26 Paramount Approves Inflated Cartoon Budget
In 1940, Paramount asked Fleischer Studios to create a Superman cartoon, but Fleischer believed the project would prove too difficult. Consequently, they attempted to avoid the assignment by quoting a budget four times higher than that of an average cartoon ($100,000). Surprisingly, Paramount agreed to the inflated budget.
27. Due to an agreement between the National Archives and Caroline Kennedy, officials cannot display the jacket Jackie Kennedy wore on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated until 2103.
28. British musician Clive Wearing suffers from a condition that resets his memory every 20 seconds, causing him to always believe he has just woken up from the coma he experienced in 1985 due to a herpes encephalitis infection.
29. After Facebook rejected former Yahoo employee Brian Acton for a job in 2009, he and Jan Koum took a risk by co-founding WhatsApp later that same year. Consequently, after amassing 450 million global users by 2014, they sold WhatsApp to Facebook in a deal that reportedly made both of them multi-billionaires.
30. According to the FAA, air traffic controller applicants must be under 31 years old, and they generally must retire by age 56.
31 Ming History Sparks Executions
In 1660, a blind Chinese amateur historian named Zhuang Tinglong attempted to publish a history of the Ming Dynasty. His work received such a poor reception that authorities executed over 70 people and arrested thousands.
32. Alaska registers 42.16 missing persons per 100,000 residents, a rate significantly higher than Arizona’s 12.28, which is the second highest in the country.
33. Lightbulbs in the NYC subway and other train systems feature left-hand screws, a design that prevents individuals from stealing the bulbs for home use.
34. The average volume of blood in an erection nearly equals or exceeds the volume of blood in the brain.
35. Joey, a spin-off of the Friends sitcom, was canceled halfway through its second season, and NBC never aired the final eight episodes in the United States.
36 Hippie Trail Offered Alternative Travel
Before 1979, travelers used the Hippie Trail to journey from Western Europe to India without flying.
37. The modern Oval Office was created in 1934 and was designed to allow President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair, to move easily between the office and the residence.
38. In 1997, a crew member on the USS Yorktown (CG-48) entered 0 into a database field, which caused the Remote Data Base Manager to attempt a division by zero; as a result, all machinery on the network, including the propulsion system, stopped working.
39. In 1980, a massive 20-meter (66-foot) rogue wave struck the bulk carrier MV Derbyshire with such force that it sent the ship underwater almost instantly, leaving its crew with insufficient time to save themselves or send a distress signal.
40. Dr. Pepper promised a free can to everyone in the United States (except Slash and Buckethead) if Guns N’ Roses released “Chinese Democracy” in 2008, but the company faced a lawsuit when it could not deliver on that promise after the album’s release.
41 London’s Rare White Christmases
Since 1960, London has experienced only six White Christmases (as of 2024).
42. In 1902, one day after being jailed for a fight, a man named Ludger Sylbaris survived for four days while the pyroclastic flow from Mt. Pelée killed 30,000 people on the island of Martinique in the West Indies. His jail cell was a former ammunition storehouse with thick walls and no windows apart from one ventilation shaft.
43. In Major League Baseball, the ball travels so fast that the eye cannot track it; however, the brain calculates its trajectory using specialized cells, which enables the batter to hit it.
44. Experts estimate that between 85 and 150 Americans stand over 7 feet tall.
45. After Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers in 1945, Emperor Hirohito renounced the divinity of the emperor by stating that he is not a living god.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Airplane Cabin Pressure Boosts Farting
Decreased air pressure in airplane cabins increases the likelihood of farting during flight.
47. Genetic recombination can cause siblings to receive different DNA ancestry results-one sibling might be 30% Irish while another is 50% Irish-even though they share the same parents.
48. Gary Dahl invented the pet rock in 1975 after joking about the idea with friends at a bar; he later began selling rocks, and within two months, he sold 10,000 rocks a day, becoming a millionaire within six months, although his later products like “Sand Breeding Kits” and “Red China Dirt” failed.
49. Captain Francesco Schettino caused the Costa Concordia disaster, which led to 32 deaths, because he became distracted while trying to impress a woman. After the crash, he delayed informing anyone about the massive hole in the ship for over an hour while being worried about coming up with an excuse.
50. Jefferson Davis attempted to patent a steam-operated propeller invented by his slave, Ben Montgomery, but authorities denied him the patent because he was not recognized as the true inventor. As President of the Confederacy, Davis then had signed a law permitting the owner to apply for a patent on a slave’s invention.
RE: Fact #30 (Air Traffic Controller Age Limits) – Turning 31 means you could max out your pension by 56 after 25 years. Lots of people still love their jobs and try to stick around past retirement. Air traffic controllers are having a rough time now, but it’s awesome work. It’s a tough learning curve, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
It was a great job, but after 20 years of short staffing, more and more work, and crazy inflation—while other aviation unions got 40% raises and we lost money—I’m kind of over it. COVID wasn’t so bad, though.
Seven and a half years until retirement, and I can’t wait!
RE: Fact #14 (Tenenbaum Faces Massive Lawsuit) – Sony BMG, Warner Bros., Atlantic, Arista, and UMG all teamed up to sue Joel Tenenbaum for illegally downloading and sharing music, breaking US copyright laws. This was only the second file-sharing case to go to trial in the RIAA’s big anti-downloading push. The 30 songs he shared included tracks from Incubus, Green Day, Outkast, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Deftones, The Fugees, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, Eminem, Beastie Boys, The Ramones, Monster Magnet, Rage Against the Machine, and Aerosmith, among others.
Loads of people online trashed my music taste because of those 30 songs the RIAA randomly grabbed from my shared files.
My top LimeWire jams
Seriously, I think I got all these songs from LimeWire.
Huh? It’s missing Red Red Wine by Bob Marley! Looks like he’s using the basic factrepublic skin.
You gotta call that guy a loser.
RE: Fact #39 (Rogue Wave Sinks MV Derbyshire) – It’s a shame, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop the Derbyshire from sinking. On September 9th, 1980, she was caught in Typhoon Orchid, about 230 miles from Okinawa, and everyone on board died. She never even sent out a mayday. The ship was following a commercial weather routing company’s advice.
A search team spent over 40 days looking for clues, taking pictures and examining wreckage. They figured out that waves had ripped off some small ventilation covers near the bow. Over the next couple of days, water poured in through the open pipes, making the bow sink lower and lower. Finally, huge waves hit the bow, smashing in a big hatch on the first cargo hold – hundreds of tons of water flooded in instantly. Then the other hatches gave way, and the ship went down fast. The pressure from the water twisted and broke the ship apart – something that can happen to double-hulled ships.
The official investigation said the ship sank because of structural problems and that the crew weren’t at fault. They even figured out exactly what happened.
