Random #315 – 50 Fantastic Random Facts

The NY Yankees used to play the Frank Sinatra version of "New York, New York" after wins and the Liza Minnelli version after losses. Minnelli complained and asked them to play her version after wins or not at all. So the Yankees began playing the Sinatra version after every game, win or lose.

27. Dying coral reefs lack the sound to attract new fish. Speakers playing healthy reef noises at dying coral reefs increases species diversity and doubles fish abundance.

28. American convicted felon Jeremy Meeks’ mugshot gained so much traction online that it got him a modeling contract while he was still in jail. He served 13 months in jail and walked into NY Fashion Week, a year later. He also walked in Milan Fashion Week, helped to launch a fashion line, acted, and more, all within 5 years of his release.

29. Architect Alejandro Echeverri was approached by the mayor of Medellin, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, to revitalize the city. He focused on building in the poorest areas first to bring people and infrastructure into these neighborhoods. Crime dropped substantially.

30. Medical students practice some of the more invasive exams (i.e. rectal, vaginal) on specially trained actors, who guide them through the procedure, as going through real patients from the get-go could damage the confidence of medical students.

John F. Kennedy wore a rigid back brace due to his poor health and terrible back which left him sitting upright in the limo after being initially shot by Oswald. This gave Oswald a clear second shot.

32. In World War 2, Germany carried out only one land operation in North America, the installation of a secret weather station (Weather Station Kurt) in Newfoundland. They scattered American cigarette packets and planted a sign saying "Canadian Meteor Service" in case anyone found it, and the site wasn't rediscovered until 1977.

33. On March 12, 1990, over 60 disability rights activists abandoned their mobility aids and climbed, crawled, and edged up the 83 stone steps of the U.S Capitol, demanding the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which had been stalled in Congress. It was called the “Capitol Crawl.”

34. Female dogs can get pregnant by multiple male dogs within the same heat cycle, then give birth to X amount of puppies per father.

35. In World War 2, Major Digby Tatham-Warter led a bayonet charge while wielding an umbrella and wearing a bowler hat. He later disabled a German armored car with his umbrella. When saving the chaplain from enemy fire, he said “Don’t worry about the bullets, I’ve got an umbrella.”

Abdul Baser Wasiqi, Afghanistan's only athlete at the 1996 Olympics injured himself before the marathon and limped the whole way, finishing in 4:24:17, almost an hour and a half behind the 2nd last finisher. When he arrived, the stadium was already being prepped for the closing ceremony.

37. A year before the end of World War 1, Germany lodged an official complaint with the United States over the issuing of the Winchester M97 "Trench Broom" shotgun to its' troops. This gun upset the Germans so much that the German military issued a kill order towards any troops carrying either shotguns or shotgun ammunition.

38. Almost 90% of "Indian" restaurants in the United Kingdom are actually Bangladeshi.

39. Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell as a student discovered pulsars. She credits her discovery to impostor syndrome and a fear of being kicked out of college, saying, “I’m a bit of a fighter, so I decided until they threw me out I would work my very hardest". That discovery earned the 1974 Nobel Prize.

40. The US Government made a deal with the Italian Mafia to ensure that no German or Italian saboteurs snuck in through the New York port/docks by providing information to the US Navy. They also guaranteed no dockworkers would strike, therefore ensuring a constant line of supplies leaving to the front.

The Red Bull energy drink was originally invented by a duck farmer from Thailand as a hangover cure (called Krathing Daeng in Thai) before being bought over by Austrian businessman Dietrich Mateschitz who discovered it on a business trip in 1987.

42. A 13-year-old kid named Yusuke Murata won a contest to draw their own Robot Master for the game Mega Man 4. That kid went on to be the artist of the One Punch Man manga.

43. The U.S. military has used superstition and pretended to be vampires and ghosts to scare enemies away. They dispersed scary horoscopes in Germany, staged vampire attacks in the Philippines, and in Vietnam blasted ghost tapes that consisted of spooky music and eerie voices. Only vampires worked.

44. Anthony Rossi who founded Tropicana Products in 1945 was an Italian immigrant who arrived in the US with $25 and did not know English. He developed an orange juice pasteurization process to allow transport from the factory in Florida to as far away as New York, starting in 1970.

45. Eric Money was the only person to ever score for both teams in an NBA game. Due to an officiating error by a referee, an NBA game between the Sixers and Nets in 1978 had to be replayed beginning in the middle of the game. Money was traded from the Nets to the Sixers during the span between games.

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and sportscaster Howard Cosell’s relationship extended well beyond great interviews. Cosell was among the first to call him by his adopted name, and vehemently supported Ali’s refusal to serve via the draft.

47. Tomatoes were only introduced in Italian cuisine after the 16th century. Although tomatoes are mostly saw as one of the key Italian cuisine and culture symbols, it's actually originated in the Americas around 80,000 years ago in Andean countries like Chile and Equator.

48. For the first Superman movie, producers wanted Christopher Reeve to wear fake muscles under his suit but he refused. He instead went on an intense training program adding 30lbs of muscle to his thin 189lb frame. He got so big they had to reshoot earlier scenes as they didn't match later shots.

49. The Tennessee Valley Authority, now known as one of the largest electricity producers in the U.S., was created by Congress and Roosevelt in 1936 to improve the infrastructure and economy of the Appalachia region which, at the time, was one of the most impoverished parts of the country.

50. Guillermo Del Toro introduced James Cameron to the Alita: Battle Angel manga in the '90s, which he fell in love with and then strived to adapt into a movie ever since by making Titanic and Avatar, in order for SFX tech to evolve enough that adapting the manga would be possible.