32 Unusual Random Facts You Never Would Have Heard | Random List #15

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1IKEA Foods

IKEA Food is one of the largest food chains in the world. In 2016. IKEA served some 650 million diners a year, across 48 countries around the world. IKEA Food had annual sales of about $1.8 billion in 2016.

2. Between 1941-44, Turkish diplomats saved thousands of Jews by issuing them Turkish passports and sometimes pulling them off trains headed for the death camps. Among these diplomats was Necdet Kent, whose son Muhtar Kent, is the current chairman and former chief executive of Coca-Cola.

3. Iranians still use the ancient form of air conditioning called the badgir. It is a tower with vents on top and allows cool air to accelerate down into a building. Zion National Park in Utah has a modern example of this, where temps reach over 100 F, the visitors center stays at cool 73 F.

4. After a 1946 plane crash, Howard Hughes decided he did not like the design of the hospital bed he was laying in. He called in his engineers and had them design a new bed that would allow someone with severe burns to move freely. It became the prototype for the modern hospital bed.

5. The chicken nugget was invented by a Cornell University food science professor named Robert C. Baker who published the results academically instead of patenting them.

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Chicago, "The Windy City", got that nickname not because of its weather, but because of its politicians bragging about the city to win the 1893 World's Fair. Its average wind speed of 10.3 mph is not even exceptional relative to other American cities: Boston- 12.4mph, and NYC- 9.3mph.

7. David Glasheen, having lost millions in the 1987 stock market crash, went to live on an island 1500 miles off the coast of Brisbane. He grows veggies, brews beer, and had a go at finding a wife to join him via online dating using the solar powered internet.

8. In 2001, BMW released a series of short films called "The Hire" that featured famous filmmakers, starred Clive Owen as the “Driver”, and highlighted the performance aspects of BMW cars. It was a huge success and helped increase car sales 12% over the previous year.

9. In 1984, Warner Bros. almost closed down the DC Comics publishing imprint and licensed the characters to Marvel. Marvel apparently declined, thinking that the reason DC was failing was the characters, not the management and did not consider the characters profitable.

10. The United States has a town entirely in Canada

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11Oprah Winfrey

In 2004, the 276 member studio audience of the Oprah Show were each given a Pontiac G-6 sedan. Oprah told producers to fill the crowd with people who "desperately needed" cars. On average each person was slapped with a $6000 tax bill.

12. There are roughly 60 people in the world that have HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory), which makes them unable to forget any day of their life.

13. There was a torture device called Brazen Bull in Ancient Greece which was basically a hollow bull made of bronze. The condemned was locked inside and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside was roasted to death.

14. In 2004, a great white shark attacked a swimmer named Rob Howes while he was surfing off the coast of New Zealand. While clinging for his life on his surfboard, a pod of dolphins swam up to him and formed a protective wall that effectively blocked out the shark and ended up saving his life.

15. Actress Nicole Kidman suffers from lepidopterophobia (fear of butterflies).

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Bhutan is the only country with a negative carbon footprint.

17. Columbus, Ohio has a larger population than Cincinnati and Cleveland combined and yet they have no NFL, NBA or MLB teams. Cleveland and Cincinnati have 5.

18. Panda bears poop 40 times a day.

19. At the Walt Disney theme parks there are merchandise stores hidden from the public and open to Disney cast members only. These sell exclusive collector's items that are only available to Disney employees.

20. Amman, the capital of Jordan has extreme examples of microclimate, and almost every neighborhood exhibits its own weather.

21Bugatti Veyron

At top speed, the Bugatti Veyron will empty its 26-gallon tank in 12 minutes.

22. On Friday, January 13, 2017, Finnair Flight 666 flew to Helsinki International Airport (abbreviated HEL) taking off at 13:00 local time with an aircraft that is 13 years old.

23. Despite Leona Helmsley's reputation as "the queen of mean" she left the bulk of her $4 billion estate to a charitable trust.

24. Milk Sickness is caused by milk or meat from a cow that is fed white snakeroot plant, which contains the poison tremetol. Though rare today, milk sickness killed 1000s of people in the 1800s including Abraham Lincoln's mother.

25. The troodon was likely among the smartest dinosaurs that existed. Its intelligence would put it among that of modern birds.


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