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Random facts

Historical fact: The only Japanese man on the Titanic survived the sinking, and was forever branded a coward in Japan, because the Japanese code of honor dictated that he stayed with the sinking ship, even though he was just a passenger...

In Persia, it was not uncommon for a person to debate an idea twice, once drunk and once sober. If the argument was convincing in both cases, it was generally considered a good idea.
 
elcap1999 said:
In Persia, it was not uncommon for a person to debate an idea twice, once drunk and once sober. If the argument was convincing in both cases, it was generally considered a good idea.
Click to expand...
 
We should try that with congress, it might not help but at least it would be entertaining.
 
World fact: The crime rate in Liechtenstein is so exceedingly low, most residents don't even bother to lock their front doors. The last time there was a murder in the country, Bill Clinton was just reelected to office...
 
Comic book fact: The address Peter Parker (aka Spider Man) grew up at is 20 Ingram Street in Queens. The address is a real house in Queens, and the people who currently reside there are the Parkers...
 
Muppet Fact: Despite persistent rumors and several eerie similarities, the wild-haired drummer Animal is not based on famed rock drummer Keith Moon. Jim Hensen himself  and several members of the Who tried to dispel the rumor on multiple occasions, but by the point they said anything, it was already too late and they were unable to squelch the rumor. Hensen said instead, that Animal was based on Steve Mitchell, an equally wild and well-versed drummer.
 
There are people alive today in 2013 who are still recieving survivor benefit payments from the U.S. Civil War (ended in the year 1865). Those people are today elderly children who were fathered in the 1920s and 1930s by Civil War veterans in their 70s and 80s. Payouts usually end when children turn 18, but children born with disabilities, incapable of caring for themselves are covered for life. So, 148 years later the U.S. Government is still paying for a war that lasted 4 years.
 
Food fact: In its first year in existence, the Coca Cola company only sold 25 bottles.
 
(So for all those out there who get discouraged from low sales, don't worry ;) )
 
Medical Fact: Professor Stephen Hawking has survived with ALS for over 50 years. Only 4% of people with it live for 10 years after being diagnosed.
 
Architectural fact: When the MGM Grand Las Vegas was built in 1993, the entrance was constructed so that people would enter through the mouth of a giant lion. To their amazement, however, virtually all Chinese tourists would refuse to come to the MGM Grand. Designers eventually discovered that in feng shui, passing through the mouth of a lion is considered to be extremely bad luck, which as one may guess, isn't a good thing to have from the moment someone walks into a casino. As a result, in 1998, they redesigned the entrance to remove the lion's mouth at the entrance, and attendance from Chinese tourists skyrocketed.
 
Historical/Mythological fact: In ancient Greece, any oath taken in the name of Gaia, the promordial deity of the Earth, were considered the most binding of all oaths taken under the law.
 
Celebrity fact: Actor Daniel Radcliffe found a unique way to get some payback at the paparazzi. While he was performing on the off-Broadway show Equus, in which he had to appear nude (and generating a fair amount of contraversy due to his age), Radcliffe would wear the same clothes every day which he would remove after arriving at the theatre, revealing a change of clothes underneath.
 
This frustrated the paparazzi to no end, since all the pictures appeard to be taken from the same day :)
 
Medical fact: When famed voiceover artist Mel Blanc was in a coma due to a severe car accident, doctors were only able to get him to respond to questions by posing questions to the characters he made famous, such as Bugs Bunny, Pepe Le Pew and Porky The Pig, and he would verbally respond in that character's voice. His doctor's only explanation as to why he was able to do the characters' voices while in a coma was that his use of these voices became so extensive and automatic for him over the years, it became second nature for him to do so.
 
Genetic fact: Everyone with blue eyes can trace their genetic lineage back to one person who lived along the Black Sea approximately 10,000 years ago, and the gene for blonde hair arose approximately 11,000 years ago to a small isolated pocket of humans in Northern Europe. Both genes are considered fully recessive, meaning that you must have two copies of the genes.
 
