1 Extra Fries for Value Effect
‘Five Guys’, an American fast food chain, purposefully places extra fries at the bottom of the bag to give customers the impression of a fantastic deal, but the total price already includes this. Founder Jerry Murrell believes it’s better for customers to feel their serving was too large.
2. The Bannister Effect refers to the phenomenon where, after someone breaks a previously unachievable barrier, a mental shift enables many others to surpass it as well. This term honors Roger Bannister, the first man to break the 4-minute mile.
3. In the movie Scream (1996), the credits include a line stating, “No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa city school district governing board.” Santa Rosa had revoked filming permissions last minute, costing the production $350,000.
4. In 2019, a teenager in Bristol, United Kingdom, who lived on a diet of French fries, Pringles, white bread, and occasional ham or sausage developed severe vitamin deficiencies, malnutrition damage, and blind spots in his central vision. Doctors said his sight loss was permanent.
5. In the early days of cryonics, people preserved bodies in hopes of future technology being able to revive them; however, nearly all of these early cryogenically preserved bodies were eventually thawed and disposed of after the facilities managing them went out of business.
6 Bassist’s Clever Placebo Switch
Legendary session bassist Leland Sklar installed a non-functional switch on his bass, calling it the “producer switch.” Whenever a producer requested a different sound, he would flip the switch (making sure the producer could see) and continue playing as usual. He claims this placebo has saved him a lot of grief.
7. Top Gear achieved global popularity largely due to early episodes being shared illegally on the FinalGear forum when it was only available in the UK. When the forum’s founder passed away, Jeremy Clarkson acknowledged his impact on the show’s success in a tweet.
8. You can replenish holy water with regular water. As long as the added amount does not exceed 50%, the entire container remains holy.
9. The loudest recorded shout belongs to Annalisa Flanagan, a primary school teacher who yelled, “Quiet!” during a 1994 record attempt. It reached 121.7 decibels, and her record has held unbroken since then (as of 2024).
10. An employee exit strategy known as the “boredom room” involves reassigning workers to another department and assigning them meaningless tasks until they become disheartened and resign. This practice is common in countries with strong labor laws, such as France and Japan.
11 Church Sanctuary Knocker Protection
In medieval England, fugitives could claim sanctuary and gain immunity from arrest simply by touching the knocker on a church’s outer door.
12. In 1946, a U.S. inmate named Willie Francis survived an electric chair execution attempt. His lawyers argued that, although he wasn’t dead, he had technically been “executed,” and it would be cruel to subject him to a second attempt. The Supreme Court rejected his case, leading to his execution once more in 1947.
13. During World War II, U.S. comedian Redd Foxx avoided the draft by eating half a bar of soap before his physical, a trick that induced heart palpitations.
14. Jimmy Carter promised to release all government UFO information if elected president. However, once in office, he chose not to, citing “national security concerns.”
15. Sylvester Graham, the original clean-eating guru and vegetarian advocate famous for the Graham cracker, shunned alcohol, lust, meat, and even white bread. Ironically, he died at age 57 from complications following an opium enema.
16 Negative Buoyancy in Freediving
At depths of about 50 feet (15 meters), humans reach negative buoyancy, causing them to sink instead of float. Freedivers use this effect to “freefall,” allowing gravity to pull them deeper without additional effort.
17. Allowing your dog to sniff during walks gives them a mental workout, helping them relax and absorb information about their surroundings.
18. Hara hachi bun me is a Japanese practice of eating only until 80% full. Evidence suggests that following this approach can lead to a lower body mass index and increased longevity; in fact, the world’s oldest man adhered to this diet.
19. During the rescue of Maersk Alabama and Captain Phillips from Somali pirates, the $30,000 in cash rescuers had obtained from the ship went missing. While two Navy SEAL Team Six members were investigated, they were never charged, and the money was never recovered.
20. The British Museum keeps 99% of its collection in storage, not on display.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Michael Bay’s Phone Booth Pitch
Initially, people considered Michael Bay to direct Phone Booth (2002), but they dismissed him after he asked, “OK, how do we get this thing out of the damn telephone booth?”
22. In 16th-century England, a type of criminal known as a “baretop trickster” used an unusual tactic. These women would flash their breasts to lure men into a house, where their accomplices would then rob the unsuspecting visitors.
23. Nikola Tesla originally expected to live to 150 years. However, after he gave up alcohol due to prohibition, he revised this estimate to 135 years. He regularly exposed himself to high voltages, believing it would aid in his longevity.
24. The British Empire was the largest in human history, spanning about six times the size of the Roman Empire and covering nearly a quarter of the world.
25. In 1976, 3 men in California kidnapped a bus full of schoolchildren with the goal of ransoming them back for 5 million dollars. They tried to place the ransom call, but the line was busy, so they ended up falling asleep. When they woke up, the children had escaped and reached safety.
RE: Fact #49 (Blind Teen Plays Quarterback) – That story about the brave kid was really cool, but it’s also a reminder that the news doesn’t always get everything right. The kid hasn’t played quarterback since that year, he’s a senior now on the Enoch High team, but he’s not listed on the roster and the only thing he’s got on his record is one tackle.
It’s messed up how they’re showing this. I mean, there are real news articles about him playing college football. It’s just not cool to present it like that, it’s unfair to him and everyone else.
Dude, getting tackled when you’re totally blind? That’s gotta be like winning the big prize, right? How did you even get hit?
One more tackle than I got, bummer!
RE: Fact #9 (Loudest Shout Record Stands) – Corey Taylor, the guy from Slipknot, was on the show and even he was blown away.
“Man, that teacher totally got me,” Taylor said, laughing. “She just yelled right over me!” He added, “They’re seriously good,” repeating it a bunch of times. Corey was like, “I should totally add her to the list of musicians I play with this summer!”
Alex Terrible from Slaughter to Prevail does this thing where he sings a whole song without a mic, just by screaming super loud. I wonder how it sounds live.
He was an odd choice for QI, but he actually did pretty well. If you like factrepublic, you’ll probably enjoy it.
RE: Fact #33 (Nazi Infant Care Controversy) – Nazism was to destroy ,as far could be, all previous history in a way they could become ‘the master human race’, having removed, altered all sensible recollection of what had been before.
