Random Fact Sheet #124 – 40 Facts That Will Make You Smarter Today

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1Erik Wolpaw

Erik Wolpaw

Erik Wolpaw who wrote the dialogue for the video game “Portal” was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis while working on it. He tried to quit Valve, but Gabe Newell gave him an extended leave and told him that his only job was to get better.


2. Four times as many people are killed by ants every year than are killed by sharks.


3. American stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, which put one of his trademark white shirts and red ties on display. When he handed the shirt to the museum's curator, Rodney joked, "I have a feeling you're going to use this to clean Lindbergh's plane."


4. On their 2000 album 'Hooray for Boobies', the Bloodhound Gang included a track called "The Ten Coolest Things About New Jersey". The song is just 10 seconds of silence.


5. Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, King of Jamnagar in India took in and agreed to look after 1000 orphaned Polish children Jews and Catholics alike who faced an uncertain future during World War 2. The Maharaja told the children, “You may not have your parents, but I am your father now.”


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6Carménère grape

Carménère grape

The Carménère grape was considered extinct, until 1994, when an oenologist went to Chile and discovered that the Merlot he tasted was in fact Carménère. Turns out the grape was accidentally planted and preserved when it was mistaken for Merlot.


7. A woman refused to board a lifeboat when the Titanic was sinking as she refused to be parted from her dog. Several days later, passengers on the SS Bremen passing by the wreckage in the water, saw the body of a woman tightly holding a large shaggy dog in her arms.


8. Poop pills are capsules containing only bacteria from donors' poo which are used to treat gut infections. They have no scent, taste and are as effective as traditional fecal transplants while being much cheaper.


9. Mackinac Island, Michigan is culturally preserved in time and has banned motorized vehicles for over 100 years. Its residents mostly travel by horse-drawn carriages and bikes.


10. The Simpsons' co-creator Sam Simon left most of his fortune to animal charities and feeding the hungry when he passed away from cancer in 2015.


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11Cup Noodles

Cup Noodles

Cup Noodles was invented after Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen, watched as American supermarket executives broke up his ramen to fit into styrofoam coffee cups, added boiling water and then proceeded to eat the ramen with forks.


12. In the 1980s, Pharmaceutical Company Bayer knowingly sold medicine that carried a high risk of transmitting AIDS, infecting thousands of people around the world. After realizing their product was contaminated, Bayer still kept sending the same medicine to Asia and Latin America while selling a new safer version in the West.


13. The famous 500-year-old Treaty Oak was deliberately vandalized in 1989 with enough herbicide to kill over 100 oak trees. It managed to survive and still thrives today, albeit two-thirds of its original size.


14. In Switzerland, it's perfectly legal to download any movie or games you want on the internet for a private usage. You can even share it with your friends.


15. During Prohibition, Pabst Brewing Company stopped making beer and switched to cheese production, selling more than 8 million pounds of Pabst-ett Cheese. When Prohibition ended, the company went back to selling beer, and the cheese line was sold to Kraft.


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16Human

Human

Humans are the only species on earth capable of accurately throwing objects.


17. Emperor Wu of Jin (China) had so many concubines that he had trouble choosing between them, so he often rode his goat-driven carriage around the palace until the goats decided to stop. Because of this many of the women planted bamboo leaves and salt outside their bedrooms to attract the goats.


18. Someone in Voronezh, Russia vandalized a Soviet-era monument not by destroying it, but by painting it to look like Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants.


19. In the 17th century, choir boys as young as eight years old would be castrated in order to preserve their pre-pubescent "angel voices."


20. American businessman Claud Hatcher bought a large amount of Coca-Cola syrup from a salesman and thought he deserved a reduced rate for the amount. When refused, Hatcher vowed to never purchase Coca-Cola again and was determined to develop his own soft drink. He kept his vow and today we have Royal Crown (RC) Cola.


21Platypuses

Platypuses

Platypuses don’t have nipples, despite being mammals and having mammary glands platypuses do not have nipples with which to feed their babies. Instead, they release milk through glands like sweat. The milk then gathers in grooves on the mum’s abdomen where the puggles lap it up.


22. On two separate occasions, Lance Sergeant Johnson Beharry was leading a convoy of vehicles when his vehicle was hit by RPGs. On both occasions, his commander and others inside the vehicle were wounded. Both times he drove his burning vehicle out of the ambush, despite suffering head injuries.


23. Finding Nemo is the second film to be dubbed in Navajo, following the success of Navajo "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope". It was a joint effort between the Navajo Nation Museum and The Walt Disney Studios for more than a year.


24. The only way Louis Pasteur was able to study rabies was to keep a supply of infected animals in the laboratory. His assistants routinely pinned down rabid dogs and collected vials of their foamy saliva and were under orders to shoot anyone that was bitten by the animals in the head.


25. When fluoride was first introduced to American water supplies in the 1940s and 50s it was criticized as a Communist plot to socialize medicine and deplete the brain power of American children.

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