Random #344 – 50 Superb Random Facts

An alternate, unused ending of John Carpenter's "The Thing" was shot, in which R.J. Macready escaped to another research station and took a blood test to prove he was human.

2. George Lucas not only gave his blessing to make Spaceballs, but he also handed the movie over to his effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, to provide the space effects and postproduction.

3. During World War 2, the United States published a spy manual urging middle managers in enemy territory to sabotage their employers by bringing up irrelevant issues, promoting bad workers, haggling over petty details, and holding unnecessary meetings.

4. Movie theaters in Iceland, Switzerland, Egypt, Turkey, and India have an intermission in the middle of the movie. It lasts around 10 minutes, which allows customers to hit the concession stalls or use the restroom.

5. Living next to a landfill greatly increases your risk of developing all kinds of health issues including tuberculosis.

Momma bears are so protective of their young that they will actively seek out human-occupied areas. They do this because they know that male bears (who would want to kill their cubs to increase their chances to mate with them), will avoid human contact.

7. Johnny Yong Bosch became a voice actor by accident. He had to dub over his lines for a film after an audio production issue and a producer said he had a good "hero voice" and asked him to audition for an animation. A few weeks after that audition he booked the role of Vash in the anime Trigun.

8. The Capitol was designed to have George Washington's tomb on public display. Both houses passed bills saying he should be buried there, and his wife consented, but due to various delays, it took until 1830 for it to be viable. After an attempted theft of his head, the project was canceled.

9. Hormel Foods keeps a file of hate mail they've received from American soldiers who had to eat their notorious food products while at war overseas.

10. Cigars can have beetle larvae in them. Under the right temperature and humidity, they can hatch and infest whole cigar boxes.

After the death of ancient Greek athlete Theagenes, his rival athlete who held a grudge against him beat his statue. The statue fell on his him and killed him. The dead body of the rival was then put on trial, convicted of murder, and exiled by being thrown into the sea.

12. Junior Bridgeman is a former NBA player who spent his offseason working at Wendy's to better understand how the fast food chain operated. At his peak, he owned over 100 Wendy's locations and now is worth over $600 million.

13. The Ignalina nuclear power plant located in eastern Lithuania is identical to the Chernobyl plant in Pripyat. The plant remained operational until 2009 and was used as the set for the HBO Chernobyl miniseries.

14. Anticipatory Grief is the grief you experience before a person dies. It is common for children to feel anticipatory grief about their parents or other family members with terminal illness.

15. A mile was defined by ancient Roman armies marching one thousand paces (mille passus). Nautical mile however is based on the size of the earth.

Roughly 2.5 billion people watched Princess Diana's funeral in 1997. At its height, the queue to reach the book of condolences took 6.5 hours. The queen gave her first live broadcast in 50 years.

17. The packaging color for air-dropped humanitarian ration packs had to be changed from yellow to salmon after someone realized that the same shade of yellow was also used for air-dropped cluster bombs.

18. The office cubicle was created by designer Robert Propst for Herman Miller and released in 1968 under the name "Action Office II." It was meant to encourage spontaneous conversation and idea sharing.

19. In 1961, Thomas Monaghan got half-ownership of "Domino's," now one of the largest pizza companies in the world. All he had to give in return was his used Volkswagen Beetle car.

20. In 1983, Hasbro executives traveled to the Tokyo Toy Show to look for new toys they could release in the United States. After finding a series of transforming robot toys, they teamed with Marvel Comics to create a comic book and animated series "Transformers" to sell the toys.

The title "Triple Ace in a Day" refers to pilots who shot down 15 enemy aircrafts in a single day. There have only been 5 such pilots, all of whom flew for the German Luftwaffe in World War 2.

22. Cold Reading is a technique used by mediums and psychics in which the reader, through strategic questioning, gets the subject to reveal information, and through clever psychology convinces them the information came from the reader rather than themselves.

23. Quakers invented the price tag. They were invented because Quakers viewed haggling as immoral since different people paid different prices for the same item. This innovation actually made retail more efficient because employees needed less training and were able to serve more customers.

24. Crisis Apparition is a term used to explain when someone is contacted by a person they were close to, usually after death. In the aftermath of 9/11, many people claim to have been contacted by loved ones who had died that day.

25. Disney doesn't own the copyright to their theme tune, "When You Wish Upon a Star" from 1940's Pinocchio. The rights to that song, as well as several other Disney songs, were sold in 1933 to a music publisher because Disney "had no means of commercially exploiting" them at the time.