Random Fact Sheet #180 – 40 Wackiest Facts You Didn’t Know

In 2007, 2008 and every year from 2011 to 2015, a 6-foot Lego Minifigure washed up on the shore somewhere in the world with the words "NO REAL THAN YOU ARE" written on it. They are all signed by "Ego Leonard" (or L, Ego), an artist whose actual name and identity are unknown.

27. In “The Descent of Man”, Charles Darwin wrote only twice of “survival of the fittest” but 95 times about love, 92 times about moral sensitivity, and 200 times about mind and brain.

28. In 1960, soul singer Jesse Belvin played to Arkansas' first ever racially integrated audience. The performance was interrupted twice by white protesters. After the show, Belvin was killed in a head-on collision. It was discovered that his car tires had been slashed.

29. Longer basketball shorts became a thing when Michael Jordan asked Champion, the maker of NBA uniforms, to make longer shorts so he could grab onto them when he hunched over out of breath.

30. Shia LaBeouf was so unpopular on the sets of Fury for his antics (face cutting, tooth pulling, not washing to get into character) that he was given a separate room in a bed and breakfast away from the rest of the cast during filming.

A former professional sumo wrestler named Kōnoshin Suga came forward in a tell-all book with allegations of match-rigging, drug use, sexcapades, tax evasion, and close ties to the mafia. Both he and his co-writer were found dead in the same hospital, hours apart on the same day.

32. According to the Constitution, a Constitutional Convention can be convened if 2/3 of the states (currently 34 states) ask for it. At such a convention, amendments to the constitution can be proposed bypassing Congress. Due to vague wording, the scope and power of such a convention are unknown.

33. Kurt Warner was cut from the NFL and got a job at a grocery store in Iowa. Four years later, at the age of 27, Warner would lead the St. Louis Rams to their only Super Bowl Championship, setting several league records, as well as being the only player in history to win the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP.

34. The heart-shaped seeds of the Silphium plant are why we associate hearts with romance. Besides being used in food and medicine, Silphium was one of the first genuinely effective birth control. It's believed the Romans drove it to extinction.

35. In 2006, the Mythbusters tested the myth that cardboard used in cereal boxes are healthier than the sugary cereal itself. Two groups of mice were given either item and the box group ended up eating each other while both Mythbusters made remarks about it. The myth was promptly never shown on TV.

Cockroaches won't eat cucumbers. This is due to a chemical in cucumbers (trans-2-nonenal) which acts as a natural repellent for ants and roaches.

37. David Bowie's last live performance was singing "Little Fat Man" at a Ricky Gervais gig at Madison Square Garden in 2007.

38. Brendan Gleeson (the man who played Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter movies) is the father of Domhnall Gleeson (the man who played Bill Weasley).

39. In 2016, Pentagon ordered its staff to stop playing ‘Pokemon Go’ with a memo titled “Pokemon stop” and advised them to play the game only when outside.

40. When Oregon was granted statehood in 1859, it was the only state in the Union admitted with a constitution that forbade black people from living, working, or owning property there. It was illegal for black people even to move to the state until 1926.