38 Underappreciated Random Facts Too Awesome To Ignore | Random List #146

A study shows that smokers have been found to be more successful at quitting smoking when they go "cold turkey" (sudden abstinence), as opposed to gradually cutting back.

2. A study examined the brains of nuns who engaged in “centering prayer,” which is meant to create a feeling of oneness with God. The nuns’ brain scans showed similarities to people who use drugs like psilocybin mushrooms.

3. There was a decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939, in Harlan County, Kentucky, to unionize the coal mines. It resulted in many deaths, several bombings, and three separate instances of intervention from the National Guard.

4. The Late Bronze Age Collapse was a dark-age transition period which was seen throughout the world. During this phase, incredibly rich, powerful, advanced civilizations, who were dependent on complex trade and agriculture, vanished in the span of a human lifetime and transformed into small isolated village cultures.

5. Students at Oberlin College can rent original paintings by Picasso, Monet, and Dalí (among others) to hang in their dorm rooms for $5 per semester.

India is the largest producer of mangoes, it accounts for less than 1% of the international mango trade; India consumes most of its own production.

7. PayPal Mafia is the original group of PayPal founders and employees who have gone on to become one of the most successful groups of individuals in the world. The portfolio of companies they have founded includes; Tesla, Youtube, Space X, Linkedin, Yelp, and Founders Fund, to name a few.

8. Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud's development of psychoanalysis, including concepts such as the id, ego, superego, and libido, was all done under the influence of a constant supply of cocaine, which he advocated unreservedly, and even endorsed for cash.

9. R. Lee Ermey, the actor who played the drill instructor in “Full Metal Jacket”, was originally meant to be a technical advisor for the film. However, after Ermey made a tape tirading over the various extras, he was cast as the instructor.

10. A Minnesota man named Scott Wagar once sprayed toilet-papering teens on his property, with a squirt gun full of fox urine.

There is a 'Richter scale for human calamity' called the Foster scale. According to the Foster scale, World War 2 was the most disastrous event in human history with a score of 11.1, the Black Death ranks number 2 at 10.9, and World War 1 comes at number 3 with 10.5.

12. Yogi Bear used to be the mascot of a chicken restaurant franchise, and when they all closed, the statues were dumped in the middle of a forest. This site became a tourist attraction in and of itself, known as the "Yogi Bear Graveyard."

13. Steven Spielberg refused a salary for “Schindler’s List,” calling it “Blood Money,” and believed that the movie would flop. The film went on to become one of the most successful movies of all time.

14. The world’s oldest known spider lived to be 43. Named Number 16, she died in 2017 after being stung by a wasp.

15. In January 2018, Belgium and the Netherlands swapped land to change their national borders. Belgium's foreign minister noted that "the agreement shows that borders can also be exchanged peacefully."

There is a statue of Jason Voorhees chained under the Crystal Lake located in Crosby, Minnesota.

17. The Boeing 747-200 Air Force One costs $206,000 per flight hour to operate (including fuel, flight consumables, and maintenance), while a commercial 747 costs about $20,000 to $25,000 per flight hour.

18. Horses can only breathe through their nostrils, and their anatomy prevents them from being able to breathe with their mouths.

19. The voice given for the A.I "Suit lady" also known as "Karen" in Spider Man: Homecoming was none other than Jennifer Connelly who also happens to be the wife of Paul Bettany, the actor who voices J.A.R.V.I.S in the Iron Man films and later as Vision.

20. When Bishop Chrysostomos of Zakynthos was ordered by the occupying Nazis to compile a list of resident Jews on the island, he handed over a piece of paper with a single name on it; his own.

In the 1960s, the Tucker State Prison Farm scandal unfolded, in which inmates were routinely beaten, tortured with needles under their fingernails, and had their genitals crushed with pliers and electrocuted. Up to 200 inmates may have been murdered and buried around the prison.

22. There is an all-female anti-poaching combat unit in Zimbabwe called Akashinga ("the brave ones").

23. The Shaggs was an all-female rock band, whose members were three teenage sisters who were forced to play in a band by their father. Almost completely musically inept, their album failed to gain any traction until years after Frank Zappa claimed it was one of his favorite albums of all time.

24. Alan Alda met his wife Arlene Alda at a dinner party on the Upper West Side, when a rum cake accidentally fell onto the kitchen floor and they were the only two guests who did not hesitate to eat it.

25. Dwayne Johnson a.k.a The Rock charges movie companies $1 million to Tweet or Instagram about his movies.