13 fascinating facts to feed your brain
Nathan Johnson
Published
10/22/2015
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1.
College students in Netherlands are living rent free in a retirement home. This unique living arrangement has benefits for both parties. Studies show that contact with younger people helps beat dementia, while the students save on housing costs. -
2.
A lack of toilets costs India more than $50 billion a year, mostly through premature deaths and hygiene-related diseases. Illness, lost productivity and other consequences of fouled water and inadequate sewage treatment trimmed 6.4 percent from India’s gross domestic product in 2006, or the equivalent of $53.8 billion, according to the study by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program. -
3.
Steven Spielberg promised Tom Sizemore a role in Saving Private Ryan as long as he never failed a drug test while shooting. If he failed once, even on the last day, Spielberg promised to kick him out of the movie and reshoot all of his scenes with a new actor. -
4.
GM tried to discredit Ralph Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones and investigate his past, and hired prostitutes to trap him in compromising situations. Nader sued GM and settled the case for $425,000. He used the money to start the pro-consumer Center for Study of Responsive Law. -
5.
Televangelist Pat Robertson diverted charitable donations meant to aid post genocide Rawanda to fund the operation of blood diamond mines -
6.
First aid training is mandatory in Germany if you wish to obtain a driver’s licence, and every vehicle has to carry a first aid kit. -
7.
When watermelons are grilled or baked they lose their granular texture and can even be used as meat substitute, a “watermelon steak”. -
8.
Some restaurants in China lace their food with opiates to keep customers coming back -
9.
In 1955 Hugh Hefner released a short story about straight men being persecuted in a gay world. After receiving numerous hatemail, he released a statement saying “If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too.” -
10.
Charles Francis Feeney, a retail magnate & former billionaire, went from being worth $6.3 billion to $1.5 million after donating 99.9% of his wealth to charity. -
11.
Robert H. Richards IV, who inherited the Du Pont family fortune after the death of John du Pont (of Foxcatcher fame), was convicted in 2009 of sexually abusing his 3-year-old daughter. His 8 year sentence was suspended, as the judge claimed he would “not fare well” in prison -
12.
A Malawian teenager who taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library. -
13.
A man once secretly outsourced his job to China, played at work including surfing the internet, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars before being caught and fired
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