1 330 Days Without Washing Jeans
Starting in September 2009, a student wore the same pair of jeans 330 times over 15 months without washing them for an experiment. After finally washing them, he wore them for another 13 days. A textile scientist tested the jeans for bacteria both before and after washing. The bacterial count showed surprisingly little difference.
2. Martin Niemöller, the author of the poem “First They Came For The…” was a self-professed antisemite who supported the Nazis, voting for them in 1924, 1928, and 1933.
3. Since November 2017, Linux-based operating systems have been powering all 500 of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
4. In 1997, Mattel released Share a Smile Becky, a disabled Barbie doll. However, they discontinued it after realizing that Becky’s wheelchair couldn’t fit through the front door of the Barbie Dreamhouse.
5. In 2002, German actor Günther Kaufmann confessed to accidentally suffocating his accountant by falling on him with his 260-pound body. However, in 2005, investigators discovered Kaufmann was innocent. He had falsely confessed to protect his dying wife, who had actually committed the murder.
6 Late Nights Harm Mental Health
A 2024 Stanford study involving 75,000 adults compared participants’ preferred sleep schedules (chronotypes) with their actual sleep habits. Regardless of their natural preference, everyone benefited from going to bed earlier. Researchers suggested that staying up late-especially past 1 a.m.-negatively affects mental health.
7. Clair Patterson, the U.S. scientist who contributed to the atomic bomb’s development, also determined Earth’s age. During his experiments, he discovered widespread lead contamination, which led him to pioneer the creation of the ultra-clean room. While successfully dating the planet, he also uncovered the devastating extent of lead pollution from leaded gasoline. Realizing its harmful effects on humanity, he launched a campaign against leaded gasoline, taking on a billion-dollar industry and warning the world that it was poisoning the population.
8. In a 2024 scientific paper, researchers studying schizophrenia discovered a surprising link between gut microbiomes and the disorder. When they transferred the gut microbiome of a schizophrenic human to mice, the mice began exhibiting schizophrenia-like behaviors.
9. Following the success of Breaking Bad, many real-life meth manufacturers started dyeing their product blue.
10. Ferrari temporarily blacklisted motoring journalist Chris Harris from reviewing or purchasing their cars after he published an article accusing the company of specially tuning press cars to perform significantly better in magazine reviews than the production models sold to customers.
11 Fake Apple Stores in China
In 2011, 22 “fake” Apple Stores were discovered in China. At least one of them sold genuine Apple products, yet its employees had no idea they didn’t actually work for Apple.
12. After admitting responsibility for over 12,000 deaths in the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge, Kang Kek Iew, also known as Comrade Duch, asked the war crimes tribunal to acquit and release him. They refused.
13. Many racehorses and performance horses receive a beer after an event or race. Since beer contains carbohydrates, iron, and essential vitamins, it helps their muscles recover from the strenuous race.
14. The last king of France, Louis XVI, literally did not know how to have sex. When he attempted it with Marie Antoinette, he would “introduce the member,” but then “stay there without moving for about two minutes,” withdraw without completing the act, and “bid goodnight.”
15. Paris does not have a single stop sign.
16 10,000 Rides on Cars Attraction
A Disney superfan named Jon Alan Hale has ridden the Cars ride, Radiator Springs Racers, over 10,000 times at the Disney California Adventure Park. On some days, he rides it more than 20 times.
17. The Puckle Gun, an early automatic weapon from the 18th century, was designed to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Muslim Turks. Inventors believed square bullets would inflict more severe wounds than round ones.
18. Paddy Mayne destroyed the most Axis planes during World War II. He was not a fighter ace but an SAS commando. Paddy along with David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service (SAS), led daring raids against Axis forces during World War II, employing unconventional tactics such as infiltrating enemy lines and destroying aircraft on the ground. Their strategic ingenuity resulted in the destruction of over 400 aircrafts in just over a year, and Paddy Mayne’s personal score was more than twice that of any Allied fighter ace in World War II.
19. In 2013, during a security audit, Verizon found that one of its developers had outsourced his job to China for a fifth of his salary. He was repeatedly named as a star employee before getting caught.
20. In 1519, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés sank all but one of his ships after landing in Mexico to prevent his men from retreating. This bold move forced them to march inland, ultimately leading to the fall of the Aztec Empire.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Dell Sold Millions of Faulty PCs
Between 2003 and 2005, Dell sold over 11 million computers equipped with faulty capacitors, and documents have revealed that the company was aware of their high failure rate. At one point, 1,000 computers delivered to the law firm defending Dell in a related lawsuit began to fail.
22. A “Golden Arm” is a term used to describe a craps player who successfully rolls the dice for more than 60 minutes without losing (rolling a seven). In 1989, Stanley Fujitake achieved this feat, rolling 118 times over 3 hours and 6 minutes without a seven, causing the casino to lose over $1 million while he won $30,000. In 2009, a woman rolled 154 times over 4 hours and 18 minutes to set the record.
23. English actor Peter Sellers inhaled amyl nitrite (poppers) before having sex with his wife one night to achieve “the ultimate orgasm” but instead suffered eight heart attacks over three hours.
24. A UK study published in 2018 found that surfers are three times more likely to carry unique antibiotic-resistant bacteria due to ingesting fecal matter from seawater. Researchers conducted the study using butt swabs from participants, highlighting the contamination in UK seawater.
25. One think tank asserts that the NFL cannot legally enforce its warning: “Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL’s consent is prohibited.”
RE: Fact #27 (Luck Beats Talent in Success) – Whenever I hear those successful people give speeches, they always spout the same old boring stuff everyone else is doing. They even write books about it!
You don’t hear much from the people who didn’t get lucky, have good timing, or wealthy relatives.
Climbing that mountain would be a lot easier if I had a safety net and someone to belay me. For one thing, I could try again if I fell.
