Useless facts topic.

[tent163phantoka]

What are some useless facts? I'll start:

 

• Steve Young is the only person in the Pro Football  Hall of Fame from Brigham Young University.
• Approximately 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
• Non-dairy creamer is flammable
• If you yelled for 8 years,7 months, and 6 days,you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

Post away!

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

Despite common misconception, the Roman Empire did not fall in 475 AD, rather it actually lived for almost a thousand more years until 1453 AD, fifty-some years before Columbus bumped into the New World.

More

Emperor Theodosius I (often titled 'the Great' by ancient churches) did many things that would irrecoverably change the course of the Roman Empire's history and it's neighbors. One of them was unofficially splitting the empire by giving it two emperors, which he did between his two idiotic sons after spending his life as emperor (some thirty years) uniting the two western and eastern halves. One empire, two emperors (occidental and oriental). Of course, they and their successors barely recognized this and treated their nominal halves as independent realms unless it was for the sake of alliance-seeking or cause for war. A hundred years later, while in Illyria (modern-day Croatia), the Roman Emperor Julius Nepos was fighting back the many Germanic invasions when a general of his claimed the throne in proxy via his child son, Romulus Augustulus. Shortly thereafer, the Germanic warlord Odoacer invaded and conquered Italy, deposing little Romulus and exiling him. With the loss of all of italy and only a province still under his control, the oriental emperor Zeno Leo abolished Theodosius I two-emperor system, making Julius Nepos the inferior rank of Rex, or King, and Zeno Leo the only emperor of the Romans. The empire now legally a single empire, it would stay as such until it's demise in 1204 from the disastrous 4th Crusade led by the Venetian Republic, who took advantage of the horrible rule of House Angelos after it forcibly replaced the prosperous Komnenos dynasty. One of the split off kingdoms, calling itself the Empire of Nikea, would recapture the capital of Konstantinopolis and would declare the legal rebirth of the Roman Empire under House Paliaologos, reconquering it's contemporary lands in Greece and rising back into power. That is, until the Ottoman Kingdom stopped it's growth and actually began to take land until the Roman Empire finally fell in 1453 and the turkish state renamed itself the Ottoman Empire (later the Ottoman Caliphate).

 

Communist China kidnaps and harvests the organs of naysayers and yoga practitioners in it's domain

 

Communist China has a World of Warcraft rip-off theme park

 

You can buy a statue of a water bear on Shapeways.com

 

I desire a Cuman helmet and warmask

 

The YouTuber Ethiomod is currently the only African to make and upload Gmod videos.

 

You can buy groceries on Amazon.com

 

Roman Emperor Konstantine the Great killed his wife and firstborn son. There are three main theories as to why: they were either plotting to usurp him, the two were having an adulterous and incestuous affair, or both.

 

The insane Roman Emperor Germanicus Caesar, more widely known by his nickname 'War Boot', or 'Caligula', once had his soldiers attack the ocean in order to show his dominance to the god Posiden, and many of the soldiers in a legion died via drowning or were slain by superior officers when trying to flee.

 

The Hunnic King Atilla died of a bloody nose on his wedding night.

 

The Roman Catholic Pope used to blindly teach that the first language was Hebrew, and that is the default language for all of humanity unless they are taught one before they can use it, and forget it. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen (ruled from 1230 to 1250; not to be confused with Frederick II Hohenzollern, King of Prussia) was one of the earliest powerful agnostics and had a rivalry with the Pope (often realizing in wars with him and the priest's allies), so he thought he could test this 'theory' out, disprove it, and publish his findings. Being the morally ambiguous person he was, he ordered two babies be kidnapped and raised in a dungeon, where the nurses were not allowed to speak to the children. Watching over time from the dungeon door barred window, he found that the children began to develop their own language, where by the time they were in their late teens it became simplistic yet comprehensive. Once they were about 21 or 22, Frederick II Hohenstaufen had witnessed that his own conclusions were correct, and noted that he had no more use for them. He realized that these poor people would be confused if released into the world, so rather than waste his money reeducating these people (and instead use the money for his many wars), he ordered that they be executed and the dungeon cleaned up for upcoming prisoners of war. He then published his findings and sent a few letters to the Pope, further ticking him off (as well as horrifying readers).

[Petewa]

There was a battle in the Revolutionary War in which a British general's second in command surrendered to Lincoln.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

My brother just came home. I told him about this topic, and he told me that Adolf Hitler only played white when he played checkers. Another fun fact: he only had one testicle. He suffered minor battle damage in World War 1 in that area and was removed, the next day there was a battle where most of the German soldiers died. I sometimes see the fickle finger of Providence through history, but sometimes it's just beyond my grasp, I swear...

 

 

There was a battle in the Revolutionary War in which a British general's second in command surrendered to Lincoln.

Wut.

[Tarn]

The insane Roman Emperor Germanicus Caesar, more widely known by his nickname 'War Boot', or 'Caligula', once had his soldiers attack the ocean in order to show his dominance to the god Posiden, and many of the soldiers in a legion died via drowning or were slain by superior officers when trying to flee.

