50 Random Facts List #73

Speedy Gonzales cartoons were banned for a short while by Cartoon Network, due to perceived racial insensitivity. They were brought back after fan campaigns, and the Hispanic-American rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens called Speedy a cultural icon.

2. In China they can count to ten using just one hand using a type of sign that everyone uses. 6 is the western 'hang loose' gesture. 7 a snake head, 8 a finger gun, nine an index finger hook and 10 a cross or closed fist.

3. In 2017, a wedding photographer named Andrea Polito was awarded $1,080,000 in a defamation suit when a couple refused to pay a $125 fee.

4. Researchers in the Netherlands have found that on New Year’s Eve, birds fly much higher than normal to avoid the fireworks.

5. Loneliness is a greater health risk than obesity. Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 50% while obesity increases the risk by only 30%.

Potatoes should never be refrigerated. Not only does it ruin the flavor, it produces high levels of a carcinogen called acrylamide.

7. A domino can knock over another domino that's a maximum of 1.5 times larger than itself. Based on that progression, if you started with a domino the size of a carbon atom, you could knock over the Burj Khalifa with a 1.22-kilometer tall domino in just 74 steps.

8. During the Cold War, playground equipment in the US and the USSR was made with the intent of getting children to be interested in the Space Race.

9. If you choose cremation, you can have your ashes made into a rock to form the base of an “eternal memorial reef” so that you can help coral reefs bloom after you’ve died.

10. Director Guillermo del Toro owns a house called, 'Bleak House' in which there is a room with a never-ending rainstorm projected onto all windows and audio to match. He often uses this room to write.

TLC planned to make a reality show about NASCAR wives but canceled it before airing because the wives got along too well.

12. Although the crew of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood rarely talked to Fred off the set, and mercilessly made fun of him behind his back, while he was rehearsing with his puppets before each show, these same men would sneak into the studio and ask his puppets for personal advice, which Fred kindly gave.

13. In 480 B.C., King Xerxes I of Persia built bridges to invade Greece. But a storm destroyed these bridges. Enraged, King Xerxes threw chains in the sea, whipped the sea 300 times and burned it with red-hot irons as his men shouted at the water. The next bridge built was not destroyed.

14. 171,000 people perished in 1975 in China due to the collapse of the Banqiao Dam, an event hidden from the world until 2005.

15. After the Colossus of Rhodes snapped at the knees and fell over onto the city after an earthquake, the remains lay untouched for over 800 years. Even broken, the Colossus was so impressive that many people traveled just to see the pieces.

The hill in the Windows XP desktop photo (Bliss) was actually part of a vineyard that had recently been destroyed by a bug infestation.

17. The character Mark from Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" is named after Matt Damon, who Tommy believed was named Mark Damon.

18. The former tallest and oldest Cypress tree (The Senator) on Earth, estimated to be 3,500 years old, was burned down after a woman tried to smoke meth under it.

19. In 2010, a group of US soldiers used to kill teenagers in Afghanistan for fun. Pictures can be seen of them smiling with their "trophy" just like people used to do with wild animal killings.

20. All male Astronauts going to the International Space Station from Russia are required to pee on a bus tire prior to launch, a tradition started by Yuri Gagarin.

The trippy patterns that you see when you shut your eyes tightly are called phosphenes. They are caused by electrical charge produced in the retina and/or mechanical stimuli such as rubbing your eyes.

22. In 532 A.D., 30,000 rioters were killed and half of Constantinople was destroyed in the Nika Riots, over a conflict with chariot racing.

23. You don’t forget things you did when you were drunk, your brain just never recorded the memories as the events happened.

24. In 2017, a Florida man shot neighbor's cat because it 'looked at him like he owned the place'.

25. Thomas Edison paid his son Thomas Edison Jr. an allowance of $35.00 a week ($925.25 in 2017) to not use the Edison name to sell his snake oil products.