Donkey Kong got his name because its creator thought Donkey meant stupid in English.

Nintendo wanted to use the Popeye comics to make a game, but weren’t able to get the license for him. Because they couldn’t use Popeye, they decided to make new characters and Donkey Kong was born. Having done some development work on a Popeye game, they decided to create a love triangle between an ape, carpenter, and girlfriend, that looked sort of like the love triangle between Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl. 

The game creator, Miyamoto, also used the Beauty and the Beast and King Kong as influences for his work with Donkey Kong. He came up with the name Donkey Kong because, not a fluent speaker of English, he thought that Donkey meant stupid. 

His intention was that English speakers would see the title Donkey Kong and see Stupid Ape, but he messed up. In Nintendo of America, Miyamoto was the butt of many jokes, but nevertheless the name stayed the same. 

The character Donkey Kong shows up in as Mario’s Enemy in his first game. He has also shown up in Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo’s most well-known characters. After being reformed sometime in the 90s, he's now counted amongst Nintendo's heroes.

(Source)

The ATLAS experiment creates more than 23 million gigabytes of raw data per second.

The ATLAS experiment is a particle detector. These are used to detect and keep track of particles; particularly, high-energy particles. They can be used to measure particle energy or radiation around the detector. Some can even measure particle spin, momentum, and charge. 

The ATLAS detector, in particular, records a huge amount of information about the particles around it. It records 23 petabytes of information in just a second. Since a petabyte is a million gigabytes, the detector creates billions of gigabytes of new information daily. 

The ATLAS detector is 45 meters long and 25 meters in diameter. It weighs about 4,000 tons. It is located at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. There are a lot of people working with the detector and the information created by it. 

Physicists, about 3,000 of them in 38 different countries, use the ATLAS detector in particular. It is an extremely important tool for modern research. The detector has been important in discovering new particles. 

(Source)

The U.S. leases Guantanamo Bay from the Cubans, but Castro won’t cash the checks.

Guantanamo Bay is a U.S. military base that is used as a detainment camp for prisoners considered dangerous, like suspected members of Al-Qaeda. Because they are a “risk” to the United States, they are kept there until they are deemed not a risk to U.S. security. 

Guantanamo Bay is not a piece of land owned by the United States. While the U.S. makes use of the land, the U.S. does not have sovereignty over the area. The U.S. gained control over Cuba as a result of the Spanish-American war. Later, the first Cuban president offered Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. 

The treaty stipulated that Cuba woud kept sovereignty, but the U.S. got jurisdiction and control over Guantanamo. In a later treaty, the U.S. agreed to pay lease for Guantanamo. Originally, they paid $2,000 a year in gold coins, an amount that was eventually raised to $4,085. The lease was to be permanent. 

Even after the Cuban Revolution, Eisenhower continued to send the checks for the lease to Castro. Castro only ever cashed one of the checks, which according to him was an accident. The rest of the checks remain stashed in a drawer, not cashed. 

(Source)

A formula 1 car could theoretically drive on the ceiling.

The aerodynamic shape of the car makes it an excellent candidate for an almost flight-like feat. A plane works by using wings to direct the air flow and create lift. Similarly, the formula 1 car has its own sort of wings, but interestingly they have an opposite sort of effect on the car. 

An F1 car has two wings, one on the front and one on the back. The difference between the car’s wings and an airplane’s wings is that the car’s wings appear to be upside down. Because they are upside down, they create a downward pulling effect. The car is physically designed to stay on the ground. On the ceiling, the car would work in the same way, sticking the car to it! The F1 has the necessary speed to stay on the ceiling. 

The F1 would achieve about the right amount of down force at 130 km/hr. At 190km/hr, the car would really stick to the ceiling because the ratio of down force to the weight of the car is 2:1. Basically, the aerodynamics beats out gravity. 

Probably the only reason no one has tried to drive on the ceiling is that there would be no way to get onto the ceiling without falling or risking falling. 

(Source)

Bill Clinton might be a Brony!

In case you don't know, a brony is a male fan of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is magic. The reason for this speculation is that the former president answered 3 questions about My Little Ponies correctly.

President Bill Clinton was on a radio station called “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” He was there for both the serious reasons of discussing his Clinton Global Initiative, and also to answer the whimsical questions of an easily amused radio show host. Clinton apparently knows all about My Little Ponies.

In that particular section of the show, President Clinton was asked questions about My Little Pony, and if he got two out of three questions right he would win a prize for a listener. The lucky listener when Clinton was playing the game was Dave Parks. 

The first question he answered right was the “particular enthusiasm” of the My Little Pony Rarity. He answered correctly: answer B: giving other ponies makeovers. The second question he got correctly was what the ponies got when they found their true talent. My Little Ponies get a tattoo on their flank called a cutie mark. 

Finally, Clinton knew that the Ponies enemy was the evil pony Nightmare moon. Clinton, in addition to reading up on his My Little Ponies (or getting lucky guessing, you choose) has been busy with his Global Initiative. His program has helped over 300 million people. He is also trying to help develop programs to create more jobs. 

(Source)