1 Marie Curie’s Scandal and Nobel
Marie Curie had an affair with a married physicist, and when their letters leaked, the public reacted with outrage. The Nobel Committee pressured her to skip her second Nobel Prize ceremony. However, Albert Einstein advised her to ignore the critics, so she attended and claimed her prize.
2. When Stalin lay dying, his doctor remained unavailable because the secret police were torturing him. Paralyzed and unable to speak, Stalin went untreated for 12 hours while his terrified subordinates hesitated to call a doctor, fearing he might recover and punish them for acting without orders.
3. The evangelical belief in the Rapture-the idea that Christians will physically ascend to meet Jesus in the sky-only dates back to the 1830s.
4. Gorillas constantly pass gas (fart) due to their highly fibrous diet.
5. In 2022, during a Thanksgiving cruise to Mexico, a man named James Michael Grimes won a free drink in an air-guitar competition. That became his last memory before waking up overboard in the Gulf of Mexico with no ship in sight. He tread water for 18 hours, enduring stings from two swarms of jellyfish on his legs and arms before finally being rescued.
6 DuPont Cancer Report Hidden
American toxicologist Robert Kehoe discovered reports linking the chemical benzidine to bladder cancer. However, since his client, DuPont, manufactured benzidine, he hid the report in a box instead of alerting the public. Decades later, as DuPont employees suffering from cancer filed lawsuits, investigators unearthed the moldy records.
7. While testifying in 2019 to stop paparazzi from endangering her children, actress Jennifer Garner described a “solid decade” when at least five or six cars-and up to 15 or 20 on weekends-were constantly stationed outside her house.
8. Dmitri Mendeleev, credited with creating the Periodic Table of Elements, received nine Nobel Prize nominations in Chemistry but never won. Each time, the 1903 winner, Svante Arrhenius, blocked his award due to a long-standing grudge over Mendeleev’s criticism of his research.
9. An early Irish legal text permitted pregnant women to steal small amounts of food if they had cravings for it.
10. When scientist Dan Shechtman discovered quasiperiodic crystals in 1982, the scientific community mocked and shamed him. Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling even dismissed his findings, stating, “There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.” However, in 2011, Shechtman won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery.
11 Tom Arnold’s Sister’s Drug Empire
Actor Tom Arnold’s sister Lori married a 23-year-old man at just 14, with her mother’s permission. She later went on to run one of the largest meth operations in the Midwest until her arrest in 1989.
12. The Netherlands consumes an estimated 750,000 chocolate sprinkle and butter sandwiches, known as Hagelslag, every day.
13. In 2005, three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl in Ethiopia who had been kidnapped by men attempting to force her into marriage. The lions chased off her abductors and guarded her until Ethiopian police arrived to rescue her.
14. Gavrilo Princip, the student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, believed he wasn’t responsible for starting World War I. He claimed the war would have happened regardless of the assassination and stated, “I cannot feel myself responsible for the catastrophe.”
15. Ahn Jung-hwan, the South Korean footballer who scored the winning goal against Italy in the 2002 World Cup, faced unexpected consequences. At the time, he played for an Italian team, but after his victory, the team’s owner terminated his contract, citing the goal as the reason.
16 Coldplay’s Consistent Band Lineup
Coldplay has maintained the same lineup since its inception nearly 30 years ago (as of March 2025). The band has never used touring musicians, with the original four members continuing to play and tour together.
17. During the American Revolution, George Washington ordered smallpox inoculations for all his troops, declaring, “We have more to dread from it than from the sword of the enemy.”
18. In the United States, millions of people sell their blood plasma for income. Donation stations have crafted business models designed to encourage frequent returns from these “donors.”
19. Vincent van Gogh left art school after an incident where he was assigned to draw the Venus de Milo but instead chose to sketch the nude torso of a peasant woman. When confronted by his teacher, Van Gogh argued that a woman must have “hips, buttocks,” and “a pelvis in which she can carry a baby.”
20. Despite 28 deaths since 1985, the Lodi Parachute Center, a skydiving center in California, remains open and continues to operate.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Murderer’s Fatal Gas Trap
In 1977, triple murderer Melvin Chelcie Carr accidentally asphyxiated himself while attempting to gas his three victims to death. His wife later returned home to find all of them dead in the garage.
22. Over the past decade, some obese patients were sent to zoos for MRI and CT scans because standard hospital machines couldn’t accommodate their weight. Zoos, equipped with larger scanners designed for big animals, provided a practical solution in these cases.
23. When the small town of Delton, Michigan, welcomed an Austrian exchange student, the host family thought the boy had exaggerated his size. However, Bernhard Raimann stood 6’6″ tall and wanted to play American football. He went on to dominate local teams, earned a college scholarship, and eventually made it to the NFL.
24. During Saturday Night Live’s first season, the show was simply called Saturday Night because another program already used the Saturday Night Live name. That’s why each episode still opens with the iconic line, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
25. A 2023 study analyzed the cognitive ability scores of nearly 400,000 Americans from 2006 to 2018. Over that 13-year period, researchers found that Americans’ IQ scores had declined in three out of the four cognitive domains included in the analysis.
RE: Fact #2 (Stalin’s Death and Delay) – His staff put off helping him because he’d told them not to bother him the night before, and they were scared of his reaction if he found out they hadn’t gotten him help sooner. Working for that guy was a nightmare.
