12 Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, May 16, 2024

There’s still a law on the books from Britain’s daliance with prohibition, the Licensing Act 1872, that reads, “Every person found drunk in any highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on any licensed premises, shall be liable to a penalty.”

The National Gallery of Australia displayed an objectively unflattering portrait of mining magnate Gina Rinehart, and she’s been back-channeling to have it taken down. She reportedly donated $10,000 to the gallery, and when that didn’t work, she started having celebrity and business pals make insane statements, such as: displaying the portrait is “doing the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.”

A Seattle Mariners fan sitting just outside of the foul pole came up with two consecutive long-bomb foul balls. That’s astonishing consistency on the part of the batter.

Kind of! Back when airfares were regulated by the federal government, airlines were required to provide an entree, a salad, two additional vegetables, a dessert and a drink to every passenger. The industry was deregulated in 1978, and companies immediately started cutting corners. But Osama bin Laden drove the final nail into the coffin, according to CNN: “The September 11th attacks accelerated the decline of free airline meals” because people stopped flying for a little bit.

Bangladesh has a population of 171 million people, and has participated in the Olympics since 1984, but hasn’t managed to bring home a medal just yet.

Lying is more cognitively demanding than telling the truth, and a study just found that asking someone to perform an additional task while lying makes them noticeably worse at both.

When you think of an embryo developing, you imagine one cell splitting into two, two into four, and so on until there’s a vaguely baby-shaped globule. A new study has shown that actually, that first split is an incredibly important one. One new cell goes on to become an embryo, then a baby, then an accountant or whatever, while the other cell simply begins forming the “yolk sac” that the embryo develops inside of.

After Red Lobster’s longtime shrimp provider, Thai Union, bought a stake in the company, they thought making $20 endless shrimp a permanent staple (as opposed to a seasonal special) could turn around flagging sales. Instead, they estimate it put them $11 million in the hole — in just one fiscal quarter.

Key phrase: had a deal. The Justice Department just claimed that Boeing violated a settlement reached in 2021 that kept the company from being held accountable for deadly malfunctions in their equipment in 2018 and 2019. To which the world responded: excuse me? You made a deal that prevented Boeing from being held liable for killing people?

It’s been a while since an orca last sank a yacht; just long enough for the ultra wealthy to drop their guard. But a sailing yacht was just rammed into a watery grave by a pack of orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar, kicking off millionaire and billionaire season 2024. (The two passengers were rescued by an oil tanker, it’s fine.)

Scientists have discovered a planet 1,200 light years away that’s approximately the consistency of cotton candy. An MIT professor who co-authored the study said, “The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material. The planet is basically super fluffy.”

While vacationing in Mexico, some British tourists were hanging out in a river when a crocodile snuck up on them. It started dragging one woman underwater, but her twin jumped in and beat it up — twice. She’s now being awarded the King’s Gallantry Medal.