Random Fact Sheet #123 – 40 Must-Know Tidbits

Manoj Bhargava, the creator of 5-Hour Energy created the formula in 30 days. He has a net worth of $4 billion and plans to donate 99% of his wealth by creating a series of inventions to help 3rd world countries receive basic functions like water, electricity, and health.

2. Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 but hid the invention because they feared it would jeopardize photographic film sales.

3. Dalai Lama is almost a vegetarian. He alternates. While he advocates vegetarianism, if he is in the company of meat-eaters, he is happy to eat meat. The White House once offered him a vegetarian menu and he declined.

4. The restaurant chain TGI Fridays stopped its waiters from wearing “flair” a few years after the movie 'Office Space', came out because people wouldn’t stop making 'Office Space' references about it.

5. Personality has a larger effect on success than IQ.

The Hobbit crew used up all of the gold paint in Australasia for creating Smaug's lair. They used up so much paint that they had to actually pick more up from Germany.

7. The Snake Detection theory states that humans are remarkably good at noticing snakes, even when camouflaged or when we only get a brief glimpse of them.

8. Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry's wife (Billie Paulette Montgomery) didn't know who he or Aerosmith was when they met. He didn't ever talk about it and she only discovered it a few years later after finding gold records in some old boxes. This was after songs like Walk This Way, Dream On, and Back in the Saddle.

9. During the initial airborne landings on D-Day, paratrooper John Steele got stuck on a church tower. He played dead for 2 hours dangling on the side of the church, was later captured and promptly escaped, fought for the entire day and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

10. On September 11, 2001, Officer John Perry of the NYPD went to headquarters to file retirement paperwork. When he heard the explosion at the world trade center, he immediately responded and was later killed when one of the towers collapsed. He was the only off-duty officer killed on 9/11.

When Fidel Castro learned of a CIA plot to kill him involving his lover (Marita Lorenz) giving him poison pills, he gave her a gun and told her to kill him, but her nerves failed her.

12. The Nirvana drummer / Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl once filled in for a sick drummer of the band 'Cage The Elephant'. He had one day to learn the songs after only hearing them a few times and played them perfectly.

13. The 1994 box office bomb 'Baby's Day Out' was a huge hit in South Asia, beating Star Wars as the most successful American film. It was played for over a year at the largest theater in Calcutta and spawned two remakes.

14. David Bowie ripped into MTV for not embracing black artists in 1983 but Michael Jackson's Thriller likely saved the network.

15. George Lucas tried to be an officer in the US Airforce but was rejected because he had too many speeding tickets.

In figure drawing, a normal person is 7-and-a-half heads tall, but heroic figures like Gods and superheroes are drawn 8-and-a-half heads tall, adding a bigger chest and longer legs.

17. During the Tehran Conference, Stalin proposed over a dinner the execution of 50,000 to 100,000 German officers to prevent Germany from starting another war. Roosevelt, thinking Stalin was joking, said: "49,000 would be enough." Churchill, however, was outraged and denounced "the cold-blooded execution of soldiers who fought for their country". He said that only war criminals should be put on trial in accordance with the Moscow Document, which he himself had written. He stormed out of the room.

18. According to Jon Taffer from American tv series Bar Rescue, if you have a bar with a gang problem they'll be gone within three weeks if every third song played is from a female vocalist.

19. You steadily "dry out" as you age. A newborn human baby is 75% water, adult men are about 60%, adult women 55%, and elderly people are roughly half.

20. An unknown man in Norway has been pooping in golf holes for a decade.

Babies under the age of 1 year should not eat honey because their gut is not developed enough to stop certain harmful bacteria like Clostridium botulinum from infecting the body.

22. Manatees (Sea Cows) regulate their buoyancy by storing and releasing farts.

23. Swiss people are usually subtitled in German TV because their accent is so thick it is virtually unintelligible by speakers of Standard German. Swiss, on the other hand, have no issue understanding Standard German.

24. Heath Ledger created a character diary for the Joker. It included stills from A Clockwork Orange, photos of hyenas, unhinged clown makeup and the word "chaos" highlighted in green. It also contained things the Joker would find funny like AIDS, landmines, and geniuses suffering brain damage.

25. Usain Bolt ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets over 10 days during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.