30 Fun Facts for a Cognitive Colada

1. that the new Rolls-Royce Ghost soundproofing was so overengineered that occupants in the car found the near-total silence disorienting, and some felt sick. Acoustic engineers had to go back and work on "harmonizing" various sounds in the car to add a continuous soft whisper

2. There's 3,200-Year-Old Egyptian Tablet Records Excuses for Why People Missed Work

3. in 2000, an art exhibition in Denmark featured ten functional blenders containing live goldfish. Visitors were given the option of pressing the “on” button. At least one visitor did, killing two goldfish. This led to the museum director being charged with and, later, acquitted of animal cruelty

4. in 1908, the NYT reported a story on a dog that would push kids into the Seine in order to earn beefsteak treats for “rescuing” them

5. when you see actors smoking cigarettes in movies, they’re often smoking “Herbal Cigarettes” which contain other plants like lettuce or tea leaves instead of tobacco

6. The Wright Brothers only flew together on the same flight one time, a six-minute flight on May 25th, 1910. They promised their father, Milton, they would never fly together to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their flight experiments

7. that 1996's movie "Twister" was rated PG-13 for "intense depiction of very bad weather"

8. in 2011, a 29-year-old Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw way beyond his balance. In a bender that lasted four-and-half months, he managed to spend around $1.6 million of the bank’s money

9. that "Old Book Smell" is caused by lignin — a compound in wood-based paper — when it breaks down over time, it emits a faint vanilla scent

10. A turkish mother that read lecture notes for four years to her blind daughter in law school, has been awarded an honorary degree with the daughter

11. Captain Robert Campbell whilst a prisoner of the Germans in WW1 asked the Kaiser to visit his dying mother in England. Surprisingly he was given permission, provided he returned to prison afterwards. He did

12. about Jean Boulet who in 1972 set the world record for the highest altitude reached in a helicopter, 40,280ft. During descent his engines failed, and he landed the helicopter without power, setting another record in the process for the highest unpowered helicopter landing

13. when one adventurer drove a Jeep Wrangler to the world record altitude of 6,646 m, he left a sign saying "Jeep Parking Only: All others don't make it up here anyway.". The next record breakers, who had a Suzuki Samurai and climbed up to 6,688 m on the same volcano, removed that sign

14. about the Financial Modeling World Cup, which is essentially the World Cup for Competitive excel users. Participants solve real-life case studies by building financial models in Microsoft Excel. $25,000 prize fund

15. that Toyota is headquartered in the city of Toyota, Japan and was founded there, but is not named after the city. In fact, the city (originally called Koromo) renamed itself after the company in 1959, because Toyota had become so famous

16. that Alice Munro, co-founder of a bookstore with her then-husband Jim, started writing after reading some of the store's stock and thinking "I can write better books than this." In 2013, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature

17. about the Horse, Sergeant Reckless. A Horse who served with the marines in Korea. She was able to haul ammunition by herself without a handler, would seek a bunker or lay down when under fire and received two purple hearts as well as other medals for her service in the Korean war

18. The Coconut Monk was a pacifist mystic who founded the Coconut Religion in Vietnam. He lived on an island, meditated in a palm tree for hours every day, had a cat and mouse as his companions, made shards of bombs into a gong, and went to prison for his opposition to the Vietnam War

19. a father, John Crowley, was told his two infant children had an incurable genetic disorder that would kill them in less than a year. He refused to accept this, so he founded a biotech company (with no prior experience) which pioneered an experimental enzyme therapy that saved their lives

20. the first reality show was 1973’s An American Family documenting the life of a family, but ended up breaking it up – 10 million people watched as mom Pat complained about husband Bill’s cheating, moaned about their sex life and then, midway through filming, asked him for a divorce on camera

21. The Tarzan Character Was Temporarily Removed From Disney Parks Because People Kept Pinching His Butt Cheeks

22. that one if the original ingredients for a Milkshake was Whiskey

23. every year at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the 1958 special 'Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas' is screened on Sweden's main channel. Swedes are so compelled by the cartoon that last year during the program, cell data usage fell 28% and calls to emergency services dropped 16%

24. that after 5 Tamil chiefs defeated the Sri Lankan king Valagamba, one of them became king but was eventually slain by another, who also became king before being slain by another, and so on until only one remained, then Valagamba returned, slew the last one and took back his throne

25. that by letting a wolf population recover, traffic collisions caused by deer are reduced by nearly 25%; the reduction is not based as much on the decimation of the deer population but on the “landscape of fear” created by the wolves

26. about Jon Lech Johansen, a self-trained software engineer who created software that decoded DVD copy protection. Johansen defended himself against computer hacking charges, arguing he didn't access anyone else's information: he owned the DVDs. He was acquitted in 2003

27. that Hans Zimmer deliberately used a broken piano for the score of Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" to make it sound like something you would hear in a pub

28. that the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to the three men who invented the blue LED. Until their discovery in the 90s, white LED lights couldn't be produced

29. Mini pigs aka Teacup pigs are a hoax. They are just potbellied pigs that have been underfed to stunt their growth and will eventually grow to weigh 100-150 pounds

30. that January is the first month of the Gregorian calendar because it is named after the roman god of all beginnings, Janus