Slash stole his iconic top hat!

Slash has had his top hat since 1985, when he decided to shoplift it from a store. At the time, he was still extremely poor and didn’t have the money for it, so he just took it. 

He needed an accessory for a show in Los Angeles, and wasn’t about to put the purchase off for later. A top hat is a pretty awkward shaped thing to steal, so Slash made no attempt to hide it as he left the store. He just put it on his head and walked out of the story. 

Luckily for Slash, the hat didn’t have any sensor to set it off as he left. When he got home he decided the hat was a bit boring, and added one of his belts to it for a little flavor. It has been a trademark part of his look ever since. 

A hat isn’t the only thing that Slash has stolen. He also has a stolen guitar. He had taken it from Hard Rock in Orlando and used it for years. No one had claimed it at the time, so Slash assumed it was as good as his. 

Later, in 2007, Slash was being honored at Hard Rock for his career. He decided to return the guitar to Hard Rock as a present. 

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Scientists developed a song that is designed to be relaxing!

Experts from stress specialists to sound therapists have been working on developing a song to relax listeners. The goal is to calm the listener and allow them to relax, perhaps even sleep. The experts worked together with the band Marconi Union in order to create the song “Weightless.” 

It’s rumored to make you so calm that you don’t think twice about falling asleep! The song uses science to create a soothing sound. Elements of sound considered in its creation were “rhythms, tones, frequencies and intervals.” The songs uses a rhythm at 60 BTM, which synchronizes brain waves and the beat of the heart. 

The effect of this synchronization is called entrainment and has an extremely calming effect. This is probably especially true because music in general has an effect on the emotions portion of the brain.

Music can stimulate or relax a person, which is the reason why “Weightless” can have such a huge relaxing effect on listeners. Other relaxing songs to listen to include: Airstream’s “Electric 3,” DJ Shah’s Mellomaniac, or Enya’s Watermark. 

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A fake neighborhood was built in Seattle during WWII!

The whole fake neighborhood was built atop a Boeing factory south of downtown Seattle, and was the cumulative size of eight football fields. Houses, streets, and plants were assembled out of ply wood, cardboard, etc. to act as props and give the town the most convincing appearance possible. 

The thought was that if any Japanese bombers made it this far east, they would confuse the plant for a quiet residential neighborhood, and as a result, not bomb it. 

The workers at the plant had to use secret underground tunnels to reach nearby and also disguised cafeterias, classrooms, etc. Just another example of how war changes the landscape of a country. 

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Mr Smithers from ‘The Simpsons’ was originally black!

So, what happened? The producers had always intended for him to be white, but a blunder occurred at the animation stage and the color scheme was completely messed up. 

The animators were originally going to go along with this, until someone pointed out that having a black subservient character might cause controversy, so they changed the color scheme back in his second appearance. 

For those of you left a bit confused by this, Waylon Smithers is Mr Burns’ assistant and care-provider in the TV show the Simpsons. He has an unhealthy obsession with ‘Malibu Stacy’ dolls and is often used to represent the stereotype of a closet gay man. 

Some more interesting facts about The Simpsons: 

• Many characters’ middle initial is J. 
• Kang and Kodos, the two alien characters, are named after Star Trek characters. 
• The Simpsons holds the world records for the longest running prime time TV show and most guest stars on a TV show. 
• The series has parodied Citizen Kane so often that it has often been claimed you could re-enact the entire movie using clips from the show. 
• Many characters are named after streets in Portland, Oregon.

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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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