50 Random Facts List #17

An assassin (Nedeljko Cabrinovic) failed to kill Franz Ferdinand because he didn't realize there was a ten-second delay on the grenade, and then proceeded to try and commit suicide, but his cyanide pill was expired and the river he jumped into was 10 cm deep

2. The coefficient of friction of a banana on hardwood flooring is 0.083, while ice has a coefficient of friction of 0.05, making a banana almost as slippery as ice.

3. A study measuring whether the tiredness/hunger of a judge affected the prospects of getting parole. At the beginning of a session, a prisoner had a 65% chance of being paroled, the authors found. This declined to almost zero by the end of a session and leaped back to 65% after a break.

4. The Hammer of Thor is an approved religious symbol for veteran gravestones in the US and two soldiers have such headstones

5. Men's and women's clothes button on opposite sides due to historical tradition where men needed quick access to their weapon using their right hand, while wealthy women were dressed by servants with the button configuration being flipped for easier access by the servants

There are 30 kilometers of tunnel underneath downtown Toronto, connecting shops, subway stations and restaurants so people do not need to go outside into the heat and snow

7. The amount of electricity running the Bitcoin Network could power 1.3 million homes.

8. 90% of deaths in Autism Spectrum kids under 14 are from drowning.

9. The first recorded name in history wasn't that of a conqueror or prophet. It was an accountant named Kushim.

10. Sister Mary Kenneth Keller was the first woman to get a Ph.D. in computer science

At a 1984 Queen gig, Freddie Mercury took a nasty fall and hurt his leg midway through the show. After convening with his bandmates, he decided it wouldn't be fair to fans to end it. In substantial pain, he performed Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You & We Are the Champions seated at his piano.

12. Russia's economy ($1.3T) is only 69% the size of Italy's economy ($1.9T).

13. The author of The Anarchist Cookbook, William Powell, was just 19 when he wrote the book in 1969. He later disavowed the violent ideology that he advocated in the book and wished to have the book "quickly and quietly go out of print”. He passed away in July 2016.

14. Brazil has replaced almost 42% of its gasoline needs with sugarcane ethanol making gasoline the alternative fuel in the country.

15. When Kelli Garrett, one of the only survivors of the Toy-Box Killer, escaped after two days of captivity, neither the police nor her husband believed her story. Her husband divorced her believing that she had been cheating on him the night she was attacked.

Astronaut Sunita Williams was the first person to run a marathon in space, finishing in 4 hours and 24 minutes on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station.

17. Heather Bresch, the CEO behind the increase in EpiPen costs, was awarded a master's degree she did not properly earn because she was the governor's daughter, leading to the dean at West Virginia resigning.

18. New York's underground gay bars of the 1960's (including the Stonewall Inn) were actually created and supported by the Mafia. It was illegal to be gay. The mob paid off local precincts to keep them from doing raids.

19. Benjamin Franklin was an advocate of “air baths”, during which he would spend up to an hour reading or writing in his house completely nude.

20. Cocaine and alcohol have nearly identical rates of addiction

Winston Churchill had an oxygen mask made for him for flying in high altitude airplanes during World War 2 that was customized to allow him to smoke cigars through a hole in the mask.

22. The last time a black man (Michael Donald) was lynched by the KKK was in 1981, and the police officers first on scene first presumed it was a drug deal gone wrong.

23. The Texas Capitol once held a poll to rename their waste disposal department. The winning entry was 'The Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts.'

24. After the US Airways Flight 1549 ditching on the Hudson (aka "Miracle on the Hudson"), officials captured and gassed 1,235 Canadian geese and destroyed 1,739 goose eggs across New York City.

25. In Indonesian, there is a word for 'A joke told so poorly, and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh.'