RE: Fact #22 (Baretop Tricksters’ Robbery Tactic) – That blurry image totally tricked me into going to that website with no pictures.
RE: Fact #5 (Early Cryonics’ Financial Downfall) – It’s actually ‘preserved’, not ‘cryogenically’ frozen.
RE: Fact #6 (Bassist’s Clever Placebo Switch) – Em 2010 eu tocava numa banda de jazz e o pianinho ficaram chato, ficava querendo que eu mudasse o som do baixo toda hora. Eu mexia nos pedais e voltava com a mesma regulagem de antes pois eu já tinha tudo mapeado e ele achava que eu tinha mudado o som do baixo.
Translation – In 2010 I was playing in a jazz band and the piano was annoying, he kept asking me to change the bass sound all the time. I would touch the pedals and go back to the same settings as before because I had already mapped everything and he thought I had changed the bass sound.
RE: Fact #7 (Top Gear’s Global Spread Secret) – I got to go to a recording of the show! It was a blast, and I even got to answer a question on TV. I also got to chat with Hammond between takes during one part.
Did you ask him what was up with him?
I hear a “jh” sound in the middle of it.
It sounds like “idjhiut”.
Seriously, how long were you on your feet?
RE: Fact #34 (Suicide Through Capital Crimes) – They’d just make up stories too, you know? Like that time Otto of Hesse-Kessel tried to shoot a barking dog and ended up shooting himself in the chest, totally missed! Or maybe he killed himself and they came up with the dog thing so they could bury him in church.
RE: Fact #13 (Redd Foxx’s Draft Evasion Trick) – A new way to do things, maybe?
I’d rather drink poison than deal with another draft.
Just kidding, WWII is over.
RE: Fact #25 (Kidnapped Schoolchildren Escape Plot) – The kidnappers took the bus to a quarry and hid it in a truck trailer. The bus driver and the kids dug their way out after being trapped for 16 hours. The driver, Ed Ray, kept everyone calm, and they worked together to escape. The kidnappers were rich kids who wanted to pay off their debts. They tried to call for ransom, but the lines were busy. They didn’t fall asleep, though.
What a dumb way to get out of debt!
The kidnappers were all caught and sent to jail for life. They were let out after a long time.
RE: Fact #45 (Hot Water Preference in China) – I was in a meeting in Beijing and the office manager filled my cup with hot water. I thought it was because I had a cough from the long flight, even though I tried to hide it. Then I saw my boss and realized everyone got some. It was a nice gesture, even if it wasn’t just for me.
RE: Fact #18 (Hara Hachi Bun Me Diet) – It’s basically like, “don’t stuff yourself, just eat until you’re not hungry anymore.” That’s been the go-to advice for not overeating forever, right?
RE: Fact #9 (Loudest Shout Record Stands) – Yeah, Motorhead’s shows were LOUD, they actually made the ceiling collapse at one concert in Cleveland. So, yeah, 121dB is pretty loud!
I saw Motorhead open for Foo Fighters back in 2011, and I swear I got half my tinnitus from that gig.
Foo Fighters don’t open for Motorhead, they play after them.
130 decibels is seriously loud, like ten times louder than 120 decibels.
A 10dB jump means something’s twice as loud, but it needs ten times more power. So, 130dB isn’t ten times louder than 120dB.
So, like, a normal voice is usually measured at about a meter away, but concerts are way farther out, maybe 30 meters. A regular voice at 121 decibels a meter away would be about 90 decibels at 30 meters. But then, a concert at 130 decibels at 30 meters would be super loud, like 160 decibels, up close. It’s basically comparing two different things, you know?
Yeah, decibels are logarithmic, so a 10 dB increase is actually a tenfold increase in loudness. So 130 dB is much, much louder than 121 dB.
RE: Fact #7 (Top Gear’s Global Spread Secret) – I’m really glad it got shared around so much. Most of it was scripted, but the show was absolutely insane and incredibly entertaining. Clarkson, May, and Hammond can be a bit controversial, but they know how to make a really engaging show.
There’s so much crazy stuff that happens in what looks like a normal car show. I still go back and watch it because it’s one of the few shows that actually makes me laugh out loud. I remember one bit where they’re reviewing a car and it’s broken down into segments. As the review goes on, the segments get stranger. The final deciding point on whether or not the car was good was whether or not it would be useful for a sodium and eel salesman. It was completely absurd, in the best way possible.
I’ve been thinking about going back and watching the whole 23-year backlog. Their final show a few weeks ago hit me harder than I expected. I used to watch it with my Grandfather all the time when I was a kid, and he wasn’t around to see the final show. We have lots of great memories watching that show together over the years.
If you haven’t seen it, give it a try, even if you don’t like cars. It’s a real gem.
RE: Fact #34 (Suicide Through Capital Crimes) – The article is much clearer: “they would murder an innocent child.”
It’s crazy how killing an innocent kid didn’t even make them think twice about ending up in hell.
RE: Fact #33 (Nazi Infant Care Controversy) – Haarer thought separating a baby was super important for their “training”. If a baby kept crying after they’d been fed on time, cleaned up, and given a dummy, she’d say, “toughen up, mom!” and just let them cry it out.
She thought babies were like, pre-human, and didn’t really have a mind for the first few months. She thought crying was just their way of passing the time. She strongly advised moms to not pick up, rock, or try to comfort crying babies. She thought it would make them think they could get a reaction out of people and they’d end up being little tyrants.
Her work helped shape how people raised kids, and it all lined up with the goals of the Hitler Youth. Advice centers and training courses for moms based on her ideas were a way to teach Nazi ideology.
That’s a pretty harsh way to put it.
RE: Fact #46 (First Successful Primate Cloning) – We’ve got 200,000 clones ready to go, and we’re making a million more.
That’s messed up, right? Cloning tons of people just to use them as soldiers or for parts. It’s all for some crazy old guy’s twisted vision. We’d be better off without it.
Drones might be a cheaper and easier way to go, so that’s good news.
RE: Fact #29 (Gorilla Glue Hair Spray Mishap) – She thought it was glue, so she figured it would be fine.
RE: Fact #16 (Negative Buoyancy in Freediving) – I sink like a rock unless I’m totally full of air, and even then I barely stay afloat.
You probably have a low body fat percentage, since fat floats more than muscle.
