Things I learned this week 12 Aug

• Strictly speaking, on an airline, it’s against the law to disobey a crew member's commands. A flight attendant is a crew member.
• Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be told to take any available job – including as a prostitute – or lose much of their unemployment benefit.
• The appendix acted as a safe house for bacteria essential for healthy digestion, it re-booted the digestive system after someone contracted dysentery etc., which kill off helpful germs and purge the gut. This function has been made obsolete by modern society since people pick up essential bacteria from each other.
• You can test your strength by playing a tug of war with a full-grown tiger at the Busch Gardens.
• Smile and you will feel happier. Make the smile as wide as possible, extend your eyebrow muscles slightly upward, and hold the resulting expression for about 20 seconds.Peanut butter was actually invented by Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal in 1884.
• The 6 Walmart heirs have a net worth equal to the bottom 30% of all Americans.
• In September 2011, a Malibu mobile home in Paradise Cove sold for $2 million in cash. That only covered the house, not the land. It's a two-bedroom, two-bathroom 2,330 square foot mobile home.
• The average CEO severance package is $5.38 million.
• You CAN go into the pool right after you eat.
• Run in the rain to get less wet. If you're running with the wind, you'll do even better.
• In Germany, some IKEA stores provide 'dog parking'.
• Only 37 out of 2000 athletes at the 1908 Olympic Games in London were women.