Places & Culture

Since 1966, the Swedish city of Gavle has built a giant straw Christmas goat in the town square. Arsonists have burned it down 43 out of 60 years. The city tried guards, CCTV, fences, and fireproofing. In 2005, attackers dressed as Santa and a Gingerbread Man shot it with flaming arrows. In 1976, an American tourist burned it down and told police he thought it was a tradition.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that New London, Connecticut, could seize Susette Kelo's home and give the land to a private developer. The city spent $78 million demolishing the neighborhood. Pfizer, the anchor company, left town. The developer couldn't get financing. 20 years later, the land is an empty lot.

In 1998, the town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, population 315, elected a dog named Goofy as mayor as a fundraiser joke. It worked so well they kept doing it. Every mayor since has been a dog. They have collectively raised over $100,000 for the town. No human has run for mayor since 1998.

A woman in New York sold her house for $650,000 after spending years telling magazines it was haunted by poltergeists. She forgot to mention the ghosts to the buyer. He sued. A New York court ruled: "As a matter of law, the house is haunted." Law schools teach it as the Ghostbusters Ruling.

The Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (off the coast of England) were technically at war from 1651 to 1986 — 335 years. No shots were fired. No one died. In 1985, a Scilly historian contacted the Dutch Embassy to joke about it. The Dutch ambassador flew to the islands and signed a peace treaty, ending a war nobody knew was still happening.

The village of Piplantri in Rajasthan, India plants 111 trees every time a girl is born. In a region where daughters were once seen as a burden, the birth of a girl now triggers a celebration — the entire community comes together to plant. They also start a savings fund for each girl's education that she collects at 20. Piplantri now has over 350,000 trees. What was once semi-arid land is now a forest. Every tree is named after a girl.

In Iceland, construction projects have been delayed or rerouted to avoid disturbing rocks believed to be inhabited by "hidden people" (Huldufólk). In 2013, a major highway project was halted after activists argued it would destroy an "elf church" — a large rock formation. The road was rerouted. Surveys show over 50% of Icelanders say they won't deny the existence of elves.

Donald Miller Jr. of Ohio disappeared in 1986 and was declared legally dead in 1994. In 2005, he showed up very much alive and asked the court to reverse his death certificate. The judge denied it — Ohio's 3-year statute of limitations to reverse a death ruling had expired. The judge told him: "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still dead as far as the law is concerned."

In 1925, con man Victor Lustig forged government documents, posed as a ministry official, and convinced six scrap metal dealers that the French government was secretly selling the Eiffel Tower for scrap. He "sold" it to the highest bidder. The victim was so humiliated he never went to police. So Lustig went back to Paris and sold it a second time.

In November 2017, the Tsukuba Express line in Japan issued a formal public apology after a train departed Minami-Nagareyama station 20 seconds ahead of schedule. Not 20 minutes. Twenty seconds. The statement read: "We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience." Not a single passenger had complained.

Argentine farmer Pedro Martin Ureta spent over 20 years planting thousands of cypress and eucalyptus trees across his Pampas farmland in the shape of a guitar — a tribute to his wife Graciela, who dreamed of seeing one from the air before she passed in 1977. The guitar spans roughly one kilometer and is visible on Google Earth. Ureta, who is afraid of flying, has never seen his finished creation from above.

Barbra Streisand sued a photographer for $50 million to remove an aerial photo of her Malibu mansion. Before the lawsuit, it had been downloaded 6 times. After: 420,000 views in a single month. She lost the case and paid $177,000 in legal fees. The phenomenon is now called the Streisand Effect.

Kandovan’s cone-shaped homes are carved from volcanic rock—and people still live inside them.

In Portugal, it's illegal for your employer to contact you outside of working hours — companies face fines of nearly €10,000 per violation.

Latvia has the largest gender imbalance in Europe. Women outnumber men by over 130,000 — in a country of just 1.86 million people.

On very long, boring roads in Australia, they put up trivia signs to keep drivers alert. One sign asks a question, and a few kilometres later another sign gives the answer.

In Japan, there's a bar for people thinking of quitting their jobs. The drinks are free.

The town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, has been on fire since 1962. An underground coal seam ignited, creating sinkholes that vent toxic gas, forcing nearly everyone to leave. The fire still burns today and could continue for 250 more years.

Japan has over 21,000 businesses that are more than 100 years old, more than any other country. Among them is Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, a hot spring hotel founded in 705 AD that holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest hotel in the world.

In Japan, there's a phone booth called the 'Wind Phone' where people can speak to deceased loved ones. It has received over 30,000 visitors since 2011.