12 Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Tuesday, August 27, 2024
From Earth’s first rainstorm to humankind’s first space burial.
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A Lady Was Arrested Because She Was a Fan of Macklemore
A woman hopped on stage with Macklemore during a concert in Slovakia, and posted about it online. A narc recognized her from a Slovakian fugitive website, and immediately called the cops. It’s unclear what her outstanding warrant was, but she had previously been fined for the grievous sin of streaking at a soccer game.
NASA Is Ditching Boeing for SpaceX
After Boeing’s screwups left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station for months, NASA has decided to ask SpaceX to help get them down.
A Burglar Stopped to Read a Book, Mid-Burglary, and Was Promptly Arrested
A guy was so enthralled with a book he spotted about Homer’s Iliad (not even The Iliad itself) that he hung around his alleged victim’s apartment long enough for the guy to wake up and catch him.
Who Killed Britain’s Bill Gates?
Tech mogul Mike Lynch died when his super yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. It’s assumed that a bad storm was the culprit, but conspiracy theorists have pointed out that Hewlett-Packard has been unhappy with with Lynch since buying his company for $11 billion. Adding fuel to that flame, Lynch’s business partner was in killed in a hit-and-run just days earlier. Authorities are now investigating the yacht sinking as a possible manslaughter case.
The First Space Burial
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was the first person to have their remains flown to space in 1992. NASA only drove his ashes around briefly before returning them to Earth, making him also technically the first space exhumation.
Mister Softee Is the Canary in the Coal Mine
Mister Softee ice cream trucks are down from 2,000 nationwide at their peak to just 630 today. Experts believe a combination of two modern scourges — inflation and summer-long heatwaves — is what’s keeping people from buying their ice cream from strangers in trucks.
The First Rain on Earth
After studying ancient zircon crystals from Australia’s Jack Hills, researchers have found “unusually light isotopic signatures” that suggest the planet first experienced rain four billion years ago.
The Most Expensive Piece of Sports Memorabilia Ever Purchased
Babe Ruth’s “called shot” jersey just sold for $24 million at auction.
The Underwater Road to a 7,000-Year-Old City
Divers in the Adriatic Sea found a human-built road under layers of sea sludge, which led them to a human-built structure sitting about 15 feet below the surface. They’ve recovered tools from the ancient Hvar people at the site.
Tarantulas Look Like Freaks Because of Ants
A recent study found that tarantulas likely developed all that hair as a defense against army ant attacks.
The First MLB Player to Play Against Himself
Catcher Danny Jansen was recently traded from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Boston Red Sox. The last time the two teams played each other, the game got rained out partway through. When they meet again to finish off that game, Jansen will play for both teams in not only the same game, but the same inning.
There Are Only About 25 Blimps in the World
People once thought they would revolutionize travel and blot out the sun, but now there are approximately two dozen blimps left on the planet. Only about half of them are in use.