RE: Fact #49 (Blind Teen Plays Quarterback) – That’s seriously impressive, I’m not trying to downplay it, but I bet the other team isn’t exactly thrilled about facing him.
I used to play basketball in this league, and there was this guy named Kurt, kind of like an honorary member, because he had special needs. One time, it was a close game and I had to block his shot. I sent that thing way out of bounds. People still give me crap for it, but I’d do it again. We won the game, though. Basketball is the best.
RE: Fact #22 (Baretop Tricksters’ Robbery Tactic) – My old neighbor, a detective, warned me about a gas station near my house. Apparently, these women would pretend to be sex workers, lure guys to a parking lot, and then they’d get robbed by her and another guy.
RE: Fact #11 (Church Sanctuary Knocker Protection) – It wasn’t uncommon for escorts who felt sorry for prisoners to take them through a churchyard on the way to their punishment, so they could say goodbye to people. I think sometimes the church would send them away to live somewhere else instead of facing their punishment.
Some churches in the US are calling the cops on homeless people and talking about sending illegal immigrants back to their country.
Actually, just last year a bunch of immigrants who took refuge in churches won a lawsuit.
So, that’s how my family ended up in All Hallows Parish, Maryland in 1649.
Oh, it turns out it was just a feature, not a bug.
RE: Fact #26 (Mountain Dew Mouse Dissolution Case) – It’s not a crazy idea, and it doesn’t make Mountain Dew look bad.
If you put a mouse in a can of pure orange juice for a year and a half, it wouldn’t be in as good shape as the mouse he said he found.
The point is, pH is safe to drink, but it eats away at dead stuff.
Soaking something in water can actually make it fall apart, leaving just the bones. That’s how a lot of skeletons are made, by soaking them in water until all the flesh is gone. It’s called maceration, and it’s pretty common.
RE: Fact #33 (Nazi Infant Care Controversy) – These Nazis, man, the more I hear about them, the less I think they’re good people.
Hitler was a real jerk.
A German person can’t be all bad…
Wait, hold on…
I heard he ended up killing Hitler.
I was listening to the Rest is History podcast, and they were talking about the rise of Hitler. The host was going on and on, then he just blurted out, “These Nazis weren’t exactly nice guys.” Everyone in the studio cracked up, it sounded so funny. But it made sense, because he was talking about how the Nazis kept betraying each other until Hitler came out on top and screwed over all the guys who helped him get there. He was basically saying, “No matter how bad you think Nazis were, they were even worse.” It was just a bit of a funny moment because it sounded so ridiculous out of context.
We get so wrapped up in the Nazis’ whole act, you know, all the drama and showmanship. We just take their stories at face value and get sidetracked by how awful they were. The big war, the killing sprees, the constant bloodshed – those are definitely important things to focus on.
But what gets lost in all that is that these people weren’t geniuses. They were just petty, vengeful, superstitious bullies. Their war machine was successful despite them, not because of them. Most were just power-hungry little dictators who constantly got in their own way. If you knew them, you’d see they weren’t these warrior-philosophers, they were just cruel thugs in fancy clothes.
I think this is why it’s hard to spot fascist movements. Their whole self-image is so far from reality, it’s hard to match that image with the clowns we see when they start to take over. We forget that they think they’re all cultured geniuses, so that’s what they’ll write in their history books.
RE: Fact #20 (British Museum’s Hidden Collection) – It’s the same for most museums, right? They only show off a small part of what they have. There’s just not enough room, and they like to change things up to keep people coming back. Plus, some stuff is too delicate to put on display, and some things aren’t that interesting to look at but are still really important for scientists and historians.
RE: Fact #13 (Redd Foxx’s Draft Evasion Trick) – Sergeant: You good to fight?
Max: I’m gay, I wear dresses, I don’t like violence, and my lung’s a little messed up.
Sergeant: Just don’t have flat feet.
RE: Fact #16 (Negative Buoyancy in Freediving) – So, free divers gotta really hustle to swim back up to the surface.
Actually, the title’s a bit off. Someone showed that we hit negative buoyancy around 20 meters down in the ocean. Turns out it’s 15 meters for neutral buoyancy and 20 for negative.
Most people are around hit it at 33 feet, but it changes depending on how much muscle they have. My wife is closer to 39 feet, and I’m around 25 feet.
RE: Fact #20 (British Museum’s Hidden Collection) – Too bad, I’ve always been curious about that “unknown bone fragment”
RE: Fact #39 (The Tiny Zeptosecond Unit) – Light travels a tiny fraction of a nanometer in a zeptosecond.
That’s tiny, like really tiny!
It’s tiny, like a fraction of a fraction of a hydrogen atom’s size.
RE: Fact #7 (Top Gear’s Global Spread Secret) – Alex Mills, who went by Viper007Bond, really helped car fans through FinalGear. He’ll be missed.
RE: Fact #50 (Hendrix’s Astonishing First Gig) – Hendrix played “Sunshine of Your Love” live, right in front of Clapton and the Beatles, the same week it was released.
He put out his own version of “All Along the Watchtower” six months after Dylan did, and Dylan was like, “That’s his song now.”
That’s really cool. Makes me think of when Johnny Cash did a version of Hurt by NIN and NIN said it was his song from then on.
It got me thinking about covers that are better than the originals. I really love Nirvana’s version of Bowie’s “Man Who Sold the World.”
Three days later, I think.
They probably figured out how to play it backstage before they went on.
Paul mentioned this in a talk he gave last year.
RE: Fact #12 (The Double Execution Case) – Willie Francis, a young Black guy, was sentenced to death by electrocution in Louisiana back in 1945 for killing Andrew Thomas, a Cajun pharmacist who’d hired him before.
Even though he wrote down confessions twice, Francis said he wasn’t guilty. His court-appointed lawyers didn’t fight for him, didn’t call any witnesses, and didn’t even try to defend him. They didn’t even question if his confessions were real. Just two days after the trial started, Willie was found guilty by 12 white jurors and the judge.
The gun used to kill Thomas was found near the crime scene. It belonged to a sheriff’s deputy who’d said he wanted to kill Thomas. The gun and bullets disappeared right before the trial.
People said they heard the teenager screaming, “Take it off! Let me breathe!” as the electric chair was turned on.
