Fact Cards

37 Comments
8141. Swim Diapers Allow Urine Through-Many parents assume swim diapers work like regular diapers, but they are actually designed to let urine pass through. If they absorbed large amounts of liquid, they would quickly swell up and become heavy in the water. Instead, swim diapers are primarily intended to contain solid waste while allowing water and urine to flow freely.

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8142. Commodus Assassin Gave Warning Speech-In 182 AD, a conspiracy to assassinate Roman Emperor Commodus failed because the would-be assassin revealed himself before carrying out the attack. As Commodus entered a public area, the attacker stepped forward with a weapon but paused to deliver a dramatic declaration:

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8143. Xbox Losses Became Xbox Billions-Microsoft lost an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion on the original Xbox, far more than the company expected when it entered the console market. The loss was reportedly two to four times higher than early projections, and Xbox chief Robbie Bach even wrote a resignation letter in case the failure cost him his job. Microsoft persevered and introduced the Xbox 360 as its next major console. Despite a $1.1 billion write-off for the Red Ring of Death hardware crisis, Bach later said the Xbox 360 generation still made Microsoft

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8144. Maximilian Spoke Nahuatl In Mexico-Since the Spanish conquest, Mexico has had about 130 heads of state, but only one is known to have spoken Nahuatl, the dominant Indigenous language of central Mexico. That leader was Austrian archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, who became emperor of the Second Mexican Empire in 1864. Maximilian promoted some Indigenous language policies and reportedly learned Nahuatl during his brief rule. His empire collapsed in 1867, when Mexican republican forces captured and executed him.

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8145. Nicotine Inspired Schizophrenia Treatments-Nicotine use is remarkably common among people with schizophrenia, with smoking rates far higher than those of the general population. Researchers believe that nicotine can temporarily enhance specific cognitive functions, such as attention and information processing, which the disorder often impairs. Because of this connection, scientists have explored treatments that mimic some of nicotine's effects on the brain without the harmful consequences of smoking.

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8146. Syncytin Placenta Gene Came Viral-The gene responsible for helping build the mammalian placenta originated from a virus. More than 100 million years ago, a retrovirus infected one of our distant ancestors and inserted its genetic material into the host's DNA. Instead of disappearing over time, the viral gene that encoded a cell-fusion protein was preserved and eventually repurposed by evolution. Today, that gene, known as syncytin, helps fuse cells together to form part of the placenta, making it possible for a mother and fetus to remain physically connected during pregnancy.

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8147. Shut Up Little Man Tapes-In the late 1980s, two San Francisco roommates secretly recorded their constantly arguing neighbors through the wall. They passed the tapes around among friends, and the bizarre fights slowly became an underground cult phenomenon called

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8148. Coelacanth Returned From Extinction-An ancient fish named coelacanth was long believed to have gone extinct 66 million years ago during the same mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. Scientists knew the fish only from fossils and assumed it had vanished along with countless other prehistoric species. That changed in 1938 when a living coelacanth was discovered in a fishing net off the coast of South Africa. The unexpected find stunned the scientific community and turned the coelacanth into one of the most famous

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8149. Legless Lizards Evolved Twenty-Five Times-Biologists often point to

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8150. Neuschwanstein Castle Hid Modern Technology-Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, the 19th-century inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle, looks like a medieval fortress straight out of a fairy tale. However, when construction took place in the 1880s, the castle incorporated surprisingly modern technology. It featured electric lighting, central heating, flush toilets, and even a telephone system at a time when many ordinary homes lacked such conveniences. King Ludwig II of Bavaria wanted a romantic medieval-looking retreat, but he filled it with some of the most advanced amenities available in his era.

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37 COMMENTS

  2. 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

  4. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  10. 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?

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    • 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

  13. 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!

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    • 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

  17. 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

  19. 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.

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  23. 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!

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  24. 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

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  26. 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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