Battling the January Blues with More Random Facts

50 Random and Strange Facts

• 1. The creator of peanut M&Ms was allergic to peanuts.
• 2. Before they became a movie star and a rock star respectively - Joe Pesci and Jimmy Hendrix were in a house band called Joey Dee and the Starliters - who would play in a venue called the Peppermint Lounge.
• 3. A blue whale’s tongue can weigh as much as an elephant.
• 4. The Navy once delivered mail for the Post Office via missile.
• 5. Ants can lift objects 50 times their own body weight.
• 6. A cat nicknamed “Unsinkable Sam” survived the sinking of three separate ships during WW2.
• 7. Jellyfish can evaporate in the sun as they’re 98% water.
• 8. It takes about 37 gallons (140 litres) of water to grow coffee beans and process them to make one cup of coffee.
• 9. Chimps can play rock-paper-scissors at the same level as a 4 year old human child.
• 10. As global temperatures rise, flowers are emitting less scent.
• 11. A Polish man lived with a bullet in his head for 5 years after forgetting he was shot at a party.
• 12. When the inventor of the Frisbee, Walter Frederick Morrison died in 2010, his family cremated him and turned his ashes into a Frisbee.
• 13. The lyrebird can mimic almost any sounds it hears — including chainsaws.
• 14. Bacon was used to make explosives during World War II.
• 15. Pirates probably didn’t wear eyepatches because of a missing eye; it’s much more likely that they were keeping one eye ready to see in darkness, so that they could adjust quickly when going below deck.
• 16. Not one person died of burns or smoke inhalation in the largest fire of 19th Century Dublin but the burning mixture of whiskey, manure and effluent made a deadly cocktail with 13 deaths as a result of drinking the alcohol.
• 17. In 2013, a Zoo in China angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan mastiff dog as a lion.
• 18. Neil Armstrong threatened legal action against his barber for selling his hair to a collector for US$3,000.
• 19. Astronauts can't cry in space as they do on Earth. In space you can make tears but they stick as a liquid ball because they can't drop due to lack of gravity. To quote ISS Commander Chris Hadfield, "Space tears don't shed".
• 20. During the 18th century, you could pay your admission ticket to the zoo in London by bringing a cat or a dog to feed the lions.
• 21. Before he was Wolverine on “X-Men” or a Broadway star, actor Hugh Jackman got fired from his cashier job at 7-Eleven.
• 22. Butterflies can have half male and half female outwardly characteristics. It’s a rare condition called gynandromorphy.
• 23. A wealthy man in Bangladesh built a replica of the Taj Mahal for US$56 Million so that the poor of his nation could get to see it.
• 24. Spiders fly on the currents of Earth’s electric field. Spiders don’t have wings, but they can fly across entire oceans on long strands of silk.
• 25. China held the world record for the largest cake, baking a cake that stood at 8m tall and consisted of 500kg of eggs, 260kg of flour, 200kg of cream, 100kg of fruit and 80kg of chocolate.
• 26. Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
• 27. Oysters create pearls as a defense mechanism.
• 28. According to the Vatican, you can reduce the time you spend in purgatory by following the pope on Twitter.
• 29. The Eiffel Tower was originally intended for Barcelona, Spain, but the project was rejected.
• 30. Americans eat 500 million pounds of peanut butter a year, enough to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon.
• 31. A porcupine’s body is covered in 30,000 razor sharp quills.
• 32. In 1916, the German Empire allowed citizens to take passport photos with their dogs.
• 33. A woman in Egypt disguised herself as a man for 43 years in order to make a living for her daughter.
• 34. In 1985, a New Orleans man drowned at a pool party attended by 100 lifeguards celebrating a summer with no drownings.
• 35. The inventor of the cruise control was blind.
• 36. Bones found at Seymour Island indicate that, 37 to 40 million years ago, penguins stood at 6 feet tall and weighed 250 pounds.
• 37. Bananas contain so much sugar, monkeys will get diabetes if they eat them regularly.
• 38. According to Mario Puzo, he didn’t know what he was doing when he adapted his novel into screenplays for The Godfather I & II. After winning two Oscars he decided to learn the trade properly and bought a book about screenwriting. The first chapter said ‘Study Godfather I’.
• 39. The World's oldest known creature, a mollusc, was 507 years old until scientists killed it by mistake.
• 40. Charles Lightoller, the second officer of the Titanic, stayed onboard until the end and became trapped underwater until a boiler explosion set him free; allowing his escape. 28 years later, at the age of 66, he volunteered in WW2 and helped save 122 men from Dunkirk.
• 41. Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.
• 42. A 'summoning spell' used in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was actually an Irish news item that said: "A special bus route will open in Dublin today despite reports that it may cause traffic congestion as a result."
• 43. The US government once set a bunch of beer next to an atomic blast to see if it would still be drinkable after. It turns out, in the event of a nuclear war, beer is still safe to drink.
• 44. The longest prison sentence ever requested was 384,912 years of jail, against a 22-year-old postman accused of failing to deliver 42,768 letters.
• 45. After OutKast said to "Shake it like a Polaroid picture", Polaroid released a statement warning people: "Shaking or waving can actually damage the image".
• 46. If you fail your driving test four times in Switzerland, you must then have a psychological assessment before allowed to try again.
• 47. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher's government considered using a team of dolphins to search for the Loch Ness Monster.
• 48. Thanks to 3-D printing, NASA can now effectively email tools and replacement parts to the International Space Station.
• 49. 99% of Australian green sea turtles are turning female from climate change.
• 50. While shooting Batman Begins on the streets of Chicago, a person accidentally crashed into the Batmobile. The driver was apparently drunk, and said he hit the car in a state of panic, believing it to be an invading alien spacecraft.