 

Didn't he do that to tick off the Senate or something, or to show off because he got farther towards some part of Europe than any other Emperor? I've heard theories that he wasn't insane, just a huge troll.

[Petewa]

My brother just came home. I told him about this topic, and he told me that Adolf Hitler only played white when he played checkers. Another fun fact: he only had one testicle. He suffered minor battle damage in World War 1 in that area and was removed, the next day there was a battle where most of the German soldiers died. I sometimes see the fickle finger of Providence through history, but sometimes it's just beyond my grasp, I swear...

 

 

There was a battle in the Revolutionary War in which a British general's second in command surrendered to Lincoln.

Wut.

Benjamin Lincoln.

 

And Hitler was also temporarily blinded in WWI.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

The movie actor and pop singer Maria Eva Peron was the wife to an Argentinian fascist dictator, and after he died she took over and ruled with an iron fist from 1946 to 1952 when she died.

 

Up to at least eight species of of horned liazrds ('horny toads') are able to defend themselves by crying blood to scare enemies, and if that doesn't work they can shoot aimed blood squirts from the corner of their eyes that can reach up to five feet. I once held one of these critters while in my Arizona countryside, and I am glad it didn't do that to me.

 

 

 

The insane Roman Emperor Germanicus Caesar, more widely known by his nickname 'War Boot', or 'Caligula', once had his soldiers attack the ocean in order to show his dominance to the god Posiden, and many of the soldiers in a legion died via drowning or were slain by superior officers when trying to flee.

 

Didn't he do that to tick off the Senate or something, or to show off because he got farther towards some part of Europe than any other Emperor? I've heard theories that he wasn't insane, just a huge troll.

 

There are records of the guy hanging out and talking to statues, calling a statue of Jupiter 'daddy', as well as him screaming at himself and invisible people when no one was near him. Most psychologists conclude that the guy was insane, he just hid it well in the early part of his rule. The guy just eventually snapped, and snapped loudly and explosively.

[Scanty Demon]

The Irish potato famine was so bad that to this day the Irish population has not recovered.

 

Aristotle once called the gluteus maximus man's defining muscle.

 

Humans are not the fastest animals in the animal, but humans can actually run for longer periods of time.

 

Galileo was friends with Pope Urban VIII, who Galileo later called a simpleton for trying to reach a middle ground on the whole geocentricism vs heliocentrism. While today the obvious answer is heliocentrism, heliocentrists couldn't answer one really important question. If the Earth moves then why don't the stars to correspond with the Earth's movement (stellar parallax, which were so hard to detect that people wondered if it actually existed).

 

Galileo plagiarized a Jesuit scientist's report on sunspots. Galileo also notoriously mocked (called polemiac writing) another Jesuit scientist's theory on comets. How bad was Galileo mocking Grassi? So bad, it is still read today and used to teach polemiac writing. The Jesuit, Father Orazio Grassi, believed comets were actual objects while Galileo believed they were illusions. The funny thing? These two Jesuits, and most jesuit scientists had actually SUPPORTED Galileo.

 

Despite all this and his trial, Galileo remained a Catholic until his death. Goes to show that you can be a "Father of science" and still be a moron.

 

Copernicus was also a catholic monk.

 

Harry S Truman's middle name was S. No seriously it was the letter "s" parents were real creative.

[CHTrilogy]

My brother just came home. I told him about this topic, and he told me that Adolf Hitler only played white when he played checkers. Another fun fact: he only had one testicle.

 

 

Something tells me that last fact is just an urban myth. I dunno.

 

Speaking of Hitler though... did you know that Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was one of his favourite movies? Apparently he had a personal print of the film for his library and drew some of the earliest instances of fan art of it. Bet you wish you never knew that now!

 

Speaking of Disney... have you noticed that the opening credits song in Robin Hood becomes the infamous "Hampster Dance" when sped up?

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

Contrary to popular belief, Constantine Flavius the Great did not rename the ruined trading city of Byzantium into Konstantinopolis after himself, he renamed it Nova Roma, or New Rome. In his honor, Constantine's son Constantius II renamed it after his father.

 

Despite having a great influence on the Middle-East's culture, the famed capital of the Sassanian Empire Ktesiphon, once the largest city on the planet, has mostly disappeared, only half of a building is left standing today.

 

I personally think the Roman Catholic Church had a hand in Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

 

Saddam Hussein had an obsession with the Babylonian Empire(s), and wanted to create a new Babylonian Empire (his disastrous first and only attempt at this was invading Kuwait). He was in the process of rebuilding Babylon in the styles of the original city but with his contemporary technology when the USA-led coalition invaded in 2003 to forcibly hand over WMD's.

 

Iraq takes it's name from the ancient city-state of Uruk.

 

The Monastic State of Teutonic Order (modern Prussia/Kaliningrad), despite being a military order of the Catholic Church and thus theoretically a military arm of the Pope, engaged in several wars with Catholic Poland and was eventually excommunicated by the Pope for this. Some servants.

