26Okta
An “okta” is a unit equal to 1/8 of the sky. Cloud conditions are measured in oktas, so the scientific difference between “partly sunny” and “mostly cloudy” is 1 okta.
27. There is no “missing link” in Human Evolution. The term “missing link” has fallen out of favor with biologists because it implies the evolutionary process is a linear phenomenon and that forms originate consecutively in a chain. Instead, the term ‘Last Common Ancestor’ is preferred.
28. Tom Kenny, the voice actor for SpongeBob, has been married to the voice actor for Plankton’s computer wife Karen, Jill Talley, since 1995.
29. After returning from World War 2, over 1 million Black Americans were denied the benefits of the GI bill for free education and low rate home loans.
30. “Cat Pawsitive” is a program that encourages cat shelters to teach orphan cats to do a “high-five” with humans, making cats more attractive for adoption. Over 400 cats who participated were adopted during the first two semesters of the program.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Blockbuster
In 1995, the Blockbuster video rental chain had more than 4,500 stores. The company made $785 million in profits on $2.4 billion in revenues: a profit margin of over 30%. Much of this profit came from “late fees” on overdue rentals.
32. In 2013, while walking their dog in their back yard, a married couple in California came across several rusty buckets sticking out of their land. The buckets were found to be full of gold coins minted from 1847 to 1894. The total value of all the coins was about $11 million.
33. A man named Timothy Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged for murdering his wife and infant. Evans asserted that his downstairs neighbor, John Christie, was the real culprit. Three years later, Christie was discovered to be a serial killer, having killed at least 8 people and he later admitted to killing his neighbor’s family.
34. Garrett Morgan was the inventor of the smoke hood. Because he was black, he hired a white actor to pose as the real inventor during presentations and marketing of his device. His secret was exposed after he used his invention in an emergency to rescue several people from a collapsed tunnel. His sales then dropped sharply.
35. The famous deaf-blind writer Hellen Keller received a gift from a Japanese police officer who gave her an Akita dog named Kamikaze-Go as a present. After the dog’s death, Japan’s government gifted another Akita, making her the first person to bring the dog breed to the U.S. in 1948.
