Random Fact Sheet #87 – 40 Facts That Will Leave You Mind-Boggled

The last time the Olympics were in Korea (1988), North Korean agents tried to derail the games by blowing a passenger plane (Korean Air Flight 858) and killing 115 people.

27. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds.

28. The original title of the first “Star Wars” film was “Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars”.

29. Madrid has the oldest running restaurant in the world named Sobrino de Botín which hasn't closed its doors once since its founding in 1725.

30. There is a hotel named Palacio de Sal in Bolivia made completely out of salt and licking the walls is strictly forbidden.

The English rock band Oasis was once so popular in Britain that a single was released consisting entirely of the Gallagher brothers arguing during an interview, and the single hit #52 on the UK charts.

32. A man named Beau Brummell is largely responsible for the modern suit becoming the standard formal dress of western men for the next 200 years, replacing stockings.

33. In 2006, Petra, a female black swan made headlines in Germany after falling in love with a swan-shaped pedal boat, following it around and sheltering next to it for two years. Petra then disappeared, causing a nationwide search, and was spotted several years after with a real swan this time.

34. Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry, held for almost 10 years and freed in 2013, has a TV segment on the Cleveland news dedicated to finding missing people.

35. In order to graduate from Cornell University, you must pass a swim test.

A Canadian college named British Columbia Institute of Technology installed sleep pods for students to nap in the library. The units are not sound-proof at all and have been placed directly next to computer workstations which the school hopes will help prevent any bad behavior.

37. The home remedy of ginger for nausea actually has some science behind it. It turns out ginger contains a substance called gingerol which is converted into a substance that blocks nausea signals in the stomach. It works in a similar way prescription anti-nausea drugs do.

38. During Tool's concert at Garden Pavillion, owned by L. Ron Hubbard of the Church of Scientology, Maynard James Keenan "spent most of the show baa-ing like a sheep at the audience."

39. In Norway, to change your surname to one that 200 or fewer people have, you must ask for permission from everyone who has that name.

40. The world’s oldest pool of water was found 2 miles down a Canadian mineshaft and dated at approximately 2 billion years old. By observing the sulfate in the water, researchers were also able to confirm that single-celled organisms had inhabited the pool at some point.