Random Fact Sheet #158 – 40 Fact To Get Your Brain Working

Unprovoked, American singer Courtney Love picked on Gwen Stefani saying "Being famous is just like being in high school. But I'm not interested in being the cheerleader. I'm not interested in being Gwen Stefani." After that quote, Gwen recorded her first solo album with the cheerleader anthem "Hollaback Girl."

2. In many counties, the coroner is the only law enforcement officer who has the authority to arrest the county sheriff, part of why county coroner is an elected position.

3. The Wiggles, at the peak of their popularity in the late 90s, traveled in two planes so that in the unfortunate event of a crash, half of the group would survive to continue touring.

4. Superman was originally a vigilante fighter and in one instance was fired upon by the National Guard after he destroyed a slum to force the government to build better housing for the poor. He was also often depicted using lethal force and attacking wife beaters, profiteers, and lynch mobs.

5. Rollercoasters were invented to distract Americans from sin. In the 1880s, hosiery businessman LaMarcus Thompson didn’t like that Americans were going to places like saloons and brothels and created the first roller coaster on Coney Island to persuade them to go there instead.

Actor Mel Brooks put on a prosthetic 11th finger for adding his handprint on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

7. A Sixth-grader's science fair project discovered that Truvia sweetener is an insecticide.

8. Many rock drawings of animals by native Americans have turned out to be complex regional maps, with the animals representing herd locations. They were both hunting guides and warning signs.

9. American actress Betty White is older than Mickey Mouse.

10. A pod of orcas hunted cooperatively with early Australian whalers under a "law of the tongue". They would corral and locate prey in return for the tongues and lips of captured whales. The arrangement ended when one of the orcas was accidentally killed.

In 1919, James Cowan Smith donated £55,000 to the National Gallery of Scotland on the condition that a picture of his dog Callum be on display permanently in the Gallery. It still is on display to this day.

12. A Somali pirate named Mohammed Abdi Hassan fell into a "movie trap" in Brussels. Thinking that he would work on a documentary, he was instead arrested as soon as he disembarked from his flight. 

13. Almost an entire French town in 1951 was poisoned by ergot, the fungus LSD is made from. ”I am dead and my head is made of copper and I have snakes in my stomach and they are burning me,” screamed one man before trying to jump into a river.

14. A farmer named Tony Dighera developed a plastic mold to put over his pumpkins so that they grow into the face of Frankenstein. Known as "Pumpkinsteins", it took him 4 years, 27 varieties of pumpkin and $400,000 to perfect his idea.

15. The King (Willem-Alexander) of the Netherlands has been secretly flying as a commercial co-pilot for 21 years and has been doing so even after ascending to the throne in 2013.

It takes 95% less energy to recycle a ton of aluminum cans than to produce anew. 1 ton of recycled aluminum saves an equivalent of 40 barrels of oil.

17. 70% alcohol is better at disinfecting surfaces than 91% alcohol. In one experiment, a 50% alcohol solution killed Staphylococcus Aureus in less than 10 seconds, but a 90% solution failed to kill it even after two hours of contact time.

18. During the early years of American sitcom 30 Rock, Donald Glover was so young when he started on their writing staff that he was still living in a New York University dorm and working there as a Resident Adviser.

19. In 2013, there was a Japanese remake of the film Unforgiven that replaced the gunslingers with Samurai, making it a reverse homage to the westerns that were inspired by Samurai films.

20. Shoplifters were using self-service checkouts to scan expensive fruit and vegetable as carrots at a major United Kingdom supermarket chain. They were only discovered when the supermarket noticed they had sold more carrots than they had ever had in stock.

Rollen Stewart, the “John 3:16 guy” who would wear rainbow wigs and attend numerous sporting events while holding up religious signs in view of television cameras, is currently serving multiple life-sentences in California.

22. Astronauts lose as much as 22% of their blood while in space due to the uniform blood pressure caused by microgravity. Until their body replaces this blood, many returning astronauts can't stand for more than a few minutes without fainting.

23. The Stanley Hotel, the hotel that served as the inspiration for The Shining, plays the movie adaptation on a continuous loop on channel 42.

24. “Percussive Maintenance” is the technical term for banging and shaking something until it works.

25. An inmate named Kevin Pullum escaped Twin Towers Correctional Facility by walking out of an employee exit 2 hours after being convicted of attempted murder. He used a newspaper photograph of actor Eddie Murphy to alter an identification badge.