50 Random Facts List #178

In 1994, NFL formed a committee for the sole purpose of falsifying information to cover up brain damage in their players.

2. About 85% of hospitals still use pagers because hospitals can be dead zones for cell service. In some hospital areas, the walls are built to keep X-rays from penetrating, but those heavy-duty designs also make it hard for a cell phone signal to make it through but not pagers.

3. A tropical fruit named Monstera Deliciosa will cause severe throat and skin irritation due to the presence of oxalic acid (otherwise known as rust cleaner) unless the fruit is 100% ripe. Once the green outer scales fall off it's safe to eat and tastes like a mix of pineapple, banana, and coconut. Its scientific name literally means Delicious Monster.

4. Japan had issues with crow nests on electric infrastructure, so they went and destroyed all of the nests which prompted the local crow population to just build more nests, far in excess to what they actually needed.

5. It is 100% legal be to buried at sea in the USA. You basically wrap the body in a sheet with some weights, at least 3 miles from shore and throw it off the boat. The Navy even has a program to assist veterans of the armed services.

Bats and dolphins evolved echolocation in the same way (down to the molécular level). An analysis revealed that 200 genes had independently changed in the same ways. This is an extreme example of convergent evolution.

7. A Mauser C96 was modified to form Han Solo's prop blaster pistol for the Star Wars films. Reproductions of the blaster became so popular in the cosplay community that gun collectors became aware that the fans were buying and altering increasingly rare original Mausers.

8. A 1996 federal law allows restaurants to donate leftover food without getting sued, and nobody has ever filed a lawsuit against a restaurant over donated leftovers.

9. Bill and Melinda Gates plan to leave $10 million each to their three kids as an inheritance out of his $80 billion fortune. He is set to give away approximately 99.96% of his wealth to charity and foundations.

10. In the 1700s, Queen Caroline of Great Britain had smallpox inoculation trialed on six prisoners in return for commuting their death sentences. When this was successful, she inoculated her own children, popularising the process.

An episode of The Simpsons titled "Lisa The Greek" which aired in 1992 correctly predicted the outcome of that year's Super Bowl just 3 days later. When the episode was rebroadcast in '93 and '95 it was redubbed and again predicted the winners.

12. Because ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was filmed on a microscopic budget of $60,000, the cast and crew had to work 7 days a week, 12-16 hours a day in 115°F heat in a poorly ventilated farmhouse amid rotting roadkill being used as props to finish the film.

13. Mcdonald’s stopped using beef tallow in their French fries after a wealthy heart attack survivor spent $3 million on full-page newspaper ads calling out the chain for their unhealthy menu.

14. The term "litterbug" was popularized by Keep America Beautiful, which was created by "beer, beer cans, bottles, soft drinks, candy, cigarettes" manufacturers to shift public debate away from radical legislation to control the amount of waste these companies were (and still are) putting out.

15. Roger Boisjoly was an engineer working at NASA in 1986 that predicted that the O-rings on the Challenger would fail and tried to abort the mission but nobody listened to him.

Arctic foxes create unintentional gardens by reusing den sites for generations and that these gardens are hotspots of biodiversity in such a challenging landscape.

17. While a 20-year-old boy named Rod Serling was serving in World War 2, he saw his best friend killed by a falling crate of food. Seeing the unpredictability and irony of life and death, he would later use that experience to create, 'The Twilight Zone'. 

18. Following their successful Billion Tree Tsunami campaign in 2017 to plant 1 billion trees, Pakistan launched the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami campaign, vowing to plant 10 billion trees in the next 5 years.

19. A football game in the United Kingdom was once canceled shortly after it began due to heavy fog. Everyone left except goalkeeper Sam Bartram who didn't hear the referee and guarded his goal in silence for 15 minutes before a policeman came and told him of the cancellation.

20. Moonshine alcohol jugs are typically marked with 'XXX' in cartoons because it needs to be distilled 3 times to reach nearly 100% pure alcohol. Each 'X' signifies a distillation.

In 2017, a Carl's Jr. in Santa Rosa, California which was untouched by surrounding wildfires caught fire after staff made 165 hamburgers for first responders.

22. "Every Breath You Take" by The Police is supposed to be about someone obsessed with a lost lover, and who stalks them. Sting, who wrote it, is troubled by how many people think it is a love song.

23. During a particularly cold spell in the town of Snag (Yukon) where the temp reached -83°F (-63.9°C) you could clearly hear people speaking 4 miles away along with another phenomenon where people’s breath turned into powder and fell straight to the ground and river ice booming like gunshots.

24. A gentleman in the 1940s observed that the burr seeds that stuck to his clothes and his dog’s fur had a tiny hook structure. On closer inspection, he discovered the hooks were more reliable than a zipper. He developed a company popularly known today as Velcro.

25. 1972 democratic vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton was forced to drop out of the race after he was humiliated by the "revelation" that he had been treated for chronic depression.