Random Fact Sheet #70 – 32 Facts to Keep You Guessing

Ryan's Rule is a medical precedent in Queensland where, if a person feels their medical concerns are not being taken seriously, they can request a re-evaluation. This rule came about after a 3-year-old child died of a bacterial infection after a hospital doctor declined to perform blood tests.

2. Maroon 5 was banned from China after keyboardist Jesse Carmichael wished the Dalai Lama of Tibet a happy birthday on Twitter.

3. The oldest mummies in the world are turning into black slime. Over 100 Chinchorro mummies found near the Atacama Desert in Chile are turning gelatinous due to bacterial growth associated with increasing humidity. The mummies date to ~5000 B.C.

4. In order to circumvent a ban on shorts, Swedish male train drivers have started wearing skirts to work.

5. Australia's largest cattle ranch (Anna Creek Station) is slightly larger than Israel.

Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street was funded by Riza Aziz who diverted $155 million from Malaysian wealth fund 1MDB economic development company. In addition, his step-father (Prime Minister Najib Razak) channeled $700 million into his personal account. 1MDB has no company address and was issued a $3 billion bond by Goldman Sachs.

7. Surveyors have found that the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben) has developed a tilt. Experts say even though the tilt is visible to the naked eye, at its current speed, it would take some 4,000 years to reach the angle of the Leaning Tower of PISA.

8. The tradition of putting Christmas lights up outside started in Denver, Colorado on Christmas Eve, 1914. D.D. Sturgeon, the founder of Sturgeon Electric, wanted to give his ill son some Christmas joy, so he wrapped his pine trees with electric bulbs, which were dipped in red and green paint.

9. Our weeks have 7 days because the ancient Babylonians had one day for each known celestial body: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.

10. Kim Peek, a savant who was the inspiration for the Rain Man movie, could read both pages of an open book at once, one page with one eye and the other page with the other eye.

Bangkok's real name is "Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit".

12. American showman PT Barnum bought a blind, elderly slave with a shrunken appearance and toured the country with her while claiming she was 161 years old and had breastfed George Washington when he was a baby. When she died, Barnam then sold her to a surgeon and had her autopsy performed live on Broadway.

13. Among OkCupid users, men ranked women's attractiveness in an almost perfectly even distribution and the majority as average. Women ranked 80% of men as worse looking than average, and all the site's male founders as "significantly worse looking."

14. The old man that fixes Woody in Toy Story 2 is named Geri and is actually a character from a previous Pixar short, Geri's Game.

15. The gene for having an extra finger is dominant opposed to the normal 5 fingers in each hand which is recessive.

The raven in It's A Wonderful Life was called Jimmy and starred in over 1000 films over a 20 year period.

17. The Kingsmen's famous "Louie Louie" had sold only 600 copies before it was played in a "worst album of the week" radio spot, eventually propelling it to a million sales and the Billboard #2 hit. The band had already broken up.

18. 9 out of the 18 songs on Eminem’s “Marshall Mathers LP” make references to killing women.

19. There are 5 times more former vegetarians/vegans than current ones.

20. Terminal patients may exhibit a burst of energy and lucidity near death. It is known as Terminal Lucidity.

When Coca-Cola created the modern image of Santa Claus in their advertisements, Santa was depicted without a wedding ring, causing fans to write to Coca-Cola asking whether he was still married to Mrs. Claus.

22. Beethoven's 9th Symphony is traditionally performed in Japan at the end of the year, which was introduced in World War 1 by German prisoners. In December 2009, for example, there were 55 performances of the symphony throughout Japan.

23. Half of the 12 men who've walked on the moon still are alive, youngest is Charles Duke at 82, oldest is Buzz Aldrin at 87.

24. American politician and former vice president Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) argued against the idea of a standing army, comparing it to a standing penis: "An excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."

25. Gavrilo Princip, the man that assassinated Franz Ferdinand and started World War 1, was arrested and when in prison, contracted Skeletal Tuberculosis. It started eating his bones so badly that when his arm was amputated, he weighed 40 kilograms (88 pounds).