1. Most Japanese schools do not employ janitors or custodians. The Japanese education system believes that requiring students to clean the school themselves teaches respect, responsibility, and emphasizes equality.
  2. Millionaire Michael O’Leary, CEO of airline Ryanair, has his own taxicab company with just one cab so he can legally use the bus lanes and avoid traffic jams.
  3. There was a song written in the 1630s that was performed only in the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican kept the composition of the piece secret for 150 years until the 14-year-old Mozart listened to the piece two times, transcribed it from memory, and produced the first unauthorized copy of the song.
  4. There is a surviving fantasy novel written in the 2nd century AD in Roman Syria that features explorers flying to the moon, a first encounter with aliens, interplanetary war between imperialistic celestial kingdoms, and the discovery of a continent across the ocean.
  5. The Russians partied so hard once WWII ended, that the entire city of Moscow ran out of Vodka.
  6. There is an island which is disputed territory between Canada and Denmark. The militaries of both countries periodically visit to remove the other guy’s flag and leave a bottle of Danish schnapps or Canadian whiskey.
  7. There were ancient stone tablets in Japan’s recent tsunami struck areas with inscriptions “Do not build your homes below this point!”
  8. In 2008 Monty Python decided to start their own Youtube channel. They uploaded HQ videos of their sketches which in only a few days resulted in a 16,000% increase in DVD box set sales.
  9. It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials.
  10. People used to do their laundry in Old Faithful; they put their clothes in the geyser and it would erupt with clean clothes.
  11. According to a poll in the year 2000, the Japanese believe that their best invention of the 20th century was instant noodles.
  12. When a city in Indiana replaced all their signaled intersections with roundabouts, construction costs dropped $125,000, gas savings reached 24k gallons/year per roundabout, injury accidents dropped 80%, and total accidents dropped 40%.
  13. FedEx uses several empty cargo planes that roam the country’s skies overnight in circuitous flight paths, ready to divert on demand in order to accommodate unexpected package volume.
  14. A sailor who wishes to grow a beard in the Royal Navy has to submit a ‘permission to stop shaving’ form. He is then allowed two weeks to ‘grow a full set’ before he presents himself to the Master at Arms who will decide if his beard looks stupid or is respectably full enough to be permitted.
  15. The top speed of the Bugatti Veyron is limited not by the engine, but rather its tires exploding.