Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 30

Might make you go, Hmm!

This new podcast maker, NotebookLM, by Google, seems pretty cool. I uploaded a Substack post and in a couple of minutes it returned a 2 person podcast. Free. What do you think? Click below:

The Assassin’s Teapot is a clever device that appears to be a normal teapot but has two separate compartments inside. Each compartment can have a different liquid, and is accessed through separate delivery tubes, allowing you to pour the 2 different liquids from the same tea-spout without them mixing. This design makes it possible to secretly serve something like poison to a guest while appearing to offer just tea to yourself.

More bad AI info. A U.K. family was poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book they bought from major online retailer. From the Reddit post:

“My entire family was in hospital last week after accidentally consuming poisonous mushrooms.

My wife purchased a book from a major online retailer for my birthday. The book is entitled something similar to: ‘Mushrooms UK: A Guide to Harvesting Safe and Edible Mushrooms.’

It comes with pictures of the mushrooms to help identify each one. Unfortunately, the book in question was not accurate. A closer investigation reveals that the images of mushrooms are AI generated, and we have now found two instances of text where a sentence ends and is followed up with a random questions or fourth-wall breaking statements. We did not know it was AI-generated when we bought it! This was not disclosed on the website!”

from the Amazon store

Amazon has since removed the AI generated mushroom identification books. (More work for the lawyers…).

TikTok has 170 million monthly active users in the US, and use it an average of nearly an hour per day. There are 15 million Canadian users.

My favorite book to read when I was in high school was “The Outsiders”  by S.E. Hinton. I have read it more than any other book, and bought it a few times over the years. A copy of the book can be found here: https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/The%20Outsiders%20Novel%20by%20SE%20Hinton.pdf
The Plot: Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old boy who is a member of a "gang of greasers", is leaving a movie theater when he is jumped by "Socs", the greasers' rival gang. Several greasers, including Ponyboy's two older brothers—the paternal Darry and the popular Sodapop—come to his rescue. It was the perfect book for a guy growing up in the ’60’s/ 70’s. This is the author, S.E.Hinton:

Have you read it? Here is the movie trailer from Youtube. It had a lot of future stars in it:

In June 2024, Tesla outsold all other EV brands in the U.S. combined:

Tobi Lütke, the CEO of Shopify talks about building trust. “Another concept we talk a lot about is something called a “trust battery.” It’s charged at 50 percent when people are first hired. And then every time you work with someone at the company, the trust battery between the two of you is either charged or discharged, based on things like whether you deliver on what you promise.” “Here are 18 ways I recommend building trust:

1.  Give with no expectation of a return

2. Ask deep questions and honor people’s answers

3. Assume good intentions

4. Be curious and genuinely interested

5. Be responsive

6. Be reliable

7. Be communicative

8. Be patient

9. Be additive

10. Be predictable

11. Recognize other people’s priorities, and prioritize them

12. Recognize other people’s concerns, and never inhabit them

13. Recognize where people are coming from, and meet them there

14. Never be reckless

15. When there’s an opportunity to be kind, even in small ways, be kind

16. When there’s an opportunity to be cruel, even if it’s tempting, always pass

17. If someone needs time or space, give it to them

18. Trust them too”

~ from Jason Feifer’s great newsletter “One Thing Better” https://jasonfeifer.beehiiv.com/p/how-to-earn-people-s-trust-and-keep-it

In 2001 Apple released the first iPod music player. In 2007 Apple released the first iPhone named just iPhone. The following year, while Android was in development by Google, Microsoft and others, Apple came out with the iPhone 3G. This 2nd generation phone now came with the newly introduced App Store and of course could receive push email, browse the web, and call and text. This new version of the iPhone retailed for less than half of the first model. 

Panc you very much: “That’s 3,238 pancreata (plural for pancreas) recovered for islet cell transplant research in 2023, and only 24 actual transplants conducted that year. Where did the other 3,214 pancreata go? Where did the nearly 7,000 pancreata taken from dead Americans’ bodies over the past three years and not used for transplants go?” ~ https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/367812/organ-donation-loophole-pancreas-opo

For close to 50 years, every single hockey sweater worn in the NHL has been stitched by a small factory in St. Hyacinthe, Que, called SP Apparel.

(https://spapparel.com/) 
"A typical pro jersey is worn for about five games," said Quinn. "That's depending on the guy's ice time of course." The company has a total annual production capacity of approximately 1,000,000 units (jerseys, socks, shells, pants, bags). “A total of 260 employees contribute to the success of our company, and our clients include some of the most important brands in the industry such as Nike, Adidas, CCM, Bauer, and Fanatics amongst others.”

If a large company offers you a million dollars for your little 100 year old home, take it.

Hot water sounds different than cold water in the shower. ~ from Rick’s Newsletter:

The Longest-Lasting Cars, Trucks and SUVs To Reach 250,000 Miles and Beyond

These 30 vehicles have up to a 36 percent chance of reaching a quarter million miles:

Kids in Point Roberts USA go through Canada Twice a Day for School in the USA.
The Point Roberts school serves children from Kindergarden through third grade. Older kids are shuttled on a 40 minute school bus ride that takes them out of the US, into British Columbia (Canada), and then back into the U.S. again at Blaine, Washington. Then on the way home, they do it all over again.

Buses are called Chool Hunds in Western US :)

A Guidance Counselor Once Told Judith Love Cohen To Go To Finishing School And Become A "Lady." Instead, She Earned Degrees From USC, Became An Aerospace Engineer, Worked With Nasa, And Designed A Computer That Helped Save The Apollo 13 Astronauts.
Meanwhile, she raised a family — including a son who grew up to be actor Jack Black — and wrote children's books encouraging young girls to aspire to careers in STEM

Rosa Parks. The 81-year-old civil rights activist had been robbed and beaten in her Detroit home in 1994. Mike Illitch, the founder of Little Caesars Pizza secretly paid Rosa Parks rent for more than a decade. So she would be safe. 

wikimedia.org

In Ontario, here in Canada, there is the Ontario Hockey League (the OHL). When actor Keanu Reeves was a teenager he nearly tried out to be a goalie for the Windsor Spitfires OHL hockey team. Because of an injury, he never got that far. But in August, 2024 he signed a one day contract and became an official player for the Spitfires. The contract was signed the same day Reeves was in Windsor, Ont., to perform with his alternative rock band Dogstar at the city's casino. The GM of the Spitfires, Bill Bowler, said: "We thought it would be cute. We thought by getting him to sign a jersey, we're going to auction it off for the CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association), and hopefully raise some money for a great cause. And again, we can't thank Mr. Reeves enough.” More than 100 alumni of the OHA and OHL Junior A Spitfires have graduated to play in the National Hockey League over the years.

The Mongolian invasions of Japan, in 1274 and 1281 were thwarted twice by powerful typhoons named ‎Kamikaze. Each time the Mongols attempted to invade, a typhoon struck, preventing their forces from landing. Remarkably, these are the only two recorded typhoons to have occurred in that area. Coincidence?

Lufthansa, the biggest airline in Germany, is covering airplanes with a new synthetic material that mimics sharkskin to help their planes fly more efficiently. This is part of their efforts to reduce carbon emissions by burning less fuel.

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Chuck Norris tells Simon what to do.

✌️ Commenting and re-stacking are cool things to do…

Your favorite fact?