Richard Branson bought an Island for $180,000 that is worth upwards of $200 million today!

Richard Branson has become one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of over $4.6 billion. This incredible wealth was mostly accumulated from the founding of Virgin Records, which eventually became the Virgin Group composed of over 400 companies.

To become so successful, a keen business mind is essential, and Richard Branson has that in spades. One of the best examples of this was the island he bought in 1970, which is also one of the most legendary business deals of all time!

When looking for an island to buy, Branson set his sights of Necker Island, which is part of the British Virgin Islands and was owned by Lord Cobham. Branson hadn’t yet made it to the billions and Cobham demanded a minimum of $5 million for the island, money which Branson was not willing to pay.

He made an offer of $100,000 and was pretty much completely ignored. He kept shopping around the Caribbean for an island, while slowly raising his bid on Necker Island to keep Lord Cobham’s attention. As luck would have it, Cobham was in desperate need for money, and accepted Branson’s offer of $180,000, which was over $4 million under the asking price! Today, the value has shot up exponentially and is worth over $200,000 million!

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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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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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Someone snuck into 33 consecutive Super Bowls!

People dream of going to the Super Bowl, the World Series, and even the Oscars, yet tickets are often either extremely expensive or nearly impossible to get. Most people would simply say, “O well,” and watch it from their living room, but not Dion Rich!

Rich is perhaps the most accomplished gatecrasher. He’s snuck into 33 consecutive Super Bowls, which itself is impressive, but that’s not all! Rich has snuck into the World Series, the Oscars, the Playboy Mansion, title fights, America's Cup races, Kentucky Derbies, and 14 Olympics! So how does he do it? In many different ways actually.

He’s dressed up as a camera man, a guy in a wheel chair, a cop, a ref, a band member, and many more! It was only after 9/11 that Rich had trouble sneaking into events. For example, the NFL spent nearly $7 million on security for Super Bowl XXXVI alone!

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A Japanese artist made a sculpture of himself that was so lifelike people couldn't tell the difference between it and himself!

Hananuma Masakichi learned he was dying of tuberculosis, and being an artist, decided he would leave something behind so everyone would know exactly what he looked like back in the 1800’s. Masakichi decided to make a wooden sculpture that would be extremely lifelike.

He worked on each body part separately, and painted and lacquered the wood to match his skin tone and accurately portray every tendon, muscle, bone, vein, and wrinkle. He crafted glass eyes that are also stunningly realistic. Amazingly, he even plucked a tiny hole for each of his pores! He used his own teeth, hair, and nails also!

By the time he was finished, even when standing right next to his work of art, people had difficulty knowing which was real and which was fake!

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