Random Fact Sheet #69 – 36 Facts to Expand Your Horizons

Before he was assassinated, Archduke Franz Ferdinand had plans to federalize his empire, creating the United States of Greater Austria.

2. Brass, Copper and some other alloys, when used as doorknobs in hospitals, kill bacteria, even antibiotic ones such as MRSA far faster than steel and aluminum due to the Oligodynamic Effect.

3. Albert Einstein mused that he would have liked to have been a plumber, and promptly was awarded honorary membership in the plumbers’ union.

4. The makeup process for 'The Grinch' was so grueling, Jim Carrey had to meet with an expert who trained CIA operatives to deal with torture.

5. The taste, color, and texture of natural honey are based on where bees get their pollen and nectar. Univarietal honey, such as blueberry honey, is created by placing a hive within about a 3-mile radius of where there is an abundance of one type of plant blooming.

Massive, commercial fishing nets are simply thrown into the ocean after their service life, posing a huge threat to marine life.

7. A typical microwave oven consumes more electricity powering its clock than it does heating food.

8. The Chinese population census margin of error (26 million) is bigger than the population of 180 countries.

9. After the holidays, the Rockefeller Christmas Tree is milled into lumber and donated to Habitat For Humanity to be used for building homes.

10. After their famed snow run, Balto and his fellow sled dogs were sold to a freak show in Los Angeles. After over 2 years living in horrible conditions, they were rescued by the efforts of the entire city of Cleveland, Ohio.

The movie studio responsible for The Hangover halved director Todd Phillips' $6.5 million fee because no big actor was attached to the film. Instead, Phillips requested a cut of the profits which netted him close to $70 million.

12. Rubies and sapphires are scientifically the same minerals. Rubies are the red variety and sapphires encompass any other color, with blue being the most popular and common.

13. The term "Walking Ghost" refers to the period of time shortly after an individual is exposed to toxic radiation when the victim appears perfectly healthy.

14. At one point, 50% of all CDs worldwide had the AOL logo printed on them.

15. Emperor Hirohito offered to order all the Japanese to convert to Christianity to end the imperial religion, but general MacArthur refused, saying it would be wrong to force a whole nation to convert.

If we were given glasses that perfectly inverted our eyesight and turned everything upside-down, our brains would eventually figure it out and flip said things right-side-up again.

17. The copy of Charlie Hebdo magazine released after the terror attack, sold nearly 8 million copies, compared to their prior usual of 60,000 copies.

18. An individual red knot bird, tagged as B-95 (Moonbird), has flown the distance to the moon and halfway back over his lifetime.

19. In 1962, at the University of Texas at Austin, Janis Joplin (American rock singer) was voted "ugliest man on campus".

20. Ted Kaczynski (The UNABOMBER), Ramzi Yousef (The '93 WTC Bomber), and Timothy McVeigh (The Oklahoma City Bomber) all become friends in Federal Supermax prison, and would regularly discuss religion and politics to pass time.

The tallest cactus (Pachycerreus pringlei) ever recorded was over 6 stories tall.

22. There is a disaster scenario where North Korea starts blasting satellites out of the air just out of spite, ruining communications for the entire world.

23. Professional skateboarder Brandon Novak gives out his phone number on the internet to speak to strangers battling addiction. People have said he talked to them for an hour and then 20 more times over the next month.

24. Chung Ju-Yung, the founder of Hyundai, originally wanted to become a school teacher, but his family's dire financial situation made him unable to get a higher education. Instead, he ran away from his family to Seoul, where he started a construction company, Hyundai, in 1947.

25. Germany has the most diverse selection and production of bread in the world with 200 types of bread.