I was a total straight-A student in high school—4.4 GPA, a 35 on the ACT, and tons of extracurriculars. I even got a full scholarship to a great university for engineering and computer science.
Things haven’t gone exactly as planned, but I’m not completely broke and on the streets.
I definitely think there’s a big difference between being smart and being intelligent, and I’ve learned firsthand how much luck matters.
So, if anyone wants to hire me to do something in exchange for a big McDonald’s meal, I’m in! I’ll do my best, even if I don’t have a lot of resources.
RE: Fact #36 (Better Liars Score Higher IQs) – So, the study also found that being good at making stuff up didn’t mean people did it more. Smarter people were actually less likely to, maybe because they’re better at figuring out if it’ll work or not. The researcher started this whole thing because she noticed people couldn’t tell the difference between fake intellectual stuff and art jargon. She said that the more she used BS in her essays, the better grades she got – so she figured there was something to it.
RE: Fact #10 (Ferrari Blacklisted Journalist) – Seriously? I’ve seen tons of Chris Harris videos and I’m pretty into cars, but this is completely new to me.
Guess I’m staying up a while longer.
The Throttle House guys were scared to trash Ferrari in their 296 review, ’cause Ferrari’s known for blacklisting critics—like they did to Chris ages ago. That’s why they got invited back to Modena for the Purosangue.
He dropped hints a few times, but in a really subtle, British way—you’d miss them unless you were already in the know.
RE: Fact #23 (Ultimate Orgasm Led to Heart Attacks) – Heart attacks—aren’t they like, the ultimate climax or something?
RE: Fact #10 (Ferrari Blacklisted Journalist) – Tesla got busted doing the same thing with “full self-driving.” They basically trained their system in neighborhoods where they knew popular reviewers lived, so those reviewers would have a better experience. Business Insider covered this a while back.
That old Tesla self-driving video? Total fake. It even crashed into a fence while parking!
Tesla says almost no FSD accidents happen. But they turn off FSD right before a crash! So you agreed to drive if it shuts down, right? If FSD caused the accident, it wasn’t actually *on* when the crash happened – it turned itself off just before.
RE: Fact #31 (Napster Lasted Only Two Years) – It was awesome.
I used Limewire; it was basically Napster, but better.
After Napster went belly up, everyone switched to LimeWire and Kazaa, but it wasn’t quite the same.
My old 56k modem was going crazy!
Downloading songs from the internet while Lars Ulrich was crying on TV? Pure genius.
I tell kids these days how I used to get online and grab a song in, like, an hour, and it makes me feel young again. They have no idea.
Man, it makes me feel old.
Downloading that blurry 15-second porn video took a whole 25 minutes!
RE: Fact #24 (Surfers Carry Drug-Resistant Bacteria) – So, get this: Only England and Chile have privatized water. England’s water systems are terrible because the free market hasn’t worked out like it’s supposed to—the water companies are monopolies! They’re more interested in giving money to their shareholders than keeping the pipes in good shape. They even take on huge debts, knowing the taxpayers will rescue them if they fail.
If the company went belly up, wouldn’t the government just take it over and leave the shareholders high and dry?
The downside? It’d really scare the markets, wiping out billions from private companies. I’m no expert, so I can’t say if that’s a good argument or not. But honestly, there’s no easy fix here; it’s going to hurt no matter what. It’s a total mess.
So, the water company’s a total joke. There’s this major road near me, a big one, and there’s a water pipe leak under it. Every couple of months, they shut down half the road, dig it up, slap a bandaid on it, and then do it all over again in a couple of months! Instead of fixing it properly once, they’d rather keep doing this cheap, temporary fix. We’re paying them a fortune for this constant mess and traffic jams! It’s infuriating.
RE: Fact #15 (Paris Has No Stop Signs) – The US has way more stop signs than Europe. Over here, we don’t usually see them; it’s more common to have traffic lights, or roundabouts – especially roundabouts, those are everywhere!
Right, so stop signs are a thing in the UK, but you don’t see them very often. In some areas, they only put up a couple, just for the driving test.
In the UK, they mostly put up stop signs when you can’t see what’s coming. For example, near my place, there’s one at the end of a road that goes under a railway bridge and then pretty much instantly joins another road at a sharp angle.
Hey, I’m an American who drove in the UK. I was going about 25-30 mph down a narrow, one-way street in a small town – houses on both sides, cars parked everywhere, crossing similar streets. No stop or yield signs were obvious. I slowed down to check for traffic before crossing the side streets. The driver behind me freaked out. Should I have just blasted through the intersections? I did look at road signs beforehand, saw the dashed lines, but didn’t get that they meant anything more than “intersection coming up.” Learned something new – thanks for the help!
RE: Fact #35 (Mercenary’s Diary of Chaos) – That war book I read? Brutal. Seriously brutal. I remember reading about villages completely wiped out, sometimes only the priest left alive. Germany lost maybe a third of its population, it was awful.
RE: Fact #22 (Legendary Casino Winning Streaks) – Back around 2010, I was in Atlantic City, watching this woman roll the dice for, like, 45 minutes straight. I was down to my last twenty bucks, the table was going crazy, and I had bets everywhere. I was trying to take some bets off, and after one hit, the dealer thought I said “parlay” when I was just saying “hey!” There was a couple hundred on that bet, so I figured it was lost. Nope, that lady hit again! That’s when it hit me how easy it is to get hooked on gambling—I won enough for years of college tuition in just three hours.
My high school’s dry grad party had blackjack tables with play money. I played the whole three hours and learned my lesson: I’m staying far away from real gambling.
I’m glad things worked out, especially since it helped with tuition.
RE: Fact #41 (Town Treasurer Stole $53 Million) – Biden pardoned her at the last minute, which I found really strange.