 

Before their borders spread to southern Italy, the people of the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic did not believe in polytheistic deities, but were rather pantheistic in their pantheon. It is only after increased contact and absorption of Greek culture did the ancient Romans change the depiction of their pantheon(s). Some of this would be revived by Marcus Aurelius, but much of it died with him.

 

Despite being one of the most powerful men in Europe and head of a mini renaissance in early medieval Europe, Karl Karling the Great (Charlemagne) could not read.

 

There are people that think that the kings of the Ohio River Valley civilization was made up of an elite class of giants.

 

There are conspiracy theories about how the Smithsonian hid scientific and archaeological finds that did not fit in with the established timeline and philosophies of the late 1800's. People wonder if there are things hidden that would change our look at history.

 

Morgan Freeman thinks Black history month is stupid.

 

 

----- ------ -----

 

After further review, I've made up my mind about the following not being facts, but I couldn't delete them, so for better organization, here they go:

 

There is a rumor that Roman Emperor Heraclius the Younger, despite fighting to take back the True Cross (that which Christ died on) from the Sassanian Empire (they invaded Jerusalem (as well as everywhere else) and took it as a prize) in the final conflict of the 600-year long Roman-Iranian Wars and personally taking it back to Jerusalem, Heraclius seriously considered converting to Islam when sent a letter to him by the Prophet Mohammad. After revealing his interests in conversion he received hostile backlash and wimped out of it, which the Prophet's sons in the Rashidun Caliphate later went to take most of the Roman lands (some of them being the lands Justinian the Great reclaimed a century prior under General Flavius Belisarius). A Muslim Roman Empire would completely change the course of history as we know it now.

 

The legendary hero Oghuz Khan is credited as being the forefather of the Oghuz Turks (meaning Khazars, Seljuks and Ottomans, as well as others). Some even say the Xiongnu as well, but I am not sure about that.

 

It has been theorized that the Syrian dictator Assad was given his chemical weapon supply by Hussein, so they did exist but most were moved out of Iraq unbeknownst to modern intelligence agencies until recently. 

Edited March 11, 2016 by Sir Iaredios

[Erasmus Graves]

- Forrest Gump was based on a novel by respected military historian Winston Groom, who wrote a sequel to the book called Gump & Co. which - though considered inferior to both original novel and film - has been made into a script but is stuck in development heck.

 

-Tom Jones passed out/suffered a dizzy spell after singing the final, high note to the theme for the Sean Connery movie Thunderball.

 

- A case that the shot JFK sustained to his head was not fired by Lee Harvey Oswald has collected sufficient evidence to be labelled possible.

 

- Norman Mailer, after pillorying Truman Capote's classic non-fiction novel In Cold Blood as "a failure of the imagination", later wrote a non-fiction true crime novel of his own, The Executioner's Song, for which he received his second Pulitzer Prize. Capote had his revenge with in a 1980 interview in which he sniped at Mailer, noting that the most prestigious of awards won by Mailer were for non-fiction novels.

 

- Thomas Pynchon, respected novelist, is so absent from mass media that he makes J.D. Salinger (who only gave about three interviews in his life), Thomas Harris (hasn't given an interview to any journalist since 1976) and Harper Lee (RIP ) seem like Norman Mailer in comparison. Seriously, the latest photo of him is an unauthorised rear-view snap from the Sunday Times in 1998, and the only full-faces are over forty years old. However, he has made voice cameos on The Simpsons twice and has written a number of articles.

 

Speaking of Hitler's gas-induced blindness in WWI, the great Australian writer Rodney Hall wrote a speculative fiction novel in which Hitler, blinded by gas, ends up on the boat to Australia and has to find his way back to Germany. However, as a character, he plays an important supporting role rather than being the main focus of the book.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Erasmus Graves

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

Contrary to popular belief, Constantine the Great did not make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. By his Edict of Milan, he pushed for freedom of religion rather than fully favoring one over another. It was Emperor Theodosius 'the Great' who declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. His policies made it so that the Emperor would be the head of the religion in the state, as the only Christian superpower until the rise of the Frankish/Carolingian Empire, that meant the nominal head of the faith (except independent thinkers and heretics). These changes in policies returned the empire to having a 'divine' ruler (nephilim, as Hebrews called it), only instead of being a god themselves, the future emperors would claim to speak on behalf of God and thus all actions they did supposedly had divine right. Constantine himself somewhat practiced this, calling himself 'equal-to-the-apostles' to try and have more influence over church affairs, but during his life people gave little heed to such propaganda (postmortem is another matter entirely). _{^{(he did something similar by saying that he was the descendant of a Roman Emperor about two centuries prior, so by blood he had greater right to rule over his fellow co-emperors)}}

 

Slightly related, Constantine may not have been the first Emperor to be Christian: Third Century emperor Marcus Julius Phillippus Arabs (Philip the Arabian) was rumored to have possibly been a Christian, but associated himself with a well-known heretic and so people ignored it for some reason.

