“David Lubega (born April 13, 1975), also known as Lou Bega, is a German musician of Italian and Ugandan descent, and is famous for his song “Mambo No. 5”. This song is a remake of the Perez Prado instrumental from 1949. Bega added his own words to the song and sampled the original version extensively.”
— Lou Bega on Wikipedia (via daveshumka)
2:08 am • 9 July 2011 • 3 notes
“The oldest living Goldfish to date was a goldfish named Tish owned by Hilda and Gordon Hand of Thirsk, N. Yorkshire, England. Tish lived for 43 years after being won at a fairground in 1956.”
— Common goldfish on Wikipedia
6:46 am • 7 July 2011 • 6 notes
“The building’s distinctive Art Deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot for dirigibles. The 102nd floor was originally a landing platform with a dirigible gangplank. A particular elevator, traveling between the 86th and 102nd floors, was supposed to transport passengers after they checked in at the observation deck on the 86th floor. However, the idea proved to be impractical and dangerous after a few attempts with airships, due to the powerful updrafts caused by the size of the building itself, as well as the lack of mooring lines tying the other end of the craft to the ground.”
— Empire State Building on Wikipedia
1:10 am • 7 July 2011 • 3 notes
“Perhaps the most widely known story of the origin of the expression concerns the area around the triangular-shaped Flatiron Building at Madison Square in New York City. The building is located on 23rd Street at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, and due to the shape of the building winds swirl around it. During the 1920s, groups of men would allegedly gather to watch women walking by have their skirts blown up, revealing legs, which were seldom seen publicly at that time. Local constables, when sometimes telling such groups of men to leave the area, were said to be “giving them the 23 Skidoo”.”
— 23 skidoo (phrase) on Wikipedia
1:05 am • 7 July 2011 • 7 notes
“Jobs noticed his friend Steve Wozniak—employee of Hewlett-Packard—was capable of producing designs with a small number of chips, and invited him to work on the hardware design with the prospect of splitting the $750 wage. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had “tricky little designs” difficult to understand for most engineers. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the high score to the screen’s top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak was unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met after Wozniak did not sleep for four days straight. In the end 50 chips were removed from Jobs’ original design. This equated to a US$5,000 bonus, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak, instead only paying him $375.”
— Breakout (video game) on Wikipedia
4:58 am • 6 July 2011 • 1 note
“Chicago is not significantly windier than any other U.S. city.”
— Origin of the name “Windy City” on Wikipedia
4:53 am • 6 July 2011 • 1 note
“Jack Dorsey grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri, and by age 13, he had become interested in dispatch routing.”
— Jack Dorsey on Wikipedia
4:53 am • 6 July 2011 • 1 note
“He also threw out the defamation lawsuit that Aqua’s record company filed against Mattel. Kozinski concluded his ruling by saying, “The parties are advised to chill.” The case was dismissed, and in the process, it garnered lots of media attention for the song and the band.”
— Barbie Girl on Wikipedia
4:50 am • 6 July 2011
“In popular comedy, Evian is naive spelled backwards.”
— Evian on Wikipedia
4:49 am • 6 July 2011 • 1 note
“The last thing he reportedly wrote before his death was the name of actor Kurt Russell, the significance of which remains a mystery, even to Russell.”
— Walt Disney on Wikipedia
4:39 am • 6 July 2011 • 2 notes
