On February, 2014, a coffee shop with the name “Dumb Starbucks” opened in the city of Los Feliz, California. It had everything similar to the real Starbucks including the logo of the coffee giant down to the menu it served in its cafe – except for the fact that everything had “Dumb” written before it. The owners claimed that there was no copyright infringement under “parody law” through which one can use copyrighted material in a parodical way without the consent of the owner. However, this all turned out to be the creation of Nathan Fielder and was featured in his TV show Nathan for You. In this show,Nathan approaches failing small businesses and gives them some sort of gimmick that would help them stand out from the competition.(source)
19 Crows have the ability to remember and recognize human faces for their entire lifetime that appear dangerous to them. This has been confirmed in a behavioral experiment conducted on crows.
Crows remember the faces of “dangerous humans” with the memories likely lasting for a bird’s lifetime. This was confirmed in a behavioral experiment that was conducted in 2006 wherein crow behavior was put to the test. Researchers netted and banded sets of crows at various sites on campus and around the town while wearing rubber human masks. A few days later the researchers walked through the same areas wearing assorted masks and recorded how the birds responded. At each site the crows ignored all but the particular mask that had been worn during the banding which they greeted with loud scolding cries and the formation of small mobs.(source)
18 An Australian academic has claimed that the reason for the slurry Australian accent is due to the fact that Austrailian forefathers used to drink a lot and they spoke to one another in a slurry, alocoholic accent.
According to an Australian academic, the reason why the Australian accent is slurred is because of the heavy-drinking, early settlers. As per the researcher, Dean Frenkel, because Australians’ forefathers remained drunk most of the time and interacted with each other in this inebriated state, an alcoholic slur was introduced into the accent which has been passed on from generations to generation.(source)
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17 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson started in the WWF as “Rocky Maivia,” a cheesy guy that the audience greeted with “Die, Rocky, die!” slogans. He later re-invented his persona as “The Rock” in which fans were cursed in the third person.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had initially started his career in the WWE, then the WWF, with the name “Rocky Maivia,” a pure-hearted good guy with a dippy personality and an outfit of feathers and blue ribbons that was hated by the audience. Shouts of “Rocky sucks!” and “Die, Rocky, die,” would be heard every time he stepped into the arena. Finally, Johnson got tired of this and reinvented himself as “The Rock,” and started cursing out fans in the third person before adorning himself. He went on to become the “People’s Champion”.(source)
16 When trains were introduced in the U.S., Americans thought that women’s bodies would not handle speeds of fifty miles-an-hour, and their uteruses would fly out.
When the first trains, which were steam-spewing locomotives, arrived in the United States, many Americans thought that women’s bodies were not designed to ride at fifty miles-an-hour. There was also an additional fear that such high speeds might make their uteruses fly out, whereas others believed that such high speeds would melt a human body. According to cultural anthropologist, Genevieve Bell, these reactions were examples of “moral panic” that a society experiences when particularly revolutionary technological advances show up that interferes with or alters our relationships with time, space, and each other.(source)
