Page 194 - History Facts

A tiny island in the South Pacific is minting Star Wars coins as legal currency!

The 2,000 residents of the island nation of Niue are in for an awesome surprise - a...”Niue hope,” if you will. Beginning in November, all Nieueans will have the opportunity to spend silver currency from a galaxy far, far away. As the island is a self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand, the coins will be worth $2 New Zealand dollars. Only 7,500 of each style will be produced, with eight varieties in one-ounce silver coins and another ten coming in silver-plated metal. Though these coins are actually worth money on the island, you probably won’t see them changing hands too frequently, as they are both really cool and have a silver content worth much more than $2 NZD.
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One of Saturn’s moons closely resembles the Death Star and Pac-Man.

Discovered in 1789, Mimas is the twentieth-largest of Saturn’s 62 moons. It is also the smallest known astronomical body that is thought to be have a round shape due to self-gravitation. Other than that, Mimas is largely unremarkable...unless you are a nerd! From the right angle, anyone who is familiar with the Star Wars films will immediately notice an uncanny resemblance to a certain weaponized space station! This unusual comparison is due to the fact that its surface is marred by an enormous indentation called the Herschel Crater that looks just like the Death Star’s superlaser!

Another geeky reference can be seen when looking at a map of daytime surface temperatures on Mimas. As with most normal celestial bodies, scientists expected that Mimas would exhibit a temperature reading much like that of Earth - warmer temperatures near the moon’s equator in the early afternoon that taper off as you move away from the center of the moon. However, this was not the case. For some reason the hottest temperatures were registered in the morning along the moon’s edge, in a pattern that looks just like Pac-Man, from the famous arcade game! Scientists expect that Mimas’s irregular heat pattern was likely caused by the impact which created the Herschel Crater many years ago. 
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Due to staggering inflation in the 1920's, 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 German marks were worth 1 US dollar.

The first women to ever get a 10th degree black belt in Judo was 98 years old.

Sensei Keiko Fukuda has achieved the highest rank in Judo at the age of 98. She began practicing Judo in 1935. She decided to forgo getting married and starting a family. Instead she focused on Judo. The reason it took her so long (76 years!) to reach the highest rank was there was an edict that prevented women from rising passed the level of 5th degree black belt. When the ban was lifted, she was finally able to rise through the ranks and reach the top in 2011.
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Common facial expressions like disgust and fear can change how you see the world.

According to new research, rather than simply expressing how you already feel, facial expressions can also alter perceptions. For example, people expressing fear are capable of noticing more things visually. Holding a fearful expression causes people to be more vigilant, so they are more aware of their surroundings. Disgust tends to have the opposite effect on people. Simply by making a disgusted face, people are naturally less able to notice things.

You can learn more in this video:


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