The “lucky cigarette” tradition of flipping a cigarette upside-down and saving it until the end of the pack originated from the myth that 1 cigarette in every Lucky Strike pack contained marijuana.
Most, if not all, figs contain…
Most, if not all, figs contain the remains of dead wasps. In fact male fig wasps are born without wings and spend their entire lives inside a single fig. Happy eating!
The first crime in Antartica in…
The first crime in Antartica in almost 20 years occurred when a 54-year old engineer stabbed his co-worker over spoiling the endings of books he was reading.
Crooner Al Martino, who played…
Crooner Al Martino, who played Johnny Fontane in the Godfather, was originally passed over for the movie. He complained to his Mafia “godfather” and eventually got the part, much like his character.
A man bought a golden egg…
A man bought a golden egg for $13,000 at a sale. It turned out it was an incredibly rare Fabergé egg, once owned by the Emperor of Russia, that had been missing since 1902. It is worth $33,300,000.
John Corcoran, a teacher, taught for…
John Corcoran, a teacher, taught for 17 years while being illiterate. He struggled in the 6th grade and never learned to read or write, and cheated his way through college. At the age of 47, he finally learned when he was inspired by Barbara Bush advocating for adult literacy.
Stanford University developed Artificial…
Stanford University developed Artificial Intelligence which can guess if a person is gay, based on a photo of their face, with 91% accuracy on dating sites.
The Japanese repair broken pottery…
The Japanese repair broken pottery with gold lacquer to highlight imperfections. The process is called Kintsugi. The art of Kintsugi teaches that broken objects are not something to hide but to display with pride.
Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter…
Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter, suffered huge losses after a fire broke out in his woodworking shop that made furniture. He descended into bankruptcy and decided to start making small wood items, including toys. He even renamed his company to ‘leg godt’ (‘play well’) or Lego.
After two children carelessly destroyed…
After two children carelessly destroyed a sculpture called “Angel is waiting”, while their parents filmed them, the artist renamed it “Broken” and left it on display with a video monitor showing footage of the incident.