Here are some random facts for you.
1. The Cold War made people do crazy things. The U.S. government was so desperate to defeat communism that in the 1960s, the CIA spent five years and $20 million trying to turn housecats into Soviet spies.
They planned to implant microphones, antennas, and transmitters inside the cats, but only ONE ended up making it into the field, and sadly, that cat was hit by a taxi before it was able to do any “spying.”
#internationalcatday @CIA project ‘Acoustic Kitty’ #1960s Cats spy on Soviet embassies-catastrophic failure after 5yr $20million #spyhistory pic.twitter.com/a51ODp0YS8
— Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall | The Spy Historian (@thespyhistorian) August 8, 2017
2. BMW had to recall their GPS navigation system in Germany in the ’90s, because German men refused to take directions from a female voice.
3. Every year, the U.S. goes through enough cardboard boxes for shipping to build a mile-high cardboard wall around the entire continental U.S. (That’s JUST the U.S., so Mexico isn’t paying for this wall.)
4. Safeway grocery stores once had a mandatory policy that employees had to smile and make eye contact with customers, but they canceled it after too many male customers thought the female employees were hitting on them.
5. There’s a town called Zilwaukee in Michigan. The founders chose the name in 1848 to try to confuse people who were planning to move to Milwaukee so they’d accidentally move there instead.
(How Stuff Works / CNN / CNBC / Los Angeles Times / Wikipedia)
