1DeVito's Tarantino Film Deal
Danny DeVito made a deal with Quentin Tarantino for his second film, despite never having seen Reservoir Dogs. Danny said, "It was just about him. I liked the way he was talking about it. The guy was just so cool. It seemed simple to me."
2. Air Force One has taken off more times than it has landed due to a call sign change when Nixon resigned.
3. Since 1580 A.D., 18 documented, unprovoked attacks by hammerhead sharks (of the genus Sphyrna) have resulted in no human fatalities.
4. In 2006, John Parsons, an Ohioan criminal, escaped from prison for three months using a rope made out of bedsheets, newspapers, and toilet paper. During the time between his escape and capture, he lived in the wilderness in a small shack and planned to go to Canada.
5. During Watergate, in an effort to stop the Oval Office tapes from entering the public record verbatim, the Nixon administration proposed a compromise. They suggested that Senator John C. Stennis, who was hard of hearing, would listen to the tapes and report on their contents. The plan ultimately failed.
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6Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Name Lawsuit
NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sued NFL running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar in 1997 for using his name. He later changed his name to Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar as a result of the lawsuit.
7. A child will typically contract the common cold 6-8 times a year.
8. Elephants stay cancer-free because they have 20 copies of a key tumor-fighting gene, whereas humans have just one.
9. In 1986, before fitness tracking was popular, Puma released a fitness tracking sneaker called the RS-Computer Shoe. It came with a disk, cable, and a 46-page instruction manual, costing $200. It did not sell well, as people asked questions such as, "Why would you want to know how far you run?"
10. Because the FDA banned sassafras as a carcinogen in 1960, modern sarsaparilla in the US does not contain sassafras. Today, we make sarsaparilla, a soft drink, from the root of the Smilax ornata plant, a vine native to Central America.
11Leaning Tower of Pisa Curvature
The Leaning Tower of Pisa began to tilt early in its construction. To compensate for the tilt, engineers built upper floors with one side taller than the other. This led to the tower's curvature.
12. The Luddites were not anti-technology. They were highly skilled laborers who protested wage reductions and job replacements due to automation.
13. The "Judas Wolf technique" entails trapping a wolf in a net and equipping it with a radio collar to guide government-contracted shooters back to its pack for their execution.
14. In 2023, a 6-year-old Chinese girl named Cao Qixian set a new women's world record by solving a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube in an average time of 5.97 seconds. She became the first female ever to achieve an average time of under 6 seconds.
15. The Berlin Gold Hat is a two-foot-tall, 3,000-year-old artifact made of thin gold leaf that was found in Germany. Dating back to 1000 to 800 BC, it is the best-preserved specimen among the four known conical golden hats from Bronze Age Europe. It is believed to have been an insignia of deities or priests in a widespread sun cult, possibly serving astronomical or calendrical functions.
16Peter Jackson’s Secret Bag End
Peter Jackson has a perfect replica of Bag End in his basement. You go down to the wine cellar and pull a bottle, which opens a door. Then there's a long corridor leading to a mock torture chamber. Eventually, you pull a book from a bookcase, the bookcase opens, and you step into his perfect Bag End.
17. Car tires are a major source of ocean microplastics, blowing more than 200,000 tons of tiny plastic particles into the oceans annually from roads.
18. At UC Berkeley, the only way to get free parking is to win a Nobel Prize!
19. Percy Fawcett first mentioned a double-nosed dog in the Amazon jungle in 1913, after an expedition there. However, no one believed him, and the dog remained a cryptozoological beast until the 2000s, when John Blashford-Snell returned with photo evidence of the Double-Nosed Andean Tiger Hound.
20. Since the American Civil War, Eddie Slovik has been the only American soldier to face court martial and execution for desertion. After repeatedly deserting his unit during World War II, he faced execution in 1945.
21Expensive Error Banknote Auction
The most expensive error banknote is a US $20 bill with a Del Monte fruit sticker stuck to it, which sold for $396,000 in 2021. A college student discovered it in 2003 after obtaining it from an ATM and selling it online for $10,000. Experts surmise that a bored employee likely purposefully placed the sticker.
22. Steve Jobs signed a typed letter in 1983 that read, "I'm afraid I don't sign autographs," and it sold for $478,939 at an auction in 2022.
23. In 2019, the BBC interviewed a man who married a fictional girl. Interestingly, 12% of people in Japan reported falling in love with anime or game characters. According to sociologist Masahiro Yamada, the rise in pseudo-relationships is due to a demanding work life and a dwindling pool of well-paid men.
24. The Human Genome Project started in 1990, and by 2003, scientists had successfully documented 92% of the genome. However, it took until 2022 to map the final 8% and complete the sequencing of the human genome.
25. Mud Daubers is a type of usually non-aggressive wasp that is believed to have caused at least two fatal plane crashes. In 1996, these wasps obstructed the pitot tubes of an aircraft, resulting in a crash that claimed the lives of all those on board.