It was a pardon for everyone who wasn’t violent. That’s why blanket pardons are a bad idea. I’m a Democrat through and through, but I really dislike blanket pardons.
Stealing that much should be a serious crime; it really messes people and whole neighborhoods up. In China, they’d have executed her.
RE: Fact #8 (Gut Bacteria and Schizophrenia) – It’s wild how we’re only just now figuring out all the stuff happening in our gut. Makes you wonder what other secrets are out there, huh?
I’ve seen tons of people on online forums talking about how ditching dairy, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nuts, processed stuff, or even just adding probiotics, really helps their eczema, rosacea, and other skin stuff. It’s totally different for everyone – some see a huge improvement, others nothing at all. It’s wild how much our gut affects our skin, but it’s also weird how little we know, since so many people *do* see results from diet changes. So, some people swear by it, others don’t. But one thing’s for sure: dermatologists rarely bring it up. Maybe the research isn’t solid yet, or maybe it’s seen as a last resort, or maybe it’s just not their area of expertise.
Maybe there’s some weird gut bug making a hallucinogenic byproduct, like how some bacteria make alcohol. That could explain why some schizophrenic folks hallucinate so much like someone tripping on DMT.
We’re still pretty clueless about the microbiome—it’s all brand new. They even found some weird virus-like thing lately, called an obelisk, and nobody knows what it does. Don’t trust anyone who acts like they have all the answers about gut bacteria; they probably don’t.
Beware of those supplements promising to magically fix your gut!
RE: Fact #1 (330 Days Without Washing Jeans) – Back in September 2009, Le was heading back to the University of Alberta for his second year and picked up a new pair of Nudie Jeans – $165 for some raw denim. He wore those jeans 330 times without washing them from September 2009 to December 2010! Then, in his textiles class, he got this idea to test them out. His professor, textile scientist Rachel McQueen, even helped him with the project. It started when his prof mentioned her bacteria research, and he jokingly suggested analyzing the bacteria on his jeans. The smell was a problem after a while, but he just triple-bagged them and froze them.
Freezing clothes might kill some germs, right?
It’d probably stop them, but not completely kill them off. They’d just go dormant, more or less.
Cold weather makes bacteria slow down. Less smell means the bacteria aren’t making as much waste because they’re basically resting. They also stop multiplying, that’s why we keep food cold to stop it spoiling.
RE: Fact #16 (10,000 Rides on Cars Attraction) – That reminds me of this woman who got banned from Tower of Terror. She had some serious stomach issues, and the ride actually helped! She’d go on it like, ten or more times a day, for weeks. Disney shut it down, and she sued them.
RE: Fact #37 (Mars Bars Are 60% Sugar) – Yeah, candy’s basically sugar.
Rock candy, especially.
You’re making candy out of sugar? I just eat two cups four times a day, my doctor says it’ll prevent autism and COVID.
RE: Fact #47 (Capuchin Monkeys’ Mirror Reactions) – I’ve totally been feeling like those male monkeys since I put on 40 pounds.
RE: Fact #8 (Gut Bacteria and Schizophrenia) – A hundred years from now, we’ll probably look back and think we were clueless about gut health, just like we think about germs now. We’ll be amazed at how dumb we were to not see how vital it is and how many illnesses come from a bad gut biome.
RE: Fact #29 (How Many Hours to Friendship?) – Students tend to click faster because they’re usually around the same age and have more shared experiences.
RE: Fact #1 (330 Days Without Washing Jeans) – I change my underwear, socks, and t-shirt every day. I change my jumper and jeans when they need it. Pretty standard, right?
Back in college, I did a project on Levi’s. Their CEO at the time was really pushing this idea of only washing them once or twice a year, just spot-cleaning as needed. It was a pretty big deal.
I think they also mentioned sticking them in the freezer overnight if they start to smell.
Just so we’re clear, don’t actually do this. You can totally wash jeans.
RE: Fact #44 (Tit for Tat Wins Conflict Games) – If two people are just copying each other’s moves, things go south fast if someone accidentally acts aggressively. It works better if they sometimes forgive each other’s mistakes.
Sometimes, just call a truce. It’ll really throw your enemies for a loop.
RE: Fact #17 (Gun Designed for Religious Bullets) – A flintlock machine gun? Whoa.
RE: Fact #5 (Günther Kaufmann’s False Confession ) – I dug up some info on this crazy story and put together the short version. Günther Kaufmann, a German actor famous for working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, kept acting after Fassbinder died in 1982, but mostly switched to TV. He married Alexandra von Herrendorf in 1986. Things got tough when Alexandra got terminal cancer and his acting career slumped – they couldn’t afford her treatment. They, or maybe just Alexandra, got a roughly 500,000 euro loan from their accountant/friend, Hartmut Hagen, under false pretenses. Hagen wanted his money back around 2000-2001. Then, Hagen was found dead on February 1, 2001, suffocated. Kaufmann was a prime suspect because he kept bugging the police. He was initially charged with murder, but confessed to accidentally suffocating Hagen during a fight with his hefty 260-pound frame. They called it an accident, but he got 15 years for blackmail and robbery related to the whole thing. His wife sadly died right before the trial.
In 2005, he was cleared. It turned out three guys, likely hired by Alexandra (without Kaufmann knowing), murdered Hagen. Most sources say Alexandra just hired them to get rid of evidence, not kill Hagen. It’s a little unclear, but it sounds like the murder wasn’t the plan. Kaufmann still had a suspended sentence to deal with and two other guys got three weeks in jail based on his initial false confession—how that happened, I’m not sure. He went back to acting until he died in 2012, apparently working on a movie about his own life.
A totally crazy, unexpected twist.
Wow, I’d totally forgotten how crazy that plot got! Did they really use a psychic to call up a ghost to testify in their murder case?
