Random Fact Sheet #21 – 30 Cool Facts To Calm Down Your Mood

In the late 1980s, young punk rockers in Cuba, known as “Los Frikis,” were so fed-up with the stifling life of the communist regime that they chose to inject themselves with the AIDS virus so they could live in a sanitarium and be free from constant police-state harassment.

2. In 2015, 2 men escaped paying for their £140 (€195) taxi fare by bringing a mannequin wearing a hat with them into the car. After they both got out (leaving the mannequin) they told the cabbie where their "sleeping friend" lived and that he would settle up payment at the end of the journey.

3. Queen Elizabeth II is a trained mechanic. She learned her skills in World War 2 (1945) as part of the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

4. There used to be a system of mountain beacons, much like in Lord Of The Rings, where a message could be sent hundreds of miles in less than an hour.

5. Marie Curie is the only person to ever win two Nobel Prizes in differing science fields in chemistry and physics.

A super massive star called Eta Carinae (7,500 light years from Earth) is nearing the end of its life. It could explode tomorrow or 1000 years from now in what is known as a supernova. The explosion will create a blast so violent that its flash will briefly outshine the entire Milky Way.

7. The sculptor of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Gutzon Borglum, planned to make a secret room behind the hairline of Abraham Lincoln which was supposed to be a doorway to a chamber originally intended to hold some of America's most treasured documents but was left unfinished due to his death.

8. 35 restaurants in China were busted or under investigation for dosing food with opium poppy in order to get customers hooked.

9. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was under Martial Law. The government fingerprinted residents, imposed blackouts & curfews, rationed food & gasoline, censored the news and media, censored all mail, and prohibited alcohol. Violations meant punishment without appeal by military tribunals.

10. Double Stuf Oreos are actually made with less than double the creme of a regular Oreo (1.86 times the cream of a regular Oreo).

Between 1798 and the Civil War, the U.S. Navy lost two-thirds as many officers to dueling as it did to more than 60 years of combat at sea.

12. The Declaration of Independence refers to Native Americans as "The Merciless Indian Savages".

13. Two notes can be sung by one person at the same time, also known as polyphonic overtone singing.

14. On March 12 1981, two different comic strips, with the same name and same general idea were published on the same day, one in the USA and the other in the UK, created by two different artists, who had absolutely no knowledge of one another. The comic strip in question is Dennis the Menace.

15. Yisrael Kristal, due to being unable to do so at age 13 because of World War 1, celebrated his bar mitzvah one hundred years later at age 113 in 2016.

Ypsilanti, Michigan is home to the 'Brick D*ck', a water tower officially recognized as 'The most phallic building in the world.'

17. Jon Ronson wrote a book about the dangers of online shaming that took a sympathetic stance towards the victims, he was targeted and shamed by an online mob.

18. Canada has passed a law banning genetic discrimination when providing a service or signing a contract, among other things and which is now included within the Canadian Human Rights Act.

19. Lyndall Scott Russell, a military wife who invested $315 in 15 shares of an insurance company in 1950. The insurance company became Safeco, and after 9 stock splits and dividends reinvested, her $315 investment turned into over 33000 shares making her a multimillionaire.

20. A soccer ball that was on board Space Shuttle Challenger, was recovered and is now in orbit around Earth aboard the International Space Station.

Spiders can't chew or swallow, so they inject poison into their prey which turns the insides of insect to a watery goop and spider just suck it up.

22. Michael Jackson was the one to suggest to Queen that "Another one Bites The Dust" (written by Queen bassist John Deacon) should be released as a single. Even though Queen didn't think it would do that well.

23. A 1982 World Cup incident where Kuwait's Sheikh stormed onto the field from the stands and threatened to pull his players unless a goal he perceived to be unfair was reversed. The referee then disallowed the goal, marking the only time a World Cup decision was vetoed by a member of the crowd.

24. Scientists use cancer's drive to grow uncontrollably to trick it into producing vast amounts of antibodies to fight, among other diseases, cancer itself.

25. The Paul Hogan "Shrimp on the Barbie" TV commercials were very effective. Australia rose from #78 to #1 or #2 on Americans' list of "dream vacations" after the TV ads began running from 1984 to 1990. They made Hogan famous in the US before 'Crocodile Dundee' (1986) made him a film star.