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Guillermo del Toro can be extra fastidious about production design.

15 Random Facts We're Hoarding In Our Collection of Knowledge-y Stuff

October 13, 2021

The facts are good. We should hoard them in our collection of knowledge. Facts help us to understand the world and make sense of our experiences. They also enable us to communicate with others, share our ideas, and learn from each other. Facts are a valuable commodity, and we should never take them for granted. We should cherish them, nurture them, and use them wisely. Facts are the foundation of our knowledge, and they should be treasured as such.

Do you like to learn? Then, you might as well learn about these facts. There’s never too much stuff in the know-tank above your shoulders, so why not? And even if it overflows, you can spill the surplus onto other people, and they will learn too! It’s a win-win! All you need to start the spilling chain is to read these little tidbits we have lovingly prepared for exactly such a scenario.

Bring your food because it gonna be very exciting…

15

Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro was very disappointed with a UFO. Del Toro claims he and a friend saw a UFO once - which he describes not as majestic or breathtaking, but as crappy. It was a flying saucer, he said, so cliched, with lights . It's so sad. You heard the man, aliens you need to up your design game! — More: 5 Celebrity Claims Of Bizarre Supernatural Encounters

14

Peter Falk wasn't the first to play Columbo. Bert Freed played the lieutenant (sans raincoat) in an episode of the 1960 series The Chevy Mystery Show. But it was just a one-off thing, and the character still didn't have any of the shabby charm Falk brought to the part years later. — More: 5 Iconic Characters (Who Were First Played By Someone Else Entirely)

13

Where's Waldo was censored over a microscopic nipple. Never mind Waldo himself - would you be able to find a nipple in a Where's Waldo beach scene? Yeah, we know you would - and so were several American mothers in the early 90s, who managed to get the books removed from library shelves over the tiny ink dot. — More: The Stupid Time 'Where's Waldo' Ended Up On Libraries 'Most Challenged Books' List

12

Your hamster comes from an incestuous couple. The Syrian hamster is by far the most common domesticated hamster and every single one you can find in pet stores is descended from two siblings, the only survivors of a litter caught in the wild in 1930. — More: The Wild (Incestuous) Story Of The 'Adam and Eve' Of Hamsters

11

Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks' Stand Back was inspired by Prince. When Prince's Little Red Corvette came on her car's radio, Nicks stopped her honeymoon to write the similarly synth-driven Stand Back. Then she contacted Prince to split the royalties, and was amazed when he showed up at the studio and did the synth part himself. — More: 4 Weird, Unexpected Collaborations Of Famous Musicians

10

George McFly was going to be a boxer. George becoming a science fiction writer was thematically appropriate, but that wasn't the original plan. Initially, the left hook he gives Biff was going to set him on the path to becoming a boxer. — More: The Bonkers Stuff They Cut From 'Back to the Future's Original Plot

9

Mario's first credit was as a villain. The character was called Jumpman when he first appeared in Donkey Kong, and didn't get the name Mario until the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. - where he was the baddie. — More: 5 Video Game Series That Had Weird Moments Everyone Forgets

8

Artificial intelligence might have already killed people. According to U.N. reports, lethal autonomous weapons systems (drones that can identify and attack targets without human intervention) destroyed a convoy in Libya in 2020. It's not clear, however, if anyone was killed in the attack. — More: Four Nightmarish Tech Stories That Didn't Get Enough Press

7

A lot of honey is fake. Studies show that about 76% of store- bought honey contains nothing of the pollen that should be found in the yummy bee puke. Honey is the third most counterfeited food in the world, with a lot of it replaced by syrup fillers. China is a primary source of this fake honey. — More: 4 Incredible Facts About Bees (Such As Bee Crime)

6

The genocide of Native Americans might have changed the climate. The Little lce Age was a particularly cold period after the Middle Ages, and researchers think that massacring the Americas' native population was a big factor. Huge swathes of abandoned farmland were taken over by wild plant life, which absorbed CO2 and lowered the temperature. — More: Six Facts About Earth's History That Sound Like Science Fiction

5

Napoleon used fake news to defeat an enemy. Napoleon was racing back home to reinforce his crumbling empire, a French newspaper said. This pleased Austrian tactician Karl Mack von Leiberich, who rode to rout whatever was left of Napoleon's forces. Except that the newspaper was a fake, planted by Napoleon's moles - Mack walked straight into a trap, and had to surrender his entire army. — More: 6 WTF Spy Tech Plans That Somehow Worked

4

Home Renovation

Open floor plans were supposed to make women's lives better. The woman, old-timey architects reasoned, couldn't be stuck in the kitchen if the kitchen was also the living and dining room. (The idea that it'd be mom in the kitchen wasn't questioned). Instead, it made the rest of the family inescapable, forcing women to multitask even harder. — More: An Oddly Gendered Reason Why Homes Are Ugly Now

3

Cow Butts

Fake butt-eyes protect cows from predators. In Botswana, lions often kill cattle, which leads to farmers killing the lions. To protect both cats and cows, conservationists had the idea of painting eyes on the cattle's rumps, taking inspiration from the eye-like designs on butterflies and other animals that keep predators at bay. — More: 5 Crazy Creative Simple Solutions To Global Problems

2

Trans People

The early 20th century was more accepting of trans people than you think. While life for transgender people was never exactly easy, there were places 100 years ago where you could be out as trans. Berlin was a particularly accepting city in the 1920s. A lot of research in the field was done there, before the Nazis came marching in and burned it all. — More: 4 Famous Historical Firsts (That Weren't First At All)

1

A lawyer dressed up as Tigger in court to prove a point. In 2004, a Walt Disney World guest accused a performer of groping her and her daughter. The guy's attorney said that the Tigger costume was too unwieldy for that, and put it on himself to prove it. The courtroom shenanigans worked, and the performer was acquitted. — More: 5 Insane Ways People Defended Themselves In Court (And Won)

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