Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 806, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. Officials went to congratulate Sogen Kato, the oldest living man in Tokyo, on his 111th birthday. Upon arriving at his house, a mummified body wearing underwear and pajamas was lying in his bed. He had been dead for 30 years but his family kept the secret to keep receiving his pension. – Source
2. The “empty London” scenes in 28 Days Later were achieved by filming at dawn and simply asking people to stop walking through shots, as there was no room in the $8m budget to actually shut down any parts of the city. – Source
3. The pre-game military fly-overs conducted while the Star Spangled Banner plays at pro sports events is actually a planned training run for flight teams and doesn’t cost “extra” as many speculate, but is already factored into the annual training budget. – Source
4. According to British historian Niall Ferguson, out of all recorded conflicts which occurred since the year 387 BC, France has fought in 168 of them, won 109, lost 49, and drawn 10; this makes France the most successful military power in European history in terms of a number of fought and won. – Source
5. In 2017, former NBA star Kevin Garnett showed up at the sentencing of his accountant Charles Banks to provide him with moral support upon his conviction for defrauding NBA star Tim Duncan of $7.5 million. Garnett later learned that Banks have also defrauded him of $77 million. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Fact
6. The Post-It note was invented by a scientist at 3M who attempted to develop a super-strong adhesive but instead, accidentally created a “low-tack”, reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive. – Source
7. After Ayrton Senna’s fatal crash, an Austrian flag was found in his race car. He had intended to raise it in honor of Roland Ratzenberger, who had died during qualification the previous day. – Source
8. In 1947, the Canadian town of Snag, Yukon, saw a temperature of -83F (-64C). It was so cold, you could hear people speaking 4 miles away, along with other phenomena such as people’s breath turning to powder and falling straight to the ground and river ice booming like gu shots. – Source
9. NASA plans to retire the International Space Station by 2031 by crashing it into the Pacific Ocean. – Source
10. When Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who had a famously deep voice, quit smoking cigarettes at 77 years old in 2012, he thought that his vocal range would become higher and improve. Instead, his voice became even lower. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Fact
11. Over 95% of farm raised salmon are deaf. – Source
12. When a cow has opposite-sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twin’s blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. – Source
13. The country of Kenya gets nearly one-half of all its electricity from geothermal power plants. – Source
14. Muhammad Ali insulted his British opponent Henry Cooper before their 1963 bout. Cooper proceeded to give Ali a punishing fight and knocked him down at one point. Afterward, Ali conceded that Cooper had given him the fight of his life. – Source
15. Elephant Seals were thought to be extinct by 1884. In 1892, an expedition from the Smithsonian found what could have been the last 8 individuals on Guadalupe Island of which the expedition killed 7 for their collection. – Source
