Some facts are too strange, clever, or unexpected to forget after reading them once. Random Facts Mixtape Vol. 011 – 25 Facts Worth Screenshotting brings together another collection of fascinating stories from history, science, politics, aviation, animals, and pop culture. From guide dogs that saved lives on 9/11 and a hidden flaw in Pac-Man to ancient battlefield ambushes and North Korea’s unusual basketball rules, these are the kinds of facts you’ll want to save and share.
Aircrew meal separation practice
1. Pilots have separate meals to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.
2. While visiting Egypt in 2012, Hillary Clinton was hit with tomatoes and shoes as protesters shouted “Monica, Monica”.
3. The Diamond-Water Paradox asks why diamonds sell for higher prices than water even though water is essential for life. The paradox distinguishes total utility, meaning overall usefulness, from marginal utility, the value of one additional unit, explaining how scarcity can make a less necessary item more valuable.
4. North Korea uses different basketball rules. There, slam dunks count for three points, field goals scored in the last three minutes count for eight points, three-pointers count for four points if the ball does not touch the rim, and a missed free throw results in a one-point deduction.
5. In 2017, China shut down two AI chatbots after they began criticizing communism and praising the United States.
6. When Namco released Pac-Man in 1980, the arcade favorite seemed endless, but its code contained a hidden flaw. The game recorded the level number in an 8-bit integer, which could only count up to 255. When players pushed past that limit to level 256, the counter overflowed and corrupted the display, creating a garbled, partially drawn screen that made the stage unbeatable. The glitch became legendary, and reaching the so-called “kill screen” was regarded as a mark of prestige among expert Pac-Man players.
7. Srivijaya was located on Sumatra and ruled over Indonesia and much of Southeast Asia for more than 600 years, but it vanished without a trace. Its location was recently uncovered when a fisherman on the Musi River found golden artifacts from the city caught in his net.
8. The bald eagle’s status as a national symbol stems from its appearance on the United States Great Seal in 1782. Charles Thomson combined elements from several designs, recommending the American bald eagle instead of the small white eagle in William Barton’s proposal.
9. In Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018), Lane hyperventilates before being submerged, providing more oxygen to the blood and brain than a single deep breath and allowing him to remain conscious for a longer period.
10. Male goats urinate on their heads to make their odor more attractive to females.
Initial Confusion During Pearl Harbor
11. At the start of the Pearl Harbor attack, many people assumed it was only a drill. One sailor said, “This is the best goddam drill the Army Air Force has ever put on!”
12. Two guide dogs, Salty and Roselle, received the Dickin Medal for gallantry after guiding their blind owners out of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. Roselle led a group, including her blind owner, down 78 flights of stairs before the North Tower collapsed, pausing only to give kisses to a woman having a panic attack.
13. After being shot, kicked, and spat on, the bodies of Benito Mussolini and his mistress were hung upside down from meathooks on the roof of an Esso gas station. Civilians then stoned the bodies from below.
14. Former baseball player Bobby Bonilla signed a contract in 2000 that pays him $1.9 million a year until 2035.
15. In 2003, the U.S. military planned to attach caged chickens to the tops of their Humvees as they entered Iraq to act as an early warning system for dangerous chemicals or nerve agents. The operation was dubbed Operation Kuwaiti Field Chicken (KFC).
16. Tapirs are large, herbivorous mammals that resemble pigs. They are so well endowed that, while mating, they can step on their penises and stumble.
17. On 9/11, after both towers had been struck, some fighter jets scrambled without live ammunition because the pilots understood that to stop the hijackers from reaching other intended targets they might need to intercept and crash their fighters into the hijacked planes, ejecting at the last moment.
18. The Russian space station Mir, launched in 1986, lasted for 15 years. It hosted the first wheat grown in space, had the longest human presence, and survived several fires. When it began falling apart, astronaut Mike Foale said it was ‘a bit like a frat house, but more organized and better kept.’
19. People who regularly use painkillers for headaches can develop medication overuse headaches, a harmful cycle in which the medications themselves cause the pain.
20. Oliver Sipple, who saved President Ford from an assassination attempt, then had his life ruined when the media outed him as gay.
Everest Name Pronunciation and Origin
21. Mount Everest was named for George Everest, and his surname is pronounced EVE-REST rather than EVER-EST.
22. Unlike fats, ketone bodies can cross the blood-brain barrier and provide the brain with energy, allowing survival for more than 40 days of starvation.
23. Melatonin levels in breast milk change with the time of day, helping a baby identify when to sleep or be awake and thereby regulate its sleep cycle. Babies fed formula have greater difficulty regulating their sleep cycle and are more susceptible to colic.
24. NASA runs the Aviation Safety Reporting System to let airline staff, including pilots, flight attendants, controllers, and ground crew, anonymously report incidents that occur during flights without fear of career repercussions. The database is available to the public.
25. In 216 B.C. during the Battle of Silva Litana, the Germanic Boii cut trees in the surrounding forest so that they could be toppled with a simple push. They then waited and ultimately crushed the approaching Roman column, destroying the Roman army of 30,000.
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