50 Random Facts List #184

A German diplomat named Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz served as an attache for Nazi Germany in occupied Denmark. He tipped off the Danes about the Germans' plan to deport the Jewish population in 1943 and arranged for their reception in Sweden, rescuing over 95% of Denmark's Jewish population.

27. A coal stoker named Arthur John Priest survived the sinking of five ships, including the Titanic, earning the nickname "The Unsinkable Stoker."

28. Brown University named their porta-potties the "E. Gordon Gee Lavatory Complex" after the former president Gordon Gee cut funding to the arts programs.

29. The Daily Mirror and Daily Mail vehemently supported Hitler and discouraged allowing Jews fleeing Europe into the UK.

30. Bathroom hand dryers suck fecal bacteria from the room and spray it directly on your hands.

The great-grandson of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II became a knight. His family worked their way up the political ladder to become a duke. Today the Duke of Moctezuma is still a Spanish noble family with palaces and properties in Spain.

32. Sister Rosetta Tharpe is knowns as the “the Godmother of Rock and Roll.” Tharpe was a pioneer in her guitar technique; among the first popular recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar and her technique had a profound influence on Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Keith Richards.

33. The New York Times researched and published biographies for every victim of 9/11 they could find.

34. The dog who played Wishbone on the hit 1990s kids show of the same name was called "Soccer" and he was a veteran TV commercial star before he appeared in the series. He lived from 1988-2001 and is buried on the Texas ranch where the show was filmed.

35. Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado in 20 years planted 2.7 million trees to afforest part of The Atlantic Forest. This resulted in 1,500 acres of rainforest being recovered with 293 of plants, 15 reptiles, 172 birds, 15 amphibians and 33 mammal species having returned.

While Simon Pegg was in rehab for alcoholism, the tabloids would ring up pretending to be his mother, to get a story off the clinic.

37. Charondas, a Greek lawgiver from Sicily issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Assembly must be put to death. One day, he arrived at the Assembly after hunting in the countryside with a knife still attached to his belt. In order to uphold his own law, he committed suicide.

38. As a white belt, Paul Walker told his Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach that he would get his black belt “even if he needed to get it in his coffin.” Shortly after Walker's death, that same coach awarded Walker his black belt and told his father he could put it in his coffin.

39. There's a neurological disorder called "Alice in Wonderland" syndrome. This affects patients' perception in a way that they may suddenly feel that they have become giants or the room around them has shrunk. It most commonly affects children.

40. Marvel has to publish a Captain Marvel comic at least once every two years to not lose their trademark on the name, leading to several different characters using the name as an alias.

Red is not the only color of blood in the animal kingdom. Several species of octopus have blue blood, ocellated icefish have clear blood, and the green-blooded skink has, well, green blood.

42. The level of difficulty of a mental task, from working on a complex calculus equation to completing a simple game of Sudoku, barely alters the amount of energy the brain consumes while completing the task.

43. The German city of Trier, the birthplace of Karl Marx, issued 0-Euro notes to celebrate his 200th birth anniversary. They cost 3 Euros.

44. Though the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" is the most well-known quote from Star Trek, it does not appear in any movie or tv episode.

45. An autistic savant named Mark DeFriest was sentenced to 4 years in prison for ‘stealing’ his father’s tools. Able to memorize and reproduce keys by just looking at them, he's been imprisoned 36 years for multiple escapes.

Tokyo has its own superhero. He’s Mangetsu-Man, a self-made hero who’s taken up the responsibility of keeping the city clean. He wears a “full moon” head, purple bodysuit, oversized UGG boots with matching gloves and uses a voice dictation app to hide his voice.

47. Michael Caine only agreed to be in 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' because his 7-year-old daughter was too young to see his other films, and he wanted her to watch him in something.

48. During the filming of his show "Who is America?" Sacha Baron Cohen attempted to film at a Californian gun store, making up a fake story for his visit. However, as soon as he arrived, the owner yelled "You're Borat!", prompting Cohen to immediately walk back out.

49. The Aral Sea, formerly the 4th largest lake in the world, has been drying up since the 1960s due to poor water management practices, so much so that the eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert, full of ghostly relics of rusting ships and decaying docks.

50. Mildred Day, who invented the Rice Krispie Treat was also the first person to serve a meal on an airplane.