50 Random Facts List #100

You are a ‘Jr.’ if you're named after your dad, but are suffixed with ‘II’ (second) if you take the name from someone else in the family.

2. Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, keeps over 200,000 bees in his backyard, which he calls "Flea’s Bees."

3. In 1901, a doctor named Dr. Roswell Park was told mid-surgery that he was needed urgently elsewhere, to which he responded that he could not leave “even for the President of the United States”. He was then told he needed to operate on William McKinley, the then President of the United States.

4. Jewish legal scholar Maimonides stated that “It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.” Maimonides argued that executing a defendant on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof.

5. American illusionists and entertainers Penn Jillette and Teller designed a video game called “Desert Bus” back in 1995. In the game, the player drives an 8-hour bus route in real time between Tucson and Vegas. The game is impossible to cheat. The only sceneries are rocks and road signs and once the player reaches the destination, they have to turn around and drive back.

The top 3 most dangerous jobs in America are logging, fishing, and aircraft piloting/flight engineering, while law enforcement and firefighting are ranked 15th on the list. Also, taxi drivers are more than twice as likely to be murdered on the job than law enforcement personnel.

7. In 2017, archeologists in Israel discovered a cave that was used by humans some 400,000 years ago. They think it was used as a ‘school’ where people were taught how to make primitive tools.

8. The show ‘Portlandia’ was banned from a feminist bookstore in Portland for their skits. They claimed that Fred Armisen’s dressing as a woman was derogatory mockery towards trans-women. They’re no longer welcome to film in the location.

9. J.K. Rowling considers that the casting of Emma Watson as ‘Hermione Granger’, Rupert Grint as ‘Ron Weasley’, and Daniel Radcliffe as ‘Harry Potter’ was perfect except for one thing. The actors were too good looking for their geeky characters.

10. There are nerve endings that exist only to recognize a gentle stroking touch. Their activation decreases the heart rate and activates the smile muscle. Their optimal speed is 3-5 cm/s, which means we are genetically wired to cuddle and caress each other at predetermined velocities.

Newly discovered fossils show that moths and butterflies have been on the planet for at least 200 million years whereas flowering plants came along only around 130 million years ago, which means that the butterflies survived without flowers for 70 million years.

12. Cough drops were used to be made with morphine and heroin.

13. When George Washington passed away in 1799, the British Royal Navy lowered its flags at half-mast. The London Morning Chronicle stated that ‘The whole range of history does not present to our view a character upon which we can dwell with such entire and unmixed admiration.’

14. The notion that NASA astronauts carry suicide pills for use in case they are marooned in outer space is untrue. Exposure to outer space results in a much faster and smoother demise compared to a suicide pill.

15. Comedian Demetri Martin incorporated music into his act to prevent Comedy Central from rearranging his performance for TV.

Sailors aboard submarines work 6-hour shifts so that it is easier for them to give their undivided attention to the equipment they operate during a shorter shift. The military also switched submarines from an 18-hour work day to a traditional 24-hour one, improving morale significantly.

17. Most Germans sing "Happy Birthday" in English but with a German accent, rather than singing it in German.

18. Benjamin Franklin had an abusive older brother named James Franklin who forced him to sign an indenture which bounded him until he turned 21. His brother was abusive partly because Benjamin showed talent. At the age of 17, Benjamin ran away penniless to Philadelphia, gained connections and jump-started his political career.

19. The ‘Sacred Band of Thebes’ were a force of 300 elite soldiers of the Theban army in 4th Century B.C. The force was made up of 150 pairs of male lovers. During the Battle of Chaeronea, they stood and fought to the death while their comrades ran. They were buried side by side.

20. In the final stages of hypothermia, humans exhibit two strange behaviors; paradoxical undressing, in which a person will remove all their clothes despite being dangerously close to death, and a completely autonomous, instinctual burrowing behavior.

Jon "NEVERDIE" Jacobs mortgaged his home to buy a virtual asteroid for $100,000. In 2005, this was the most valuable virtual item ever sold. This landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records for owning the most expensive virtual item, which he later sold for $635,000.

22. Celebrity chef Alton Brown worked as a cinematographer and video director before he became a food star. He was director of photography for R.E.M.'s music video "The One I Love" and spent all of his time between takes on the set watching cooking shows, feeling that he could do a better job.

23. American psychologist Julian Jaynes's "Bicameral Mind Theory" suggests that ancient humans were not self-aware and that the right hemisphere communicated with the left via auditory hallucinations. These voices may have been interpreted as "Gods" by early humans.

24. The University of Colorado has named their cafeteria grill ‘Alferd Packer Restaurant & Grill’ after the infamous cannibal, Alferd G. Packer. The cafeteria’s slogan is “Have a friend for lunch!”

25. Cheating on your spouse is a crime in New York, carrying a possible sentence of up to 6 months in jail.