So, what’s the deal with getting a loan “under false pretenses”? Did they trick their friend and accountant, or did the accountant hand over the money in a shady way?
His wife told Hagen she needed the money for a lawsuit against Billy Idol, saying it was for copyright. It was a lie; no lawsuit existed. That’s fraud in Germany.
RE: Fact #26 (Spain’s Wrong Time Zone) – On the other hand, it’s nice having daylight until 10 PM in the summer.
RE: Fact #45 (Henry II’s Complicated Father-Son Bond) – Henry’s sons were constantly giving him a hard time, often with help from the French king and even Henry’s own wife, Eleanor. His empire was just too huge to run from one place, so he was always traveling around, leaving his sons to do pretty much what they wanted. He gave them fancy titles that hinted at future power, but they still needed his money. Didn’t exactly make for a happy family.
RE: Fact #40 (Google’s IPO Used Dutch Auction) – To sell everything, start with the highest price and lower it until you’ve found enough buyers.
RE: Fact #29 (How Many Hours to Friendship?) – Grown-ups are way too picky about who they call friends. It’s probably because they judge new friends against their old ones, and they tend to remember the good times with their old friends and forget the bad.
RE: Fact #39 (Gogol’s Gruesome Starvation Death) – The story goes that he ran into some nutty priest who freaked him out, making him think he was evil and needed to repent. So, he burned his greatest work and basically starved himself to atone for his sins. But, some people think he might have had pancreatic cancer. It’s tricky because he was a total nervous wreck his whole life, always worrying he was sick. So, it’s hard to know what was real and what was all in his head. He might have even been a bit crazy, too.
Calling that a “traditional narrative” is a funny way to describe a weird, almost unheard-of urban legend that’s totally made up.
Maybe he wasn’t psychotic, but seriously, have you read his stories? Psychotic is way too mild.
RE: Fact #15 (Paris Has No Stop Signs) – Lots of traffic lights in Paris.
As a Parisian, I’m still unsure what to do about those folks—they never seem to stop.
Basically, how many stop signs the US has comes down to its traffic rules. Over there, you can usually just keep going unless a sign says stop. It’s different in France; you have to yield unless you have the right of way – that’s shown by a green light, a yellow diamond, or that little sign that looks like a cruise missile. If you don’t have one of those, you let the traffic coming from the right go first.
RE: Fact #11 (Fake Apple Stores in China) – Reminds me of those fake Hobbit books they were selling in China—turned out to be Harry Potter!
I loved those chow chows pretending to be pandas!
I still love how *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* got flooded with fan translations before the official Chinese version even came out. It was like the worst parts of fanfiction, all Harry Potter slash pairings and everything.
So, they actually printed and sold an unofficial translation?
RE: Fact #27 (Luck Beats Talent in Success) – Being connected is better than just being lucky.
Totally agree with the other comment – nepotism is all about luck, not talent.
You got to have a pretty sweet start in life, connections-wise.
It’s usually more about who you know than just luck when it comes to getting ahead, even if it’s unfair. Think of that line from Step Brothers, “it’s all about who you know,” even if the other guy’s a doctor.
RE: Fact #35 (Mercenary’s Diary of Chaos) – War really messes people up, you see the lasting effects on those who come back.
RE: Fact #25 (NFL Warning May Be Unenforceable) – The NFL can’t just ignore copyright law, same as anyone else. Fair use and other exceptions still apply, obviously. And they definitely can’t stop you from talking about the game—that’s crazy!
It’s like seeing the same stories everywhere on US news.
Local news stations still need permission to use short video clips.
RE: Fact #39 (Gogol’s Gruesome Starvation Death) – Wow, that sentence was a wild ride.
His doctors tried all sorts of crazy stuff to cure him…
Like, seriously, what did they do?!
Stuff like force-feeding him broth…
That seems… reasonable?
Then they poured a bucket of hot water on his head!
Wait, what?! Why?!
And then leeches on his nose and a soap suppository!
Whoa, easy there, pal!
RE: Fact #11 (Fake Apple Stores in China) – I used to work at Louis Vuitton, and this guy tried to return a fake bag he’d gotten in China. He was so sure it was real, from a real store, that it made me think he probably bought it at a fake LV store over there. It totally seemed likely. And if you’re wondering how I knew it was fake, well, the receipt was from a store called “Chanel” and the item was listed as a “Louis Vuitton Bag.” That, plus other stuff, was a major red flag.
Lots of places sell fake stuff in China, and people buy them knowing they’re fake. But if you want the real deal, it’s easy enough to find legit Louis Vuitton stores.
Yeah, China’s a massive market for Louis Vuitton and all the fancy stuff.
RE: Fact #19 (Developer Outsourced Own Job) – Verizon’s investigators got the go-ahead to look into Bob’s computer stuff. Turns out, he’d paid some programmers in Shenyang to do his coding, and even sent them his two-factor authentication token via FedEx so they could get into his account.
I saw that news story when it first broke. My immediate reaction was, “Wow, what a dope!” then, “Man, I wish I’d come up with that!”
RE: Fact #24 (Surfers Carry Drug-Resistant Bacteria) – This has been a huge deal in the UK for ages, with people pushing for change. Then, a World Triathlon in Sunderland had tons of swimmers get sick – fifty-seven of them! The government and Northumbrian Water just shrugged it off, saying they had no clue what happened. Turns out, it was a sewage pipe. Then, reports flooded in from all over the UK – rivers, lakes, coastlines – everyone’s water was getting nasty, all tied back to sewage problems. They’re basically dumping who-knows-what into the water and pretending nothing’s wrong, telling everyone to ignore it.
They’re just tossing junk in the water and acting like it’s no big deal, telling everyone to ignore it. Plus, they want us to pay more for this.