 

A revolt in High Medieval times occurred against the Papacy where the people of the city of Rome sought to have a government like the ancient Roman Republic and publicly revolted against the Papacy, and were successful. Named the Commune of Rome or Roman Commune, this revolutionary state lasted from 1149 to 1198 when, after years of an uneasy existence, eventually agreed to a treaty with the Pope, where the Pope could reside in Rome while the people could elect their own low-level government bodies. Over time, however, these rights waned and the people were eventually fully under Papal and noble rule again. (when available, I like to play as this country in video games to alter history).

 

The ostrich is a local favorite animal in central Arizona (I may live here, but i have no idea why). There are even ostrich farms and an Ostrich Festival, where you can get your own ostrich-themed memorabilia, eat ostrich burgers, and even see some ostrich cowboys (i wouldn't be surprised if this is where the famous scene in Family Guy comes from, with Peter Griffin as an ostrich cowboy takes Megan out of class). I once fed a group of ostriches at one such farm; such strange, slightly frightening creatures...

 

 

- Thomas Pynchon, respected novelist, is so absent from mass media that he makes J.D. Salinger (who only gave about three interviews in his life), Thomas Harris (hasn't given an interview to any journalist since 1976) and Harper Lee (RIP ) seem like Norman Mailer in comparison. Seriously, the latest photo of him is an unauthorised rear-view snap from the Sunday Times in 1998, and the only full-faces are over forty years old. However, he has made voice cameos on The Simpsons twice and has written a number of articles.

Kind of reminds me of myself. I've only had one full face photo in the past 5 years.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Sir Iaredios

[Scanty Demon]

While most regard Jesus as the Son of God, such a title wasn't uncommon in the Roman Empire.

 

The Pentagon had scheduled maintence every since its creation. That date happened to be September 11th.

 

You don't actually need your body hair nor do you need goosebumps.

 

The Mongols failed to capture Vietnam during their empire.

 

The cat is seen as good luck in Japan.

 

Japan wanted to build a navy base in Mexico before World War 1.

 

Surprisingly, an officer needs to be at a distance of 21 feet in order to handle a suspect with a knife. The reason for this, is because while the officer does have a gun it's holstered and takes some time to get out. While a knife wielder has an easier time getting his or her knife out and can close the distance between them and the officer pretty quickly. Better info here

[Erasmus Graves]

Most of Stanley Kubrick's films are adaptations of books or short stories (in some cases the film's fame has eclipsed the book, such as The Killing (Clean Break by Lionel White), Doctor Strangelove (Red Alert, by Peter George), Full Metal Jacket (The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford (out of print yet brilliant) with additional material from Michael Herr's NF novel Dispatches).)

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

While most regard Jesus as the Son of God, such a title wasn't uncommon in the Roman Empire.

While true, Christ led his Earthly sermon during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, and the deifications of Emperors and other people didn't come into popular practice until the reign of Germanicus 'Caligula' Caesar (who came after Tiberius I), so He did that before it became immensely popular. This practice of deification lasted until the rise of Constantine Flavius and was replaced by terms like 'equal-to-the-Apostles' (like Constantine I used in his own propaganda or how Alexios Komnenos' daughter Anna tried to title him in her propaganda) or christening of the the title 'the Great' by church officials (often times government funded) rather than popular culture (like Theodosius I). As the Empire last about 1500 years, the practice of direct deification (rather than disguised means) only encompassed a minor fraction to the entire country's history (about 300 some years).

[Toa Jaxus]

 Another fun fact: he only had one testicle. 

Actually he had two, but one was undescended and the British used to write a song called 'Hilter has only got one ball'.

 

Irish Police are called Garda.

 

Civilization, the first official 4X video game, was based off a board, and then someone made a board version of the video game.

 

'Panther' was the name for a mythical multicoloured creature in medieval lore which went to sleep for 3 days before waking up, and then open it's mouth to release a sweet aroma that attracts all creatures that smell it, and then eat everything that came near it.

 

Donkey Kong is called that because Shigeru Miyamoto thought that Americans would understand it as 'Dumb ape'.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

The legendary epic Beowulf is the first known document to be written in English. Despite this, Beowulf does not take place in England, but Scandinavia.

 

Frederick II Hohenzollern 'the Great', 1st King of Prussia (rather than previously King in Prussia), despite being extremely brave and fighting with his soldiers on the front lines to take a strip of land and defend his country in the Seven Years' War (practically the first World War), he had no balls: he was accidentally castrated in a medical procedure. This would actually aid him, for he would not be able to be seduced by the whorish Russian Empress Catherine 'the Great' with whom he fought against nor could he get distracted by 'pleasures', only his country and his battles had his full attention.

 

In front of Adolf Hitler's secret tunnel to his underground bunker at the end of World War 2 was a large painted portrait of Frederick II the Great.

 

Frederick II the Great was nicknamed 'The Old Fritz'.

