Some facts start out strange and somehow get even stranger the more you learn. This mixtape brings together 50 wildly varied stories, discoveries, oddities, and unexpected twists that prove you never quite know where a random fact will take you.
A Parrot Returns Changed
1. An African grey parrot named Nigel, known for his British accent, disappeared from his home in California. Four years later, his microchip led him back to his British-American owner, and he surprised everyone by speaking Spanish and singing bars from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.
2. In 1952, Jimmy Carter led a team of nuclear scientists during a crisis at a Canadian reactor. He and other American military personnel reportedly lowered themselves into the reactor to help disassemble it by hand.
3. NASA once issued condom-based urine collection devices for male astronauts in three sizes: small, medium, and large. After repeated leaks, crews jokingly renamed the sizes to extra large, immense, and unbelievable.
4. Fifty years ago, the sugar industry quietly funded scientists who shifted blame for heart disease toward fat. The effort helped shape public understanding of nutrition for years.
5. Spiked dog collars once protected shepherding dogs from wolf attacks. Since wolves tended to go for the throat first, the collars offered an extra layer of defense.
6. *NSYNC got its name from the last letter of each member’s first name. The spelling also gave the group a distinctive, memorable identity.
7. After Britain banned slave trading in 1807, the Royal Navy enforced the law at sea. Because captains faced a fine of £100 per enslaved person, some threw people overboard when naval ships approached to avoid the penalty.
8. Folk singer Phil Ochs believed the FBI was watching him and joked in 1966, “I’m a folk singer for the FBI.” In fact, the bureau kept hundreds of pages on him, although he never committed a federal crime and remained under investigation until his death by suicide in 1976.
9. A 12-year-old boy spent two years collecting more than 160,000 bottles after school and raised $2,700 from the effort. He donated the money, his $30 in savings, and 800 books to children in an AIDS-affected region of China.
10. Reykjavik’s City Council switched off the city lights so residents could enjoy a clearer view of the northern lights. The move reduced artificial light pollution and turned the sky into the main attraction.
Jobs Ignored Basic Hygiene
11. Steve Jobs believed his vegan diet left his body free of mucus and odor, so he thought he did not need deodorant or regular showers. Former coworkers later said that assumption was “very, very wrong”.
12. A record-holding species of bamboo can grow up to 35 inches in a single day, which comes to nearly 1.5 inches an hour. In the right conditions, you could almost watch it change before your eyes.
13. After leaving office, Harry Truman refused to join corporate boards or accept commercial endorsements. He believed profiting from the presidency would weaken the dignity of the office, and Congress later created the Former Presidents Act to provide him with a pension.
14. Cremated remains can be compressed into diamonds, and one person’s ashes can produce several of them. In some cases, a single set of remains has been turned into as many as nine diamonds.
15. In every U.S. state, the person who presses the slot machine button is the one legally counted as the bettor. That is why, in 2017, a man lost his wager when his female friend pushed the button for luck, but she walked away with the $100,000 prize.
16. After six weeks of working 16-hour days without breaks, the Skylab crew mutinied on December 28, 1973. They shut off contact with mission control for a day in protest.
17. The night before Emperor Hirohito’s surrender broadcast, army officers launched a coup attempt. They seized the Imperial Palace, tried to destroy the surrender recording, and aimed to assassinate officials, but the plan collapsed when the record was smuggled out and the military withheld support.
18. Apollo astronauts could not obtain life insurance for such hazardous work. Instead, they signed hundreds of autographs so their families could sell them if they did not return home.
19. HP once sold iPods under its own brand, but Apple Stores would not service them. Since Apple did not recognize them as Apple products, customers had to seek help elsewhere.
20. In the United States, many people assume Daylight Saving Time was created to help farmers. In reality, farmers were among its strongest opponents.
Bankruptcy Tactic Faces Scrutiny
21. The Texas two-step is a bankruptcy strategy in which a parent company separates liabilities into a new entity. That new company then files for bankruptcy to limit litigation, as Johnson & Johnson did when it transferred talc-related liabilities tied to asbestos allegations.
22. A man died after he tried to shoot down a 125-year-old saguaro cactus. He blasted most of the way through the plant and then poked one of its arms, causing a 500-pound limb to fall and crush him.
23. In the early 2000s, Mac laptop owners reported a strange smell that resembled strong body odor. The source turned out to be an adhesive used in the keyboards that broke down over time and released a foul odor.
24. North Korea’s legal system includes a rule known as “three generations of punishment.” If someone commits a crime, authorities may punish their children and grandchildren as well, often through lifetime imprisonment, while children born in prison are raised as prisoners because their “blood is guilty.”
25. In 2016, one extremely wealthy man moved from New Jersey to Florida and triggered concern over the state’s tax revenue. Because he stopped paying New Jersey state taxes, his departure was seen as a risk to the state budget.
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