35 Quick Random Facts To Quench Your Mental Thirst | Random List #249

The Quaker Oats Company isn’t Quaker and never was. They picked their name based on a religious stereotype about Quakers being honest in business.

27. Puppies removed from their mother before 12 weeks of age experience more behavioral problems and are less healthy than puppies separated from mother after 3 months. Removing puppies early doesn't improve puppies' ability to bond with humans.

28. Predjama Castle was under siege by the Austrian army for almost a year in the 15th Century. The castle lasted so long because it had a secret tunnel in the back which brought food to the castle. The siege ended only when the ruler died on the latrine after getting hit by a cannonball.

29. The “overview effect” is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space. It is the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space. According to astronaut Edgar Mitchell, “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a b*tch.’”

30. Although most schizophrenics hear voices, the reverse is not true. Most people who hear voices are not schizophrenic (or necessarily mentally ill). Around 10% of people have had auditory hallucinations of some kind and there are many potential causes of auditory hallucinations.

Madagascar has a larger population than Australia.

32. Sir Ewan Forbes was an intersex British aristocrat and rural doctor who applied to change his sex in 1952. Afraid of possible ostracism, he alerted his patients, priest, and friends in advance and found that they were “universally supportive”. He married his partner in a church a month later.

33. Sausage sizzles are public sausage barbecues generally held either as free community events or as fundraisers that have become a recognized and expected addition to polling booths at Australian elections. The sausages at these events have been nicknamed “Democracy Sausages.”

34. James Cagney in the 1932 film ‘Taxi’ is famous not only for Cagney's dancing, but it’s also the first film where he refused to be shot at with live ammo. This was very common at the time, due to it being much cheaper to use than blanks.

35. The letter Y is not just “sometimes” a vowel. It is almost always a vowel. It is only a consonant around 2.5% of the time.