Fact Cards

7741. Geckos Regrow Cartilage Tails-Geckos have bony tails with built-in weak points that let them drop the tail to escape predators. After the tail breaks off, muscles around the break quickly seal torn blood vessels while the detached tail wriggles to distract the attacker. Most geckos then regrow a replacement tail, but the new internal support forms as cartilage instead of bone. The regrown tail also comes back shorter and looks different from the original.

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7742. Black Death Traced To Issyk-Kul-In 2022, researchers reported that the Black Death likely originated near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, a Silk Road stop. They tested DNA from people buried in 1338 graves labeled for “pestilence” and identified Yersinia pestis in the remains. The strain they found sits near the ancestral branch that later fueled the wider Black Death outbreak. This discovery indicates that the plague reached the region eight years before it caused widespread devastation across Eurasia.

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7743. Foreign Legion Runs Veteran Vineyard-The French Foreign Legion maintains its own vineyard in Provence at Domaine du Capitaine Danjou, tied to the Institution for Invalids of the Foreign Legion, a home created in 1954 for retired, wounded, and elderly legionnaires. Retired legionnaires work the vines and help produce the wine as part of the institution’s daily life and rehabilitation. The Legion then sells the bottles to generate income that supports the veterans’ home.

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7744. Babur Wrote Baburi Crush Passage-In the 1520s, the first Mughal emperor, a Central Asian ruler named Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur, wrote an autobiography, the Baburnama, that later readers praised for its detailed descriptions of India’s geography, people, and natural world. The memoir also preserves a personal passage from his youth, where Babur describes being infatuated with a boy named Baburi while he was still a teenager. He recorded the feeling plainly as part of his day-to-day narrative rather than treating it as a separate confession.

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7745. Humans Detected Single-Photon Trials-In 2016, researchers at the Rockefeller University tested whether a single photon could register in human awareness using a quantum light source. In each trial, participants had to pick which of two time windows contained a photon, even though the flash would not look like a normal visible spark. After more than 30,000 trials, the team found people chose correctly at a rate significantly above chance, meaning the photon signal reached perception reliably enough to measure. The result suggested the human visual system can carry single-photon information into conscious decision-making under controlled conditions.

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7746. Dura-Europos Tunnel Chemical Attack-In 256 AD, about 20 Roman soldiers died while trying to defend an underground tunnel during the siege of Dura-Europos after attackers launched a chemical attack using a sulfur-based concoction. Sasanian Persian miners set a fire in the tunnel that produced choking fumes, and the Romans collapsed where they stood as they tried to hold the passage. When archaeologists excavated the site in the 1930s, they discovered the scene effectively sealed and intact, with bodies still piled in the tunnel. Researchers have pointed to that find as the earliest known physical evidence of chemical warfare.

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7747. CNS Ischemic Reflex Blood Surge-The CNS ischemic reflex, the body's most potent reflex, activates as a final survival measure when the brain is deprived of oxygen. It triggers massive vasoconstriction to force blood upward and restore blood flow to the brain. The surge can become so intense that it completely cuts off blood supply to the kidneys. When that happens, the reflex can cause kidney failure.

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7748. Humans Are Self-Domesticated-Some biologists consider humans to be self-domesticated, meaning our species evolved traits similar to domesticated animals without another species doing the selecting.

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7749. Steve-O Tested Livestock Additive-Ractopamine is an animal feed additive used to promote leanness and improve feed conversion efficiency in some farmed animals. Its use is banned or restricted in 168 countries, but producers can still use it in the United States. The compound also showed up in human testing early on, because American stunt performer Steve-O said he served as a test subject in an early clinical trial.

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7750. Cospaia Founded By Map Error-In 1441, a border mapping error between the Papal States and the Republic of Florence left a small strip of land in limbo. The villagers declared it the Republic of Cospaia because neither state could clearly claim it after the mistake. Cospaia stayed effectively independent for about 385 years, operating outside the normal taxes and laws of its neighbors. In 1826, it finally ended when the territory got divided between surrounding states.

