Random Fact Sheet #125 – 35 Fun Facts to Spark Your Curiosity

Humans can detect individuals that are blood-related kin through the sense of smell (Olfaction). This is thought to be an evolved defense against incest.

27. John F. Kennedy's thick head of hair and perpetual tan weren't due to being fit and healthy. Just the opposite, they were side effects of one of the many drugs he took, and he was actually chronically ill.

28. A jew named Fritz Bauer and Germany's first post-war Federal Attorney was essential in building up a democratic Germany. He prosecuted former Nazis but got threats from his own work colleagues and his superiors. He was found dead in 1968 and cremated immediately without autopsy against court orders.

29. When the body of Layne Staley, the lead singer of Alice In Chains was discovered, it weighed 86 pounds. He was 6 foot tall and suffered from depression, and addiction to speed and cocaine.

30. Due to the effect that gravity has on time, the core of the earth is approximately 2.5 years younger than the surface.

The 2904 Run is a New York to Los Angeles car race inspired by the Cannonball Run. The objective is to drive the 2904 miles from New York to California on a budget of $2,904 and that includes the car, fuel, toll, tickets, food, etc. The current record is 32 hours and 5 minutes.

32. Most chewing gum made since World War 2 is based on synthetic petroleum polymers, making it non-biodegradable. Gum is the 2nd most littered object and is expensive and time-consuming to clean up.

33. Ornithologist Ken Stager was appalled at the predations by feral pigs upon an island's brown and masked bird booby colonies, which reduced them from 500 to 150. He proceeded to procure a shotgun and blasted all 58 pigs on the island, saving the birds which rebounded to form the largest colony in the world (25,000+ & 112,000).

34. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy shared a scene in a 1964 episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." - and both had forgotten about the scene by the time they first met on the set of Star Trek.

35. Ship's paint used to contain a chemical that caused female sea snails to grow penises and burst.