1VLC media player
The VLC media player uses a traffic cone for its icon because the students who created it drunkenly started a traffic cone collection.
2. The first recorded use of Forensic Entomology was by Chinese detective in 1200s AD. In a murder investigation in a village, detective Song Ci put every scythe in the village for inspection and found the culprit when flies - attracted to trace amounts of blood- kept landing on his scythe.
3. In 1930, a lawyer named TM Zink tried to leave $50,000 in trust to build a Womanless library. “No Woman Admitted” signs were to be posted at each entrance and no works by women were to be allowed on the premises. His family successfully challenged his will after his death, and the plans were scrapped.
4. Hockey goalie Clint Malarchuk’s throat got slashed by a skate during a live NHL game. The injury was so bad that 11 fans fainted, two people got heart attack and at least 3 players vomited on the ice. The wound was so bad that it needed 300 stitches. Clint was back on the ice just a week later.
5. In 2011, billionaire Oprah Winfrey found out she has a sister she never knew existed and now takes care of her financially because Oprah was so impressed by her sister's loyalty. She spent 4 years trying to contact Oprah with no luck and never once tried to sell the story to the press.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Diphenhydramine
Diphenhydramine is marketed as both Benadryl (an allergy pill with a side of effect of making on sleepy) and also Sominex (a sleeping pill with the side effect of helping one's allergies).
7. As part of the “Hundred Flowers Campaign” of 1956, China allowed and encouraged people to speak freely and openly express their opinions about the communist regime. A year later the campaign was withdrawn and the Chinese government imprisoned those who spoke critically about them.
8. In the movie "Home Alone" the producers thought it would be too mean to use a real girl for the pic of Buzz’s unattractive girlfriend so they used the art director’s son.
9. Walt Disney gave his housekeeper, Thelma Pearl Howard, stocks of the company during holidays and birthdays every year, instead of cash. The stocks were valued very little at the time, but by the time she was in her 70s, they were worth $9 million.
10. Before the advent of reliable and affordable alarm clocks, British and Irish workers were woken up by human alarm clocks, who made sure they could get to work on time. The knocker-up used a baton to knock on clients’ doors or a long and light stick to reach windows on higher floors.
11Charles Vance Millar
Charles Vance Millar, a rich Canadian financier, made his will one giant practical joke. In it, he left three men who hated one another a joint lifetime tenancy in a villa, some protestant ministers $700,000 in Catholic beer stock, and anti-horse racing advocates $25,000 in a Jockey club.
12. A study concluded that when humans forbid dogs to eat foods, dogs are 4 times more likely to steal the food in the dark when they think humans can’t spot them. Dogs based their stealing strategies on their belief that humans can’t see in low light conditions.
13. Latchkey incontinence is the phenomenon where the closer that one gets to the restroom, the more urgently one has to use the restroom.
14. In the 90s, Tina Turner left America and started living in Switzerland. She now is a Swiss citizen, lives permanently in a village in the Alps, and has stated: "I could not imagine a better place to live."
15. Before a key battle in Alexander the Great's campaign in Persia, the Persian king offered Alexander generous terms for peace. One of Alexander's generals is said to have remarked: "I would accept the terms, if I were you". Alexander responded: "So would I, if I were you". He won.
16Pringles
Pringles are technically not potato chips. They are molded out of powdered potato, wheat, and other additives.
17. In 2016, news anchor Anderson Cooper donated bulletproof vests to every K9 unit in the Virginia Police Department after finding out that a police dog was shot and killed during a shootout.
18. It took E. B. White 17 takes to read the death scene of Charlotte, as he recorded the audio version of his book Charlotte's Web. He is said to have walked outside, come back in, and start crying again when he got to that moment, "a grown man crying over the death of an imaginary insect."
19. Casualty or ‘Mercy’ dogs were vital in World War 1. They carried supplies so wounded soldiers could help themselves to supplies and tend to their own wounds, whilst other more gravely wounded soldiers would seek the company of a Mercy dog to wait with them whilst they died.
20. The MIT has developed a camera that uses terahertz radiation to read closed books. This is a fascinating breakthrough that could mean reading dated and delicate documents such as historic manuscripts without touching or opening them.
21Dictionary
The dictionary isn't as much an instruction guide to the English language, as it is a record of how people are using it. Words aren't added because they're OK to use, but because a lot of people have been using them.
22. There is a hero in the X-Men named ForgetMeNot who's main power is that nobody is able to remember he exists.
23. Americans are now tipping more money, and for more services, than ever before. It’s a phenomenon called “Tip Creep” where social pressure encourages tipping for counter-service interactions where a tip was previously never given.
24. In 1848, two slaves, Ellen and William Craft escaped slavery by traveling openly from Macon, Georgia to Boston. Ellen, who was light-skinned, dressed as a man with a sling to hide the fact that she could not write and passed as William's slave owner. Eventually, they fled to Liverpool, England.
25. When cockroach poisons claim to kill the whole nest, it's not because roaches share food with others. Roaches are cannibals and a single dose of poison can often be eaten many times and still be deadly.
