50 Random Facts List #52

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26Dorian Leigh

Dorian Leigh

Dorian Leigh was one of the first supermodels. She was a mechanical engineer who designed airplane wings during World War 2.


27. The shrine buildings at Ise, Shinto’s holiest site, are torn down & rebuilt every 20 years in line with the belief in the impermanence of all things & as a way to pass building techniques across generations. The buildings have existed for ~1300yrs; the 63rd rebuilding occurs in 2033.


28. Radio waves travel faster than sound waves. If you stand at the base of Big Ben you can hear the chime on the radio before you hear it in real life.


29. The term "Crosshair" comes from when the military used actual hair in optics during World War 2. Mary Babnik Brown was the first woman to have her hair used for military aircraft bombsights because she had never chemically treated or heated her hair with a curling iron.


30. There is a guy named Thomas Thwaites who made an entire electric toaster from raw materials by mining and refining steel, nickel, copper, mica, and making plastic after being inspired by a Hitchhiker's Guide's quote.


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31Iceland

Iceland

Iceland as a country smokes the most cannabis per capita than anywhere else, with 20% of the population considering themselves regular smokers.


32. The AI that beat the world's best DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) player (Danil "Dendi" Ishutin) did so only because it was a 1v1, which forced the player to use the same hero it was using. It also had access to DOTA's API, and ended up losing multiple times after players switched strategy.


33. The popular arcade game NBA Jam was thought to be haunted. During demo mode, the machines would randomly shout "Petrovic", the name of an NBA player (Dražen Petrović) who died in a car accident shortly after the game finished production.


34. On Valentine's day in Japan, women give their male co-workers chocolate. Unpopular co-workers receive cheap giri-choko("ultra-obligatory" chocolate) while others receive honmei-choko ("true feeling chocolate").


35. The Goldwater Rule is a rule that prohibits psychiatrists from giving professional opinions about public figures whom they have not examined in person.


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36Columbia

Columbia

During the American Revolution, "Columbia" was used to describe all of America; that is why the capital of the USA is called Washington, District of Columbia.


37. Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote a song called "Motherf*cker" for their 1999 South Park movie debut, but the MPAA threatened them with an NC-17 rating. They circumvented the threat by changing the song to "Uncle F*cka".


38. German police dogs get a monthly pension after their retirement.


39. Australia was once home to a flightless bird known as the Demon-Duck of Doom.


40. Before becoming President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen was at one time his country's only weightlifter but went on to win 7 gold and 5 silver medals at the Commonwealth Games (Olympics style event held for former British colonies).


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41Nero's Golden Palace

Nero's Golden Palace

Nero's Golden Palace was rediscovered during the Renaissance, when a young man tripped, fell down a hole, and found himself in the cavernous, subterranean rooms of Nero’s palace.


42. A Japanese word, "Bushusuru," was coined after George H.W. Bush publicly vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan (Kiichi Miyazawa) during a formal state dinner. The word literally means "to do the 'Bush' thing, or to vomit in public."


43. German parents not allowed to name their child Lucifer.


44. A major reason Los Angeles grew to be so huge was that they controlled the entire area's water supply (Los Angeles Aqueduct) - the only way surrounding towns could get water was to annex themselves to Los Angeles.


45. Abercrombie & Fitch used to sell outdoor goods such as camping gear and guns, and their main store had a shooting range.


46Ajanta Caves

Ajanta Caves

In India there are 29 caves joined together (Ajanta Caves) which are filled with paintings from over 3 religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism), which were constructed in 520 B.C.E. and has a size of 8,242 hectares, making it one of the largest man-made cave structures ever built.


47. During the mid-1990s, due to stress from acting and promotion of his films, Jean-Claude Van Damme developed a cocaine addiction. He spent up to $10,000 a week and snorted up to 10 grams per day by 1996.


48. During the production of the music video for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel had to lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while the stop-motion effects were animated one frame at a time.


49. The opening ceremony of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was interrupted by a man on horseback (Francis de Groot), who slashed the ribbon with his sword, declaring that he was opening the bridge in the name of the people of New South Wales.


50. A woman named Olympe de Gouges advocated for equal rights between men and women in revolutionary France. She was guillotined.

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