Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 772, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. Production on ALF was tense. The set was elevated and full of trap doors constantly being reset. Due to technical issues, the 30-minute show took 20 to 25 hours to shoot. On one especially stressful day Max Wright attacked ALF and the two had to be separated. – Source
2. After constantly eating raw beef for a couple of years, a man in China eventually had a 20-foot-long tapeworm living in his small intestine, and it turned out that the tapeworm had been inside his small intestines for at least 2 years. – Source
3. In 1933, yo-yos were banned in Syria, because many locals superstitiously blamed their use of them for severe drought. – Source
4. Until 2013, foreign chefs in Japan were legally barred from working in restaurants specializing in traditional Japanese food and could only serve foreign cuisine. Japan changed its regulations for foreign chefs after traditional Japanese cuisine won the UNESCO designation. – Source
5. CarMax was founded by the now-defunct consumer electronics company, Circuit City. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Fact
6. In addition to using the stars, Micronesians navigated the Pacific by recognizing and interpreting the different types of ocean swells, even using them to pinpoint the existence of islands hundreds of miles away. Marshallese islanders additionally made stick maps of these oceans’ swell patterns. – Source
7. More countries use the comma separator (17,6) than the point separator (17.6). – Source
8. In 1978, President Carter oversaw the installation of the first computers in the White House: a Hewlett-Packard HP 3000, a water-cooled IBM laser printer, and a Xerox Alto desktop computer for the Oval Office. Reagan later removed the Xerox Alto in 1981. – Source
9. Seaweeds, like kelp, are not plants. They belong in the kingdom Protista. Seaweeds lack the vascular system and roots of a plant; they can absorb the water and nutrients they need directly from the ocean. – Source
10. A report about American fast food consumption concludes people actually eat more fast food as their income levels go up. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. John Wilkes Booth attended the hanging of abolitionist leader John Brown. Booth stood near the scaffold and afterward expressed great satisfaction with Brown’s fate, although he admired the condemned man’s bravery in facing death stoically. – Source
12. From 1801 to 1810 a pirate named Zheng Yi Sao was active in the South China Sea, eventually rising to lead a pirate confederacy. When she retired in 1810, she had 24 ships and 1433 pirates under her personal command. She later served as a privateer and retired to run a casino, dying at 68. – Source
13. During a massive demonstration against the Vietnam War on 21 October 1967, a group of thousands led by Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Rubin, and Michael Bowen attempted to levitate the Pentagon. The entire event that day is considered a turning point in public opinion about the war. – Source
14. Boston Red Sox player Fred Thomas was granted a furlough by the Navy to play in the 1918 World Series during WWI. He remains the only active member of the military to play in a Major League game. – Source
15. In the early 1700s, Britain sent over 50,000 convicted criminals to the US to be sold as laborers, mostly settling in the south to work Tobacco farms. – Source
