Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 62
Facts you will enjoy...
The $80,000 Happiness Myth
Youβve heard it:
βAfter $80K a year, more money doesnβt make you happier.β
Wrong for most of us.
Hereβs why:
1. $80K where?
In Des Moines? Youβre living large.
In L.A.? You're living in your car.
2. Money solves problems. Not emptiness.
More cash helpsβuntil it doesnβt.
You canβt Venmo your way out of burnout.
3. More money, more stuff, same stress.
You donβt feel richer.
You just upgraded your anxiety.
4. Purpose > Paycheck
Iβve made less and been more at peace.
Iβve made more and felt less like me.
Funny how that works.
5. Want happiness? Try this:
Time. Freedom. Health.
A reason to wake up.
And people whoβd miss you if you didnβt. Would Sam and Shaan agree?
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Every "please" and "thank you" to ChatGPT is costing OpenAI tens of millions in electricity bills.
Why?
Sam Altman still says itβs "money well spent". Are you polite to your AI?
Best Reddit Comment for this post: βWhen machines rule the world they will remember who was kind and who wasnβtβ.
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Warren Buffett acquired 99% of his net worth after he became 50:
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Ancient Graffiti:
The finance officer of Emperor Nero once scrawled, βThis food is poison.β
Back then, Romans didnβt need Google Reviews, or Yelp. If you crossed them, they'd write their bad review straight on your wall.
The latest census data, which is for 2023, shows a record 173,700 Seattle men aged 15 and older had never been married. That represents 50.4% of the 344,700 Seattle men in that age group.
A new Apple Pencil Pro costs $129. You can now get the ColorWare's "Apple Crayon Pro" which mimics the wrappers of real-world crayons for $215. The Crayon Pro is compatible with the M4 iPad Pro, M2 and M3 models of the iPad Air, as well as the iPad mini 7.
ColorWare also sells custom painted AirPods in 58 colors for $130 premium ($319).
No more saddle sores. This split bicycle seat is genius:
https://www.startupselfie.net/2024/06/10/vabsrider-split-seat-bicycle-saddle/
https://www.ataraxybsc.com/
Costco warehouses typically carry around 3,800-4,000 SKUs (stock keeping units), while a typical Walmart store carries around 100,000-150,000 SKUs.
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Ever Wonder How They Come up With a Crypto Seed Phrase - (your unique password)?
Ever wonder why some crypto wallets only ask for the first four letters of each seed word? It's not lazinessβit's design.
The BIP39 word list has 2,048 words, each with a unique first four letters. That means typing "abst" will always point to "abstract," and no other word. Wallets can auto-complete the rest, reducing errors during recovery.
This feature doesn't compromise security. The strength lies in the combination of all words, not their length. Storing just the first four letters can even make physical backups more compact and durable.
So, next time you're backing up your wallet, remember: four letters are enough to keep your crypto safe and sound.
Most cryptocurrency wallets today use the BIP39 standard for seed phrases. This includes major hardware wallets like Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey, as well as many software wallets such as Jaxx, Exodus, Coinomi, and Mycelium. BIP39's widespread adoption ensures that users can recover their wallets across different platforms using the same seed phrase.
However, not all wallets follow BIP39. For instance, Electrum uses its own system for seed phrase generation, which differs from BIP39. Despite these exceptions, BIP39 remains the most commonly used standard in the industry.
Here is a list of the BIP39 words: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt
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Ever felt an instant connection with someone new? A study from Cornell University suggests your nose might be behind it. Researchers found that women were more likely to feel a bond with someone whose scent matched their own preferences, even after just a brief chat or a quick glance at a photo. This "friendship at first sniff" hints that our sense of smell plays a bigger role in social bonding than we realize.
The study also introduced the idea of "diplomatic odor"βthe unique scent we carry based on our daily habits, like diet, pets, and laundry choices. It turns out, this personal aroma might influence who we click with socially. Curious about how your scent could be shaping your friendships?
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-friendship-whiff-scent-choice-friends.html
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Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie, had a front-page obituary in The New York Times on August 6, 1975. This event was a unique and notable instance, as it marked the only time a fictional character received such an obituary from the newspaper.
