Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 480, click here.
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. A student nurse called Lupe Hernandez, in 1966, invented a hand sanitizer (alcohol gel). She realized that if alcohol was in gel form, it could clean hands when people had no access to soap and water. – Source
2. Dogs get sprayed by Skunks so often because Skunks lift their tails as a warning, Dogs see this as “Come smell my butt” which is the EXACT OPPOSITE MESSAGE from what the Skunk is trying to send. – Source
3. Jesse James once paid off a widow’s mortgage and saved her from foreclosure because she gave him food. He made sure she got a receipt from the banker and then robbed the man a mile down the road. – Source
4. Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, a Great Depression-era gangster and notorious bank robber, endeared himself to the public by destroying mortgage papers at the banks he robbed, freeing many from their debts. – Source
5. Bears are considered by many wildlife biologists to be one of the most intelligent land animals of North America. They possess the largest and most convoluted brains relative to their size of any land mammal. In the animal kingdom, their intelligence compares with that of higher primates. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. The reason drinking is so prevalent on Saint Patrick’s Day is because St. Patrick died during lent and to celebrate his life properly, restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol were lifted for the day. – Source
7. Shia LaBeouf was caught plagiarizing Daniel Clowes work, in response he tweeted apologizes that were later discovered to be plagiarized from public figures, including Nick Clegg. When called out by Lena Dunham for his skywriting an apology to Clowe, he apologized to her using her own apology tweets. – Source
8. There’s a garden in the UK dedicated to plants that are deadly & can kill you. It’s only available to visit by booking a guided tour & people have fainted walking around due to the fumes that some plants give off. It’s classed as the most dangerous garden in the world & holds over 100 plants. – Source
9. Mim is an eastern grey kangaroo raised by a family who hand-fed her. After they released her, Mim roamed wild for years; but when wildfires burned near the family’s home in Kulnura, Australia, Mim turned up at their door seeking shelter. They let her stay indoors where she lounged on a blanket. – Source
10. A ‘cancer patient’ underwent surgery to remove a lump in his lungs. It turned out to be caused by a toy traffic cone he inhaled 40 years ago. He did not have cancer after all. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. The U.S. First Lady in 1885 – 86 was a lesbian. Rose Cleveland served as the First Lady for her brother who was unmarried. She carried on a relationship for more than 30 years with Evangeline Whipple until Rose died of the Spanish Influenza in 1918. – Source
12. Shakespeare became wealthy by hoarding the grain and reselling at inflated prices during a period of famine. He used the profits for money-lending activity and was pursued by authorities for tax evasion and was prosecuted for hoarding grain. – Source
13. Many female workers at Ravensbrück concentration were forced to produce army uniforms for the Nazis. They deliberately sabotaged them. An example of this is that they made the heels of socks too narrow or defective. This gave soldiers painful blisters on their feet. – Source
14. German biologist Stefan Lanka, who believed that measles was a “psychosomatic illness”, announced that he would pay 100,000 Euros to anyone who could prove that measles was a virus. German doctor David Barden proved him wrong and Lanka was ordered by the court to pay the money as promised. – Source
15. The zipper brand, YKK, makes everything they use in their production processes, in-house. From the machines they use to make their zippers, to smelting their own brass, they even make the boxes they ship their zippers in. – Source