50 Random Facts List #126

Dogs that served with the US Army in Afghanistan from 2010 - 2014 were poorly treated upon discharge, some were left in kennels for many months and not cared for, while others remain unaccounted. Several soldiers later searched for and rescued their ex-partners.

27. The day after Memorial Day starts the "100 Deadliest Days" for teen drivers, where fatal accidents involving teen drivers increase by 15% compared to the rest of the year.

28. An ant mega-colony exists across 3 continents and is thought to contain billions of ants, all of which recognize each other to be from the same colony. The largest part of the colony is in Europe and is thought to spread 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast.

29. Retta, Parks and Recreation's Donna Meagle, is the niece of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's first female President and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

30. Rock band Van Halen included "a bowl of M&M candies, with absolutely all the brown ones removed" as an indicator whether the concert promoter had actually read the band's complicated contract. It served as a quick check to ensure the safety of all equipment.

In 2016, Kanye West was busted pirating editing software from torrent site Pirate Bay.

32. Helicopters are used in cherry farming to dry cherries after it rains so that they don’t soak in too much water and explode.

33. In 2008, a 12-year-old boy in Florida was arrested for excessive farting in school.

34. Joel Silver, the producer for some of the greatest action franchises of all time (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix, etc), also was one of the three college kids who created Ultimate Frisbee.

35. In 2015, a 90-year-old woman named Norma Bauerschmidt was diagnosed with cancer. Instead of starting treatment, she, her son, daughter-in-law, and dog, went on a year-long road trip around the US, traveling 13,000 miles around 32 states.

The College of the Ozarks doesn't charge tuition. Instead, students work on campus at least 15 hours a week (and have two 40-hour work weeks.)

37. Stroke victims with partial facial paralysis can lose the ability to voluntarily smile on half their face, but can still fully smile when laughing at a joke.

38. Serial killer Harvey Glatman presented himself as a photographer for pulp fiction magazines to find his victims and take photos of them tied before they even knew that they were kidnapped.

39. The late great musician Prince was a fantastic bowler who could 'throw a strike at will' and wore knee-high furry boots while he was doing it.

40. The Berlin Wall was opened accidentally. After being told wrong information, a Soviet spokesman stated that border crossings would be allowed, “immediately”. Crossings were actually planned to be allowed in limited circumstances. Thousands of East Germans then ran to the border and forced it open.

Harold Shipman, known as one of the most prolific serial killers in the world was a doctor who was "addicted to killing", murdering an estimated 215-260 of his patients.

42. Pangolins are believed to be the world's most trafficked mammal, accounting for as much as 20% of all illegal wildlife trade. Their scales can cost more than $3,000/kg on the black market.

43. Only 91 of the 3,715 animals in the Berlin Zoo survived World War 2. After the Soviet occupation of Berlin, most of these remaining animals were eaten by Red Army soldiers or simply "disappeared".

44. Japanese-born American wrestler Hiroaki Aoki moved to New York City from Japan where he would work 7 days a week in an ice cream truck he rented in Harlem. Using the $10,000 he saved from the business, he convinced his father to invest in a four-table teppanyaki restaurant which would be named "Benihana" after the red Safflower.

45. Emily Canellos-Simms held the world´s largest fine for an overdue library book at $345.14 which was checked out in 1955. The book was Days and Deeds. The library charged her 2 cents a day. She found the book 47 years later and presented the library with a check for her fine.

The eggs in Alien initially had a more vaginal appearance complete with an "inner and outer vulva". Producers were worried that Catholic countries would ban the film, so Giger changed them so that “seen from above, they would form the cross that people in Catholic countries are so fond of looking at.”

47. There’s an orangutan named Ken at the San Diego Zoo that likes to sneak out of his cage at night and wander the park, then sneak back in the morning.

48. If you were to stand at the top of the Olympus Mons on Mars, the tallest planetary mountain in the solar system, you would not be able to tell you were on a mountain due to the shallow slope in the mountain extending further than the horizon line, which is a mere three kilometers away.

49. Nearly 90% of patients who had ‘penicillin allergy’ listed on their medical charts were found to actually have no such allergy at all.

50. While preparing a speech to create a permanent soil erosion service, Hugh H. Bennett was notified of a dust storm approaching Washington DC. He pushed back meeting with Congress until it was estimated to arrive to conclude with opening up the curtains to a dramatic view of a dust storm.