Animal fact: Cats of every variety (from domesticated to lions & tigers) not only lack the ability to taste anything sweet, they lack the glucokinase enzyme in their livers which helps to regulate carbohydrate metabolism. This is also why most domesticated cats prefer wet food from cans to dry food because wet food is largely meat-based, whereas dry kibble food is corn or starch based, meaning an almost exclusive diet of dry food can potentially flood their system unnecessarily with carbs, which can lead to diabetes-like health problems in cats, since their bodies aren't accustomed to that much sugar and their diets in the wild simply didn't provide much sugar at all.

Chemistry fact: The element Gallium is deliberately kept separate from all other metals because it has a nasty tendency of chemically replacing any metal it comes in contact with, and because of Gallium's weak electrochemical bonding ability, it weakens the metal to the point of failure. In the case of aluminum, a single drop of galium dropped onto an aluminum soda can can cause the can to explode from rapid decompression in a matter of seconds, and cause the metal in the can to feel like what has only been described as little more than a thin veneer of silk.
 
Business fact: The reason movie theaters frown on or even eject people who bring in outside snacks and drinks is because that is where many movie theater chains make their money. For example, a purchase of $5 in popcorn at the concession stand costs the movie theater approximately 50 cents, and that includes the oil, equipment & electricity used to make it and the salary of the employees.
 
Medical fact: A man with a history of severe mental disorders attempted suicide, but the path of the bullet through his head destroyed only the area of his brain that caused his mental issues. He went on to go to college and earned straight A's.
 
Historical culinary fact: Lobster being considered a food for the rich a strictly 20th century development. Prior to this, lobster claws and tails were considered food that even the poor would think twice about eating. In fact, prisoners that were served it in the 19th century (lobster back then was exceedingly cheap to purchase) declared a meal of lobster was "cruel & unusual punishment."
 
Historical Legal fact: One of the prescribed punishments for murder in mideval Ireland was to have the murderer become a slave of the victim's family. The family could then legally do whatever they pleased with the muderer, including kill them...
 
In honor of Halloween...
 
Halloween facts: The holiday we call Halloween was originally the Celtic tradition called Samhain, in which the Celts believed the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was especially thin because of the coming of nights being longer than days in the Northern Hemisphere, allowing the living to commune with their dead relatives. When Christianity came to the Celts, church leaders co-opted the tradition by moving their tradition of All Saints Day (originally celebrated in mid-May) to the end of October, the day after Samhain. All Saint's Day was also known as All Hallow's Day, making the day before All Hallow's Eve. They also made November 2nd All Soul's Day, thus further draining the power of October 31st as Samhain.
 
The tradition of the Jackolantern was also based on an Irishman called Jack, who according to legend was such a horrible human being, he was even booted out of Hell. However, the Devil took pity on him and gave him a burning ember from the pits of Hell, which he promptly put into a turnip that he carved out in order to have a light to guide his way in the night. When the story came to the New World, children replaced turnips with the more plentiful pumpkins.
 
The tradition of trick or treating has a dual origin. The first part, the treating, came from the celebration of the afore mentioned All Soul's Day. The poor would go around town, asking for a small pastry called a Soul Cake, and generous people would bake them for the poor, as a way of showing kindness to those less fortunate, in line with church doctrines on charity to the poor. The trick part came about as unruly kids and/or young adults would go about and cause havoc, in sometimes extremely creative ways, such as disassembling an entire tractor (motor and all) and reassembling it on top of a hapless farmer's barn. Some enterprising citizens eventually got the notion that by effectively bribing these kids and young adults with treats and parties at their residences, they would try to prevent them from causing any kind of distress in the neighborhood, a tactic that, by and large, worked, and the two traditions eventually melded into the 20th century tradition we know today with giving out candies. The tradition of wearing masks was something of an off-shoot of the tradition of tricking, in that the kids/young adults would sometimes wear elaborate masks as a means of preventing themselves from being identified by authorities.
 
Biological fact: Anyone who is 6'2" or taller, is taller than 94% of all human beings that have ever lived.
 
Movie fact: In the scene in Jurassic Park where the T-Rex breaks through the roof of the Jeep, the screams of the kids are real and not scripted, as the T-Rex animatronic model wasn't supposed to break through the plexiglass. 
 
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