12 Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, February 15, 2024

In 2011, it was revealed that up to 100,000 Chinese prisoners were putting in 12-hour shifts grinding on games like World of Warcraft. Their virtual goods were then sold by prison guards, often raking in more cash for the prison than actual physical labor.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines all appeared in the film, and Michael Bay consulted heavily with each of them. Without specifying what their primary goal was, an Air Force PR person said, “Recruiting and deterrence are secondary goals, but they’re certainly there.”

By some accounts, Glasgow-based British-Pakistani chef Ali Ahmed Aslam invented it when he had to mess around with a can of tomato soup and some spices.

An ancient rabbinic tale tells of two enormous sea creatures: the Leviathans. Fearing they’d hook up and make too many baby Leviathans, God castrated the male, killed the female (which doesn’t seem necessary at that point), and turned its hide into a sick gown for Eve to wear.

The Crab Nebula is used as a standard of measurement for space radiation, because, up until recently, it emitted a remarkably constant and predictable stream of X-rays.

A bizarre incident in Aurora, Texas was reported in 1897, 50 years before the Roswell incident. A flying vehicle crashed into a local judge’s windmill, and the dead, non-human body of its pilot was found nearby. They made sure to give it a Christian burial, before dumping the broken ship down a well. One man claimed that well water gave him severe arthritis, so he capped it with cement.

Waterbury, Connecticut is home to a ghost town of theme park, called Holy Land. It has its name (and a huge cross) spelled out in a Hollywood-esque sign near the highway, a replica of the Last Supper and the Garden of Eden, and even an inn with a “No Vacancy” sign, if you can believe it. It fell into disrepair in the 1980s, and turned into popular teenage loitering spot. It was also the sight of a brutal murder in 2010.

William Aramony, longtime CEO of United Way, was a real bad dude. He was a known creep, and at age 59, he gave his 17-year-old girlfriend a job at his company. While that’s probably legal, what’s illegal is stealing $1.2 million. His lawyer argued, unsuccessfully, that he had a brain condition that left him unable to control impulses.

The Royal Danish Kunstkammer (or “wonder room”) was the project of King Frederick III in the 1600s. He filled it, he believed, with dragons and the bones of giants (although the giants turned out to be elephants, it’s unclear what the dragons were).

Race Across America is a week-long transcontinental race from the West Coast to the East Coast (though the actual start and end cities can vary from year to year). There are no stages, so if you can ride for 24 hours straight without sleep, you have a leg up on the competition. Roads aren’t closed for the event, so you’re fighting vehicular traffic the whole way.

Eilmer of Malmesbury was a monk who became the first aviator in Britain when he lept from a tower in his homemade gliding contraption. He broke both of his legs, but survived, landing an impressive 650 feet away.

In 1975, Milton Bradley released a game called The Sinking of the Titanic, which was pretty brutal for a board game. There are three stages: first, you have to get people to life boats; then, once you’re in the open ocean, you compete for food and fresh water; and finally, you race to a rescue ship. There’s only one winner (everyone else dies).