12 Farm-Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Friday, May 2, 2025

The Chinese mitten crab is known for its ability to scale vertical surfaces and its penchant for murdering vast swaths of native wildlife. After a local fisher caught one in Oregon, the Department of Fish and Wildlife says it believes some jagoff brought some there illegally.

The Asian small-clawed otter hasn’t been seen in Nepal for 185 years, until a recent sighting confirmed by scientists. It was thought to have gone extinct in the region in 1839.

A study found that psilocybin could have actual brain-healing qualities that may be able to help mend damage from repeated head injuries.

First-come, first-served isn’t actually the most efficient way to shuttle human cattle through your capitalist slaughterhouse. Starbucks has taken the timing and machinery needed for various orders and created a (non-A.I.) algorithm that will tell baristas what order to make drinks in. Trials have shown this shaves an average of two minutes off each visit.

Three-foot three-inch Reggie hung out with 3.59-inch Pearl. They didn’t really do anything, but it still feels cosmically extremely important that this happened.

Egyptians had been de-guts-ifying important people for centuries, and we know of some ancient Greek noblemen who had their bodies inspected after death. But Caesar’s is the oldest we know of that was recorded and came to a definitive conclusion (his second of 23 stab wounds is the one that killed him).

A school district in Texas has banned children in fifth grade and below from learning about the state of Virginia, because its flag features a half-toga-less woman, and that single humble boob might give the children impure thoughts.

The European Space Agency launched a satellite that will use radar to penetrate the dense canopies of the Earth’s forests to measure the carbon content of trees. It’ll create five maps over five years, to make sure the trees are still soaking up the 16 billion metric tons of carbon we need them to so we don’t die.

The Lunar Hatch Project is planning to blast fish eggs into space as the first step toward figuring out how to farm lunar sea bass as a source of protein for future astronauts.

A mother contacted Uber after her driver accidentally left with her five-year-old child asleep in the back seat. Uber said it was against their policy to contact the driver, but offered the family a $10 Uber credit for their trouble.

A turtle named Root who lives in Halifax’s Museum of Natural History is missing its right front leg, causing its shell to scrape along the ground, so its caretakers fashioned a bespoke wheelchair out of Legos.

The Organoid Company is working with a biotech firm to turn fossilized dinosaur collagen into bona-fide dinosaur leather, starting, of course, with a purse made out of synthesized T. rex hide.