fact
Ray Bradbury wrote the first draft of Fahrenheit 451 on a typewriter in UCLA Library’s basement that cost 10 cents for 30 minutes. 9 days and $9.80 later he had a short story titled ‘ The Fireman’ that was later expanded into Fahrenheit 451.
The post Ray Bradbury wrote the first draft… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Knowledge is power, and there is so much to take in.
What’s funny though, is that in some situations, some knowledge we acquire can sound more like made up storytelling.
There have been plenty of times where an Onion article became reality.
Go figure.
Redditor SuruchiSushi wanted to discuss all the fascinating facts about life that leave us reeling because it sounds more like fiction.
“What is a fact so ridiculous that it sounds fake?”
Let’s talk about what’s really real.
“We’ve eaten mummies into rarity.” ~ Daylight_The_Furry
“Yep, it was all the rage a few hundred years ago in Europe. Largely for medicinal purposes, ground up into powder and mixed with stuff, mostly.” ~ Reddit
“I mean, this was around the same time that British scientists categorized aboriginals as fauna. I don’t think they had a very good sense of who counted as people.” ~ Callmecaesar1
“Not only eaten, but they used to be ground up to make pigment for paints. Literally called mummy brown.” ~ThatOneAsianGuy33
“Some moths emerge from the cocoon without a mouth or anus.” ~happy_cake_babe
“Serious response: a lot of what we think of as ‘insects’ are actually the adult forms, and often don’t live very long as adults.”
“Basically they emerge as adults, go find another to make babies with, and then die once the eggs are laid.”
“If they’re only going to live a few hours or days, they can get by without mouths or buttholes.”
“A lot of insect species spend most of their time as little maggoty things, and only take their distinctive adult forms for a brief portion of their life.”
“Insects are weird, yo.” ~ AndAzraelSaid
“The term ‘prime minister’ was first used as a slur.” ~ ____andresito____
“The term ‘Prime Minister’ as we know it today emerged in the 18th century, during the prolonged conflict between Britain and France.”
“It was first applied insultingly to Sir Robert Walpole, who is now considered the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.”
“It was used by members of Parliament against Walpole, who served for 21 years and oversaw the increasing power of his role and simultaneous withdrawal of King George I from cabinet meetings.”
“The derogatory nature was derived from its comparison to France’s Chief Minister, Cardinal Richelieu.”
“The British were proud of not to be an absolute monarchy, like France, so the comparison was intended to be offensive.”
“Source” ~ Zhyko
“When two galaxies merge, almost nothing collides despite each having trillions of stars.” ~mrbigmac61
“Yep, it’s because there’s really just far too much space between objects when you zoom in.”
“Even the asteroid belt has thousands of miles of empty space between each asteroid.”
“If you flew through the asteroid belt, you’d only crash if you did so on purpose.” ~ nsci2ece
“In 1992, shipping containers with around 28,000 rubber ducks were lost at sea(in the Pacific Ocean)…. they’re still being found today.” ~ BlueSparkle2810
“Imagine being lost at sea for a few days, you see something in the water in front of you.”
“Maybe a clue to where land is? No. It’s a friggin’ rubber duck.” ~ DancingDoggos
“Bangladesh, a really tiny country has a population larger than all of Russia.” ~ R4zerSins
“Just scanning over Bangladesh on Google maps satellite view is incredible.”
“Even in areas that look green from zoomed out, there’s villages absolutely everywhere when you zoom in.”
“And then when you do get cities, they’re mega-densely populated metropolises with huge slum areas. It’s mad.” ~PillarofSheffield
“It’s legal to own, and drive a tank in the USA.”
“You can even drive it on the road if you replace the steel tracks with rubber tracks. The guns and cannon must be disabled though.” ~ KKKKOOOOBBBBRRRRAAAA
“Actually that last ‘fact’ is untrue. You do not need to disable the gun, in fact you can buy tank shells.”
“The reason however most are disabled (there are a few not disabled) is its ridiculously expensive and requires a lot more paperwork.” ~corbear007
“On the 29th of September 1940 two planes had a mid-air collision, got stuck together and successfully landed.”
“The pilot used the controls of the top plane and the engines of the bottom plane.”
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp478Tgm5gg“. ~ alphaechothunder77
“France didn’t stop executing people by guillotine until 1977.” ~ whereismattdamon
“Yeah, like all the modern execution methods. And the guillotine is even more sure than getting shot in the head.”
“The ol’ chopper is the method I’d choose if I had to be executed.”
“Course, I’d request that they quickly grab my chopped head and show me my body. That’d be sick.” ~ 4_P-
“20% of foster children are missing at any given time.” ~ SagiTsukiko
“20% of foster care children are missing.”
“A lot of this is due to runaways.”
“My girlfriend works in foster care and every week she has at least one foster child runaway, mind you these are just her cases and not her coworkers cases who also have constant runaways.” ~ skuzzlebut90
“98%. 2% are unaccounted for. It’s still a major issue that so many foster kids are running away, though.”
