SANTOSH 9702: Little

Showing posts with label Little. Show all posts

Friday, May 8, 2026

What trivia (and/or little-known facts) do you find interesting about Brazil?

I can think of some interesting facts about Brazil. I ended up settling on five such facts, though I know of plenty of others, too.

Brazil Fact #1: If you land on Brazil’s coastline (not counting the northern part where it runs almost east-to-west) and begin traveling inland, you won’t experience a broad coastal plain; rather, you’ll soon encounter cliffs and mountainsides. The elevation rises rapidly. It’s called the Great Escarpment.

Elevation map of Brazil. Notice how the highlands are so close to the coastline. The highlands’ eastern boundary is what they call the Great Escarpment.

Brazil Fact #2: Brazil has five different major cities named “São José” (Saint Joseph). I was using the convention that a “major city” means a city whose population exceeds 100,000. The catch is that for four of those five major cities, “São José” is only part of their name. For example, one of them is the city of São José de Ribamar. Only the one in the state of Santa Catarina is simply named “São José”.

São José dos Campos at night. It’s one of five “São José” major cities in Brazil, where “major city” means population > 100K.

Brazil Fact #3: The Amazon rainforest (most of which lies in Brazil) is home to a wealth of biodiversity. This includes a bunch of animals that I would describe as very - for lack of a better term - cool. Admittedly, this fact is already widely-known. But I can make it more specific and therefore a little more valuable. When I say “cool” animals of the Amazon, I’m thinking of scarlet macaws, jaguars, toucans, fer-de-lances, giant anteaters, harpy eagles, capybaras, spider monkeys, anacondas, tapirs, hoatzins……

Two scarlet macaws in a tree. The scarlet macaw is one of many “cool” animals that inhabit the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil Fact #4: One such Amazonian creature has a reputation that’s worse than it deserves to be. I mean the piranha, which inhabits the Amazon River in Brazil. Very few people have ever actually been killed by piranhas. If piranhas have devoured a human body, that was very likely a dead human body, such as a person who drowned. Piranhas are more like vultures and less like crocodiles. They’d rather wait until you’re dead before they start eating you.

Piranhas are far more likely to eat a human who’s already dead (e. g. drowning victims) than a human who’s still living.

Brazil Fact #5: Brazil’s national football team, a. k. a. soccer team [yeah, yeah, I know, sorry], is the only one in the world that has qualified for and participated in all 23 World Cup tournaments to date. That includes the upcoming one (2026). And apparently, part of the sport’s enormous popularity there is that it helped build a strong sense of national identity for a people who had previously been regarded as a disorganized “hodgepodge” of different peoples, with different skin colors and ethnicities. At least, that’s what I have read.

The Brazilian squad celebrates their triumph over Italy at the 1970 FIFA World Cup final. The shirtless guy being hoisted by his teammates is Brazil’s superstar player, Pelé.

All five of the images in this answer were from Wikipedia.

Yes, I am one of those annoying Americans who says “soccer”. Sorry. It’s just that the word “football” denotes an entirely different sport where I’m from.

I voted for Kamala Harris, okay? 😆 So at least I’m not one of those really obnoxious Americans, right? 😁

(I also voted for Joe Biden in 2020, for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and for Barack Obama in 2012. You sure won’t find me at any Trump rallies!)

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

What are some little-known facts about JK Rowling?

J.K. Rowling doesn't have a middle name. Her publishers thought the book would sell better if they didn't know the author was a woman, so they asked Joanne to use her first two initials and her last name.

So where does the K come from? Kathleen is Joanne's mother's name, so she uses that as her initial, JK, and Rowling is her maiden name.

Another cool fact? Rowling's favorite book is the series between Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Deathly Hallows . Joanne struggled while writing Order of the Phoenix , which is the longest book.

Joanne Rowling's mother was diagnosed with MS when she was 35, and her mother died when she was just 45. Joanne Rowling loved her mother dearly and had this to say about her and her books

You probably already know this, but I didn't know the ending. JK Rowling wanted Alan Rickman, the actor who played Severus Snape, to know the whole character (it also pushed Alan Rickman to get deeper into his character, because he didn't want to be just another cruel person, he wanted something more complex). Rowling told Rickman the meaning of the word, "Always," from the beginning.

The director himself didn't know what Snape looked like. Only the actor and Rowling did. So sometimes, when directing Rickman, the director would ask him something, and Rickman would say, "No, I can't I know what's going to happen, and you don't." Cool.

What are some little-known facts about the Titanic?

Just imagine, it took almost 73 years to find the wreck of the Titanic. The image below shows the remaining debris from the Titanic wreck.

2. The Titanic was as tall as an eleven-story building and as long as almost four city blocks, making it one of the largest ships in the world.

3. Millvina Dean (1912–2009) was only a few months old when she boarded the Titanic with her family. She was the youngest victim of the accident.

4. The estimated age of the first snowflakes that formed the iceberg that the Titanic hit is 15,000 years old.

5. None of the 30 technicians on board survived. They remained on board to keep the power running as long as possible so the others could escape.

6. The Titanic carried 64 lifeboats, each capable of carrying 20 people. Most of the lifeboats were not even filled to capacity.

