25 Kickass Random Facts List #135

Here is 25 Kickass Random Facts List #135.

1-5 Kickass Random Facts

1. Mushrooms can create a slight breeze even when the air is calm. They release water vapor, cooling the air and creating a convective current that gets the air moving, carrying spores away from the parent. – Source

2. In 1961 James Monaghan, co-founder of Domino’s Pizza traded his 50% stake in the company to his brother Tom for a used Volkswagen. Tom went on to sell his 93% for 1 billion. – Source

3. All existing John F. Kennedy assassination related documents will be made public by 2017 – Source

4. In the early days of iTunes, Universal Music Group deducted artist’s iTunes royalties for costs such as “packaging” and “breakages” on digital downloads. Eminem sued them. – Source

5. Netflix and HBO have nearly identical revenue ($5.5 billion & $5.4 billion). Of that HBO has a profit of $1.8 billion and Netflix only $266 million. – Source

6-10 Kickass Random Facts

6. Most of the “predictions” made by Nostradamus are false. They were riddled with a number of errors. He did not predict his own death correctly as it was his secretary who edited it after his death. – Source

7. California’s economy has surpassed Russia and Italy to become the eighth-largest in the world – Source

8. A researcher in the 1970s blindfolded participants and told them they were going to play tug-of-war against another team. When they were told they had 3 others pulling with them, they pulled 18% less strenuously than when they were told they were alone. The effect is now known as social loafing. – Source

9. When Paypal was started they gave $20 to everyone that made an account, and $20 for every person they referred. This cost them $60-70 million, but they had 100,000 customers in the month PayPal went online. – Source

10. Clint Eastwood booted Phillip Kaufamn as director of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and assumed the job himself. In response, the Directors Guild of America created the Eastwood Rule that prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then becoming the director himself. – Source

11-15 Kickass Random Facts

11. Bob Marley’s wife, Rita, was shot in the head during his attempted assassination. However, she had dreadlocks so thick, they saved her life. – Source

12. Scientists in Berlin asked adults to play Super Mario 64 over a period of 2 months for 30 minutes a day. The group showed increases of grey matter, demonstrating “the direct causal link between video gaming and a volumetric brain increase.” – Source

13. South Korea, despite having completed the transition to digital broadcast (ATSC) in 2012, still maintains analogue broadcast near its borders for North Koreans watching South Korean TV secretly. – Source

14. The Type A/B Personality Theory was actually invented by the cigarette industry in the 1950’s to prove coronary heart disease and cancer were risks related to high-stress personality types instead of tobacco use. – Source

15. Coffee flour is made from Coffee cherries, the discarded fruit surrounding the coffee bean. In spite of being high in fiber and protein, 75% of it is discarded post coffee production. – Source

16-20 Kickass Random Facts

16. Wild bananas are full of seeds and the ones we eat have been specially bred over the years to be seedless. – Source

17. Frosting is a buttery, thick coating for a cake while icing is a sugary, thin glaze that hardens when dry. – Source

18. The eastern part of Laos was so heavily bombed during the Vietnam War that most people can supplement their income by collecting scrap metal 40 years later and some completely rely on it – Source

19. Compared to average shoppers, chefs are more likely to buy generic store brands for sugar, baking soda, and other kitchen staples. – Source

20. Lofoten an island in Norway that lies at 68° north, well within the Arctic Circle, that has an extreme temperature anomaly. Summers are warm and winter temperatures rarely pass below the freezing point. – Source

21-25 Kickass Random Facts

21. Before a hurricane, Wal-Mart will fill their stores with strawberry poptarts. This is a result from their data mining and finding that stores sold 7x more strawberry poptarts before the storm. – Source

22. A snail spent years glued to a card in the British museum before they realized it was alive – Source

23. In the 1870s William Shanks spent 15 years of his life calculating pi to 707 places, by hand. However, the last few years were wasted as he made a mistake after the 527’th digit. – Source

24. During WWII, the code word for “Hitler” was “Crazy white man” for the Comanche Code Talkers – Source

25. Mr. Rogers’ parents adopted an African-American teenager named George. Rogers came to consider George his older brother, and George later became an instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and also taught Rogers how to fly. – Source