Thatcher privatized water, so now these companies have a total monopoly and can charge crazy prices while giving terrible service—nothing ever gets better. That’s why so many Brits are so angry with her; it’s stuff like this.
RE: Fact #6 (Late Nights Harm Mental Health) – Early birds and night owls who stay up late tend to have more mental and behavioral problems. Professor Jamie Zeitzer, who led the study, says it’s not about whether you’re a morning or night person, but staying up late that hurts your mental health. He admits they don’t know exactly why.
Man, I’m getting up there, 1 AM is still late for me!
Man, I was a grandpa in college. Eleven p.m. was my cutoff, even if I usually crashed around 3 a.m.
Work still starts at the same time, no matter what. The world’s geared towards early birds, that’s just how it is.
RE: Fact #41 (Town Treasurer Stole $53 Million) – Rita Crundwell splurged on a bunch of properties, a fancy RV, and over 400 horses for beauty contests.
RE: Fact #34 (Kingdom of Heaven’s Lengthy Cut) – The Director’s Cut is way better and moves along nicely.
It’s God’s will.
They totally butchered it! The director’s cut’s way better—it’s practically a whole different film.
RE: Fact #10 (Ferrari Blacklisted Journalist) – He was talking about a Ferrari 360 Modena press car—way faster than a regular customer car he also tested—and a 430 Scuderia that practically glued itself to the dyno rollers! He even asked, “Seriously, how crazy do you have to be to put even *better* tires on a Scuderia?” After getting popular on YouTube, Ferrari actually banned him from driving their cars for years. Unbelievable!
That’s why he’s one of the best. Most car journalists are pushovers, too scared to upset the big car companies because they’re worried about getting cut off from fancy new car launches. Chris doesn’t care.
RE: Fact #2 (Poet Niemöller’s Nazi Ties) – That’s wild. Seems like what happened to him, just like the poem said, really made him see the light. He was a big part of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, where German Protestant leaders admitted they hadn’t fought the Nazis hard enough.
This poem’s really powerful because it’s also his life story.
That poem’s kind of self-centered, isn’t it? It doesn’t show any regret for hurting others – it only cares that the poet finally gets hurt.
That poem sounds like it was written early in his change of heart, or maybe he’s writing from the point of view of someone who just stood by and did nothing. If he was being totally honest, he would’ve said something like, “I backed it because I was antisemitic,” instead of, “I stayed quiet because I wasn’t Jewish.”
RE: Fact #33 (People Prefer Shocks Over Silence) – In Wilson’s experiments, people sat alone in a plain lab room—no phones, books, or pens—for 6 to 15 minutes, just thinking. Afterwards, they said how much they liked it and if they could concentrate. Most found it hard to focus, their minds wandered even with nothing else to distract them, and they didn’t enjoy it. It was the same at home.
The researchers wondered if people would rather do something unpleasant than nothing at all. So they tried another experiment. People were given the same quiet time, but this time they could also give themselves a little electric shock.
Out of 18 guys, 12 shocked themselves at least once during the 15 minutes of thinking. Six out of 24 women did the same. Everyone had tried the shock beforehand and said they’d pay to avoid it. It seems that just sitting with their thoughts was so unpleasant, many chose to shock themselves to escape it.
On average, people zapped themselves once or twice, except for one guy who really went to town and gave himself a whopping 190 shocks! Crazy!
It’s probably just boredom and curiosity. Who wouldn’t push a big red button in an experiment like that?
RE: Fact #25 (NFL Warning May Be Unenforceable) – They just keep suing you until you’re totally broke and have to settle. It’s a super shady tactic, and it’s gone on way too long.
RE: Fact #40 (Google’s IPO Used Dutch Auction) – Man, I totally missed the boat on that IPO! Shoulda bought in instead of being stuck in third grade.
I thought about getting a $10,000 loan a couple of times, once for Tesla, but never actually did it. Now I wish I had, even though it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Whatever I invest in myself tanks. Vanguard is the only thing that’s ever made me any money.
No biggie. I bought Apple back in the late 90s for around 30 cents a share (after adjusting for splits), and sold it in 2007 for about $5 a share because even my friends at Apple thought it wouldn’t go much higher. It closed at $236 last I saw last month! I had about 1000 shares before the splits, so I made about $100,000 on an $8,000 investment five years earlier. That same investment would be worth $26 million today.
You weren’t hustling like I was. You were spending your allowance on candy while I was investing it in pets.com.
Yeah, learned my lesson there. No more money on Lego or anything else, right?
RE: Fact #42 (Pilot Crashed, Bombs Never Found) – I’ve got this friend, super paranoid, lives all alone out in the San Luis Valley. He’s got booby traps everywhere on his land, and he’s told me he’s got four serious bombs, ready to go at any second.
He’s a blast to drink with. We once chucked hatchets at a propane tank while we were hammered.
RE: Fact #46 (Women’s Brains Age Slower) – Women’s bodies are just tougher, you know? They fight off sickness and pain better, and they usually live longer. That whole brain age thing doesn’t surprise me.
RE: Fact #38 (Panties Dropped at Alice Cooper Show) – My mom saw us play once – huge club, totally packed. We rocked, but surprise! It was panty night. She never let me forget it. She wasn’t exactly happy. And thank goodness she missed the Jägermeister gig – those half-naked girls handing out shots would’ve killed her.
RE: Fact #13 (Racehorses Enjoy Post-Race Beer) – I wish they’d do that to Olympic athletes.
A really popular trail marathon near me actually does that. It’s called “liquid bread” in Germany for a good reason.
Most trail races I’ve done have beer waiting at the end.
They don’t let people drink at most shooting contests because booze calms your nerves and steadies your hands, which isn’t fair to others.
I always wondered how Babe Ruth hit so many home runs even if he only got a few hours of sleep and showed up still drunk.
