When the CEO of supermarket chain ALDI, Theo Albrecht, was kidnapped, he haggled down his ransom amount with his abductors and claimed the sum as a tax-deductible business expense in court after his release. He then became a recluse. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/theo-albrecht-one-of-the-two-brothers-behind-the-aldi-supermarket-empire-2052354.html
The US federal government has an office in Denver called the National Eagle Repository that receives dead bald and golden eagles, which are then used by registered Native Americans tribes for religious and cultural ceremonies. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Eagle_Repository?wprov=sfla1
Towards the end of World War 2, the Japanese began to use pine oil from pine tree roots to fuel their airplanes. Heating the roots and distilling the pine oil took 12 hours and only resulted in ~4 percent crude fuel. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_fSaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA258&lpg=PA258&dq=pine+tree+sap+japan+airplanes+ww2&source=bl&ots=A4mzEMlgAt&sig=ACfU3U1_WZom0qKd86pF_ZJcoGmFy8nzfw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj67OHlvoPnAhUBTBUIHbWUDfMQ6AEwGHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=pine%20tree%20sap%20japan%20airplanes%20ww2&f=false
The black paint around the outside of your cars’ windshield is called ‘frit’. The frit band both hides the ugly sealant securing the windshield to your car and protects it from the sun’s ultraviolet rays which can damage the adhesion. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-those-little-dots-are-on-the-edges-of-your-c-1791075995
Coffee was so important in Turkish culture that under 15th-century law, a woman had the freedom to divorce her husband if he did not provide her with enough coffee. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.turkeyforyou.com/turkish-coffee-role
Scientists believe the spruce and pine trees in the boreal forests of Siberia survive the -60 degrees Celsius temperatures by allowing their tree tissues to turn to glass as part of a process called ‘hardening’. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20141220-five-christmas-tree-secrets
Researchers found that dogs have musical tastes. The Scottish SPCA and University of Glasgow monitored dogs’ heart rates while playing different genres of music and found that they generally preferred reggae and soft rock. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-38757761
Every Rolls-Royce pinstripe is painted by Englishman Mark Court, a former village sign painter. It’s the last manufacturing step and needs to be perfect as the paint instantly bonds with the car body and cannot be erased. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://money.cnn.com/2015/04/30/autos/rolls-royce-stripe-painter/
The Academy Awards originally handed out a golden statue called the Academy Award of Merit in 1929. However, the origination of how it became known as an Oscar is a mystery. One story claims that the then Academy librarian, Margaret Herrick, thought the statue resembled her uncle Oscar. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/origins-oscar-how-prized-statue-870191