1Plasma
We are paid to give plasma but not blood because people will lie about communicable diseases when paid for blood.
2. In 2015, a Washington high school senior named Ibrahim Ahmad strapped fake explosives to his body and asked a girl to prom with a sign saying "I know it's a little late but I'm kinda the bomb. Rilea will you be my date to prom?" The school gave him a five-day suspension but the girl said yes.
3. Louis Braille was blinded as a boy when using an awl. At the age of 15, also using an awl, he invented a reading system for the blind. It was never adopted during his lifetime, but after his death, it grew to worldwide popularity and is now known as "braille".
4. Ahmad Shah Massoud led a resistance to the Taliban that protected 30% of Afghanistan's population. He promoted gender equality, had no reports of human rights abuses under his leadership and warned about 9/11.
5. Peru has 90 different microclimates, including 30 of the 32 world climates, making it one of the most diverse countries in the world in microclimates.
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6Crows
Crows have the ability to remember human faces and if they don’t like you they won’t forget you either. The children of the crows would later carry on the same grudge.
7. A Belgian-French explorer named Alexandra David-Néel snuck into Tibet in the 1920s to learn about Buddhism when it was closed to outsiders. She lived until the age of 101 and her writings influenced Jack Kerouac among others.
8. For the first Harry Potter film, some scenes were filmed twice, with the actors saying 'Philosopher's Stone' for the UK version and 'Sorcerer's Stone' for the US version.
9. English drummer Phil Collins was the only artist to perform at both Live Aid 1985 benefit concerts. He played at Live Aid Wembley, went by helicopter to Heathrow, flew to New York on the Concorde, then another helicopter to Live Aid Philadelphia.
10. The frigate bird can fly continuously for 185 days, going more than 35,000 miles (56,327 km.) They are seabirds that can't land in or take flight from water, do not have waterproof feathers and can travel up to 40 minutes without having to flap their wings.
11Ph.D. students
Ph.D. students display twice as many symptoms of psychiatric disorders such as depression than other people.
12. A single Canada Goose has between 20 and 25 thousand feathers. Just a fraction of an inch of this feather insulation can keep a bird's body temperature at 104 degrees, even in freezing weather.
13. A hippopotamus can defecate so much in the water they are in, that fish start to die because the bacteria in the hippo's feces use up the majority of the oxygen contained in the river.
14. The top two sumo referees, Tate-gyōji, have daggers on hand while officiating matches. These daggers symbolize the referees' willingness to ritualistically disembowel themselves if a call of theirs is overruled. In modern times, they submit resignation letters when they make a poor call.
15. More high-ranking Nazi officers died in the Czechoslovakian car Tatra 77a and 87 than in active combat, prompting Hitler to ban his officers from driving them. It was nicknamed the "Czech secret weapon" by the Allied forces.
16Starbuck latte
A Starbucks hot “venti” latte and “grande” latte each have exactly two shots of espresso. The extra dollar you are paying for the larger size is essentially buying you 4 ounces of frothed milk.
17. The Spongebob Squarepants producers originally used royalty-free marching music at the end of "Band Geeks," but couldn't find music they liked. They instead used David Glen Eisley's "Sweet Victory." The song went from nearly unknown to selling 300,000 downloads on iTunes within a year of the episode airing.
18. The movie "Death Wish III" was changed to "Death Wish 3" because the Cannon Group conducted a survey and found that nearly half of the U.S. population could not read Roman numerals.
19. Taco Bell provides tortillas for NASA to use in lieu of bread, which cause problems due to crumbs getting caught in instruments - these Taco Bell tortillas are ideal due to their long shelf life.
20. Before the Civil War, uniforms were custom-sewn. Such a massive number of people had to be outfitted that uniforms needed to be mass produced. Soldiers were put into subtypes: large, medium, and small—classifications that eventually found their way to civilian clothing.
21Paul Simon
American singer Paul Simon thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album that year in his acceptance speech for the 1976 Best Album Grammy. Stevie had won the previous two years, and would, indeed, win again in 1977.
22. 1972 democratic vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton was forced to drop out of the race after he was humiliated by the "revelation" that he had been treated for chronic depression.
23. A gentleman in the 1940s observed that the burr seeds that stuck to his clothes and his dog’s fur had a tiny hook structure. On closer inspection, he discovered the hooks were more reliable than a zipper. He developed a company popularly known today as Velcro.
24. During a particularly cold spell in the town of Snag (Yukon) where the temp reached -83°F (-63.9°C) you could clearly hear people speaking 4 miles away along with another phenomenon where people’s breath turned into powder and fell straight to the ground and river ice booming like gunshots.
25. "Every Breath You Take" by The Police is supposed to be about someone obsessed with a lost lover, and who stalks them. Sting, who wrote it, is troubled by how many people think it is a love song.