Sometimes, history delivers a perfect “get what you deserve” moment. This is one of those times. Dictators get what’s coming to them.
Another one should be along shortly.
The Death of Stalin touched on that.
RE: Fact #2 (Stalin’s Death and Delay) – Oleg Khlevniuk really nailed it. Stalin built a system where he was the ultimate boss, always checking up on everything his people did. The funny thing is, when Stalin was on his deathbed, his followers were totally lost—they couldn’t decide anything without him.
The big joke is that Nicholas II was a super controlling boss, and the guys who took over were exactly the same.
Tsar Nicholas was a terrible micromanager. He thought not leading his empire would be a huge disgrace to himself and his people, but honestly, he was awful. He took charge of the Russian army in WWI to boost morale, and things went downhill fast.
Couldn’t, or maybe saw a chance.
The same thing happened when Hitler invaded Russia—the defense was totally caught off guard because Stalin wouldn’t believe it was happening and didn’t act quickly enough. Then, the same thing happened with D-Day. Hitler was asleep, so nobody could react because no one dared wake him up, and they couldn’t do anything without his say-so.
RE: Fact #25 (American IQ Decline Study) – Verbal reasoning, matrix reasoning, and number sequencing all went down.
Smartphones have autocorrect and calculators built-in.
So it figures those skills aren’t as sharp as they used to be, since we don’t really need them as much anymore.
Spatial reasoning actually got better, which is weird.
Seriously, I’m way smarter now after spending ages brushing up on all that K-12 math stuff for my grad school test. My brain feels totally different. Lots of people miss important stuff in school and never fix it.
RE: Fact #29 (Egypt’s Mysterious Set Animal) – I dig the way Tutenstein looks. He’s like some weird, creepy monster, but with that ancient Egyptian vibe.
Wow, Tutenstein! I totally forgot about that show!
Everyone totally forgot about it, so they rebooted it!
RE: Fact #18 (Selling Blood Plasma for Income) – I did that for ages – twice a week, fifteen bucks the first time, twenty-five the second. They get you coming back with that bigger payment. I’ve still got a scar from the huge needle. It helped me out when I was strapped for cash.
I’m in Australia, and donating blood and plasma is all volunteer, no money involved. You can only give whole blood every three months, and plasma every two weeks.
I try to give plasma every two weeks, but lately, as I’m getting older, I get a bit tired afterward – nothing major, though.
How did you manage donating twice a week? I get it, money can be tight (been there!), but didn’t it totally drain you?
In the US, plasma centers usually send their collections to researchers or manufacturers. Most hospitals stick to using donated blood and blood products. It’s legal to use paid-for stuff, but most hospitals only use donations.
So, they whiz your blood around in this machine, then put the red stuff back in you with some salty water. It’s kinda weird feeling that cool stuff going back in.
The whole spinning thing takes about two and a half hours, which is why they give you some cash. You donate blood, get paid for the plasma.
Pretty much my whole twenties were like that. My left arm was a breeze for people to find a vein, but my right arm? Forget about it. They’d often joke about bringing in vampire trainees to show them the difference. It wasn’t always fun, haha, but I’m glad I could help them out.
Around here, the first month costs $700, which I guess gets you 8 visits. My first visit was $100.
RE: Fact #48 (Declining Human Body Temperature) – I think I read somewhere that people’s average body temperature drops as they get older. So, if people are living longer, the average temperature would go down.
Seriously, we’re clueless. Every year, people get colder, but not the ones already here, so the closer you are to today, the lower your body temp.
Maybe lower blood pressure’s the reason. Different diets could do it. Bigger bodies, too. Less physical work might be a factor. Loads of things could explain it, really.
RE: Fact #15 (South Korean Footballer’s Backlash) – Perugia went belly up in 2005, and Gaucci ran off to the Dominican Republic to dodge questions. He laid low for four years before getting a three-year suspended sentence. He passed away in 2020. Ahn’s a TV star in Korea and a Save the Children ambassador.
He was on that 2020 K-variety show, Restaurant on Wheels, and I totally loved him in it! Ahn was hilarious and so nice to everyone else—a total goofy big brother, haha.
Great.
RE: Fact #19 (Van Gogh’s Art School Exit) – The story gets even funnier: Van Gogh had to draw the Venus de Milo in class, but instead drew a naked, legless Flemish peasant woman. His teacher, Siberdt, didn’t like it and rubbed out Van Gogh’s drawing so hard he ripped the paper! Van Gogh went nuts and yelled, “You don’t know anything about women! Women have hips, butts, and a pelvis to carry a baby!”
RE: Fact #4 (Gorillas’ Constant Gas Problem) – So, I just found out some crazy stuff: fish are always peeing, birds don’t fart, but gorillas? They fart all the time!
Three-toed sloths only poop once a week, and when they do, it’s a huge amount – about a third of their body weight! You can even see their stomachs get smaller. They’re really picky about where they go, always using the same spot. It’s so important to them that they’ll come down from the trees to do it, which is super dangerous. Half of all sloths die during their weekly bathroom break.
Dumping a third of your body weight all at once sounds unbelievably awful and amazing. The relief must be insane.
RE: Fact #2 (Stalin’s Death and Delay) – The Death of Stalin movie really nails this whole thing – it’s awesome if you haven’t seen it.
Jason Isaacs was a riot as Zhukov—the whole cast was amazing!
