Random #347 – 50 Lesser Known Random Facts

Tiny Neolithic baby spoons indicate that new baby gruels were an important innovation in prehistoric baby care, freeing up women to have more babies & leading to unprecedented population growth.

27. The Sega Corporation was originally called Service Games with a focus on coin-operated amusement machines for service members and moved to Japan after the US government outlawed slot machines in 1952.

28. The first darknet and the network which is often cited as the beginning of the "dark web", the ‘Freenet,’ was originally a thesis project by Edinburgh University student Ian Clarke. It received a B.

29. Back in 1945, a physicist employed at Kodak in Rochester, New York discovered that atomic bomb testing had taken place in New Mexico, the details of which weren’t yet public. He found that x-ray films they had delivered to customers were returned back due to black exposed spots, which rendered them unusable. Physicist Julian H. Webb discovered that the problem originated from the strawboard which was used to package the film which contained traces of Cerium-141. The straw was sourced from milling plants in Indiana and Iowa. Cerium-141 is one of the fission products of an atom bomb.

30. The average person produces 11,000 gallons (41600 L) of pee in their lifetime, enough to fill up two 16-foot above-ground pools two times.

Remora or the Sucker Fish were once used in the Indian Ocean to catch turtles. A rope was tied to the remora's tail and the fish was dropped into the water when a turtle was sighted. The remora would then swim towards the turtle to attach itself to it. The fisherman would then pull them both out.

32. The English town of Pendle Hill derives its name from the old Cumbric word 'pen' (meaning 'hill') and the Old English word 'hyll' (meaning 'hill'). A literal translation of the name could read 'Hill-hill Hill.'

33. There were more than 300,000 Christian converts in Japan around the year 1600. After the failed Shimabara Rebellion led by a Christian samurai, 37,000 Christian rebels and sympathizers were beheaded by the shogunate forces.

34. When Dr. Seuss lived in La Jolla, California, the US postal service kept confusing him with a nuclear physicist named Dr. Hans Suess who also lived in La Jolla.

35. In 1944, a sci-fi writer wrote a short story describing nuclear bombs and their construction methods called "Deadline". It was so accurate that the Counter intelligence Corps feared a leak or spying on the Manhattan Project. In actuality, the info was always there in public scientific journals.

Elizabeth Jennings Graham was an African-American woman who, in 1854, successfully sued New York City’s Third Avenue Railway for denying her a seat on horsecar. This lawsuit helped slowly lead to desegregation of the city's public transportation.

37. The little red-haired girl, Charlie Brown's unattainable crush, was based on a woman that Charles Schulz courted who ultimately married a different suitor.

38. In 2012, the World Meteorological Organization concluded that the all-time heat record held for exactly 90 years by El Azizia in Libya was invalid because the temperature was recorded over asphalt by an inexperienced observer. Since then Death Valley National Park in California holds the title of the world's hottest place.

39. Onna-Musha were Japanese female noble warriors who fought alongside Samurai men. Dozens of famous female warriors are known by this name, many of whom led their own units or even armies. Battlefield excavations have shown that in some battles in the 16th century as many as 30% of the combatants were likely women.

40. The modern Portuguese state was created through the 'Carnation Revolution.' It was a bloodless coup d'etat which took place in 1974 and it was all coordinated in sync with a radio broadcast of Portugal's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Between 2018 and 2021, FBI in collaboration with the intelligence agencies of other countries set up a fake "secure" messaging app to monitor criminal communication which led to multiple arrests globally.

42. The earliest known reference to French toast dates back to the 1st century C.E. in a Latin collection of recipes.

43. In 1948, Cathay Pacific's Miss Macao seaplane became the first commercial airliner to be hijacked. The lead hijacker, who aimed to rob the wealthy passengers on the plane was unsuccessful, causing the plane to crash, and killing everyone on board but the hijacker. The hijacker survived by jumping out of the emergency exit right before impact.

44. A man named 'Thomas Thompson,' once mistook a dead sailor from the SS James Carruthers as his son, organized a funeral, and then yelled at his son for showing up alive at his own wake.

45. Some lizards do push-ups as a part of their mating rituals (notably the western fence lizard). Because of this, the Mexican Spanish word for lizard, Lagartijas, also means push-ups.

In 1536, Panna Dai, a nursemaid of the Heir of Mewar, sacrificed her son to save the Heir's life. She made her son sleep on the Heir's bed and covered him so that the assassin would think that he assassinated the Heir. It worked.

47. The Flag of Malta features the George Cross because it was awarded to Malta by King George VI in 1942.

48. Dark Horse Comics had to cancel several titles in the 1990s including their CGW title as the comic industry was glutted & imploded in the 1990s. However, they were saved by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ghost in the Shell, Frank Miller's Sin City & 300!

49. The pearlfish can live inside a sea cucumber's anus when it dilates to breathe. They also eat the gonads, along with other organs. Sometimes 5 or more can be found in one sea cucumber.

50. Tornadoes are primarily a North American phenomenon. The Gulf of Mexico provides lots of moisture, which makes the conditions ideal for the formation of a tornado. The U.S. averages about 1,200 tornadoes per year. Most tornados occur between 3 PM and 7 PM, but they can occur at any time of the day.