Random Fact Sheet #107 – 40 Facts That Will Make You Challenge Your Assumptions

The Windows XP wallpaper (Bliss) was so expensive that FedEx refused to ship it and was hand-delivered to Microsoft by the photographer Charles O’Rear.

27. Stan Lee generally hates teenage sidekicks, which is why there are so few in the Marvel universe. Jack Kirby felt differently and kept Bucky Barns, who became a valuable sidekick to Captain America.

28. In 2016, an octopus named Inky escaped from her tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier and traveled down a 164 feet long pipe that led her to the South Pacific Ocean.

29. In 1906, a Congolese man named Ota Benga from the Mbuti pygmy tribe was held in a human zoo exhibition in the Bronx, as a display of “earlier stage” of human evolution. In 1916, after getting out and unable to return to his homeland, he shot himself in the heart with a stolen pistol and died at the age of 32.

30. Kelsey Smith-Briggs was murdered 4 months after a judge ordered her to be returned to her biological mother’s home, despite repeated reports of abuse. She was only 2 years old.

When writing a Torah scroll, "an error of a single letter, ornamentation, or symbol of the 304,805 stylized letters that make up the Hebrew Torah text renders it unfit to use."

32. American actor Dana Carvey underwent bypass surgery in 1997 and the surgeon operated on the wrong artery. After suing for medical malpractice, he won and donated his winnings to the charity.

33. TV pickup is a phenomenon where during TV commercial breaks, a large majority of people in Britain will do things that drain electricity, such as turning on the kettle to make tea, which causes a sudden 200-400MW demand on the grid.

34. In 2018, China finished building the world’s biggest air purifier, which is a tower that is 328 feet high. It has helped in reducing smog over 4 square miles.

35. There is an enormous Hexagon on the Saturn's North Pole and each side of the hexagon is approximately 1000 kilometers greater than the diameter of Earth. Although there are numerous theories, nobody is exactly sure what it really is.

In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg spent $30 million buying 4 neighboring houses to ensure his privacy. He reportedly took action after he learned that a developer wanted to purchase one of his neighbor's homes and use the fact that Zuckerberg lived close by as a marketing tactic.

37. Dry powder fire extinguishers can cause diarrhea when the powder comes in contact with your skin.

38. The billionaire founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, has produced a martial arts film named Gong Shou Dao starring himself fighting Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Jason Statham, Manny Pacquiao, and many other legends.

39. The original NBA Jam arcade game generated revenue of over $1 Billion in quarters in its first year.

40. The blood of horseshoe crabs is extremely useful for detecting bacterial endotoxins. Every year humans catch about 500,000 crabs, drain some of their blood, and then release them back into the ocean.