Zhukov was clearly one of the few who earned his spot, and nobody could touch him.
RE: Fact #47 (Cuckold’s Horns Photo Prank) – Wait, those aren’t bunny ears? My whole life’s been a lie!
My super-conservative dad told me not to do that when I was five, saying it was “bad.” I just thought it was bunny ears, like any other kid. We weren’t thinking about anything remotely inappropriate.
Lots of stuff from my childhood was totally innocent, but I was told it was bad for some strange reason—nothing to do with what I or anyone else was thinking.
It’s become the bunny ears thing. Little kids do it all the time in photos – they even call it that! It’s clearly changed meaning over time, so don’t worry about it. What something means depends on how it’s used, and right now, two fingers behind someone’s head just means bunny ears. Almost everyone would understand it that way, not as some weird other thing.
RE: Fact #47 (Cuckold’s Horns Photo Prank) – In Spanish, they say someone’s “putting horns” on you if they’re cheating.
RE: Fact #6 (DuPont Cancer Report Hidden) – That’s terrible.
RE: Fact #34 (Paul Bettany’s Sudden Proposal) – That headline forgets to mention they also worked on *A Beautiful Mind* that year.
RE: Fact #33 (Sheitel: Jewish Wig Tradition) – Don’t try to learn about Judaism from Wikipedia. For years, people with a bias have been sneaking antisemitic stuff into articles about Israel, Jewish people, and Judaism.
For example, this article totally ignores the fact that married women’s head coverings were started by rabbis, not God. Anyone talking about loopholes and what God wanted is starting from the wrong place.
RE: Fact #10 (Quasicrystals: From Rejection to Nobel) – To be honest, not everyone made fun of him. I recall Roger Penrose giving a talk about quasi-crystals around 1986 or 1987.
So, the Wikipedia page says other scientists were making their own versions by 1987. They found these new quasicrystals were good insulators and pretty stable.
Penrose just keeps getting cooler and cooler, the more I learn about him.
He’s a really interesting guy. I’m kind of a fan, but I just can’t make it to his lectures. The first one I went to, I got sick halfway through. And every other time I’ve tried, I’ve been sick beforehand. No clue why.
RE: Fact #28 (William Shatner’s ‘Get a Life’ Moment) – It ended up being a big deal in Galaxy Quest.
The best Star Trek movie ever? Maybe not actually Star Trek.
RE: Fact #12 (Netherlands’ Daily Chocolate Habit) – Hey Americans, don’t even think about using regular sprinkles. It’s gotta be real Hagelslag.
This stuff’s the best, btw.
The taste is totally different! My Dutch relatives bring over a bunch of stroopwafels whenever they visit.
Hagelslag is so good, I could eat it every day.
I get what a stroopwafel is, but it always makes me think of some WWII German army unit.
I really love stroopwafels.
RE: Fact #8 (Mendeleev’s Blocked Nobel Nominations) – Glad to see academia’s still the same.
I’m always hanging out with these super-smart professors—top of their fields, really—but honestly, they sometimes act like total middle-schoolers.
RE: Fact #39 (Rats’ Music Preferences on Drugs) – “So, what do you do?”
“I’m a scientist.”
“Cool! What kind of science?”
“I get rats stoned and play them tunes.”
Makes you think, huh? We must get something out of it, even if it’s totally silly.
I’m curious what’s in it for the people funding this research. What’s the deal with those rich folks and their fancy rats?
RE: Fact #1 (Marie Curie’s Scandal and Nobel) – Einstein was a cheater, you see. He divorced his first wife and married his cousin, then cheated on *her* too.
RE: Fact #32 (Man Mailed Himself Home) – He really wanted to go home, but it wasn’t worth the hassle of his daughter getting a huge box with his body in it.
RE: Fact #46 (Pompeii Escapees Rebuilt Nearby) – Sweet! You’ve got gold, a horse, and a ship. Vesuvius is about to blow. Get outta Pompeii and head to Ostia, pronto!
RE: Fact #44 (Jiang Qing’s Revenge on Rival) – That’s frustrating.
Lots of others figured the same thing out. She was a big shot in the “Gang of Four,” who got really powerful during the Cultural Revolution. They used the crazy revolutionary energy, their control over the media, and their personal ties to Mao to skip over normal government and party stuff and basically take over.
After Mao kicked the bucket, they were quickly booted out, put on trial, and locked up.
Before the Gang of Four, there was Lin Biao, the number two guy who ran off and died in a plane crash. That whole period from 1966 to 1976 was a really rough time for a lot of Chinese people.
After her husband died, Jiang Qing got arrested and sent to prison. Ten years later, she was released due to health problems, and then she took her own life.
RE: Fact #47 (Cuckold’s Horns Photo Prank) – Back in school, we used to say the number of seconds you could hold two fingers over someone’s head was how many girlfriends they had. Total mortification.
RE: Fact #30 (Beatrice Cenci’s Tragic Execution) – People in Rome were furious about the decision to execute them, and managed to get a short delay. But Pope Clement VIII was worried about copycat killings, so he wouldn’t budge.
On September 11th, 1599, early in the morning, they were taken to Sant’Angelo Bridge for the executions. Giacomo was tortured on the way to the scaffold, then his head was smashed. His body was cut into four pieces. Lucrezia and Beatrice were beheaded next, one after the other. Twelve-year-old Bernardo watched, then went back to prison, losing everything. He was supposed to be a galley slave for life, but got out after a year. Beatrice was buried at San Pietro in Montorio.
