36 Mind-Boggling Random Facts You Have Never Read | Random List #298

In 1996, the Argentine branch of Coca Cola announced they would give away free tickets to a Ramones concert in exchange for ten bottle caps. Massively underestimating the band’s appeal in Argentina, Coca-Cola didn’t have enough tickets available, resulting in riots and looting.

2. A house cat's genome is around 95.6% tiger. They diverged in the evolutionary tree around 10.8 million years ago.

3. Michelangelo's statue "David" has a bulging vein in his neck that only appears during certain types of heart disease or during extreme stress or excitement.

4. While the Kilogram is defined in terms of three fundamental physical constants, the imperial equivalent, the pound is legally defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms.

5. The Prince hit “Purple Rain” was actually recorded in front of an audience at a charity event and that guitarist Wendy Melvoin was only 19 at the time and playing the song live for the very first time.

Sea urchins will place rocks and other small objects on their bodies for protection from UV rays, inspiring aquarium enthusiast Wilson Souza to give his urchins tiny hats. 

7. In 2010, Weezer began to perform Wheatus's song "Teenage Dirtbag" during their shows because so many people believed that it was a Weezer song and they didn't have the heart to tell them that they were wrong.

8. Country singer Loretta Lynn had more songs banned from radio than every other male country artist combined in the 20th century.

9. Physicist Brian Schmidt once made a bet with his colleague Sean Carroll that humans won’t figure out the value of the cosmological density parameter within 20 years. Brian lost the bet by figuring it out himself, which earned him a Nobel Prize.

10. Octopuses sometimes punch fish. A hypothesis is that the octopus is punching out of spite to punish the fish. Research suggests that the octopus brain, though drastically different than ours, is capable of complex behavior and cognition.

Most indigenous communities who paint their bodies live in areas where there is an abundance of bloodsucking horseflies, mosquitoes, or tsetse flies - and a 2019 study showed that white, painted stripes on the body protect skin from insect bites, hence protecting them from airborne diseases.

12. While studying Madagascar periwinkle leaves used as a folk remedy for diabetes in the 1950s, scientists found plummeting white blood cells instead and isolated out vinblastine and vincristine — effective chemotherapy drugs which have dramatically improved survival in leukemia patients.

13. Skywriting was invented by the Royal Air Force in World War 1 to send messages to troops on the ground. After the war, Pepsi built a fleet of skywriting biplanes.

14. In 400s B.C.E., Athens would herd citizens into a town hall assembly with red-stained ropes to get them to participate in the local democracy. There was a fine if they got any red die on their clothes.

15. During the height of the California gold rush, an egg would cost the equivalent of $25 in today’s money, coffee went for $100/pound, and a pair of boots would set you back more than $2,500.

The Pan-American Coffee Bureau coined the phrase 'coffee break' in 1952, and ran a $2 million advertising campaign with the message that a 'coffee break' would give workers 'a needed moment of relaxation along with a caffeine jolt.'

17. The average body temperature of a “healthy” human has actually dropped from 98.6 degrees (in Fahrenheit) to 97.5 degrees over the past 150 years.

18. Attorney Richard Luthmann who is a Game of Thrones fan once asked a court for a trial by combat with sword and shield, arguing it had never been outlawed in the U.S. and that historically, people with debt collection disputes would settle them by beating them each other with a bat. The court was not persuaded.

19. Despite never going to Japan, Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker's studies on Seaweed resulted in a massive growth in Japanese Nori, and a local festival was made in her honor.

20. There is an Australian fungus called "The Stonemaker Fungus" that only shows up right after a forest fire. They live underground in a stone-like mycelium and pop up through the ashes 2-10 days after the fire, sometimes as infrequent as every 100 years.

The Beatles filed preliminary legal papers against the Beastie Boys for their numerous Beatles samples on 1989's Paul's Boutique. Mike D of the group's response was "What's cooler than getting sued by the Beatles?" Over 105 tracks were sampled on the album, including 24 on the last song alone.

22. In 1942, some scientists theorized that detonating a nuclear bomb could produce such intense heat that it would cause a chain reaction that would set the atmosphere itself on fire, killing all life on Earth.

23. The animals commonly referred to as "Buffalo" in North America are actually not Buffalo at all, they are Bison. True Buffalo look much more similar to long-horned cattle.

24. In addition to ending World War 1, the Treaty of Versailles also made it clear so that Bayer could no longer trademark “heroin.”

25. Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' wasn't originally intended to be presented as a work of fiction. His editor rejected the manuscript believing it would cause widespread panic, given that Jack the ripper was active in London at the time. The version we read starts on page 102 of the original script.