The electric chair, nicknamed “Gruesome Gertie,” was messed up by a drunk prison guard and inmate.
It’s weird, but the lawyer defending Francis in front of the Supreme Court was really close with Thomas, the guy who was killed.
The world we live in
Oh, so that’s where they got the idea for The Green Mile!
RE: Fact #4 (Teen’s Poor Diet Causes Blindness) – My half-sister was born when I was fifteen. She basically lived on junk food and microwave dinners. She developed a hunchback when she was sixteen, had no energy for anything, and now at thirty-nine, she’s got some weird immune disorder. I’m pretty sure she was really messed up by all the bad food.
RE: Fact #42 (Galois’ Life and Tragic Duel) – He got turned down by the top math school in France because they thought he hadn’t had enough training to explain his ideas. He ended up going to a less famous program and started making amazing discoveries right away.
It’s a typical French thing. You can have the skills but get told to go shove it if you don’t have the right paperwork.
RE: Fact #1 (Extra Fries for Value Effect) – He’s got a point. I know it, but I always feel like I got more than I should.
Bag fries are just *chef’s kiss* amazing.
Bagged fries are way better, the ones in the cup get all mushy.
Five Guys is kinda stingy with the fries sometimes. If I see the nice guy working when I walk in, I’ll get food from him. He’s always generous.
So, from doing mystery shops, I’ve learned there should be around 15 fries at the bottom of the bag. Anything more than that is a bonus! 😎
I always seem to get more fries in the bag than the cup, haha! I guess I’m pretty lucky. If I get a large, the whole bag is basically just fries.
RE: Fact #6 (Bassist’s Clever Placebo Switch) – Leland’s played on a ton of albums, like Paul Anka, Chet Atkins, Clint Black, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Glen Campbell, Vanessa Carlton, Kim Carnes, Cher, Joe Cocker, Leonard Cohen, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Neil Diamond, Donovan, Peter Frampton, Art Garfunkel, Arlo Guthrie, Sammy Hagar, Merle Haggard, Hall & Oates, Don Henley, Faith Hill, Engelbert Humperdinck, Enrique Iglesias, Julio Iglesias, Wynonna Judd, BB King, Carole King, Kris Kristofferson, Lisa Loeb, Lyle Lovett, Barry Manilow, Ricky Martin, Reba McEntire, Bette Midler, Giorgio Moroder, Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Randy Newman, Joanna Newsom, Juice Newton, Wayne Newton, Olivia Newton-John, Dolly Parton, Bernadette Peters, Bonnie Raitt, LeAnn Rimes, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Ross, Santana, Carly Simon, Rod Stewart, Sting, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, James Taylor, Toto, Dionne Warwick, The Weather Girls, Robbie Williams, Brian Wilson, Wilson Phillips, and Warren Zevon. He’s also done music for a bunch of TV shows and movies like The A-Team, ALF, Coyote Ugly, Groundhog Day, Legally Blonde, Magnum PI, Muppets Most Wanted, and The Prince of Egypt. He’s been around!
Wow, that’s a really long list!
Session musicians are seriously overlooked, they do so much for music! Paul Jackson Jr. is a great example, he’s played on tons of albums for super famous artists – Michael Jackson, Daft Punk, Celine Dion, the singer from Yes, Steely Dan, Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Leonard Cohen, and so many more!
This guy’s a total legend, super funny too! You should check out his YouTube channel, it’s awesome. He’s always booked for sessions whenever he’s on tour, he’s that good. Plus, he plays at the Grammys and the Oscars every year, crazy! He’s probably one of the busiest musicians ever.
I saw him on the tour with Billy Thorpe, the one they called “Children of the Sun.”
RE: Fact #24 (The British Empire’s Vast Reach) – Back in 1921, a whopping 25% of the world’s population was under British control.
RE: Fact #50 (Hendrix’s Astonishing First Gig) – I read two books on Hendrix, dude was totally obsessed with the guitar. He’d play for hours every day, all the time.
He’d do a show, then find people to jam with all night, sleep for a few hours, wake up and play some more, then do another show, find another jam.
It’s easy to see Jimi Hendrix as some kind of mystical freak guitar god, but when you read about how much time he spent on the guitar, it all makes sense.
For Jimi, the guitar was his whole world. He learned to play on his own, and even as a kid, he basically built his own guitar and figured out how to play it. Jimi didn’t really know anything else except the guitar. He was determined to be the best and never forget how to play. Even his studio guitars were basically homemade. Jimi was left-handed in a time when left-handed guitars were almost impossible to find. A lot of times he’d just play a right-handed guitar with the strings flipped around. He was the guitar, and the guitar was him.
RE: Fact #26 (Mountain Dew Mouse Dissolution Case) – Seriously, that guy used to fill those cans. It’s practically impossible he got in one. The way those cans fill up, it’s just not logical. There was no mouse in that can.
I always thought that whole thing was super fishy, like they were just trying to make a quick buck.
My dad was called in to testify about this guy who said a prune juice bottle exploded because it was fermented and hurt him. My dad totally debunked it, but they still settled because it was cheaper to pay up than fight it in court.
If we even got a few complaints about the taste or wrinkles in the can, we took it seriously and fixed things so it wouldn’t happen again. It’s super regulated for health and safety, so you can be sure we’re on top of it.
This makes me think of this customer who told us they choked on a metal bristle. They said it must have come from our meat grinder, because their “expert” said it was the kind used for cleaning food stuff. Except we didn’t even use brushes! We had this super cool power washer that used hot water and cleaner to blast everything clean. Then, it rinsed with just hot water. We figured the bristle came from their own grill brush.
So, this guy claimed he found a mouse in his bag of chips. He wanted to sue! Turns out, the mouse had been attacked by a cat and was actually a field mouse from the same area where the guy lived. Not where the chips were made, which was 600 miles away.
My parents ran a hotel in Nebraska. One time, this lady came in claiming she found a bug in her bed. She showed them a little glass bottle with some kind of bug in it, but it wasn’t the kind they usually saw. Weird, right? But she wouldn’t even let them look at the bug closer!
RE: Fact #36 (Female Gladiators Banned by Severus) – The Romans were a weird bunch – super tough in some ways, but also really uptight about other things. They were cool with women fighting to the death, but they didn’t like it when people made jokes about them.