So Bernardo was sentenced to be a galley slave for life – but he got out after just a year. Then what? A twelve-year-old kid, all alone in Rome?
Yeah, it was all about safety, nothing to do with the Pope grabbing their stuff.
It’s the same story with almost every European witch trial: the Church was after the money and land of rich Christians and Jews. The Salem witch hunts, where regular folks got accused because everyone believed in witches, were actually pretty rare.
I doubt it was about safety. Way back, even in ancient Rome, killing your family, especially your dad, was a huge no-no for the rich and powerful. They weren’t worried about safety so much as the total breakdown of society – it was a massive moral issue for them. I bet the Pope felt the same; a bunch of rich dads getting bumped off is a real threat to the whole social order, it really messes things up.
A name like Pope Clement VIII? You’d expect a bit more mercy, wouldn’t you?
RE: Fact #44 (Jiang Qing’s Revenge on Rival) – Crazy fact: His first marriage was arranged – a total setup by his dad to join two groups. Teenage Mao dumped her, completely ignored her in public, and she ended up disgraced and died a few years later.
Mao was just a kid, only 14.
Yeah, she was a little older than I remembered. What a messed up life.
Honestly, back when China was first modernizing, educated people didn’t really mind if you ditched an arranged marriage for love. Mao’s second wife, I believe, was captured and killed by the ROC. His third marriage sort of fell apart after the Long March when he was in Yan’an and having affairs; she was basically sent to the USSR and put in a mental hospital until around 1947, by which time Mao had married Jiang Qing.
RE: Fact #25 (American IQ Decline Study) – Man, watching this country go downhill as a 53-year-old American? Yeah, no kidding. This whole dumbing down thing’s been going on since at least the late 80s, I swear. I blame leaded gas – that stuff messed us up. We used to be all about science and doing the right thing. Now? It’s like we’re a bunch of knuckleheads who hate science and couldn’t care less about their health or how they look. Social media sites really kicked that decline into high gear. It’s all clickbait garbage and instant gratification now. Being good at video games is apparently way cooler than being smart. This country is screwed, and I’m not optimistic about the future.
Nah, man.
Back in the day, a lot of those knuckleheads just couldn’t get their voices heard. Now, thanks to the internet and all the craziness on social media, everyone can see how many clueless people are out there, which skews everyone’s view of the average person.
But hey, there were tons of genuinely dumb people back in the 60s and 70s, people who couldn’t even do simple math. You just didn’t run into them as much. Before the internet, you only saw the people around you—now we’re all connected, good and bad.
RE: Fact #8 (Mendeleev’s Blocked Nobel Nominations) – Pretty cool: Arrhenius flagged the greenhouse effect as a possible climate change culprit way back in the late 1800s. We’ve been aware of this for ages.
Way back in 1800, Alexander von Humboldt was already writing about how chopping down forests messes with the climate and water supplies. And people still don’t listen to scientists.
Oil companies knew about climate change way back. Exxon, for example, had its own scientists in the 70s, working with universities and other groups. Their research mostly showed that fossil fuels were a big problem. But when oil prices fell in the 80s, the bosses cut funding for research and started saying climate change wasn’t real.
RE: Fact #13 (Lions Save Kidnapped Girl) – That’s crazy, but apparently, a bunch of seals got Bin Laden.
Sounds like a load of crap, right? Maybe those lions were just protecting their turf and scared off the guys, but the little girl wasn’t a threat so they left her alone.
She cried like a little cub maybe.
Man, that was a great one!
RE: Fact #23 (Austrian Exchange Student’s NFL Journey) – Seven years before he got drafted by the NFL in 2022, a junior from Austria named Bernhard Raimann applied to be a foreign exchange student in the US. He wanted to play American football, and maybe become an NFL player or a banker. He applied, then waited. Rollie Ferris, his host dad, wasn’t sure about the height and weight listed on his application; he thought it was a bit exaggerated. But when Raimann stepped off the plane, standing 6’6″ and 217 pounds, they knew he wasn’t kidding. Because Delton’s football team was small, having Raimann join was awesome. He said he had to play both offense and defense, since they only had about 20 players compared to the 60 he was used to in Austria. After college at Central Michigan, he’s now a starting offensive tackle for the Colts.
Is six foot four really that much better than six foot six?
Since we’re talking about really tall guys, there are a lot more guys who are 6’4″ than 6’6″.
Wow, I’m surprised the Colts made him an offensive tackle—with his experience and size, he’d be a great main tank!
RE: Fact #48 (Declining Human Body Temperature) – My wife’s feet make up a good chunk of it.
It’s a real head-scratcher – how can a warm-blooded animal’s feet get colder than the air around them?
My wife’s hands and feet are freezing! Seriously, how does that even happen?
RE: Fact #21 (Murderer’s Fatal Gas Trap) – Back in ’71, he got five years for taking a fourteen-year-old girl to Mexico for sex. While doing time, he tried to get a fellow inmate to off the girl, an older woman, and two cops who’d busted him. He didn’t get any extra time for that, though. He was actually out by ’75 because the police thought he was behind a kidnapping that happened on August 19th of that year.
