* The green artichoke is a type of thistle that can be eaten. It presents itself as a large bulb, a cluster of budding flowers all clumped together into a sphere together with leaves on top a base. Some portions of the league, after cooking, become soft and eventually edible. As a food, the cultivation of the artichoke is no small industry. However, in the US, California controls almost a hundred percent of the artichoke crop. However, California is a big state. However, what makes this stat more impressive is that 80% of that majority of artichoke crop in California is actually produced by Monterey County, where Castroville calls themselves the Artichoke Capital of the World, producing so much Artichoke.

* The Earth is a big place, and on it is 80,000 edible plants ready for the picking. However, of a near 90% of food the human population eats is only 30 of these select plants. It makes sense when you factor in things like the fact that a near 100% of corn planted and cultivated is a singular type, as farmers tend to value mass production over nutritional values, through selective breeding, to find the crops that can be produced fast, inexpensively, and ones that can fetch a good price, regardless of the fact that they could grow healthier ones.

* Plants usually grow relatively slowly, as the difference everyday is miniscule. It is hard to have patience to watch a plant grow. However, one plant grows at lighting-fast speeds, which is the bamboo. A tough and hardy plant, the design for which inspired Taipei 101, it is a strong and fast growing building material hardier and stronger than both wood and bricks. It is both a lightweight material, and very renewable. A single bamboo can grow up to 3 feet in a single day, making it the fastest growing plant.

* The green artichoke is a type of thistle that can be eaten. It presents itself as a large bulb, a cluster of budding flowers all clumped together into a sphere together with leaves on top a base. Some portions of the league, after cooking, become soft and eventually edible. As a food, the cultivation of the artichoke is no small industry. However, in the US, California controls almost a hundred percent of the artichoke crop. However, California is a big state. However, what makes this stat more impressive is that 80% of that majority of artichoke crop in California is actually produced by Monterey County, where Castroville calls themselves the Artichoke Capital of the World, producing so much Artichoke.

* The Earth is a big place, and on it is 80,000 edible plants ready for the picking. However, of a near 90% of food the human population eats is only 30 of these select plants. It makes sense when you factor in things like the fact that a near 100% of corn planted and cultivated is a singular type, as farmers tend to value mass production over nutritional values, through selective breeding, to find the crops that can be produced fast, inexpensively, and ones that can fetch a good price, regardless of the fact that they could grow healthier ones.

* Plants usually grow relatively slowly, as the difference everyday is miniscule. It is hard to have patience to watch a plant grow. However, one plant grows at lighting-fast speeds, which is the bamboo. A tough and hardy plant, the design for which inspired Taipei 101, it is a strong and fast growing building material hardier and stronger than both wood and bricks. It is both a lightweight material, and very renewable. A single bamboo can grow up to 3 feet in a single day, making it the fastest growing plant.

What is the biggest organ in your body?

Is it the brain?

Is it the large intestine?

Is it the heart?

Actually, your largest organ is the skin. Being 20 square feet, the skin is what protects the outside of the body, like a water balloon’s skin holding together the innards. The skin protects and regulates what enters your body. 

The earth is 24091 miles around. A massive length, to be sure. And if you took a human’s blood vessels and laid them, end to end, how long do you think it would be? 2 miles? 3 miles? More? Maybe even 10 miles? Well, since the amount of blood vessels is simply staggering, the length would be somewhat around 100,000 miles. Depending on where you measure the circumference of the Earth, as the Earth slightly bulges near the equator, this chain of miniscule blood vessels could circle the earth 4 times!

While the tallest height verified belongs to Robert Wadlow, at an astonishing 8 feet 11 inches, the longest fingernails 28 feet long, belonging to Lee Redmond.

To show how complicated the hands, wrists, feet, and ankles are, the pieces of sophisticated machinery that humans exert the most control over, down to immensely small details, the amount of bones the human body has is largely contained in these areas. More than half of the bones in the body are here because of the amount of control needed to carry out daily tasks and the amount of sophistication needed.

The human bone is extremely strong, supporting the whole body and maintaining rigidity. It is actually so strong that pound for pound the human bone is stronger than steel, which seems very strange.

