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.
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.
RE: Fact #31 (Napster Lasted Only Two Years) – It was awesome.
I used Limewire; it was basically Napster, but better.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
RE: Fact #32 (Lottery Winner Becomes Pool Champion) – Need money to make your dreams happen.
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.
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!