The biggest check ever written was for $9 Billion!

The check was written from Mitsubishi UFJ to Morgan Stanley in the fall of 2008. This was right when the full extent of the global economic meltdown was discovered, and Wall Street was desperate for capital in order to survive. 

Morgan Stanley got a $9 billion investment from Mitsubishi, which essentially saved the company from collapse at the time. The amount was so large, that you would think that it was to be wired electronically instead of writing a check. There was one little problem.

It was Columbus Day, and banks in the US and Japan were closed. Because it was an emergency, however, Mitsubishi cut an actual physical check that is most likely the largest ever written!

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Barbados once had to score a goal on themselves in order to win a soccer match!

This happened in a late game of the Caribbean Cup tournament in 1994. It sounds really strange but there's a really good reason for why Barbados had to do this. They were playing Grenada, and they needed to win by 2 goals in order to make it through to the next round of the tournament. 

Although they had led for 2-0 most of the game, Grenada scored a goal in the 71st minute. The 2-1 score would have meant Barbados would've gone out of the tournament. So what did they have to do?

Force a tie, and go to overtime. The overtime would be played under golden goal rules (the first to score, wins) and the golden goal was worth 2 goals. Therefore, Barbados had a better chance at getting through by tying the game and scoring the golden goal. 

Grenada caught wind of what they were doing, and you had the funny situation in which Barbados was trying to score a goal on their own goal, and Barbados was trying to defend their opponent's goal! In the end Barbados scored the golden goal and went on to the next round of the tourney.

 What do you think, ingenious play or a cheap tactic?

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Van Halen had a clause in their contract not to have Brown M&Ms backstage. This was a tactical play more than a diva move.

The story of Van Halen requiring in their contract rider that no brown M&Ms were served backstage is often cited as one of the most ridiculous requests by a band ever. However, more than Van Halen making a diva move, it was actually a genius move to ensure that they got the quality and level of equipment they needed to put on their show. 

What they really wanted to know is if the concert promoter had read the contract in full. The brown M&M clause was buried in the middle of a bunch of other requests of high-performing lights and sound equipment. David Lee Roth, the lead singer, compared their contract to the Chinese Yellow Pages, because it was so long and complicated. 

Van Halen was one of the first bands to take huge productions into third-level markets. As a result, their shows were prone to a lot of technical errors. If they spotted brown M&Ms backstage, they would know that the rider had not been read properly, and it would signal them to do an inspection of the equipment to make sure nothing would go wrong. 

One time, in a New Mexico concert, he found brown M&Ms, and David Lee Roth trashed his dressing room (about $200 worth of damage, he says). However, because they didn’t read the requirements, their whole staging sank and caused $85,000 of damage! The press caught wind of the rumor that David Lee Roth caused $85,000 because he saw a brown M&M and the rumor caught ever since.

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US Alcoholics might increase by 60% next year!

It's not because of a particular increase in alcohol consumption, or any type of actual increase in people who become alcoholics. It's because the American Psychiatric Association is coming up with a new definition of addiction that will see the number of people classified as alcoholics increase by that much.

The American Psychiatric Association writes and maintains the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM for sure. It's the go-to book that every mental health professional refers to when diagnosing a mental illness. 

They're planning on releasing the 5th edition of the DSM next year, and one of the changes they're proposing is to expand the list of recognized symptoms for drug and alcohol addiction. 

For example, if you often drink more than you intend and crave alcohol, you will be considered a mild addict. Under DSM-4, you needed to have more serious symptoms like missing your duties, being arrested or driving while drunk before you were diagnosed as an addict.

The result will be that an estimated 20 million people will be considered addicts, who now are just unhealthy users rather than abusers. They estimate that up to 40% of college students would fall under this definition!

This decision is drawing fire because it has huge implications beyond the simple diagnosis. For one, the DSM is what insurance companies use to decide what treatments they pay. If so many people are considered addicts, then health care costs could rise dramatically. 

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