Random Revelations: Article #81- 30 Astounding Random Facts

Our bodies, when healthy, produce 1 to 1.5 liters of mucus every day. Most of it trickles down our throat unnoticed.

2. 36% of Asians have Alcohol Flush Reaction. They are more probable to get cancer from drinking alcohol as well as it causing more minor symptoms such as nausea, headache, and discomfort.

3. George R.R. Martin is a big fan of football, but not of Coach Belichick and the Patriots. In "A Dance with Dragons", he even references the 2007 Superbowl where the Patriots fell after a perfect season to the Giants, naming a character "Belichio" who gets eaten by giants.

4. The late Richard Jolly, a British Army surgeon in the Falklands conflict, saved every life under his care, both British and Argentine. He was the only man decorated by both Britain and Argentina for his services in the war.

5. Human saliva contains a magical chemical compound called Opiorphin, a painkiller six times more powerful than Morphine.

Ben Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, caused the production of Gone Girl to shut down for 4 days because he refused to wear a New York Yankees cap on screen.

7. In 2004, WB aired a spoof TV show called Superstar USA. The premise was to find the worst singer, unknown to the contestants who were lied to believe they would win a recording career. It was finally revealed to the “winner” (Jamie Foss) that she was, in fact, the worst singer, in front of a live audience.

8. A retired electrical engineer named Bruce Campbell had an old Boeing 727 delivered to the woods near Portland, Oregon and converted it to his home where he lives full time.

9. The United States has five times more heliports than any other country, and about as many heliports as every other country in the world combined.

10. Leafcutter ants do not actually eat the leaves they cut, instead, they use them to fuel their fungus-based agriculture.

Lake Okeechobee, despite being Florida's largest freshwater lake and covering an area of 730 square miles, has an average depth of just 9 feet.

12. A Krasue is a Southeast Asian creature of folklore. The entity appears as the floating head of a beautiful girl but has internal organs hanging out below the neck. It floats through the night dragging its entrails and is said to eat both humans and animals. It drinks blood and eats organs.

13. Moon rock given to Holland by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin tested to be petrified wood.

14. American political activist Thomas Paine argued in a 1797 pamphlet for an estate tax to fund elderly pensions and a one-time payment when a person reached 21.

15. Hitler used an arson attack on the German parliament to justify taking away most civil liberties in Germany, including habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association, public assembly and the secrecy of the post and telephone.

American English is more homogeneous than British English. It is more difficult to tell where an American is from in the US than it is to tell where a Brit is from in the UK.

17. In 2013, Miriam Margolyes, or Professor Sprout from Harry Potter movies, announced she 'was a dyke' during her Australian Citizenship ceremony in front of the Prime Minister, to gasps from the crowd.

18. The movie "Dodgeball"(2004) has an alternate ending where Average Joe's gym loses, and the movie ends abruptly. It was changed because of negative test audience reactions.

19. Comedian George Carlin narrated four seasons of "Thomas the Tank Engine".

20. Weeks after JFK's assassination, Russian intelligence started circulating stories that the CIA was involved in the killing and even covertly financed an American book promoting that theory which was published within a year.

In 1209, a student of Oxford University apparently killed a woman and fled. In retaliation, the townspeople hanged three students. The school suspended operations and the faculty all feared the mob. Many of the facility then moved to Cambridge and founded a new university there.

22. Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, and Gene Hackman were roommates as struggling actors in New York City in the 1960s. They now have 19 Oscar nominations and 5 wins between them.

23. Dr. John Fryer of Philadelphia appeared at the 1972 APA convention wearing a rubber mask to deliver a speech about the hardships of being a psychiatrist and gay. His speech was vital to getting homosexuality off the list of mental disorders.

24. The 1983 'Inspector Gadget' TV series is the first animated television series to be presented in stereo sound.

25. While pregnant, Gene Tierney contracted German measles from a fan who had escaped quarantine to meet her. Her baby was born deaf and intellectually disabled as a result, inspiring the Agatha Christie book The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.