The world's longest novel is a 15,145 page work by a custodian from Chicago.

Henry Joseph Darger Jr. was a reclusive American writer and artist. Like is common among writers and artists, he struggled economically. He worked as a custodian in Chicago during the early and mid 1900s. His work was discovered by his landlords shortly before his death. Nathan Lerner, who was a prominent culture figure in Chicago, immediately recognized the value in Darger's work. 

When he passed, they took over his estate. His magnum opus is his novel called ‘In the Realms of the Unreal,’ which was 15,145 pages in length! The majority of the book is a section called "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion," which tells the story of 7 princesses fighting against a regime of child slavery. 

The novel also includes numerous illustrations that have been pretty popular in the years after. Darger's work has been considered a prime example of outsider art. There have been many references in popular culture to his work, including comics, songs and videogames. 

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In water, a can of Diet Coke floats while regular Coke sinks!

The artificial sweetener in Diet Coke is hundreds of times sweeter per unit volume than regular sugar. However, the sugar in regular Coke is denser, which makes it sink. Regular Coke contains almost 11 teaspoons of sugar per can! On average, Americans ingest 10.8 pounds of sugar per person each year from drinking Coca-Cola alone. 

Here are some other interesting facts about Coca-Cola products: 

• The Coca-Cola brand is worth more than Budweiser, Pepsi, Starbucks and Redbull combined 
• If every drop of Coke ever produced were put into 8 ounce bottles and laid end to end, they’d reach the moon and back over 2,000 times 
• Coca-Cola spends more money on advertising than Microsoft and Apple combined 
• The average Mexican drinks more Coke than the average American, British, Indian, and Chinese combined 

Stalin had an affair with a 13 year old girl when he was in his 30s

After returning from his first exile, Stalin persuaded to attend a fundraising ball thrown by the group that eventually became the Russian communist party. However, the ball was raided by the Okhrana (a Rusian security force) and Stalin was exiled once again to Siberia. His sentence was to spend 4 years in exile. After moving him around due to escape plans, he was moved to the northern town of Kureika. 

Kureika is in the Arctic Circle so Stalin was really out in the boondocks of the USSR. While living in Kureika, Stalin became a hunter-gatherer after learning from the local Serbians. That's not all he picked up from the local Serbians. While he was in exile, the 30-something began a two year affair with a 13 year old named Lidia Pereprygina. She became pregnant twice by Stalin. The first child died as an infant, and the second one was born in April 1917 and named Alexander

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The New Zealand Toothbrush Fence, referenced in Flight of the Concords, is a real thing!

The fence was created by Laird McGillicuddy Graeme Cairns in Te Pahu, New Zealand. He’s wired the toothbrushes on a fence to rival an infamous bra fence located in Cardrona Valley, New Zealand. Cairns is certain that with just a few hundred more toothbrushes, tourists will come from all over the world to witness the unusual fence.

He got the idea from his own hoard of used toothbrushes he keeps. Apparently, people began putting their toothbrushes soon after he began his project and he’s gotten positive reviews. You too can have your toothbrush hanging from the fence. All you have to do is send the used toothbrush to: The Toothbrush Bucket 294 Limeworks Loop Road Te Pahu, R D 5 Hamilton New Zealand 

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There are fake bus stops that exist just to distract dementia patients in case they wander from their care home!

A known issue with Alzheimer's patients is that they sometimes wander off from the care facilities. A nursing home in Germany came up with an interesting solution to the issue. The problem is that the patients can wander really far and get hurt or feel scared and alone. The first place people go often is the bus stop. So, a nursing home decided to create a fake bus stop in front of it. 

The idea was that when the patient would wander off, he or she would sit at the bus stop and wait for a bus. The staff would eventually see them out there. In the beginning, the neighbors thought it was a real bus stop. The staff had to go to the stop and explain to them all that it wasn’t real and explain its purpose. Since then, though, the fake bus stop has been a great idea. When people get really upset, sometimes the nursing staff will take the patients to the bus stop, because they are convinced they need to get home to their family. The staff sits with the patient until they calm down and forget what they are doing and then return to the nursing home. It has changed the entire atmosphere of the nursing home. Pretty cool idea!

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