Turns out, gladiators didn’t always fight to the death.
RE: Fact #44 (The Invention Secrecy Act Rules) – nuclear weapons design, cryptographic and encoding techniques, stealthy manufacturing techniques.
PGP is a cool example of this happening back in the early 90s. The guy who made it was in trouble for selling weapons, so he published the code in a fancy book and said the First Amendment protected him.
This law doesn’t really make sense for software that isn’t connected to some special hardware. Even if someone doesn’t release the software, someone else could just get a copy and figure out how it works.
And even with hardware that’s hard to get, I wouldn’t be surprised if spies were trying to find old American missiles in the Middle East or Afghanistan to see how they work.
That reminds me of the DVD encryption key thing – they tried to make a number illegal! People really showed them how dumb that was, like by making a flag with the number encoded in the colors.
For anyone interested, there’s a really good book called Crypto by Stephen Levy that covers the history of public key encryption.
RE: Fact #21 (Michael Bay’s Phone Booth Pitch) – Back in the 60s, Larry Cohen wanted to make a movie with Alfred Hitchcock. The idea was to film the whole thing in real time, and it would all take place inside a phone booth. Hitchcock thought it was cool, but they couldn’t figure out a way to make the story work with everyone stuck in one spot. Cohen said Hitchcock kept asking him if he had an idea, and they’d meet up now and then to talk about it. It took a while, like twenty years after Hitchcock died, before Cohen finally figured it out. He realized he could have a sniper forcing the main character to stay in the phone booth, and that’s when he wrote the script.
This is kinda funny, Hitchcock made a movie called Rope that happens in one place and is shot in a way that makes it look like it was filmed in one shot, even though it came out in the 40s.
He spent 30 years coming up with “sniper”?
Like, how about this: I rig your phone with a bomb. You try to leave, I blow you up. Took me 30 seconds.
Larry Cohen was probably a good writer overall, but that’s not a hard problem to figure out.
Man, I’ve never had so many people agree with me and call me an idiot at the same time.
So, it’s like we have a cool movie setting, but no actual story to go with it. Maybe it’s not just the sniper, but everything else around him that makes the movie work. Yeah, coming up with interesting characters is pretty easy, people are pretty basic when it comes to survival, but turning all that into a good story? That’s the real challenge.
But hey, like I’ve ever written a script… ¯__/¯
Cool, thanks!
RE: Fact #35 (Self-Sued Search Warrant Victory) – Every little thing matters in law.
RE: Fact #33 (Nazi Infant Care Controversy) – It’s like that saying, “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” but instead of spanking, you just kinda… ignore them.
Shepherds use their rods to guide their sheep, not beat them. They might use it to fight off a predator, but they wouldn’t hurt the sheep.
RE: Fact #31 (Ford Model T’s Price Drop) – Ford really focused on making things better all the time, and they used the assembly line, which helped bring down the price.
They kept things simple with the different car styles, and painted them all black to make production easier.
Black’s the only color we do.
RE: Fact #17 (Benefits of Dog Sniff Walks) – My dog doesn’t just sniff the ground, he practically sticks his whole face to one spot for ages, then has a sneezing fit that lasts forever!
RE: Fact #14 (Jimmy Carter’s UFO Pledge) – Didn’t Clinton, Obama, and Trump all kind of say the same thing?
Clinton, Obama, Trump
It’s all about keeping secrets, really. They have to test out their new military stuff, and they don’t want anyone seeing it, civilians or not. And why admit there are no aliens when you can use that as cover for all the cool tech they’re working on? They’ve been doing this forever, it’s why all the presidents sound the same. They’re told aliens don’t exist, but they can’t say that because it’s top secret.
But the real reason they’re hiding stuff is much simpler. It’s not some big alien conspiracy, it’s just their own projects they don’t want people knowing about. They’re probably just saying it’s UFOs to throw people off the scent of what they’re really up to.
RE: Fact #45 (Hot Water Preference in China) – A whole bunch of Chinese folks came to train with us for half a year, and we ended up taking out one of the water coolers. Turns out, they were going the whole day without drinking anything because the water was too cold.
RE: Fact #27 (Ancient Earth’s Stronger Magnetic Field) – Will the Earth’s magnetic core ever stop spinning and leave us with a thin atmosphere like Mars?
Yeah, but I read somewhere that it would take 91 billion years.
The Sun’s going to become a red giant in 5 billion years and swallow Mars and cook Earth. Then, in 10 billion years, it’ll die.
Earth’s gonna be too toasty for us in a billion years.
RE: Fact #12 (The Double Execution Case) – People have definitely been messed up in executions before, but I’ve never heard anyone say they already served their sentence because of a botched execution. There was this guy who was supposed to be hanged, so he decided to pack on the pounds while he was on death row, hoping he’d get too heavy to hang. He ended up dying from health issues before they could hang him.
So, there was this crazy case in Britain, right? This woman got sentenced to hang, but somehow survived! She even argued that her sentence had been completed since she was hung, and they shouldn’t do it again. Can you believe that?
They changed death sentences to “hanged by the neck until dead” after that. I’d bet most of them are worded that way now.
RE: Fact #41 (The 1939 Pet Massacre in Britain) – The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel almost disappeared because of this culling.
Yeah, they’re just so happy and carefree… guess that kinda explains their health problems. All that led to them having a limited diet.
RE: Fact #6 (Bassist’s Clever Placebo Switch) – Set designers do that. The big bosses like to feel like they’re in charge, so you put something out of place that’s easy to fix when they come by looking for something to change.
“Wait, why’s there a pink flower on that coffin in this horror movie? You know, you’re totally right! Good catch!”
My friend had this button in his car that did nothing. To impress girls he’d be like “Check this out!” and flip it, then just floor it.
RE: Fact #36 (Female Gladiators Banned by Severus) – Even female gamers back then got a lot of crap.
RE: Fact #22 (Baretop Tricksters’ Robbery Tactic) – I’d get crushed every time.
And it’d be totally worth it.
RE: Fact #43 (Hitler’s Stateless Years Explained) – You know, the funniest thing about all this is that one time Wilhelm Frick, this early Nazi guy who was already in the German government, tried to get Hitler a job as an art professor. He wanted to get him a gig at the Bauhaus school in Weimar, but it didn’t work out because the government didn’t want to hire anyone new. Talk about a guy who just can’t catch a break in the art world!
