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Portugal
  • Portugal’s capital used to be Rio De Janeiro.
  • Lisbon has Europe’s largest casino in the Estoril Casino.
  • Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork
  • Portugal has Europe’s longest bridge
  • In Portugal, it is illegal to kill a bull in a bullfight
  • The Japanese word for thank you “arigato” originated from the Portuguese word of “obrigato”
  • Portugal showcased the world’s first balloon, but its inventor had to run away to Spain, in fear of being accused of black magic during the Inquisition.
  • In aviation history, both inaugural Atlantic crossings departed/landed in Portugal
  • Portugal is so peaceful that during their carnation revolution, less than 20 people died

Dirty Comic Artists
  • One of the creators of Superman, Joe Shuster, also drew S&M and bondage comics that were so despicable that they were banned by the Supreme Court. Their publisher, a mobster turn porn peddler was sentenced to jail
  • The creator of the original Star Trek series, Gene Roddenberry created another TV series in 1971 called ‘Pretty Maids all in a row’ about a gym teacher engaging in intercourse with his students. Scottie from the original series even casted in it as the lead actor’s partner
  • Dan DeCarlo drew Archie for almost 50 years. However, he also drew pinups for a girlie digest called Humorama

Reality TV
  • UK show Strictly Come Dancing sold to 38 countries and had a peak audience of 13.3 million vieweds which was almost a 50% audience share
  • It costs SGD$750,000 to make one episode of a reality TV show compared to SGD$3 million for a sitcom
  • More than 3000 people auditioned for Afghan model in 2009. Only 10 were women
  • 1 in 10 UK teenager would abandon their education to be on reality TV
  • Susan Boyle’s audition on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 was watched by over 120 million people on YouTube
  • 1 in 4 show on US primetime is a reality show
  • Gordon Ramsay said expletives over 80 times in one episode of Kitchen Nightmares
  • In 2010, Malaysia casted for Imam Muda where contentents were pitted in tests of Islamic theory, and challenges included counselling teenagers, preparing corpses for burial and Quran reciting. The top prize was a new car, a job as an Imam and a scholarship in Saudi Arabia
  • Reality TV actually started on the radio in 1947 with Candid Microphone

lightbulb
  • The oldest glowing lightbulb is over 109 years old and lives in fire stations in Livermore, CA. It is known as the Centennial Light and was first switched on in 1901 and has never been switched off

Easter
  • The first Easter baskets were made to imitate bird’s nests
  • The custom of giving eggs at Easter time has been traced back to Egyptians where the egg was a symbol of life
  • Each year witnesses the making of nearly 90 million chocolate bunnies
  • In medieval times a festival of egg-throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choir boys. It was then tossed from one choir boy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg
  • Painting eggs is called Pysanka
  • Americans celebrate Easter with a large Easter egg hunt on the White House Lawn
  • 76% of people prefer to eat the ears off the easter bunny chocolate first
  • The myth of the Easter Bunny, as he is currently portrayed today, actually dates back to an old German tale about a woman who used to decorate eggs and leave them for her children to find. This story was based in a time when a famine was plaguing the land; therefore the eggs were considered a valuable and surprising gift. It is reported that as her children found the eggs they saw a bunny rabbit hopping away. Naturally, the children thought the bunny had left the eggs for them
  • According to Bede, the English monastic historian, the English word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as “Eostremonath” in the AngloSaxon tongue and since Pascha was most often celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it “Easter”. Bede also notes that the month was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Esostre. Rituals related to the goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny)

chiropractor
  • Chiropractic was founded by a “magnetic healer”
  • At one stage, the founder of chiropractic (Daniel Palmer) considered turning it into a religion

Hancock, John
  • John Hancock was the only one of fifty signers of the Declaration of Independence who actually signed it on July 4

Obama, Barack
  • In highschool, Barack was known as Barry and was part of the “Choom gang”
  • Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording for the audio version of his book; Dreams From My Father
  • Obama’s family home in Chicago has 4 fireplaces
  • He worked in Baskin-Robbins as a teenager
  • Obama experimented with drugs and admitted that back in his early years he tried marijuana and cocaine but was not proud of it
  • Barack is a smoker but does not drink alcohol
  • One of Obama’s favourite books is ‘Where Wild Things Lie’
  • He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but went to live in Indonesia with his mum when his parents divorced. There he was introduced to dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper
  • Obama used to love wearing sweaters. Now you only see him in a suit and tie
  • An advertisement for the assasination of Obama made its way into a newspaper before being quickly taken off

Chess
  • Chess was invented in Iran
  • There are more than a thousand trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion ways a chess game can be played. ( 10120). That is more than the number of electrons in the universe
  • The Queen in chess was originally a male prime minister and could only move 1 square diagonally. Her power grew during the Renaissance period.
  • The folding chess board was invested by a priest
  • The rook is named from an Arabic word rukh, meaning chariot. During the Middle Ages, when chariots were no longer in use, the rook was gradually modified to look more like the turret of a castle.
  • The word “checkmate” comes from the Persian phrase “shah mat,” which means “the king is defeated.”
  • Lewis Carrol’s novel “Through the Looking Glass” was based on a chess game, much the way “Alice in Wonderland” was based on playing cards

golf
  • A titanium driver hitting a golf ball can create a sonic boom
  • There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball
  • Golf has been played on the moon! (Alan Shepard 1971)
  • The longest hole on a golf course is the sixth hole at the Koolan Island Course in Australia. The hole measures 860 yards
  • Scotland invented golf but then banned the game in 1647.
  • It was rumoured to stand for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. That is in fact wrong. The medieval Dutch word “kolf” or “kolve” meant “club.” It is believed that word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into “golve,” “gowl” or “gouf.”


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