50 Random Facts List #31

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26Ackee

Ackee

The national fruit of Jamaica, the ackee, is poisonous in all but one small portion, and that portion is only safe to eat after the fruit has naturally opened on its own. Eating it prematurely or any other part causes "Jamaican Vomiting Sickness," which can lead to coma or death.


27. Nicolas Cage lost over $100 Million of his net worth after purchasing 15 homes, including two castles, a private island, four yachts, and a 67 million-year-old dinosaur skull.


28. Everton Football club's official store "Everton Two" is located in the shopping center Liverpool ONE. Its full name is Everton Two - Liverpool ONE.


29. Octopi, octopuses, and octopodes are all correct plural forms of the word octopus.


30. Warner Brothers hated the name "Beetlejuice", and urged Tim Burton to change it to something clever. Burton jokingly suggested calling the movie "Scared Sheetless" and was horrified when the studio actually liked it.


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31FIFA World Cup trophy

FIFA World Cup trophy

The FIFA World Cup trophy is worth nearly $20 million, far more than any other pro-sports trophy. It is made of 6kg (13.5lb) of solid 18k gold. Winning teams are only given a gold-plated replica, the original stays in Zurich.


32. Despite the ongoing Arab Boycott of Israel since 1948, Israel has achieved a higher GDP than all of the participants except for the oil rich Kuwait and Qatar, and the participants stand to lose $30 billion from not trading with Israel by 2020.


33. The Commodore 64 computer dominated the US computer market during the mid-80s, outselling IBM PC compatibles and Apple computers.


34. Mary of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was an 83-year-old teacher named Mary F. Sawyer, who brought her pet lamb to the school she taught around the time of the battle of Waterloo.


35. Mathematician Marina Ratner proved her most influential theorem after she turned 50, defying a common notion that only young mathematicians can do great work.


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36George Patton

George Patton

World War 2 General George Patton believed that he was a reincarnated ancient Roman soldier, and he also thought that he had served under Napoleon.


37. China's army holds annual training exercises against a 'Blue Force' equipped to resemble a NATO adversary like the United States. The Blue Force nearly always wins; in 2014, only one visiting brigade was able to defeat it at the cost of 50% casualties.


38. Colonel David Stirling, the founder of the Special Air Service, personally strangled 41 men.


39. The sandwich was supposedly invented by the Earl of Sandwich (John Montagu), who was so addicted to gambling that he refused to leave the table for meals and demanded something he could eat with one hand. It caught on amongst other players, who ordered "the same as sandwich" - thus, "the sandwich".


40. There are only 9 active donors in the community of rare blood donors that have Rh-null blood. Rh-null is considered a universal blood for anyone with a rare blood type within the Rh system.


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41Costis-Mitsotakis

Costis-Mitsotakis

In 2012, the entire village of Sodeto in Spain won a $950 million lottery jackpot except for Costis Mitsotakis because he refused to buy the lottery.


42. The US Supreme Court ruled that professional solicitors and charities are not required to disclose their commission structure up front. A telemarketer could legally take 99% of the charitable donation as a commission.


43. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a bridge whose support towers are so tall and far apart that, due to the curvature of the earth, is almost two inches farther apart at the top than the bottom.


44. Mike Tyson's workout routine consisted of 2000 sit-ups, 500-800 dips, 500 press-ups, 500 shrugs with a 30kg barbell, and 10 mins of neck exercises and this was only at 5 pm.


45. The "90-Mile Straight" across Australia's Nullarbor Plain is not the longest straight road in the world. That honor belongs to Highway 10, located in Saudi Arabia, which runs due East for 140 miles.


46George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

George Lucas got his head stuck inside the mouth of Bruce, the mechanical shark from Jaws. Steven Spielberg thought it would be funny to close its mouth on him as a prank, but Bruce malfunctioned and George was trapped.


47. When the first horse (Promatea) was cloned, she was implanted with the cloned embryo and later gave birth to a carbon-copy of herself.


48. Green Haribo gummy bears are strawberry flavored. The red Haribo gummy bears are raspberry flavored.


49. In the 19th century, the Gaekwad of Baroda arranged a fight between a lion and tiger before an audience of thousands. The Gaekwad favored the lion, and as a result had to pay 37,000 rupees as the lion was mauled by the tiger.


50. A robot named Elektro was built in 1937 to resemble the typical American male. He could look, listen, speak, move independently and, of course, smoke cigarettes.

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