#uselessfacts Timeline - Takahē

Takahē

uselessfacts

2d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #495: Satoru Nomura.
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#yakuza #crime #japan #cosmeticsurgery #organizedcrime #mafia #gangs #strangebuttrue #wtf #offbeatnews #webcomic #comics #facts #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Satoru Nomura was the first Yakuza boss sentenced to death in Japan, and (partly) because of a penis enlargement surgery.
While recovering from the procedure, he felt disrespected by one of the nurses. So he ordered an attack on her. However, the investigation into this attack led to charges added to several other serious crimes, including murder. He got the death penalty in 2021, later commuted to life in prison.

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7d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #494: Johnny Cash versus an ostrich.
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#johnnycash #themaninblack #musicians #ostriches #ostrich #bigbirds #animalattacks #strangebuttrue #didyouknow #facts #webcomics #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Johnny Cash was once nearly killed by an ostrich.
Despite defending himself with a 6-foot long stick, Cash broke two ribs and was nearly disemboweled by the huge bird’s claw. Ostriches can reach 9 feet tall and weigh 320 pounds. They can be aggressive, and can easily kill a human (and have). The incident led to his addiction to painkillers and nearly ruined his life.

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15d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #493: Helen Duncan.
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#psychics #frauds #bullshit #scams #intelligenceleak #witchcraft #history #legal #ww2 #hmsbarham #stupid #strangebuttrue #webcomics #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Helen Duncan was the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. A "psychic," she held a seance in 1941 and revealed the sinking of the HMS Barham, which was classified and only known to the Navy and the sailors' families. She actually heard it from an intelligence leak, and her "vision" was inaccurate on many key details (like the design of the sailors' uniforms). The Navy investigated the leak, which led to her trial for witchcraft and fraud. She was sentenced to nine months in prison.

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18d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #492: aaaaaaacccccdeeeeeghiiiiiiillllmmnnnnnnnnnooooppqrrstttttuuuuu.
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#huygens #christiaanhuygens #space #saturn #planets #astronomy #science #history #strangebuttrue #cryptography #tripcode #webcomics #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

"aaaaaaa ccccc deeeee ghiiiiiii Illl mm nnnnnnnnn oooopp grrs ttttt uuuuu"
was the first written human description of Saturn having rings, by Christian Huygens in 1655. He encoded it as a Latin anagram in his book Systema Saturnium, before claiming credit for the disovery three years later. This was proof he discovered it first, while giving himself time to refine his initial findings.

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22d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #491: The Cox-Zucker Machine.
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#mathematics #geometry #coxzuckermachine #pardonmyfrench #pardonmymath #strangebuttrue #wtf #facts #funfacts #math #webcomics #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

The Cox-Zucker machine is an algorithm in arithmetic geometry by mathematicians David A. Cox and Steven Zucker. Their paper: "determines whether a given set of sections provides a basis (up to torsion) for the Mordell-Weil group of an elliptic surface E->S, where S is isomorphic to the projective line, " whatever that means. Also, Cox and Zucker said that as soon as they met as students at Princeton, they collaborated specifically because the paper's title would be so funny.

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25d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #490: The Marine Mammal Protection Act.
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#mmpa #marinemammalprotectionact #dolphins #whales #cetaceans #nature #marinebiology #biology #zoology #laws #legal #facts #funfacts #didyouknow #strangebuttrue #comics #webcomics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Fact check: Is it really illegal to talk to dolphins?
The Marine Mammal Protection Act doesn't specify communication, but prohibits
"interfering with marine
mammals" in a way that alters their natural behavior. This includes attempting communication. So it's probably okay to talk to one; but if you're trying to get them to talk back, you may need a lawyer.

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27d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #379: Flight 666 direct to HEL.
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#thingsstupidpeoplearescaredof #finland #finair #666 #friday13 #fridaythe13th #markofthebeast #superstition #metal #flight666 #strangebuttrue #aviation #denmark #webcomic #comics #wtf #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Finnair Flight 666 flew to HEL on Friday the 13th, October 2017 (Copenhagen to Helsinki). It landed safely without incident.

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29d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #489: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.
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#wernerherzog #wernerherzogeatshisshoe #bets #filmmakers #movies #strangebuttrue #wtf #art #facts #funfacts #moviefacts #webcomics #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

"Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" is a 1980 documentary where the legendary filmmaker fulfills a bet to eat his own shoe if his friend ever completed their film. At its premiere, Herzog boiled his shoe in garlic and ate it on camera. It wasn't even Herzog's first strange bet. While filming "Even Dwarfs Started Small, " he bet his crew he'd dive into a cactus patch while they film it, if there were no more accidents on set. There weren't, and he made good on his promise.

