Random Fact Sheet #251 – Randomness at its Best: 35 Unpredictable Facts

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1William Anakin

William Anakin

In 1908, William "Bigfoot" Anakin, a local champion was taken along by a publican to court to help demonstrate that darts were not gambling, it was a game of skill. Bigfoot showed that whatever number the court mentioned, he could hit on the board. The judge agreed darts was a game of skill.


2. Charles Bello bought 240 acres of redwoods for $45,000 in 1968 to protect them from logging and continues to live there today in a parabolic cabin powered by solar power.


3. Jelly Belly once tried to make a cheese-pizza flavored jelly bean. The taste was so bad that they used it as the vomit flavored Bertie Bott’s jelly bean instead.


4. Orion P. Howe was a 14-year-old drummer boy who received the Medal of Honor during the Civil War for volunteering to supply ammunition under heavy fire. He experienced 14 battles, and after the war, he joined the Naval Academy because he was still too young for West Point.


5. Your printer puts information in every sheet you print that will allow authorities to track any printed page back to your printer. This hidden information most likely survives scans and photos of your printed documents, allowing those to be tracked as well.


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6Asiatic cheetah

Asiatic cheetah

Cheetahs are native to Asia in addition to Africa. The Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered subspecies whose range has shrunk to Iran's central plateau. It's believed that there were fewer than 50 individuals in the wild as of 2017.


7. Jack Phillips, a 25-year-old Godalming-born telegraphist was aboard the Titanic when it hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912. He stayed at his post until the ship sank, frantically contacting nearby ships, in an attempt to save hundreds of lives. His body was never found.


8. Phil Collins of Genesis band is the largest private collector of Alamo Memorabilia valued in the tens of millions. He donated the collection to the state-owned historical site. He is also considered a leading expert on the battle and wrote a book documenting the collection and history.


9. The days of the week come from the Norse names for the 7 Ptolemaic planets: Sun's day, Moon's day, Tiw's day, Woden's day, Thor's day, Freya's day, and Saturn's day.


10. Nikola Tesla, widely known as the inventor of the AC power system, also installed the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls in 1896. It was around this time that Tesla also disavowed coal and oil in favor of renewable energy sources.


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11Honey Badger

Honey Badger

The skin of a Honey Badger is tough enough to resist several machete blows and is almost impervious to arrows and spears.


12. McDonald's buys a lot of apples. As of 2016, McDonald's sold more than 10% of all sliced apples in the US. At its core, the apple industry resurgence over the last decade can be traced, at least in part, to McDonald's.


13. Movie ratings are decided by a board of up to 10 parents who are all anonymous and all live in Los Angeles.


14. American author Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian at the age of 26 and committed suicide at the age of 30. He didn't live to see Conan become successful and is considered to be the father of sword and sorcery.


15. The star of Columbo, Peter Falk, has legislation called "Peter Falk's Law" named after him. It prevents children of sick parents being prevented from access or information about their parents' physical and mental condition.


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16Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt boxed regularly as New York governor and later as president. He stopped when he was struck so hard during a sparring session that he became blind in his left eye. His sparring partner didn't even learn this until he read about it years later.


17. Wendy's founder Dave Thomas regretted using his daughter's name. Not long before he died he told his daughter: "I should've just named it after myself, because it put a lot of pressure on you."


18. Screech owls keep blind snakes as pets/housekeepers. The snakes are carried to the owl's nest. The snakes then burrow into it and eat bugs that would otherwise pose a threat to the owl's young.


19. A disgruntled game development student made a hilariously terrible animation of a dancing bear as a protest that he learned nothing from an animation class, by only utilizing techniques taught in the class. It became a meme after a friend uploaded it to youtube; he also got an A.


20. Iceland has a genealogy book containing details of every Icelander going back as far as the 9th century.


21Glenda Jackson

Glenda Jackson

Two-time Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson quit acting in 1992 to join the British parliament. She became a junior minister in the Blair government and had aspirations to be Mayor of London. In 2015, at the age of 78, she quit politics, reverted to acting, and won a Tony Award.


22. Some people don't like vegetables like cabbage and broccoli due to genes that make their taste buds super sensitive to having more of a protein that interlocks with phenylthiocarbamide, causing the sensation of bitterness. A very similar compound is found in brassicas, causing a similar reaction.


23. A Brazilian aviator named Santos Dumont believed that air travel would bring world peace. Therefore he offered his works for free. He was accused of espionage during World War 1 and he killed himself after witnessing planes being used in warfare.


24. Despite their fearsome reputation, Spartan warriors were no more effective in battle than any other Greek solider, Sparta lost as many battles as it won, and Spartans' brutal training resembled indoctrination of child soldiers and not combat training.


25. "Fart" is one of the oldest words in the English language, and can be traced back to its Proto-Indo-European roots through its cognates in other European languages and Sanskrit.

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