50 Random Facts List #201

From the ages of 1 to 44 you are most likely to die from an accident. From the age of 45 on, you are most likely to die from cancer or heart disease. Under 1, you are most likely to die from a birth defect.

27. Two nuns named Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chan teaching at a California Elementary School embezzled approximately $500,000 from their employer over a ten year period to fund their trips and casino visits. No charges are being pursued.

28. The normal intelligible outdoor range of the male human voice in still air is 180 m (590 feet 6.6 inches). The silbo, the whistled language of the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of the Canary Island of La Gomera, is intelligible under ideal conditions at 8 km (5 miles).

29. Water in the town of Puerto Williams has been tested to have the world's purest fresh water. The town of Puerto Williams located at the southern tip of Chile was found after numerous scientific studies to have only two chemical parts per million, making it the world's cleanest water.

30. Out of thousands of Frog species, only one goes "RIBBIT", but it has become a global cliché of how a frog sounds because that particular frog species reside in the West Coast of the USA, where Hollywood is, and were recorded for sound effects in classic Hollywood movies.

Human eyeballs only grow about 8 millimeters from birth to adolescence, making them the only body part that stays relatively the same size throughout your life.

32. Pixar started as a computer division of Lucasfilm in 1979. Then, George Lucas sold the company to Steve Jobs and renamed it to "Pixar" in 1986. Now, both Lucasfilm and Pixar are the sister companies and a part of The Walt Disney Company.

33. Bone spurs are permanent deposits and do not heal or go away. Over 50% of human population has bone spurs, and if you did you would never know unless you had an x-ray specifically to look for them, as they have zero impact on your life.

34. The musical, Fiddler on the roof, is one of the most popular American musicals in Japan. This is due to its themes heavily resonating with the country; generational conflict, especially among fathers and daughters, whether or not to hold onto tradition or let go of it, and the urgency of change.

35. Few days after the Chernobyl disaster, all children in Poland were given Lugol's iodine. This was one of the few cases, when the Polish communist government, despite official denials of the Soviet side and against their recommendations, took action in the best interest of their own citizens.

Blond hair in humans developed only 11,000 years ago as an evolutionary response to the lack of sunlight in Northern Europe to enable more Vitamin D synthesis.

37. Your body automatically stuffs and un-stuffs alternating nostrils so you only use one nostril at a time. This is called the "nasal cycle."

38. It’s an Australian tradition to eat sausages at polling places on Election Day. They are called Democracy Sausages and for many communities, this is the biggest fundraising event of the year.

39. Queen Elizabeth II retains real powers like the ability to dissolve the Australian and Canadian parliaments.

40. LEGO has a secure, temperature- and humidity-controlled, fireproof underground vault in Denmark that contains every LEGO set ever made.

As of Aug. 14, 2012, scientists have discovered that the fighting on D-Day was so heavy that 4% of Normandy's sand was still shrapnel.

42. A ladybug can travel at speeds of up to 37 MPH for up to two hours at heights of up to 3,600 feet.

43. Celery was a very popular food in the 1800s through early 1900s. It was the third most popular menu ingredient in New York City restaurants, behind coffee and tea. The celery cost more than caviar because it was so hard to cultivate in those days.

44. The Przewalski's horse was long considered the last wild horse on Earth to never be domesticated at any point in history. However, a 2018 study found that they are actually descendants of domesticated horses owned by a long-extinct ancient civilization.

45. The Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well" is the 51st episode of the series. It takes place largely in Area 51.

In the 1500s, Incas had cotton armor so densely woven it could repel spears and arrows almost as well as metal armor.

47. Every banana sold in the UK is a clone of the banana grown at the famous Staffordshire theme park 'Alton Towers.' 

48. The survival rate on the Titanic was 61% for the first-class passengers - but only 23% for the third-class passengers.

49. In 1903, a man named Ellis Hughes stole a 32,000 lb meteorite by secretly moving it from a neighbor's property onto his own. It took Hughes, his son and their horse 90 days to move it 3/4 of a mile. Once it arrived, he claimed he found it there and charged 25 cents admission to see it.

50. Dolly Parton wrote 'I Will Always Love You' about the man that launched her career by having her on his TV show 'The Porter Wagoner Show.' Eventually, Dolly told him she was parting ways with him in 1974 to go solo and he was very hurt and got bitter. She wrote it as an "I'm sorry."