Boxer Jack Johnson was once pulled over for a $50 speeding ticket and gave the officer a $100 bill. When the officer said he couldn’t provide change, Johnson told him to keep it as he was going to make his return trip at the same speed.
Jack Johnson also died in a car crash – On June 10, 1946, Johnson was involved in a car crash on U.S. Highway 1 near Franklinton, North Carolina after driving angrily away from a segregated diner that had refused to serve him. His friend survived the high-speed collision with a telegraph pole but an injured Johnson was taken to the nearest black hospital, St. Agnes Hospital, 25 miles away in Raleigh where he died. He was 68 years old.
After being scolded by a woman who felt that his shoes were too expensive for kids, Shaq forwent a $40 million deal with Reebok & signed one with Walmart. He then brought in designers from Reebok so that his Walmart shoes would look costlier than the $20 price. Over 400 million pairs were sold. (article)
There’s “Earthquake diplomacy” between Turkey and Greece which was initiated after successive earthquakes hit both countries in the summer of 1999. Since then both countries help each other in case of an earthquake no matter how their relations are.
During the 2000’s, Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel, and several other mega corporations had a mutual agreement not to hire each other’s employees in order to keep salaries low. This led to a 400 mil class action lawsuit (article)
Steve Jobs found out that a recruiter at Google was speaking with an Apple employee. Jobs contacted then CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, about it. Schmidt promptly fired the recruiter and notified Jobs– to which Jobs responded with a… smiley face.
Princess Diana didn’t initially die at the scene of her car accident, but 5 hours later due to a tear in her heart’s pulmonary vein. She would’ve had 80% chance of survival if she had been wearing her seat belt.
In the operatic song in The Fifth Element, composer Eric Sierra “purposely wrote un-singable things” so she’d sound like an alien. When opera singer Inva Muls came for the part, “she sang 85% of what [Eric] thought was technically impossible”, the rest being assembled in the studio. (article)
Tomatoes are native to the Americas, so there was no such thing as tomato sauce in Italy until at least the 16th century (article)
So, I called in to The Splendid Table years ago when they had an Italian Food historian on to ask about this specifically and what they did to accompany pasta before tomato sauce.
She explained that in the north, they would make sauces with bread crumbs and olive oil and cheeses. In the south, it would more likely be something like a putanesca or other seafood-based pasta companion.
She also explained that they started importing tomatoes for tablesettings because their vibrant red was so striking, but for years the tomato was believed to be poisonous. Eventually, Europeans got comfortable cooking with them and they started getting incorporated into food. In Italy, that was first in neapolitan-style pizza.
Dogs intentionally try to make humans laugh. They understand that laughter means play, and play is positive. (article)
A study performed at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), found that dogs can detect emotion such as happiness or sadness.4
The study detected an increase in blood flow to various areas of the brain. This blood flow represents increased activity in the brain. Similar to humans, dogs also have dedicated areas in their brains to understand dog barks and human voices.
Andre Agassi won 10 of 11 matches after seeing a “tick” in Boris Becker’s serve. Agassi could predict where Becker was serving based on whether Becker stuck his tongue out in the middle of his lip or to the left corner of his lip. Agassi told Becker over a pint of beer – after they retired. (article)
Procrastination is not a result of laziness or poor time management. Scientific studies suggest procrastination is due to poor mood management (article)
People with low self-esteem are more likely to procrastinate as are those with high levels of perfectionism who worry their work will be judged harshly by others.
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 (article)
More than 1 in 10 Americans have no close friends. The share of Americans who have zero close friends has been steadily rising. From 3% of the population in 1991 to 12% in 2021. The share who have 10 or more close friends has also fallen – from 33% to 13%.
