38 Fascinating & ‘So True’ Random Facts for a Random Day – Part 65

Mannequin and manikin are different. The term "mannequin" is primarily used to describe a life-sized doll that models clothing, while "manikins" are anatomical models of the human body generally used by medical or art students.

2. Clint Eastwood made two movies about the Battle of Iwo Jima, one each for the Japanese and America points of view.

3. Proper Belgian waffles are not meant to have any toppings, instead including caramelized sugar in the dough. Icecream in particular is scorned, as it reduces the warmth of the waffle.

4. American singer Waylon Jennings left the recording of "We Are the World" because of a dispute over lyrics that were to be sung in Swahili. The lyrics were later dropped after Stevie Wonder pointed out that Ethiopians did not speak Swahili.

5. Harvard University said it can't afford journal publishers' prices and wants scientists to make their research open access and resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls.

The most Edgar Allen Poe was paid for a single work was $100 for his story 'The Gold Bug'. He earned $9 for his most famous poem 'The Raven' which made him a celebrity. He lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life—except in hope, which is by no means bankable".

7. American business magnate Steve Jobs once told a reporter that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things", he did in his life.

8. The US Postmaster General is the 2nd highest paid US government official behind the president.

9. Calico cats are almost always female, and orange cats are almost always male.

10. South Korean women are nearly 8 inches (approximately 20 cm) taller today than 100 years ago.

Roland the Farter, the court jester of Henry II was given a manor in exchange for having to perform 'One Jump, One Whistle, and One Fart' at each Christmas.

12. The alien in the Alien movie was played by a Nigerian man named Bolaji Badejo. He died of sickle cell anemia in 1992, at the age of 39.

13. Pencils never actually contained lead. People just called it that because they thought graphite was a type of lead.

14. Serbian wedding guests accidentally downed a small plane with celebratory gunfire in 2003.

15. On the 1996 opening day of the Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, Steven Spielberg boarded the ride but requested that he be let off before the 86 foot (26 m) drop.

Studies have found that having polling places in churches tend to lead to more conservative voting results and having polling places in schools yields more liberal voting results.

17. A stop-motion animator for Robot Chicken uses a modified Nintendo Power Glove for his work.

18. A professor at Indiana University launched a system of gaining experience points through classwork instead of giving out traditional grades.

19. There once was a guild in Germany that entirely controlled the production of gingerbread.

20. Vegetarians were found to be twice as likely to suffer from depression than the general population. Among possible causes, diets low in B-12, too much Omega-6 which is linked to mental health issues, and higher amounts of phytoestrogens due to soy-based diets.

When learning new phrases in a foreign language, hearing those phrases sung and then singing them has been shown to lead to better results than hearing them spoken normally and then repeating them the same way.

22. Rudolph Diesel took his inspiration for inventing the Diesel engine from watching a lecture where there was a demonstration of a Malaysian fire starting technique called the 'fire piston' which creates flames through air compression.

23. Scientists have developed a super strong, flexible Bio-glue for wound healing without causing toxicity. It has been inspired by an adhesive material (glue) secreted by slugs that stick to biological tissues.

24. The Greater Fool Theory states that the price of an object is determined not by its intrinsic value, but rather by irrational beliefs and expectations of market participants.

25. NASA developed a form of concrete that doesn't need water, to be used as a construction material on the Moon.