No mention of a massive rogue wave then, huh?
Back in 2007, sailor and writer Craig B. Smith backed up Faulkner’s 1998 findings. They figured the Derbyshire took a hit from about 20 meters of water, which is a serious 201 kilopascals of pressure. Think of it like 20 meters of seawater pouring over the ship. The problem was the deck cargo hatches; they just couldn’t handle that kind of pressure. They were only built to withstand about 2 meters of water, or 17.1 kilopascals—the typhoon put more than ten times the design pressure on them! Everyone agrees now that the analysis of the Derbyshire wreck is spot-on.
RE: Fact #34 (Erection Contains Massive Blood Volume) – It’s either brains or brawn, not both at once.
Robin Williams
Hey ladies, one question: Do we *really* look like that? (eating motion)
RE: Fact #35 (Joey Sitcom’s Unseen Final Episodes) – Wow, a second season? That had to be written into the contract, right?
RE: Fact #14 (Tenenbaum Faces Massive Lawsuit) – So, a lawyer buddy of mine who handles piracy stuff told me something interesting. In Denmark, which has really tough anti-piracy laws, they only get around 1000 cases every five years. And get this—only five people were ever convicted, and that’s only because *they* admitted guilt. Seriously, *never* cop to it. Just say you don’t know anything about whoever downloaded whatever. They can’t prove it was you. “But it’s on my computer!” So what? If someone steals a knife from your house and kills someone, you’re not automatically guilty, right? It could’ve been a hacker, a friend, or even a burglar. You have no clue, and they can’t prove otherwise.
RE: Fact #48 (Gary Dahl’s Pet Rock Revolution) – He tried to repeat his pet rock win by selling “Red China Dirt”—a funny idea to sneak China into the US, a tiny bit at a time. That’s actually a brilliant idea.
I was confused, but I get it now! Thanks.
Ha! You’d be secretly sneaking a bit of Chinese dirt into the States, all disguised as something super American.
He’s totally going to take over a country, no biggie.
RE: Fact #46 (Airplane Cabin Pressure Boosts Farting) – As someone who flies a lot, I can totally back this up.
RE: Fact #50 (Davis Denied Invention Patent) – So, on June 10th, 1858, Ben’s patent application got shot down because, well, he was a slave and not considered a US citizen. The Attorney General’s office said neither slaves nor their owners could get patents for inventions made by slaves. Later, Joseph and Jefferson Davis tried to patent it, but no luck—they weren’t the actual inventors. Ironically, after Davis became Confederate President, he passed a law letting slaves get patent protection. Even after Ben was free, they still rejected his application on June 28th, 1864. Slave owners also failed to change the law so they could patent their slaves’ inventions, even though the Confederate States’ patent law actually let them.
Stuff like that can feel like ancient history, even though it wasn’t all that long ago. It’s a harsh reminder that progress isn’t guaranteed.
So, if you work for a company or university, they own any patents you come up with. It’s not exactly fair, is it? It’s basically a deal you have to sign or be out on the street.
Basically, they own anything you invent at work. They might even hire you to invent things they can patent. So, either that’s the whole point of the job, or you should clear it with them first—otherwise, you’re just giving away your work for free.
RE: Fact #10 (The Swan Extreme Makeover) – I recall one contestant was a crime scene investigator, and the producers’ best line about her was, “the most gruesome scene…was her face!”
Things got even crazier – we actually had *two* different shows running at the same time back then. One of them was Extreme Makeover.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a spin-off of *that*? Seriously?
The early 2000s were wild.
Wow, what a crazy time! The big networks were raking it in, and then they realized they could pay peanuts, skip the scripts, just film everyday folks being ridiculous, and everyone would eat it up.
RE: Fact #48 (Gary Dahl’s Pet Rock Revolution) – Mom, who kept her Pet Rock forever, said the best part was the cute little book it came with.
RE: Fact #39 (Rogue Wave Sinks MV Derbyshire) – Rogue waves are the ocean’s way of saying, “Surprise!” Picture this: you survive a typhoon, and then BAM! A sixty-six-foot wave hits you. No build-up, no nothing, just instant wipeout. Really puts things in perspective.
Rogue waves are wild. Scientists didn’t even believe they were real until 1995 when an oil rig saw a massive 84-foot one! It took until the 2000s for people to really accept it. And get this – they’ve also found evidence of “rogue holes,” which are basically giant dips in the ocean, maybe even 100 feet deep.
That’s scary.
I’m probably just a scaredy-cat, but seriously, who thinks the middle of the ocean is safe? You’ve got huge waves and storms everywhere, crazy weather above, and who knows what creepy sea creatures are lurking below.
RE: Fact #49 (Schettino’s Distraction Sparks Disaster) – That dude’s a real-life Zapp Brannigan.
RE: Fact #38 (Database Error Halts Naval Systems) – So, on September 21st, 1997, the USS Yorktown was doing some training near Cape Charles, Virginia. A crew member was messing with a fuel valve – it was physically shut, but the ship’s computer system thought it was open. He tried to fix it by entering a zero into the computer, which caused a big problem. The computer program crashed, and because other systems relied on it, everything started shutting down. The ship was basically dead in the water. Luckily, they got things running again after about three hours, and the Yorktown made it back to Norfolk.
Ugh, a single point of failure! What if the LAN went down during a battle and we couldn’t reach the Remote Database Manager?
Back in the early days of the internet, people would send me +++ATH0, my computer would send it back, and my modem would crash. I finally figured out a fix using a Rockwell init string. Makes you wonder if that kind of stuff is still out there, unnoticed.
RE: Fact #5 (Myers Lawsuit Leads to Role) – I paid my dues, now it’s your turn.
No wonder his widow shut down live-action Seuss movies after this one. Glad they got *The Grinch* out first.
Honestly, the Grinch’s story is the best because Christmas is something everyone understands, and he actually changes. The other stories just aren’t deep enough for a full-length movie.
The Grinch movie? Total classic holiday flick. I don’t know, it was cheesy, but the backstory and Jim Carrey—going all out in that makeup and suit—made it awesome. Plus, the whole cast was great.
That movie messed me up when I was a kid. I still remember all the awful stuff in it.
RE: Fact #42 (Sylbaris Survives Pyroclastic Flow) – That’s the actual General Zod from the Superman films.
RE: Fact #37 (Oval Office Designed for Accessibility) – I was a bit thrown at first, since the White House looks the same as it always has, but this was in the West Wing. Turns out, it’s pretty much hidden from view by trees.
The White House has been completely redone inside several times, even though the outside looks pretty much the same. They’ve gutted it and rebuilt it, at least once starting from scratch—only the outside walls were kept.