[Erasmus Graves]

Late St Patrick's Day Post:

- The Irish Prime Minister is called the Taoiseach.

- The Third Policeman, second novel of genius postmodernist Irish writer Flann O'Brien (real name Brian O'Nolan, also known as Myles na gCopaleen) was actually published after his death - it being rejected by his publishers in his lifetime. It is now his most famous and best-selling work. Parts and concepts of The Third Policeman were recycled, sometimes almost word-for-word in the final novel he published in his lifetime: The Dalkey Archive (which lent its name to a publishing firm dedicated to keeping great literature in print, no matter the sales).

- Flann O'Brien's first novel At-Swim-Two-Birds is currently in the development stage of being made into a film, directed by Brendan Gleeson.

- Derek Landy bought back the film rights to Skulduggery Pleasant after reading the script the studios had made.

- James Joyce was an early experimenter in the musicalisation of fiction on the page.

[ToaTImeLord]

Peanuts are not true nuts.

They are a specialized root of the peanut plant that stores extra nutrients it can uses later.

[Petewa]

A Banana is a berry whereas a Strawberry is not.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

Despite having three revolutions, one against Spain, one against the first Empire, and one against a Second Empire, as well as having a democratic state since the early 1900's, the state of Mexico has only had a true exercise in democracy since the year 2000 when the one-party system ended after 71 years, making President Vincent Fox the first Mexican presidential candidate to beat the PRI in those 71 years.

 

Despite saying the word all the time, Deadpool isn't too fond of chimichangas.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Iaredios the Hip Historian

[tent163phantoka]

Cable (a friend of Deadpool) hates kumquats. 

 

He is also the son of X-Men member Cyclops.

 

While the Dallas Cowboys do not retire numbers as a matter of policy, the numbers of QBs Troy Aikman (8) and Roger Staubach (12) have not been reissued by the Cowboys since the players themselves have retired.

 

Both Aikman and Staubach are Hall-of-Famers.

 

BYU's basketball team, despite being perennially good, has never made it to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.

[Sybre]

If you yelled for 8 years,7 months, and 6 days,you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

Heh...

 

The script for the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off was written over the course of one week.

 

The video game Star Wars Battlefront III, the planned sequel to the famous Star Wars Battlefront II, was 99% done before its cancellation. All it needed was bug fixes and it would have taken the world by storm. A Star Wars Battlefront IV could have easily followed.

 

Some say there was going to be a Star Wars: The Force Unleashed III.

 

Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler, two members of the band The All-American Rejects (that sound familiar?), wrote a lot of songs out in a country house to isolate themselves from civilization while they wrote.

 

The Bloody Mary urban myth is just people's imaginations. They see their own faces mixed with the darkness and all that.

 

Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney and a friend to compensate for the loss to the rights of another character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

 

The infamous anime Sonic X had realistic violence back in Japan. It was cut out for American localization, however, making it the cheesy and lighthearted anime it's known as.

 

If George Lucas didn't get a divorce in the same year of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi's release, we would have gotten a much different sequel trilogy. After creating the infamous prequels, he decided that he didn't want to make a sequel trilogy, saying that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, the main character of the movie franchise, had completed his story, making anything outside of the movies seem unnecessary.

 

Some people are still making unlicensed games for the discontinued Nintendo Entertainment System.

 

One episode of anime costs over $100,000 USD to make.

 

Abraham Lincoln hated being called Abe.

 

Furthermore, Theodore Roosevelt liked teddy bears, which were named after him, but wasn't fond of the "teddy" part.

 

The successful video game studio Valve actually has a reason for their well-known practice of missing release dates: they're embarrassingly lazy. However, they might seem quite proud of it. If you work for Valve, you don't have to do much, you don't have to report to anybody, and Gabe Newell himself isn't even considered your boss. I guess he's just there to serve as a head.

 

In the online flash series Eddsworld, the character Tom, who used to be a somewhat happy character, gets grumpier and more negative as the series creator Edd Gould gets closer to dying in 2012.

 

If you're sitting and reading this in complete silence, I regret to inform you that the aforementioned silence is far from complete. There's a special room that's so quiet, you can hear your blood flowing. Anyone who hangs out in the room goes insane in a matter of minutes.

 

Extraterrestrial life is technically real, but in the form of bacteria.

 

The universally panned video game Drake of the 99 Dragons was originally supposed to be the start of a multimedia franchise, but plans were cut short when the game only got six months of development and a tsunami of negative reviews.

[Tarn]

OK, I actually have some facts now that I think of it.

​Fall Out Boy was originally conceived by band members Pete Wentz and Joe Trohman as nothing more than a side project they kind of joked about pursuing after the two became tired of their local hardcore scene. You know the rest of the story.
(they also almost broke up during the creation of their first album, which, contrary to popular belief, was mostly written by Patrick Stump and not Wentz, who just added a few lines and such)

​Their songs 7 Minutes in Heaven and Hum Hallelujah are both written about Wentz's 2005 suicide attempt. Which isn't that useless but hey.

