Random Fact Sheet #64 – World is Weirder Than You Think: 30 Bizarre Facts

There are two birth anomalies - superfecundation (twins with separate fathers) and chimerism (absorbed twins), that if combined, will create a single human with two biological fathers.

2. The CIA admitted to the existence of Area 51 in 2013, eight years after a Freedom of Information Act request was filed.

3. Van Gogh sold a total of one painting (The Red Vineyard) during his lifetime.

4. In 2015, the director of Paranormal Activity produced "Area 51", about four friends sneaking into the secret base. The movie budget was $5 million, but it grossed only $7556, losing 99.8%.

5. Those responsible for the hack of Target's customers' credit card data entered through the HVAC system's internet connection which was serviceable via the web and connected to the same server as the credit card data.

The very first photo to have a human in it wasn't intended to be a portrait and ended up taking several minutes for the exposure. Anything that was moving was not visible.

7. In 2002, a woman named Barbara Hanson won £13,000 in compensation from an airline after she was squashed by an obese woman during an 11-hour flight. When the plane landed, she had internal bleeding, severe bruising and torn leg muscles.

8. The Shriners (known for the Shriners Hospitals) is a body of Freemasons dedicated to fun, brotherly love, relief, and truth.

9. In 1996 Tonya Harding, by then already a scandalous figure from the 1994 skating incidents, gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an 81-year-old woman who collapsed at a bar in Portland and was credited with saving her life.

10. Aldrich Ames was an alcoholic and average CIA agent, who sold out CIA secrets to the Soviets. At the time of his arrest, he had compromised more CIA assets than any other mole in history and had even passed two polygraph tests.

Steve Albini, who produced Nirvana's "In Utero", took a flat fee of $100,000 and refused to take percentage points on record sales which would have earned him about $500,000. He considered it to be immoral and "an insult to the artist".

12. Blood Falls is a waterfall in Antarctica made up of primordial bacteria which have been sealed away from the rest of the earth for millions of years.

13. The Russian F.S.B. (formerly KGB) figured out a way to open and then reseal a tamperproof urine specimen jar to cheat in the 2014 winter Olympics.

14. The Soviets used mobile gas chamber vans to execute groups of counter-revolutionaries during The Great Purge of the 1930's.

15. The man who scored "Thor: Ragnarok" was part of Devo in the 1980's when they released their hit song, "Whip It", and is actually the one whipping people's clothes off in the music video.

Though President Nixon is often praised for having created the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), he only did so because Congress was eyeing the creation of a Department of Environmental Protection (presidents have more control over agencies than departments).

17. During the 1943 Bengal genocide in India, Winston Churchill as part of the war effort, diverted food from starving Indians to already well-supplied british soldiers and stores elsewhere in Europe. 3 million Indians starved to death. Churchill's response was to ask why Gandhi hadn't died yet.

18. The current emperor (Akihito) of Japan has published scientific papers in Taxonomy and has a goby species named after him.

19. After Keith Moon passed out on stage performing with 'The Who', Pete Townshend asked the crowd if anyone knew how to play drums. Scot Halpin, a fan, finished the show with the band.

20. Hawaii wasn’t a state when Pearl Harbor was bombed in World War 2.

Salted butter can be left out of the fridge indefinitely. The salt soaks up the moisture in the butter that would otherwise be a breeding ground for bacteria.

22. Northeast Greenland National Park is bigger than all but 29 countries in the world. It features 5000 - 15,000 musk oxen and no permanent human population.

23. Mozart was one of the first to pirate music. He heard Miserere while in a chapel and transcribed the entire composition from memory later that day.

24. President Andrew Johnson was drunk during his inauguration.

25. Norway wanted to give Finland a mountain for its 100th birthday.