So, that was sometime during Truman’s second term, I think – late ’40s, early ’50s. Did they redo the Oval Office to look like it did after the ’34 renovation, or did they just leave it as it was?
It was a total disaster for ages, right up until the 1950s. Each new crew would try to clean things up, but they’d only get so far before getting tossed out, and the whole thing would start again. Then, finally, in the 1950s, they set up a White House group to handle all the repairs and improvements.
RE: Fact #11 (Tragic Forgiveness Turns Fatal) – It’s one thing to forgive someone for murder after all this time, but it’s a whole different ball game letting them back into your life and your house.
I lived with the guy I’m pretty sure killed my mom.
My uncle (by marriage) moved in with Grandma after my aunt died. Years later, Mom started dating him. It didn’t last. Then Mom got really into drinking and saw him again a few years after that. She was awful when she drank—mean, insulting, the whole nine yards. One weekend, my brother was out of town, Grandma was working out of state, and I’d already moved away.
Grandma called to say Mom drowned in her pool while drunk. Uncle was the one who “found” her. It had happened to another family member before, so, besides being sad, we didn’t think much of it. But I needed her death certificate for legal stuff. The coroner wouldn’t release it, finally talking to me. They couldn’t call it an accident; Mom had scrapes on her hands, it looked like there’d been a fight, but they didn’t have enough evidence to say it was murder.
Years later, my husband and I lost our jobs. I wanted to go back to school, so we moved in with Grandma.
Uncle still lived there. He was a mess. At the time, I figured it was because of losing my aunt and then Mom. But I started noticing things—like how he’d miss weeks of work, and his job didn’t seem to care where he was. He’d been there thirty years; he could do whatever he wanted. He had a terrible temper, almost got into fights with my husband a few times (only backing down because my husband was younger and bigger). He had a lot of guns. When I found out, I called his sister to get them taken away. I didn’t want to live in a house with a drunk guy who owned a bunch of guns.
He died in that house—a stroke, probably from all the drinking. He kept a gun, a revolver, half-loaded, on his nightstand.
I guess we were lucky.
Honestly, this is way different than that other thing I read. That’s insane!
I thought the daughter was gonna kill him at the end.
That would make a way better story. Total Lifetime movie material.
The murder happened in that very house, and his mom worked there? What crazy world are these people living in?
RE: Fact #27 (Kennedy Jacket Hidden Until 2103) – She wouldn’t change her clothes, even when her assistants told her to. She kept saying, “Nope, I’m staying in this outfit. I want them to see what they’ve done!” That’s what she wanted everyone to see, but people kept editing her pictures to hide it.
RE: Fact #22 (Hyperforeignism: Mispronouncing Foreign Words) – We put a lot of effort into teaching tourists the right way to say Hawaiian place names. It’s not “Like Like” highway, it’s “Lee-kay Lee-kay,” and so on. They usually get it eventually, then they’ll be all excited about “Pee-pa-ylee-nay” beach, and we have to tell them, “Nope, it’s Pipe Line.”
RE: Fact #4 (Gabe Newell Embraces Marine Life) – Out on the open ocean, it’s pretty much a free-for-all. A few more steps and you’re a pirate! AAARRRRR!
Nope, the boat’s country’s laws still apply. A French boat is under French law everywhere, even in British waters – both sets of laws might kick in there. Out in international waters, it’s mainly French law that counts.
RE: Fact #19 (Paris Balcony Fall Miraculously Ends) – The parents left their toddler and four-year-old alone to go shopping, and ended up facing charges for neglecting them.
Dr. Bensignor, 58, was just walking his seven-year-old son, Raphaël, when they saw it happen. It was pure luck.
He credits Raphaël with the rescue. They were walking and chatting when Raphaël pointed out the kids on the balcony. He calmly said, “Dad, did you see those kids on the balcony?” Dr. Bensignor looked up just as the baby fell.
RE: Fact #44 (Americans Over Seven Feet Rare) – This guy I knew from high school was huge—seven foot one, all elbows and knees—and he played goalie for the soccer team. Total Jack Skellington lookalike in a jersey.
RE: Fact #21 (ELIZA Outperforms Modern AI) – Eliza’s built into EMACS, so give it a whirl if you like.
I’m so glad I picked vim 13 years ago!
RE: Fact #1 (Buchenwald Prisoner Calls Allies) – “We’re on our way.” 😭
This short interview clip with Holocaust survivor Gerda Klein and her liberators is pretty moving—it’ll probably make you cry.
RE: Fact #14 (Tenenbaum Faces Massive Lawsuit) – Hey, I know Joel! He’s a teacher now—I worked with him for ages. Great guy. He really doesn’t want to discuss this story.
Seriously, I followed that case as it unfolded – total injustice. The law’s way behind the times.
Metallica wanted a huge fine from Napster – $100,000 per song! They even gave Napster a list of over 300,000 people who’d downloaded their music. That’s way more money than exists in the world! Napster ended up going broke because of all the lawsuits.
Yeah, it is, but it’s not there to help *you*. It’s there to protect rich people’s money.
RE: Fact #33 (NYC Subway Uses Left-Screw Bulbs) – My hot water heater crapped out—the thermocouple went kaput, so the pilot light wouldn’t stay lit. I grabbed a cheap replacement at Home Depot, but it wouldn’t screw in—wrong threads! Went back, nobody had a clue. Same thing at Lowe’s. Finally, this tiny, old-school hardware store, run by a guy who looked like he was 90, told me the whole story: cheap hot water heaters with crappy thermocouples they designed to break easily. Only *they* sold the replacements—five times the price! Turns out they got sued and stopped making them. So, the company’s sending me a free adapter, but it’ll take two or three weeks. Or I can pay seventy bucks for overnight shipping. This was ages ago, probably almost twenty years—Whirlpool, by the way.
Had the same problem with my old washing machine. Same brand, I think. A replacement part would’ve cost more than a new washer and taken forever to arrive. The only place to get it was directly from the manufacturer, and they wouldn’t sell it to you unless you were a repair technician or something. Local repair shops wouldn’t touch it unless they ordered the part—at a huge markup on top of the manufacturer’s already crazy price! It’s insane how consumer protection laws let this happen.
RE: Fact #30 (Air Traffic Controller Age Limits) – Yeah, it’s true, mental sharpness fades with age. I’ve seen it firsthand with air traffic controllers nearing retirement—they were still safe, just not as sharp or fast as before. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but 56’s a pretty good age to call it a day, on average.
That 31-year limit? It’s to give people a fair chance at getting their full pension. You need 20 years and to be at least 50 for the basic pension, or 25 years at any age. The longer you work, the better the payout.
I got to see how an FAA traffic control center really works – crazy busy! Those air traffic controllers are seriously tough; I get why they have those strict shifts now. They deserve all the pay and pension they get.
