The world is full of wonderful, and terrifying things, and sometimes carrying around the weight of this knowledge can be too much to bear.
The world is full of wonderful and terrifying things, and sometimes carrying around the weight of this knowledge can be too much to bear. However, this is not one of those times. Besides knowing that the IRS refuses to step into the modern world, you'll be surprised by how many relationships Candy Crush and flattened over the years.
1
Cancun was founded by the Mexican government using computer models to find a nice spot for tourists.
2
During a financial crisis in 1720, the British parliament debated a resolution for bankers to be sewn into sacks with snakes and dumped into the Thames River.
3
That in the years preceding the French Revolution, the price of bread went from costing about 50% of a laborer's daily wages to about 88% of their income.
4
The IRS still operates largely on mainframe computers running 60-year-old code.
5
Of the Octomom case of 2009, where a single mom was implanted with 12 embryos and gave birth to 8 babies (octuplets). They are currently the longest surviving octuplets ever. Ultimately her fertility doctor had his license revoked.
6
On 1952, a bus driver (Albert Gunter) was driving over Tower Bridge, when to his surprise, the bridge started opening. The double - decker bus was at the edge of the south bascule when it started rising. He made a split decision and accelerated clearing the 6ft drop. Later receiving a £10 bonus.
7
That two 16-year-olds got lost in the Canadian wilderness while snowboarding, but were able to stay warm by burning their homework. The two boys were rescued the following day and managed to avoid frostbite, sustaining only minor injuries.
8
There are 13 remaining secret apartments on the top floors of New York City’s branch libraries.
9
Cheetahs were at one point so close to extinction, their genetic diversity has become too low for their immune system to recognize a "nonself". Skin grafts exchanged between unrelated cheetahs are accepted as if they were clones or identical twins.
10
That Charles Darwin often gave his old papers to his children for them to doodle on. Thus, much of what survives of his original Origin of Species manuscript represents the best of his children's writing and drawings, rather than the best of his work.
11
That tapeworm can live inside humans for up to 30 years and grow to 80ft in size.
12
In Egypt, around 17,000 divorce cases in 2018 cited "Candy Crush" as the cause of divorce.
13
The most destructive single air attack in human history was the napalm bombing of Tokyo on the night of 10 March 1945 which killed around 100,000 civilians in about 3 hours.
14
That the "lower bar" on women's bikes is antiquated and was created to accommodate the heavy dresses women wore in the late 1800s.
15
Philadelphia Cream Cheese was invented in New York and has never been made in Philadelphia. Its name was part of a clever marketing strategy, because at the time (1880s) Philadelphia was known for its high quality dairy.
16
Since 2004 at least 18 have people died from contracting rabies after receiving organs from infected donors. Transplanted organs are not typically screened for rabies virus, which can incubate for up to a year or more before symptoms manifest, after which time it is nearly 100% fatal.
17
John von Neumann regularly recalled complete novels and pages of the phone directory. He could divide two 8-digit numbers in his head and converse in Ancient Greek at age 6, and was proficient in calculus at age 8. When he enrolled in university at 16, he had already written a research paper.
18
A California court ruled that a man was not entitled to the $3 billion market value of his cells, which his doctor had secretly commercialized after removing his spleen.
19
Lieutenant Elmo Zumwalt III contracted cancer and died at 42, after getting exposed to Agent Orange while deployed in Vietnam. It was his father, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt who ordered the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
20
The crust of the Earth is so thin, that it makes up 1% of the earth's volume that contains all known life in the universe and can be compared with a peel of an apple.
21
'Truck Wages' or 'Company Scrip, where an employer will pay employees in company minted money that is only redeemable in company owned stores. It is referenced in the sea shanty 'Wellerman' and the last company to get sued for using it was Walmart Mexico.
22
In 1950 in Beatrice, NE, a church exploded five minutes after choir practice started. No one was hurt because every single member of the choir was late for completely separate reasons, so the church was empty.
23
Before 2012, Pizza Hut was the largest purchaser of kale in the US, but they only used it as garnish for their salad bars.
24
Within the gaming industry, mobile gaming excluding advertisements ($93.2B) is worth more than PC gaming ($37.2B) and console gaming ($50.4B) combined.
25
In Space there's only 9 to 12 seconds to be conscious outside airlock and humans are totally rescuable for at least 30 seconds.
26
NASA was inspired by Fritz Lang's film, 'Frau im Mond', to use a countdown for rocket launches. NASA used the countdown to not only help technicians synchronise, but also found that announcing the countdown would build suspense for those watching at home.
27
Tom Cruise saved the American release of 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' by endorsing it at a buyer screening, launching the careers of Jason Statham, Guy Ritchie & Matthew Vaughn in the process.
28
That (former) Dutch footballer Dennis Bergkamp is afraid of flying to the point that he would take car/ferry/train to away games, or not travel at all. His Aviophobia gave him the nickname of the "Non-Flying Dutchman".
29
The hit version of “Tom’s Diner” was remixed by the group DNA and circulated to clubs without the permission of the artist Suzanne Vega or her label. When Vega heard the remix, she advised the label to buy it and officially release it rather than sue the group for copyright infringement.
30
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The Social Network) takes six to eight showers a day to get over writer’s block. If writing isn’t going well, he takes a shower, puts on different clothes, and tries again.