​The COMPLETELY INSANE lead vocalist of the black metal band Mayhem, Per "Dead" Ohlin committed suicide in an isolated cabin the band had been staying in for some time in the 1980s-90s (can't remember exact date, not gonna look it up rn) after rising tensions between him and band member Euronymous, and left behind a suicide note saying nothing more than a simple goodbye and an apology about all the blood he'd leave. He was later discovered by Euronymous who proceeded to run to the store and buy a camera so he could photograph the body. Said picture was later used as the cover for a bootlegged CD. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go throw up.

​There is a weapon in the game Destiny owned by only one player. It's called, "The Fate of All Fools" and is an exotic scout rifle that uses the same in-game model as another weapon, The Stranger's Rifle, only blue. The gun later became the widely available exotic scout rifle, Jade Rabbit, and a blue-ish version of the Stranger's Rifle called No Time to Explain also later appeared. The only other person who has used The Fate of All Fools that I can think of, is Youtuber Mr. Fruit, who was allowed by the owner of the weapon to use his account and the gun for a video.

​That's all I've got for now, or at least can remember off the top of my head.

​(I REALLY hope that Mayhem fact isn't too heavy for the site, if it is any staff member's free to remove it)

[Petewa]

There's a theory that all realms of fiction are really just alternate universes, which we view through the means we do, and that "fictional tales" view our universe as a work of fiction.

 

I figure it's kinda useless to know that.

[Tarn]

There's a theory that all realms of fiction are really just alternate universes, which we view through the means we do, and that "fictional tales" view our universe as a work of fiction.

 

I figure it's kinda useless to know that.

That's part of the multiverse theory or something, right? Not gonna lie, I like to think that's true sometimes. Although, if it is, that'd be weird for the people who create those works of fiction as they'd essentially be the "gods" of their own creation.

 

​ALSO NEW FACT THAT I JUST REMEMBERED BECAUSE OF A TV SHOW

 

​There's a conspiracy theory that NASA and some other world governments are planning to fake a huge religious event, such as the second coming of Christ, to control the population. Why NASA? According to believers, it's because they'd be technologically capable of it. Gotta love creepy conspiracies.

[Sybre]

Socks were originally invented for sandals.

 

Slushies were invented by accident.

 

Rounded knives were invented because people kept stabbing each other with the sharp knives.

 

Sticking chopsticks vertically straight in your food is considered rude because it's a sign of death. Correct me if I'm wrong on this one.

 

Mosquitoes are so useless, that the world will actually be mostly better off without them.

 

The film ET was filmed in order. Boyhood followed a similar formula.

 

The board game known as Go was invented in China. Due to the game's popularity in Japan, people are led to believe that's the game's country of origin.

 

The chemical mercury's poisonous properties were most likely discovered when someone took a dose of it thinking he would achieve immortality.

 

There are no naturally occurring blue foods.

 

The sun is actually white. It appears yellow because of chemicals in the atmosphere.

 

The longest written work in the English language is a Super Smash Bros. fan fiction.

[Erasmus Graves]

The longest written work in the English language is a Super Smash Bros. fan fiction.

Hah, I've heard of that one. To give y'all a bit more info, it's over three million words long; six times longer than War and Peace, three times longer than Proust's gargantuan 7-volume A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time); more wandering and insane than one of Pynchon's big (lengthwise) novels and has a sort of so-bad-it's-cool name like Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest.

 

Ryan Reynolds was personally selected to play Deadpool by the Merc With A Mouth himself in a comic way back in 2009. Here it is, in all it's unmodified glory.       "Hey, if you looked Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei, you'd understand!"

 

A Few REALLY Long Novels You've (Probably) Never Heard Of:

Het Bureau by J.J. Voskuil

Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson

Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert

Sirionia, Texas by Madison Cooper

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (maybe you've heard of this one)

To A Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams (Book 3 of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. OK, this is the most recognisable one, as well as being the shortest here)

Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson

Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann (maybe you've heard of this one. It's over 1500 pages in its English translation).

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

Mosquitoes are so useless, that the world will actually be mostly better off without them.

Sure they do: mosquitoes keep populations in check.

Doesn't mean I wont mash any of them with my thumb or a fly swatter when I see them, however, the dirty, nasty little diseased vampires.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Despite people thinking that Aquaman is lame and stupid, he's had quite a few epic adventures.

One of my favorites was when he sentenced an entire race of humanoid man-eating fish-people to death (who threatened the entire planet after they discovered the surface world and all it's free meat) by, after using all of his might, shoving a piece of a continental shelf down into their trench lair, sealing them off and leaving them forced to eat each other into extinction (he later saved them for military purposes in a massive civil war for the throne of Atlantis, but still doesn't change the fact that he sentenced an entire race/species to extinction by cannibalism). I actually hope that Aquaman's movie covers this, and it will be his way of exposing the truth behind the legends of the sea dweller and showing that he does not wish harm upon the surface world (and Superman is too preoccupied to help), unless of course they all wish it...

