“Custom Of Handfasting”: 80 Interesting Facts That Show How Strange The World Really Is (New Pics)

TIL that because most Icelanders use patronymic surnames, the most common hereditary family name in Iceland is Nguyen.

TIL that while casting Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Yuen Qiu wasn't auditioning for the role of the Landlady. She had only accompanied a friend to his audition. Director Stephen Chow spotted her smoking, recognized her, and cast her after spending over a year searching for an actress for the role.

TIL that Checkers has been a solved game for almost 20 years. Optimal play is unbeatable, and two opponents playing optimally always reach a stalemate.

TIL Salivating before vomiting is a way for your body to protect your teeth from thr incoming stomach acid.

TIL that two brothers spent eight years recreating the entirety of Toy Story 3 in stop motion. The film was released on YouTube in 2020 with Disney's permission.

TIL that the average American armed forces inductee in WWII was 26 years old, 5' 8" tall, 144 pounds, and had 9 years of formal schooling.

TIL that British stole tea from China through Robert Fortune who shaved his head, wore local Chinese clothing (including a pigtail), and posed as a wealthy official from a distant province to hide his accent. And stole 20,000 seeds to break China’s monopoly on tea by growing it in then British India.

TIL that during production of Iron Man (2008), the character was so obscure that 30 writers passed on the project. Even when a script was written, requests for rewrites were met with more refusals.

TIL the 50 million Francs of the Louisiana purchase were used to finance preparations for a 200k man army to invade Great Britain. The United States had partly funded the purchase by a loan from Baring Brothers of London, which meant that a British bank was indirectly funding an invasion of Britain.

TIL that the Marvel comic "Secret Wars" got its name after focus groups found that children responded positively to the words "secret" and "wars".

TIL Michael Jordan would often bet on Jumbotron cartoon races with a Bulls security guard during games, but nearly always won because he got the winners from arena staffers in advance.

TIL that in 2020, Justin Montney lost his fiancée, Alexis-Athena Wyatt, in a car crash. When he attempted to get a refund from the photography company he had hired for their wedding, they not only refused but released a statement mocking him.

TIL that in the 1800s the American dairy industry used to sell milk thinned with water. They recolored the resulting bluish-gray liquid with dyes, chalk, or plaster dust, and faked the look of cream using pureed calf brains. The milk was often filled with bacteria and preserved with embalming fluid.

TIL about the Cannonball Loop, an infamous enclosed water slide where some riders would experience lacerations while on the slide. After investigation, it was determined the lacerations were a result of embedded teeth in the interior wall of the slide from other riders’ accidents.

TIL on average, an SR-71 could fly just once per week because of the lengthy preparations needed. A total of 32 aircraft were built; 12 were lost in accidents, none to enemy action.

TIL Disneyland originally used real human skeletons provided by the UCLA Medical Center in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride because 1960s fake bones weren't convincing enough.

TIL Jakarta, Indonesia, is now the world's most populous city, with a population of 42 million people. Dhaka, Bangladesh, with a current population of 36 million, is expected to surpass Jakarta by the mid century, while Tokyo is expect to drop to 2.7 million residents.

TIL WWII General George S. Patton believed in reincarnation and claimed he had fought in wars for thousands of years. He believed he had lived as a Roman soldier, a Viking, a knight at Agincourt, and even a cavalryman under Napoleon, saying he had lived many military lives.

TIL Metal Gear Solid 4 (2008) holds the world record for the longest cutscene in any video game, with a single continuous cutscene of 71 minutes and a total of over 8 hours of cutscenes.

TIL that an American physicist predicted that horses will reach their top trotting speed in the year 2158, trotting 1 mile in 99 seconds.