Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 48

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Why would you want to make your own emoticon? It’s fun. https://emoticonhub.com/emoticon-generator/

My goodness - this website is such a terrible user experience…
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/another-three-gorges-dam-above-earth-china-plans-to-build-an-enormous-1-kilometer-wide-solar-power-station-in-space-that-will-beam-continuous-energy-back-to-earth/articleshow/117309277.cms?from=mdr

I use an extension on Chrome called Reader View, that just shows the words with minimal formatting or styling, when I come across stuff like this: Reader View for Chrome

Ever get tired of searching around for human teeth that are almost impossible to find? Me either. But if you did, there is a place to buy a set of 200 human teeth for $900, plus shipping! https://bforbones.com/shop/a-set-of-200-real-human-tooth

All of a sudden “Directory” websites are growing like Jack’s Beanstalk.

Hutton Gibson - Mel Gibson's Father

1. Hutton Gibson had extreme views and was part of a splinter group of Traditional Catholics that rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

2. He attended a seminary early in life.

3. He worked as a brakeman and later as a freight conductor for the New York Central Railroad.

4. He injured his spine on the job and could no longer work.

5. In 1968, he became a Jeopardy! grand champion and won thousands of dollars.

6. He was the father of 11 children, including actor and director Mel Gibson.

7. He believed in conspiracy theories, including denying the Holocaust and claiming the 9/11 planes were remote-controlled.

8. He won a large settlement in a lawsuit against the railroad company over his injury.

9. At 92, he went from being wheelchair-bound to walking again after stem cell therapy in Panama.

10. He died at the age of 101.

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2024 was a great year for stocks!

A note about future stock prices:

A recent article in Financial Times argues that past stock performance doesn't predict future returns. It points out that stocks that performed well in one year rarely repeat their success the next year. This is a warning to new investors who might be drawn to companies like the above chart.

However, many studies show that past performance can sometimes offer useful insights. Nobel laureates Fama and Thaler found that stock prices can be unpredictable in the short term, but past performance can be helpful over longer periods. For example, buying stocks that were losers over the past three years can outperform the market, as they may be undervalued.

Other studies, like one from Jegadeesh and Titman, show that stocks that have done well in the past 6 to 12 months can keep performing well in the short term. This challenges the idea that stock price changes are entirely random.

While past performance can sometimes be useful, the benefits of using this information may have faded as more people have adopted such strategies. Today, it’s harder to profit from these patterns.
TL;DR It’s a crap shoot. The best strategy might be to invest in an S&P 500 ETF.

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The winners of Chicago's annual "You Name A Snowplow" contest.
These names will represent one snowplow in each of the city's six snow districts:

1. Bozo the Plown

2. Lollaplowlooza

3. My Kind of Plow

4. Snower Wacker

5. Scoop, There It Is!

6. Bean There, Plowed That

The mystery of a cat screech that sparked internet debate after being used in hundreds of movies has been solved.

The 23-second audio clip appears in Toy Story, Babe, and Home Alone 3 among other blockbusters; an entry on TVTropes.org entitled That Poor Cat laments: “Every time a vehicle crashes, trash cans fall over, something blows up, or any chaos occurs off-screen… we hear some poor cat yowl.”

The Guardian traced the famous meow to an LA sound designer, Wylie Stateman, who in 1988 recorded his new kitten Cheeta — “a remarkable small female with a confident voice and racy physique” — in his living room. “Once you’re familiar with her work, you start to hear her everywhere,” the newspaper wrote.”

James Cameron was homeless when he wrote The Terminator, and sold the rights for $1, on the condition that he could direct it.

Japan’s elderly are lonely and struggling. Some women choose to go to jail instead…

“(Some people) do bad things on purpose and get caught so that they can come to prison again, if they run out of money,” said Yoko, who CNN is identifying by a pseudonym for privacy reasons. What do they do to get thrown into prison? More than 80% of elderly female inmates nationwide were in jail for stealing”.

Shou Zi Chew was an intern at Facebook before he became Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest competitor as CEO of TikTok.

64 Million U.S. Households Have a Pet.

“Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is an old English fairy tale from the 1800’s. There are three versions of the story. In the original, an old woman sneaks into the house of three bachelor bears while they're away. She eats their porridge, sits on their chairs (breaking one), and sleeps in a bed. When the bears return, they find her. She wakes up, jumps out the window, and is never seen again.

Four iconic rappers went to high school together: Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, and DMX; they all attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, New York. They would have rap battles on their lunch breaks.

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Steve Jobs:

When engineers working on the very first iPod completed the prototype, they presented their work to Steve Jobs for his approval. Jobs played with the device, scrutinized it, weighed it in his hands, and promptly rejected it. It was too big.