Mixing booze and guns is seriously risky.
RE: Fact #14 (Louis XVI’s Bedroom Struggles) – Louis XVI? Nice guy, smart, friendly… but totally wrong for the job. Nicholas II was pretty much the same.
Some guys are just cut out to be mid-level managers, and that’s fine.
RE: Fact #5 (Günther Kaufmann’s False Confession ) – He probably ratted out two guys his wife hired. She must’ve told him what happened, and he lied to save her from jail time.
Edit: Turns out, he lied and got two innocent guys locked up.
So she wouldn’t die in jail.
Too bad he wanted to protect her, ’cause that’s exactly how she should’ve gone.
RE: Fact #32 (Lottery Winner Becomes Pool Champion) – Need money to make your dreams happen.
I just wanted to say that time and effort can make you amazing at anything, but you need money to make that time. Think of all the incredible artists, musicians, and athletes we’d have if money wasn’t a problem!
RE: Fact #19 (Developer Outsourced Own Job) – His daily plan sounded pretty good to me: He’d start by checking out reddit and watching cat videos for a couple of hours. Then lunch, followed by some time on eBay. After that, Facebook and LinkedIn, and finally, a quick email to the boss before heading home.
I am surprized none of his colleagues nagged him with questions or meetings.
My remote job? They never even turned on their cameras for the interview, and they’re always off during calls. I’ve literally no clue what anyone looks like.
RE: Fact #43 (Bank of America Was Bank of Italy) – That’s a crazy story! After the San Francisco earthquake and fires wiped out the city, regular banks couldn’t open their vaults – they were scorching hot for weeks, and opening them would’ve been a huge fire hazard. So this guy just went around handing out cash loans to help people get back on their feet, just on a handshake. And almost everyone paid him back!
He stashed the cash in a garbage truck belonging to a buddy, promising him a job for his son. The kid got a janitor gig, and the guy ended up retiring from there in his seventies.
The founder just handed out cash loans—no paperwork, just a handshake—to help people get back on their feet.
After seeing someone mention gangsters and thinking about how Giannini looked, I’m picturing those handshake deals including kisses and maybe even a cat.
Sorry about the stereotypes!
RE: Fact #18 (WWII’s Most Destructive Plane Killer) – My grandpa shot down 32 planes in WWII. He was a real klutz when it came to fixing things.
RE: Fact #30 (WWII Female Soldiers Misjudged) – This wasn’t just a US problem; women in the military and nursing faced that kind of discrimination pretty much everywhere after the war.
Seriously, check out “The Unwomanly Face of War”— it’s a real tearjerker. Even with Stalin’s support, the Soviet military worried about guys feeling emasculated because women were helping out. That’s why women mostly did support stuff in the USSR, like being in recon platoons (but not technically infantry) or nurses (but not combat medics).
It totally crushed morale because of that old idea that women need protecting. Having women fight directly showed things were really desperate, like when you have to send kids and old people to the front lines.
The big idea was to keep women away from the front lines. They were great as pilots, snipers, doctors – you get the picture, anything but the front. When women *did* end up on the front lines, the death toll shot way up. It wasn’t that they weren’t good fighters, but if they were captured or stranded, men risked their lives way more often to save them than they would for other men. I’ve heard stories of eighty or ninety soldiers dying just to rescue a single nurse stuck in the middle of nowhere.
RE: Fact #27 (Luck Beats Talent in Success) – It takes some skill to really make it, but surprisingly, the most naturally gifted folks don’t always win. Often, it’s the people who are pretty good but just plain lucky who come out on top. I get that. You can’t be totally awful and still be a big success.
Sometimes, being too logical actually gets in the way of making it big. If I were investing, I’d overthink everything and play it safe – I might make some money, but I’d never get seriously rich like those clueless but lucky folks who just go for it. And let’s be honest, being a jerk helps a lot too; that’s part of why the super-rich are the way they are.
Most people are just average, and that’s actually pretty smart. There are way more average folks than lucky ones.
Western cultures really believe success boils down to things like talent and hard work. Sure, luck plays a part, but we often forget how much outside forces matter. Think about it: intelligence is normally distributed, but wealth (which we often use to measure success) isn’t—it’s all skewed, with tons of poor people and a tiny few billionaires. That mismatch suggests something else is at play—randomness. Our model shows that even if talent is key, the most talented often don’t win; average folks with good luck often end up on top. This might seem odd, but we’re quantifying it for the first time. It makes you think twice about judging merit based on success alone and handing out big rewards to people who might just be lucky. We also looked at some ways to better fund research to improve things like meritocracy and innovation.
Basically, being talented or smart comes down to luck—even the grit to get there is mostly luck. Your personality is a mix of your genes, how you were raised, and plain old chance—stuff you can’t control.
RE: Fact #34 (Kingdom of Heaven’s Lengthy Cut) – The DC version is way better—it’s practically a totally different film! It’s easily in my top ten favorite movies ever, but the theatrical version? Not even close.
RE: Fact #20 (Cortés Burned His Ships) – The Men: “So the King sent us, huh?”
Cortez: *lights match*
The Men: “But is the Governor cool with this?”
Cortez: *throws match*
The Men: “The Governor and the King are okay with this whole thing, right boss?”
Cortez: *begins writing letters to the King of Spain promising mountains of gold!*
Hey King bro, things are awesome! Talk to you later!
RE: Fact #33 (People Prefer Shocks Over Silence) – I’m perfectly happy being alone all day. I’d totally crush it in Squid Game.
RE: Fact #39 (Gogol’s Gruesome Starvation Death) – “This guy’s refusing to eat, what’s the plan?” “Ever tried shoving a bar of soap up his butt?”
