Random #261 – Random 50 Facts You Need to Know

“TurboTax Free” is not actually free, but “TurboTax Free File” actually is free (if you make under $36,000). This was done to purposefully mislead the public into paying for a service that should be free according to the IRS.

2. Most Americans support eliminating the penny but attempt to do so have been stopped by Jarden Zinc Products, the sole provider of zinc penny blanks. Canada eliminated its penny in 2012.

3. Physical attractiveness has a significant influence on the judge's sentencing. The more unattractive the criminal, the higher the sentence they are given. The results of three studies show a minimum increase of 119.25% and a maximum increase of 304.88%.

4. Even though he died in 1994, Kim Il-sung remains president of North Korea. The constitution was revised in 1998, declaring him 'Eternal President of the Republic', making North Korea the only necrocracy in the world - a government that still operates under the rules of a dead former leader.

5. During the peak of the cold war, one of the tasks given to Neil Armstrong was to place two Soviet medals on the moon to honor their fallen Soviet competitors.

Andre Agassi, one of the greatest ever male tennis players (and husband of Steffi Graf, one of the greatest ever female tennis players), wrote in his autobiography that "I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have."

7. Clothing brand Supreme stole their famous box logo from another artist named Barbara Kruger. When Supreme sued another company for copyright infringement of their box logo, Kruger was asked for comment by a Complex editor. Her comment was “What a ridiculous clusterf*ck of totally uncool jokers.”

8. After L. Ron Hubbard's death in 1986, the Church of Scientology officially claimed that he voluntarily abandoned his physical body after it became an impediment to his work and that he had left Earth to do scientific research on another planet—having "learned how to do it without a body."

9. When Greek Runner Konstantinos Kenteris won gold at the 2000 Olympics for the 200-meter dash, he was the first Greek athlete to win an Olympic sprint since Dionysius of Alexandria in 269 AD.

10. American lawyer Thurgood Marshall was almost lynched in Tennessee after winning the acquittals of 23 Black men. He was saved only because his co-counsel decided to follow Marshall and the police and intervene, instead of following orders to leave town.

The Offspring's Album 'Smash' had a small budget of $20,000, which limited studio time. The last four songs recorded for the album were worked through in just two nights. 'Smash' went on to be the best-selling album released by an independent record label with over 11 million sales.

12. Abraham Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln was either present or nearby during the assassinations of three U.S presidents. After the third assassination, he vowed to never accept another presidential invite.

13. Elephant tusks are starting to get smaller and in the future, more Elephants will be without tusks because poachers have killed most elephants with big tusks and have removed them from the gene pool.

14. Millennials in the ages between 18-34 are more likely to live with their parents instead of a spouse/partner. This has occurred for the first time since record-keeping began in the 1880s.

15. Researchers have recently noticed the existence of “harbinger zip codes”. Households in these zip codes tend to buy unpopular products that fail and tend to choose losing political candidates. Their home values also rise slower than surrounding zip codes. This is a yet to be explained phenomena where people are “out of sync” with the rest.

During The Great Depression, crop prices dropped so much some farm families burnt corn instead of coal in their stoves because corn was cheaper. Sometimes the countryside smelled like popcorn from all the corn burning in the kitchen stoves.

17. The Tongan Castaways was the nickname given to six boys who stole a boat and were stranded on a deserted island in 1965, staying there for 15 months before rescue. They were called a real-life Lord of the Flies. They built a “commune” with a garden, permanent fire, gym, and a badminton court.

18. After a bad date, a 16-year-old teen named Daniel LaPlante, dug a burrow into the crawl space of the girl’s home and terrorized her for months as the spirit of her late mother. He was discovered dressed as a bride, wielding a hatchet by her dad, before he was arrested.

19. Prominent Soviet scientist Nikolai Vavilov was obsessed with ending famine. He ended up created the world’s largest collection of plant seeds, advancing the genetic study of cultivated plants. He faced anti-Mendelian forces during the Stalin era, leading to arrest in 1940. Ironically, he died in captivity, by starvation.

20. Bhagat Singh Thind, the first Sikh member of the US Army gained US citizenship in 1918 and was stripped of it 4 days later for being Indian. The Supreme Court ruled against him in his second attempt. He succeeded in his third attempt.

William Atherton who plays the lawyer Walter Peck in Ghostbusters was so hated that after the movie came out he was harassed on the street and challenged to fights in bars.

22. During the Vietnam War, USA tried to weaponize the religious beliefs of the Vietnamese. They believed anyone improperly buried would wander the earth in agony. So the US army played horrifying sounds of a wailing Vietnamese man over the jungle at night as part of a Psychological operations campaign.

23. During the Bosnian War, a former Danish Special Forces officer named Helge Meyer used his 1979 Camaro to go through the front lines during the Bosnian War to deliver humanitarian aid. The US Air Force helped modify the Camaro by adding kevlar panels, reconnaissance and stealth tech.

24. In 2004, Trinity Southern University in Texas was sued for allegedly selling fake degrees after investigators were able to obtain a fake college degree for their cat.

25. American actor George Clooney is one of the closest living relatives of American president Abraham Lincoln.