The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia
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He drew plans for the first armored car in 1485. In addition, he designed the cannon, a machine gun, gliders, a turnspit for roasting meat, irrigated canal system for fields, the parachute, scissors, and even invented the bicycle 300 years before it appeared on the road.
Leonardo was born out of wedlock on April 15th, 1452.
Leonardo was a vegetarian for humanitarian reasons—a very uncommon practice at the time.
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the spiritual leader and head of state of Tibet. Born on July 6, 1935, he was just 2 years old when he was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He took the throne at age 4 and became a monk at age 6.
The Dalai Lama grew up in Tibet’s 1000-year-old Potala Palace in Lhasa. Since 1959, he has lived in exile in India since the Chinese Army crushed an uprising in his homeland.
The Dalai Lama has a range of pastimes including meditating, gardening, and repairing watches.
He has expressed a keen interest in science and has extensive involvement with research of how meditation affects the brain. He once explained, “If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change. In my view, science and Buddhism share a search for the truth and for understanding reality.”
Since he was a child, the Dalai Lama has always had an interest in machines. As a teenager he repaired a movie projector by himself without its guide or any instructions. He has said on several occasions that he would have become an engineer if he weren’t a monk.
Dance
The risqué high-kicking cancan was considered too lewd back in the day and was banned from public performances in New York until 1866.
The Apache is a dramatic dance which some claim resembles a pimp dealing with a prostitute. The dance involves the woman being thrown about the floor by the man and ends with the woman skidding across the floor in an act of violence and submission. The name of the dance has nothing to do with the Native Indian tribe; but rather, it was named after a Parisian street gang.
Does tap dancing have you fumbling over two left feet? Try the slower alternative, clog dancing, which began in the 1520s in Lancashire, England.
Originating in Kentucky as a 19th century Shaker song, the Hokey Pokey is a group dance with silly words where participants stand in a ring during the dance and sing “You put your right arm in, you put your right arm out…” You know the rest.
Best Dance Moves in the World by Matt Pagett (Chronicle Books, 2008) features 100 step-by-step moves to tear it up on the dance floor—from Walking like an Egyptian to the Running Man to the more adventurous Funky Chicken.
The eighties produced many memorable dance crazes. For “Back the Bus Up,” arms are stretched out in front of you with the hands in closed fists. Slowly walk backwards with small steps. Keep your head looking both ways and turn your hands like you’re moving a steering wheel.
Daredevils
Robert Craig Knievel, better known as Evil Knievel, was an American motorcycle daredevil famed for his stunts. He has several entries in the Guiness Book of World Records…including a record for 433 broken bones.
Robbie Knievel is the third of four children of the late famous stuntman Evel Knievel and his first wife, Linda. The young Knievel began jumping his bicycle at age 4 and rode motorcycles at age 7. When he was only 8 years old, he performed his first show with his father at Madison Square Garden in NY. By age 12, he was touring with Dad and would perform in the pre-jump shows.
Walk the line…In 1873, Australian stunt performer Henry Bellini began giving semi-weekly performances walking across the Niagara Gorge using a 1,500 ft rope, the longest ever used across the Gorge.
Actor and stuntman Jackie Chan performs most of his own stunts, which are choreographed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. He has stated in interviews that the primary inspiration of his more comedic stunts were films such as The General, starring Buster Keaton, who was also known to perform his own stunts.
In the 2003 film, Daredevil, Ben Affleck was cast as Daredevil after Kevin Smith suggested him to the director, Mark Steven Johnson. Like the famed character he was playing, Affleck was virtually blind while making the film. He had to wear heavy-duty contact lenses which blocked out most of his vision.
Darts
The origin of darts is subject to debate, but one common claim is that bored British soldiers used to challenge each other by throwing their spears into turned-over barrel bases. Eventually they moved to cut-up tree trunks for targets.
The late Jim Pike, a darts legend in England before most of us even threw one, was such a legendary marksman that he could shoot a cigarette from someone’s mouth with a dart. Note: please do not try this at home.
Singers Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck are old friends who often play darts together. During the 1970s, they purchased a 3,000-acre ranch and settled for the fishing rights by playing a game of darts. For the record, Jones won.
Years ago, dartboards were made from elm wood. The numbers and wedges had to be carefully painted on and the spider (wires) had as many as 100 staples holding it to the board. To keep it from cracking, the careful pub owner would soak it in a bucket of water or spillage from the beer taps overnight. Soaking a loose dartboard in water will prevent darts from falling out but it will also ultimately shorten the life of the board.
