The weekly collection of useless and fun facts. In this week’s edition: The Most Stolen Book, Non-working Crosswalks, Russian Beer, The Goodyear Blimp, and Toothpaste Blobs.
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Rachel Haller/flickr |
About 2,500 of the 3,250 crosswalk buttons in New York City don’t work, but New Yorkers push them anyway out of habit. Most were deactivated by the late 1980’s when traffic lights became automated. It’s believed that about 90% of the crosswalks don’t work. Why is that? Many of the crosswalks have been programmed with a fixed-time operation when the “walk” signal will be displayed. Many of the crosswalks with push buttons are considered “mechanical placebos” and were installed in the 1970’s. By the late 80’s, many of the crosswalk buttons had been deactivated. There are about 750 spots where the buttons actually work. Why weren’t they removed? Mainly because of cost. It would cost about $1 million to remove the mechanisms at the crosswalks. The city decided that amount could be used more beneficially elsewhere. Source
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Barry Kent/Wikimedia |
Russia didn’t consider beer to be an alcoholic beverage until 2011. It had been previously classified as a soft drink. On New Year’s Day 2013, the law that was signed in 2011 went into effect changing the classification. Beer was really consumed like a soft drink. It was completely unregulated and anyone could drink a beer purchased from anywhere, anytime. The change brought a tax on the beer industry as well as time constraints on when it could be sold. It was a blast to the beer industry since beer sales in Russia had risen 40% when classified as a soda. Russians still drink more vodka than beer, however, drinking five liters of vodka to four liters of beer. On average, Russians drink about 12.5 liters of alcohol per year. That is two times of the critical level for alcohol consumption set by the World Health Organization. I doubt this new law will slow them down. Source
Redondo Beach, California passed a resolution in 1983 to adopt a new official bird for the city. Their choice? The Goodyear Blimp. The Chamber of Commerce of the city decided it would draw attention to the city before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The city council agreed and voted the blimp as the official bird. The city previously didn’t have a city bird, but the only bird close was a cartoon character drawing named Sandy Seagull that was the symbol of the city’s clean beach program. The Goodyear Blimp was a shoe-in for the honor. Source
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Here’s all the facts wrapped up in a neat little package. Feel free to share. Until next time, remember to annoy those around you with your new found knowledge (and the facts to back them up).