1 James Cameron’s Titanic Sacrifice
Director James Cameron voluntarily gave up his salary and percentage share of Titanic’s income when the film’s budget exceeded his original estimate. It inflated from $100 million to $120 million and then to $200 million. He wanted to ensure the studio executives didn’t think he had misled them to get the movie made.
2. Scientists once dismissed massive rogue waves as a sailors’ myth. However, an 84-foot wave hit the Gorm oil platform in the central North Sea in 1984, proving their existence. Since then, laboratories have mathematically validated and simulated this phenomenon and even confirmed the existence of rogue holes in the ocean.
3. In 2017, a Santa Rosa couple, John and Jan Pascoe, survived the California wildfire by jumping into their neighbor’s pool and staying submerged for six hours. They only surfaced for air, shielding their faces from falling embers with wet t-shirts each time they came up.
4. In 2016, researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel used machine learning to find out what fruit bats were talking about with one another. Surprisingly, they found out that bats mainly argue with one another.
5. In 2007, during a trip to Paris, Prince Harry had his driver speed through the same tunnel where his mother, Princess Diana, died. He hoped this would bring him closure, but he later described the experience as ill-conceived, saying it only brought him more pain.
6 Carlos Yulo’s Surprising Olympic Rewards
After Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo won double gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024, companies eager for free publicity rewarded him with a fully furnished three-bedroom home worth $552,802, a lifetime supply of buffets, unlimited phone cases, and complimentary endoscopic procedures for when he turns 45.
7. After George Harrison died from lung cancer, his widow sued a doctor at the hospital where he received radiation therapy. She alleged that the doctor forced Harrison to listen to his son play guitar and even autograph it while Harrison lacked mental faculties.
8. Thomas Edison Jr., the son of Thomas Edison, aspired to become an inventor. However, lacking his father’s talent, he turned to selling snake oil products, marketing them as “the latest Edison discovery.” His father sued him, leading to an agreement where Edison Jr. stopped using the family name in exchange for a weekly allowance.
9. An anonymous family in Venice, Italy has endured a rare disorder known as fatal familial insomnia for more than 200 years. Many family members died from this condition, which prevents them from sleeping until they die.
10. More than half of the decline in America’s total fertility rate is attributed to the sharp decrease in teenage pregnancies. Women under 19 now rarely have children.
11 Centibillionaire Milestones: Bill Gates’ Exception
Every centibillionaire (a person with a net worth of $100 billion, €100 billion, or £100 billion) reached this milestone in 2017 or later, except for Bill Gates, who first achieved it in 1999.
12. Magellan’s expedition to circumnavigate the world began with approximately 270 crew members aboard five ships. Nearly three years later, it concluded with only 18 survivors returning on a single vessel.
13. A month before the film’s release in May 1999, Weird Al recorded his Phantom Menace parody, “The Saga Begins.” Although Lucasfilm denied him an early screening, Yankovic managed to accurately piece together the plot by researching rumors on Star Wars fan forums.
14. During World War II, the average American recruit stood 5’8″ tall and weighed 144 pounds. After basic training, recruits gained 5-20 pounds and added an inch to their 33 1/4″ chest measurement.
15. The T4 Program was a Nazi German euthanasia initiative that forcibly killed people with physical or mental disabilities, emotional distress, incurable illnesses, or old age. The program’s death toll may have exceeded 200,000 victims.
16 GPS Error Sends Woman to Croatia
In 2013, a Belgian woman intended to pick up a friend in Brussels, less than 90 miles from her home, but due to a GPS error, she ended up in Croatia after driving 900 miles across five international borders. She realized her mistake two days later, after her son had already reported her missing.
17. According to FEMA, donations of used clothes are never needed during disaster relief efforts.
18. The Lord of the Rings is presented as a translation of a book originally written in Westron, the common language of Middle-earth. Therefore, Frodo Baggins’ real name in Westron is Maura Labingi.
19. Singer Katy Perry grew up in a strict religious household where she wasn’t allowed to eat Lucky Charms cereal because her mother associated the word “luck” with Lucifer. She was also required to call deviled eggs “angeled eggs.”
