Astronomer Percival Lowell believed that he was the first person to observe canals on Venus, but because of a faulty adjustment of the eyepiece on his telescope, he was in fact looking at the blood vessels in his own eye.
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The longest-running legal battle for a domain name is believed to be the fight for PETA.org. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued People Eating Tasty Animals to obtain the name – the case spanned from 1995 to 2001.
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There is a basketball court on the top floor of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. It’s known as the “highest court in the land.”
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Colorado switched mile marker "420" to "419.99" to stop people from stealing it.
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According to a Japanese poll in the year 2000, the Japanese believe that their best invention of the twentieth century was instant noodles.
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Author Ian McEwan helped his son write his A-level English exam about one of his own novels, Enduring Love. The teacher disagreed with his interpretation.
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Pokémon is Japanese for Pocket Monsters and Chinpokomon (the South Park parody) is Japanese for Penis Monsters.
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Critic Michael Crowley gave such a poor review of one of author Michael Crichton's books that, in his next book, Crichton made a character 'Mick Crowley' who was a child molester with a small penis.
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