We’re taking a beating, but it’s good when people see what’s really happening.
Back when I was a Boy Scout, maybe twenty years ago, I spent a day with some air traffic controllers near an Air Force base in a really conservative area. They were super focused for an hour in the morning during the Air Force exercises’ takeoff, and again for an hour when everything landed. I asked about how that affected regular planes, and they said those Air Force guys were total pros—doing that nonstop all day long! The thought of doing *that* for twelve hours straight totally blew my mind.
RE: Fact #32 (Alaska’s High Missing Persons Rate) – The bears know their locations.
RE: Fact #47 (Siblings Show Varying DNA Results) – I’m a bioinformatician, so this isn’t surprising at all. Here’s the quick rundown: We each get 23 pairs of chromosomes – half from Mom, half from Dad. But things get mixed up during cell division (a process called crossing over) where chromosomes swap DNA bits. It’s all pretty random which bits you get from each parent, and which bits get swapped. So, while you get 50% from each parent, it’s not a neat 25% from each grandparent. Even if you inherit a chromosome from the same grandparent, it might be slightly different. There’s no such thing as an “Irish gene” or a “Polish gene”—it’s all about gene combinations and variations that are statistically linked to certain populations. Your DNA inheritance follows rules, but only identical twins are truly similar. Ancestry tests are useful, but rely on statistics and aren’t super precise for individuals. Plus, tons of migration and mixing throughout history has scrambled everyone’s genetic background. Nationality is also tied to culture and language, which aren’t always directly related to genetics, making ancestry even trickier to figure out.
Seriously, I always challenge people who think being Italian automatically makes them a great cook, or being Irish means they’re short-tempered. We’re not video game characters with special skills based on our heritage! Your background doesn’t decide what you’re good at.
RE: Fact #23 (SimCopter Easter Egg Glitch) – Haha, totally forgot about that! What a game, though. I remember importing my SC2000 cities, flying around, and then – get this – swapping the game disc for a music CD! Blew my mind back then.
RE: Fact #49 (Schettino’s Distraction Sparks Disaster) – I was on this cruise, and the captain was totally wasted, partying with everyone. It was super weird and wrong, and it really stuck with me. Then, a couple years later, I read about a boating accident and immediately thought, “no way…” Turns out, it was the same guy. That kind of thing was probably pretty common there, not some one-off thing. I don’t know if I could have done anything about it, but I still think about it.
The whole crew’s plastered, and a lot of them are newbies who’ve never even seen a sail. Been on cruise ships myself, and that’s the last time.
That reminds me of this crazy story about a cruise ship musician who took charge when everyone on the bridge ran off during an emergency. He ended up saving everyone on board!
RE: Fact #24 (Douglass Invents the Laff Box) – His special “laff box” – that’s what everyone called it – was locked up tight, stood taller than two feet, and worked kinda like an organ. Douglass used a typewriter-style keyboard to pick the laugh’s style, gender, and age, and a foot pedal to control how long it lasted.
RE: Fact #14 (Tenenbaum Faces Massive Lawsuit) – So now tech companies want to use all creative stuff for free to train their AI.
RE: Fact #23 (SimCopter Easter Egg Glitch) – I remember playing that game! It was awesome, lol. You could do riot control, put out fires—all sorts of stuff.
RE: Fact #3 (Joan of Arc Acquitted Posthumously) – The love she felt for her daughter is just heartbreaking. What she said about her daughter was so sad. She talked about raising her daughter well, baptizing and confirming her, teaching her faith and respect for the Church. Then, she described how her daughter was condemned and burned at the stake without any fair trial, calling it a terrible injustice.
RE: Fact #46 (Airplane Cabin Pressure Boosts Farting) – Your hands and feet will puff up, making tight shoes a pain. And guys, supposedly, their bits get a little bigger. Haven’t checked that one myself though.
As a guy, I can tell you random, awkward boners happen a lot on planes, even if you’re not turned on.
That’s just how it goes, everywhere, really. More people around, more chances of that happening.
I always stash my backpack or jacket under the seat, even if there’s room overhead. It hides any surprise… uh… stiffies.
We’re stuck in a cramped metal tube with… well, let’s just say things are a bit intense.
RE: Fact #27 (Kennedy Jacket Hidden Until 2103) – Seriously, is it that weird her daughter didn’t want to meet fans who took selfies with her mom’s bloody clothes, just ’cause they’re supposedly iconic?
Seriously, it’s just morbid. “Wow, check out all that blood and brain matter! A real historical artifact!”
Want to see Charles J. Guiteau’s brain—the guy who killed President Garfield?—it’s in a jar at a Philadelphia museum. Pretty creepy, huh?
I’d rather be six feet under than have people see that awful thing from her past.
RE: Fact #45 (Hirohito Renounces Divine Status) – He had no idea a simple “sike” would do the trick later on.
RE: Fact #28 (Wearing’s Memory Resets Frequently) – My aunt’s boyfriend had a motorcycle wreck and lost his short-term memory. Visiting him in the hospital was strange; every few minutes he’d forget where he was and what happened, even weeks later. After a while, people just stopped going to see him.
That’s awful. I get why someone would just give up and leave. It’s like they’re trapped in a never-ending mess, and you can’t help them out of it. It’s like being stuck in a personal hell forever, always thinking you just arrived.
The sad truth is, he’s never gonna realize nobody’s visiting. The nurses could say his family’s coming any minute, and he’d believe them. They could even tell him he’s about to be tortured forever, and he wouldn’t know the difference. Honestly, I’d rather be dead than go on like that, unless there’s a real chance of getting better.
Brain problems really highlight how fragile we are. Everything that makes us, us, can just vanish if the brain gets damaged, leaving people feeling empty. That’s why looking after people with dementia or Alzheimer’s is so tough on caregivers.
RE: Fact #18 (Ten States Skip Vehicle Inspections) – That’s wild, Arizona driver’s licenses are good for forty whole years before you need a new one!
My driver’s license is good until 2056, but the photo’s a total throwback—it’s from my permit, like, fifteen years ago!
My dad, who’s French, has had the same old pink driver’s license since the mid-70s! In many European countries, licenses used to be for life, but he won’t have to get a new one until 2033.
RE: Fact #28 (Wearing’s Memory Resets Frequently) – Ten years ago, I wiped out pretty badly longboarding. The next thing I knew, I was in the ER and Mom was freaking out. My first words? “Oh hi Mom! I was in an accident, wasn’t I?” Apparently, I’d been saying that over and over.
Seriously, that sounds awful. I can’t even imagine.
Wear your safety gear, people! I should have been wearing a helmet.
I was really little when I fell off a deck and got a concussion. I don’t remember it, but I apparently kept asking where we were going. Whenever my parents said “the hospital,” I’d cry, then ask again a few minutes later. Finally, they just told me we were “on a drive.”
