Political drinks and mailing lists, it's #FridayFunFacts
THIS JUST IN: An Australian scientist submitted a paper titled "Get Me Off Your Fucking Mailing List" to a journal whose mailing list he couldn't get off of. They published his paper but didn't take him off their mailing list.
Good morning, I'm Zsa from 42courses and here are your #FridayFunFacts.
Tripadvisor is often the great oracle for restaurants all over the world because people trust the opinions of other real people. The problem with real people, however, is that they can be paid to write fake reviews. This guy wanted to push these limits, so he invented a fake restaurant, made up a menu and got some fake reviews. By refusing all reservations, saying that they were "fully booked for weeks", it soon became the number one restaurant on Tripadvisor. Without serving a single meal.
There is a theme park in Lithuania that allows you to experience what it was like to be a USSR citizen. Upon arrival, your belongings get confiscated, you have to wear a gas mask, you get roughly interrogated, and you have to learn the Soviet anthem. Once you've gone through all this fun, your lovely day is brought to a close with a shot of vodka.
Speaking of the USSR, how far would you go for political pride? A Marshall of the Soviet Union named Georgi Zhukov loved Coca-Cola but he didn’t want to be seen drinking a symbol of American imperialism. So he commissioned a private chemist to make a colourless cola. That way, he could enjoy a cool glass of American imperialism, but look like he was drinking vodka.
We'll never know what George Washington would have thought of Coca-cola or American imperialism, but he was certainly not a fan of British imperialism. He swore that he'd never set foot on English soil again, so when a statue of him was erected in London, American soil was set underneath it, to keep old Georgie from turning in his grave.