Hitler wasn’t a fan of the Bauhaus style, and most of its big names had to leave Germany when the Nazis took over. A lot of them went to Western Europe and America, but some headed to the Soviet Union. They ended up doing really well in their new homes, with some having big careers.
RE: Fact #24 (The British Empire’s Vast Reach) – To be honest, the Roman Empire wasn’t that huge when you look at the map. Places like Australia and Brazil are bigger today, and even most European colonial empires like the French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish empires were way bigger.
It’s kind of unfair, right? The Romans ruled the whole Mediterranean. You’d think that would count for something! But it’s all about landmass.
You know, the Mongols had a much bigger empire than the Romans. They actually had the biggest empire ever, stretching across a huge part of the world in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The Roman Empire wasn’t the biggest in size, but it had a crazy amount of people living in it. At its peak, it ruled over about 25% of everyone on Earth! Think of it like China, the US, and Indonesia all ruled by the same government. That’s how many people they had!
RE: Fact #5 (Early Cryonics’ Financial Downfall) – So, I was reading about this guy, Orville Richardson, who was a member of this cryonics group called Alcor. He died in 2009, and his siblings buried him even though he had made a deal with Alcor to have his head frozen. Alcor sued them to get his body dug up, and after a whole bunch of legal stuff, they finally got it back a year later. I mean, even if you believe in cryonics, I’m pretty sure after a year in the ground, there’s nothing left to freeze!
I bet they didn’t think this would happen when they signed the contract.
Maybe they just wanted the money.
They promised Alcor a human head, and they were going to deliver. You can’t break a deal with the devil.
RE: Fact #40 (Hotel Ice Machines’ Origins) – “We’re gonna be different!”
“Awesome! We’ll be different too!”
“And us!”
“We’ll all be different!”
“Same way!”
So, are we saying we shouldn’t give out ice because it’ll make us sound like everyone else?
That’s just straight up copying and trying to get ahead!
It’s crazy how much money’s being poured into AI, like it’s the next big thing. I mean, is there even a real reason for all this hype? If CEOs were actually leading, they’d be able to justify some of their ridiculous paychecks. But most of them are just sheep, following whatever everyone else is doing, jumping on the latest trend. They just want to be in the middle, not the first or the last to do anything.
RE: Fact #34 (Suicide Through Capital Crimes) – Wouldn’t killing an innocent baptized child send you to hell?
RE: Fact #38 (Harrison’s Scandalous Marriage Choice) – He was also in charge of getting electricity set up in the White House.
RE: Fact #1 (Extra Fries for Value Effect) – Except for the Five Guys in New Orleans. They were always stingy with the fries, no matter how big your order was. One time I got so frustrated I asked an employee why they never gave extra, and he said their manager doesn’t want them to because it takes too long to fry up more. I stopped going to that place. I hope that manager got fired.
RE: Fact #11 (Church Sanctuary Knocker Protection) – It’s only as long as they stick around, though. If they left the church, it wouldn’t apply anymore.
RE: Fact #14 (Jimmy Carter’s UFO Pledge) – Every president who says this ends up backing down – they know military secrets are too important to give in to people who believe in UFOs.
RE: Fact #39 (The Tiny Zeptosecond Unit) – A zeptosecond is super tiny – it’s one followed by twenty-one zeros! Planck Time is even smaller, it’s one followed by forty-three zeros!
The experimental limit’s closing in on the theoretical one. Keep at it, physicists!
RE: Fact #48 (Ada Lovelace’s Deathbed Confession) – She was wild, gambling and having affairs. That probably had something to do with it.
When I was twenty-six, I partied hard, it was way better than doing boring math or being all prim and proper.
I totally forgot to use a coaster when I put my drink on the table. It was a hot summer day and all I could think about was getting something cold to drink.
I can’t believe Lord Byron’s daughter would act like that!
RE: Fact #30 (Free Horse Program in the U.S.) – I’m buying a cheap house in Detroit and bringing my horse to live with me!
Can you still find cheap houses in Detroit?
RE: Fact #39 (The Tiny Zeptosecond Unit) – What’s the story behind this?
They caught me and my girlfriend in bed on camera.
I mean, they watched a hydrogen molecule soak up a photon and saw how an electron took off. This made a wave that they measured, and it was pretty fast. Not as fast as Planck time, though.
A zeptosecond is one ten-to-the-minus-twenty-first and Planck time is one ten-to-the-minus-forty-third, so we’re still a long way off.
Just a little tweak.
The Planck time isn’t the absolute smallest amount of time, it’s just the smallest we can really understand with our current science.
There’s no need to think there’s a smallest time in the universe, it’s just that our understanding of quantum physics breaks down at such tiny scales.
RE: Fact #45 (Hot Water Preference in China) – That’s pretty cool! I had no idea, even though it’s such a common thing.
It’s probably because they used to have to boil their water to make it safe to drink. Older Chinese people grew up doing that, so it’s just something they still do. And the Chinese government probably wants to keep it going as a tradition.
RE: Fact #23 (Tesla’s Longevity Predictions Revised) – Unlimited power
RE: Fact #16 (Negative Buoyancy in Freediving) – That’s pretty scary.
RE: Fact #21 (Michael Bay’s Phone Booth Pitch) – An eighteen-wheeler just loses it, spinning around and BAM! Then this huge tanker full of dynamite… boom!
Michael Bay said something funny about the Transformers. He didn’t want to make the robots look like giant boxes because it would look fake. He thought adding extra stuff, like car parts, would make them look more realistic. I always quote that part, haha!
It’s kinda clunky how they put it, but he’s not totally off base. Making the G1 designs into real-life 3D robots would have been super weird. Adding some extra bits and pieces, like gears and stuff, makes them look more like, you know, actual robots. We got some cool designs out of it, but they could have used more color and some…
It’s a scene from another film, with fire and then Megan Fox bends down.
RE: Fact #17 (Benefits of Dog Sniff Walks) – They just can’t resist poking their noses into everything.
They probably mean you should stop and wait for your dog when they find a spot they really want to sniff. A lot of people just keep walking when their dog stops to sniff.
RE: Fact #30 (Free Horse Program in the U.S.) – They have a place right near my house where they keep burros. We go over there often and give them carrots.