Reading those stories about people getting away with murder for ages, it hits you: the cops just don’t care to investigate people who are clearly too messed up to even try hiding what they did.
I can’t believe someone married him, given his history of child rape and prison time.
RE: Fact #41 (Falkland Islands Referendum Result) – The Argentine government uses the Falklands issue to distract people from problems at home.
RE: Fact #5 (Man Survives 18 Hours Overboard) – Winning an air guitar contest, falling off a cruise ship, and living to tell the tale? Sounds like you were pretty wasted before you even started.
Back home, you can’t even pretend to play air guitar unless you’re drunk.
This dude’s a real-life Charlie Kelly.
RE: Fact #39 (Rats’ Music Preferences on Drugs) – Did we ever test this on humans before we tested it on rodents?
Animal rights groups weren’t happy with the research.
For free medical-grade cocaine and jazz? Those rats have awesome hosts.
RE: Fact #22 (Zoos Assist with Medical Scans) – I went to our local hospital’s morgue, and they showed off their new, extra-large fridges for storing bodies—the old ones weren’t big enough for everyone.
RE: Fact #24 (SNL’s Original Show Title) – Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell only lasted 18 episodes before getting the axe. Director Don Mischer later called it one of TV’s biggest flops, mainly because Cosell and Arledge—both sports guys—had zero experience with comedy shows.
Seriously? It was just a comedy show, kind of like a bad SNL, right?
I looked it up.
Wow! Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest were in it! They were the main cast, and then they all ended up on SNL.
So I finally figured out where that name, “The Not Ready for Prime Time Players,” came from. It’s pretty wild how something can stick around way longer than the thing it was making fun of.
I saw it! This kid at school wouldn’t shut up about how hilarious Saturday Night Live was when it first came on, but I was kinda “meh,” thinking he meant the one with Howard Cosell.
RE: Fact #7 (Jennifer Garner’s Paparazzi Battle) – Besides the paparazzi, she had to deal with seriously crazy stalkers. One guy, Steven Burky, stalked her from 2002 to 2003, and then again from 2008 to 2009. They even got a restraining order against him in 2008. He was arrested in 2009 outside her daughter’s preschool and charged with stalking, but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. They found him insane in 2010, sent him to a mental hospital, and ordered him to stay away from the family for ten years if he ever got out.
Why put a time limit on that restraining order?
Working in domestic violence, I’ve found restraining orders are almost never permanent. Around here, judges usually only give them for a year, which doesn’t really change much.
My husband works with some big-name musicians. I feel terrible for one of them; she’s had a stalker for ages. The guy keeps breaking restraining orders, constantly in and out of jail. It’s gotta be brutal, living in fear because of some obsessed weirdo.
Sarah McLachlan wrote “Possession” about letters from a crazy stalker. He found out and sued her for stealing *his* idea, but then he offed himself before it went to court.
Great, that’s all sorted then!
That story just kept getting crazier and crazier.
RE: Fact #36 (Adam Sandler’s Only Oscar Nomination) – This movie made me cry, twice! Seriously.
RE: Fact #17 (Washington’s Smallpox Inoculation Order) – The Russo-Japanese War was pretty groundbreaking; it was the first big war where more soldiers died fighting than from sickness.
I’m kinda surprised it wasn’t the Boer War, but I guess the Russo-Japanese War had more ships sinking with everyone on board, which probably boosted the numbers.
Warship crews aren’t a big factor, maybe just 5% of the total. It’s infantry combat where the real death toll is.
I picked up this awesome Japanese woodblock print in Tokyo – it’s of the Black Sea fleet going down. A sweet 1904 print, actually.
RE: Fact #45 (Carl Weathers’ Bold Audition Comment) –
Funny thing is, Stallone thought it was something Apollo Creed would do. Sometimes messing up is what lands you the job.
It’s just like how James Avery landed the Uncle Phil role in The Fresh Prince. Will Smith was at the auditions, feet up on the table, and Avery totally chewed him out – even though he didn’t know Will was the star! Classic Uncle Phil, that got him the job on the spot.
Weathers’ last quote was killer, and the movie they made was awesome.
A legendary movie that really inspired a lot of people, haha
That totally sounds like something Apollo would say! Couldn’t have picked a better actor for him.
Surround yourself with people who challenge you, not just people who agree with everything you say. Hollywood today couldn’t handle it.
RE: Fact #11 (Tom Arnold’s Sister’s Drug Empire) – I’ve bumped into Tom a few times, he’s always a riot and super nice. He grew up near me in rural Iowa.
RE: Fact #50 (French Workers’ Costly Bread Diet) – For most of history, life was all about survival. That line in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” wasn’t some figure of speech—it meant getting enough to eat. People really did have to work incredibly hard just to get by.
Most of their food was bread, which is why it was a big deal and they spent so much on it.
People in ancient Rome ate almost two pounds of grain a day. That went on across Europe until the 1700s, with the French eating about a pound and a half each day. Bread would have been 80% of your diet.
A pound and a half of flour is about 2400 calories.
It’s a miracle anyone lived through it.
Seriously? That’s totally wrong.
Back in ancient Rome, the average person made about a denarius a day, though skilled workers and soldiers made more.
A denarius was worth 10 asses – the Roman money before silver coins.
A loaf of bread cost 2 asses, or 20% of a day’s pay. People also hunted, fished, and farmed. I’m using Rome as an example because we have tons of records from that time.