“A glimpse into how inadequate the system and many foster parents are.”
“It’s not always their fault that they cannot adequately care for a foster child, though, and many foster parents who are not abusive simply just were not prepared for a lot of the issues that may arise with a traumatized child who has been removed from their birth family and shuffled around.” ~ SagiTsukiko
“2 actors have died playing Judas in live biblical productions by accidentally hanging themselves for real in his death scene.” ~ acronicality
“The last time an inmate in the USA was executed by firing squad was on June 18th, 2010.” ~bob4for4
“Ronnie Lee Gardner (January 16, 1961 – June 18, 2010) was an American criminal who received the death penalty for shooting a man in the face and killing him during a robbery in 1985, and was executed by a firing squad by the state of Utah in 2010.”
“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Lee_Gardner“. ~ Reddit
Well that was a lot of knowledge to devour at once. Some fascinating, the rest surprising.
We were still using firing squads in this century?
I have no words.
Now we’re all one step closer to Jeopardy.
At the age of 14, in 1905, Charles de Gaulle wrote a short story titled “General De Gaulle” in which he imagined himself leading the French Army to victory over Germany “sometime in the 1930s.”
The post At the age of 14, in 1905… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Oh, the writing life.
I mean, I’m writing right now. Want proof? Look at this assemblage of words. If I wasn’t a real writer, would I know how to use a word like “assemblage” in a sentence?
Checkmate.
Well, that’s probably enough writing for today. I did good. I should reward myself with several snacks and a season or two of TV.
While I’m doing that, you should enjoy these Tumblr posts about what being a writer is like.
And then help me because oh God the deadlines are closing in.
What are your tricks for combating writer’s block?
Seriously tell me in the comments, I need to know IMMEDIATELY.
Or don’t. I’m sure I’ll figure it out on my own eventually.
… help…
The post Tumblr Users Talk About What It’s Like to Be a Writer appeared first on UberFacts.
In 1981 Dean Koontz wrote a book “The Eyes of Darkness”. The chapter 39 it mentions a Chinese military lab outside of the city of Wuhan, where a deadly virus is invented as part of the country’s biological weapons warfare programme. Owing to the lab’s location, the virus is named ‘Wuhan-400’.
I have a ton of these. Johnny and Dally from The Outsiders immediately come to mind. Don’t even get me started on Old Yeller.
People on AskReddit shared the fictional deaths that hit them right in the gut.
What characters have died in books, movies, or TV that really affected you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
“John Coffey, The Green Mile. A sweet and innocent soul, blessed (or cursed) with the gift of sight. Sight into people’s hearts and minds. He was accused of murder having come across the bodies of two murdered children (whom he had tried to save). He healed and eased others suffering by taking it into himself.
The scene where he is in the electric chair, terrified, and everyone is watching with accusatory eyes. The guards know of his innocence and are heartbroken because there is nothing they can do. That scene gets me every time. Michael Clark Duncan was a magnificent pick for that role.”
“When I was a small child, my father invented stories about a truck that worked hard and drove challenging roads all over the world
Then, he ran out of stories, and sent the truck to the junkyard
Made me very sad as a small child who loved trucks
At age 66, makes me sad to remember.”
“Brooks in Shawshank Redemption :’( .”
“Spock. Saw it in the theater. Didn’t know it was comin. No internet spoilers back then, lol.”
“Sweets from Bones.
Did not see that coming.”
“Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web. It’s been forty years and I still can’t even think about it without getting choked up.”
“Prim. Threw the book across the room. What was this all for?”
“I read Where the Red Fern Grows as a teen. When the dog Old Dan died after saving Billy from a mountain lion. Followed by the other dog Little Ann of a broken heart. I was inconsolable.”
“Opie in Sons of Anarchy.”
“Hank from Breaking Bad. Dude started the series as a stereotypical meathead that I thought I was gonna hate, but had one of the biggest character arcs besides Walt and Jesse. By the end I was rooting pretty hard for him. Imagine finding out someone close to you was a major druglord if you were a DEA agent IRL. That would have to be awful and embarrassing.”
“Ned Stark. You watch the entire first season of GOT thinking he will be the main character and then he gets his damn head chopped off. It shocked me.”
“Sam the onion picker in Holes.
My man just wanted that lady to be his wife so they could live together in onion and peach filled bliss, and goddammit she wanted it too.
Still makes me sad to this day.”
“As a kid it was definitely Mufasa, that part of the film haunted me for months.
Now Yondu’s death makes me bawl, Romanoff’s makes my heart break and Danny’s death in Pearl Harbor is a very poignant one for me.”
“99, a deformed clone trooper who couldn’t serve in the clone wars and just worked as a janitor instead. When he sacrificed himself, that hit me.”
“The dog from Marley & Me.”
The post 15 People Admit Which Fictional Deaths Hit Them the Hardest appeared first on UberFacts.
Reading fiction can help boost your empathy by practicing your ability to see the world through other people’s eyes, whether it be the author’s or a character’s. 10