20. Tasmanian devils give birth to 30-40 offspring at a time, but the mother has only four teats. The first four to latch on survive, while the rest perish.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 London’s Cocaine Consumption Surpasses Europe
Londoners consume more cocaine annually than the next three largest cocaine-consuming cities in Europe combined.
22. F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen nearly bankrupted his Lotus team by being too good. According to his contract, he would receive €50,000 for each championship point he scored. Lotus thought their car would be so uncompetitive that year that it would not be a problem. Kimi went on to score 390 points in two years, including 13 podium finishes and two race wins at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.
23. Leona Helmsley faced an investigation for tax evasion and received a 16-year sentence after she neglected to pay contractors working on her Connecticut home. During the trial, her housekeeper testified that Helmsley had said, “Only the little people pay taxes.” She then only served 19 months in prison.
24. Skeuomorphism refers to modern objects-real or digital-that retain features from earlier designs even when those features are no longer functional. Examples include the tiny handles on maple syrup bottles, faux buckles on shoes, the floppy disk ‘save’ icon, and the shutter sound on cell phone cameras.
25. In 2010, an Australian teenager named Sam Ballard was dared by his friends to eat a slug crawling across a patio. He was unaware that the slug harbored rat lungworm disease, a brain-damaging parasite. Shortly after eating it, Sam experienced severe leg pain and weakness. Doctors confirmed the diagnosis of rat lungworm, and he soon fell into a coma that lasted 420 days. He woke up paralyzed and in constant need of care. Sam passed away in 2018, eight years after the tragic dare.
RE: Fact #4 (Bats: Arguing Creatures Revealed) – That’s pretty much every species, you see. Just check out the comments on any factrepublic thread.
Is this someone hitting on me?
Get outta here, or else!
What’d you say, mate?
RE: Fact #5 (Prince Harry’s Ill-Fated Tunnel Drive) – I was on a job, and this guy got crushed by a huge concrete pipe – ten feet long! I saw it all, man, it was brutal. He was gone instantly, at least. I held his buddy, the poor guy was sobbing all over me.
I stayed away from that whole street for ages. If I *had* to go near it, I’d floor it and pull over later to just freak out.
It must be awful driving past where someone died.
If you’re dealing with PTSD, look into EMDR, or even just play some Tetris for a while.
RE: Fact #45 (Third Forearm Artery’s Mystery) – Typing, writing, and gaming really drain your energy.
But if you’re really needing that blood, you’re probably not focusing too much on having lots of kids.
RE: Fact #50 (Turk’s Deceptive Tales to Spanish Explorers) – It was just like the Conquistadors’ search for El Dorado in South America – always just out of reach, over the next hill.
Trying to save Princess Peach as a kid was…tough.
RE: Fact #10 (Teenage Pregnancy Decline in America) – Fewer teens having kids is a positive development.
RE: Fact #34 (King Sancho I’s Obesity and Deposition) – Wow, Queen Toda of Pamplona, Sancho I’s grandma, totally sent him to Cordoba—the big-shot caliphs’ place—to get his weight down. Turns out, the caliph, Abderraman III, was her cousin. This Jewish doctor, Hasday ibn Saprut, put Sancho on this crazy diet: only liquids through a straw for over a month! It didn’t work at first, ’cause Sancho was sneaking food. Seriously, they had to tie him up to stop him from eating solids! They even sewed his lips shut, leaving just a little hole for the straw. Plus, he had daily workouts, hot baths to sweat it out, and massages. The guy lost over 220 pounds in just forty days!
A Christian king, a Muslim caliph, and a Jewish doctor go into a bar…
RE: Fact #32 (Nobel Disease: Pseudoscience Among Winners) – I’ve noticed this a lot with really smart STEM people who aren’t Nobel winners – they tend to think being great at one thing makes them great at everything.
Wow, me too! I work with physicists. I can’t believe how many people are commenting on this!
Wow, that’s a lot of software engineers.
Every engineer
RE: Fact #18 (Frodo’s Real Name in Westron) – Hey, I’m off to Mordor with this ring!
Maura, I’ll totally carry you if I need to! Don’t worry about it.
Forget the ring, grab the cannoli.
Nope.
RE: Fact #30 (Woman Kept Dead Roommate for 18 Months) – That story’s from way back, twelve years ago. I checked, but couldn’t find anything new online.
