Random Fact Sheet #90 – 35 Facts That Will Make You Look Twice

Olympic gold medals are actually made of silver. 1912 was the last Olympics to hand out solid gold medals. Today's gold medals are 92.5% silver.

27. Claims that red wine can help prevent heart disease are inconclusive at best, and at worst may lead people to drink more alcohol in pursuit of the health "benefits".

28. Steven Spielberg is responsible for the PG-13 rating. He suggested it after parents complained about the PG rating given to 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'. Three months later, 'Red Dawn' became the first release rated PG-13.

29. The word 'bald' in 'bald eagle' has nothing to do with the definition as a lack of hair. Rather, the term bald eagle is derived in English from the word 'piebald', in reference to their white heads and tail feathers in contrast to the darker color of the rest of their bodies.

30. Roberto Gómez Bolaños, the inspiration for the Simpsons Bumblebee Man, is so popular that reruns of his show ' El Chavo del Ocho' from the 1970s-80s still get an average of 91 million daily viewers around the globe.

During the Greek War of Independence, 115 Greek revolutionaries surrounded by 10,000 Ottoman troops managed to kill 300 and wound 800 while suffering just 6 casualties. When the Ottomans paused their attack to get cannons ready, the Greeks escaped through enemy lines undetected.

32. The Mason bees are solitary, are easy to farm to use as pollinators and rarely sting (and even if they do it is not painful).

33. During the 80 Years War, the Dutch defeated the invading Spanish by flooding their cities and farmlands. When winter arrived, Dutch soldiers used ice skates to quickly advance, fire muskets and retreat quickly to reload. The Spanish were then lured to, and fell through thin ice.

34. Charles Kuentz fought for the Germans during World War 1 but became a French citizen after his homeland, Alsace-Lorraine, was taken back by France after the war. When France surrendered to Germany in 1940 he became a German citizen until the fall of the Third Reich which again made him a French citizen.

35. When Intel employee Bill Gaede offered rival AMD stolen company secrets in 1995, rather than taking the opportunity to get ahead, they informed Intel and the authorities, leading to his arrest.

M&M stands for Mars and Murrie, the names of its founders.

37. In 2005, in an effort to demonstrate time dilation, a father and his kids drove three atomic clocks up Mt. Rainier. The measured effect was just over 20 nanoseconds, matching Einstein's theory of relativity.

38. The Lakota tribe has their own version of the Slenderman legend called “Walking Sam”, who wears a stovepipe hat and tries to make you commit suicide.

39. A cathedral in Italy, destroyed by an earthquake in 1976, was rebuilt using most of its original cataloged stones that were placed in the exact same positions they were in before it fell.

40. There is a “white man” café in Tokyo, where Japanese ladies ring a bell to summon tuxedo-wearing Caucasians who respond with “yes, princess?” and serve them a cake.

In Japan, avid golfers buy insurance to protect themselves on the course. They purchase it because if they get a hole-in-one, they have to buy gifts and drinks for their friends. The policy covers them for a party worth up to $4,900.

42. People have found ancient stone tablets in Japan's recent tsunami struck areas with inscriptions "Do not build your homes below this point!"

43. Hours after Nintendo announced the death of their CEO, Satoru Iwata, a rainbow appeared over their headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. It was dubbed "The Rainbow Road to Heaven".

44. In Japan, a diver named Hiroyuki Arakawa and a sheepshead wrasse (Pacific fish) named Yoriko have been friends for over 25 years.

45. At one of Tokyo's busiest train stations, a rail line was converted from an above-ground line into a subway. There were zero service interruptions. The lowering of the rail line's tracks into its subway position was done in one night, during its normal service off hours lasting ~4 hours.

Japan requires citizens between the ages of 45 and 74 to have their waistlines measured once a year and are expected to fall within an established range. Companies and local governments may face fines if their employees are overweight and do not meet these guidelines.

47. There is a class of people in Japan referred to as Cyber Homeless who live at cyber cafes because they are a cheaper alternative than an apartment. The cafes offer free showers and sell underwear.

48. To get revenge on fellow Boy Scouts who bullied him, a Tokyo resident mailed more than 500 boxes of soggy, smelly garbage including old underwear and rotten tea leaves to his tormentors, writing a random destination as the address with the bully's return address in order to escape detection.

49. In 2010, the mummified corpse of Sogen Kato, thought to be Tokyo's oldest man, was found in his bedroom by government officials. He had actually died in 1978.

50. There is a factory in Japan which can run unsupervised for 30 days at a time. Robots build other robots at the rate of 50 per 24-hour shift. Such factories are called "lights out" factories because no human presence is needed. FANUC has been operating this autonomous factory since 2001.