33 Fascinating Random Facts You’ll Want to Share With Everyone | Random List #211

In 1998, Clarence Elkins was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his mother-in-law and assault of his 6-year-old niece. His wife worked hard to exonerate him and found a likely suspect who was in the same jail as him. Clarence collected a cigarette the other guy had used and the DNA matched.

27. Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle were friends for many years but grew apart due to a bitter feud over spiritualism. Doyle believed fervently in life after death due to the passing of his son, but when Houdini started a public campaign to expose fake mediums, they broke up.

28. Fatboy Slim sampled so many songs to create "The Rockafeller Skank" (also known as "Funk Soul Brother") that he had to give up 100% of the song's royalties to pay the original artists.

29. For 10 years, a man named Emerich Juettner printed poorly made counterfeit $1 bills (Washington was spelled Wasihgton). He never used more than $1 at a time and never in the same place twice. He was caught only after a fire at his apartment. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, and a $1 fine.

30. Darwin's finches, a classic example of evolution, are being rapidly killed due to an infectious parasite that damages their beaks, preventing them from producing mating calls and as a result, reproducing. Larvae also infest the nests and feed on the blood and tissue of the nestlings.

Words such as disgust, disheveled, inept and inert are known as “Lonely negatives.” These are words that, due to a prefix or suffix, appear as though they should have a positive root but none exists or it has vanished from usage.

32. Avatar The Last Airbender received a Genesis Award from HSUS in the category Outstanding Children's Programming for "Appa's Lost Days" (S02E16). It was described as "a mythical tale about animals held captive for human entertainment that resonates with the way animals are used in circuses today."

33. It is estimated that up to 90% of the wildlife found on Madagascar is found nowhere else on Earth.