50 Random Facts List #181

A Harvard study found that hiring one highly productive ‘toxic worker’ does more damage to a company’s bottom line than employing several less productive, but more cooperative workers.

2. In 2017, a Polish environmental charity named Grupa EkoLogiczna put a SIM card in a GPS tracker to follow the migratory pattern of a white stork. They lost track of the stork and later received a phone bill for $2,700. Investigation found that someone in Sudan had taken the SIM from the tracker and made over 20 hours of phone calls with it.

3. You were more likely to get a job if you had smallpox scars in the 18th century. The scars proved that you already had smallpox and could not pass it on to your employers.

4. The 19th Amendment (Women's Suffrage) almost wasn't ratified until a Tennessee senator who was against it (Harry Burns) received a letter from his mother telling him to "be a good boy" and vote for ratification. He broke the deadlock the next day and the 19th was ratified.

5. Despite playing an anti-Semitic Kazakhstani man, Sacha Baron Cohen is actually speaking Hebrew throughout the entire movie "Borat."

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was originally planned for Deanna Troi to have four breasts, before Gene Roddenberry's wife told him that this was a poor idea.

7. A Nigerian man named Zeal Akaraiwai pays medical bills for fellow Nigerians that cannot afford to do it. He does that every week and had saved countless lives so far. As he said: "Be the angel you hope to meet".

8. In 2017, a dog named Odin refused to leave his flock of goats behind during the California Tubbs Fire as his owners fled to safety. Days later, the owners came back to their property to find Odin survived and managed to keep all the goats alive.

9. Country Time Lemonade once offered free legal assistance when children’s lemonade stands were being ticketed by local governments. They titled the service, Legal aid.

10. In 2001, a Massachusetts man named Kenny Waters was wrongly imprisoned for 18 years for murder. He was finally freed after his high-school drop-out sister went to law school and fought the courts for him to prove his innocence. However, 6 months after his release, he died in a freak accident.

Dr. Mary Walker was an abolitionist, suffragist, surgeon, and the only female Medal of Honor recipient. She advocated for women to wear what they wanted. She’d often get arrested for wearing men's clothes, though she insisted “I don't wear men's clothes, I wear my own clothes.”

12. When a simple AI was taught to play Tetris, the best solution it found was to pause the game just before the screen filled up so it would never lose.

13. For almost 300 years, the office of the Pope was almost certainly a death sentence. 28 of the first 31 consecutive Popes were violently murdered.

14. Jet Li turned down a role in The Matrix Reloaded because Hollywood producers wanted to record and copy all of his martial arts moves into a digital library, with all rights going to them.

15. An Olympic rower named Henry Pearce stopped mid-race to allow ducklings to pass by him and he still won the race.

Princess Diana was 19 when Prince Charles, 31, proposed to her. Because royal custom required Charles marry a virgin, nearly every other woman of good lineage nearer his age was disqualified.

17. Samuel Maverick was a Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle, which led to the word 'maverick' meaning someone who is independently minded.

18. In Japan, on Valentine's Day girls buy chocolates and other gifts for boys they like. A month later, on March 14th, White Day is celebrated. On this day, boys buy gifts to give back to the girls who bought them gifts on the Valentine's Day.

19. Burrito means 'little donkey' in Spanish. It is named this way because burritos can carry many things, much like a donkey can.

20. Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a US government program that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War 2. CPS draftees fought forest fires, helped reform an abusive mental health system, and even acted as test subjects in medical experiments.

Any day of the year has a 1 in 7 chance of being celebrated as Independence Day from the British. 61 colonies have gained independence from the United Kingdom with 52 unique Independence Days.

22. Russell Crowe commissioned Nick Cave to write a sequel to Gladiator. When Cave asked "didn't you die at the end of gladiator" Crowe responded, "yeah, but you sort that out."

23. In 2008, an Australian court case costing over a million dollars had to be aborted when it was realized that five out of the twelve jurors were playing Sudoku instead of paying attention.

24. In 2013, Belgium printed half a million postage stamps that smelled and tasted like chocolate as a celebration of the country’s chocolatiers.

25. A Brazilian man named Chiquinho Scarpa announced he would be burying his $500,000 Bentley so he could use it in the afterlife. After a lot of critique about him wasting money, it turned out that it was a PR stunt for organ donations.