Random Useless Facts Thread

In 1980 Christopher Cross won Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, & Best New Artist.

Casio F-91W and Rolex Oyster Perpetual are very far apart ($12 vs >$6000), but these two watches shares lots of things in common
 

In some societies, your spouse’s sibling is also your sibling’s spouse.

Hurricanes rarely form in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Catarina is the only known tropical cyclone that has ever formed in that basin. It’s name is derived from the town it made landfall.

SKMEI is a good Chinese watch brand with decent products. It even have Japanese made movement, namely SKP (Seiko clone) and Miyota

The average German has 118 Euros in his wallet, of which 6,70 € are in coins.

Aerosmith’s song “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”, from the movie Armageddon, is the only song to be nominated for both the Oscar and Razzie Award for Best and Worst Original Song.
 
It won neither award.

Col. Lawrence Cosgrave, the Canadian representative at the ceremony for Japan’s surrender, singed on the wrong line and forced all representatives after him to sign on the wrong line as well. In the Colonel’s defense, he lost an eye in WWI.
 

Mattel, the company that owns Barbie, sued the European pop band Aqua over trademark infringement over the band’s unauthorized use of the toy’s name in their hit song “Barbie Girl”. The case was eventually dropped in 2002 when the courts told both sides to “just chill”.

@Myoozik  
Mattel should have been happy someone wrote a convenient anthem they could play in Commercials and cartoons.

The Peanuts Gallery, a 1997 piano concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, portrays Peanuts characters in movements such as “Schroeder’s Beethoven Fantasy” and “Snoopy Does the Samba.

In Turkey there is a city called “Batman”.

The loud pop when a balloon bursts is caused by the rubber tearing higher than the speed of sound, creating a shockwave

The Marvel Comics and Daredevil villain The Kingpin was originally going to be black when he was first created, but was later changed to be white, as several staff members thought that it might come across as racist to have a black man be responsible for controlling all the crime happening in New York City.
 
Ironically enough, in the 2003 Daredevil movie, Kingpin is played by the late Michael Clarke Duncan, a black actor, due to his large physique and acting ability.

This guy joked about how he’ll probably die getting on a Malaysian airplane months after MH370 disappeared.
 

 
Translated as: “If it disappears, This is what it looks like.”
 
He would board Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 which was shot down in the Ukrainian airspace by the rebels on July 17, 2014.

Famed 1960’s singer Roy Orbison scored a posthumous Top 10 hit in 1989, 4 months after his death.

Tudor is one the cheapest luxury Swiss watch you can buy. What’s interesting about this brand, it’s actually under the ownership of the world renowned Rolex

The route most frequently flown by private jets is the Moscow-Nice route.

Instant coffee can be mixed with natural ground coffee for more concentrated taste

An average of 100 people die every year from choking on ballpoint pen caps.

Being left hand dominant used to be considered sinful and that left-handed people were the product of the devil

@icey wicey 1517  
I recall seeing someone saying that this is related to the two meanings of the word “right”, but I can’t find a source to confirm this at the moment.

Donald Trump wasn’t the first actor to later become President of the US. That would go to Ronald Reagan who was a movie actor in the 1940’s and 1950’s before ascending to the Presidency.

@Background Pony #0F91
 
The word “Right” originated from the Indo-Germanic root h₃reĝ-, “righteous, to straighten sth.” and is therefore morally connoted from an etymological point of view. The etymological background of the German word is the same as in many European languages (Dutch recht, French droit, Spanish derecho, Italian diritto, English right); correspondence can also be found in non-European languages.
 
The term is strongly influenced by the meaning of the Latin ius, which originally referred to the human order as opposed to the supra-terrestrial order (fas). This order, referred to as ius, was concretised by leges, which initially represented rites, but were later converted into the form of state laws. With this change of concept of the lex from the rite to state law, the concept of the Latin ius changed, and through the late scholastic philosophy and the reception of Roman law, the meaning of the German word “das Recht” (the law) also changed.
 
In this etymological triad of moral claim, conventional-ritual order of life and state legislation, there are already three essential cornerstones of the (modern) discourse on the concept of what is right (law), which can be supplemented by the historical conditionality of law.
 
 
Okay, that’s what I call a useless fact. ;-D