Source

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37 COMMENTS

  1. Would you mind if I started to post these facts on iFunny? I really think people would love them and I would of course credit and link your website.

    1094
  2. Your page (re)numbering makes it almost impossible to find something on your site. The search option doesn’t seem very helpful.. I tried to search for Harris Rosen or Fact #62 after seeing it on Bored Panda, but had to do a brute force search to find this page…

    1096
  3. I just went through all the facts pages. A few things I’ve noticed:
    1. #451-#470 (pgs 46 & 47) have images that are broken.
    2. #841-#1140 (pgs 85-114) are complete duplicates of earlier pages.

    11
    • Thank you for your valuable feedback. Last night we implemented a new page numbering system for our fact cards. I really messed up with facts #451-#470 which I have fixed now. I have fixed the other problem too.

      10
  4. Just stumbled onto your site via an Imgur post. Cool stuff.

    Re. one of the citations above: “The oldest D20 dice was uncovered in Egypt…”

    One “die,” many “dice.” The headline in the source given had it right; “Ancient d20 die emerges from the ashes of time.”

    Credibility is always enhanced by proper grammar.

    18
  5. I really enjoy your site. I visit it regularly at this period of my life to use up time, while entertaining myself, and increase my awareness of life through the amazing insights into stories behind what we often overlook. It is almost therapeutic I would think! For one thing, I feel grateful not to be one of the warped personalities you often report on, but on the other hand, I feel sorry for the suffering that is really behind so many people you note through our shared history, who have the apparency of many successes, but are in fact imperfect and suffering souls like all of us, on the road to something better we hope eh?

    5
    • History gives us an opportunity to look into the mistake our ancestors made, but also the feats they achieved. The lives they suffered, so that the future generations could have the freedom. I am happy to have been part of such an important part of your life, Stuart.

      6
  6. I’m sure it’s like asking a magician how his tricks are done, but I would love to know the workings of the research you have to go through to find/verify everything I’ve read on your site. To say they are entertaining would be an insult. I read several pages daily. I have found them to be fascinating, educational, informative, and downright important.

    When I was a child and went on long road trips with my parents, my Mom would would bring a box of Trivial Pursuit cards to read and ask questions to pass the time for everyone in the car…My Wife now reads these to our kids on our vacations.

    Do you take fact submissions, or do you rely on your own people to research and present them to your team/site? The only thing I can say about your site, is some click ads could be modified or even done away with. Political opinion polls, etc…I would sooner see and ad for shaving cream that some of those useless and probably biased ads (not you, just the people conducting them) But, I love what you do and am so glad that your site exists!

    1224
    • Thank you Ryan. It’s the readers like you who keep us going. It gives us immense pleasure to know that you love reading facts on our site. We do take submissions. About 10% of our facts come from submissions. You too can submit facts by filling out this form Contact Us. The ads are what keeps the servers running. We don’t take any donations, use patreon or sell merch on our site so ads are how we generate income. Though, we will take your advice to tone down the ads (we can’t really see what kind of ad our readers see as it’s decided by Google).

      7
  7. 1454: She wasn’t found “shortly” after, which might imply that 911 had tried to help and just didn’t arrive in time; she was found HOURS after.

    1182
  8. Each of these pages of facts should have its own page for commenting instead of many fact pages and only one place to comment. I’d also delete my post about each fact having its own page since the aforementioned idea is better, but I can’t.

    1270
  9. I love this website I use it all the time and it allows me to attain info that I have been able to use irl all the time. Keep up the great work!

    5
  10. Also Rickinator for 610 killing bears is not a good thing due to most species of bears being endangered it is just a fact/statistic

    1115
  11. Your fact card is WRONG! You state Queen Elizabeth II is related to George Washington (which is correct), however, then you all say “Their last living common ancestor is Augustine Warner, Sr. who died in XX.”

    That’s incorrect! i am related to both Col. Augustine Warner, Sr. and George Washington and I’m very much alive as are my family members and 1 uncle and his 2 sons.

    1

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