50 Random Facts List #137

There is a mutation that causes bones to become 8 times denser than normal that allow people to walk away from car accidents without a single fracture but with a trade-off of being unable to swim.

2. While filming Pirates of the Caribbean in London, Johnny Depp received a letter from a local 9-year-old girl named Beatrice Delap, who asked for help with "mutiny" against her teachers. Depp turned up with no warning at the school in full Jack Sparrow outfit but advised against mutiny.

3. After School Satan is an after-school program run in public schools across the United States by The Satanic Temple, which emphasizes a scientific and rationalist, non-superstitious worldview.

4. The term “mark” originated from the carnival. When dishonest game operators found someone they could entice to keep playing their rigged game, they would "mark" the player by patting their back with a hand that had chalk on it. Other carnies would then keep an eye out for rubes with chalk marks.

5. Your dog can pick up on subtle changes in your scent, which can help him figure out how you are feeling such as by smelling your perspiration when you become nervous or fearful. It’s also likely how dogs can detect certain diseases or know that a household member is pregnant.

In 1987, when David Bowie performed “Heroes” near the Reichstag in West Berlin, a massive crowd gathered on the eastern side to hear him perform from over the wall. The performance is considered to be a catalyst to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

7. The purpose of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" was to help young girls accept arranged marriages.

8. An Indian named Datta Phuge who became a sensation around the world for his $240,000 gold shirt, was invited to a party in 2016. When he arrived at the party, he was beaten to death in front of his son by 12 assailants.

9. Some of the biggest flying birds ever to exist may have lived alongside humans in the Americas and may have even influenced Native myths.

10. According to Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus, the Greek King of Ithaca, had a dog named Argos. When Odysseus left for the war on Troy, Argos waited for 20 years for him to return, and died as soon as he saw his master had come back safe and sound.

J.I. Rodale was an early supporter of organic eating and farming. While on the Dick Cavett show, at the age of 72, Rodale said: “I’ve never felt better in my life” and “I’m going to live to be 100...” Minutes later Rodale died on the couch while the next guest was being interviewed by Cavett.

12. The software used to create the black hole in the movie 'Interstellar' is a full implementation of Einstein's equations in 40,000 lines of C++. The scene was rendered in thousands of 23-megapixel IMAX frames on a 32,000-core render farm at about 20 core-hours per frame.

13. In 2004, corporate attorney Nathan Sawaya quit his lucrative job to build Lego professionally so he could "get away from the daily grind". His sculptures now command six-figure prices each.

14. Caitlin is an Irish name historically pronounced "Kathleen" or thereabouts (in the same way that "Sean" is "Shawn"). In non-Irish countries, it has been pronounced "Kate-Lynn" or similar since the 1970's.

15. Discovery Channel lied to a scientist named Jonathan Davis in order to get him to participate in a fake documentary on Voodoo sharks for Shark Week and edited the interviews on Bull Sharks to make it appear as if he was researching the Cryptid Shark. He did not know what the program was about until it aired.

John Wayne wore a toupee beginning in about 1948. Wayne felt more confident wearing his toupee and never denied it. He often joked saying "It's not phony, it's real hair. Of course, it's not mine, but it's real."

17. If Earth stopped spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be in motion with the Earth's original 1100 mile per hour rotation speed at the equator. All of the land masses would be scoured clean of anything not attached to bedrock.

18. The elephant shrew was named simply for its long nose, but recent genetic evidence has found that it's more closely related to the elephant than it is to the shrew.

19. Disney’s “Baymax” character design was inspired by Chris Atkeson’s pioneer work in soft robotics. His research in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute is based on a theory: “For robots to effectively operate in our world, they’re going to have to be as squishy as we are”.

20. Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management is an extensive guide to running a household in Victorian Britain, published in 1861. It recommends boiling pasta for an hour and forty-five minutes and states that potatoes are "suspicious; a great many are narcotic, and many are deleterious."

Harry Truman’s official memorial isn’t a physical one like the Lincoln Memorial, but rather is a federal scholarship for graduate school worth $30,000 that’s given out to college juniors interested in public service.

22. If you keep hearing the name "Jim Wilson" on a commercial flight then it is a secret code for a dead body.

23. On July 7, 2017, a flight (Air Canada Flight 759) landing in San Francisco descended to an altitude of 25 meters and as close as 9 meters laterally to four planes waiting below before aborting. 1,000 passengers were at imminent risk and with only seconds to spare, narrowly avoided "the greatest aviation disaster in history."

24. Magic Johnson retired before the 1991-1992 NBA Season after announcing he was HIV positive, but fans voted him into the 1992 All-Star Game anyway, for which he returned and won Most Valuable Player.

25. Dunkin Donuts used to have a handle on them to dunk the donuts.