Random #322 – 50 Random Facts You Never Knew

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1Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Jenner tried to trademark the name ‘Kylie’ in USA for “advertising services” and “endorsement services” and was blocked by Kylie Minogue who already had the name trademarked in multiple business lines. In 2017, Kylie Minogue won a trademark lawsuit against Kylie Jenner with Minogue’s lawyer calling Jenner a “secondary reality television personality.” The block was later removed by Minogue, allowing Jenner to trademark the Kylie name in industries that Minogue had no interest in.


2. In 1975, when Elvis went to see a movie with his girlfriend, he was spotted by fans and they went crazy. His girlfriend walked up and pranked his fans saying to Elvis, “Charlie, you’re not using that Elvis bit again are you? Come on, you’re not telling these people that you’re Elvis again are you?” The fans then left.


3. After the massive success of his #1 hit “Somebody That I Used to Know”, Gotye stopped recording solo music, went back to his old band, and hasn’t released a song under the Gotye name ever since.


4. When a flickering torch is held up to prehistoric cave paintings they appear to “move.” This has led some researchers to theorize that they were intentionally designed to create this effect, which would make them a precursor to modern cinema.


5. A hurricane hit Hawaii when the movie Jurassic Park was being filmed there. The movie sets were destroyed and the cast and crew were stranded in a leaking hotel ballroom. Steven Spielberg played cards with the kids for hours and told them stories to distract them. Real footage of the hurricane was later added to the film.


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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


6Chili Peppers

Chili Peppers

Chili peppers, whose spiciness is now so prominent in Indian, Chinese, Thai, and other Asian cuisines, originated in South America and were unknown in Asia until worldwide sea trade first brought them there in the mid-1500s.


7. After the holidays, the Rockefeller Christmas tree is cut into lumber for Habitat for Humanity homes.


8. Teenagers take more risk not only due to an undeveloped frontal cortex but also due to a higher dopamine response that provides greater rewards for novel activities.


9. Women in Viking Age Scandinavia did enjoy an unusual degree of freedom for their day. They could own property, request a divorce, and reclaim their dowries if their marriages ended.


10. In the last four years of Elvis Presley’s life, he had been prescribed 19,000 doses of drugs. In 1977 alone (the year of his death), Dr. Nicholpoulous had written 199 prescriptions totaling more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics to Elvis.


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11Peter Maxwell

Peter Maxwell

In 1990, a man in California named Peter Maxwell owned a manufacturing company and employed himself. He had a serious accident on the job. He then hired 2 lawyers for the company and himself and sued his own company. He won $122,000 and then wrote off the $122,000 from his company accounts. This was then refuted and fined by the IRS for fraud, which he then managed to win back on appeal.


12. The 2006 movie Idiocracy was released in only 7 cities and expanded to 130 theaters rather than the typical 600. The film’s distributor was entirely absent in promoting it, and while posters were released to theaters, no movie trailers, no ads, no press kits, and only two stills were released.


13. Dr. Charles R. Drew, an African-American, developed improved techniques for blood storage, which saved thousands of Allied forces’ lives during World War 2. In 1942, however, he resigned as director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank because of their exclusion of African-Americans’ blood.


14. In 2016, a 27-year-old Chinese man named Tong Aonan declared his affection for his next-door neighbor by solving 840 Rubik’s cubes and using them to create a portrait of her. She said no.


15. Author Lee Child was inspired to name his character Jack Reacher after a shopping trip. An old lady asked for his help in reaching for a can of pears. Child’s wife, when seeing this, commented that if his writing career didn’t work out, he could ‘always get a job as a reacher.’


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16Antoine Walker

Antoine Walker

Antoine Walker had earned $108 million throughout his NBA career and filed for bankruptcy in 2010, just two years after his retirement.


17. Ancient Romans had a type of warranty on purchased slaves, i.e., if a slave committed suicide within 6 months after purchase, then the owner had the right to claim a full refund from the previous owner.


18. Two-thirds of Argentina’s population is of Italian heritage. They fled there for economic opportunities and to escape devastating wars. It is the only other country besides Italy with an Italian heritage majority population.


19. In 1944, a 21-year-old tail gunner named Nicholas Alkemade of Lancaster Bomber jumped from his aircraft after being shot down over Germany. He fell 18,000 feet without a parachute and survived with a sprained leg as his only injury.


20. About 3 days before D-Day, a 21-year-old Irish woman named Maureen Flavin took her hourly barometer reading and sent it to Dublin. She had no idea that this single data point would be sent directly to Eisenhower and averted disaster by delaying D-Day due to an incoming storm.


21Brian Jacques

Brian Jacques

Brian Jacques, the author of the Redwall Series, was originally a milkman that volunteered to read to blind students along his route. Dissatisfied with the selection of children’s books available, he decided to write his own and became a best-selling author.


22. In 2007, Warren Buffett bet a hedge-fund manager that the S&P 500 would beat a portfolio of hedge funds. After 10 years, the S&P had returned 85% and the hedge funds just 22%.


23. Before the 12th Amendment, the Vice President was the Presidential candidate who won the second most votes, instead of a running mate.


24. On July 21, 1972, George Carlin was arrested and charged with violating obscenity laws after performing his famous “Seven Dirty Words” routine at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. He would go on to be arrested a total of seven times for reciting that same routine.


25. In 1924, a tunnel network was discovered underneath Washington D.C. Speculation behind the network’s origins included a Confederate hideout or a liquor depot for bootleggers. They ended discovering that it was actually dug by the Smithsonian Institute's entomologist Harrison G. Dyar, who ‘did it for exercise.’

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