Random #244 – 50 Mind-blowing Facts about Everything

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1Success Kid

Success Kid

Thanks to his Internet popularity, the child from the "Success Kid" meme made enough money to fund his dad's kidney transplant.


2. A dad in Texas couldn’t find an amusement park that would accommodate his daughter with special needs so he sold his homebuilding business and built a completely accessible amusement park for kids with special needs called Morgan’s Wonderland.


3. Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack are widely credited with helping end segregation in Las Vegas, by refusing to perform in venues that wouldn't allow blacks.


4. ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam e-mails are intentionally filled with grammatical errors and typos to filter out all but the most gullible recipients. This strategy minimizes false positives and self-selects for those individuals most susceptible to being defrauded.


5. When Congress imposed a gag rule in 1836 to suppress debate about slavery, ex-President John Quincy Adams refused to comply, risking censure and spending the next eight years introducing thousands of antislavery petitions until the rule was repealed.


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6Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder

American actor Gene Wilder got into comedy and acting because of his mother's heart condition. His mother's doctor told him to 'Try to make her laugh,' to make her feel better, leading to his conscious efforts to make other people laugh.


7. The brain releases so much dopamine during orgasms that a brain scan resembles that of someone on heroin.


8. “King” Jadwiga of Poland was a woman who was named king of Poland because there were no ruling queens allowed but the rules didn’t specify that the king had to be a male.


9. Thanks to the National Labor Relations Act in the USA, an employer cannot prohibit their employees from discussing their salary or wage levels with one another.


10. Archibald Roosevelt, the son of President Teddy Roosevelt, was wounded during World War 1. He rejoined the army during World War 2 and was wounded in the same knee as he had been during World War 1, making him only American to ever be classified as 100% disabled twice for the same wound incurred in two different wars.


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11John Legend

John Legend

American singer John Legend graduated from high school salutatorian of his class and at the age of 16 he was accepted to Harvard but turned it down for the University of Pennsylvania where he would graduate. He is also one of only 15 people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award.


12. Antinatalism is a philosophy that argues that life is so painful that humans should not reproduce.


13. Philipp Mainländer was a philosopher who believed before the beginning of time there was God, and the only thing God wanted was to die, but since he was a being of infinite unity the only way he could kill himself was to shatter his timeless being into a time-bound and material universe.


14. Near the end of filming the movie Matilda, Mara Wilson's mother passed away from breast cancer. Director Danny DeVito was able to show a near-final cut of the film to her so she could see her daughter's performance. The movie is also dedicated to her memory.


15. American comedian Larry David made a “no hugging, no learning” rule for the 1990's hit sitcom Seinfeld scripts. He didn't want the characters to have sentimental revelations. It was a show about four friends, none with particularly active goals, bantering in-between moments of recognizable awkwardness.


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16Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer called the post-orgasm feeling “devil's laughter" because it is the realization that we are all slaves to the Will of Life, as it takes precedence over our own happiness.


17. McDonald's founder Ray Kroc and Walt Disney both served as ambulance drivers in the same unit in World War 1, and both had lied about their age to enlist.


18. Philadelphia Cream Cheese was invented in New York and has never been produced in Philadelphia. Its name was a 1880s marketing strategy, as at that time Philadelphia was known for its high-quality dairy.


19. Lottery is not allowed under law in Nevada because the gaming industry in the state does not want competition.


20. The inhabitants of islands that were temporarily occupied during the Pacific War thought they were being visited by gods, and when the soldiers eventually left, they formed rituals that imitate planes, runways, and marches to try to bring them back. Many still do this to this day.


21Australian Aboriginal

Australian Aboriginal

The last uncontacted Australian Aboriginal people living a traditional nomadic life were encountered in 1984 in the heart of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. They had been unaware of the arrival of Europeans on the continent, let alone cars - or even clothes.


22. In the past 300,000 years, we overlapped with 6 known human species. All but us are now extinct, though we interbred. We carry the DNA of at least two (Denisovans and Neanderthals). Some Neanderthal skeletons carry our DNA too. Denisovans and Neanderthals mixed separately from us also.


23. In order to appease Persia for killing their ambassadors, Sparta sent two young noblemen volunteers, Bulis and Sperthias, to offer themselves to be executed in the atonement. Xerxes sent the men back, saying that he would not sink to Sparta's level and did not consider Sparta's guilt loosened.


24. The Queen band still performed in apartheid South Africa when the majority of bands refused to and was by far the largest band to do so. They were subsequently placed on the United Nations' artist blacklist.


25. Cecil Chubb was the last person to own Stonehenge. Stonehenge was put up for auction in 1915 and Chubb bought it on a whim. It is speculated he bought the stones as a present for his wife and she was less than pleased. Chubb donated Stonehenge to the nation in 1918 and was made a baronet.

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