7. The richest passenger on the Titanic was John Jacob Astor IV. His net worth was approximately $85 million, or two billion dollars today. Astor perished with the Titanic.

8. With a production cost of 200 million dollars , this film cost more than Titanic itself.

9. The Titanic's shipbuilding company, Harland and Wolff, insists that the Titanic was never touted as unsinkable as it was portrayed in the film. They claim that the 'unsinkable' myth is a result of people's interpretation of articles in The Irish News and The Shipbuilder magazine. They also claim that the myth arose after the disaster.

10. First class

tickets

varied widely in price, ranging from $150 (about $1,700 today) for a simple bed, to $4,350 (about $50,000 today) for one of the two Parlor suites. Second class tickets were $60 (about $700), and third class passengers paid between $15 and $40 ($170-$460).

11. Hitting an iceberg wasn't the only reason the Titanic sank.

To further clarify, a 30-foot-long line mark is visible on the ship, directly in front of the coal bunker. The area where the mark is located is also the area where the ship struck the iceberg. This leads experts to believe that a fire must have damaged the area first, with the iceberg then causing further damage.

12. Jack and Rose are fictional characters, but their story was partly inspired by real Titanic passengers Henry Samuel Morley and Kate Florence Phillips.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

What are facts about celebrities that are little known?

Shatrughn Sinha is known for his baritone voice which enhances his dialogues delivery. So it is difficult to imagine his voice dubbed by someone else. And that too by Johnny Lever!! But in the film Saaya (1988) Shatrughn Sinha’s voice is dubbed by Johnny Lever in the courtroom scene. Johnny Lever was a renowned mimicry artist and he dubbed a few lines for Sinha. If you listen to the dialogue you will find them very funny even though it is a serious scene.

During the year 1986 atleast 4 Bollywood pairs eloped from their homes to get married. It is difficult to say who inspired whom but the family of the girl had to struggle a lot to normalise the situation. And all the cases the female was an actress and the make was a director or producer.

The first pair was Anita Raj and film director producer Sunil Hingorani, who eloped because of refusal of Anita Raj’s family. She eloped and the family disowned her but kept her home with them (even though it was bought by Anita Raj).

The second pair was Jayaprada who eloped with film producer Shrikant Nahata because Nahata was already married with children and couldn't marry her due to family pressure. Even though they got married silently he could never give her the status of a legally wedded wife.

The third pair was that of Padmini Kolhapure and producer Pradeep Sharma, who worked together in Aisa Pyar Kahan and decided to get married. But Padmini’s parents refused and so with the help of her best friend Poonam Dhillon she eloped from her home to get married. Padmini's father went to Bal Thackeray to bring her daughter back as Pradeep Sharma was non Marathi, but Balasaheb Thackeray refused to intervene if they have married with consent.

Fourth pair was Vijeta Pandit who eloped to get married to director Sameer Malkhan who directed Car Thief starring Vijeta. Even though Vijeta’s father supported the marriage and he was part of marriage registeration the couple got married without informing any member of her family including her sister Sulkashana Pandit. Unfortunately this marriage didn't work and they divorced after some years.

Friday, February 20, 2026

What are some of the most interesting little-known things?

1. A 2 litre bottle before it's filled with compressed air :-

2. A burning candle at Zero gravity :-

3. Hypothetically, you could reach the moon with paper.

If you folded 0.1 millimeter-thick paper 42 times, the resulting paper would theoretically be thick enough to reach the moon. You can't actually do that, though, so don't try.

4. The sacrifice for poo is great :-

127,000 trees are chopped down every day to make enough toilet paper for everyone on the planet. Conserve, people (or just take a shower if it's that bad).

5. Water can boil and freeze at the same time (at the triple point) :-

6. 99% of the Earth's gold is inside its core :-

7. There's even less platinum available :-

All the platinum ever mined by humans would fill an average-sized house.

8. All the religions of India collectively let every citizen to say proudly :-

What are some little known facts about McDonald's?

1. McDonald’s originally sold hot dogs, not hamburgers.

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In 1937, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald launched the Airdrome hot dog stand with a $5,000 loan. It wasn’t until 1948 that they revamped their business and turned it into a burgers and milkshakes joint.

(In the 1990s, the restaurant tested hot dogs at several Midwestern U.S. locations. They’ve also been spotted in Japanese locations — see photo above.)

2. The company’s golden arches are recognized by more people than the Christian cross.

randomperspective.com

A survey by Sponsorship Research International of 7,000 people in six countries found that 88 percent could identify McDonald’s famous arches, while only 54 percent could name the Christian cross.

3. 1 in 8 Americans has been employed by a McDonald’s.

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(source)

4. 87,000 people recently petitioned McDonald’s to add a veggie burger to their menu.

Flickr: cbrunn

“Adding plant-based protein options at McDonald’s will appeal to workers out for a quick lunch, families with health-conscious members out to dinner, children on field trips, and anyone looking for something different than the current menu at McDonald’s where even the french fries contain beef flavoring,” reads the petition. The company currently sells veggie burgers in India, but not in the U.S.

5. McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys.

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The reason? About 20 percent of McDonald’s sales involve Happy Meals.

6. The Egg McMuffin was modeled after eggs benedict.