Couldn’t find an update online, thanks for clearing that up! 😂
RE: Fact #24 (Skeuomorphism: The Lasting Design Legacy) – Funny how phone batteries still look like old-fashioned AA ones, huh?
RE: Fact #42 (Court Jesters Deliver Bad News) – Maybe a gentler way of telling me the bad news would make it easier to hear.
RE: Fact #25 (Teen’s Deadly Dare with a Slug) – That’s awful what happened. Seriously, don’t eat weird stuff – especially bugs and animals you find.
RE: Fact #32 (Nobel Disease: Pseudoscience Among Winners) – I guess it’s partly ego, and partly that initial willingness to think differently, question things, and chase down every lead. Lots of successful business folks and artists get to the top by taking wild risks, but then they mess things up later by keeping it up.
RE: Fact #43 (Naval Mines’ Deadly Spike Mechanism) – Before now, all I knew about sea mines was from that one scene in Hot Fuzz.
RE: Fact #2 (Rogue Waves: Myth or Reality?) – Ocean holes sound totally terrifying.
It’s like a wave, but upside down. The bottom part dips way lower than usual between the regular waves. It’s not just a random hole in the water, that’d be weird.
RE: Fact #6 (Carlos Yulo’s Surprising Olympic Rewards) – A lifetime supply of phone cases? That’s awesome! I’m so happy for you.
I loved the unlimited buffet thing.
RE: Fact #7 (George Harrison’s Widow Sues Doctor) – It’s not about the autograph, it’s about the pressure, the taking advantage. Being a doctor, I totally see why that’s wrong. He was his patient, not some exhibit.
My family works in healthcare, and we’ve treated a bunch of famous people. None of us ever got anything signed by them, though.
It’s gotta be the same guy.
So, US Attorney Loretta Lynch just announced a settlement with Dr. Gilbert Lederman – the former head of radiation oncology at Staten Island University Hospital. He’s paying $2.35 million to settle claims he cheated Medicare by billing for stereotactic body radiosurgery – a procedure he supposedly invented. A judge already ruled back in 2014 that some of his Medicare claims were false because of incorrect coding and treatments below the neck. The judge also said Lederman owed money because of unjust enrichment and mistaken payments.
His kid’s guitar playing was the real killer.
RE: Fact #44 (The Marvels’ Record Movie Loss) – Marvels was a bit of a mess, nothing special really. Ant-Man 3 was worse, though, and Secret Invasion? That was probably the worst MCU thing ever.
RE: Fact #1 (James Cameron’s Titanic Sacrifice) – James Cameron didn’t need any more money in 1997. He could pretty much make whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. After *Titanic*, he was seriously loaded.
Yeah, he could totally buy a house.
Back then, people had it made. A single movie and they could buy a house! Now, you’d need three movies to do the same.
RE: Fact #9 (Fatal Familial Insomnia: A 200-Year Mystery) – Imagine growing up in that family, always wondering if you’d be next.
RE: Fact #43 (Naval Mines’ Deadly Spike Mechanism) – So, yeah, those are the usual types of mines, but they weren’t the only ones used in WWII. There were also magnetic and acoustic mines. Magnetic ones went off when a metal ship passed by – kinda like those metal strips in the road that detect your car at a stoplight. Unlike some other magnetic things, these were pretty reliable because they just sat there. Acoustic mines listened for the sound of a ship’s propeller – if it got loud enough, boom!
These usually sat on the seabed, not dangling from a chain, which made them tougher for mine sweepers to handle. Plus, exploding underneath a ship caused way more damage – it creates this big hole in the water meant to cripple it. They weren’t perfect though, sometimes they’d explode a bit off and only lightly damage a ship.
Even today, we still use these kinds, but newer ones are smarter. They listen for specific sounds so they can pick and choose their targets. A lot of them don’t even use explosives – they launch a torpedo instead, for a really accurate hit.
RE: Fact #11 (Centibillionaire Milestones: Bill Gates’ Exception) – Of all those who got there after 1999, only Bezos made it before 2020. Makes you wonder what happened in 2020 to cause such a huge wealth grab, huh?
