31. The US Air Force operates a small airline out Las Vegas airport that has daily shuttles for workers to and from Area 51. – Source
32. Liquid oxygen is magnetic, and it can be moved around and even picked up with a powerful magnet. – Source
33. In 1869, Chinese and Irish laborers working on the Central Pacific Railway managed to lay down 10 miles of tracks in just one day. This accomplishment has not been matched even in modern times. – Source
34. The character Zapp Brannigan on Futurama, was written specifically for Phil Hartman to play. After Hartman died, Billy West took the role but played the character’s voice and mannerisms as a tribute to how Hartman might have played it. Source
35. In 1877, Jimmy, a monkey, was charged with assault after he bit the finger of Mary Shea, in New York. On hearing the case the judge said he could not legally commit a monkey. Jimmy then respectfully removed his velvet hat, climbed atop the judge’s desk and attempted to shake his hand. – Source
36. Tesla built a tower, “Tower of Power”, with the intention of sucking electricity out of the air. – Source
37. Sweden’s recycling program is so successful that they are asking Norway for their trash to power their own Waste-to-Power plants because they don’t have enough non-recycled waste. – Source
38. A man in Nebraska is breeding red cows and sending them to Israel in hopes of a pure red heifer being born there; such an event will allegedly prompt Jews to build a Third Temple, which fundamentalist Christians believe will usher in Jesus’ Second Coming. – Source
39. From space, there appears to be an enormous city in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota due to the light pollution from oil fields. – Source
40. French Physician, René Laennec invented the stethoscope because he was unable to hear a patient’s heart due to their “great degree of fatness”. – Source
41. Lady Bird Johnson was the first president’s wife to have become a millionaire in her own right before her husband was elected to office. – Source
42. The reason why we hate the recorded sound of our voice is because our skull changes the resonance of our voice from within and creates more bass. When we hear a digital recording of our voice, although slightly unfamiliar to ourselves, it’s exactly how other people hear it. – Source
43. New York State law prohibits village elections from being held on St. Patrick’s Day. – Source
44. Rio de Janeiro was once capital of Portugal, making it the only European capital outside of Europe – Source
45. On April Fools Day 1997, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and Jeopardy host Alex Trebek swapped shows for the day. – Source
46. Babies learn a language by hearing it, but they must hear it spoken directly to them in person by another human being; as little as 12 hours with a human tutor produces dramatic results in babies, compared to no results even after many more hours of exposure to foreign language TV shows. – Source
47. Google avoided $2 billion in taxes in 2012, by transferring royalty payments from its Irish and Dutch subsidiaries to a Bermuda unit, which was simply headquartered in a local law firm. – Source
48. In 2012 a 9-year-old Massachusetts boy was summoned for jury duty. He was encouraged to attend jury selection by his father who assured him “it’s a day off from school and you get lunch.” – Source
49. In 1997, Steve Jobs used patents to pressure Bill Gates into investing $150 million into Apple stocks, because he believed Apple would go under if Microsoft didn’t have “a stake in our success”. – Source
50. We only taste 20% of the salt on potato chips. In response, Lay’s developed a new shape of salt that delivered the same taste but allowed them to use 25% less salt. – Source
51. There is a team of Professors that log everything Mark Zuckerberg says, in an attempt to understand his future plans. – Source
52. Diamonds can in fact be shattered with a hammer. There is a difference between how strong something is and how hard it is. Diamonds are one of the hardest minerals (certainly the hardest gemstone), but their toughness is only middle of the road. The toughest gemstone is nephrite jade and that toughness is part of what makes it such a good carving material. – Source
53. Félix Carbajal, a Cuban Olympic marathon runner in 1904, ran in cut-off trousers, a long-sleeve shirt and a beret. He stopped to eat some apples, got stomach cramps, had a nap, then kept running, to place fourth. – Source
54. In 1967, a man appeared on Jeopardy! intending to win just enough money to buy an engagement ring. He won that amount halfway through and kept his mouth shut from there on. To prevent a recurrence, the rules were changed shortly thereafter, allowing only the winner to keep all his/her winnings. – Source
55. There is a mountain called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand and its name translates to “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.” – Source
56. Clint Eastwood “wore the same poncho, without ever having washed it, in all three of his ‘Man with No Name’ Westerns” – Source
57. In the 1980’s, NASA developed a 502cc Stirling Engine w 83hp that got 41 mpg and could fit in a stock Chevy Cavalier. – Source
58. Donald Trump tried to sue an author for $5 Billion. His only reason was that the author called him a millionaire instead of a billionaire. – Source
59. The False Positive Paradox describes a situation where a “highly accurate” test is worthless if the testing condition is rare enough. Example: If 10 people in a city of 20 million are “bad guys” and a surveillance program identifies them with 99% accuracy, then 99.995% of positives will be false. – Source
60. The Taichung Power Plant in Taiwan releases as much CO2 in the air each year as the entire country of Switzerland. – Source