It’s easier on everyone not to tell Grandma where Grandpa is, especially since he’s been gone for eight years. Telling her the truth just restarts the cycle; she’ll ask again in half an hour. Just say he’s at the store and then switch to another topic.
He thinks he’s only just waking up. Every single time. Total amnesia – he remembers absolutely nothing from his past, and never will. It’s completely heartbreaking. There are videos showing this; he says things like “I’ve never seen a human before” and “Never had a dream or a thought.” It’s just constant, fresh consciousness, with no past, no future, no life story.
RE: Fact #41 (London’s Rare White Christmases) – A super cold snap, the Little Ice Age, is why people think of London having white Christmases. It’s what inspired writers like Dickens and things like the Thames frost fairs. I’ve lived in London forever, and I can’t recall a Christmas Day snowfall, though there was snow around Christmas a few times. This year, we only had a couple of snowy days a couple of weeks ago.
RE: Fact #17 (Judy Garland Endured MGM Abuse) – If you haven’t seen this amazing performance, it’s incredible — especially since it was done after a suicide attempt.
RE: Fact #4 (Gabe Newell Embraces Marine Life) – He’s got a crazy huge collection of superyachts, like, a billion dollars worth.
RE: Fact #45 (Hirohito Renounces Divine Status) – Japan’s emperors have been around for over 2500 years, the longest unbroken line anywhere! A big reason for that is people believed the Emperor was divine. Other powerful people never tried to become Emperor; they took different titles, like Shogun. The Imperial House of Japan is so old, they don’t even need a dynasty name—it’s just *the* Imperial House.
The dynasty’s been around so long, people say it’s practically mythical. The emperor claims he’s a descendant of Amaterasu – that’s his story, anyway.
So, even without counting the mythical emperors, the oldest one we can actually confirm is Emperor Kinmei around the middle of the 500s AD. That’s a pretty amazing unbroken dynasty—around 1500 years!
Seriously, that scam was so easy.
But then again, Chinese emperors throughout history all claimed Heaven’s mandate, and whenever someone took over, they’d just say the previous guy was full of it.
It was more like, “They used to be picked, but now it’s me. I won, they lost—that’s proof!” Not the worst reasoning ever, haha.
Lots of people outside China get the Mandate of Heaven wrong. They’re thinking more along the lines of the Divine Right of Kings – that European idea where a king rules because God says so, not because the people do. The Mandate of Heaven means Heaven gives the emperor power, but Heaven can also take it away from a bad emperor and give it to someone else. It’s kind of like the Divine Right of Kings, but way different because it actually let people rebel against bad rulers.
RE: Fact #11 (Tragic Forgiveness Turns Fatal) – It’s good to let go of anger and grief. Forgiving’s not required, but it can help. And it’s super important to set limits with people who’ve hurt you so it doesn’t happen again. That’s why I won’t hire anyone who killed someone I cared about.
RE: Fact #40 (Dr. Pepper’s Broken Album Promise) – I’m surprised they didn’t get insurance first, before making that claim. It’s standard practice for giveaways like “free mattress if the Orioles win!”
RE: Fact #42 (Sylbaris Survives Pyroclastic Flow) – Smart and lucky, equal amounts. I can’t even guess what was going on in his head for those four days – total chaos!
Someone said it was a second eruption; if that’s right, they probably knew what was up.
Peeing on his clothes to stop the hot ash? That’s pretty smart. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
RE: Fact #31 (Ming History Sparks Executions) – The author’s family, everyone who published or owned the book, and even officials who ignored it—they all got killed. The author himself croaked before it even came out. The whole thing was a big deal because it was way too disrespectful to the royals.
It caused a stir because it was a bit too casual with the royals, and calling the Manchus “barbarians” definitely didn’t improve things.
They dug him up and chopped him into 36 pieces—a real “screw you” to end all screw yous.
It’s way more than just excessive; it also affected the kids.
RE: Fact #15 (Kilmer Struggles with Morrison Persona) – He couldn’t ditch the accent and the way he acted, not the character itself—happens all the time with actors. Even with months of accent coaching, some bits can linger.
RE: Fact #49 (Schettino’s Distraction Sparks Disaster) – There’s a YouTube documentary about it. The Coast Guard told him to get back on the boat, but he made excuses and ditched them. He was the first one to reach the coast, and everyone started calling him Captain Coward because of his dumb stuff.
Hearing the Italian coast guard yell at him on the radio was awesome.
Captain: “Any casualties?”
Coast guard: “Shouldn’t *I* be asking that?”
RE: Fact #17 (Judy Garland Endured MGM Abuse) – I watched a video of Ray Bolger and Judy Garland on her show—they showed old photos from *The Wizard of Oz* filming, and she called herself a “fat, ugly little girl.” Ray totally shut that down. It’s heartbreaking, because she was gorgeous as Dorothy, and even later in life. What they made her go through to play Dorothy was awful.
I think this is it; check around the 3:45 mark.
Ray Bolger’s a sweetheart, but man, Judy Garland looks awful in this clip. She’s clearly not herself, so thin. Such a talented woman, she deserved so much better.
Wow, that’s awful. I always thought she was stunning.
Man, I had the biggest crush on Judy/Dorothy as a kid. I was so surprised to learn people had been mean about how she looked.
Ray’s my great-uncle, and the more I dig into family stuff, the more I realize he was the sweetest guy. He married my dad’s aunt, so sadly, no awesome dancing skills for me—and weirdly, no brains either!
RE: Fact #1 (Buchenwald Prisoner Calls Allies) –
Three minutes felt like a lifetime after hitting send, wondering if anyone would even see my message.
It must have been such a relief to finally get a reply!
I bet they’d tried it a bunch of times before.
So, “KZ Bu”? That’s not some secret code – it’s short for “Konzentrationslager-Buchenwald.” The 3rd Army guys either knew German or had a pretty good heads-up about what was coming.
The 3rd Army, with the 4th Armored and 89th Infantry Divisions, had just freed Ohrdruf Concentration Camp on April 4th. It was a terrible place, a sub-camp of Buchenwald, just as awful. So, by the time the Buchenwald radio message came on the 8th, the 3rd Army already knew what to expect at Buchenwald.
Gwidon Damazyn and Konstantin Ivanovich Leonov both survived and were freed later on.
Whew, that was a relief to read!
RE: Fact #18 (Ten States Skip Vehicle Inspections) – My friend from Pennsylvania moved to Kansas for a job. The mechanic he used for his car inspection was totally baffled by what he needed. “Inspect…what?”
My aunt moved her family from Texas to Kansas in the 70s. Her kids’ school enrollment was a bit of a head-scratcher when she asked about Texas history classes.
