50 Random Facts List #60

Three explorers (Bill Wilson, Henry Bowers, and Apsley Cherry Garrard) who wanted to prove that the penguins are the missing link between birds and reptiles went in the middle of the Antarctic winter (– 60°C) to collect penguin eggs in 1911 and when they returned back with the eggs the museum initially refused to look at them.

27. During the Cold War, the Soviets secretly bought clear Coca-Cola from the US and disguised it as vodka.

28. In 1959, a Norwegian insulation company took on the challenge from a radio station of driving a truck carrying three tons of ice from the arctic circle to the equator. The ice only lost 11% of its mass during the 27-day long journey.

29. Edward Stuart Baker survived a panther attack by shoving his left arm down its throat. Despite losing his arm, he remained a formidable tennis player and even won a local tournament several years later.

30. In 1959, Guinness dropped 150,000 special “messages in a bottle” into the Atlantic Ocean to celebrate its 200th birthday, making it one of the longest ad campaigns ever.

When Andy Samberg's comedy trio, The Lonely Island, was making a TV pilot in 2000 they were filming a scene in which an elderly lady is getting mugged when Kiefer Sutherland happened to walk by and tried to stop it thinking it was real.

32. About 30,000, or 24% of the world's cranes machines, are currently operating in Dubai.

33. The Statue of Liberty's torch has been closed to the public since July 30, 1916, when it sustained structural damage from the Black Tom explosion an act of German sabotage targeting a US munitions depot during World War 1.

34. "Cage-free" eggs really don't make a difference in the wellbeing of the hen, since they can be cage-free and still stacked on top of each other in a coup. We just continue to pay significantly more for the same product that just 'sounds' better.

35. The 1940 Winter Olympics were originally given to Japan. They declined the games due to the start of the Sino-Japanese War. Eventually, they were awarded to Germany. 3 months later, Germany invaded Poland. The games were canceled altogether.

McDonald's is called Macca's in Australia. The nickname became so popular, they've registered it and in 2013 they even changed the signage.

37. Ramen noodles are now used more in bartering than tobacco products in prison.

38. When Adelaide opened it's power grid to competition, instead of lowering costs as intended, generators were shut down at peak demand so companies could charge more, leading to the highest costs for power anywhere on Earth.

39. Wealth and power cause brain damage that effects empathy and being able to see things from other's point of view.

40. A family's home was burned to the ground on Christmas Eve 1945. The parents and four children escaped unharmed. Five other children of theirs were trapped in upstairs bedrooms and presumably perished, but no remains were ever found and the search for the missing children continued for decades.

The traffic on the Arc de Triomphe roundabout in Paris is so chaotic, insurance companies will always split the liability of an accident 50/50.

42. The 'Red Ring of Death' cost Microsoft $1.15 billion to provide repairs for Xbox 360 owners, to which the Microsoft CEO said, "Do it."

43. Lee Lorch was a mathematician blacklisted in the 50s by most US universities for his civil rights activism. Before his death in 2014, he was asked if he would have done anything any differently. "More and better of the same," he replied.

44. Male fruit flies drink away the pain of rejection. Males who had been rejected and who'd gotten lucky had the option of eating normal food or food spiked with alcohol. While the happy/lucky fruit flies had no preference, the rejected fruit flys were far more likely to eat the alcohol-infused food.

45. Although the Person of the Year title is about biggest influence "for better or for worse", Time has shied away from naming controversial figures for commercial reasons since the public backlash after naming Ayatollah Khomeini ( Iranian Shia Muslim religious leader) in 1979. This is why in 2001 Osama bin Laden was not named.

Oslo city council decided to forbid cars from entering the city by 2019.

47. In 2007, the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force attempted to advertise their upcoming movie by planting Lite Brite devices of one of the show's characters all around Boston. The entire city of Boston went on lockdown thinking the devices were bombs in an attempted terror attack.

48. The oldest women in the world (now deceased) Jeanne Calment was "discovered" when she spoke in a documentary about meeting Vincent Van Gogh.

49. After the British set fire to Washington D.C. during the War of 1812, a tornado appeared out of nowhere and put out the fire saving Washington D.C.

50. Australia has giant freshwater lobsters that have been reported to grow to over 12lbs.