The average speed of a dart hitting a board is around 64kph (40mph).
Declaration of Independence
The actual Declaration of Independence measures 29¾ in × 24½ in.
The original Declaration is exhibited in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, DC. Due to the inadequate preservation techniques of the 19th century, the document is in poor, faded condition.
In the last paragraph, the word “British” is misspelled as “Brittish.”
Apparantly there are 25 known, original Dunlap broadside copies of the Declaration of Independence around—mostly in museums, the Library of Congress, etc. One copy, however, was purchased by Norman Lear and friend David Hayden, for $8.14 million.
A rare 1823 copy of the Declaration of Independence sold at an auction for $477,650. In 2007, Michael Sparks found it while browsing through a Nashville thrift store. When he asked for the price on the yellowed, shellacked, rolled-up document, the clerk marked it at $2.48…plus tax.
The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin, who was 70 at the time. At the signing, he famously said, “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Diamonds
Diamonds are very valuable in the world of gems, but a top-quality ruby is usually worth more than a diamond of the same size.
Diamonds are typically yellow, brown, gray, or colorless, but other colors include blue, green, black, translucent white, pink, violet, orange, purple, and red.
The 545.67-carat Golden Jubilee is the largest faceted diamond in the world. It’s a yellow-brown, brilliant cushion-cut stone, which was presented to the king of Thailand.
The Hope Diamond is a large (45.52 carat), deep blue diamond. It is legendary for the curse it supposedly puts on whoever possesses it. Previous owners include Kings Louis XV and XVI and Marie Antoinette. It is currently housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C.
The Taylor-Burton Diamond is a 69-carat diamond originally known as the Cartier diamond after Cartier Inc. paid a staggering $1,050,000 for the gem at auction. The next day, Richard Burton bought the stone for Elizabeth Taylor, which was renamed the Taylor-Burton diamond. In 1978, she sold the diamond to build a hospital in Botswana. It was subsequently purchased by Robert Mouawad.
Diets
The earliest recorded ‘fad’ diet was followed by William the Conquerer (1028-87). William had grown so large that he confined himself to his bedroom, ate no food, and drank only alcoholic drinks. In 1087, at the Battle of Mantes, near Rouen, France, the strap holding the saddle on his horse gave way under the strain of his weight,
and William died from the injuries he suffered as he fell on the pommel of the saddle.
Dr. Robert Atkins (1930-2003) who was reknown for his cult “Atkins” diet, weighed 260 lbs at his death.
Weight Watchers began in 1961 when an obese Brooklyn housewife, Jean Nidetch, tried to lose weight. She held meetings in her home to discuss ways of losing weight, and within a few months, people were lining up on the street to attend. In 1963, she created Weight Watchers and formalized the ideas that had developed from those meetings.
The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet is simply the act of consuming 1 to 3 teaspoons of the tonic before each meal in the hope of losing weight. In the 1950s, a Vermont doctor named Dr. D. C. Jarvis wrote a book that established Apple Cider Vinegar as a weight loss agent. He claimed that regular consumption of the tonic would cause fat to be burned rather than stored. There is no evidence of its effectiveness.
The Breatherian Diet promotes living off of the nutrients in the air. Scotland resident Verity Linn, 31-year-old Munich resident Timo Degen, and 53-year-old Melbourne resident Lani Marcia Roslyn Morris have all died while attempting to lose weight using the Breatharian “diet.”
DNA
Humans have 46 chromosomes. One chromosome can have as few as 50 million base pairs or as many as 250 million base pairs. There’s an estimated 3 billion DNA bases in our genome.
Our entire DNA sequence would fill 200 1,000-page New York City telephone directories.
DNA is used to determine the pedigree for livestock or pets.
Since 1989, there have been 232 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States. In 1985, Robert Lee Stinson was charged and convicted of first-degree intentional homicide based almost solely on purported matching bite marks on the victim to Stinson’s teeth. He served 23 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit until DNA proved his innocence.
DNA is strong as well as long. Under the right conditions, it can stay together for thousands and thousands of years. Frozen mammoths are a good example. In November 2008, Nature published “Sequencing the nuclear genome of the extinct woolly mammoth”. The authors showed that about 80% of the woolly mammoth genome has been identified.
In 1952, a tadpole was the first animal to be cloned. Before the creation of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, clones were created from embryonic cells. Since Dolly, researchers have cloned a number of large and small animals including sheep, goats, cows, mice, pigs, cats, rabbits, and a gaur.
Drive-Ins
In Japan, “drive-in” refers to a rest area.