That’s about the most Texan thing I’ve ever heard.
RE: Fact #48 (Gary Dahl’s Pet Rock Revolution) – It’s pretty limited. Then you had to add something extra, like carving your rock and covering it with cheap seeds.
Chia seeds? That’s a goldmine!
Stuff it with candy! I saw a stocking stuffer once – a lump of coal, but it was like a candy-filled pet rock.
RE: Fact #21 (ELIZA Outperforms Modern AI) – I’m not great at chatting. Asking questions is a simple but effective way to keep things going. It’s funny how well that bot did just by doing that!
RE: Fact #36 (Hippie Trail Offered Alternative Travel) – Hitchhiking through Iran and Afghanistan isn’t as much fun as it once was.
My ex’s dad, this rich Iranian guy, drove his Mustang from Paris to Tehran in the late ’60s. That must’ve been one heck of a trip!
So, that part of the journey’s open right now, and lots of folks are doing it. You’ll be seeing ancient history – early cities, old empires – plus amazing scenery and friendly people. The trouble is, between Tehran and Lahore, things are a bit dicey for Westerners. You could go north, but that’ll take you through Mongolia instead of India. A southern route? Not sure; not many big cities down there, and I bet there’s a good reason for that.
So there’s this book, “Turn Left at Istanbul,” about a guy driving a Jag from England to India. I think it was set in the 50s, judging by the car. It’s a great read; you should check it out.
RE: Fact #9 (Purple Dye Reserved for Caesars) – Back then, a serious insult was calling someone a “Tyrian,” because those folks boiled snails, and the smell was awful—it stank up the whole area!
RE: Fact #12 (Deadly Tornado Claims Storm Chasers) – It grew 1.6 miles wide in just 30 seconds? Whoa!
The tornado comes down from a part of the cloud called a “wall cloud.” Instead of the storm looking like a single column, it’s more like a wider, I-shaped thing with the tornado coming down from the bottom. And get this – tornadoes can have “subvortices,” which are like tiny tornadoes inside the main one. These mini-twisters can swirl around the bigger one, or the bottom can split into lots of little ones, like frayed rope. That’s what happened in El Reno. It was so massive, people mistook the wall cloud for the main tornado and the subvortices for the main tornado. Everything was just gigantic! The whole storm was so huge, each part looked like the next biggest thing. To make it even crazier, the tornado was much wider than it seemed because you can’t see air, and tornadoes are mostly air. You only see the stuff the air picks up. So, people who thought they were near the wall cloud, watching the tornado, were actually close to the main tornado watching a subvortex. And since those little tornadoes spin around the core, they could get flung around super fast.
RE: Fact #35 (Joey Sitcom’s Unseen Final Episodes) – Matt LeBlanc’s not a bad actor, but they really overdid Joey’s character by the end of Friends, and I’m not sure how you’d even improve on that.
Joey, Mr. “Friends” ladies’ man, moved to LA – a city packed with gorgeous women – and couldn’t snag a date.
Makes sense. A hotshot twenty-something actor in New York versus a nearly forty-year-old who’s been in LA a while – one gets lucky, the other doesn’t.
He totally went to space and battled aliens, and I doubt anyone could argue, except maybe a few super-dedicated friends with amazing memories or, like, a crazy amount of stuff about the show.
Yeah, I’m working on a new story, but I’m stuck on an old one.
RE: Fact #31 (Ming History Sparks Executions) – He really messed up. He didn’t know much about Ming history, so he started with what he could find—a Ming history draft by Zhu Guozhen. Then, he hired sixteen scholars from Jiangnan, including Wu Yan and Pan Chengzhang, to help polish and expand it.
The book had some seriously offensive stuff about the Ming and Qing dynasties. Things like using Ming emperor titles, denying the Qing’s legitimacy, calling the Manchus “barbarians,” and using the Qing emperors’ personal names.
Seventy-two people were put to death—Zhuang Tingyue, Mao Yuanming, Jiang Linzheng, Zhang Gao, Wei Yuanjie, Pan Chengzhang, Wu Yan, Wu Zhirong, Wu Zhiming, and others were executed by lingchi. Song Kui and Zhu Changzuo, along with their staff, lost their jobs. Cheng Weifan was executed for covering up bribes. Two teachers were executed too. Chen Yongming was exiled and killed himself on the way, his body sent back to Hangzhou for dismemberment. His brother, Chen Yonglai, was executed. Wang Zhaozhen, Li Huan, and Tan Ximin were hanged, and their families exiled.
Wu Zhirong, who ratted out the book, got Zhuang Yuncheng and Zhu Youming’s wealth as a reward.
Seriously, the worst part? The guy who ratted out the book got the family fortune of two people who were executed. Talk about a messed-up power move.
RE: Fact #29 (WhatsApp Founders Strike Billionaire Deal) – Lots of people trust Mark Zuckerberg to keep an eye on their messages, even though they could just use Facebook Messenger – it’s basically the same thing, both are watched by Facebook.
Check out Signal; Acton’s in charge of it.
I got my family and friends to try Signal a couple of years back, but no luck – I’m still the only one using it.
RE: Fact #2 (Boyardee Feeds WWII Troops) – I’m a total sucker for those Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs. In college, I was really craving some, went to get a can, and my buddy saw me. He’s like, “Come to my place, I’ll cook you a steak – a guy your age shouldn’t eat that junk!” So I went, the steak was awesome… but all I could think about was that canned spaghetti. I couldn’t exactly tell him it wasn’t about being broke, I just really loved it!
My coworkers have seen me scarf down cold beefaroni—they think I’m broke and try to buy me vending machine stuff, but I always refuse. I’m totally obsessed with beefaroni! I just don’t tell my coworkers that, though my wife knows.
Yeah, like vending machine snacks are better than canned stuff, haha.
RE: Fact #37 (Oval Office Designed for Accessibility) – Tons of pictures show the White House’s front. It’s easy to think the Oval Office is right across from the entrance, facing the South Lawn. There’s even a room shaped like an oval there – the Blue Room! We’re used to seeing the White House’s south side with that big oval room in the middle.
But, the West Wing’s a separate building, connected by a hallway, and *its* oval-shaped room, the Oval Office, also faces south.
The top picture shows the front, the bottom the back. That big oval room with columns on the south side? That’s the Blue Room. You can’t see the Oval Office; it’s off to the side.
Pic
So, the North Cafeteria—named for Admiral North—is over on the west side of East Hall, which leads to the west side of North Hall (named for its location, not Admiral North). It’s the biggest mess of a place on campus, a real confusing spot. Right next to it is the English Memorial Spanish Center, named after some Portuguese guy who found Greendale while hunting for a syphilis cure.
I’m not sure if any of this is serious, to be honest.
