50 Random Facts List #37

The phajaan process used to train elephants for tourism. They're routinely beaten with whips, sticks, and hooks, kept in cramped cages with feet tied together and pierced with a long bullhook to remove any sense of wild in them.

27. Studio directors knew to film John Wayne's scenes before noon because by the afternoon he was a 'real mean drunk'.

28. NASA accidentally recorded over the original moon landing tapes and lost a critical piece of human history forever.

29. When Hall of Fame NFL Running back, Curtis Martin, was 15 years old, he was held up with a loaded gun to his head. The criminal pulled the trigger seven times, but no bullet came out. On the eighth trigger pull, the gun discharged while aimed elsewhere.

30. In Greek mythology, Chaos was the origin of everything.

Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night was a 1945 plan developed by Shirō Ishii to wage biological warfare upon civilian population centers in Southern California in the United States during the final months of World War II, using plague fleas from unit 731.

32. A Japanese criminal mastermind dubbed "The Monster with 21 Faces". He was responsible for extorting and poisoning products at confectionery companies across Tokyo. His activity ceased after the ritual suicide of a police chief, who failed to stop him. He has never been caught.

33. When helium is cooled to near absolute zero it becomes a liquid that flows against gravity.

34. Not all bats live in caves. These thumb-sized Honduran White Bats sleep in leaves in the rainforest. They are polygamous. Each leaf-tent houses a single male and his harem of up to six females.

35. 35% of British adults sleep with a stuffed bear toy.

Scotland Yard has a team of over 200 "Super Recognisers" who can remember 80% of faces they ever seen. The rest of us can do about 20%.

37. The wild bison of Yellowstone National Park has adapted to utilize the local hot springs as bidets to clean the thick fur of their nether regions before mating.

38. Charles J. Guiteau who assassinated US President James A. Garfield intentionally used a gun that would look nice in a museum.

39. Katherine Johnson calculated rockets trajectories by hand. Buzz Aldrin trusted no one else. Not even their computers.

40. ChildLine has spent more than 25 years in making sure that an adult is at the end of a phone to help children tackle all kinds of serious issues, including bullying, neglect, and violence at home to alcohol and drug problems.

The Aeroflot Flight 6502 incident of 1986 in which a Soviet pilot made a bet with his co-pilot that he could land the airplane blind. He crashed the plane, killing 70 out of 94 passengers and crew.

42. Approximately once every 18 months (on average) a total solar eclipse is visible from some place on the Earth’s surface.

43. The lottery winner Jack Whittaker was once robbed of $545,000 in cash. When asked why he would carry around that much money, he responded with "because I can". He was later robbed for $200,000 cash.

44. Due to the limited number of different names on Norfolk Island, the island's telephone directory lists people with common names by their nickname. There are entries for Cane Toad, Lettuce Leaf, Goof, Diddles, Rubber Duck, Carrots, and Tarzan.

45. A study found that Charlie Sheen’s HIV-positive disclosure in 2014 led to 8225 more sales than expected of in-home HIV tests, surpassing World AIDS Day by a factor of about 7, concluding that a “Charlie Sheen effect” represents an important opportunity for a public health response.

Pythagoras studied mathematics in Egypt and Babylon. Particularly notable as the Babylonians had the 'Pythagorean theorem' at least 500 years before Greece.

47. When vaccines and similar treatment were first introduced in the 18th century, religious leaders condemned them, saying that diseases are sent by God to punish sinners. To try to cure sinners would be going against God's will.

48. Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player) personally provided the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" a copy of his #9 Red Wings jersey.

49. Marco Polo makes no mention of the Great Wall in any of his writings on China, which some people believe proves he never visited the country. This type of conclusion is called "argument from silence" and is a common logical fallacy.

50. In Himalayas are found the world's largest honey bees (Apis dorsata laboriosa), and they make hallucinogenic honey.