In the German-speaking world, the term “drive-in” is often used instead of “drive-through” when referring to restaurants that offer those services.
At their peak in the baby boomer years after World War II, there were more than 4,000 drive-in movie theaters across the U.S. Today, there are fewer than 500 still in operation.
In 2003 and 2004, people began to organize “guerrilla drive-ins” and “guerrilla walk-ins” in parking lots and empty fields. The movie showings were often organized online, and participants met up at pre-determined locations to watch films projected on bridge pillars or warehouse walls.
Starting in 1933, when the first drive-in theater opened, Variety magazine used the term “Ozoner” to describe an outdoor movie theatre in which patrons viewed a film from their automobile. The term was also used to describe the people that attend drive-in movie theaters.
Richard Hollingshead Jr.’s motive behind the invention of the drive-in was actually to sell more auto products, as this was his business in the 1930s. He wanted to establish a place where people could park their cars, enjoy a meal, and watch a movie outdoors.
Drugs
The first person to study the antimicrobial capabilities of penicillin mold was the French physician Ernerste Duchesne. As he was only 23 when he did his extensive research, the Institut Pasteur dismissed his findings. In 1912, Duchesne died of tuberculosis without his findings progressing any further.
As early as 1829, scientists Johann Buchner of Munich and Henry Leroux of France discovered that an extract from the willow tree called salacin could provide pain relief for headaches. Unfortunately, salacin caused stomach inflammation and could induce vomiting of blood. In 1853, a chemist named Charles Gerhardt found a way of preventing stomach inflammation by mixing the compound with sodium, but he had no desire to market his discovery. In 1897, Felix Hoffman, working for the Bayer chemical company in Germany, rediscovered Gerhardt’s formula and produced the product in powder form. Bayer created the trademark with Aspirin.
Viagra, created by the drug company Pfizer, was initially used as a treatment for angina. Clinical trials failed to display any benefits for angina but reports noted that it had the marked side-effect of inducing strong sexual arousal in the male laboratory assistants.
Human birth control pills also work on gorillas.
Druids
Druids were not only priests, diviners and astronomers, but they were also judges, mediators, and political advisers who played vital roles in the declarations of war or peace.
Druids were usually from noble extraction and trained from childhood. To become a druid required 20 years of formation.
Druidism might have originated in Britain, but the Druids held their great annual assembly in the territory of the Carnutes, in central Gaul.
Oaks were of primordial importance in Celtic religion, and the druids ritually cut mistletoe off oak trees. The word “Druid” is related to the Celtic term for oak, and the gathering place for Galatian druids was called Drunemeton, which translates to “oak sanctuary.”
Many Druids were women. The Celtic woman enjoyed more freedom and rights—including the rights to enter battle and divorce her husband—than women in any other contemporary culture.
E
Earth
The Earth’s shape may seem like a round ball, but it’s much closer to an oblate spheroid—a rounded shape with a bulge around the equator. The bulge itself had been shrinking for centuries, but a recent study showed that it’s now increasing. Accelerated melting of the Earth’s glaciers is taking the blame for the gain in equatorial girth.
Earth is a terrestrial planet, meaning that it has a rocky body unlike Jupiter, which is a gas giant. It is the largest in size and mass of the four solar terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), and it also has the highest density, the highest surface gravity, the strongest magnetic field, and the fastest rotation. It also is the only terrestrial planet with active plate tectonics.
In the 15th century, the accepted church dogma maintained that Earth was the center of the universe, and that the Sun, planets, and stars orbited around it. Any contrary theories and ideologies were likely to be seen as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, and the perpetrator of any such theory faced being put to death by burning at the stake.
One might say our Earth is thin-skinned…but it’s all relative. The distance from the surface of Earth to its core is about 3,963 miles, but the solid skin of the planet is only 41 miles thick.
Estimates vary, but roughly 1,000 tons of space dust enters the atmosphere every year and makes its way to Earth’s surface.
Easter
The origin of the name “Easter” is unknown, but a proposed theory by the 8th-century English scholar St. Bede is generally accepted. He proposed that it probably comes from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, and traditions associated with the festival include the rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and brightly colored eggs, which represent the sunlight of spring.
Traditionally, the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now lasts for fifty days until Pentecost. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of fasting and prayer.
Eggs-tra, eggs-tra! The world’s largest egg was produced by the Belgian chocolatier, Guylian. The chocolate egg was made with at least 50,000 bars, meas
ured 27.3 ft high (8.32 m), and weighed 4,299 lbs. A team of 26 Guylian master chocolate makers made the egg over the course of eight days.