RE: Fact #21 (ELIZA Outperforms Modern AI) – ChatGPT’s freebie, powered by GPT-3.5, was trained not to act human, which might explain why it sometimes struggles. Also, some folks testing out ELIZA thought it was too clunky to be a real AI, guessing it was a person just messing with them.
I get it.
How about That one AI which faked its way through the Turing test, pretending to be a Finnish exchange student to hide its dodgy language skills.
Isn’t that just what people do? Trying to belong, you know?
AI’s gotten so smart, it could actually trick the Turing test now. Pretty wild.
Isn’t that the whole idea? People aren’t perfect, but being *too* imperfect is a big red flag. You gotta find that sweet spot to seem real and make believable mistakes.
RE: Fact #4 (Gabe Newell Embraces Marine Life) – Turns out, he now owns the yacht that belonged to that infamous fugitive, Jho Low! The guy somehow ran Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund in his twenties, with zero accountability, and then basically stole a fortune with the prime minister, funding his crazy lifestyle and even helping pay for *The Wolf of Wall Street*! He had it built in the Netherlands, then it got seized, and now Gaben’s got it! Low’s still on the run, supposedly hiding in Macau.
It’s pretty ironic, a super-rich, crooked conman paying for a movie about another crooked conman who got busted.
Yeah, there’s a good reason he loved the story and wanted the movie made. He was really close with Leo and other big names, but as soon as Low’s stealing came out, everyone suddenly claimed they barely knew him.
RE: Fact #7 (Ibiza’s Dangerous Balconing Trend) – I was at Ibiza Rocks in 2014, and this crazy thing happened. We were coming back from a night out, and in the lobby, there was this group of people crying, being questioned by the police. Apparently, their friend had freaked out on drugs, the cops chased him to his room, and he jumped off the balcony. He got up, ran a bit, and then just collapsed. He died in the ambulance right there. We heard the whole story from a girl in the lobby who’d seen it all.
I’m just saying, even if adrenaline launched him 50 meters, the fall might still have killed him.
So, I’m just nitpicking, but the comment didn’t actually say the fall didn’t kill him—it just hinted he survived the first hit. The really wild part is that he got back up and walked around after!
RE: Fact #12 (Deadly Tornado Claims Storm Chasers) – I was there, man. We went south, Tim went east. We got really lucky. It zoomed by, maybe 500 meters behind us, only because I floored it to 120 kph to get out of the way. I know a bunch of other storm chasers who got hit by that tornado—and they were lucky to be alive. That was the craziest storm chasing day ever.
We zoomed past you on our dirt bikes – we were doing a cross-country trip and totally clueless. Saw the storm brewing, so we hit the pavement and found a hotel. Passed a bunch of people heading the opposite way. That night, the news showed us how crazy it got. What a day!
Wow, riding a dirt bike through El Reno sounds crazy! I’ve been riding since I was 11, but when I’m out riding, I like having a lot of protection around me. Those Oklahoma dirt roads get super muddy when it rains—that’s even scarier!
Glad you’re okay!
RE: Fact #32 (Alaska’s High Missing Persons Rate) – A really good buddy of mine moved to Fairbanks 25 years ago, and we kept in touch until 2012. We texted a ton and talked every few months. Then, poof! Radio silence for 13 years. Nobody knows what happened to him, if he’s even still around. I’ve looked everywhere, even checked those Alaska inmate sites, nothing. I’m about out of options except for actually going up there to find him.
Sometimes it’s mental health, I hope he’s alright.
Back when I was a clueless teenager, I put a video online of this woman having a total meltdown on the bus—throwing cake everywhere. It blew up. Big mistake. I’m so sorry I did that; I got tons of threats. I took it down right away.
The weirdest part? The woman’s mom contacted me and thanked me. She hadn’t seen her daughter in years and didn’t even know if she was still alive.
Threatening a teenager’s life is way, way worse than posting a video of someone having a meltdown, particularly if that video helps their family find them.
Five years ago, I was renting a place when this woman showed up claiming it was hers and I had to get out. My long-time neighbor helped me contact the owners, and it turned out their aunt, who’d been missing for seven years and had some mental health issues, was the woman. Her son-in-law, a state trooper, called me to get the story, the city cops found her, and she was reunited with her daughter. Crazy situation, but it had a happy ending.
Wow, that’s intense.
RE: Fact #3 (Joan of Arc Acquitted Posthumously) – Become a saint or get the chop.
Think about it: This was during a war between France and England, both claiming God was on their side. Joan of Arc, a Frenchwoman who believed God wanted a French victory and backed Charles VII, was captured by Burgundians working with the English. An English supporter executed her, but a French court later cleared her name. It wasn’t the same folks doing both sides, even though they shared a religion – it was all politics, with religion as a convenient excuse.
English, not British English.
RE: Fact #43 (Baseball Pitch Defies Human Vision) – Pro baseball players can see the spin and figure out where the ball’s going in less than a second—even though it’s zooming towards them at 70 to 90 mph (some pitches are even faster!).
I was totally blown away hearing a former player talk about seeing the spin on breaking pitches. I never stood a chance, haha.
Pro players can see the spin on a ball in a flash and guess where it’s going.
And then there’s Javy Baez…
Javy’s always been one of my all-time faves, but I sure enjoyed watching him play for the Cubs. Even when he was leaving, I’d be thinking, “Toss it fifteen feet to the left – he’ll swing anyway!”
RE: Fact #43 (Baseball Pitch Defies Human Vision) – Being from outside the US and not a huge sports fan, baseball’s really got me hooked. The pitching strategies are awesome, I love how organized it all is, plus all the stats, and the pacing. The idea of a perfect game is just so cool – there’s a lot about baseball other sports don’t have. And this just adds to that!
It’s a really fascinating, but often overlooked, part of the game. Every pitch is basically a battle of wits between the batter and pitcher. They’re constantly thinking: “Does he hit low fastballs well?”, “Will this pitch look like my last couple?”, “What’s he expecting?”, and “Can I risk a ball if I don’t get this one perfect?” Once you get a handle on all that, watching the sport gets way more interesting and fun.
I always tell new fans to focus on the pitching – that’s the key. Everyone loves home runs and the big plays, but a great pitching duel can be just as exciting, and it’s always happening.
RE: Fact #20 (Jets Ring Lost, Found Later) – Wearing your Super Bowl ring while surfing? That’s gotta be one of the Jets’ all-time worst ideas.
RE: Fact #6 (Cold War Spy Friendship Forms) – So, William F. Buckley tells this story about when he was a CIA guy in Germany. He’s on a mission, uses the bathroom at a bar, and the guy next to him at the urinal? A KGB agent! They knew each other, and the KGB guy asks, “You hate your Germans as much as we hate ours?”
