50 Random Facts List #63

The 2003 Cat In The Hat movie was so bad that Dr. Seuss’s widow specifically said that she wouldn’t allow any more live-action adaptations of his work.

2. In 2014, an Australian physics professor named Dr. Peter Vamplew submitted a paper titled "Get Me Off Your F*cking Mailing List" to a scientific journal that sent him unsolicited emails. The paper was accepted for publication, but the journal kept emailing him.

3. In 2014, an Irish suicide bombing was foiled when the bomber forgot to adjust his clock for daylight savings time and the device went off early in his car.

4. There are 5 temples in Kyoto, Japan that have blood stained ceilings. The ceilings are made from the floorboards of a castle where warriors killed themselves after a long hold-off against an army.

5. When chess player Bobby Fischer beat soviet grandmaster Taimanov, Taimanov was thrown off the USSR team, forbidden to travel, banned from writing articles, and deprived of his monthly stipend. It virtually ended his career.

The Stopwatch Gang consisted of 3 Canadian bank robbers who were known for their brilliant planning of heists, politeness to victims, and non-violent methods, all while robbing banks within 90 seconds.

7. Timothy Hunter is a DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman 7 years before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. He wears glasses, lost his mother when he was young, discovered he was destined to be a powerful wizard and has a pet owl.

8. December 5th is Krampusnacht or "Krampus Night" in some European countries. Men dress as Krampus, drink alcohol, run through the streets, and chase delinquent children around and hit them with sticks. Many anthropologists believe the tradition is pre-Christian and goes back to pagan mythology.

9. Usain Bolt's running gait is asymmetrical due to scoliosis, which has resulted in his left leg being longer than his right leg. Scientists aren't sure if his record-breaking sprint speeds are because of this or in spite of this.

10. This famous photo called "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" wasn't the unfinished Empire State Building. It was 30 Rockefeller Center.

Bill Gates accidentally got into philanthropy after he and his wife accidentally came across extremely impoverished people while they were sightseeing. He now says philanthropy is the "best job in the world."

12. Honey bees initially have up to 21 virgin queen bees, who fight to the death until there is only one.

13. One of the selling points for introducing the guillotine during the French Revolution was equality. Commoners could now enjoy the comparatively quick and painless death of decapitation just like the nobility, and would no longer have to endure brutal deaths such as those caused by hanging.

14. Once, to treat an earache, a nurse administered ear drops to a patient's rectum, because the doctor had abbreviated "right ear" to "R ear". Neither patient nor nurse questioned why the ear drops should go there.

15. A squirrel monkey named Miss Baker was one of the first animals to be launched into space by the United States and recovered alive. She lived to the age of 27, becoming the longest living squirrel monkey, and her tombstone often has a banana or two on top of it.

Thurl Ravenscroft who sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was also the voice of Tony the Tiger.

17. Ancient Greek and Roman statues were actually brilliantly colored and not just bare marble/stone.

18. McDonald's intentionally created exactly four different shapes for chicken nuggets. According to the company, “three would’ve been too few. Five would’ve been, like, wacky.”

19. Fish and chips are historically so important to the UK that in World War 1, the British government made safeguarding supplies of them a priority and during World War 2, Churchill refused to ration the dish.

20. American singer Tom Petty wrote the song "I Won't Back Down" after an arsonist burned down his house and he escaped with just the clothes on his back.

Americans spend more on lottery tickets than on movies, video games, music, sports tickets, and books combined.

22. Snoop Dogg wrote, starred in, and created the score for a hardcore p*rn video that was shot at his house. It was the first hardcore video ever listed on the Billboard music video sales chart.

23. During the filming of Jaws, a real shark attacked a shark cage, Spielberg was so impressed with the footage that he incorporated it into the film. One of the characters, oceanographer Matt Hooper, was supposed to die in this scene but nobody was in the shark cage, forcing Hooper to live.

24. Reese's Hearts have the highest percentage of peanut butter per cup.

25. NASA's plan to dispose of corpses in space is to freeze them in the airlock and then violently shake the body with a robotic arm until it turns to space dust.