Wilt Chamberlain’s sturdy 7 foot 1 frame was built perfectly for basketball. Though he was a giant among giants, he was also fast and athletic, one of the most athletic players ever in the game, versatile like a Swiss knife. You wouldn’t expect a 7 ‘1 person to be swift, but Wilt Chamberlain doesn’t confine to “regular.” He managed to run the 100-yard dash in an excellent 10.9 seconds, meaning he was no slowpoke. He also was involved in the shot-put and threw it 56 feet. His jump was monstrous, and he was the reigning champ in the Big Eight High jump competition. Another one of his feats was triple-jumping 50 feet. He was so strong that he blocked a dunk so hard the guy dislocated his shoulder. Johnny Kerr, a Hall of Famer, had the unfortunate opportunity to stand underneath the hoop when Wilt dunked. The ball hit his foot and BROKE it.

A notorious failure of many centers is their abysmal free-throw percentages. Hack-a-Shaq was highly popular when Shaq was dominant in the league, which lead to a rule change, but at the time was the go-to strategy for stopping the Big Diesel. Wilt Chamberlain in this case was no exception, suffering from this failing perhaps his only basketball shortcoming. However, he did try the underhand throw strategy, which was very successful, though he did not stick to it, for illogical reasoning. This was probably his biggest weakness.

And, for a moment, I’d like to state some of Wilt’s records that he holds, the more impressive of his 72 different records:

* He led the league in points and rebounds 6 times (no one has even done it once besides him). He also led the league in a lot more categories, like field goal percentages and assists.* He had a career average of 45.8 minutes, meaning he averaged only 2.2 minutes of rest per game during open play. In the 1961-1962 season, he averaged a superhuman 48.52 minutes per game. The total minutes of an NBA game that the clock runs is 48. He surpassed this.* As to wondering in his older age whether he had deteriorated, he also holds the record for oldest age to score more than 60 points.* Wilt edges out Jordan in the fastest time to reach the career total of 30,000 points, in a mere 941 games.* In his first game, joining the New York Knicks, he dropped an astounding 43 points and 23 rebounds. Games like this are sensational nowadays and cheered about by each person’s respective teams, but for Wilt, he was just getting started.* Speaking of the New York Knicks, the thing most remember Chamberlain for is his 100 point game, where he humiliated the team and their defense. During the game, it became so abundantly clear that Wilt Chamberlain was a juggernaut who, when he wanted to, could tear a team apart by the seams. The Knicks resorted to a primitive form of Hack-a-Shaq, where they fouled other players to keep the ball out of Chamberlain’s hands because if he got the ball, it was nearly a guarantee he would score. The unsportsmanlike nature of this prompted the Philadelphia Warriors to foul back. Eventually, the team made it their mission to propel Wilt to 80 points, breaking his previous record, despite the unfair playstyle of their opponents, then 90, then 100, where the 4000 fans watching exploded in cheers because they had just witnessed a historical and monumental accomplishment, that which would have shaken the world, had it happened today. Alas, the NBA was still in its infancy.

And then there’s the big sinker.

Wilt Chamberlain, in one season, managed to average 50.4 points per game.

In the league right now, if a player popped off 50 points in a game people would be marveling. 50 points, by any statistic, is a very high number to score. Nobody, not Lebron, not MJ, not James Harden, nor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, will EVER touch this statistic. It is, without a single shade of doubt, that I say, Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest scoring machine of all time.

But there’s more. He is remembered for his mile-high statistic scoreline, such as when he scored the 100 point game, a record that will be safe for a long time to come, but not only was he a beast on the offensive end, he destroyed the competition on his half of the field. He set the record for most rebounds in a game against none other the Bill Russel, at 55 rebounds against The Secretary of Defense, leaving no doubts as to who was the most dominant. Remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s “unstoppable skyhook”? Wilt Chamberlain was caught on camera blocking this shot twice in quick succession. He dominated the blocking and rebound game, and with his long arms, he was like a stone wall. One story tells of a past-prime Wilt Chamberlain tuning in for a game in his mid 40’s. However, he had competition, as Magic Johnson was there. After calling some questionable fouls on Wilt the Stilt, Chamberlain had enough, telling Johnson, “There will be no more layups in this gym.” He didn’t let a single one of Johnson’s shots past the rim.

