Random (and Fake!) Trivia

British agriculturist Jethro Tull invented the seed drill, the aqualung, and the jazz flute solo. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Steve Jobs suffered from koumpounophobia, the irrational fear of buttons, so he wore turtlenecks with no buttons, his Apple products minimized buttons, and he often refused to sit down, to avoid having to find something to put his button. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

British entrepreneur Jimi Heseleden died in a Segway accident nine months after purchasing Segway Inc; his heirs counted themselves lucky that he hadn't instead purchased Victoria's Secret. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

About 1% of Anguilla's GDP comes from selling “.ai” domain names, making it one of the few entities actually making money from AI right now. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

In Finland, Ph.D. graduates get a sword with their diploma, while at Ohio State University, USA, they just get stabbed. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Pandas are classified as carnivores despite 99% of their diet consisting of bamboo, as scientists have traditionally considered bamboo to be meat. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

The Uzbekistan one-tiyin coin is worth about a thousandth of an American penny, making it the least-valuable coin in the world, at least until the next crypto crash. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

The primary cake mould used at an erotic bakery is know as the “peter pan”. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

The name of Oregon, the first U.S. state to decriminalize marijuana, is derived from the French “pays de l'origan,” meaning “land of ‘oregano’.” #RandomAndFakeTrivia

The gender-neutral term for a niece or nephew is “nibling”, named after their habit of taking tiny bites out of crackers while eating. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

In radio communication, ending a transmission with “over” means you expect a reply, ending one with “out” means you *don't* expect a reply, and ending one with “over and out” means you watched too many bad movies and TV shows. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

We lose 20 to 50% of our sense of taste while flying on an airplane, which is why Adam Sandler movies feature so heavily in in-flight entertainment systems. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

A group of swimming penguins is called a “raft”, a group of walking penguins is called a “waddle”, and a group of flying penguins is called a “hallucination”. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

During World War I, explosions in Ypres, Belgium, could be heard 220 km (140 mi) away in London, UK, thanks to the sheer amount of beans in the soldier's rations. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Between 2019 and 2021, music label Death Row Records was owned by toy company Hasbro, leading to tie-in products like My Lil’ Bow Wow™, Snoop Dogg's Eas’ly-Baked Oven™, and the board game 2Pactionary™. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Olive, of course, was the spouse of the second governor of California, Joshua Reginald Tree III. 2/2

Vincent van Gogh's “Olive Trees” has the remains of a dead grasshopper embedded in the paint, while Olive Tree's “A Dead Grasshopper” has the remains of van Gogh embedded in the paint. #RandomAndFakeTrivia 🧵 1/2

The patent for the Rubik's cube expired in 2000, while the average person's interest in solving one expired in 1982. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, but unfortunately was hunted to extinction there in the early 1500s. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Eggo Waffles were originally called “Froffles,” but got the name “Eggos” from consumers who liked their egg flavour, making censors everywhere glad they didn't have a “dilled” flavour. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

There haven't been nuts in Honey Nut Cheerios® since 2006, and there haven't been anything except nuts in the U.S. congressional Freedom Caucus since 2015. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Big Bertha, a 48-ton howitzer used by the Germans in World War I, was named after Bertha Krupp, the wife of the gun's designer, who herself was only 24 tons and accordingly went by “Medium Bertha.” #RandomAndFakeTrivia

In the Estonian alphabet, the letter “Z” is alphabetized between “S” and “T”, and hopeless romantic that it is, it absolutely refuses to let anything come between “U” and “I”. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

There are four species of hyrax: the rock hyrax, the classical hyrax, the bluegrass hyrax, and the exceedingly-rare “melodic death metal” hyrax. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Paul McCartney is the only recording artist to top the UK charts as part of a quartet, a trio, a duo, and an empty set. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Sharks are older than the rings of Saturn, and really don't approve of that newfangled gaudiness. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

Sweden recycles so well that it's run out of domestic trash, and has resorted to watching American reality television. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

You can buy spaghetti at McDonald’s in the Philippines, but strangely, not McAroni. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

The chemical element gallium will melt in your hand, one of the many reasons candy maker Mars doesn't make M&M's out of them. #RandomAndFakeTrivia

To be fair, its length is padded by the eight-minute Neil Peart drum solo in the middle. #RandomandFakeTrivia 2/2