Edited April 3, 2016 by Iaredios the Hip Historian

[Tarn]

Frank Sinatra has a Twitter account.

​Despite his name, the Transformers character Bluestreak never actually had a toy released in G1 that was blue! A catalog, and a lot of other media, used an image of his pre-Transformers, Fairlady-Z Diaclone toy which was blue, which led to a misconception that a blue Bluestreak was a rare variant. It wasn't until 2015 that an actually blue Bluestreak was released in the Japan-exclusive Q-Transformers line (not counting a puzzle that could be transformed into Bluestreak that was blue and released during G1).

​When Patterson and Gimlin captured their famous Bigfoot footage, they were in the process of working on a documentary about the creature. Think about it. You thinkin' about it? Yeah. Yeeeah.

​And now, more useless-but-weird black metal stuff.

​I called Per "Dead" Ohlin COMPLETELY INSANE for a reason. He wore corpse paint, like many black metal (and some non-black metal) artists do, but not to go with the dark themes of the music--he did it because he actually wanted to look dead. He would bury his clothing before shows and would dig it up and wear it during Mayhem's preformances, where he would cut himself and throw dead animals into the audience, to weed out the "posers."
He also was obsessed with suicide and would attempt it around his bandmates many times, who would always stop him. Euronymous, however, encouraged him, which lead to him annoying the heck out of Dead so much that he finally did do it.
And there's more gross stuff I'm not gonna talk about. Black metal, man.

[Electric Light Gunhaver]

The Megaman X (yes, I'm bringing that into this thread. Sue me.) character and minor antagonist, Vile, shares a striking resemblance to the Star Wars bounty hunter, Boba Fett. Now, one may believe that this reference ends here, but they would be mistaken. In the Japanese version of the game, Rockman X, Vile is known is known as Vava. Since the Japanese language has no sound for Vs, "Vava" is pronounced as "Baba." 

 

The Japanese Hiragana for the word "century" is also the Hiragana for the word "genital." Compare "せいき" (seiki) (century) and "せいき" (seiki) (genital). The Kanji for these words, however, are different. 

[Petewa]

Due to technological constraints, films were originally recorded in order, and if one scene was garfunkled, then they had to restart.

 

As my friend, Mat, constantly reminds me, Charlie Chaplin believed films to be a trend which would soon die down.

[Tarn]

As my friend, Mat, constantly reminds me, Charlie Chaplin believed films to be a trend which would soon die down.

Hold the frickin' phone.

​The Great Dictator Charlie Chaplin? The dude whose name is synonymous with early film?

​Huh.

[Petewa]

 

As my friend, Mat, constantly reminds me, Charlie Chaplin believed films to be a trend which would soon die down.

Hold the frickin' phone.

​The Great Dictator Charlie Chaplin? The dude whose name is synonymous with early film?

​Huh.

That's the one.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

 

As my friend, Mat, constantly reminds me, Charlie Chaplin believed films to be a trend which would soon die down.

Hold the frickin' phone.

​The Great Dictator Charlie Chaplin? The dude whose name is synonymous with early film?

​Huh.

"The Great Dictator". LOL Awesome reference. Love that movie.

 

Speaking of movies, the title 'Batman v. Superman' does not refer to any actual fist fight. It is purposefully styled as a legal case in the court of law, with Batman addressing a case to the defendant, Superman, where the tension of the court case climaxes in physical, violent confrontation.

The case concerns Superman's place in this world, and the possibility of him abandoning the limitations of human law and either conquering us or annihilating us at a single whim. As with every good Batman story, the subject is fear, and in this case, fear of the Great Unknown.

A deep title to a deep movie.

 

(not really a spoiler, but I wanted to be on the safe side)

Edited April 4, 2016 by Iaredios the Hip Historian

[Sybre]

 

The longest written work in the English language is a Super Smash Bros. fan fiction.

Hah, I've heard of that one. To give y'all a bit more info, it's over three million words long; six times longer than War and Peace, three times longer than Proust's gargantuan 7-volume A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time); more wandering and insane than one of Pynchon's big (lengthwise) novels and has a sort of so-bad-it's-cool name like Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest.

Thank you for the extra info! I knew the word count was well up in the millions, but I forgot how much. And considering you brought up those certain pieces of literature, they must have been known for their lengths! Also, since it's a fan fiction on Super Smash Bros., it's bound to be insane with quite a title to boot.

 

 

Mosquitoes are so useless, that the world will actually be mostly better off without them.

Sure they do: mosquitoes keep populations in check.

Doesn't mean I wont mash any of them with my thumb or a fly swatter when I see them, however, the dirty, nasty little diseased vampires.

Argh, that's right! I considered it while typing the sentence in the first place, but omitted it for whatever reason. I'll never forgive mosquitoes for spreading diseases to children, though.

 

-----

 

When Tim McIlrath, lead singer of Rise Against, was a teenager, his friends were interested in snowboarding. Wanting in on the action, Tim saved his money for a snowboard, but suddenly gained an interest in music, leading him to spend the money on an electric guitar. The rest is history.

