| After Portugal decriminalized every imaginable drug, from marijuana, to cocaine, to heroin on July 1st, 2001 has resulted in drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following ten years. Portugal's drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states, according to the same report. Decriminalizing means use is moved out of criminal courts and into a special court where each offender's unique situation is judged by legal experts, psychologists, and social workers. Treatment and further action is decided in these courts, where addicts and drug use is treated as a public health service rather than referring it to the justice system. |
| There is a town in Indiana (USA) called Santa Claus with a population of 2481 as per 2010 census. |
| The tip of a fencing weapon is the second fastest moving object in the Olympics. The fastest is a bullet. |
| The fear of remaining unmarried or marrying the wrong person is called 'anuptaphobia' and affects almost 50% of women. |
| Pattie Mallette became pregnant at age 17, and was pushed towards abortion but she refused. That baby later became known as Justin Bieber. |
| Pencil sale rates increased by 700% the year after Sudoku became popular. |
| In Poland, spiders are common Christmas tree decorations because (according to legend) a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus! |
| Soteriophobia: A condition in which a person refuses to depend on others out of fear of being disappointed. |
| An elderly Georgian woman looking for some quick cash dig to find old copper wires that she could sell for scrap. Little did she realise that the wire she was cutting was a wire that delivered internet to 90% of Armenia. The population of 3.2 million people, including journalists at all major news stations, sat twiddling their thumbs as they were left without internet services for 5 hours! |
| There are 10 such countries that have navies and yet are landlocked. They include Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Kazakhstan, Laos, Paraguay and more. In Laos, for example, the navy protects the Mekong River. It operates two to three dozen patrol boats. |