30 Awesome Facts From Our Random Facts Archive – Part 140

The longest known brooding period for any species on the planet goes to the Graneledone boreopacifica, an octopus that guards its eggs for an astounding 4.5 years.

2. The only member of Pink Floyd to comment on the rumor that Dark Side of the Moon was intended to be played over "The Wizard of Oz" was drummer Nick Mason, who said "It's absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with 'The Wizard Of Oz.' It was all based on 'The Sound Of Music.'"

3. Leslie Nielsen had essentially two acting careers. He spent two decades playing leading men and the occasional villain. After Airplane movie came out in 1980, he played almost exclusively comic roles.

4. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.

5. The motto of Spain was originally Non-Plus Ultra ("Nothing further beyond") but after the discovery of the New World it was reversed to be Plus Ultra ("Further beyond").

Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones hated Space Jam so much that when Warner Brothers asked him to give a speech at a dinner for the Space Jam producers, he tried to give his honest opinion in a polite manner, but got escorted off the lot by security.

7. Humans and other primates have evolved to have special neurons that can detect snakes faster than flowers.

8. American restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's founder Alan Stillman, despite having no restaurant business experience, opened the restaurant because the neighborhood he lived in had many young, single people and he wanted to meet women.

9. The average lifespan of an MLB baseball is 8 pitches and approximately 90 are used each game.

10. The smell of the air after a storm is caused by Geosmin, a chemical that is released by dead soil bacteria. Humans are hypersensitive to it and are capable of detecting it at a concentration of 5 parts per trillion. It is theorized in our evolutionary past this helped us seek out water.

In 2011, an Australian beer company gave people the option to pay whatever they wanted for a glass of beer from a certain keg. The kegs were called ‘The Karma Keg’ and they ended up making at least 35% more than what an average keg would make.

12. The first recorded child abuse case in the United States was of Mary Ellen Wilson. Her foster parents were prosecuted in 1874 under animal cruelty laws since there were no laws against child abuse at that time.

13. Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than they are to vegetables.

14. In 1982 Byron Preiss released the book “The Secret: A Treasure Hunt” that associates 12 riddles and 12 pictures to 12 real locations in the USA, where a ceramic bin buried in the ground houses an $1000 gem. As of 2018 only 2 have been solved.

15. A man named Walter Summerford was struck by lightning 3 times in his life. After his death, his gravestone was also struck.

Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore were two combat medics who parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day without weapons. For 3 days without sleep, they treated wounded soldiers from both sides and civilians.

17. Steve Carell had only seen about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned for The Office. He did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais' characterizations.

18. When testing underwater acoustics during the cold war in 1960, scientists detonated a series of 300lb bombs off of Perth, Australia. This was heard three and a half hours later 10,000 miles away in Bermuda.

19. In France, they have short story vending machines in public locations. You can select 1, 3, or 5 minutes, and the machine prints a story on a strip of paper for free.

20. In the aftermath of the Great Japan Earthquake of 1923, when the fire broke out around the city of Tokyo, 44,000 people went to the river to escape the flames, only to be closed in by the flames on all sides. Almost all were then, in a single moment, incinerated by a 300 feet tall fire tornado.

Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula has no rivers, lakes, or streams. The Maya relied on the flooded mouths of underwater caves, called cenotes, for all of their fresh water.

22. In addition to the Percent sign (%) for 1/100, there is also a Per-mille symbol (‰) for 1/1,000 and a per-the-thousand symbol called a Bias Point (‱) for 1/10,000.

23. The rust removal aerosol spray WD-40 formula is not patented. If it were, the makers would have to disclose its ingredients, making it easier to copy.

24. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach both poles and was also the first person to reach each pole. He was the first to reach the South Pole first in 1910, and also the first to reach (verified and credibly) the North Pole in 1926.

25. Lightning plays an important part in the Earth's nitrogen cycle by breaking down nitrogen molecules in the air, so they can be dissolved by rain, and then carried down to the Earth. Nitrogen is a very important element and needed for the production, growth, and decomposition of every living thing.