Random Fact Sheet #65 – 35 True Facts That Will Leave You Baffled

The most Edgar Allen Poe was paid for a single work was $100 for his story 'The Gold Bug'. He earned $9 for his most famous poem 'The Raven' which made him a celebrity. He lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life—except in hope, which is by no means bankable".

2. American business magnate Steve Jobs once told a reporter that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things", he did in his life.

3. The US Postmaster General is the 2nd highest paid US government official behind the president.

4. Calico cats are almost always female, and orange cats are almost always male.

5. South Korean women are nearly 8 inches (approximately 20 cm) taller today than 100 years ago.

Roland the Farter, the court jester of Henry II was given a manor in exchange for having to perform 'One Jump, One Whistle, and One Fart' at each Christmas.

7. The alien in the Alien movie was played by a Nigerian man named Bolaji Badejo. He died of sickle cell anemia in 1992, at the age of 39.

8. Pencils never actually contained lead. People just called it that because they thought graphite was a type of lead.

9. Serbian wedding guests accidentally downed a small plane with celebratory gunfire in 2003.

10. On the 1996 opening day of the Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, Steven Spielberg boarded the ride but requested that he be let off before the 86 foot (26 m) drop.

Studies have found that having polling places in churches tend to lead to more conservative voting results and having polling places in schools yields more liberal voting results.

12. A stop-motion animator for Robot Chicken uses a modified Nintendo Power Glove for his work.

13. A professor at Indiana University launched a system of gaining experience points through classwork instead of giving out traditional grades.

14. There once was a guild in Germany that entirely controlled the production of gingerbread.

15. Vegetarians were found to be twice as likely to suffer from depression than the general population. Among possible causes, diets low in B-12, too much Omega-6 which is linked to mental health issues, and higher amounts of phytoestrogens due to soy-based diets.

When learning new phrases in a foreign language, hearing those phrases sung and then singing them has been shown to lead to better results than hearing them spoken normally and then repeating them the same way.

17. Rudolph Diesel took his inspiration for inventing the Diesel engine from watching a lecture where there was a demonstration of a Malaysian fire starting technique called the 'fire piston' which creates flames through air compression.

18. Scientists have developed a super strong, flexible Bio-glue for wound healing without causing toxicity. It has been inspired by an adhesive material (glue) secreted by slugs that stick to biological tissues.

19. The Greater Fool Theory states that the price of an object is determined not by its intrinsic value, but rather by irrational beliefs and expectations of market participants.

20. NASA developed a form of concrete that doesn't need water, to be used as a construction material on the Moon.

Magnus Carlson played 10 chess games simultaneously with his back turned and won 7 of them.

22. During the final stages of freezing to death, you may feel very overheated and take off your clothes before "terminal burrowing", which is also known as "hide-and-die syndrome".

23. Home Depot has a monthly do it yourself project for kids that is free at every location.

24. Jadin Bell was a sophomore in high school, where he committed suicide due to excessive bullying. His father planned to walk across the country to spread awareness for bullying, where he was killed by a semi-truck.

25. Eggs from hens raised on pastures "contain twice as much vitamin E and long-chain omega-3 fats, 2.5-fold more omega-3 fatty acids, and less than half the ratio of omega-6 : omega-3 fatty acids" than eggs from commercial hens.