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Page 44 - Sports Facts

The World Series is not named after a newspaper.

This rumor probably derives from the cognitive dissonance that naturally derives from the fact that a regional competition has the word “World” in it. While there was a newspaper called the New York World, according to Major League Baseball, there’s no record of the World ever having sponsored the World Series. There was an attempt in the 19th century to hold a series of exhibition games with teams from around the world operating under the name “world series”, but those plans never came to fruition. Instead, the World Series has, for over 100 years, always been the name of the series of games played between the National League and American League champions.

Despite the fact that the only teams qualified to play in the World Series are from North America, the winner of the World Series still claims the title of “world champions”. On the other hand, one non-U.S. team, the Toronto Bluejays, has received the honor of being “world champions” in the past which lends a little more credibility to the title. Also, teams from the National League and the American League recruit players from around the world, so you could argue that the World Series winners have the world's best baseball team.
(source)

There’s a rare disease whose victims appear to turn into stone.

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is a condition where muscle tissue, tendons, and ligaments become replaced by bone. There are reports from the 1800s that refer to people “turning into stone”. However, it may be more the case that they are turning into bone. The condition usually begins with the neck and shoulders and spreads to the rest of the body as it progresses. This results in a loss of mobility, sometimes even going so far as to prevent people from eating and breathing. It’s very rare, it occurs to only 1 in 2 million people worldwide.

Learn more about Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva.

Queen Victoria survived 7 assassination attempts!

Two of the attempts occurred within two days of each other! One of the Queen’s attempted assassins shot at her and escaped, so the Prime Minister used her as bait to catch him. She and her husband returned to the same location (along with plainclothes police officers) two days later to draw out the gunman. The crazy thing was, this plan actually worked!

In addition to assassination attempts, she also had a crazy man chase her on her carriage claiming that she stole the throne from him, and another man hit her in the face with his cane!

More fun facts: Three of the assassination attempts occurred in the same year. Three of her would-be assassins received reduced sentences because their pistols were either broken or improperly loaded. Four of the attempts occurred in the same location, on Constitution Hill. Three of her attackers were found to be insane, and were sent to mental institutions instead of prison.

None of her attackers were given the death penalty, and only one a life sentence (the one who attacked her twice). Three of the attackers (including the crazy man that chased her) went to a mental asylum, though one of them was released after 7 years and allowed to leave the country. Two of the attackers were transported to Australia for 7 years, one received only an 18-month sentence, and one was caned 20 times and given a 1 year prison sentence. Victoria wasn’t thrilled about all of the light sentences. At the Queen’s insistence, the laws were changed so that defendants could be found both “insane” AND “guilty”.
(source)

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Back in 2005, Iraqi terrorists held an action figure “hostage” and tried to claim it was a U.S. soldier.

As you can tell from the above photo, the “victim” bares a striking resemblance to the “Cody” action figure that was produced for military bases by American toy manufacturer Dragon Models, Inc. back in 2003. That’s weird...they even sport the same uniform and accessories. Nobody would look very happy with a rifle pointed at their head, of course, but this soldier looks a bit TOO solemn about it...unnaturally so, even.

This is because the photograph is a complete hoax! When the photograph was released, the U.S. military hadn't reported any missing troops in Iraq, let alone this “John Adam” - the name the captors provided on the website where the photograph was originally posted. In addition to the inauthenticity of the figure, a number of other elements in the photo also appear to have been doctored. You'll notice that the kidnappers' gun in the photo is one of the accessories that comes with the action figure, and there's no one holding it in place.
(source)

Unlike most people on The Simpsons, the East Asian characters aren’t yellow.

In defiance of traditional cartoon conventions, while most of the principal characters in The Simpsons are yellow, the East Asian characters (such as Akira, the Japanese restaurateur, or the ladies in the picture) have a whiter skin tone. The writers have actually lampooned the weird skin color decisions for the cartoon on the show. When Homer was afraid his children were going to turn into mutants he said “They’ll be horrible freaks with pink skin, no overbites, and 5 fingers on each hand!”. Then the camera cuts to the “mutant” versions of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, who look completely normal.

To clarify, the reason we say “East Asian” instead of “Asian” is to distinguish between people from countries such as Thailand and China and characters such as Apu, who is from India and sports a darker brown skin tone.

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