26Lord Voldemort
Lord Voldemort’s costume had 7 shades of green for each of his 7 Horcruxes. Every time one was destroyed, his cloak lost shade and faded in color to give the impression he was “fading away.”
27. An 81-year-old man called Giles Corey, accused of being a wizard in 1692, was the only man in American history to be subjected to death by pressing in an attempt to get him to submit to trial by jury. It is said that his response to the torture was to tell them to add 'more weight.'
28. Agatha Christie was a surfer. Agatha became skilled at body-boarding in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and in Hawaii, she learned to ride while standing on the board.
29. Working too much is an official cause of death in Japan. Called 'Karoshi' which literally means 'overwork death' it became a hot button issue the mid to late 1980s when several high-ranking businessmen who were still in their prime years suddenly died without any previous sign of illness.
30. Weird Al wanted to make a parody of “Live and Let Die” titled “Chicken Pot Pie”; but Paul McCartney refused because he is vegetarian, and couldn’t condone a song about eating meat.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Metal corsets
In 1917, the US War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets to free up the production of metal. It liberated 28,000 tonnes of metal, enough to build two battleships.
32. The slower refresh rate on older TVs means that dogs see a 'flipbook' effect if they watch them, unlike with newer TVs where they are more likely to perceive something as actually moving.
33. Chicago's guitarist Terry Kath's last words were "Don't worry about it ... Look, the clip is not even in it" while playing with a pistol, putting it to his temple. Unbeknownst to Kath, there was a round in the chamber. He died instantly from the gunshot.
34. The Canary Islands are named after dogs, not birds. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs". It is said that the original inhabitants of the island, Guanches, used to worship dogs, and generally treated them as holy animals.
35. Humans hear anywhere from 20 to 100 times faster than they see so that everything that they perceive with their ears is coloring every other perception they have and every conscious thought they have. The sound gets in so fast that it modifies all the other input and sets the stage for it.
36Olives
In their natural state, olives are almost completely inedible. To make them edible, olives are bathed in lye, a powerful corrosive, for several days.