Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 39

!Ah hA!

You and I were 75% water at birth. A bit higher water content than bananas, but slightly less than potatoes. I’ll sell you this for $3,000,000. $2,000,000.:

Four people in Southern California were arrested and accused of insurance fraud after they claimed their cars were trashed by a bear — which was actually someone in a bear costume, officials said.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/person-dressed-bear-costume-fake-attacks-cars-insurance-payout-califor-rcna180075

Although daily video consumption remains high across small screens (mobile) and big screens (TV), consumption on small screens is starting to dominate globally. Across the 8 markets tested, 67% of consumers watch video on their small screen daily, compared to 50% who watch on their big screen. https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/small-screens-big-returns

“In 2009, Quentin Tarantino was set to appear on the talk show Late Show with David Letterman to promote Inglourious Basterds. A few years prior to this event, David Letterman had interviewed a former "unnamed" girlfriend of Tarantino on his show. Letterman joked about the relationship questioning why a "glorious movie star" would date a "little squirrelly guy". A couple of days later, Tarantino phoned Letterman, screaming angrily, "I'm going to beat you to death! I'm going to kill you! I'm coming to New York, and I'm gonna beat the crap out of you! How can you say that about me?!" Letterman offered to pay for Tarantino's flight and let him choose the method of fighting, which Tarantino determined would be “baseball bats”. However, Letterman never heard from Tarantino again, until years later, when he came on the show to promote the new film. The host approached Tarantino in the make-up room, just before the show went live, and demanded an apology. Tarantino was not forthcoming, but at his publicist's urging, he begrudgingly conceded.” ~ wikipedia

Mature oak trees can reach heights of around 148 feet and can live up to 1,000 years. Oak trees have existed for 65 million years, and a single oak tree can produce around 10 million acorns during its lifespan. Out of these acorns, only 1 in 10,000 grow into an oak tree.

There have only been fifteen men’s world champion boxers who have retired undefeated. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has one of the most impressive records at 50–0–0. Sportico released an all-time athlete earnings list, in which Mayweather ranked #10 of all time, totaling $1.14 billion in his career:

Alan Smithee (sometimes spelled Allen Smithee) was a pseudonym used by film directors who wanted to distance themselves from a project. Created in 1968 and officially retired in 2000, it was the exclusive alias allowed by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for directors who could prove to a guild panel that they lacked creative control over a film. Under guild rules, directors using this pseudonym were forbidden from discussing the reasons for disowning the project or admitting they directed it. 
"Alan Smithee" was credited on at least two dozen films, as well as numerous television projects, music videos, and other creative works during its use. Notable examples include Death of a Gunfighter (1969), Let's Get Harry (1986), and Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996).

The record for the fastest vehicle on water was set in 1978 by Australian Ken Warby. His boat, the Spirit of Australia, reached a speed of 511.11 km/h (317.59 mph). Two official attempts to beat his record have resulted in the death of the pilot.

Every year, the moon moves around 1.49 inches further away from Earth. Now you know why it looks a bit smaller than last year, eh?

Look what they found hidden in a mall in Delaware:

Would you pay $12,000 U.S. dollars to change your eye color? At least 400 people have or will this year. The procedure is called Keratopigmentation, or corneal tattooing. It takes about a half an hour. And it is a permanent color change. But it could be dangerous. From the article in Wall Street Journal:

“Some people getting the procedure say they want to look better and feel more confident. Others did it to look more like family members. One young man changed one of his brown eyes blue to copy the mismatched eyes of his beloved Siberian husky.” (https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/eye-color-change-surgery-risks-keratopigmentation-df99c38b?st=YyYAQY&mod=1440).

If you sell a product, there are four ways to increase your revenue:

1. Increase the number of customers.

2. Increase the average transaction size.

3. Increase the frequency of transactions per customer.

4. Raise your prices. 

There are five reasons a product fails :

1. It’s too complicated to use.

2. It’s too complicated to explain.

3. It doesn’t iterate over time.

4. The founders are afraid to do something risky.

5. The product isn’t launched into a community.

Between 2009 and 2012, iPhones had a built-in "Send to YouTube" button in the Photos app. Many of these uploads kept their default IMG_XXXX filenames, creating a time capsule of raw, unedited moments from random lives. (watching random videos may not be for the faint of heart) https://walzr.com/IMG_0001  Riley Walz (https://walzr.com/) was inspired by Ben Wallace,
https://ben-mini.github.io/2024/img-0416 who made a bot that crawled YouTube and found 5 million of these videos! Here is another similar, unrelated project: http://astronaut.io/#

You may have seen a 4 leaf clover. Lucky you! A Japanese fellow named Yoshiharu Watanabe grew a record breaking 63-leaf clover.

 

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Fancy a throwback website for yourself? It’s free to build one. It takes you back to the 1990’s internet. I have no affiliation. TechCrunch says:

The internet can be bad. But mmm.page might just be good.
The platform is hard to explain, but it describes itself as “Tumblr x Animal Crossing x Mii Plaza,” which is somehow more accurate than my idea of “MySpace meets Linktree, except not really.” The anonymous founder, XH, told TechCrunch, “I am also refining my conception of, and feelings about, mmm.page in real-time.”

Here are a couple of examples of the type of page you could build for yourself:

When Chuck Norris turned 18 his parents moved out.

Thanks for everything! Which was your favorite?