In France, bread hitting 50% of wages, then jumping to 88% after two bad harvests in 1788 and 1789, really fueled the French Revolution. Food prices are usually the biggest reason for social problems throughout history.
Food costing half your income isn’t normal – it never has been.
Crazy how cheap flour is now—you could bake a ton of bread for practically nothing!
Tripling grain prices would only bump up the price of bread by a nickel or a dime, tops.
Lots of countries keep a lid on how much of certain crops get grown, so prices stay steady and farmers can make a decent living. Think about rice in Japan and how the US government handles farming. We could grow a ton of stuff, but it’s better for everyone if we don’t dump a whole bunch of perishable goods on the market all at once.
RE: Fact #49 (Louisiana Sheriffs’ Political Power) – Lots of places, the sheriff’s the big cheese in the county. In my state, we had one who went to jail for stealing money, got out, and then ran for sheriff again! They had to make a new law saying felons can’t be sheriffs.
That reminds me of this crazy law in one state. Sheriffs get a budget for the jail, and whatever’s left over, they get to keep! I read about this sheriff who pocketed the extra cash, bought himself fancy houses, and fed the inmates rice and beans – leading to some serious health problems. The feds should have nailed him for embezzlement, regardless of what the state said.
There was one deputy who had cancer, took time off, got better, and went back to work. But then his house was about to be foreclosed on. The sheriff’s department was supposed to evict him, but the sheriff just refused, saying nobody could make him do it.
They think they’re all-powerful, which has led to some seriously dumb stuff, like people thinking sheriffs run the whole country and ignoring the state and federal governments.
I was listening to a podcast about Posse Comitatus the other day. Crazy, right? Counties are the top dogs, yet some can’t even keep their roads fixed.
RE: Fact #28 (William Shatner’s ‘Get a Life’ Moment) – In episode 2F09, Itchy hits the same rib on Scratchy’s skeleton twice, but gets two different sounds. Seriously, is that a magic xylophone or something? Someone definitely should have been fired for that!
RE: Fact #12 (Netherlands’ Daily Chocolate Habit) – Kwook, the YouTuber, gave this breakfast a big thumbs down—a measly 2 out of 10—based on taste, nutrition, and how satisfied he was. Then, the Dutch government banned him the very next day!
RE: Fact #46 (Pompeii Escapees Rebuilt Nearby) – A Radiolab podcast a few months back talked about this. They showed how lots of refugees ended up nearby, using family names, and how stuff was missing from the ruins – not what you’d expect if people were just evacuating. The big thing was this popular Pompeii fish sauce. It had these unique bottles, all over the Roman Empire. After the eruption, poof! Then, twenty years later, the bottles show up again, same brand, made in Pozzuoli by someone related to the original Pompeii maker. That whole thing – a guy rebuilding his family’s fish sauce empire across the continent after a disaster – it really shows how much those Pompeii folks were like us.
RE: Fact #29 (Egypt’s Mysterious Set Animal) – Stargate is awesome!
Right.
A Serpent Guard, a Horus Guard, and a Setesh Guard run into each other on some neutral planet. Things are super tense. The Serpent Guard’s eyes are glowing, the Horus Guard’s beak is shiny, and the Setesh Guard’s nose is dripping.
RE: Fact #42 (German POWs Burned Uniforms) – Yeah, some people probably weren’t buying it.
I’d be super suspicious of anything the enemy showed me in a POW camp. Wouldn’t anyone?
Yeah, a lot of people probably wondered about it, but they also knew about the Nazis and their anti-Semitic stuff. Those who burned their uniforms were likely uncomfortable, but they probably kept quiet because being a rebel in that kind of society wasn’t easy.
RE: Fact #11 (Tom Arnold’s Sister’s Drug Empire) – So, she became a big-shot… oh, wait, a meth lab boss. Nevermind.
Pretty neat, huh?
Running the biggest meth lab in the Midwest? That takes some serious guts.
RE: Fact #7 (Jennifer Garner’s Paparazzi Battle) – We’ve known about the paparazzi problem for ages, and no one seems to have a solution. So, how do other countries deal with it? Are there any successful approaches we could copy?
Maybe a stalking law could work?
I’m baffled. How is that not harassment or stalking? Guess it’s cool if you’re selling your dirt to some trashy magazine.
It’s probably different people each time.
RE: Fact #27 (IKEA’s Naming Inspired by Dyslexia) – That might be tough for someone with dyslexia to remember, huh?
It might be tougher to write them down, but remembering them isn’t usually a problem. People with dyslexia sometimes have trouble with numbers.
Could that be dyscalculia?
RE: Fact #15 (South Korean Footballer’s Backlash) – He wasn’t playing for Uday Hussein, at least.
Crazy but a team owner actually signed Gaddafi’s son, even though he was the worst footballer ever!
So, Byron Moreno reffed that game, and it—along with South Korea’s semi-final against Spain—had some seriously questionable calls. Later, he got suspended a bunch of times for some weird stuff and even did some prison time for smuggling heroin.
RE: Fact #40 (Women’s Unbroken 4-Minute Mile Record) – Wow, the effort needed for a time like that is crazy! My best mile was around 7 minutes, so a 4-minute mile seems totally impossible to me.
My high school girlfriend was seriously fast, clocking in around 58 seconds for the 400. Crazy to think about someone doing that four times in a row – no breaks!
