Saturday, July 27, 2013

Things I learned lately 27 July

  • Birds don't fart.
  • When Q-Tips (cotton swabs) were originally introduced, they were called Baby Gays.
  • Alan Emtage, arguably the father of web search (he made Archie at McGill in 1989) hasn't made a dime off his invention.
  • The chairman of the company that built Dubai's Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world — wants to build an even bigger tower. That's because Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is developing the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah that could become the new tallest building in the world (1000m). Mohamed Alabbar said he would like his next project to be "a little taller" than that.
  • A 46-year-old employed father in Florida, with no criminal record, was caught selling four bottles of prescription pain pills to an undercover cop. He was sentenced to 25 years.
  • A federal fraud investigator in Canada was suspended without pay, because she leaked information that investigators had to cut people off their EI benefits in order to meet quotas. Investigators were given a target to recover nearly $500,000 in EI benefits every year.
  • Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston walked around San Diego Comic-Con (2013) wearing a mask of the character from his show and nobody knew it was him.
  • Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli is intent on reinstating Virginia's Crimes Against Nature law. He thinks oral sex (between any two people) is the same as gay sex.
  • While a woman was away for 2 weeks on vacation in Ohio, First National Bank re-possessed her belongings and foreclosed her house. Only one problem - it's not her bank - they went to the wrong house. Now she wants her stuff back, all $18,000 of it, and the bank is waffling.
  • While adding backing vocals to the song 'Hey Jude', the Beatles asked the orchestra members if they would clap their hands and sing along to the refrain in the song's coda. Most complied (for a double fee), but one declined, reportedly saying, "I'm not going to clap my hands and sing Paul McCartney's bloody song!"

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