Henry Ford is the only American favorably mentioned in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Ira Levin wrote the thriller The Boys from Brazil, about a secret plan by Dr. Josef Mengele to clone Hitler.
Cloning Hitler was also a plot in the comic Batman and the Outsiders. The scientist was called Madame Ovary.
Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary, about a doctor’s wife in Rouen who messes around with other men out of boredom, is somehow considered a masterpiece.
Gustave Flaubert was very open about his sexual activities with prostitutes, both male and female, in his travel writing. In one of his letters, he describes a “pockmarked young rascal wearing a white turban.” He had sex with a 14-year-old Maronite boy in 1850. He suffered from venereal disease for most of his adult life.
Gustave Eiffel, whose tower is the symbol of Paris was later sentenced to two years in prison for fraud in the collapse of the French Panama Canal Company in 1893. The sentence was overturned on appeal; Eiffel said that he was only hired as the engineer and had nothing to do with the financial end, though his name was prominently mentioned.
The largest legal tender coins in the world are Panamanian.
The 20-balboa silver coins minted from 1971-85 weigh almost 1/4 pound of solid silver and measure almost 2-1/2 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch in thickness.
The 500-balboa gold coins minted from 1975-85 weigh almost 1-1/4 ounce of fine gold and measure 1-3/4 inches in diameter.
As well, the smallest legal tender silver coin in the world is from Panama. The 2-1/2 centésimos de balboa coin is about the size of a Bayer aspirin.
San Diego’s Balboa Park was originally built for the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition, celebrating the fact that it is the first US port reachable by a ship that has just traversed the canal to the Pacific (southeast-bound). The park was reused and further developed for the Depression-fighting 1935–36 California Pacific International Exposition.
Weatherwise, the hottest places on Earth are the Dallol Depression in Ethiopia and Death Valley in California.
Correction: The largest legal tender coins in the world are Canadian.
In 2007, the Royal Canadian mint began minting gold coins with a face value of CAN $1,000,000. They weigh 100 kg and are .99999 pure.
The Mint has minted 5 of the coins to date.
http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/learn/million-dollar-coin-1600006#.UhDruGS9Kc0
The final scene of Greed has the protagonist McTeague killing his friend Marcus in a fight in Death Valley. However, in his final moments, Marcus handcuffs himself to Mac, who cannot drag the corpse with him back to water.
The character Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas in Wall Street (1987) had a classic speech where he extolls the virtues of greed. Greed usually has negative connotations but in this speech he actually makes it work:
Heh. Loved this last line: “Why did the Royal Canadian Mint make the world’s purest and largest gold bullion coin? Because we can.”
In play:
Among many other roles, Michael Douglas has played a young detective (The Streets of San Francisco), a scruffy TV cameraman (The China Syndrome), the President of the United States (The American President), and a flamboyant entertainer (Behind the Candelabra).
Kirk Douglas originated the role of Randle McMurphy in the stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and hoped to play the role on film, but could never secure funding with himself in the lead; he ultimately gave the rights to his son Michael who produced the megahit starring Jack Nicholson.
Kirk Douglas was born in Amersterdam, NY; his birth name was Issur Danielovitch Demsky.
Michael Douglas won an Oscar as a producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; he won another for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko.
“One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” is a line from a counting-out rhyme.
Part of it goes, “One flew east, one flew west/One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.” The “ones” are “three geese in a flock.”
I stand corrected.
In play: The nest of a bald eagle can be 12 feet deep and 10 feet wide and weigh more than a ton.
*Adlertag *(“Eagle Day”), 13 August 1940, was the first day of Unternehmen Adlerangriff (“Operation Eagle Attack”), which was the codename of a German military operation by the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF in preparation for a land invasion of Britain (Unternehmen Seelöwe, Operation Sea Lion). Due to poor intelligence and communication, the damage to Fighter Command bases and aircraft in Britain was not critical, and the invasion was cancelled.
Sea lions have external ears, while seals only have an ear hole. In addition, sea lions are better able to walk on land due to the placement of their hind flippers.