RE: Fact #16 (10,000 Rides on Cars Attraction) – Alright folks, let’s crunch some numbers.
Say you hit RSR first thing every day and get on in 20 minutes.
Then you Lightning Lane it for a 15-minute wait.
The rest of the day, it’s a 60-120 minute wait.
He’s definitely solo riding.
So if you single rider all day, what’s the average wait time? Probably 20-30 minutes, right?
Each ride takes 4.5 minutes.
In a 14-hour day, I could get 20-35 rides in, leaving over two hours for bathroom breaks, food, ride downtime, and getting back in line…wow.
RE: Fact #35 (Mercenary’s Diary of Chaos) – The coolest thing about the Diary is how none of the soldiers saw it as a religious war. It didn’t matter who they fought for, as long as they got paid. It was a brutal time – decades of war wrecked the country, and then there was a mini ice age on top of it all – so being a mercenary was often the only way guys could make a living.
One book I read said it started religious, then got political, and finally just became starving armies scrabbling for food and whatever they could steal, as the war fell apart.
The Thirty Years’ War? It all kicked off because the Count Palatine secretly took the Bohemian crown, really ticking off Austria. This split the Protestant League – lots of Lutherans, like Saxony, wouldn’t back the Count Palatine. Saxony even joined Austria to invade Bohemia!
So, right from the start, it was mostly a political mess. Then Austria went and did the Edict of Restitution, and things went downhill from there.
Once France jumped in, it was a lost cause to see the war as anything but a fight between countries, nobles, and for power and resources—like most European wars. Maybe only in the first couple of years, when it was focused on Bohemia, could anyone have honestly thought it was about religion.
RE: Fact #29 (How Many Hours to Friendship?) – Grown-ups are wary of strangers, so things take longer.
Kids can’t be mad at you and smile at the same time.
So you haven’t met my kids yet.
RE: Fact #12 (Khmer Rouge Executioner Denied Freedom) – Killing 12,000 people? No mercy there.
Worth a try, I guess.
He felt totally screwed. “Other places were just like mine! Why aren’t *they* on trial?” Because we’ve got enough to nail you, Duch, but not them. Now go sulk and think about what you’ve done.
RE: Fact #21 (Dell Sold Millions of Faulty PCs) – We had a bunch of old Dell OptiPlex GX240, GX260, and GX270s, and their capacitors kept dying. They’d puff up and leak. I tried fixing some by soldering in new ones, but it was easier to just get rid of them all in the end.
RE: Fact #48 (OR-7: The Rogue Pack Wolf) – So he walked 500 miles, then another 500?
RE: Fact #31 (Napster Lasted Only Two Years) – Time really messes with your head. I’d have sworn it lasted through college and beyond.
It made a big impact. When it finally went under, tons of other sites popped up, and everyone had their go-to. I think I used Bearshare for a while.
It was definitely a wake-up call for governments – they couldn’t completely control or regulate it.
RE: Fact #40 (Google’s IPO Used Dutch Auction) – Dutch auctions would really fix the crazy ticket prices and scalpers at big events. It’s nuts that they’re not already using them for things like Taylor Swift concerts.
RE: Fact #34 (Kingdom of Heaven’s Lengthy Cut) – The director’s cut is seriously awesome! It’s wild how much they chopped from the movie version—whole characters and plot lines are missing!
I finally saw the director’s cut – it’s got like 40 extra minutes of stuff they left out of the movie theaters. It wasn’t filler though, every scene was important and explained a lot of stuff that happened later on. It all made sense, unlike the shorter version which felt really choppy. This movie is awesome, totally worth watching. If three hours is too long, watch the roadshow version, it even has an intermission so you can grab some food.
Lol, or just hit pause?
It’s a seriously different movie—a director’s cut that completely changes things.
Troy’s another one!
RE: Fact #31 (Napster Lasted Only Two Years) – I burned a ton of CDs back in the day! My grandparents even helped me find their favorite tunes to put on them. It was a bummer when it disappeared. Whatever came after it – Kazaa or something – was way less reliable; you never knew if you’d get the song you wanted or a computer virus. The internet in the early 2000s was crazy!
First I used Morpheus, then Kazaa. Lots of songs were mislabeled.
I didn’t find out Alanis Morissette didn’t sing “Bitch” until 2015—my girlfriend told me it was Meredith Brooks.
I’m still trying to figure out who actually did that pop-punk cover of The Turtles’ “So Happy Together,” because it wasn’t NOFX.
LimeWire, Kazaa, then BearShare.
I heard it on Spotify – a track by Buck Wild, from their album *Beat Me Silly*. I have no clue who they are, but I bet that song’s been mislabeled tons of times online.
RE: Fact #28 (Million Counted Aloud in 89 Days) – I figured out how long it’d take to meet everyone on Earth once. Eight billion people? About eighty years if you met three or four every second, 24/7, non-stop. So, around 240 years meeting one per second. And even at a world-record pace, hitting a billion would take 243 years.
Ever wonder how many babies have been born since you turned 80?
RE: Fact #14 (Louis XVI’s Bedroom Struggles) – Turns out I’m doing it wrong too.
I crack up when Cartman’s South Park sex explanation is like, “Boner, slap boobs, stick it in, pee.”
Kyle, eyes narrowed, couldn’t believe it. “Seriously? Stick it in her and pee?”
RE: Fact #47 (Capuchin Monkeys’ Mirror Reactions) – Capuchin monkeys are kinda in between when they see themselves in a mirror – they don’t quite see another monkey, but they don’t fully get it’s them either.
Most animals just think their reflection is another animal. But with capuchins, it’s different. They’re weirded out by the reflection, but not like they’re seeing a random capuchin.
Scientists tested this with three setups: a strange capuchin, a familiar capuchin, and a mirror.
