Random facts.
August 1, 2026
On July 23, global air travel set a new single-day record with 153,359 flights.
Major League Baseball restricted teams from accessing generative AI during games. The policy change comes amid reports that up to a third of the league’s teams installed custom AI iPad apps to help make strategic suggestions mid-game, including substitutions and pitch calls.
Amelia Earhart is remembered for her mysterious final flight, but before 1937 she had already become the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, worked as a college professor, and designed her own fashion collection.
Monaco has the world’s oldest population overall, with more than 36% of its residents aged 65 or older.
A group of starfish is called a galaxy.
Biologists have, for the first time, combined dozens of lifeless chemicals to create a synthetic cell that eats, grows, and reproduces like naturally occurring cells.
An 18th-century woman tricked doctors into believing she gave birth to rabbits.
Music streaming service TIDAL will stop paying royalties on fully AI-generated music and will use automated tools to remove AI-generated tracks that impersonate artists or bands.
Tick-borne disease cases are surging in America.
Paracosmic thinking is the practice of imagining a detailed, alternative world or future and mentally living inside it to explore ideas, solve problems, or inspire action.
The graham cracker was invented by a Presbyterian minister who believed bland food could suppress sinful sexual desires.
One ethnic minority in Kenya, called the Kalenjin, is responsible for 73% of the country’s Olympic gold medals in running.
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid.
Movie theaters are making millions from collectible popcorn buckets. AMC expects $100 million in bucket sales this year, nearly double 2023.
It’s so hot in Japan that the weather agency coined a new word—kokushobi, or “cruel heat day.”
In the United States, a third of adults under the age of 35 are living with their parents.
Josh Kerr broke the men’s mile record, running it in 3:42.66. The previous record, of 3:43.13, was set 27 years ago.
Ancient Egyptian princesses were skilled archers and warriors, according to an analysis of nearly 4,000-year-old royal remains.
Sotheby’s sold a T. rex fossil, nicknamed Gus, for $50.1 million.
Due to a local microclimate, a thunderstorm nicknamed Hector the Convector appears almost every day from September to March at around 3 pm off the northern coast of Australia.
Mark Twain started writing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to distract himself.
In France, lawmakers voted to legalize medically assisted dying.
On average, the human body produces about 100 watts of electricity—enough to power a light bulb—but some people can produce over 2,000 watts in short bursts, such as when sprinting.
The Beatles tried to get the rights to make a “Lord of the Rings” film starring the band members as Gollum, Frodo, Gandalf, and Samwise. Tolkien wasn’t interested.
Red is the most common color on national flags; purple is the rarest.
Before he was known as a folk singer, Woody Guthrie was a popular radio host in Los Angeles.
The world’s first webcam was invented to keep track of an office coffee pot.
Against his wishes, Albert Einstein’s brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.
When your dog kicks their back legs after pooping or peeing, they’re not trying to cover it up. They’re doing the opposite—spreading their scent and sending a message to every dog that comes by: I was here.
Almost 30% of unemployed Americans ages 25 to 54 cited being laid off as the reason for their unemployment.
Invasive Manila clams are now everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, after being identified along the Massachusetts coastline.
Romance novels account for about 20% of the publishing industry’s book sales.
One in 10 adults worldwide has diabetes.
A thrifter bought a Lakers warm-up jacket with Wilt Chamberlain’s name on it for $3 at Goodwill. It resold at an auction for nearly $90,000.
Engineers created the “Phantom Twist”—a drone that spins up to 25 times per second, making it nearly invisible to the human eye.
Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” was banned numerous times in various cities throughout the 1800s for being “obscene,” “too sensual,” and “shocking.” He was fired from his job as a clerk at the Department of the Interior for writing the book.
Start-ups are paying contractors to teach their jobs to artificial intelligence models and help make their jobs, and those of their colleagues, obsolete.
Despite the name, data suggests the typical horse produces over 12 horsepower.
Bats are not blind.
Have a great month and stay passionate!
I doubted the Beatles and Lord of the Rings, however... my AI says:
Yes—essentially true. In the late 1960s, the Beatles seriously considered making The Lord of the Rings as their next film, with the commonly reported casting:
Paul McCartney — Frodo
Ringo Starr — Sam
George Harrison — Gandalf
John Lennon — Gollum
They reportedly approached Stanley Kubrick to direct, but Kubrick considered the book too difficult to film. J.R.R. Tolkien, who still controlled the film rights, also rejected the idea of the Beatles adapting it. Peter Jackson later confirmed the basic story after discussing it with McCartney.
There is a little uncertainty around exactly how firmly the roles had been settled—some early accounts describe the casting ideas shifting around—but the famous McCartney/Frodo, Starr/Sam, Harrison/Gandalf, Lennon/Gollum lineup is the best-known version.
It sounds preposterous now, but Lennon as Gollum is strangely easy to imagine. The film might have been either a psychedelic disaster or one of the most fascinating cultural artifacts ever made—possibly both.
That would have been quite a movie. Thanks for this tidbit to smile about. "Sargeant Pepper's Lord of the Rings Club Band."
I love the Whitman factoids above, and the fact that his poetry disrupted the status quo and overturned the apple cart.