50 Random Facts List #24

A man named Stephen Young won the right to a retrial as members of the jury used an Ouija board to contact the victims.

2. In 2012, JC Penney implemented a "Fair and Square" policy that did away with sales prices and coupons that fool customers and instead priced everything at what it's actually worth. Customers hated it, the CEO was fired, and the deceptive pricing was quickly reinstated.

3. George Washington had a massive chain strung across the Hudson River in order to keep to British from sailing upriver. Each link weighed 100+ pounds.

4. Ryan Gosling was selected as the lead for 'The Notebook' because the director thought he wasn't handsome.

5. Thomas Jefferson kept a Shetland sheep at the White House. It attacked several people, killed a small boy, and was eventually called "This Abominable Animal".

Muhammad Ali once spoke at a KKK rally where he stated that Nation Of Islam, and he himself, also shared their ideals on racial segregation.

7. After the release of the 1996 film 'Scream', which involved an anonymous killer calling and murdering his victims, Caller ID usage tripled in the United States.

8. During the first live iPhone presentation, Steve Jobs had to frequently switch the phone to an identical one behind his desk because it would otherwise run out of RAM and crash.

9. The 90s hit "Macarena" is actually about a woman named Macarena who cheats on her boyfriend with his two friends while he's being drafted into the army.

10. Scrappy-Doo, widely considered to be one of the most hated characters in fiction, has not appeared in an animated Scooby-Doo production since 1988 due to audience backlash.

Yale university's class of '54 at their reunion raised $375,000 with the idea to invest it in a risky portfolio that grew 37% per year to $90 million, which they donated to the University.

12. The inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, has one regret: adding the double slash // to URLs. In retrospect, he says, it was totally unnecessary.

13. We produce a lot of salivae just before vomiting in order to protect our teeth from erosion due to the acidity of vomit.

14. Philip II (Father of Alexander the Great) threatened Sparta with "if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.". The Spartans simply replied with "if.". Neither Philip nor Alexander attempted to capture the city.

15. There's a town in the Oklahoma panhandle named "Hooker" and its slogan is "It's a location, not a vocation".

Every night in Providence, Rhode Island, skyscrapers, tugboats, hotels, and police cars flash and blink their lights on and off at 8:30 to tell kids at children's hospitals good night.

17. While in middle-school, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had their computer privileges revoked for taking advantage of software glitches to obtain free computer time from the company that provided the computers. They were allowed back in the computer lab when they offered to debug the program.

18. There's a Battery in Oxford that's lasted 176 years and there's no telling when it will run out of energy.

19. Australian prime minister Harold Holt who served from 1966 to 1967, one day, while in office, went for a swim and just disappeared without a trace.

20. In 2013, a man named Harrison Odjegba Okene was found alive in an air pocket on a sunk ship after three days of no water, no food, and in pitch black.

In 2004, farmers in India used Pepsi and Coca Cola instead of pesticides because they were cheaper and got the job done just as well.

22. Canada's new Governor General-designate (Julie Payette) is an astronaut, spent time on the ISS, speaks 6 languages, did research at the IBM lab in Zurich, played piano and sang with several orchestras, and has helped make space robots.

23. When we get nervous, we overestimate how much other people notice our anxiety, due to the "Illusion of Transparency". Luckily, studies show that simply being aware of this cognitive bias can make you more confident.

24. Allegations of Walt Disney being Anti-Semitic are unfounded, as he regularly donated to Jewish charities, employed a large amount of Jewish employees, and none of his employees‍ ever accused him of making Anti-Semitic slurs.

25. A convenience store employee and his father stole a 5 million dollar lottery ticket, told the winner it was only worth $5,000, only paid him $4,000 and then pushed him out the door and locked it.