RE: Fact #14 (World War II: American Recruits’ Growth) – Recruit health and poor nutrition were huge problems, leading to reforms in both the US and UK during and after the war. The NHS was partly set up to improve everyone’s health. In the US, a lot of recruits got three meals a day and even things like new shoes—stuff we take for granted, plus dental care and a whole lot more—for the first time in their lives.
Wow, that stuff was relevant for ages! My dad’s army buddy actually cried when they got their boots in basic training – he grew up in rural Appalachia and only ever wore hand-me-downs.
RE: Fact #42 (Court Jesters Deliver Bad News) – How could we ever forget Triboulet, the legendary jester? He once smacked the king on the rear end, expecting a laugh from the royal crowd. King Francis I was ready to kill him, but offered a pardon if Triboulet could come up with an even worse insult. Triboulet’s apology? “My apologies, Your Majesty! I didn’t recognize you – I thought you were the Queen!” The Queen was completely off-limits, of course, and the king was furious. He changed his mind about the pardon and sentenced Triboulet to death, but let him pick his method of execution. Triboulet replied, “Your Majesty, for the sake of Saints Nitouche and Pansard, patrons of the insane, I choose to die of old age!” The king thought this was hilarious, and instead of killing him, he sent Triboulet into exile.
RE: Fact #12 (Magellan’s Voyage: A Tragic Return) – So, there was this guy on the ship who paid his own way – the first tourist to circumnavigate the globe!
RE: Fact #39 (Snake Kills Two Boys in Canada) – The snake and the boys were in the same room, Tremblay said, but he wouldn’t say much more. He mentioned the RCMP are investigating, but wouldn’t talk about charges. It’s not your average case, he said, it’s really tough on the family. But for the police, it’s a death investigation, so they’re approaching it the same way, even though it’s a reptile.
RE: Fact #8 (Edison Jr. and Snake Oil Sales) – Sounds like Jr. was playing the long game.
RE: Fact #37 (Lemons: A Hybrid Creation) – That’s why I’m not anti-GMO. We’ve been genetically modifying food forever; we’re just a lot better at it these days.
RE: Fact #48 (Mussolini’s Brutal Castor Oil Torture) – So, people always debate whether a government’s good or bad, right? Well, here’s how you tell: It’s not just about how they treat their citizens, but also how they treat prisoners.
RE: Fact #48 (Mussolini’s Brutal Castor Oil Torture) – Castor oil? Crazy fact: World War One fighter planes used it in their fuel to lube the engines. The pilots even got some in their lungs from the exhaust fumes – made ’em feel pretty rough.
RE: Fact #46 (Roddenberry’s Doubt About Casting Patrick ) – Stewart wasn’t sure why they’d pick a middle-aged, bald, English Shakespeare guy to be Captain Kirk. He even got a toupee shipped from London, hoping to impress the Paramount bosses, but Roddenberry told him to ditch the awful thing. His voice though? That totally blew them away, and he got the part. That’s how we got “Engage!”
RE: Fact #16 (GPS Error Sends Woman to Croatia) – Yeah, something else was definitely up, maybe early-onset dementia or something.
RE: Fact #4 (Bats: Arguing Creatures Revealed) – We can’t understand them, but we’re clever enough to build something that can.
What a time to be alive!
I haven’t gotten around to reading the paper, but a couple of years back, researchers discovered a cool geometric pattern in language—and guess what? It seems to pop up in whale and dolphin communication too! They think this shared structure could help us figure out how to translate animal languages, and maybe even crack some ancient human languages we’ve lost.
Communication and languages are different, but math is universal. Most animals can’t do that, but elephants and dolphins can – they’ve got pretty complex communication going on.
RE: Fact #21 (London’s Cocaine Consumption Surpasses Europe) – Next up: Barcelona and Amsterdam! Perfect for a quick London getaway and nose beers.
RE: Fact #6 (Carlos Yulo’s Surprising Olympic Rewards) – Loads of companies gave him free stuff for easy advertising. He won the second and third ever gold medals, so it was huge in the Philippines. Then, tons of family drama exploded because his mom’s a real nightmare, and it’s a total mess.
What’s up with the mom? I missed that.
