1Dan Aykroyd
The "Dwight you ignorant slut" line from the office was a reference to a Dan Aykroyd skit on SNL. Even when teaching suicide awareness Michael Scott was making jokes.
2. In the early 80's, F14 Tomcat pilots flying reconnaissance missions over the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon used commercial "fuzz-buster" radar detectors, mounted in pairs on the pilot's glare shield, to warn them of Surface-To-Air missile radars that the aircraft's built-in gear couldn't detect.
3. During The Great War, China sent 185,000 workers (100,000 in the UK, 35,000 in France, 50,000 in Russia) to work in the European front, for various tasks: unloading military goods, digging trenches, constructing barracks and field hospitals, burying victims of war, working in armament factories.
4. Eddie Chapman was a professional criminal and prolific womanizer who became an important British double agent during World War 2. He once convinced both British and German intelligence to house and pay each of his two fiancees in opposite warzones. He is the only Briton to win the German Iron Cross.
5. Pablo Picasso went on trial as a suspect for stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.
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6Victorian Christmas cards
Dead Birds were a common theme on Victorian Christmas cards.
7. The "Necco" of Necco Wafers stands for "New England Confectionery Company."
8. Marlboro cigarettes were initially marketed to women and included a red strip around their filters to hide lipstick marks.
9. Pizzly bears, grizzly/polar bear hybrids (Nanulak), are found in the wild as well as captivity.
10. A man from Pittsburgh started a petition to rename their airport after Mr. Rogers. The petition got over 4000 signatures.
11Kangatarianism
Kangatarianism is a form of vegetarianism that includes the consumption of kangaroo meat for environmental and ethical reasons. Kangaroos live in the wild, requiring no extra land or water for farming, produce very little methane, and have a minimal impact on the local landscape.
12. In United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. the United States Supreme Court ruled Hollywood's Big Five could no longer own movie theaters, thus breaking up their oligopoly. Before its ruling, Hollywood studios controlled the filming, producing, printing and distribution of their movies.
13. According to "Hollywood accounting", the Lord of the Rings trilogy" made horrendous losses and no profit at all", inspite of earning $3 billion on a budget of $100 million.
14. The European Union established regulations that forced all cell phone companies to adopt the MicroUSB as a standard charger port. One phone charger works for all models under this scheme. Apple got around the rule by simply including an adaptor for all of their new phones.
15. In 2004, a Magnetar (a type of a Neutron Star with a powerful magnetic field) had a large gamma ray burst which briefly expanded the ionosphere of Earth. It is thought to be the largest explosion observed in the galaxy by humans since the supernova observed by Johannes Kepler in 1604.
16Irish people
Irish people call black people "daoine gorm" (blue people) rather than "daoine dubh" (literally black people) because "fear dubh" (black man) means "the devil".
17. Ronnie Barrett, the designer of the .50 cal M82 sniper rifle, was a photographer with no background in manufacturing or engineering.
18. Medieval moats served not only the purpose of being a physical barrier but when water-filled were also able to prevent enemies from tunneling and undermining a wall, by saturating the ground, making tunneling very difficult.
19. Marvel comics was printing comics with Captain America fighting Nazis before America had entered World War 2 thus getting them accused as war provokers.
20. Plastic fibers have been found in tap water around the world, with the US at the worst rate (94%), and both the exact sources and the health consequences are yet unknown.
21Prontosil
The first widely available antibiotic was not penicillin, but a drug called Prontosil. Prontosil and drugs derived from it saved millions of lives up till the 1960's. Its creator, a German named Gerhard Domagk, was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts.
22. Arnold Reuben, the man who invented the Reuben sandwich, is also the inventor of the New York style cheesecake.
23. A 20-year-old woman named Maggie Archer on Tinder successfully scammed many men with her profile that said: “Send me $5, see what happens.”
24. Major League Baseball (MLB) grants a lifetime pass for free admission to MLB games for life to any player, manager, coach or umpire with at least eight years of MLB experience. MLB is the only major pro-sports league that has such a program.
25. Niwot's Curse is the idea that when people see a beautiful area they'll want to stay, which contributes to the undoing of the area's beauty.
