People & Society

There are 2 billion parking spots in the U.S. for about 200 million cars. The area of parking per car in the United States is thus larger than the area of housing per human. April 18, 2021

Facebook conducted a study where they intentionally manipulated almost 700,000 users' emotions without their knowledge or permission April 17, 2021

In 1999, a group of hackers discovered that they could enter any Hotmail account by simply entering "eh" as a password. It was fixed by Microsoft within two hours. April 17, 2021

In 1879 it was estimated the Oxford English Dictionary would take 10 years to complete, but in five years they'd only reached the word "Ant". After crowdsourcing readers to help, it was completed 44 years later. The publishers now estimate it would take a single person 120 years to just type it. April 16, 2021

Meet a 17 year old kid that was given an old iPhone for free, and using the "barter" section of Craigslist made 14 trades, ending with a Porsche. Along the way he traded for newer phones, computers, motorcycles, and eventually cars. April 16, 2021

Of the 2.9 million female high school athletes, only 3% are cheerleaders, yet cheerleading accounts for nearly 65% of all catastrophic injuries in girls' high school athletics, and is considered one of the most dangerous school activities. April 15, 2021

During WW2, Ernest Hemingway used his fishing boat named after his ex-wife (Pilar) to hunt German U-boats in the Caribbean armed only with Thomson machine guns and hand grenades. He was given unlimited gasoline by the US government. April 13, 2021

The sauna is such a deeply igrained part of the Finnish culture, that finns will even build them in war. Custom dictates no titles or hierarchies are allowed in the sauna, including military ranks in saunas built and used by soldiers. April 12, 2021

The Finnish government recently invested €98 million in a new central library. Finnish writers receive library royalties-they are almost as much per borrowed book as the royalty for each paperback sold. April 12, 2021

DMX avoided a maximum jail term for tax fraud when his lawyer played his song "Slippin'" for the judge in order to show X's struggles and how bad his upbringing was. April 11, 2021

Icelandic horses are not allowed to leave the country. If they do, they are banned from returning. This is because Iceland is an island so they have limited diseases, and this is another measure to prevent it. April 10, 2021

The reason that some semi-truck trailer doors have quilted patterns on their rear doors is to reduce glare on the vehicles following them. April 5, 2021

ADHD doesn't always mean 'short attention span'. 'Hyperfocusing' on a task for hours on end is also a known symptom of ADHD, where the inability to stop is considered to be the problem. April 4, 2021

Roller coasters were invented to distract American people from immorality of taverns, gambling and dancing halls, and brothels April 3, 2021

A German nun left heartbroken after seeing leprosy patients in Pakistan, where it was believed as a punishment from God & patients were ostracized, left everything behind & moved there to fight leprosy alone. She got the country (then population of 127 million) rid of disease. April 3, 2021

In the 5th century BC, diabetes was first identified by a surgeon named Sushruta who pointed out that the urine of diabetics was sweet enough to attract ants and sticky to the touch. He noted that diabetes affected rich castes and was related to the excessive consumption of rice and sweets March 31, 2021

Leonardo da Vinci received complaints about his procrastinating from one of the priors while painting The Last Supper. He solved the argument by threatening to use that particular prior as the model for Judas in the fresco. The complaints stopped shortly after he made this remark. March 31, 2021

Children who were victims of bullying are consistently found to be at higher risk of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression in adulthood. They never truly get over it. March 30, 2021

In Cuba, picking up hitchhikers is mandatory for government vehicles, if passenger space is available. March 30, 2021

In the US 49% of corporate industry leaders and 50% of government leaders come from just 12 universities March 28, 2021