I remember getting in shape for college soccer. I once ran a 400m in 54 seconds at a meet. We did a 400m workout once in practice. Our top runners would do ten 400s with 90-second rests, all in 52-54 seconds. The rest of us were pretty much puking halfway through. Seriously, those elite runners – guys and girls – are crazy tough.
It’s going over 15 mph for four whole minutes! That’s crazy fast. And then there are marathon runners who can keep up a pace of over 13 mph for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT?!
I’ll just stick to my short bursts of jogging and walking.
Back in high school, I ran a mile in about 5:45, which some non-runners think is pretty fast. But at that level, even a few seconds is a huge difference—going from 4:03 to 3:58 is a massive jump. Man, I bet I’d be lucky to break 10 minutes now.
RE: Fact #33 (Sheitel: Jewish Wig Tradition) – I wouldn’t want to be in a group where you’re forced to wear a hat, or forbidden from wearing one.
RE: Fact #3 (Rapture Belief Origins) – I used to work at a Christian radio station, and we had this emergency tape—for if the Rapture happened. It was all about staying calm if your family wasn’t around anymore, and it told people to check out John 3:16 to get into heaven.
RE: Fact #40 (Women’s Unbroken 4-Minute Mile Record) – I checked it out and, wow, five and six-year-olds are beating my high school best times! Crazy.
Wow, you’re right! Those kids are seriously quick. It’s even crazier when you think about how much farther adults can go in one step. Sure, some little ones are ridiculously fast, but the speeds in that article are wild! It’s both amazing and unbelievable.
I figured it only happened when they are running toward the road. A real heart-stopper, that would be.
RE: Fact #20 (Lodi Parachute Center’s Deaths) – Reminds me of Dan from Game Grumps talking about Action Park. He was like, “Yeah, we had a blast in the wave pool. One kid died, but hey, most of us didn’t.”
RE: Fact #36 (Adam Sandler’s Only Oscar Nomination) – I only cried during one of his movies.
Henry Winkler totally nailed it. It wasn’t just the Sandler scene where he rewinds to hear his dad’s “I love you,” but that tiny shift from happy dad to heartbroken – man, I was a blubbering mess! The only other time I saw such raw emotion was when Catelyn Stark walked through those war tents and only crumbled after she’d passed the soldiers.
Henry Winkler’s seriously underrated.
Dude, why’d you bring up that GoT scene? Trying to hurt my feelings? We know what’s coming, and it ain’t winter! It’s fire!
Much love, friend haha
That rain scene was so real.
Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy are hilarious. Click’s a real tearjerker. And Uncut Gems? Amazing.
Big Daddy always gets me. Sobbing mess when they take the kid. Every single time.
I do it myself! I do it myself!
I get it!
He cleans his own bottom, which is hilarious. I used to drive everyone crazy in my early twenties by reciting the whole thing.
RE: Fact #43 (Executioner Spares, Then Kills Earl) – Fun fact: The word “derrick” originally described the gallows’ frame, and that’s how it came to mean the cranes we see today.
RE: Fact #23 (Austrian Exchange Student’s NFL Journey) – Super kicker Morten Andersen—one of the all-time greats—was actually from Denmark and found the sport while he was studying overseas.
RE: Fact #47 (Cuckold’s Horns Photo Prank) – Back in school, we used to say the number of seconds you could hold two fingers over your head was how many girlfriends you had. Talk about mortifying!
Great to hear you’re okay!
RE: Fact #48 (Declining Human Body Temperature) – So, the main idea is that humans carried around way more parasites for ages, causing constant inflammation and higher body temperatures to fight them off. But now that we’re cleaner, that inflammation isn’t there as much, and our bodies are settling into a more normal temperature.
It’s interesting how this might explain why we’re seeing more autoimmune diseases. We evolved to fight off parasites, which actually calmed down our immune systems. Now that we’ve gotten rid of the parasites, our immune systems are overreacting.
Some folks are even trying out helminthic therapy – swallowing worm eggs – to ease allergies and other problems.
Measles was also used to treat bad kidneys, believe it or not.
Will this make us gain weight?
RE: Fact #35 (Playboy vs. Penthouse ‘Pubic Wars’) – Playboy: Check out these awesome curls!
Penthouse: Oh really? I’m showing way more!
Hustler: …What if we put a camera right up close?
RE: Fact #1 (Marie Curie’s Scandal and Nobel) – I think you should keep ignoring those losers. If they keep bothering you, just stop reading their garbage. Let the snakes who like it have it.
He totally nailed it.
It’s easier to understand things when you know he told his wife he’d be unfaithful.
Einstein wasn’t exactly a relationship guru, but still, it was the right thing to do. We need to separate what someone does from who they are as a person.
He probably thought morality was relative, get it? I’ll be here all week.
I get that, but it really depends how big the accomplishment is and how bad the screw-up was.
Nobel Prize winner/cheated on spouse: No cancel culture.
Star running back/killed his wife: Cancel culture.
The Nobel Prize is about great science, not being a good spouse, right? And nobody remembers Einstein for his relationship tips.
RE: Fact #13 (Lions Save Kidnapped Girl) – Lion experts weren’t buying the story. The BBC talked to some wildlife guys who said the lions were likely about to eat the girl, but cops and others stepped in. One expert even suggested the girl’s crying might have sounded like lion cubs, so they left her alone. Truth or Fiction called it a disputed story. There are different ways to look at it, but in Africa, everyone was calling it a miracle.
