“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”
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Hello and welcome to another fact feast day on the fasab blog.
The usual selection of random facts, but with a few extras thrown in as a tribute to the late, great, and apparently much troubled Robin Williams.
Enjoy.
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In spite of the larger-than-life legends,
the Pony Express only lasted 19 months
(April 1860 to October 1861)
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According to a published Star Wars encyclopedia,
the real name of the Star Wars robot known to us as ‘R2-D2’,
is actually ‘Second Generation Robotic Droid Series-2’.
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Robin Williams was awarded a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
in Hollywood, California
on December 12, 1990.
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The first chocolate bar
suitable enough for widespread consumption
was produced by the Fry’s chocolate factory,
located in Bristol, England in 1847.
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Of the ten deadliest wars every fought,
seven were fought in China
More people died in each of the two largest
than in WWI
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Up until the 1800s dentures were often
made from the teeth of dead soldiers.
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Robin Williams devoted much of his time and energy to charities.
For example,
he supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
and helped to rebuild the city of Christchurch
after the 2010 earthquake in New Zealand.
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In Archi,
a language spoken around the Caspian Sea,
each verb can have up to 1.5 million different conjugations
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During medieval times animals were put on trial
and sometimes sentenced to death
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Robin Williams co-owned the Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco
with his friend Robert De Niro and
fellow Bay area resident Francis Ford Coppola.
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You have roughly 70,000 thoughts
every day!
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Dung beetles can use the Milky Way to navigate.
(My stars!)
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The title, “World’s luckiest unluckiest man”
belongs to Frane Selak, a Croatian music teacher,
who has literally escaped the jaws of death seven times.
On January 1962, a train he was on flipped off the tracks
killing 17 passengers. He survived.
In 1963, he was sucked out of a malfunctioning plane door
and landed in a haystack; the plane crashed killing 19 people.
In 1966, a bus Selak was on skidded off the road and into a river
where four passengers drowned.
1970 and 1973 his car caught on fire;
1995 he was struck by a bus
and in 1996 he drove into a gorge.
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In 1911, French tailor Franz Reichelt
decided to test his invention,
a combination overcoat and parachute,
by jumping off the Eiffel Tower.
It didn’t work.
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Robin WIlliams is also the author of many
both humorous and serious quotes such as:
“Reality is just a crutch for people
who can’t cope with drugs.“
Or
“No matter what people tell you,
words and ideas can change the world.“
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fasab 
A Dung Beatles Guide to the Stars! … well done with weaving Robin Williams throughout the factoids.
Thanks, I thought he deserved a mention. Great talent.