, so don’t quote me on it).

Source: https://pca.st/episode/d8d186e1-afef-4080-8c5f-0e896b59163d

Switzerland is the second oldest democracy in the world

It's been one since 1848. The United States is the oldest democracy in the world (1789), third place goes to New Zealand (1857).

Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/countries-are-the-worlds-oldest-democracies/

Landlocked countries

A landlocked country is a country that does not have a coastline. Worldwide, there are 44 of them. Kazakhstan is the world’s largest, while Ethiopia is the most populous one.

A double-landlocked country, on the other hand, is a landlocked country that is entirely surrounded by other landlocked countries. There are only two double-landlocked countries in the world (Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landlocked_country

What3Words Algorithm

There is a geocoding system that divides the world into 3×3m squares and assigns three words to each of them. Need an example? The best place to get pizza in Bern is at this location: ///cuts.deserved.cave.

Source: https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/what3words-the-algorithm/

A key principle of test-driven development…

…is making the error message change. That sounds so simple yet so effective.

Source: https://laracasts.com/series/30-days-to-learn-laravel-11/episodes/29

Time Billionaire

If you are in your 20s, you are a Time Billionaire – twice. A Time Billionaire is someone who has (statistically speaking) more than one billion seconds left to live.

Source: https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/the-time-billionaire-a-concept-that-changed-my-life

Calculator Spelling

There are a ton of words you can spell with your calculator. Way more than I thought.

Source: https://paperlined.org/apps/wikipedia/offsite_content/Calculator_spelling.txt

The Philosophy Game

Apparently, always clicking the first link of a Wikipedia article will send you to the same page in the end: Philosophy (at least in 97.3% of cases)

Source: https://youtu.be/-llumS2rA8I