30 Seconds facts
While investigating facts about 30 Seconds, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Prohibition agent Izzy Einstein bragged that he could find liquor in any city in under 30 minutes. In Chicago it took him 21 min. In Atlanta 17, and Pittsburgh just 11. But New Orleans set the record: 35 seconds. Einstein asked his taxi driver where to get a drink, and the driver handed him one.
In the 1928 Olympics, Australian sculler Bobby Pearce stopped rowing to let a family of ducks pass. His opponent ended up with a 5 length lead. In the final 1,000 meters Pearce pulled ahead by 30 seconds, not only winning the gold but setting a Games record.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about 30 Seconds I managed to collect.
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If you wanted to see every piece of art in The Louvre in one visit, and you spent 30 seconds observing each piece, it would take you over a month, and that’s assuming you were there 24/7 and took no breaks & didn’t sleep.
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At $2 million per 30-second slot, the 2004 finale episode of FRIENDS had the most expensive ad slots for a non-sports program
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The McDonnell Douglas F-15 can reach 30,000 ft (9,100m) in 60 seconds and has a thrust-to-weight ratio that allows the aircraft to accelerate while flying straight up. It is also the only aircraft to ever shoot down a satellite orbiting in space.
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The Navajo code is the only spoken military code never to have been deciphered. During WWII, since only 30 non-Navajo people could understand Navajo, the US used Navajos as code talkers. They could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line message in 20 seconds, versus 30 minutes for machines.
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In 1985, Edward Johnson programmed his computer to call Jerry Falwell's toll-free number every 30 seconds and then hang up. In total, he charged over $500,000 in phone bills to Falwell's organization.
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Clive Wearing, an acclaimed musician who has serious amnesia after contracting herpes; he can't form memories longer than 30 seconds and always thinks he's just awoken from a coma. Despite this, he can recognise his wife and can still conduct an orchestra.
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When the results began coming in from the 30 March 2005 Powerball drawing, lottery officials suspected fraud was underway because 110 players claimed second prizes of $100,000 or $500,000. All 110 players and the jackpot winner got their numbers from fortune cookies.
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Humans can live unprotected in space for about 30 seconds if they don't hold their breath.
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A Japanese soldier was stranded on a island for 30 years, not knowing that the second world war had ended for 30 years. His commander came to the island to personally dismiss him in 1974.
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The Brabham BT46B. An F1 car that vacuum sucked itself to the track. It raced only a single time before getting banned, and won by over 30 seconds.
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If the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs arrived just 30 seconds later, it would have landed in deep ocean water which would have absorbed much of the force of the impact. The resulting extinction would have been less severe, many dinosaur species would have survived, and humans would not exist
In 2008, Doritos beamed a 30-second advertisement into a planetary system 42 light years away, in collaboration with EISCAT Space Center in Norway. - source
In 1991 an F-15 fighter achieved an air-to-air kill using a 2000lb bomb. The USAF F-15E Strike Eagle of the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron released a GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bomb which, after 30 seconds of flight, impacted an Iraqi Air Force Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship. - source
In 2008, a 30 second Doritos television advertisement was beamed by radar to a solar system 42 lightyears away.
The world's shortest commercial flight - between two Scottish islands - takes just 47 Seconds, spans only 1.7 miles, and costs $30. - source
In 1965 Pakistani pilot M.M. Alam shot down five jet fighters in less than a minute – the first four within 30 seconds, establishing a world record.
A chicken can be hypnotized by holding its head against the ground and drawing a line along the ground with a stick or finger, starting at the beak and extending straight in front of the chicken. It will remain immobile between 15 seconds and 30 minutes, continuing to stare at the line.
Ron Howard was so impressed with the zero-G effect of the "vomit comet" while preparing for Apollo 13 that he elected to film many of the weightless scenes in one. As the zero-G effect lasts less than 30 seconds, it took 162 trips to film everything they needed.
Clive Wearing, who is incapable of forming new memories, and thus every 20 to 30 seconds has the experience of waking from a coma. He keeps a diary, and page after page is filled with some variation of the same text: "Now I am awake."
Fighters who lose by knockout are automatically suspended for 30 days, three months if it is the second knockout within three months, or one year if it is the third knockout within one year.
In a "navy shower" or "combat shower", soldiers turn the water off during a shower. They get themselves wet for 30 seconds, lather while the shower is off, then rinse for one minute or less, saving water and energy. A "Hollywood shower" is the opposite, a long shower using much water.
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