A first-class ticket on the Titanic would cost approximately $57,200 today.

Factoring in inflation, the $2,500 first-class tickets would be $57,200. The most expensive rooms on the ill-fated luxury liner would cost more than $103,000 now! On the plus side, you could get access to the swimming pool for only 25 cents! Even adjusting for inflation, it’s less than $6. For 50 cents, or less than 12 inflation-adjusted dollars, you got access to the squash courts, and could play with a professional squash player! You also got access to the Titanic’s 60 chefs. You even got the opportunity to see an iceberg up close for free! (too soon?)

The recent earthquake moved Japan closer to the United States.

Geophysicists found that global positioning stations near the quake’s epicenter moved as far as 13 feet eastward! This does not mean that the entire country shifted, but that the nation has actually grown wider. NASA scientists have also found that the earthquake may have shorted the length of the day by a couple of milliseconds and shifted the Earth’s axis!

An Oscar costs several hundred dollars to produce.

The reason the award is so expensive is because of the gold plating on the outside of each statuette. If it did not contain any gold, an Oscar would be worth less than $100!

And that’s just the materials, not taking into account the labor costs. It takes 10 people more than 5 and a half hour to create each one. Each statue is polished to perfection, and just the polishing requires an entire hour per statue! It ends up taking 3-4 weeks to create all the statues for the awards ceremony.

An extinct variety of zebra only had stripes on its head and neck.

The last Quagga died in a zoo in 1883. At the time no one realized that this actually meant the animal was extinct. Their wild population dwindled in their native South African grasslands with the introduction of non-native sheep and goats. Because they competed with the Quagga for grass to graze on, settlers hunted them to extinction.

On March 19th, the Moon will be the closest it has been to Earth in 18 years.



The moon - stalking the Earth since 4.4 billion BC. Picture courtesy NASA

In fact, the Moon will only be 221,556 miles away! This event, called a lunar perigee, is a source of contention between scientists and astrological theorists. Some believe that having the Moon so close can cause all sorts of natural disasters, such as the 1938 New England hurricane, Cyclone Tracy in 1974, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 - all events which fell on or near the appearance of a “SuperMoon.”

The world’s most typical person is a 28-year-old Chinese man.

National Geographic recently sought to determine the characteristics of the most typical human being. Because the world’s largest ethnic group is Han Chinese, males outnumber females, and the world’s average age is 28, this person would have to fulfill all these qualifications. The magazine even took it a step further! Its researchers averaged the faces of 190,000 of the world’s 9-million-plus 28-year-old Han Chinese men.

In addition to age, gender, and ethnicity, this individual would also have a few more typical attributes. He would have to be right-handed and earn less than $12,000 a year. To be totally average, this man would also be required to own a cell phone, but not a bank account, because less than a quarter of the world has one!

More typical facts can be seen in National Geographic’s atypical YouTube video below!

Mr. Monopoly (of the famous board game) was modeled after the famous American banker and financier J.P. Morgan.

This is according to Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story, a new documentary on Monopoly. Filmmaker Kevin Tostado, who has also worked on the TV show Heroes, is a huge Monopoly fan. He’s competed in Monopoly tournaments himself, and has even dressed as Mr. Monopoly in the past.

His new film will highlight the world of competitive Monopoly. It will feature all sorts of Monopoly fanatics, including people with Mr. Monopoly tattooed on their arm, or the entire board tattooed on their backs! The film will also feature insider tips from the pros. For instance, you could keep your opponents from building hotels if you buy up all of the houses!

Source: AOL News

Also See: Under The Boardwalk

The first man to survive going over Niagara Falls later died from slipping on an orange peel.

Bobby Leach, a circus stuntman from Cornwell, England, wanted to be the first to accomplish the Niagara Falls “triple challenge.” The challenge entailed three tasks: a barrel trip through its rapids into a whirlpool, parachuting off the Upper Suspension Bridge into the river above the rapids, and going over the Falls themselves in a barrel.

Leach accomplished the first two legs of the challenge in 1908 and 1910. On the afternoon of July 25, 1911, Bobby Leach entered his 8-foot long steel barrel and took the plunge! It took 22 minutes for the barrel to be retrieved, and though Bobby had survived, he had broken his jaw and both kneecaps!