Random Fact Sheet #103 – 40 Awesome Random Facts You Need to Know

Lisa Robin Kelly, who played Eric Foreman’s older sister on “That 70s Show”, had a major drinking and drug problem, due to which she was replaced on the show. She eventually overdosed on drugs in rehab.

2. The worth of the real estate land owned ($16 billion) by the Macy’s department store chain is more than the worth of the company itself ($6.4 billion).

3. Notorious mafia boss "Lucky" Luciano aided the World War 2 effort from his prison cell by ordering his men to protect the East Coast from foreign invasion and convincing his Italian mafia contacts to help the Allies during their invasion of Sicily.

4. When Francis Ford Coppola asked Al Pacino if he would star in ‘Apocalypse Now,’ Pacino replied, “I know what this is going to be like. You're going to be up there in a helicopter telling me what to do, and I'm gonna be down in a swamp for five months." The shoot actually lasted 16 months.

5. A 2014 paper showed that the game 'The Floor is Lava' would not be playable with actual lava, as the air above the lava would have a temperature too high for humans to survive for more than a few seconds.

While Richard Nixon was on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1959, high levels of radiation were detected in the room he was staying in. Secret Service purposely argued about the radiation and how to handle it in an area they knew the Soviets had bugged. Three hours later, the radiation disappeared.

7. In the years following the American president Kennedy assassination, when she found herself in need of money, Lee Harvey Oswald's mother named Marguerite Oswald would go to Dealey Plaza and sell her autograph to tourists.

8. Sheep shearing is not animal cruelty. If sheep are not sheared they can experience a lot of health problems. A sheep in Australia went unsheared for six years after it escaped a farm. When he was found, he had five times the wool of normal sheep, with damaged hooves and skin infections from urine trapped under his wool.

9. Residents of a UK housing estate installed special pink lights that highlight skin blemishes and acne to discourage teenagers from gathering there and causing trouble.

10. There is a colony of ants with no queen, no males and no offspring, which is comprised entirely of non-reproductive females that live in a disused nuclear bunker in Poland. The colony is supplemented by ants falling through holes in the ventilation from which they cannot escape.

Salvador Dalí designed the Chupa Chups logo. He also suggested that rather than being placed on the side, the logo should be placed on top of the lollipop allowing it to always be seen when intact.

12. Humans have a negativity bias that makes us continuously look for bad news. The trait stems from early humans who developed it as a survival mechanism.

13. Ants have been found to care and treat other ants after raid on a termite nest and mortally wounded ants have been found to refuse treatment.

14. A 72-year-old man named Jim Anixter is nicknamed the “pink hat man” because he owns Cub’s tickets and sits behind the home plate, but wears a pink hat so that his wife knows that he is at the game and not cheating on her.

15. During World War 2, a German agent named Marius A. Langbein landed in Canada to observe and report shipping movements at Montreal and Halifax. Soon after landing, he abandoned his assigned task and moved to live in Ottawa, where he lived off his mission funds. He eventually surrendered to authorities and was found not guilty of espionage.

The Mir Russian space station that launched in 1986 lasted for 15 years. It hosted the first wheat grown in space, the longest human presence, and survived several fires. When it began falling apart, astronaut Mike Foale said it was “a bit like a frat house, but more organized and better kept.”

17. Sleeping under a weighted blanket can help reduce insomnia and anxiety.

18. Operation Popeye carried out by USA was the first example of weather warfare. During the Vietnam War, C-130 Hercules aircrafts and F-4 Phantoms were used to “seed” the clouds which would cause them to precipitate with an 82% success rate. The 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron carried out the operation using the slogan “make mud, not war.”

19. The first thing we develop in the womb is an anus. For the first few seconds of life, we are floating anuses.

20. Japanese researchers have discovered that administering an electrical shock that simulates a lightning strike can increase mushroom yields leading to more and bigger mushrooms.

Commercials of American restaurant chain ‘Jack in the Box’ featuring its mascot ‘Jack Box’ was launched as a PR campaign after ‘Jack in the Box’ had one of the worst E. coli outbreaks in US History in 1993 due to which four children died.

22. A polar bear won't set off an infrared motion detector.

23. Green smarties are strawberry flavored.

24. The punishment for theft in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s rule was amputation of the right hand and a branding on the forehead. Doctors who performed cosmetic procedures to hide the brand had their right hand amputated and their forehead branded.

25. The guns on the HMS Belfast, the battleship moored on the Thames, are aimed at a service station in North London.