49 Random Facts That You’ll No Doubt Find Interesting | Random List #120

Petting a dog can lower your blood pressure.

27. If you've ever worked for the CIA you are forbidden from ever working for the Peace Corps. There's only a 10-year ban if you worked for any of the other U.S. intelligence departments.

28. Over a dozen restaurants in Time Square, New York were sued for adding gratuity to everyone's bill including parties that didn’t have 8 or more guest. Applebees, Red Lobster, and Olive Garden are a few of the places that were sued.

29. The theme songs to DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck, all have the same lead singer named Jeff Pescetto.

30. When The Simpsons portrayed Mr. Burns as a Casino owner slowly losing his mind, they did not just include random "crazy" behaviors. They were all based off a real person, business magnate Howard Hughes.

Former MLB player Larry Walker was obsessed with the number 3. He set his alarm for 33 minutes past the hour, took practice swings in multiples of 3, wore the number 3, married on November 3 at 3:33 pm, and once bought 33 tickets for disadvantaged kids to sit in section 333 of the ballpark.

32. Male otters will sometimes hold pups for ransom to force their mothers to give up some of their food.

33. The first line in the first feature-length film (The Jazz Singer) with sound was, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet."

34. The camera film for the famous "Tank man of Tiananmen square" photo was hidden in a toilet while Chinese police searched the photographer's hotel room.

35. 97% of French Cognac is exported to the USA, where the majority of consumers are African-American. World War 2 soldiers stationed in France returned to America with a taste for it and by the 50s, Cognac companies marketed it directly to the Black middle and upper classes through Jet and Ebony magazines.

Singapore was forcibly expelled from Malaysia becoming an independent country against its wish.

37. Splenda, the common household sweetener, was first discovered in 1976 when a scientist at a British college accidentally misheard directions. He tasted a substance instead of testing it, and from then on the sweet taste of Splenda was discovered.

38. A pedestrian scramble is a type of traffic signal movement that stops all vehicular traffic, allowing pedestrians to cross an intersection in every direction, including diagonally, at the same time. Research has shown that it can reduce pedestrian casualties by 38%.

39. There are companies who openly provide clients with hired actors to pose as fans, paparazzi, security guards, and professional paid protesters.

40. Dysthanasia is the opposite of Euthanasia and happens when a person is kept alive artificially despite being terminally ill without regard to their quality of life.

During one particular surgery, surgeons were able to drain all the blood from a patient in order to remove a clot from his artery and keep him alive for 20 minutes by reducing his temperature to 20 degrees Celsius.

42. The 2011 Earthquake in Japan moved so much mass towards the Earth's center that every day since then has been 0.0000018 seconds shorter.

43. In 1896, the coroner who oversaw the death of the first person (Bridget Driscoll) by automobile stated in court "I hope that this never happens again." It's estimated that over 7 million automobile deaths have happened since then.

44. Giraffes have a natural blood pressure of about 280/180 and have a complex series of mechanisms in their circulatory system to prevent brain hemorrhage as their heads rapidly change elevation, such as when standing up from taking a drink.

45. At the first FIFA World Cup in 1930, Egypt missed their boat, a referee did all his games in suit, tie and knickerbockers, a player was suspended for opening a cafe, a referee called the final whistle after 84 minutes, Bolivia wore berets and a Romanian named Alfred Eisenbeisser Feraru was believed to have died before turning up at his wake.

The inventor of the PSA test, taken by over 30 million American men yearly to detect prostate cancer, called it a "profit-driven public health disaster". He also stated that the test is "hardly more effective than a coin toss".

47. Bryan Cranston, at the age of 12, encountered a young Charles Manson while riding horses with his teenage cousin. This happened about a year before Manson committed the Tate-LaBianca murders.

48. Lithuania's Olympic basketball team was able to participate in the 1992 Games despite post-independence financial issues partly thanks to a sponsorship from the American rock band Grateful Dead. They returned home in tie-dye uniforms with bronze medals.

49. After a bank teller refused to validate the 50 cent parking of a man named John Barrier because he was dressed poorly, he withdrew his million dollars from his account and took it to the bank across the street.