When Jorge Garcia first got the part on LOST as Hurley, he lost a total of 30 pounds in weight before filming started.
100 Mind-Blowing Part Facts
A man who was hanged for his part in the Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot had his skin removed, and it was used to bind a book that listed his offences.
Part of the Falklands Islands is littered with leftover landmines from the Falklands War. This stretch of beach has become home to over 1 million penguins as they are too light to trigger the mines when walking on them.
“Infantry” sounds like “infant,” as typically, in ancient times, an army’s infantry consisted of soldiers too young or too inexperienced to ride a horse and be part of the cavalry.
For her part as June Boatwright in the 2008 movie “The Secret Life of Bees,” Alicia Keys learned to play cello within 4 weeks.
Dartmouth’s unofficial mascot is a beer keg called “Keggy the Keg.” Created in 2003, it was initially controversial but is now part of the Dartmouth culture.
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the U.S., with a population of 621,849. Meaning that it is not part of any county.
In “Part 1” of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series, there is a scene where Serenity, the ship from Firefly, can be seen flying through the sky.
NASA genuinely faked part of the Moon landing. While Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the lunar surface were categorically not faked, the astronaut quarantine protocol when the astronauts arrived back on Earth was largely just one big show.
Mercury, not Venus, is the closest planet to Earth on average. On average, Mercury is 1.04 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth compared to the 1.14 AU average distance between Earth and Venus. One AU is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Venus still comes closest to Earth as part of its orbit around the Sun, however.
Human teeth are the only part of the body that cannot heal themselves.
The cornea is one of only two parts of the human body without blood vessels. The cornea is the clear part of the eye that covers the pupil and other parts of the eye. Cartilage and the cornea are the only types of tissue in the human body that do not contain blood vessels, according to scientists at the Harvard Department of Ophthalmology’s Schepens Eye Research Institute.
German chocolate cake was invented in Texas. The “German” part of German chocolate cake comes from an American man—not a European country. Specifically, it’s named after Sam German, who in 1852 created the formula for a mild dark baking chocolate bar for Baker’s Chocolate Company, which was subsequently named Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate. Fast-forward to June 13, 1957. The Dallas Morning Star published the recipe for the cake, invented and submitted by a reader identified as Mrs. George Clay, according to What’s Cooking America.
Blue whales eat half a million calories in one mouthful. Just try to wrap your brain around the second part of this animal fact: Those 457,000 calories are more than 240 times the energy the whale uses to scoop those krill into its mouth.
Emma Bunton auditioned for the role of Bianca Butcher in Eastenders. Baby Spice already had a small part in the soap back in the 90s but tried out for a full-time role. She was pipped to the post by Patsy Palmer but ended up auditioning for the Spice Girls not long after.
Human teeth are the only part of the body that cannot heal themselves. Teeth are coated in enamel which is not a living tissue.
In 2014, there was a Tinder match in Antarctica. Two research scientists matched on the global dating app in the most remote part of the world – a man working at the United States Antarctic McMurdo Station and a woman camping a 45-minute helicopter ride away. What are the chances?!
The real name for a hashtag is an octothorpe. The ‘octo’ refers to the eight points in the symbol, but according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the ‘thorpe’ part is a mystery.
One part of Istanbul is in Europe and the other is in Asia. Part of it neighbours Greece and Bulgaria (therefore sitting in Europe) and the other part neighbours Syria, Iran, and Iraq beyond Turkey’s borders (therefore classing as Asia). The Bosphorus Strait runs between them – a narrow body of water that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea via the Sea of Marmara.
The brain is the fattest organ. The stomach may be our body’s fattest part, but the fattest organ is our brain. The brain is composed of nearly 60% fat.
Men’s dress shirt collars used to be detachable. To save on laundry costs, men’s shirt collars were removable in the mid-1800s. This was because the collar was the part that needed the most frequent cleaning.
For every non-porn webpage, there are five porn pages. Whether that’s part of the fun facts is up to you or not, but 30% of all data transferred across the Internet is porn.
Dodge made the first engines used by Ford. The Dodge Brothers Company built every part of the earliest Ford car except the seats and tyres.
The Canary Islands are named after dogs, not birds. One of the fun facts you wouldn’t think about: The Canary Islands aren’t named after canary birds! The location was named after dogs. Despite being off the coast of Northwestern Africa, the archipelago is part of Spain. The area’s Spanish name is Islas Canarias. This name is rooted in the Latin phrase Canariae Insulae, or “island of dogs.”
Tom Hanks was not paid for Forrest Gump. This may be surprising for one of his most iconic roles, but Tom Hanks did not receive a set fee for this film. Instead, he signed an agreement that entitled him to percentage points from the film’s profit. Ultimately, his part in the film’s earnings netted him at US$40 million.
