Random Fact Sheet #132 – 40 Little-Known Truths to Wow You

Television ads can use inaudible sound to link your phone, TV, tablet, and PC. Companies can track what commercials you see, how long you watch it, and whether you act on the ad by doing a web search or buying a product.

27. Radiosynthesis is a process similar to photosynthesis where melanin pigment is used to convert gamma radiation into chemical energy for growth. Radiotrophic fungi were discovered in 1991 in and around Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

28. Abercrombie & Fitch founder David T. Abercrombie created a fictional story about the founding of Hollister saying that John Hollister, Sr. emigrated from New York City to the Dutch East Indies, and established his company once returning to California in 1922. In actuality, the company was founded in Ohio in 2000.

29. The bull mascot from Elmer's Glue and the cow mascot from Borden Dairy products are a canonical couple with four children.

30. Zebras fart with every stride when running away from a predator.

A sailor named Howard Blackburn after becoming stranded and losing his mittens in a small boat off the coast of Newfoundland, let his hands freeze in a hooked position so he could row back to shore. He lost all his fingers, but survived and went on to sail across the Atlantic single-handedly.

32. While the guillotine was being prototyped, King Louis XVI "recommended that an oblique blade be used instead of a crescent blade, lest the blade not fit all necks". His own was "offered up discreetly as an example". He was later beheaded in 1793 during the French Revolution.

33. The BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, who killed 10 people between 1974 and 1991, was finally caught after he sent a 1.44MB diskette to the police, which they told him was untraceable. Police recovered metadata from a deleted MS Word file from the disc.

34. Anteaters are incapable of producing their own digestive acids. They instead use formic acid found in the stinging venom of the ants they eat, which essentially means the ants are dissolved in their own acid.

35. Whenever you consume spicy foods, your brain will unleash endorphins and dopamine, which is why many people begin to acquire a craving for spicy foods after they acquire a taste for them.

In the 2000 Paralympics, 10 out of 12 players in Spain's Basketball team were non-disabled, who pretended to have intellectual disabilities. The scandal was exposed after the Paralympics when one of the players was revealed to be an investigative journalist.

37. Piers Morgan was fired as the editor of a popular British newspaper in 2004 after publishing fake photos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers.

38. Florida appears to have lots of interesting criminal stories because of the Government in the Sunshine Act, which forces everything the government does to be out in public. This includes arrest reports and criminal records.

39. A time capsule was buried in the old Nickelodeon Studios in 1992 containing items deemed important by kids, such as a Nintendo Gameboy, a Back to the Future VHS, and Michael Jackson CDs.

40. ABBA's performance costumes were vibrant and colorful because if they could wear them while not performing, they wouldn't be tax deductible under Swedish tax law.