In the Bemba tribe of southern Africa, if someone does something hurtful, they take the person to the center of the town where the entire tribe comes and surrounds them. For two days they tell him every good thing he has ever done, because they believe that every person comes into the world as good.
44
In Brazil, prison inmates can reduce their sentence by 4 days (up to 48 days a year) for every book they read and write a report on.
32
In 1987, a Chicago TV station had its broadcast interrupted by a pirate signal that shows a man in a Max Headroom mask mumbling and being spanked with a fly swatter. Despite investigations by the FCC and FBI, this became the only known incident in which a hacker interrupted a major TV broadcast without getting caught.
19
The IRS employees tax manual has instructions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.
208
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar made so much money, he spent over $2,500 every month just on rubber bands to bundle up his stacks of cash.
23
If NYC were its own country, and the NYPD was its army, it would be the twentieth-best-funded army in the world, just behind Greece and just ahead of North Korea.
14