RE: Fact #8 (Carnegie Funds Global Libraries) – So, you’ve got Andrew Carnegie, this famous guy who gave away tons of money to build libraries and stuff, right? But then there’s also the other side: the steel guy who was, let’s say, *not* so great to his workers. Think low pay, long hours, dangerous jobs – and he really didn’t like unions. He even used force to stop strikes.
He went way beyond violence; the Homestead Strike was one of the three deadliest crackdowns on striking workers in US history.
I live in Homestead, and I can walk to the Homestead Strike Memorial. It’s neat – an artist made a sort of maze out of paving stones, but it’s also a little creepy, since the stones have the names of everyone who died in the strike.
I’m from Pittsburgh, and those guys – Frick especially – are everywhere! The museums and libraries are amazing, but honestly, no amount of fancy buildings can make up for how they beat up striking workers and then called in the National Guard when things went south.
So, there’s Henry Ford, a car guy, businessman, and, seriously, a massive antisemite and Nazi supporter. The New York Times wrote about it way back in 1922—Hitler even praised him in Mein Kampf! His writings even impacted Germany. A top Nazi, Baldur von Schirach, blamed Ford’s book, *The International Jew*, for his own antisemitism. It’s unbelievable. Ford was a terrible person who helped fuel Nazism.
RE: Fact #18 (Ten States Skip Vehicle Inspections) – Those inspection stickers are a rip-off, especially for people who don’t have a lot of money.
RE: Fact #13 (Expensive Film Becomes Box Office Bomb) – I gotta say, the two leads had zero chemistry. I’m guessing nobody else noticed.
Maybe they should have switched the leads around between this and Passengers
Passengers and Casablanca leads should’ve been switched, then switched again! Imagine it: a WWII Moroccan bar, and the whole thing renamed Casablanca.
They should just get Adam Sandler for both lead roles in Passengers.
RE: Fact #43 (Baseball Pitch Defies Human Vision) – High school baseball? I was a beast at batting. I could hit anything – low, high, inside, outside – up to 85 mph. But these guys? They’re on another level entirely. Above 85, my brain just couldn’t keep up. It was like a whole different game.
I faced a pitcher throwing 93 mph fastballs and 82 mph sliders in the playoffs – MLB scouts confirmed the speed. He made me look ridiculous. I was hitting .500 against everyone else, so it was pretty amazing what those guys can do.
Around 95, I started losing the ball – couldn’t see it anymore about 20 feet from the pitcher.
It’s all about that slider. Like Pedro Cerrano said, fastballs are easy, curveballs? Not so much.
Nobody ever got me out with a straight ball, but you can’t just hit fastballs to win.
RE: Fact #44 (Americans Over Seven Feet Rare) – If you’re that tall, go play basketball and make millions! Only about 1% of all seven-footers globally play in the NBA—that’s around 33 guys out of 2,800. So, having that many super-tall players in one league is pretty impressive; it shows the NBA really draws the tallest athletes.
It’d be cool to see what percentage of NBA players are 6’10”, 6’6″, and 6’0″.
Lots of kids think they can play college ball, but at George Mason, only four guys are under 6’2″, and the shortest white guy is 6’4″.
Unless you’re super athletic and/or really tall (6’4″ is like, the 99th percentile!), forget college basketball.
If you’re short like Mugsy Bouges or Spud Webb, you can still achieve amazing things—Spud even won a dunk contest! Mugsy almost dunked, which is seriously impressive for someone that short.
RE: Fact #28 (Wearing’s Memory Resets Frequently) – I was with someone who had this thing called transient global amnesia – it’s like amnesia, but it only lasts a few hours. It was super strange, they kept repeating the same questions, word for word. They were totally blown away when I showed them a note with their next sentence on it.
RE: Fact #31 (Ming History Sparks Executions) – It’s like something straight out of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
RE: Fact #49 (Schettino’s Distraction Sparks Disaster) – Captain Schettino, facing manslaughter charges, claims he slipped off the Costa Concordia when it capsized near Giglio Island and ended up in a lifeboat that took him to shore.
He’d blame a stumble for cheating.
He totally tripped and fell, accidentally knocking over some women and kids on the way down into a lifeboat. Then, while getting up, he sort of blocked other people from getting in and launched it. It was a crazy accident—totally unavoidable. He was super brave though, leading the evacuation from the lifeboat and then from the shore.
RE: Fact #22 (Hyperforeignism: Mispronouncing Foreign Words) – In “habanero,” the “n” sounds like the English “n,” not “nj.” In “coup de grâce,” the “ce” sounds like “s,” not silent. And in “Beijing,” the “j” sounds like the English “j,” not “zh.”
RE: Fact #42 (Sylbaris Survives Pyroclastic Flow) – Volcanic pyroclastic flows are basically super-hot gas, ash, and rocks blasting out of a volcano. These things move wicked fast, like 100 to 700 km/h, and are hotter than 1,000 degrees C. They’re instantly deadly, so the fact he survived, even in a strong jail cell, is amazing.
RE: Fact #7 (Ibiza’s Dangerous Balconing Trend) – So, this funny thing in Spain—people joke that the first balcony fall kicks off summer. Truth is, it’s a sacrifice to ancient Spanish gods to get a good harvest. Shhh, don’t spread that around.
BRB, drafting a screenplay for A24.
RE: Fact #10 (The Swan Extreme Makeover) – So, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” was actually based on “Extreme Makeover,” which was pretty much like “The Swan”—they even aired around the same time and were competing for viewers.
I was obsessed with the home version as a kid. I’ll never forget stumbling on an episode of the original – a couple, all wrapped up in bandages like mummies, having a huge fight before their wedding. It freaked me out!
Ty Pennington totally embodies ADHD.
I hadn’t thought about him in ages, but I looked him up and, haha, turns out he totally has ADHD.
RE: Fact #35 (Joey Sitcom’s Unseen Final Episodes) – It totally sucked. Could it get any worse?
That girl from The Sopranos was awesome.
RE: Fact #26 (Paramount Approves Inflated Cartoon Budget) – This cartoon’s a classic, even now. Check it out!
RE: Fact #41 (London’s Rare White Christmases) – Someone on factrepublic asked what holiday’s white – it’s Easter! In Britain, Easter’s way more likely to have snow than Christmas.
RE: Fact #40 (Dr. Pepper’s Broken Album Promise) – Seriously, it’s America – you can find Dr Pepper practically anywhere. Just put a coupon online or something.
Yeah, that’s exactly what happened, but the website totally crashed because everyone jumped on that coupon. Lawsuits were threatened because of it.
RE: Fact #32 (Alaska’s High Missing Persons Rate) – these are also the two states with the largest reservations per land mass and that have international borders. I am from Arizona and Dine. Checkout https://www.bia.gov/service/mmu/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-crisis