The flaw of many great players is they let their skill go to their head. Take Michael Jordan for example. Not a lot of athletes or celebrities stay grounded in reality, remembering where they came from. Notable exceptions do occur, and this is one case. 

While some athletes are civil off-court, on-court they can be quite a mess. Many players think straightforward: score buckets, become famous. Wilt Chamberlain was much more sophisticated. In the tenure of his first couple of years, he was a lean, mean bucket scoring machine. However, he had this belief that everyone would hate him if he just wholly dominated, leaving no competition for others and shutting down the league, so later his years, while he was still at his heights, he decided to stop scoring so many buckets and become a passer, because everyone loves the guy who hits you up when you’re open to shoot. There were complaints as to how much he scored, so to prove he was not a one-trick pony, he started passing more. One newspaper said he was washed up, and that he did not put up the insane amounts like before because he simply was not good enough. Wilt went on and scored three games with 45+ points.  As a center, he dominated the league even at this point, becoming the only center to lead the league in assists, a monumental achievement.

From 1959 to 1965, the NBA experienced a period of utter domination. A team led by Bill Russel, the legendary center, was on a rampage. By the end of this period, they would nab 8 consecutive titles to add to the previous 3. Bill Russel is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest centers of all time, a king of the board whose 11 rings cement him as a great. Of course, there are many arguments for greater players. There is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and his skyhook was one of the most unstoppable shots, on par with those like the James Harden stepback three. Then there is Shaq, who is widely considered the most dominant player in the game, who used his brute force to tear apart defenses. You could also consider other NBA legends such as Hakeem Olajuwon, who Shaq himself gave him credit. But there is one name who floats above all others, spoke in such a mythical fashion like how people revere Babe Ruth. Yet though he has the top spots on most leaderboards, his name rarely pops up. Wilt Chamberlain.

Wilt Chamberlain was an unusual person. Right from the get-go, at 16 years of age, he entered the world of professional basketball, most peculiarly. Since he was considerably younger, though his height belied it, he feared the NCAA would give him some trouble and not allow it. So, under the pseudonym George Marcus, he crept into the league, playing for the professional Quakertown Fays, where he could safely play in the professional league. At a mere 17 years old, he managed to score an astounding 40.5 points per game. Truth be told, at this point, the NBA had not developed completely yet.

One starting point of many NBA legends is some kind of amazing game or season they played. Kobe’s 81 point game elevated him to new heights.  Russel Westbrooks’ triple-double season placed him to be one of the most consistent players. With all these wonders, it’s no doubt they deserve all the recognition they have. 

Michael Jordan is one of the best players of all time, and perhaps the best. In his greatest season, he averaged a whopping 37.1 points PER GAME. Many players struggle to score 37 points in a MONTH. This astronomical number is so high, that no one could beat it.

Besides Wilt Chamberlain. In his rookie year, yes, ROOKIE, he averaged 37.6 ppg,  half a point more than Jordan.

Wilt Chamberlain is known as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and one of the most athletic players to play the game. He could jump, he could run, and he could play volleyball.

Wait, volleyball?

Yes, volleyball. And not just casual volleyball. He is actually memorialized in the volleyball hall of fame. 

The traits that made Wilt a beast on the basketball court made him a juggernaut in volleyball. His amazing strength made him the best striker on any court, and his height allowed him to dominate. However, though he was an amazing player, his contributions to volleyball were not just of his talent. 

Wilt Chamberlain started out in volleyball while he was in rehab for an injury. He learned how to play volleyball from Gene Selznick, and soon began to play a lot of volleyball on the beaches. Many people came to see the seven feet wonder play the game. And Wilt’s presence made volleyball be taken more seriously. 

The first coed sports league was launched by the producer of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, David Loper. He had seen that volleyball could be a big attraction as its importance and legitimacy had skyrocketed, in part to Wilt’s appearances. He formed the IVA, the International Volleyball Association, and Wilt’s participation helped the league gain traction.

Even though the IVA disbanded after a short life, the existence of it and the boost Wilt had to make the sport more legit are still felt today. 

In 2016, a year where Drake, Beyonce, and Adele were some of the most influential artists, you would probably expect one of the few to be the top CD artist. Of course, Drake did very well, but he was only runner up. So who was first place? It was neither Beyonce, nor Adele. It was actually Mozart who sold the most CD’s.

