50 Random Facts List #8

A Brazilian footballer named Carlos Kaiser staged his whole career for 24 years he could barely kick a ball. One time he was forced to play as the team had no strikers. He was worried he would get exposed, so before the game, he started a fight with a fan and as a result got sent off before the game even started.

2. In 2009, Billy Joel's daughter tried to commit suicide by taking a bunch of homeopathic pills. She survived.

3. Elephants are compassionate toward the weak and altruistic toward other species

4. Michael Crichton, the screenwriter of Jurassic Park, had a novel (Disclosure) and a television show (ER) reach U.S. number one at the same time the film did in 1994. He is the only person to achieve these hits simultaneously.

5. The Olsen twins are not identical twins, but rather fraternal twins who look identical

A Mexican man named Arturo Alva-Moreno told his daughter he worked at the World Trade Center. She never heard from him again after 9/11 she's certain he died in the attacks. Authorities wonder if he used the tragedy as a chance to start a new life in California and didn't tell her. They removed his name from the 9/11 memorial.

7. In Japan, where "lifetime employment" contracts with large companies are widespread, employees who can't be made redundant may be assigned tedious, meaningless work in a "banishment room" until they get bored enough to resign.

8. The Crowned Eagle is the only known bird to be confirmed as having viewing humans as prey

9. At the time of his death, Harry Patch, the last surviving WW1 combat soldier was 111 years, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day old

10. An Australian cardiologist (Dr. Rolf Gomes) travels around Australia in a semi-trailer turned specialist medical clinic, delivering specialist services to the most out of reach rural citizens of the country who would otherwise be unable to receive such services, all without any government funding.

Deals at Outlet Malls are not necessarily dealing because stores manufacture lower quality goods specifically for outlet stores.

12. In the 1700s, ornamental "garden hermits" were men hired to live on the estates of the wealthy. Dressed as druids and living in small structures, hermits would sometimes answer guests' questions or give advice. Alternatively, they would remain silent, serving as a perpetual play or live diorama.

13. Tommy Lee Jones is the face of the advertising campaign for Boss canned coffee in Japan and has been for some time

14. Spiderwort is a common roadside wildflower that changes the petals of the flower turn from blue to pink when exposed to radiation.

15. The French and British navies fought in 1781 at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The French Navy won decisively, blocking reinforcements to British forces at Yorktown. This forced British forces to surrender and secured American independence.

H&R Block once discovered that their own taxes were too complex for them to manage.

17. In 2002, a high school student named Charles J. Bishop 'inspired by 9/11' flew a stolen Cessna plane into the Bank of America building. He was the only casualty.

18. Rather than use CGI, Tim Burton had 40 squirrels trained to crack nuts for Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

19. Snake venom contains proteins that change the odor of the wounded animal, allowing snakes to track their bitten prey by odor. This adaptation allowed rattlesnakes to evolve the strike-and-release bite mechanism, which provided a huge benefit by minimizing contact with potentially dangerous prey.

20. The first ancestor of modern day equids was a species of duck-sized horses that roamed in what is now Wyoming.

Male dolphins have been known to masturbate by wrapping live eels around their penises

22. Due to the massive success and popularity of Eminem's "Stan", the Oxford Dictionary made a definition of "Stan" - 'an obsessive fan of a particular celebrity'

23. Frozen was based on a 19th-century tale that was more progressive because a girl rescues a boy

24. A Nazi businessman named John Rabe (Oskar Schindler of China) saved approximately 200,000 Chinese citizens during the Nanking Massacre.

25. Unisex names are illegal in Iceland