The engineers explained that they had to reinvent inventing to create the iPod, and that it was simply impossible to make it any smaller. Jobs was quiet for a moment. Finally he stood, walked over to an aquarium, and dropped the iPod in the tank. After it touched bottom, bubbles floated to the top.

“Those are air bubbles,” he snapped. “That means there’s space in there. Make it smaller.”

The iconic whistling in Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was originally a mistake. The song lyrics accidentally fell to the floor during the recording session and because studio time was running out, Redding improvised that whistled tune on the spot.

The first known use of "OMG" as an abbreviation for "Oh my God" was in a letter sent to Winston Churchill.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/omg-winston-churchill/

These albums are celebrating their 50th anniversaries in 2025:

• Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti // Released February 24, 1975

• David Bowie’s Young Americans // Released March 7, 1975

• Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic // April 8, 1975

• Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy // Released May 19, 1975

• Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger // Released May 1, 1975

• War’s Why Can’t We Be Friends // Released June 16, 1975

• Fleetwood Mac’s Fleetwood Mac // Released July 11, 1975

• Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music // July 1975

• Ohio Players’ Honey // Released August 16, 1975

• Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run // Released August 25, 1975

• Donna Summer’s Love to Love You Baby // Released August 27, 1975

• Kiss’s Alive! // Released September 10, 1975

• Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years // Released October 25, 1975

• Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns // Released November 1, 1975

• Patti Smith’s Horses // Released November 10, 1975

• Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks // Released January 20, 1975

• Rush’s Fly By Night // Released February 15, 1975

• Queen’s A Night at the Opera // Released November 21, 1975

Definitions for Street Names

• A road has no special qualifiers. It connects point a to point b.

• A street connects buildings together, usually in a city, usually east to west, opposite of avenue.

• An avenue runs north south. Avenues and streets may be used interchangeably for directions, usually has median.

• A boulevard is a street with trees down the middle or on both sides

• A lane is a narrow street usually lacking a median.

• A drive is a private, winding road.

• A way is a small out of the way road.

• A court usually ends in a cul-de-sac or similar little loop.

• A plaza or square is usually a wide open space, but in modern definitions, one of the above probably fits better for a plaza as a road.

• A place is similar to a court, or close, usually a short skinny dead end road, with or without cul-de-sac, sometimes p shaped

• A bay is a small road where both ends link to the same connecting road.

• A crescent is a windy S like shape, or just a crescent shape, for the record, above definition of bay was also given to me for crescent.

• A trail is usually in or near a wooded area.

• A mews is an old British way of saying row of stables, more modernly separate houses surrounding a courtyard. ~ https://lifehacker.com/the-difference-between-streets-boulevards-avenues-an-1789115850

  

In 1985, Jim Carrey wrote himself a $10-million check for “acting services rendered,” dated it 10 years in the future, and kept it in his wallet.

In November 1995, Jim found out he was cast in the movie “Dumb and Dumber” for — yup — $10 million.
So I tried it. I wrote a check to Jim Carrey for $10-million bucks. It’s still in my pocket. But when I become a billionaire, I’ll send it to him.

The lesson: visual manifestation works!

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Last week, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI models may surpass human capabilities "in almost everything" within two to three years, according to a Wall Street Journal interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

There are more Subway restaurants than McDonald's restaurants worldwide. Subway is the world's largest restaurant chain by number of locations.

The recession of the early 2000s and the 2008–2012 global recession wiped out most middle class income gains for the previous 15 years.

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, started in 1964, was an offer by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to pay out one million U.S. dollars to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scientific testing criteria. It ran for 51 years and as of 2015, the challenge was terminated as no one successfully proved their abilities under the set criteria.

Hey Donny…Mexico is officially called "Ciudad de México, México" abbreviated CDMX, Mexico. The official name of the country is the "United Mexican States" (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos), since it is a federation of thirty-two states.

In December, Substack ranked as the 26th most-visited news site in the world according to Similarweb data, attracting 95 million visits during the month — up 40% on December 2023.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the famous composer, died on December 5, 1791, at just 35 years old. People are still unsure about what caused his death, and many ideas have been suggested.

Before he died, Mozart thought someone was poisoning him. He became very sick, with swelling, pain, and vomiting, and had to stay in bed starting November 20. Even though he briefly felt better, his illness got worse, and he passed away about two weeks later.

Some possible reasons for his death include:

• Poisoning (by others, his doctors, or himself)

• A head injury (subdural hematoma)

• Rheumatic fever

• A disease from eating undercooked meat (trichinosis)

• A severe infection (streptococcal infection) affecting his kidneys

The exact cause remains a mystery.

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Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, has said he can throw a football up to 83 yards in the air and 100 yards in Mexico City. Chuck Norris can throw Patrick Mahomes even farther.

Thank you for sharing, and such. Do you have a favorite this week?