We know you're craving knowledge. So here it is, this week in our column of you-don't-really-have-to-know are hard-to-believe real-life eccentricities:
15 Bizarre Facts That Will Make You Go “Whoa!” (But Won't Stay In Your Memory For Long)
1. Old Blue was a black robin that saved the species from extinction, leading the way to the reproduction of 250 black robins today. They are, finally, under protection.
2. Many zoos use puppies to keep cheetah cubs company, so that cheetahs would not get depressed.
3. Selling of fresh bread was banned during the World War II, because the smell of fresh-baked-bread encouraged people to eat immediately. Bakeries could only sell bread 24 hours after baking.
4. A plane flew into the Empire State Building back in 1945 and injured Betty Oliver who worked there as an elevator operator. Rescuers cut the elevator cable by mistake and the cabin crashed the floor dropping 75 floors. Surprisingly enough, the woman survived.
5. Dave Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vader, stopped memorizing his lines after learning that they would be dubbed. Instead, he started improvising and gibbering and went on scolding other actors when they would not answer him.
6. Believing that he could synthesize gold metal out of human urine, Alchemist Hennig Brand, stored and boiled almost 6,000 liters of urine. He did not get gold, for sure, but discovered phosphorus.
7. To have your name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it is not enough to be very famous, you also have to pay the $30,000 fee. Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood, and Al Pacino do not have a named star because they did not pay up.
8. It is forbidden in the state of Vermont (USA) to post advertisements on billboards, because a man sued against posting once, and oddly, won the case.
9. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was Tsar of Bulgaria in the Second World War. He was also elected the 48th Prime Minister in Bulgaria between 2001 and 2005 long after the monarchy was abolished. He is the only person alive to once have been a 'Tsar.'
10. Bill Gates has the McDonald's Golden Card which rewards him with free meals for life.
11. In Finland, there is a popular metal band whose members put on dinosaur costumes and play for children.
12. The only day without any reported incidents in New York City is 26 November, 2012.
13. Michael Jackson went to a club in 2008. After hearing that the DJ was remixing his songs, he was surprised, saying that he did not know people still listened to his songs.
14. A duckling has an instinct to adopt the character of the first living thing he sees. If the first living thing is a human being, then the duckling lives his whole life thinking that he is, in fact, a human being.
15. It is banned to eat a banana with lust on Chinese live TV.
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