He’s not talking to his mom because she stole his competition winnings, fights with his girlfriend, and a whole bunch of other stuff. She even rooted against Carlos and claimed she only had three kids! It’s also caused a rift with his siblings, including his brother who’s a great gymnast and who his mom is actively supporting. She posts all this drama on Facebook, so it’s all out in the open now. It’s a really tough situation for him. I might have gotten a few details wrong, though.
RE: Fact #19 (Katy Perry’s Strict Religious Childhood) – I’ve heard stuff like that before, growing up in the Deep South. It wasn’t exactly uncommon among families I knew.
RE: Fact #41 (Norwegians in the U.S. ) – Europeans and their American relatives… this is gonna be good.
Ethnicity isn’t just about genes; it’s way more than that. It’s about what makes a group feel like “one people”—shared culture, language, history, and so on. Sure, family ties matter, but it’s mainly about belonging. People who move to a new place usually become part of that place’s ethnicity after a few generations.
Most Americans whose ancestors came from Europe don’t share our culture or language anymore. They’re American, not, say, Norwegian or Italian.
Lots of Americans get ethnicity and race mixed up, but that doesn’t change the facts.
RE: Fact #8 (Edison Jr. and Snake Oil Sales) – Hey kiddo, don’t rip people off! That’s my thing!
RE: Fact #34 (King Sancho I’s Obesity and Deposition) – That guy in full armor? He’d be a quarter-tonner, easily.
RE: Fact #13 (Weird Al’s Phantom Menace Parody) – So, to check his work before the movie came out, Weird Al went to a fancy, $500-a-ticket charity screening. The lyrics were pretty much perfect; just a couple tweaks needed.
RE: Fact #14 (World War II: American Recruits’ Growth) – My grandpa’s Marine enlistment papers show he was 5’11”, 151 lbs at 18. He claimed he packed on twenty pounds during basic training – said he’d never eaten so much! Funny thing is, he grew up on a farm, but they barely made ends meet.
Back in ’90, I joined the Marines at a skinny 125 pounds. They fed me tons in boot camp. I left around 160, and didn’t even realize how much weight I’d gained until I got home. My friends were totally surprised—apparently I’d bulked up! It wasn’t like I was starving before, I just burned calories like crazy.
RE: Fact #28 (Coca-Cola’s $3 Billion Cocaine Production) – Stepan Company, a small chemical plant, makes a ton of money processing coca leaves for Coca-Cola. They’re the only ones allowed to bring coca leaves into the US for Coke.
We’re doing alright, but it’s more of a side thing for the company. I’ve been at Stepan for seven years.
Getting coca leaves from Colombia…is that why we suddenly changed our minds about those tariffs?
RE: Fact #1 (James Cameron’s Titanic Sacrifice) – After Titanic became a huge hit, Fox and Paramount happily gave Cameron a massive payday – somewhere between $50 and $100 million, maybe even $97 million in the end.
RE: Fact #7 (George Harrison’s Widow Sues Doctor) – She also helped fight off the crazy guy who broke into their place. I think she used fireplace pokers? He had a knife, and that’s how GH got stabbed.
RE: Fact #32 (Nobel Disease: Pseudoscience Among Winners) – Even famous actors and big-shot business people get it, too.
RE: Fact #4 (Bats: Arguing Creatures Revealed) – So they discovered that bat chats are all about food fights, arguing over sleeping spots, unwanted flirting, and complaining about other bats getting too close. Think daytime TV, but with bats.
I wonder how they got such precise results. It’s reasonable to think most bat calls are about territory, but I’m a little doubtful they can tell the difference between a “you’re too close” call and a couple of bats yelling “THIS IS ALL MINE!” at each other. Whoever’s loudest or meanest wins, right?
The article says they change their call based on who they’re talking to, showing they communicate directly.
RE: Fact #41 (Norwegians in the U.S. ) – Surprisingly, more Lebanese people live in Brazil than in Lebanon.
RE: Fact #22 (Kimi Raikkonen’s Costly Championship Points) – He gave up most of it to save other people’s jobs.
RE: Fact #16 (GPS Error Sends Woman to Croatia) – Wow, a two or three-hour drive ended up taking two whole days?
