Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 647, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. Disney’s Fireworks use pneumatic launch technology, developed for Disneyland as required by CA’s South Coast AQMD. This uses compressed air instead of gunpowder to launch shells into the air. This eliminates the trail of the igniting firework and permits tight control over height and timing. – Source
2. When Brendan Shanahan was 14-years-old, he asked star hockey player Rick Vaive for an autograph but was rudely brushed away. 4-years-later, Shanahan was in the NHL and fought and beat up Vaive the first time they played against each other. – Source
3. In 1524, a statue of the Virgin Mary at the Cathedral in Riga, Latvia, was accused of being a witch. They put it on trial by throwing it in the river. Since the wooden statue floated, they declared it guilty and burned it. – Source
4. The New Zealand Parliament unanimously passed a motion to censure Ben Affleck, out of anger that a line in his film ‘Argo’ falsely claimed that the British and New Zealand embassies had turned away the six escaped American diplomats in Tehran during the hostage crisis. – Source
5. Nearly all French wine grapes are grown on vines grafted to rootstock from Missouri. In the 1860s, phylloxera bugs threatened to destroy the vineyards, but roots from the US were resistant. Hundreds of thousands were shipped in and used to save the French vines. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. The 1996 video game “Tomb Raider” had a fan-made patch called “Nude Raider” that made Lara naked. The video game publisher got the site hosting the patch shut down. In the sequel, the developers included a secret code that would allegedly make her naked, but it in fact made Lara explode. – Source
7. In 1948, Milwaukee burger chain George Webb’s said they would give free hamburgers if the local baseball team won 12 games in a row. Since then it’s only happened twice: in 1987, and 2018. They honored the promise and gave out hundreds of thousands of free burgers. – Source
8. The US Navy conducted mock air attacks by aircraft carrier on Pearl Harbor in 1932 and 1938. In both exercises the attacks were successful, demonstrating the importance of airpower over battleships. Both exercises were ignored by the US Navy but were studied carefully by the IJN. – Source
9. It was once believed “Crack Babies” did not like to be interacted with and could not learn like normal children. They were not treated as normal children and were given poorer early childhood care and education. When these practices were stopped most of the problems they had went away. – Source
10. Almost all of the fruit, vegetables, and animals we eat are domesticated and ARE NOT found in nature. A few foods like berries, nuts, and mushrooms are consumed in the same form they grow in the wild. Humans are “selectively breeding” species for more than 12,000 years. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. American surgeon William Beaumont, the “Father of Gastric Physiology”, researched human digestion by putting pieces of food on a string and poking them through an old gunshot wound in his handyman’s stomach. He pulled it out on regular intervals to check on how well it had been digested. – Source
12. Goku from DBZ in Japan is voiced by an 83-year-old woman, who holds world records for her long-running voice acting career. – Source
13. Hustler Magazine owner, Larry Flynt, survived an attack by a serial killer, which is why he was paralyzed from the waist down. He pleaded for his attacker to not be executed, saying “A government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.” – Source
14. Some hikers and researchers have spotted wild birds swearing. It is believed that birds that escaped from captivity teach other wild birds how to speak and swear in English. – Source
15. Self-proclaimed earthquake expert Ibn Browning predicted a massive earthquake would strike New Madrid, Missouri on 3 December 1990. Schools in multiple states closed, and media organizations flooded the town. Browning had no seismology background, and nothing happened. – Source
