Random Fact Sheet #189 – 40 Facts You Didn’t Know You Were Missing

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26Telephone of the Wind

Telephone of the Wind

On a hill overlooking the ocean in Otsuchi Town in northeastern Japan is a phone booth known as the "Telephone of the Wind". It is connected to nowhere, but people come to "call" family members lost during the tsunami of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.


27. Groundhogs and Woodchucks are the same animals.


28. During the bombing of Koriyama, Japan in April 1945, a white phosphorus bomb prematurely ignited in a B-29 plane. Crewman Henry Erwin picked up the bomb and threw it out the window, saving the plane and crew while suffering severe burns as a result. He was given a Medal of Honor for this action.


29. After the War of the Worlds broadcast, a similar stunt was tried in Ecuador. Once listeners realized it was a hoax they surrounded the radio station and burned it down with around 100 people still inside. Survivors leaped out of windows but 6-20 people died.


30. Helicopter 66 recovered astronauts from Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 giving it the status "one of the most famous, or at least most iconic, helicopters in history."


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31Spy

Spy

A 14-year-old boy created an elaborate plan where he created several personas including a spy, homosexual stalker, and teenage girl, all in an attempt to convince a fellow boy to murder him.


32. Amish people end formal education at the 8th grade. This is mainly because they value apprenticeship and hands-on learning, and that more advanced learning can foster anti-Christian beliefs and counter their values.


33. Noisestorm earned $50,000 from Epic Games for using their Unreal 4 game engine to create the music video for Crab Rave, "for having the most creative and original use of their software. "


34. "Chocolate Poisoning" isn't just for dogs and cats. Humans can be poisoned by chocolate if they eat enough. The cause is a substance called Theobromine, found in chocolate, tea, and cola drinks. Dogs and cats metabolize it slowly which is why smaller doses are deadlier to them.


35. Ernest Hemmingway was gifted a 6-toed cat named Snow White. Snow White's 40-50 descendants still live at his Florida home. Over half of them also have 6 toes.


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36Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam contains enough concrete to pave a 16-foot-wide, 8-inch-thick road from San Francisco to New York City.


37. Russia attempted to send a satellite, Luna 15, to the moon to collect rocks and fire them back to Earth to beat the US in obtaining them first. In the end, Luna 15 crashed into the moon a safe distance away, just a few hours before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin began their journey home.


38. The inventor of the GameBoy and Duck Hunt, Gunpei Yokoi, died in his fifties after rear-ending someone and then being hit by a car when he went to check on them.


39. American author Ursula K. Le Guin once rejected an offer from Hayao Miyazaki to adapt her Earthsea series for the screen but changed her mind after watching Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro.


40. The Milano cookie was created as a result of Pepperidge Farm's original cookie the Naples, a single vanilla wafer with dark chocolate filling on top. When shipped to warmer climates, the cookies would end up stuck together. The company resolved the problem by sandwiching Naples cookies together.

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