When the Six Flags Over Texas theme park opened in 1961, it had a section dedicated to the Confederacy where actors would hunt through the crowd for Union “spies” and “execute” them by firing squad, and where boys and girls could sign up to defend the South as soldiers and nurses.
Barbara Cartland wrote 723 novels….
Barbara Cartland wrote 723 novels – an average of more than 9 a year over her career. In 1976 she wrote 23 – still a world record.
When Rockstar first released…
When Rockstar first released Grand Theft Auto, they actually paid reviewers to negatively review the game in order to keep it controversial, and therefore popular. They targeted right wing news papers to ensure moral outrage and drive the game to success.
After 13 years of trying to find…
After 13 years of trying to find the structure of a protein, scientists created an online competitive game that asked gamers to try and solve it. The structure was found in 3 weeks.
The Navajo have a tradition around…
The Navajo have a tradition around celebrating a baby’s first laugh. Around three months, they watch the baby closely for that first real giggle. The person who has the good fortune of eliciting that first laugh is then responsible for throwing a party.
Bertha Benz successfully marketed…
Bertha Benz successfully marketed her husband’s invention, the motor car, when she took it for a 65 mile trip, overcoming mechanical problems and inventing brake shoes on the way, and proving that cars were suitable for long journeys. Her trip gained attention, resulting in Benz’s first sale.
A drug company tried to avoid…
A drug company tried to avoid legal challenges to one of its patents by transferring its patent rights to a Native American tribe (and exclusively licensing them back) so they could claim sovereign immunity against any patent lawsuits. It didn’t work.
In Norway, people use the term “texas”…
In Norway, people use the term “texas” as slang for “crazy”. It doesn’t refer to a person, but a chaotic atmosphere or state of mind, so saying a party “was totally crazy!” in Norwegian would be “det var helt texas!”, which literally means “it was texas!”
A brain injury sustained…
A brain injury sustained during a mugging turned a man who used to think “math is stupid” into a mathematical savant with a form of synaesthesia that lets him see the world in fractals.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t allowed…
Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t allowed to dub his own role in Terminator in German, as his accent is considered very rural by German/Austrian standards and it would be too ridiculous to have a death machine from the future come back in time and sound like a hillbilly.