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This week I will bring you the next installment of 50 Fast Facts.  We pick up at #30.  King Tut owned a meteorite dagger.  What’s that, you ask? He was known to have lots of cool toys, but one of King Tutankhamen’s most intriguing may have been a dagger.  Discovered in his tomb in 1925 and made of meteoric metal, it wasn’t until recently that scientists were able to confirm that was the material with which it was made.  The technique used was called portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry.  They determined that its composition of iron, nickel and cobalt, strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin.

Research finds that the most “charismatic animals”—such as lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes and other beloved creatures—are more likely to face threats to their survival. As the study’s author puts it, “Unknowingly, companies using giraffes, cheetahs, or polar bears for marketing purposes may be actively contributing to the false perception that these animals are not at risk of extinction, and therefore not in need of conservation.”

It's hard to imagine a country sans crime, but it does exist.  Liechtenstein, wedged between Austria and Switzerland, has a total prison population of just ten people in its single prison.  Any criminal requiring a sentence of more than two years is sent to Austria.

 The art of Bambi was inspired by Chinese landscape paintings.

The backgrounds in Disney’s Bambi were inspired by landscape paintings of the Song dynasty. It was an innovation by the film’s lead artist, the Chinese immigrant Tyrus Wong. Despite its celebration as an animation classic, Wong himself, according to the New York Times, “endured poverty, discrimination and chronic lack of recognition, not only for his work at Disney but also for his fine art, before finding acclaim in his 90s.”

here’s a management concept asserting: Everyone is incompetent.

Developed by Canadian “hierarchiologist Laurence J. Peter, this idea works this way: a person who is competent at their job will eventually be promoted to a more senior position, which generally requires them to master different skills. If they are promoted to a position where they aren’t very capable at those new skills, they will remain there and not be promoted. Therefore, “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”

The first interracial TV kiss was on Star Trek. While being mind-controlled by aliens, Kirk and Uhura (played by William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, respectively) made television history by having the first-ever interracial kiss in a 1968 episode of the Star Trek television series. 

There’s only one human organ that naturally regenerates. Of all the organs in the human body, the liver is the only that can regenerate. As researcher Richard Bowen explains, “The liver has a remarkable capacity to regenerate after injury and to adjust its size to match its host. Within a week after partial hepatectomy, which, in typical experimental settings entails surgical removal of two-thirds of the liver, hepatic mass is back essentially to what it was prior to surgery.”

Lemurs get high on bugs. That sounds like a weird title of a rock album, but it’s true. In the jungles of Madagascar, lemurs get a buzz by chomping down on a particular species of millipede that causes toxins to release, leading them to salivate and appear intoxicated. Besides getting them high, the bugs may also have another positive effect: acting as an insecticide. 

Neil Armstrong Once Threatened to Sue His Barber for Selling Off His Hair In 2005, Neil Armstrong threatened legal action against his barber, who had made an estimated $3,000 by selling his famous customer’s hair. The barber refused and both the hair and the barber’s comb and scissors went on sale on Amazon in 2016 for $38,611.

During World War II, Peru and Ecuador had their own tiff. Though the battles between the Axis and Allies powers get most of the historic interest, in the midst of World War II, another war unfolded. That would be the War of ’41, between Ecuador and Peru, which was sparked by accusations that Ecuadorians had been moving in on the Peruvian territory of Zarumilla, leading the Peruvian president to form a military unit to push back against its long-time rival. Though accounts differ on who fired first, the war lasted about half a year until January 1942, when Peruvian forces withdrew.

Winston Churchill Was Hit by a Car During a New York Visit

Talk about a poor way to welcome a visitor. During a lecture tour in the U.S. in December 1931, Winston Churchill was struck by a car while crossing Fifth Avenue and nearly killed. He would describe the experience in The Daily Mail, in an article dictated from his hospital bed: “I felt it on my forehead and across the thighs. But besides the blow there was an impact, a shock, a concussion indescribably violent. Many years ago at ‘Plugstreet’ in Flanders, a 4.2 shell burst in a corner of the little room in which we were gathered for luncheon, reducing all to dust and devastation. This shock was of the same order as the shell explosion. In my case it blotted out everything except thought.” Fortunately, he would soon recover.

Join me next week for the conclusion of this facts series.  As always, these facts originally appear on https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/did-you-know/50-fast-facts-so-intere...’ll-crush-your-boredom/ss-BBMlXq8?ocid=spartandhp