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The first ever flight by humans in a hot air balloon in 1783 lasted 25 minutes. That was more than twice the time that Katy Perry was in space (11 minutes) a couple of weeks ago. (which generated more CO2 emissions than one person creates in an entire lifetime).
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In Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, there is a unique and famous cocktail called the Sourtoe Cocktail, which is served with a real mummified human toe. To join the exclusive Sourtoe Cocktail Club, you must drink a shot of alcohol (commonly Yukon Jack whiskey) with the dehydrated toe in the glass, and importantly, your lips must touch the toe during the drink. This ritual is the club's one strict rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips have gotta touch the toe" to become a member.
The tradition dates back to the 1920s when a rum-runner named Louie Linken suffered frostbite and had his frozen big toe amputated by his brother Otto using an axe. The toe was preserved in alcohol as a keepsake. In 1973, Captain Dick Stevenson found the preserved toe in a remote cabin and created the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, which now has over 100,000 members worldwide.
The cocktail is served at the Sourdough Saloon inside the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City. Participants pay for their drink and an additional fee to the "Toe Captain," who administers the toe and ensures the rules are followed. Swallowing the toe is forbidden and results in a hefty fine. After successfully completing the challenge, drinkers receive a certificate and their name is recorded in the club ledger.
Are you an adventurous traveler looking for a memorable and unusual experience?
I would, but I donβt drink. Β―\_(γ)_/Β―.
Youβve seen this ad that says, βPut a Plastic Bottle on Your Tires When Parked, Hereβs Why - Click Here Β»
Well donβt Click the ad. Snopes fact checkers did an article about why it is bunk: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bottle-tires-parked/
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Walter Becker of Stealy Dan fame owns 628 guitars.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18vSCB4paH/
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Groups of Animals have some weird names:
Owls β a parliament
Rhinos - a crash
Flamingos β a flamboyance
Lions β a pride
Giraffes β a tower
Wolves β a pack
Kangaroos β a mob
Zebras β a dazzle
Bats β a cauldron
Vultures β a committee (when resting), a wake (when feeding), or a kettle (when flying)
Hippos β a bloat
Ferrets β a business
Jellyfish β a smack or a bloom
Sharks β a shiver
Ravens β an unkindness or a conspiracy
More collective noun Bird Family names: https://pau1.substack.com/i/140492456/collective-nouns-for-birds
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Whatβs in a URL?
If you put a website address, or URL (Universal Resource Locator) into the address bar in a web browser, how do those words go to a website, on some server somewhere in the world? https://pau1.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-url
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In the 1970s, the Soviet Union dug the Kola Superdeep Borehole to study what Earth is made of. During the Cold War, they raced against other countries and picked a remote northern spot where the colder ground helped protect their tools from overheating. They drilled 7.6 miles into Earthβs crustβstill the deepest hole humans have ever made.
About 1,670,000 boxed iPhones can be transported on 5 Boeing 747 Freighter cargo planes within weight and size limits. In the current news, knowing how many iPhones fit on 5 freight planes is relevant because Apple reportedly flew this many planes to the US in late March to sidestep the 10% reciprocal tariff imposed by the Trump administration.
Itβs estimated that Apple sells about 150,000 new iPhones in the US per day during the typical AprilβJune quarter. So the 5 planes filled with iPhones is around 11 days worth of inventory. In mid May, Trump exempted tariffs on iPhone. What did Tim Cook have to pay to fix this problem?
Our brains take in a huge amount of info every secondβup to 11 million bits, according to some studies.
Think of a single bit like this:
β’ Noticing if a shape is a circle or a square.
β’ Seeing the color of something.
β’ Telling if one spot is brighter or darker than the area around it.
Your brain filters out what doesnβt matter and keeps what does. All these tiny bits help you make fast decisions and respond to the world around you. (Keywords: #cognitive bandwidth, #subconscious processing speed).
When Chuck Norris looks in a mirror, the mirror shatters. Because not even glass is dumb enough to get in between Chuck Norris and Chuck Norris.
Favorite this week?
β¦going to take all my stinky friends and start a personalized cologne serviceβ¦
"...feel a bond with someone whose scent matched their own preferences, even after just a brief chat or a quick glance at a photo...." - uh - how do they know by scent if it was from a photo????
Almost forgot my Chuck - When God said, βLet there be LIGHT!β Chuck Norris said, βSay, please.β