My parents drove from Kansas to Tampa—should’ve been a two-day trip, not two hours! They even spent a night in Georgia, going the wrong way for hours before they figured it out. That added a whole extra day to the journey. It wasn’t as crazy as that factrepublic post, but I still wondered how you could drive for hours in the wrong direction and not notice.
RE: Fact #9 (Fatal Familial Insomnia: A 200-Year Mystery) – So, Giacomo was born near Venice in 1791. His family was pretty strong and sturdy, but in 1836, at 45, he got really sick, developed dementia, and eventually died. He had three kids who lived past infancy, and they had a bunch more. Over time, his descendants became successful doctors and businessmen, even owning tons of apartments in Venice. But, here’s the weird part: a bunch of them died young from strange illnesses. Turns out, it was all the same thing: a super rare genetic disease called fatal familial insomnia – they didn’t even know what it was until 1986! At least 30 family members have died from it, and a lot more carry the gene. Even today, people in the area know about this family and their awful luck with the disease. It makes it hard for them to get married or even get life insurance. Elisabetta, a relative, said she tried to get insurance and the agent straight-up asked her about the family disease.
RE: Fact #24 (Skeuomorphism: The Lasting Design Legacy) – It’s kinda funny how some words come from older tech. Like “footage” for videos, or saying you’re “taping” something when you mean recording it, or “dialing” a phone number.
RE: Fact #11 (Centibillionaire Milestones: Bill Gates’ Exception) – This definition’s way off—it’s out by a factor of 10,000! “Centi-” means 1/100, not 100, but I guess it’s become pretty popular on factrepublic.
It’s confusing because “billion” can mean two different things.
RE: Fact #47 (U.S. Army: Largest Employer of Musicians) – They’re the biggest employer, period.
For every guy who shoots people, there are ten others moving stuff, making stuff, fixing stuff, cooking stuff… That’s why states fight to keep their military bases—they’re huge for the local economy.
RE: Fact #50 (Turk’s Deceptive Tales to Spanish Explorers) – Maybe he was guiding them towards the Mississippian people—they were famous for their metalwork—because the Spanish were after gold. And he was also leading them away from the Pueblos.
RE: Fact #47 (U.S. Army: Largest Employer of Musicians) – They probably employ more people than anyone else in tons of different jobs.
Biggest employer of Abrams tank crews, for example
RE: Fact #9 (Fatal Familial Insomnia: A 200-Year Mystery) – My junior high band teacher? Man, it was awful watching him go downhill so fast. He started losing his patience, getting really short-tempered. He was always nice to us, but he changed super quickly. One day he just blew up, yelled at a girl in class until she cried, and snapped his baton on the stand. A couple months later, they said he was sick and wouldn’t be back. He came to a concert, looked terrible, and passed away soon after.
RE: Fact #38 (Richard Ramirez’s Mob Justice) – The story’s way better than it sounds. He’s on a bus, sees his face in the paper, and gets mobbed when he gets off. Everywhere he went, people were after him. He ran into a Hispanic neighborhood and, wow, about fifty people came charging out with weapons because he’d embarrassed them.
RE: Fact #42 (Court Jesters Deliver Bad News) – Brave Sir Robin made a quick escape.
RE: Fact #33 (Eiffel Tower’s $60 Million Repainting) – Before and after photos?
I agree – seriously, what crazy surface prep was that?!
RE: Fact #26 (Howard Hughes’ Extreme Germ Obsession) – People always skip over the brain syphilis part when they talk about Hughes’ weird behavior.
He wasn’t careful with his partners when he was young, and later in life he was scared and always repeating himself.
RE: Fact #15 (Nazi T4 Program’s Horrific Legacy) – It kinda spiralled out of control, right? Germans protested, Hitler chickened out and called it off. That showed how much ordinary people were involved in the bad stuff later on, though I could be wrong about some of the details.
RE: Fact #6 (Carlos Yulo’s Surprising Olympic Rewards) – That’s awesome, a perfect example of the Olympic spirit!
RE: Fact #16 (GPS Error Sends Woman to Croatia) – I got sidetracked, so I just kept driving,” Moreau told El Mundo. “I saw signs in French, German, then Croatian, but I was distracted and didn’t notice. There was supposedly a GPS problem.
Man, it’s scary sharing the road with some drivers.