You could buy a town from eBay. Since eBay was founded in 1995, many unusual items have been placed on the online auction site. One of the weirdest fun facts is that someone even tried to sell the country of New Zealand on eBay. Turns out, it was part of the long-known rivalry between Australia and New Zealand – and Australia jokingly posted the auction. However, the bidding was stopped once the bid reached $3,000.
The dot over the small letter ‘i’ is called a tittle. This dot is an integral part of the lowercase i and j. These dots also appear over the letters in various languages.
Two-thirds of millennials go to sleep naked. According to a 2018 survey from MattressAdvisor, more than 60% of millennials regularly sleep in the nude. This is mostly due to the comforting feeling of skin against sheets. Are you part of this group?
Mexican prisons do not punish you for non-violent attempts to escape. This is because it is part of human nature to want freedom, and therefore is not seen as a crime. However, factors such as property damage and violence will cause prison guards to practice the necessary punishments.
Applying equal pressure on an egg will prevent it from breaking. It is nearly impossible to break eggs this way because the sides are the strongest part of the egg’s shell. The curved form of the egg helps it distribute pressure evenly which makes the take difficult to accomplish.
The world’s most dangerous tree is called the manchineel. This is native to tropical southern North America and northern South America. Every part of the tree contains toxins that can cause blisters and skin breakouts on human skin just from touch.
Knowing how to speak Russian is a requirement to become an International astronaut. The ISS has operations in Russia and will not provide a translator during the job. Most new astronauts claim that learning a new language is the most difficult part of the job.
Humans consume a lot of water. Water is a major part of most life forms and cannot survive without it. By the time humans reach the age of 70, they would have consumed about 12,000 gallons of water. Water is known to be the best and most hydrating liquid that promotes cardiovascular health.
206 bones make up the skeletal system. However, newborn babies are born with more bones in their bodies that only develop later on as they grow. These bones are connected by tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. The teeth are also part of our skeletal system, but they are not considered bones.
The cornea does not receive a blood supply. This is the only part of the human body that does not have a blood vessel. The cornea receives its oxygen directly from the air.
Hugging trees is forbidden in China. Here’s one of our weirder did you know facts. Hugging trees was forbidden after the mass tree hugging that occurred outside of China’s imperial garden. The Chinese government speculated that the tree huggers were part of a suspicious cult and banned the activity in the country.
Under ultraviolet light, scorpions will glow. Their glow comes from a substance that is found in the hyaline layer. This layer is a thin but tough coating that is a part of the scorpion’s exoskeleton. This exoskeleton is also referred to as a cuticle.
The side of the hammer is called a cheek. The part of the hammer where the handle fits into the head is called the adze eye. Most hammers will also have a claw-like extension used to remove nails.
The most commonly bitten body part by insects is your feet. Here’s the last of our did you know facts. The most common places to be bitten by insects are by the ankles. This is because this area is rarely noticed by us when insects land on our skin.
Singing in a group boosts one’s mood. Maybe those Glee kids had it right all along. According to Multiple studies, singing as a part of a group provides different physical and emotional benefits. Singing with others releases hormones like oxytocin and cortisol into the bloodstream, making us feel happy and reducing stress.
All your hair is dead. One of the more disturbing yet interesting fun facts: All the hair on your head is dead, except for the follicles. Other than the part in the epidermis, the hair that grows out is made of dead cells. Your nails also follow the same principle – hair and nails are both made of the protein keratin.
Big Brother U.S. only showed news from the outside world for one day. One of the main gimmicks of Big Brother is that the contestants are not allowed to be a part of the outside world. Communication was barred from their loved ones and they weren’t allowed to keep up with current events. However, the producers of Big Brother delivered the news to housemates just once during the 9/11 attacks.
The least successful Harry Potter film made less than the most successful Twilight movie. “Prisoner of Azkaban” is the lowest-grossing Harry Potter film at $796,688,549 worldwide. As the third film in the Harry Potter film series, Prisoner of Azkaban was outsold by Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 by over US$30,000.
Sleeping in public is cool in Japan. Sleeping in public is a norm in Japan. You are extremely unlikely to get robbed if you fall asleep in public since it’s already a part of everyone’s culture.
Antonio López de Santa Anna held a state funeral for his leg after it was amputated. After being injured in battle, Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna buried his amputated leg with full military honours. Before you go all the WTF facts on us: It was a part of him, guys.
Anna Mae Dickinson cheated death 5 times. Anna Mae Dickinson survived both the Titanic and Lusitania, the Hindenburg explosion, the Pearl Harbor bombing, and the destruction of her apartment during 9/11. She must be part cat.
France has 12 time zones. Technically, Russia has the most extreme time zones – one person could be waking up at 8:00 AM while another person in some other part of the country is going to bed at 11:00 PM. However, France has the most time zones.
