50 Random Facts List #116

In 1980, Quebec banned ads for toys and fast food aimed at children under 13. This has resulting in lowered childhood obesity rates.

2. Research done by Chicago's Center for the Economics of Human Development has found that personality has a larger effect on success than IQ.

3. While filming “X-Men: Origins Wolverine,” Hugh Jackman had to run down a hallway naked with prop claws attached to his fists. As he turned the corner he faced every woman on the production staff waving dollar bills. He instinctively shielded his groin and cut himself with Wolverine’s claws.

4. During World War 2, US codebreakers could not decipher the Japanese code “AF” but suspected it to be Midway, so the base there sent an uncoded message about a water supply problem. The US then caught a Japanese message that said AF had water problems, allowing the US pacific fleet to immediately prepare for the Battle of Midway.

5. American singer Stevie Nicks wrote “Stand Back” while listening to Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.” Because Stevie wrote “Stand Back” using the exact music for “Little Red Corvette,” she called Prince to tell him about the song, and he showed up at her studio 25 minutes later to record the synthesizers for it.

In 2003, a herd of wild elephants released a group of captive antelopes from a game reserve in Southeast Africa. The matriarch of the herd undid all of the gate's metal latches with her trunk and then pushed it open. The antelope took their chance and ran into the bush followed by the elephants.

7. The SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus is so infectious that a single man in Hong Kong infected 183 people in 8 apartment buildings with one horrific bowel movement, causing a plume of aerosolized feces to circulate through the ventilation system and outside through the wind.

8. The "Five stages of grief" model has no factual or scientific basis and its creator Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said that the stages are not a linear and predictable progression and that she regretted writing them in a way that was misunderstood.

9. Approximately 300 people live in the tunnels under Las Vegas in order to do drugs or be alone in general.

10. English writer Charles Dickens only worked 9 am to 2 pm and wrote his 28 books and over 200 essays without working longer than 5 hours a day.

Redheads produce more Vitamin D compared to people with other hair colors, meaning that they don't suffer as much from not being in the sun.

12. In 2002, two brothers from a set of triplets fooled a Russian prison when one brother swapped places with the other to give him a brief taste of freedom. Rather than returning, the freed brother ran off with his brother's girlfriend. It took years for the authorities to realize that they had been duped.

13. A woman named Sarah Marquis walked 10,000 miles by herself through Asia and Australia. She only carried underwear, a pocketknife, antibiotics, tea-tree oil, a solar-powered charger, a beacon, a BlackBerry, a satellite phone, Crocs, a compass, an emergency stash of amphetamines, and pink pajamas with her.

14. The creator of “Jaws” dedicated the last decade of his life to preserving sharks after witnessing horrific abuse and to make up for the anti-shark hysteria the movie caused.

15. Fast food chains are banned in Bermuda under the Foreign Restaurants Act of 1977, with the exception of one KFC that was grandfathered in.

Han Solo was supposed to die in the 'Return of the Jedi'. George Lucas was afraid that would affect toy sales, so he changed it to an Ewok party.

17. David Bowie ripped into MTV for not embracing black artists in 1983 but Michael Jackson's Thriller likely saved the network.

18. An electric car named “The Phoenix” holds Guinness world record for the longest driven distance on a single charge which is 1600 kilometers. It was built almost exclusively out of recycled parts and cost less than $14,000.

19. Upon the death of the greatest racehorse of all time, Secretariat, scientists discovered that the horse had a heart twice the size of the average horses.

20. If you convince yourself that you slept well (even though you didn’t), you can trick your brain into thinking that you did sleep well. This phenomenon is known as Placebo sleep.

On average, British have healthier teeth compared to their American counterparts.

22. During a game of backgammon in the year 480 A.D., the Byzantine Emperor Zeno had a dice roll that was so unlucky that he had it recorded and we still know it to this day.

23. Octopuses have a sucker-proof coating on their skin to make sure that they don't grab and tangle their own tentacles.

24. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux once said that “Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.”

25. During World War 2, a B-17 bomber named Old 666 survived being attacked by 20 Japanese fighters for 40 minutes. The pilot and a gunner earned the Medal of Honor, the rest of the crew each received the Distinguished Service Cross. To this day, they're the most decorated American aircrew in history.