RE: Fact #1 (James Cameron’s Titanic Sacrifice) – Was Titanic just a sneaky way for James Cameron to get funding for his deep-sea Titanic submarine trip?
RE: Fact #23 (Leona Helmsley’s “Little People” Remark) – Bummer, she was right.
RE: Fact #39 (Snake Kills Two Boys in Canada) – That happened in my new town, of all places. So sad.
RE: Fact #25 (Teen’s Deadly Dare with a Slug) – I might take this down later, but this story hits close to home. I wasn’t there, but a friend of mine was. He was one of the best guys I ever knew—maybe this whole thing made him even better. His friends were amazing, always there for him, hanging out, watching games, right up to the end. It was a really bad choice he made as a teen, with awful consequences that changed a lot of lives. RIP Sam
That’s so sad. They were just having a laugh, it seems.
RE: Fact #22 (Kimi Raikkonen’s Costly Championship Points) – Things got even worse: he racked up 390 points over two seasons, meaning Lotus owed him a whopping €19.5 million. His bio says they couldn’t pay him everything. He dropped the lawsuit—didn’t want them to go under—but he ditched Lotus for Ferrari in 2014.
RE: Fact #27 (Warren Buffett’s Inheritance Decision) – His three kids will run the trust, and they’ll all have to agree on how to spend the money. Sounds like a recipe for smooth sailing, right? 🤔
RE: Fact #40 (Erich Hartmann: The Ultimate Flying Ace) – They made him an officer a couple of weeks shy of his 20th birthday. He was 23, almost a month before the war ended. All those kills, all that death and destruction – and he was just a kid. That’s what everyone called him.
RE: Fact #45 (Third Forearm Artery’s Mystery) – So, scientists think this is a small-scale example of human evolution. Other things happening right now: fewer wisdom teeth, extra bones in arms and legs, smaller faces, and some funky foot bone connections.
It’s worth noting that “micro-evolution” is a term creationists sometimes use to avoid accepting evolution as a whole, even though they’ll acknowledge things like these changes. The info I found was from a BBC-related website, so it’s unlikely they meant to play into that idea, even if they used the same word.
RE: Fact #46 (Roddenberry’s Doubt About Casting Patrick ) – I was in junior high when they announced a new Star Trek show, *The Next Generation*. It was a total shock – the new captain was this middle-aged, bald guy with a French name. Nothing like Kirk! It totally broke the mold for leading men back then. A super bold move, really risky. But I think it was key to the show’s huge success, and also to all the awesome captains we got later.
RE: Fact #29 (Mary Rose’s Longbow Discovery) – Cool find on Wiki: Two of those five old longbows actually came from the Mary Rose—way back, almost 150 years before they got the 137 newer ones.
Me too! How on earth did anyone get down there 150 years ago, and nobody’s been back?
RE: Fact #27 (Warren Buffett’s Inheritance Decision) – Letting your kids divvy up your fortune feels like something out of a crazy modern movie, kinda like King Lear.
But hey, he’s also given the Gates Foundation over $43 billion in Berkshire shares—like, almost 10 million shares just in 2024! So it’s pretty clear he’s still a big fan.
RE: Fact #30 (Woman Kept Dead Roommate for 18 Months) – It wasn’t illegal to not report the death, but she got nailed for cashing his checks—$28,000 worth! She got three years’ probation and had to get mental health treatment.
RE: Fact #21 (London’s Cocaine Consumption Surpasses Europe) – London’s population is actually bigger than all three of those cities put together.
RE: Fact #7 (George Harrison’s Widow Sues Doctor) – That doctor also got hit with a huge Medicare fraud lawsuit and lost.
RE: Fact #44 (The Marvels’ Record Movie Loss) – Seriously, The Lone Ranger cost $250 million?! That’s insane.
RE: Fact #50 (Turk’s Deceptive Tales to Spanish Explorers) – I’m not sure if this is true or not, but supposedly when the Spanish asked about the gold cities, most native towns were like, “Oh yeah, the gold cities? They’re somewhere else. Totally, trust me.”
RE: Fact #14 (World War II: American Recruits’ Growth) – World War II’s impact on US military recruitment helped create the national school lunch program.