Random #262 – 50 Interesting Facts about Everything

The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain was founded in 1977 for people proud of their incompetence. The club was forced to closed when the founder sold a book named The Book of Heroic Failures which became a bestseller and the club receiving thousands of applications "Even as failures, we failed."

27. California is named after a fictitious island described in a series of 16th-century Spanish romance novels. The island was described as being inhabited by beautiful black women who wore gold armor and fought alongside Muslims.

28. There is no evidence that depression is caused by low levels of serotonin. This has been known for decades, and neuroscientists have been trying to debunk this myth to the public for years. The actual mechanism of antidepressants is unknown.

29. Jenga blocks aren’t all the same size. Some are almost imperceptibly smaller than others, meaning they will side out of the stack more easily.

30. False surrender is a war crime under Protocol I of the Geneva Convention.

Pixie dust in Peter Pan was added later on because children reading the story would think they too could fly like Peter Pan. Apparently there was a rash of young children hurting themselves by trying to fly like a pan.

32. Maude Flanders (from The Simpsons) was killed in the Season 11 episode titled, "Alone again, Natura-Diddily". The reason she was killed off was due to a dispute between Fox and Maggie Roswell (the voice of Maude Flanders) about a pay rise. Fox refused, and Maggie quit, so Maude was killed off.

33. After the success of Snow White, Walt Disney bought his parents a new home in Burbank. His mother frequently complained about the furnace, so Disney studio workers were sent to fix the broken furnace and failed to, resulting in Flora Call Disney dying in her sleep due to asphyxiation in 1938.

34. Apollo 12 was hit by lightning twice within a minute of launch, knocking out the command module instruments, lighting up nearly every warning light on the control panel, and garbling the telemetry to mission control. Earlier training simulating such a failure allowed them to restore power.

35. There are 6 Korean Female Pro Golfers who all share the same name, Jeongeun Lee. To prevent the mix-ups and confusion, they have been named Lee1, Lee2, Lee3, Lee4, Lee5, and Lee6. 

“Cow Tools,” was a cartoon that has been described as the most loathed Far Side strip ever. It confused so many readers that the newspaper’s phones didn’t stop ringing for 2 days. The author, Gary Larson, issued a press release explaining the joke after receiving hundreds of letters.

37. The common chicken does not exist in the wild. They are the result of the domestication of another species of bird called the “Red Junglefowl” that lives in South Asia. They look like chickens except they live on trees and can actually fly.

38. Childhood trauma is actually relatively common. 60% of the population experiences trauma by the age of 16. Research suggests childhood trauma has life-long impacts in the form of diminished health, financial and academic success, and social life.

39. In his songs, Chuck Berry articulated every word, with precise diction and no noticeable accent, leading some listeners and concert promoters, used to a different kind of rhythm-and-blues singer, to initially think he was white. Teenagers didn't care about his race.

40. There are no muscles in your fingers. Their function is controlled by muscles in your palms and arms.

The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals), tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer resources.

42. Dorothy Stang was an American nun who dedicated her life to preserve the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. She helped the poor by teaching them how to harvest products from the forest and sought to protect peasants from gangs working for farmers. She was murdered by criminals hired by a rancher.

43. Queen Victoria was irritated at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her daughter Princess Victoria, who was the wife of the reigning German Emperor and hence an Empress - so the British government created for her the title of Empress of India.

44. Ancient Egyptians built King Ramses II statue with precise accuracy to be illuminated by the Sun only twice a year, once on February 22nd to coincide with his coronation day and again on October 22nd to coincide with his birthday.

45. Boeing once made a top-secret spy plane named the “Bird of Prey” after the Klingon starship in “Star Trek.”

In 2002, a former footballer named Lloyd Scott completed the London Marathon while wearing a 130lb (59kg) deep-sea diving suit. Finishing the entire race took him 5 days, 8 hours, 29 minutes, and 46 seconds.

47. Butterflies do not urinate or defecate, but the caterpillar almost continually defecates. When there are enough caterpillars in the same place, their defecation is audible.

48. White torture is a type of psychological torture that involves putting the prisoner in a completely white, soundproof room, often leading the prisoner to madness.

49. When Vincent Van Gogh cut his left ear with a razor, he was taken to hospital and treated by Dr. Felix Rey. Van Gogh painted a portrait of Rey and gave it to him, who used it to repair a chicken coop, then gave it away. In 2016, it was valued at over $50 million.

50. Pink Himalayan sea salt is actually mined from mountains in Pakistan from a sea that existed hundreds of millions of years ago.