However, though the musical prodigy in fact is quite popular, the truth is that the reason Mozart clinches the title in 2016 is due to a technicality. 

The Universal Music Group, celebrating the composer’s 225’th anniversary, released a set of music discs, a box set, that fans of the composer could buy. The thing about these boxes was that they each contained 200 CD’s. Since people would be buying in boxes, each time they bought one they would technically be buying two hundred CD’s which explains how he sold 1 and a quarter million CD’s in 5 weeks.

If I told you that in 2016 Mozart had the best-selling CD, you would probably be surprised, as it seems almost impossible. However, when you look more closely you can then see the flaws with the technicalities. In fact, while he did sell 1.25 million copies in the first 5 weeks, it was because the music box’s CD’s all counted, so in actuality he only sold 6250 units, though the high amount of CD’s managed to push him over the top.

This shows one of the bad things about a new era of people preferring to absorb small bytes of information instead of long winded explanations. Someone might explain that technically Mozart sold more CD’s but it was because each box had 200 different ones that counted as the same, and inevitably someone would just simplify it to “Mozart sold the most CD’s.”

With a nice, bread crust, a top of goey cheese, the pizza is one of the most iconic foods. But the paste within is what gives it the most flavor.

The tomato was cultivated in Central and South America where the various groups there, like the Aztecs, used it for common food. It wasn’t until the Spanish conquered the Aztecs when Europe was first introduced to the tomato, and, like the potato’s introduction, was not well received. Though the tomato was initially used for food, it began to grow a reputation as “the poison apple” since upper class citizens like aristocrats often died after eating this plant. Its reputation as a killer did not endear it to the lower classes, and soon the tomato was not often touched. 

However, though the tomato does happen to be highly acidic, it is not the tomato killing the aristocrats, but actually the use of their pewter plates. The high amount of lead would be slowly assimilated by the tomato itself because of the acid content, and causing lead poisoning when a bite was taken out of it. And even though the tomato had been consumed perfectly fine when not used with pewter plates, or not in close proximity to them, the tomato still began to gain a nortoriety. 

The tomato illustrates a very bad part about the human mind. Though the tomato was the catalyst, triggering the poison effect, it was not necessarily the cause, which was the lead on the pewter plates. Sometimes humans have a tendency to lay the blame on the catalyst, believing that it was the cause. For instance, a war might be triggered by a small conflict, but the cause might have been years of simmering resentment. Laying the blame on people without taking too long to consider other factors, like how the tomato was able to be consumed without the use of pewter plates, is one of the reasons why it is so hard to get along with people.

On a night in DC, a man left his post to nab a quick drink. The police officer was John Frederick Parker, and though he had just deserted his duty it was to be expected as his reputation was showed by his lateness to his assignment, that being three hours late. He went into the Star Saloon near where he was supposed to be, where he got his drink, at the cost of abandoning his duty.

The day was April 14, 1865.

A going to get a quick drink couldn’t have hurt, the man, John Frederick Parker, probably thought. And so, he walked away from Ford’s Theater, in Washington DC. His job at the time was to be assigned as a bodyguard. The man he had been assigned to: Abraham Lincoln.

Parker, in typical fashion, was late by three hours, and when the play went on within Ford’s Theater, unlike any competent bodyguard, he moved from the president’s box down to the first gallery, deserting the president for a better view. And later, he deserted the theater itself, going with Lincoln’s coachman for drinks in the neighboring Star Saloon.

And, take a guess, who was also in the Star Saloon?

If you guessed John Wilkes Booth, then you were correct. Booth was inundating himself with alcohol to try to work up the courage to carry out his plan. In typical irony, Lincoln’s guard was in the same saloon as the assassinator. 

At this point, I think everyone knows what comes next. John Wilkes Booth crept into Lincoln’s box, and shot the president in the head, all while his bodyguard, the man assigned to protect him, was off getting a drink. 

Some people disagree if he would have made a difference, Some say that since Booth was a well known member of the theater, and Lincoln had seen him act in a play before, that Parker would have admitted him had he been there. One of the other bodyguards held him directly responsible. At the very least, Parker could have apprehended Booth after the fatal shot, or seen the gun and stopped him. Nevertheless, he will always be a fateful part of the murder.