You get the pet perks without the hassle.
The local shelter really wants people to come by and hang out with the animals. Otherwise, they just chill out all day. It’s different from pet stores, where they mostly have puppies, and people are way more comfortable petting them.
RE: Fact #28 (Japan’s Price Disparity for Tourists) – Japan’s been jacking up prices on foreigners for ages. Try finding an apartment too, you’ll be in for a surprise.
Man, it’s crazy how much more they charge foreigners for apartments, cars, and even phone plans.
How do those mobile plans work, anyway? Do people actually sign up for them in person?
RE: Fact #8 (Holy Water Replenishment Rule) – Things must be tough when they’re watering down the holy water.
It’s not like you’re diluting it, you’re actually making the regular water into holy water permanently. So you end up with almost twice as much holy water and you can keep doing it forever to have as much as you want.
I’m not an expert on Catholic stuff, but I learned this at a big cathedral near me. They have a holy water fountain and they use this trick to keep it full.
I don’t know if there’s a specific time limit, I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. I think it works like this: once you stop adding water and it’s just sitting there, it becomes holy water right away. But I’m not totally positive about that.
Homeopathic water!
Priests hate this simple trick!
So how long should you wait before watering it down again? You can’t do 51% right away, but it seems like you can do 75% or more with plain water after a good rest.
Blessings are getting pricey these days. Inflation is a real pain! Seriously, I wonder if there’s a limit on how much water a priest can bless at once? Someone must have blessed the whole ocean. You know, according to Wikipedia, if someone blessed the ocean over a hundred years ago, almost every lake in the world would be holy water now!
RE: Fact #9 (Loudest Shout Record Stands) – Bene Gesserit training has its benefits.
The Landlady in Kung Fu Hustle must have been trained by the Bene Gesserit!
RE: Fact #44 (The Invention Secrecy Act Rules) – Taxes are just part of living in a country, right? Not fun, but we gotta do it.
But what’s really messed up is when the police take your stuff without even a trial. They can even sell it or use it themselves! It’s just plain wrong.
RE: Fact #42 (Galois’ Life and Tragic Duel) – He’s got a whole branch of math named after him, Galois theory. It’s all connected to his solution of that problem.
RE: Fact #11 (Church Sanctuary Knocker Protection) – Quasimodo’s mom tried this out in Paris.
Look at all the innocent blood you’ve spilled, right there on the steps of Notre Dame.
In the book, he was basically left alone on a park bench. The crowd was going to burn him, but then Frollo showed up and decided to take him in.
Yeah, that sounds familiar.
RE: Fact #36 (Female Gladiators Banned by Severus) – Later in his life, he disappeared, got totally obsessed with those old Dwemer ruins, and went a little nuts.
RE: Fact #30 (Free Horse Program in the U.S.) – My dad was a biologist who worked for the BLM his whole career, and he helped out with these events. He brought Buster home around 1991. Buster’s still going strong. You can just hop on his back and hang out. He’s been on lots of pack trips and lives the good life with his horse buddies and a couple of mules.
RE: Fact #50 (Hendrix’s Astonishing First Gig) – You hear a lot of Hendrix on classic rock radio, but some of them are pretty overplayed. Check out “Machine Gun” from his live album “Band of Gypsies.” It was recorded late in his career and it shows that Hendrix was always pushing boundaries, playing stuff that people weren’t ready for. It’s a shame he died so young.
That’s what you mean? Even if I don’t play guitar, it’s wild how Hendrix can just mess around and get sounds I’ve never heard before.
RE: Fact #28 (Japan’s Price Disparity for Tourists) – Years ago, I met up with a buddy for lunch in Tokyo. They gave us an English menu, but it was way more expensive and had a set order. The Japanese menu was cheaper and you could pick and choose. We just went with the Japanese one, they never said anything but it was kinda crazy.
Ordering would be a lot easier with a set menu if the staff doesn’t speak much English.
RE: Fact #35 (Self-Sued Search Warrant Victory) – I’m still confused. If the warrant was illegal, wouldn’t that be the main thing to fight in court? You’d sue the state or appeal the original ruling if you got convicted, right? Going after the warrant itself seems weird.
If the cops can take your money, shouldn’t you be able to take back the warrant they used to get it? Plus, then they can’t use any evidence they found with that warrant.
Seems like civil forfeiture could be breaking a bunch of those US Constitution rules. That Yale article says it’s technically okay, but they say it’s misused a lot in real life.
He wasn’t facing any serious charges, just trying to get his porn back after it was taken illegally.
It’s like, if you get busted and convicted on a bogus warrant, you’d appeal the conviction and it’d be called something like “US vs. Joe Smith,” like a regular criminal case.
But if they took your cash but didn’t actually press charges, you’d sue to get it back and it’d be “Joe Smith vs. a pile of cash.”
RE: Fact #27 (Ancient Earth’s Stronger Magnetic Field) – So, does that mean the Romans got to see some really crazy Auroras when they were around?
So, I figure stronger magnetic fields mean less Aurora, since it’s all about the gaps in the Earth’s magnetic field, right? When the field’s weaker, it kind of splits apart at the poles. I think. I also remember this old Discovery Channel thing from when I was a kid about the magnetic north flipping to the south. They said during that time, the Earth’s magnetic field would get weaker, and the Aurora Borealis could be seen way south, like in Paris. Of course, I’m not a scientist, just a big nerd!
RE: Fact #23 (Tesla’s Longevity Predictions Revised) – He probably wouldn’t have made it past 2006.
Just in time for the big reveal.
RE: Fact #2 (The Bannister Effect Explained) – I saw this thing where Tony Hawk was talking about how crazy it was to finally land the first 900. Now I see 13 year olds doing 900s in the park when I’m driving by!
RE: Fact #15 (Sylvester Graham’s Clean Eating) – He was so stoned on opium, he forgot to eat or drink.
RE: Fact #19 (Maersk Alabama Cash Mystery) – Trust me, but don’t trust me with your money or your wife.
RE: Fact #46 (First Successful Primate Cloning) – Cool, so can we start growing organs in a lab now? I’m thinking like, test tubes and stuff, not cloning people. Just organs I can use.
You’re broke.
