Other Facts

There is a homeless shelter in Washington that saves the public $4 million a year!

It is located at 1811 Eastlake Ave in Seattle and it opened in 2005. The purpose of the shelter was to house 75 homeless people who suffered from alcoholism. Instead of simply feeding and sheltering homeless people, they made an effort to deal with the cause and the suffering of the people. They treated them for alcoholism and interacted with them as if they were paying, traditional members of society. The results were stunning.

1811 Eastlake has been intricately studied for it's success and has been imitated across the country. By taking homeless people and helping them to better their lives, they allowed previously dysfunctional members of society to restart their lives and contribute to the economy, while simultaneously reducing the number of homeless people throughout the city. It is estimated that around $4 million is saved by helping the people to go back to work and by not needing to support them for the rest of their lives!

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On April Fool's 1997, comic strip artists pulled off a massive prank in which 46 artists swapped each other strips!

The entire affair was organized by comic strip creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott, who created the Baby Blues daily newspaper comic strip. Together they convinced forty-six different artists to participate in switching their material with another comic strip writers.

For example, Mike Peters traded his comic with Lynn Johnston, and they each wrote and drew their own material for the other person’s comic! Some artists did a multiple swap, with thirteen different people trading, and some did simpler switches.

The writer and artist swapped roles for Sally Forth and the Peanuts almost swapped with the comic strip Mutts! There were virtually no rules and everyone was free to do just about whatever they wanted with others’ material. So why was it such a good prank?

It became a huge success because the newspapers, readers, and comic syndicates had no idea it was happening. People opened their newspapers and found their traditional comics written and drawn by different people. It was such a success it even earned the name the Great Comic Strip Switcheroo!

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A 15-year-old boy stole a giant Caterpillar earthmover and took it on a 12 mile joy ride through Tucson

On June 2, 2005, 15-year-old Duncan Dresner stole an earthmover from a construction site in Tuscon. He then proceeded to drive 12 miles through the city. He led police on a chase as he swerved from lane to lane and ignored their commands. At one point, he hit a utility pole and caused a power outage.

In a final attempt to stop Dresner, police officers stood in front of the earthmover with their guns drawn. The earthmover reversed toward the officers, and they fired on it. A bullet hit Dresner in the spine and paralyzed him from the sternum down.

Dresner pleaded guilty to eight counts of endangerment. While Dresner and his attorneys argued that this was a stupid decision by an upset boy, police officers were infuriated by the fact that Dresner carelessly put so many citizens in danger on his joy ride.

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There's a road in New Zealand that isn't connected to any other road!

The Wilmot Pass is located on the main divide of New Zealand’s South Island. It is 2,201 feet high and connects Doubtful Sound, a deep indentation on the coast, to the valley of the West Arm of Lake Manapouri.

Uniquely, the pass is crossed by a road that connects to no other road. It was constructed to facilitate the development of the Lake Manapouri Hydroelectricity Project. It is the only road on the New Zealand mainland that is not connected to the main road network.

Until the 1960s, the Wilmot Pass was only accessible from the sea. The 21 km long, unconnected road was then built between 1963 and 1965 to offer access to the pass.

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Play-doh was created by accident!

Although I suppose that just adds to it's whimsy. Play-doh was originally developed as wall paper cleaner. However, it was soon noted that it was really bad at being wall paper cleaner and much better at being modeling clay.

When it first came out, the only color available was white. However, it only took a year for play-doh to paint itself with every color in the rainbow. Soon enough, kids were bouncing off of the walls for it!

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