50 Random Facts List #65

When asked about "The Happening", Mark Wahlberg said "It was a really bad movie... F*ck it. It is what it is. F*cking trees, man. The plants. F*ck it. You can’t blame me for not wanting to try to play a science teacher. At least I wasn’t playing a cop or a crook."

2. Saddam Hussein kept a plaque that said "Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies" on his desk.

3. Cats "train" their owners by vocalizing in a frequency that is pleasant to owners in a manner similar to babies.

4. Laika, the first dog in space, was taken home by a scientist shortly before her launch to play with the scientist's kids. He wrote 'Laika was quiet and charming...I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live'.

5. While not enforceable, the U.S. has a flag code which advises Americans on proper flag usage. Examples include no marking or changing the flag's colors. It must be lowered at night unless properly lit, a flag may not be used on a float without a pole, and no flag apparel of any sort.

'GoodBye' is a shortened form of the phrase "God be with ye".

7. Togo was the real hero dog of the Serum run to Nome in 1925. He ran more then any other sled team (including Balto's), saved his team's lives by going through a blizzard blind and crossing breaking ice.

8. After South Park’s ‘Cartoon Wars: Part 1’ aired, the team received an appraising phone call from the ‘King of the Hill’ staff and flowers from the ‘the Simpson’s’ staff for “ripping on Family Guy”.

9. Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. was the first African-American astronaut. The project he worked on would go on to become the International Space Station. He died in the backseat of his plane while teaching a cadet how to fly 50 years ago. He was 32 years old.

10. Mannequin and manikin are different. The term "mannequin" is primarily used to describe a life-sized doll that models clothing, while "manikins" are anatomical models of the human body generally used by medical or art students.

Clint Eastwood made two movies about the Battle of Iwo Jima, one each for the Japanese and America points of view.

12. Proper Belgian waffles are not meant to have any toppings, instead including caramelized sugar in the dough. Icecream in particular is scorned, as it reduces the warmth of the waffle.

13. American singer Waylon Jennings left the recording of "We Are the World" because of a dispute over lyrics that were to be sung in Swahili. The lyrics were later dropped after Stevie Wonder pointed out that Ethiopians did not speak Swahili.

14. Harvard University said it can't afford journal publishers' prices and wants scientists to make their research open access and resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls.

15. The most Edgar Allen Poe was paid for a single work was $100 for his story 'The Gold Bug'. He earned $9 for his most famous poem 'The Raven' which made him a celebrity. He lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life—except in hope, which is by no means bankable".

American business magnate Steve Jobs once told a reporter that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things", he did in his life.

17. The US Postmaster General is the 2nd highest paid US government official behind the president.

18. Calico cats are almost always female, and orange cats are almost always male.

19. South Korean women are nearly 8 inches (approximately 20 cm) taller today than 100 years ago.

20. Roland the Farter, the court jester of Henry II was given a manor in exchange for having to perform 'One Jump, One Whistle, and One Fart' at each Christmas.

The alien in the Alien movie was played by a Nigerian man named Bolaji Badejo. He died of sickle cell anemia in 1992, at the age of 39.

22. Pencils never actually contained lead. People just called it that because they thought graphite was a type of lead.

23. Serbian wedding guests accidentally downed a small plane with celebratory gunfire in 2003.

24. On the 1996 opening day of the Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, Steven Spielberg boarded the ride but requested that he be let off before the 86 foot (26 m) drop.

25. Studies have found that having polling places in churches tend to lead to more conservative voting results and having polling places in schools yields more liberal voting results.