Random Facts Generator

Doctors sometimes use a medication called adenosine to "reset" the heart that has abnormal rhythms in excess of 200 beats per minute. Given as a rapid intravenous injection, the drug temporarily blocks electrical conduction through the atrioventricular, or AV, node. This can produce several seconds of ventricular asystole, effectively pausing the heartbeat, before a normal rhythm resumes. The body clears adenosine almost immediately because its half-life lasts less than 10 seconds.

Cyanide was named after the color cyan because it was originally isolated from the Prussian blue dye.

Kevin Mitnick as a hacker was believed to be so dangerous that he was placed in solitary confinement for fear of being able to "start a thermonuclear war by whistling into a payphone."

In 1996, an extremely rare and powerful cyclonic storm resembling a hurricane formed over Lake Huron. It became the first recorded instance of such a storm developing over the Great Lakes region.

Scientists took advantage of the three-day flight ban over the US after 9/11 to conduct experiments on the effect on the atmosphere of jet planes. They found the days were a little warmer and the nights cooler, suggesting that the exhaust trails planes leave in the sky act like clouds.

Mormon missionaries (The ones in the suits and backpacks) can only call home twice a year: once on Mother's Day and again on Christmas.

During the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, fishermen in South India said they saw with their own eyes “the reality of generations of legends…the remains of ancient temples and hundreds of refrigerator-sized blocks, all briefly exposed before the sea swallowed them up again.”

A Canadian geological statistician named Mohan Srivastava discovered a flaw in Ontario's Tic-Tac-Toe scratch-off lottery that let him predict winners with about 90% accuracy. However, he found it to be less profitable and enjoyable than his consulting job as a statistician; he instead informed the gaming commission, which pulled the game the next day.

American rapper Biz Markie was not supposed to sing the chorus in his hit song "Just a Friend", but none of the people he invited showed up at the studio so he sang it himself.

A 12-year-old boy named Alam Khan saw his own father being murdered by a family friend. He wanted to avenge his father’s death and planned for 12 years before killing the alleged murderer in a revenge attack. He cut him into 12 pieces, one each for the years he had to wait.