50 Random Facts List #176

London based study in 2018 discovered that 70% of women are bullied by "Queen Bees" in the workplace. "Queen Bees" have been characterized as women who adopt socially aggressive behaviors such as gossiping, exclusion, alienation and stealing friends/partners due to insecurity.

27. The plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. These individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system. The plagues of the Middle Ages played a part in creating these mutations.

28. Egypt is building a new capital city as a replacement for Cairo. The city is being developed to have a "smart traffic" system and a green space larger than New York's Central Park. They haven't picked a name yet.

29. The song Iron Man by Black Sabbath is unrelated to the Marvel character. It’s about a time traveler seeing an apocalyptic future. Back to the present, he is turned into steel by a magnetic storm rendering him mute. He warns people about the apocalypse but when they can't understand him, he causes the apocalypse.

30. Lidl The German supermarket chain has been involved in over 20 controversies, such as putting additives in meat to avoid salmonella testing, unauthorized surveillance of its employees, as well as being awarded The Big Brother award for acting almost like slave masters towards its employees.

While performing the first spacewalk in human history, Alexey Leonov’s spacesuit inflated so much he couldn’t get back inside his space capsule. He had to let air out of his suit while still in the vacuum of space and was barely able to fit back through the airlock.

32. The ozone layer is healing and a full recovery is expected by the year 2050-2060.

33. In 1971, Pink Floyd played a show in London that was so loud it killed all the fish in a lake 100 yards away.

34. Maria Sharapova's on-court grunt has been recorded at a volume of 101 decibels. That's louder than a motorcycle, a lawnmower, and a small aircraft. In fact, it's only 5 decibels less than a lion's roar.

35. Henry Ford used his personal newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, to argue that "the Jew" had caused World War 1. He placed these newspapers in every new Model T automobile.

The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania from the 1820s to 1832. A bounty of ₤5 was paid for every captured Aboriginal and ₤2 per child. Historians debate whether the war should be defined as an act of genocide.

37. Long-time professional baseball pitcher Satchel Paige, who debuted in the MLB at the age of 42, would sometimes instruct his infielders to sit down behind him, and then he would strike out the next three batters.

38. In 1952, President Truman gave the first televised tour of the White House. He explained its history, stopped in front of paintings and furniture to tell stories, and even played the Steinway piano in the East Room.

39. Ronald McDonald was required to tell children that McDonald's hamburgers grew in a magic hamburger patch and were picked whole so children weren't upset about cows dying.

40. Scientists have created a microparticle filled with oxygen that can be injected into the bloodstream, enabling users to stay alive without breathing.

The Southern American folk song, "Come By Here", when recorded by academics, was misheard, and was retitled, "Kumbaya".

42. Alzheimer's can't be "officially" diagnosed until after death. They have to confirm the diagnosis with an autopsy. So essentially they say a person has "dementia." The proteins involved still can't be detected without the autopsy. Today new methods can diagnose it with a 90% accuracy rate though.

43. It is estimated that a boy born to Samoan parents is 56 times more likely to get into the NFL than any other kid in America.

44. A jellyfish expert named Ferdinando Boero was also a fan of Frank Zappa. He reached out to Zappa asking if he'd be ok with a jellyfish named in his honor, to which Zappa replied saying “there is nothing I would like better than having a jellyfish with my name.” So it was named Phialella zappai.

45. Steven Spielberg didn’t want to direct Indiana Jones because it was planned to be a trilogy and he didn’t want to write 2 more scripts. George Lucas told him not to worry as he had already written them, but when the time came for the first sequel, Lucas revealed he had written nothing for either sequel.

Anxious/scared cats can be calmed with a technique called “Slow Blink”. It shows you as a more trusting person and is more likely to calm the cat. Animal shelters use the technique to help nervous cats feel more at ease.

47. Rodney King died on Father’s Day in 2012 by drowning in a swimming pool. This was 28 years after his father died, also on Father’s Day, and also by drowning.

48. King Louis IX also known as 'Saint Louis' made gambling, loans, and prostitution illegal. He also introduced innocently until proven guilty, banned trials by ordeal, created the military police and bailiffs.

49. Aladdin animator Randy Cartwright described working on the Magic Carpet as challenging since it is only a rectangular shape, that expresses itself through pantomime. Cartwright kept folding a piece of cloth while animating to see how to position the Carpet.

50. The Soviet AA-2 Atoll missile (K-13) was reverse engineered from a US-AIM-9 Sidewinder after it became lodged in a Chinese MiG-17 without exploding. The lead Soviet engineer at Vympel said the missile was a "university offering a course in missile construction technology."