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31d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #8: Vulcan Point.
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#vulcanpoint #philippines #weirdgeography #geography #islands #luzon #wtf #facts #funfacts #strangebuttrue #uselessfacts #themoreyouknow #didyouknow #comic #comicstrip
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32d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn: #488: The Breathalyzer.
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#truecrime #breathalyzer #baddrivers #uk #crime #offbeatnews #strangebuttrue #webcomic #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

The Breathalyzer's co-designer, Dr. Richard Lacey, was caught drunk driving in the UK in 2024.

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35d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #487: Torpedo.
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#torpedo #torpedofish #electricrays #nomenclature #whatsinaname #fish #submarines #missiles #explosives #strangebuttrue #didyouknow #funfacts #facts #webcomics #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

The Torpedo fish wasn't named after the torpedo, but the other way round. The underwater missile was named after the fish, which are now called electric rays (genus Torpedo, family Torpedinidae). The name, in turn, comes from the Latin torpēdo, meaning lethargy or sluggish-ness. The name was fitting because the original design was more like a sea mine than today's self-propelled device.

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39d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #486: The Matrix Defense.
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#matrixdefense #law #legal #matrix #movies #thematrix #solipsism #philosophy #delusion #delulu #bullshit #comics #webcomics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

The Matrix Defense is a legal defense based on the 1999 movie The Matrix (where the entire world is revealed to be a huge computer simulation) and argues that the defendant committed their crimes because "none of this is real."

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50d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #485: .kkrieger.
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#kkrieger #computergames #gaming #worldrecords #germany #theprodukkt #strangebuttrue #wtf #3dgames #doom #quake #firstpersonshooter #geek #funfacts #facts #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

•Kkrieger is the world's smallest-sized computer game at just 96 kilobytes, and this was in 2004. Despite its tiny filesize, it was a first-person shooter with 3D graphics, textures, original music, and detailed maps; and looked like Doom or Quake from the era. It was made by German demogroup theprodukkt for a game demo competition, which it won. For perspecțive on how small 96 KB is, this comic's image file is around 1 MB, or about ten times larger.

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53d

Als ich als Jugendlicher einem Kumpel angerufen habe und noch kräftig im Stimmbruch war, hatte ich seine Mutter am Telefon. Irgendwie hat die mich nicht erkannt und komisch reagiert, als ich danach fragte den "anderen Holger" zu sprechen. Der kam total irritiert ans Telefon, seine Mutter hatte zu ihm gesagt: "Da ist eine Helga Hollinger für dich" - ich hatte lange Zeit einen Spitznamen weg. Und seitdem mag ich verdrehte Namen. Regloh Regnilleh :)

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55d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #484: Ancient Egypt.
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#ancientegypt #egyptology #history #anthropology #egypt #strangebuttrue #science #webcomic #comics #wtf #facts #funfacts #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Ancient Egypt covers such a vast expanse of time (3150 BC to 30 BC), that each era of ancient Egypt had their own ancient Egyptian anthropologists studying previous eras of even more ancient Egypt before them.

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62d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #483: The World's Most Expensive Speeding Ticket.
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#baddriving #speedingticket #speeding #switzerland #sweden #finland #scandinavia #supercars #jsutrichpeoplethings #europe #webcomic #comics #facts #funfacts #didyouknow #strangebuttrue #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

The most expensive speeding ticket was for €650,000 (or US $1 million). It was handed out in 2010 to a Swedish millionaire for doing 180 mph in his Mercedes AMG SLS in Switzerland (the speed limit was 72 mph). Some European countries base traffic fines on the offender's income and car's value as well as speed. In 2015, for example, a Finnish millionaire was slapped with a $58,000 fine for going just 15 mph over the speed limit.

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70d

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #482: The One-Electron Universe.
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#onelectronuniverse #quantumphysics #quantummechanics #science #wtf #webcomic #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

The one-electron universe is a hypothesis that says the entire known universe consists of just one single electron, moving backwards and forwards through time.

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1y

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #303: Eschew Obfuscation!
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#eschewobfuscation #princeton #linguistics #language #science #what #wtf #nasa #ignobel #ignobelprize #ignobelaward #ignobelprizewinners #strangebuttrue #webcomic #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

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