Random #365 – 50 Eclectic Random Facts

In the late 1970s and up until 1985, Bayer knowingly sold Hemophilia blood products contaminated with AIDS worldwide because destroying the inventory was deemed too costly due to the high financial investment they had made in the product.

2. Albert Severin Roche, a distinguished French soldier, was found sleeping during duty during World War I and was therefore sentenced to death. Just before his execution, a messenger arrived and revealed the true story: Albert had crawled 10 hours under fire to rescue his captain and collapsed from exhaustion.

3. In 1993, a fan at a Chicago Bulls game won a shot to make a $1 million half-court basket. He was, however, disqualified by the insurance company due to his college basketball experience. The team compensated him themselves. Years later, Michael Jordan met him and said, "We made them give it to you."

4. Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen, believed his noodles could cure world hunger. Over the decades, he would share quotes with his employees, including "Mankind is noodlekind," "What are you doing now?" and "Peace will come when people have food," which are in the employee handbook.

5. There's a Japanese beetle that, when consumed by a frog, can swiftly navigate through its digestive system and emerge unscathed from the frog's rear end.

After Colonel Sanders sold KFC, he continued making surprise visits to KFC restaurants. If he was disappointed with the food, he'd label it "God-damned slop" or knock it onto the floor. In 1973, KFC's owner sued him for libel after he publicly referred to their gravy as "sludge" with a "wallpaper taste."

7. The director of The Goonies, Richard Donner, was eager to return home to Hawaii after a demanding shoot with a cast of kids. He said, "I love 'em to pieces, but I can't stand it anymore!" After shooting concluded, Steven Spielberg surprised Donner by sending the entire cast to Hawaii on a plane before he arrived home.

8. The precise meaning of the letter "p" in the pH scale remains unknown, as the inventor never explained what it stood for.

9. HP has been repeatedly caught shipping laptops like the EliteBook, ProBook, Pavilion, and Envy with keyloggers that record keystrokes to a local file accessible by anyone. A cybersecurity firm's alarming discovery affected over 460 laptop models, and this issue occurred multiple times.

10. A single day of play in the MLB grants players lifetime healthcare coverage, while playing for 43 days guarantees an annual $34,000 pension. The pension also increases with the amount of time spent on an active roster. After 10 years, players will get the maximum of $230,000. Their families get to be on the healthcare plan too.

Missouri boasts some of the loosest alcohol laws in the US due to industry influence. Hard liquor can be sold in grocery stores and gas stations; bars can double as liquor stores; public intoxication is legal; and open containers are permitted in most areas, including by passengers in vehicles.

12. Flushing a toilet with the lid down could potentially reduce airborne particles by up to 50%.

13. The Phantom Time Conspiracy Theory posits that the time period from A.D. 614 to 911 never existed. According to this theory, these extra 300 years of history were fabricated during the Middle Ages to legitimize Otto's claim over the Holy Roman Empire, suggesting that we should be living in the year 1726.

14. In 2008, a single basketball shot may have saved hundreds of lives. Alabama player Mykal Riley made a critical 3-point shot, pushing the game into overtime just moments before an EF-2 Tornado passed by. Had he missed that shot, hundreds of fans could have been in the parking lot when the tornado struck.

15. There are consumers known as harbingers of failure, who often buy products that turn out to be market flops. When these individuals buy a product at least three times, the probability of that product's success drops by 56%.

The once-tasty "red delicious" apple has significantly declined in quality. Supermarkets sought a longer shelf life, but the best-tasting, juicy apples tend to spoil more quickly. Selective breeding transformed the red delicious into a firmer, shinier variety.

17. At least one victim of the Vesuvius Eruption in 79 C.E. was discovered with a vitrified brain, indicating extreme heat had turned their brain to glass.

18. Rapper Otherwize defeated Eminem at the '97 Rap Olympics, winning $500 and a Rolex watch. Unfortunately, the watch was stolen the same night, and he spent his winnings at a bar.

19. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire devised a long-term plan to conquer China, including encouraging mixed marriages between natives and settlers to Hispanize China, making it easier to rule.

20. Less than two weeks after the French surrender in WWII, the British attacked a French naval base to prevent Germany from using the ships. Over 1200 people died, and multiple ships were destroyed or damaged. Vichy France retaliated by bombing Gibraltar and severing diplomatic ties.

The biohazard symbol originally didn't signify or refer to anything specific. It was chosen for its symmetry, distinctiveness, and memorability.

22. NBC offered James Gandolfini a role to replace Michael Scott on "The Office," but HBO paid him $3 million to decline the role.

23. The Eiffel Tower has been painted nearly twenty times, with shades of red, yellow, brown, and grey, but never black.

24. Instead of pesticides, the Mexican state of Coloma releases billions of sterile fruit flies to outcompete fertile ones for mates.

25. Rocky Aoki, founder of Benihana restaurants, was an eclectic individual who didn't know how to cook. He was also a Hall of Fame Wrestler, world-title backgammon player, deep-sea treasure hunter, set a record for the longest balloon flight, raced cars and boats, founded a softcore porn magazine, and is DJ Steve Aoki's father.