Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 635, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. In 1995, civil engineers warned the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, S. Korea that structural failure was inevitable and it needed to be evacuated. They didn’t close because it was so busy and it collapsed that day with 500+ people inside. One director left without warning his daughter-in-law. – Source
2. For millennia, Europeans did not know where birds went in Winter time. The mystery was partly solved in 1822 when a German hunter shot down a stork. The stork had an 80cm long Central African spear impaled in its neck. This provided the first evidence that they migrated to Africa. – Source
3. There was a mysterious worldwide epidemic of Encephalitis lethargica. The disease attacks the brain, leaving some victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. Between 1915 and 1926, 500,000 dead or incapacitated from it. It disappeared as mysteriously as it came into the world. – Source
4. Michael Burry’s autism (Aspergers) enabled him to see patterns in the 2007 housing market data that helped him predict the coming crash. As the data worsened, Burry found that heavy metal music calmed his nerves, something research has more recently shown is ideal for his “Brain Type S.” – Source
5. Flossie Wong-Staal, a pioneering HIV/AIDS researcher performed nucleotide sequencing on HIV to map its entire genetic makeup and to elucidate its many variations. Such research helped improve the medical outlook for millions of HIV/AIDS patients around the world. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. Stieg Larsson, author of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ part of the Millennium trilogy, died in 2004 due to a heart attack. The Millennium trilogy was published posthumously & has sold over 80 million copies. – Source
7. A car decal that was stuck for 10 years to the bottom of a park bench ended up being worth $10,000 as part of a nationwide scavenger hunt. – Source
8. Mt. Rainier is rated one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. It is on the list of the World’s 16 “Decade Volcanoes”, so-called due to their history of large, destructive eruptions and proximity to densely populated areas, threatening tens or hundreds of thousands of people. – Source
9. In 2005, U.S. restaurants become eligible to earn Michelin stars for the first time. Michelin stars was a marketing strategy of the tyre company, Michelin in which they began publishing the travel guide in Europe in 1900 to encourage new drivers to take road trips to local attractions. – Source
10. All F1 races have had the same safety car driver since the year 2000. Bernd Mayländer has driven over 700 laps total in all the F1 circuits around the world. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. The song “Born To Be Wild” was originally written as a ballad by a songwriter going by the stage name Mars Bonfire. He offered the song to numerous bands, but none accepted. Eventually, his brother – the drummer for Steppenwolf – accepted it and they released it as a sped-up rearranged version. – Source
12. Al Schmid, a US marine continued to man his machine gun on Guadalcanal even after being permanently blinded by a Japanese grenade and later received the Navy Cross for his actions. – Source
13. Dante, author of ‘Dante’s Divine Comedy’, is the primary reason why the Tuscan dialect of Italian became the “standardized” Italian language. In 1945, the fascist Italian government called Dante “the greatest symbol of Italianness”. – Source
14. Ancient Greek and Roman statues were often painted in bright colors. The paint faded away over time, leaving white marble. – Source
15. A 1965 test subject survived a leaky suit in a vacuum chamber but felt water on his tongue begin to boil. – Source
