26Happiness
One of the reasons achieving happiness is so difficult for humans is due to something called “prevalence-induced concept change” - when your life improves so much that bad experiences start to decrease, your brain automatically makes other ‘less bad’ experiences seem worse than it would before.
27. Pharrell made only $2,700 in songwriter royalties from 43 million plays of ‘HAPPY’ on Pandora.
28. In 2012, an 11-year-old Manchester boy named Liam Corcoran accidentally flew to Rome alone without any money, passports, or boarding passes while running away from his mom in a mall. No one realized until the plane was already halfway to Italy.
29. Nepalese farmers create a type of honey called ‘mad honey’ which is produced by bees pollinating rhododendron plants. The honey is psychoactive and its effects can range from euphoria and lightheadedness to being similar to a full-blown acid trip.
30. Andrew Carnegie believed that public libraries were the key to self-improvement for ordinary Americans. Thus, in the years between 1886 and 1917, Carnegie financed the construction of 2,811 public libraries, most of which were in the US.
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31First Soup Kitchens
During the Great Depression Al Capone started one of the first soup kitchens, called “Free Soup Coffee & Doughnuts for the Unemployed." Capone’s soup kitchen served breakfast, lunch, and dinner to an average of 2,200 Chicagoans every day.
32. North Korea has its own basketball rules: slam dunks are worth three points, field goals in the final three minutes of the game are worth eight points, three-pointers are worth four if the ball doesn’t touch the rim, and a point is deducted for missed free throws.
33. Ariana Grande once tried to get a Japanese tattoo that read “Seven Rings” but found out later that it read “Small Charcoal Grill” and then attempted to correct it, only for it to still be wrong and it then read “Japanese BBQ finger.”
34. For generations, doctors figured that the appendix had no apparent function. But recently it has been determined that it “acts as a good safe house for bacteria”. Sometimes bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. The appendix’s job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.
35. In 1990, the high school dropout rate in Sevierville, Dolly Parton’s hometown, was over 30%. In 1991, she launched The Buddy Program, offering 7th and 8th graders $500 if they graduated. The dropout rate for those classes dropped to 6% and has generally retained that average to this day.