America accidentally dropped an atomic bomb on South Carolina in 1958. Talk about clumsy. Here’s one of the scary WTF facts: In 1958, a B-47 plane was headed to the United Kingdom with an atomic bomb even bigger than the Nagasaki bomb. During the flight, one of the pilots accidentally released the emergency pin. However, the critical part of the bomb needed to activate it was still on the plane. If it were already equipped with the bomb, it would have obliterated the entire state and even more.
Tootsie Rolls used to be part of WWII rations. Tootsie Rolls were put in soldiers’ rations in World War II because of their durability in different weather conditions.
You can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. Speaking of the physically impossible, one thing the human body can’t do is to breathe and swallow at the same time. The food and fluid that we swallow travels down the same part of our throat as the air we breathe in. It can only do one thing at a time.
Before the computer mouse was known as a mouse, it was known as the turtle. Manufacturers of the early versions of the computer mouse called it a turtle, because of its hard shell and moving part underneath.
She has participated in charity events. Peyton List actively supports charitable organisations and has taken part in fundraisers and campaigns to make a positive impact.
It is impossible to lick your elbow. This is true, the entire joint of the elbow is between the upper and lower arm and most people seem to think that the elbow is the pointy part on the outside of their arm when they bend it.
Human teeth are the only part of the body that can’t heal themselves. Teeth are not made of live tissue and are coated in enamel, which can’t spontaneously regenerate.
The real name for a hashtag is octothorpe. While we know that “octo” refers to the symbol’s eight points, even Merriam-Webster is unsure about the “Thorpe” part.
Almonds are part of the peach family. Almonds are not true nuts but rather something called “drupes.”
Apples are a part of the rose family.
The blue part of blue cheese is mould.
The Sun loses a billion kilos per second. Particles in the Sun’s upper atmosphere are so hot and energetic that they speed out into space as part of the solar wind. Our star sheds around 1.3 trillion trillion trillion particles every second. This equates to roughly one billion kilograms of matter per second, or one Earth every 185 million years.
Most Sun-like stars in our galaxy are in multiple star systems. Our Sun may be a single star, but it is in the minority. Over half of the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way are part of multiple star systems, binaries or triplets, with stars orbiting around a common centre of mass. Most lower-mass stars like red dwarfs, however, live alone without a companion.
Golf is one of only two sports ever played on the moon. In 1971, Alan Shepard hit a ball with a six-iron while on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission. The other sport was a javelin toss, during the same visit.
Apples are part of the rose family.
Bill Gates is part of the Giving Pledge, which encourages those to donate half of their wealth to those less fortunate. Gates has donated around $30 billion to non-profits. And, he has saved more than six million lives through vaccine and healthcare initiatives. To date, 231 philanthropists have signed this pledge.
If a starfish is split into five pieces, so long as each piece contains part of the central disc, then five starfish will survive.
Isaac Newton believed he was potentially part of a line of great men to received great and ancient wisdom. He even created a special name for himself “Jehovah Sanctus Unus,” or “to Jehovah, the Holy One.”
A shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.
The moon has its Catholic bishop. You read that right; the Catholic church does claim the moon to be a part of their religious jurisdiction and has done so since man first landed on the moon. This is due to a Catholic law that states that any newly discovered territory falls under the jurisdiction of the bishop from whence the expedition departed. Because Apollo 11 was launched from the jurisdiction of Bishop William Donald Borders in Orlando, Florida, he became the bishop of the moon.
M&Ms were exclusively sold to the US military during World War II. When they were first produced in 1941, they came in cardboard tubes, and the colours were violet, green, yellow, orange, red, and brown. By the time the US entered WWII, M&Ms had grown big enough to score a contract exclusively producing the conveniently easy-to-transport chocolate for the military. Following the war, M&Ms were wildly popular, as they were the best part of the day for many soldiers in the trenches.
8th-grade students from a town in Alaska must spend two nights on an uninhabited island as part of their science exam. The tradition began forty-six years ago when a school teacher in Ketchikan, Alaska, made it his goal to educate the town’s youth on how to survive in the harsh climate of Alaska. He also just wanted kids to have more fun at school, as there wasn’t much fun going around back in his schooling days. Despite not being mandatory, most of the town’s grade eights eagerly make the trip each year.
The US Army has its private herd of bison. Unfortunately, it’s not part of some sort of secret plan to create a mounted bison regiment. Instead, the US Army base of Camp Pendleton in California was gifted the bison back in the 70s. The San Diego Zoo entrusted the bison to the base for safekeeping, and they’ve done such a great job at it that the herd has grown from 14 to 90 or so! The herd is constantly monitored, not just to ensure they’re in good health but also because they’re quite dangerous wild animals!