RE: Fact #27 (Ancient Earth’s Stronger Magnetic Field) – Remember back in the day? Men were men, magnets stuck, and a Big Mac and Coke cost next to nothing. Now? The whole thing’s gone downhill. The bosses are crooked, and you can’t even trust your compass anymore. Don’t even get me started.
And those little fuzzy guys from Alpha Centauri were REALLY tiny.
RE: Fact #3 (Scream Filming Setback Memo) – They were supposed to film for ten days at Santa Rosa High School in June, costing about $50,000. But the school district pulled the plug right before filming started in March. They said it was because of the disruption, but a lot of people in town didn’t want the school used for a violent movie, especially because of Craven’s history with horror movies. They ended up using the Sonoma Community Center instead, but they had to rewrite some scenes and spend a bunch of extra money to make it look like a high school, like getting bigger desks and putting in lockers. Craven said the whole thing cost them an extra $350,000, including $270,000 for using the Community Center for three days. They definitely haven’t forgotten about what happened with the school, though. The credits even say “No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa city school district governing board.”
No contract? That’s crazy! They can’t just revoke it without paying up, right?
RE: Fact #32 (The Penguin Naming Confusion) – So, the word “Pinguinus” was used for the great auk, which went extinct a while back, but we’ve known about it since the 1800s. It’s actually part of the auk family. Then, the birds we know as penguins were discovered later. They’re called penguins because they look like the great auk, but they’re actually not related. They’re in a different family and order, and they were classified in the 1830s. Pretty interesting, huh?
Apparently, there are some old documents, like from the 1600s, that say “penguin” comes from Welsh. And get this, there’s a whole thing going on about whether it’s really Welsh or Latin!
RE: Fact #41 (The 1939 Pet Massacre in Britain) – It’s pretty wild that rationing in Britain didn’t end until 1954, nine years after the war! People were only allowed one egg a week in 1940!
I heard this podcast where the person said after the war, there were no bananas for years. One day, their dad managed to snag a single banana and they cut it up so all the kids could have their first taste.
I think I heard on a podcast where they explained the whole “British food sucks” thing. Apparently, Americans went over there and everything tasted bad because Britain was still rationing food after the war. Even after the war ended, rationing continued for another 10 years which only reinforced the bad food idea in American’s minds.
RE: Fact #21 (Michael Bay’s Phone Booth Pitch) – There’s only so many ways you can blow up a phone booth.
RE: Fact #38 (Harrison’s Scandalous Marriage Choice) – Harrison went back to Indianapolis to be a lawyer after he left the White House. He was getting older and lonely, which was strange for someone who liked to be by himself. His wife’s niece, Mary Dimmick, was also feeling lost. Her grandpa and mom had passed away while they were living in the White House, and she didn’t have any other family close by. Back then, women like Mary weren’t supposed to work or live on their own.
Harrison and Mary had become close during the time they spent at the White House, even though they weren’t related. He had a big house, and he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life alone. It would have been weird for him to ask Mary to move in as his housekeeper or someone he was looking after. So, four years after his wife passed away, he married Mary. He was in his mid-sixties, and she was in her late thirties.
Harrison’s kids, Russell and Mamie, were shocked. They were really upset with their dad, not because he wanted to get remarried, but because of who he wanted to marry. They were cousins, so they were both related to Mary. They skipped his wedding to Mary. When Harrison and Mary had a baby a year later, the family split up for good.
Harrison’s grandkids were older than his new baby, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was also their aunt!
Russell and Mamie never talked to their dad again. They didn’t even go to his funeral a few years later. Mary lived to be almost ninety.
Talk about a life! Mary Dimmick was born before the Civil War and lived through World War II. She saw slavery and the atom bomb in her lifetime. My dad was born in 1948.
RE: Fact #19 (Maersk Alabama Cash Mystery) – We had this officer in Iraq, his job was to basically pay people off whenever we messed up their stuff. When we came home, dude bought a Hummer with a giant wad of cash. Someone snitched, and it turned out he’d been sending a million bucks back home! He ended up in federal prison, got kicked out of the military, and his life went downhill.
RE: Fact #26 (Mountain Dew Mouse Dissolution Case) – That guy’s obsessed with Strange Brew!
RE: Fact #37 (WWII Pilot G-Force Blackouts) – Gotta share my favorite Bader story, even if it’s totally made up!
So, he gets invited to this girls’ school to talk about being a pilot in World War II. And he says something like, “There were two of these fu*kers behind me, three to my right, another to the left…”
The principal, all pale and stuff, jumps in, saying, “Ladies, Fokker was a German aircraft.”
And Bader just goes, “Maybe, but these guys were in Messerschmitts!”
I read *Reach for the Sky* when I was a kid, and the craziest part was when he filled his legs with ping pong balls to float if he crashed over the water. But then, when he got high enough, they all started popping from the air pressure and he thought his plane was getting shot at!
Turns out ping-pong is older than I realized.
RE: Fact #13 (Redd Foxx’s Draft Evasion Trick) – My grandpa wanted to join the army during World War II, but they wouldn’t take him because he was too skinny. So he went to a grocery store and ate twelve bananas, came back, and got weighed again. They either let him in, or he was so annoying they just wanted him to go away, but either way, he was in training the next week!
My grandpa was kind of in the same boat. His mom made him apple pies, but he was really skinny. His dad was killed during World War I because he was a German immigrant, so he just wanted to show everyone he was an American. He couldn’t join the army though, because he was too small. He ended up working at an airfield for like 70 years, from when he was in his 20s until he was in his 90s. He was happy to have the job. He never got promoted, but he liked it and wanted to keep working. He stayed in great shape too. They tried to get him to retire, but he’d just show up back at work anyway.
They wouldn’t take him because he was too skinny – he didn’t weigh enough. I had a similar experience trying to join the German army in the 2010s. They told me I needed to gain 20kg just to make the minimum weight. So I never became a soldier.
RE: Fact #1 (Extra Fries for Value Effect) – Bagged fries are the best, no doubt.
RE: Fact #25 (Kidnapped Schoolchildren Escape Plot) – Imagine if they wrote the kids’ names on hamburger wrappers, and the ransom was to fix up some old Victorian house. That’d be a hilarious crime movie, right?
RE: Fact #3 (Scream Filming Setback Memo) – Caused by a form of Anorexia?