Page 81 - Other Facts

Certs mints invented an ingredient called "Retsyn" just so that they could market themselves as "the only mints with Retsyn."

Certs mint’s trademark slogan “the only mints with Retsyn,” sure does sell. But what exactly does it mean? Why exactly is “Retsyn” so amazing? The answer to that is; it actually isn’t. According to the Certs Cool Mint Drops Page, Retsyn is a combination of partially hydrogenated cottonseed, cooper gluconate, and flavouring. Aka: oil, copper sugar, and a vague but unremarkable chemical. 

But while Retsyn itself isn’t amazing, its story sure is. The ingredient (if it can even be called that) was created by Certs mints as a marketing scheme. It was meant to give them a competative edge by making it appear as though they had something no one else did. The most astonishing thing is that it worked! For a long time, Certs has been considered “America’s most popular mint”...which come to think of it would be a more catchy and honest slogan. 

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There are vacuum-driven garbage collection systems in parts of New York City that literally suck trash through pipes under the streets!

Whenever people in NYC throw their garbage down the trash chutes, it piles up for a few hours, until a trap door suddenly opens and sucks the waste into a huge underground pipe. The garbage is propelled through the pipe at a speed of sixty miles per hour. It sounds like the stuff of sci-fi “future” movies, but this has been going on for nearly 35 years, and is named the Avac system after the Swedish company that runs it. After a lengthy journey, the trash comes to a stop at a central disposal system known as the Avac center. 

It is dumped into two silo-shaped cyclones, and then spun into huge containers. On a normal day, five to seven tons of garbage is “pulled” in. But New York City’s constant growth demands Avac’s constant expansion. There have been suggestions to install the system outside, so litter can be collected from the city’s streets. But the people who run the Avac system and center have replied with; “Yeah, but God knows what would show up then.” 

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Medicine ball training is one of the oldest forms of strength and conditioning training!

The medicine ball is not as cutting edge as exercise gurus often lead people to believe! It is thought to have originated in Persia nearly 3000 years ago. It was wrestlers for strength and conditioning training. However, in those days, medicine balls weren’t weighted basketballs, but sand-filled bladders. 

The term “medicine ball” came much later in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. At the time, the words “health” and “medicine” were synonymous. The medicine ball soon became a part of the so-called “Four Horsemen of Fitness” which also included the dumbbell, the Indian club, and the wand. 

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The war hero "Black Hawk Down" is based on is now serving a sentence for rape!

Black Hawk Down is one of the most famous war movies of all time, yet it is a little known fact that the man who inspired the book and subsequent movie is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for rape and child molestation. In fact, the government was so worried about the bad publicity when the movie was made that the Pentagon contacted producers and pressured them to change the main characters name. 

In the movie Ranger John Grimes is called into battle and heroically braves the terrors of Somalia, which is mostly true. John “Stebby” Stebbins, the actual man, received one of the nations highest honors, the Silver Star, for his bravery, yet his ex-wife’s words speak for themselves in telling the truth that was later revealed. “They are going to make millions off this film in which my ex-husband is portrayed as an All-American hero when the truth is he is not." 

On June eighth of 2000 Stebbins was court martialled and sentenced for “sodomy with a child under 12 and rape.” Change your view on the movie? Tell us in comments! 

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Frodo wasn't the real hero of Lord of the Rings… Sam was!

JRR Tolkien considered Sam Gamgee the "chief hero" of The Lord of the Rings. If you’re unfamiliar with The Lord of the Rings, it is a world famous story of the struggle of a group of people to destroy a powerful ring before it results in the resurrection of the evil Sauron. The “main character” of the story is Frodo Baggins, a hobbit (a person with large hairy feet and in short stature). 

Frodo is tasked with taking the ring to Mordor, the place where it can be destroyed. Frodo is joined by his gardener, Samwise Gamgee. Throughout the course of the story, it might seem obvious that the main character and carrier of the ring is the story’s hero. J. R. R. Tolkien, the author, saw things differently though. Tolkien claimed that Sam was the true hero of the story. 

To be fair, the claim holds some merit. Sam did beat a man eating giant spider in single combat, storm a tower full of orcs on his own, resist the temptation of the ring, and carry Frodo up the side of a volcano essentially carrying the fate of the world on his back- all while suffering from starvation and dehydration. So it seems to stand to reason.

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