When they saw a strange capuchin, female monkeys got nervous and avoided eye contact, while males acted tough. They barely reacted to seeing a familiar capuchin.
With the mirror, female capuchins looked at themselves and did friendly stuff like lip-smacking. Males looked at themselves more than they did at strangers or friends, but seemed confused or stressed – squealing, curling up, even trying to get out of the room!
I’m curious, can they tell if two unfamiliar monkeys are the same sex just by looking? I’d guess so, but maybe they can’t smell each other if they’re separated by glass?
The differences between males and females are pretty easy for humans to see, and they probably notice it too.
So, the women are like, “Huh?” and the men are totally freaking out!
RE: Fact #12 (Khmer Rouge Executioner Denied Freedom) – Twelve thousand murders, plus fifteen thousand-plus tortured—systematically! The guy’s been a monster for ages, no remorse whatsoever. Then he becomes a Christian, gets baptized, and wants to be let off the hook.
RE: Fact #19 (Developer Outsourced Own Job) – Turns out that Onion video was totally true.
RE: Fact #15 (Paris Has No Stop Signs) – That’s how the Germans did it so fast!
RE: Fact #18 (WWII’s Most Destructive Plane Killer) – It’s way easier to take out planes on the ground than in the air, right?
They’re pretty much stuck behind enemy lines at guarded German air bases.
The author says they just cruised through a German army base, waving to everyone. They figured, five trucks waving in the early morning – nobody’s going to think they’re the enemy, way behind enemy lines.
RE: Fact #37 (Mars Bars Are 60% Sugar) – Milk chocolate’s half sugar already. Mars bars have nougat and caramel, and only 60% sugar? That nougat’s pretty weak.
RE: Fact #42 (Pilot Crashed, Bombs Never Found) – Hey, those are brown, so they’re pretty hard to see. They’re probably just hanging out there somewhere.
Those things are super heavy and dense. Drop ’em from a height and they’ll bury themselves unless they’re armed and set to explode on impact.
That’s probably what happened: a B-52 carrying a Mark 39 nuke crashed in North Carolina in the early ’60s, and the bomb got buried.
RE: Fact #8 (Gut Bacteria and Schizophrenia) – Hey Steve, remember that rat we gave the stomach acid to? I think he’s planning a CIA coup.
We need enough people to choose a new pope, just in case the Exxon/Monsanto plan in Africa doesn’t work out.
RE: Fact #49 (The Stolen Gold Toilet) – Probably not in that state anymore.
RE: Fact #22 (Legendary Casino Winning Streaks) – I was at a Vegas casino on the old strip, playing craps one evening. I was at the table for like half an hour, just rolling the dice. These older Texans in cowboy hats – and their much younger wives – were betting big and winning big, whooping it up the whole time. It was crazy, like something out of a movie.
People were tossing chips at me, placing bets for me. I still don’t get the rules of craps, but it was the most amazing experience!
I ended up with around $300, starting with just a $2 or $5 bet, while they walked away with thousands – they were betting way more and knew what they were doing.
So, craps for dummies: Basically, try not to roll a seven. Yeah, sometimes a seven is good, but for beginners, avoiding it is a good start. Don’t roll a seven, and you’ll be golden.
I saw a kid get glared at for saying that number aloud.
Funny thing is, it’s not entirely accurate. You can double your bet on a 7 if there’s no point established, but if there is, you need to avoid rolling a 7.
If you roll a seven, you gotta shout “Aw, crap!”
RE: Fact #45 (Henry II’s Complicated Father-Son Bond) – A few thousand peasants? What’s the big deal?
Spending time with your dad is super important…way more important than anything else.
This story’s a lot less intense once you consider how many sons lost their dads—and vice versa—because of that family feud.
Some might not make it, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take!
Hey Farquad!
RE: Fact #4 (Becky Barbie’s Dreamhouse Issue) – People would totally rip that metaphor apart in a story.
Reality feels kinda clunky and poorly planned, if you ask me.
Fiction needs to be at least kind of believable.
RE: Fact #2 (Poet Niemöller’s Nazi Ties) – Niemöller was a conservative, initially backing Hitler and even admitting to being antisemitic. But he flipped, becoming a key figure in the Confessing Church, which fought against the Nazis taking over the Protestant churches. He went up against the Nazis’ anti-Jewish laws, and ended up in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945 — barely escaping death. Afterward, he really regretted not doing more to help those the Nazis hurt. He dropped his nationalistic views, helping write the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt. From the 1950s onward, he was a strong voice for peace and against war, even serving as vice-chair of War Resisters’ International. He even met Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War and was a major player in the fight to get rid of nuclear weapons.
That’s a huge character change, wow.
Funny thing, I met someone online last week who was trying to paint Oskar Schindler as all bad just because he was a Nazi. The guy totally missed the whole point.
Maybe they were trying to downplay the influence of those who fought the Nazis.
Yeah, it makes sense. The poem’s about someone who wishes they’d stood up to the Nazis.
RE: Fact #11 (Fake Apple Stores in China) – So, if a store says it’s an Apple store, has the logos, and sells real Apple stuff… when does it stop being “not an Apple store” and become “Apple doesn’t *want* you to be an Apple store, but you are”? This is, of course, ignoring places selling fakes.
That’s not how it works. Those stores aren’t official Apple stores – Apple doesn’t own or authorize them. It doesn’t matter if they sell Apple stuff; “Apple Store” is a brand Apple owns.
Lots of places have way more authorized retailers than actual Apple Stores. Take Taiwan, for instance: only two real Apple Stores, but you’ll find authorized retailers in almost every big mall. They even look kind of like Apple Stores. These stores are authorized by Apple, but they have their own names and logos, plus a separate sign saying “Premium Reseller.” DataExpress is one example.
Sweet, saved myself a trip to the mirror!
That’s really cool! Thanks!