 

Batman was originally colored red.

 

The video game Halo: Combat Evolved was at first going to be called simply Halo, but Bungie added "Combat Evolved" at the end to set it apart from other FPS games that were new at the time.

 

Humans usually have a fondness for shiny things. This is because as humans, we constantly seek out water. Shiny rivers indicate fresh water, making us want to drink it. Therefore, shiny objects remind us of water and draw us to them as a result.

[Erasmus Graves]

Despite people thinking that Aquaman is lame and stupid, he's had quite a few epic adventures.

Indeed he has.

--Aquaman has been listed as the 147th greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine, IGN's 53rd greatest comic book hero of all time, and Parade magazine readers ranked him among the Top 10 Superheroes of All Time.

Not bad for a man with the trident.

--Rorschach, the complex right-wing redhead vigilante anti-hero of Watchmen has been named the 6th Greatest Comic Book Character of All Time by Wizard, 16th Greatest by Empire magazine, 3rd best Anti-Hero by TopTenz and 16th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Heroes list--

 

Wait what?

Mr. Graves, um, don't know how to tell you this but Batman, um, he's ranked higher than Rorschach--!

What? How?! To the Gravesmobile my friends! To avenge this smear upon our Watchmen's dignity!

 

--Bruce Wayne is the 8th Richest Fictional Character ($6.9 billion USD) in Forbes.

--Iron Man (Tony Stark) is Forbes's 5th Richest Fictional Character.

--The dragon Smaug is currently Forbes's 2nd Richest Fictional Character in Forbes, his wealth placed at $54.1 billion USD (at a conservative estimate) in hard gold cash (though he has previously held first place). However, a more literal reading puts his wealth at somewhere around or below $870 billion.

 Wow.

 That's RICH. 

--Scrooge McDuck is (currently) Forbes's Richest Fictional Character, pulling in $65.4 billion.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Erasmus Graves

[Sybre]

In 2007, a survey ranked Doraemon from Doraemon, Son Goku from Dragon Ball, and Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star to be the strongest manga characters of all time in that respective order.

 

The term Black Friday was first coined by Philadelphia police in 1961 when the streets and sidewalks were packed tight due to too much–you guessed it–shopping. The term would never reach a broader use until 20 years later.

 

Chances are, you probably already know this, but if you don't; when Ole Kirk Christiansen began mass producing the LEGO brick, he wanted to avoid producing them in green and grey because he feared that children would build tanks out of such colored pieces. However, with LEGO's capabilities, kids probably built tanks anyway, but in yellow or black or something.

 

To add onto my expensive anime fact, not only does making a single episode cost $100,000-$300,000 USD to make, but it requires a team of people from all around the world.

 

Joe Principe, a founding member of Rise Against, can't seem to get enough of pizza. The other band members confirmed that he'd eat pizza every day and even one of his many tattoos is of pizza.

 

Matt Walst, current lead singer of Three Days Grace, is a fan of Marvel and DC, signifying this by wearing a Punisher shirt during a performance and sharing a Suicide Squad trailer on Facebook.

 

The iconic anime Sailor Moon was originally supposed to have an American adaptation (giving it a complete overhaul with an American coat of paint). This plan fell through with one episode being produced and possibly aired.

 

Nobody can seem to figure out the true origin story of the chimichanga. There are multiple theories trying to explain its creation, but none seem to be more false than the others.

[Petewa]

The first film was recorded by Edison in his lab, it was Frankenstein, he played the monster.

 

To this day, the film is lost.

*By film, I don't mean moving picture, I mean the first plot based one.

[Tarn]

The first film was recorded by Edison in his lab, it was Frankenstein, he played the monster.

 

To this day, the film is lost.

 

​I wish I could remember a lot of the lost media knowledge I've accumulated right now because it's a legitimately interesting and also slightly creepy subject.

 

The famous black and white image of the Loch Ness monster taken in 1934, the "Surgeon's Photograph," was actually plastic wood attached to a little submarine. Some still claim it's a real image, however. Also, fun thing that I just learned while fact-checking: it was done as revenge for a previous hoax.

 

​There is a conspiracy theory that Soviet Russia succeeded in sending cosmonauts to space before Yuri Gagarin, but that they either did not survive or were captured by enemy forces. Two Italian brothers, Achille and Giovanni Battista, claimed to have recorded some of these "lost cosmonauts." The only one I believe that is actually available to listen to is a recording of a female cosmonaut dying during re-entry.

 

​Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump got into the band after striking up a conversation about local hardcore bands with guitarist Joe Trohman at a bookstore. Like, he literally just overheard him talking about the subject and awkwardly interjected. Note to self: try this some day and see if it turns out to be as successful as it was for him.

 

​There's a metal band themed around Ned Flanders from The Simpsons. They're called Okilly Dokilly and their demo's on YouTube.

 

​(thanks, Jared Dines)