Our modern interpretation of Santa Claus with a red outfit and white beard is due in large part to holiday Coca-Cola ads that began in 1931.
People read faster or slower depending on what they read. Not only do you blink less when you’re on a computer, but reading from a screen also slows you down. On average, people read 10% slower from a screen than from paper! As for the blinking part, did you know that during everyday life, people normally blink at a rate of twenty times per minute? But put them in front of a computer, and that number drops way down to seven times per minute!
The collars on men’s dress shirts used to be detachable. This was to save on laundry costs as the collar was the part that needed cleaning the most frequently.
The world record for the longest human chain (holding hands) is 652.4 miles, and it consisted of 5 million people in Bangladesh as part of a campaign.
In 2016, a student left a pineapple in an art museum in Scotland. Two days later, it had been placed in a glass case as part of an exhibition.
Subway graffiti died out for the most part in the late 1980s due to heightened security. The last subway train with a significant amount of graffiti on it was taken off the rails in 1989. It didn’t die out completely, however, and some artists took to freight trains.
Every person on Earth is living in the past. This may sound like the plot of some sci-fi, time-travel thriller, but it’s a fact of human biology and the trickiness of time. Our brains don’t perceive events until about 80 milliseconds after they’ve happened. This fine line between the present and the past is part of the reason why some physicists argue that there’s no such thing as “now” and that the present moment is no more than an illusion.
Bizarre though it may sound 13.3% of the latest Linux kernel is made up of …blank lines. Pointless? Hardly: blank lines are part of the strict coding style that keeps the kernel tidy, efficient and ordered.
The most expensive part of a hack is the lost information (Accenture): According to Accenture’s report on the costs of cybercrime, the most expensive component of any breach is a loss of information. The los of information costs around $5.9 million, Accenture notes. What’s more, the number of hacking attacks focused on targeting specific people or personal data is increasing. Malware and web-based hacking have increased significantly in recent years. RiskBased Security found in 2020, data breaches exposed around 36 billion records in the first half of the year – double the number of records exposed in all of 2019.
Counterterrorism Expert: A counterterrorism expert who was part of the operation to kill Osama bin Laden shares insights on how NSA’s foreign SIGINT contributed to the mission’s success.
The national dish features Indian cuisine: Commencing the Food section of this array of facts about England is the country’s national dish, Chicken Tikka Masala. According to NATO, the dish is England’s favourite, while Wales‘ national dish is Welsh Cawl, Scotland‘s is Haggis and Ireland‘s is Irish Stew. It’s believed that Chicken Tikka came over from India and was first introduced in Glasgow. The Masala sauce part of the dish was added during the 1970s when a Bangladeshi chef wanted to match the British tradition of serving meat in gravy. Indian cuisine has massively influenced the country’s dining scene, with CurryCulture.co.uk estimating there to be around 10,000 curry houses in the UK.
The South East of England is mostly flat: England’s topography is quite varied, with the Lake District National Park being a great example of the country’s high elevation. If you venture towards the South East, you’ll find the opposite. This part of the country is mostly low-lying, offering flat countryside with uninterrupted views. Some of the best places to experience these views are the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including the Cotswolds and Chiltern Hills. The glorious South Downs National Park offers a stunning mixture of coastal and countryside sights, including the Seven Sisters cliffs. It’s well worth checking out!
Back in the 19th century, Alaska was a part of Russia.
Stonehenge Is More Ancient Than the Pyramids: Few people are aware that Stonehenge, one of the most well-known prehistoric monuments in the world, predates the pyramids by even longer. Another interesting information about England is that Stonehenge was constructed during the Bronze Age as a cemetery. The remarkable stone circle was created in the late Neolithic era, roughly 2500 BC, and the initial stones were part of an early Henge monument, which dates back to 3000 BC. Meanwhile, the construction of the pyramids took place between 2500 and 2400 BC. Therefore, we can conclude that both of these ancient sites are well worth seeing! Not only as a sightseeing spot for tourists all over the globe, but Stonehenge is also a site of interest for students in related fields as well. For learners studying this prehistoric monument, uhomes.com provides a list of accommodation options in the area.
Money dates way back: Money has been a part of human history for at least 5,000 years. Before then, a system of bartering was likely used. The world’s oldest coin dates back to 600 BCE in China, which then moved to paper money around 700 CE. But for parts of Europe, it took until the 16th Century to switch from metal coins to paper money.
A Penny Costs More to Make than It’s Worth: A recent report from the U.S. Mint says it costs 2.1 cents to make a penny. Why the increase? Part of the rise could be the higher prices of copper and zinc, both of which are used to make pennies.
Facebook’s AI team has been hard at work developing AI that can understand the content of videos and put it to use. Though what this means remains somewhat vague, an innocent part of it would be automated video captions, for instance.