RE: Fact #40 (Women’s Unbroken 4-Minute Mile Record) – Awesome news! That record was set July 21st, 2023, so it’s totally beatable with today’s tests.
Eight seconds might not sound like much, but that’s a huge 1600 meters! Knocking half a second off every 100 meters is super tough.
It’s the same with people bragging about shaving two minutes off their marathon time. That’s like taking 4 or 5 seconds off each mile—a massive improvement at the top level.
That’s a fair point, but have they considered trying to run a bit harder?
RE: Fact #41 (Falkland Islands Referendum Result) – I recall one guy voting “no”—he said it was just because he thought a 100% “yes” vote would look fishy.
I think someone voted no because they wanted their own country.
RE: Fact #43 (Executioner Spares, Then Kills Earl) – Being a fancy nobleman, the Earl of Essex got to pick how he died and went for the axe. The executioner, Derrick, wasn’t used to it, so it took him three tries to chop off Essex’s head.
Wow, he really felt that.
It kinda depends where the first hit landed, but maybe.
Seriously, the spine wasn’t severed? I’m guessing it’s all the other neck cartilage.
Obviously, they’d be alive – just paralyzed from the neck down. But, yeah, tons of pain above the neck, and the whole thing would be terrifying.
It’s like that Japanese guy who wanted a samurai to kill him, but he picked his poet buddy to do it. The poet took so many tries that a real samurai had to step in and finish the job.
Is that about Mishima you’re talking about? That story is totally nuts.
That whole story is crazy, especially since it happened way back in 1970!
RE: Fact #21 (Murderer’s Fatal Gas Trap) – Picture this: you get back from the grocery store, and your husband’s dead. Plus, there are three other bodies there, strangers.
That’ll mess you up for a while.
My first thought? Something sexual.
RE: Fact #42 (German POWs Burned Uniforms) – German prisoners of war ran the gamut, from hardened SS guys to ordinary draftees. They tried to keep them separate to stop the SS guys pushing the others around. There were even some makeshift courts and killings. Depending on when and where they were captured, some might have only heard whispers about the Holocaust. They were also treated pretty well, which didn’t fit the story Germany used to start the war. The awful truth must have been a shock, especially since they hadn’t heard much about Germany’s collapse.
RE: Fact #20 (Lodi Parachute Center’s Deaths) – Francine was stunned and furious – her son was gone, and those planes just kept taking off, full of skydivers. Bill Dause, the skydiving center’s old owner, told the local news, “We didn’t stop because we disliked him, or because we didn’t care. We didn’t stop because life goes on.” Seriously?
Wow, most business owners at least pretend to care. That guy’s a real jerk.
Or just to make sure the other photos turned out alright? And they seem to care, too. That’s wild!
So, I once got a huge chunk of plastic in my smoothie. I told the person making them, and she just kinda looked at me, offered another smoothie, and kept going! I was totally dumbfounded, staring at the queue wondering if I should warn everyone. Finally, I found a manager, and *they* made her stop and check the machines. It’s a small thing, I guess, but it’s crazy how someone can ignore customers getting hurt and just keep on working like a robot.
RE: Fact #42 (German POWs Burned Uniforms) – They didn’t want to end up like the others, hanging for war crimes.
We hang people, but we hang horses.
RE: Fact #7 (Jennifer Garner’s Paparazzi Battle) – Paparazzi are total jerks. Seriously, they’re the absolute worst.
I’d put scalpers and top insurance agents pretty low on my list.
RE: Fact #47 (Cuckold’s Horns Photo Prank) – Wait, those aren’t bunny ears? My whole life’s been a lie!
It’s become the bunny ears thing. Little kids do it all the time in photos – they even call it that! It’s clearly picked up new meanings. So don’t worry about it. What something means depends entirely on how it’s used. Right now, two fingers behind someone’s head just means bunny ears. Almost everyone would see it that way, not as anything else.
RE: Fact #34 (Paul Bettany’s Sudden Proposal) – I thought his childhood crush was way younger than her, but I looked it up and she was born in ’70, he was born in ’71. She was fifteen in Labyrinth, and he was a teen when he saw it too.
Totally age-appropriate.
RE: Fact #42 (German POWs Burned Uniforms) – Some of those German prisoners of war later offered to fight for the US against Japan. The brass considered it, but decided against it. Mainly, it would’ve been a huge hassle to integrate a mostly German-speaking unit into the US military, and an even bigger hassle to retrain them. But even though the offer was turned down, many still helped by urging their fellow Germans to surrender.
After the war, most German POWs left with good feelings about the US, and thousands became citizens. Even those who went back to Germany benefited from their time here, getting an education and some money. One guy, Walter Hallstein, even went on to become a big deal in the European Union.
There were actually a couple of times in 1945 where some German soldiers fought alongside US troops against the SS. One was the Battle of Castle Itter in Austria, and the other was Operation Cowboy in what’s now the Czech Republic.
My dad knew a guy from Stuttgart, born around 1940. He didn’t remember much about the war except the bombing and his parents keeping them safe. But he had this awesome story about the American soldiers marching through. He was watching with his parents, totally blown away – you can imagine, given where he grew up and all the propaganda. A soldier smiled at him, walked over, and gave him candy!
It was the first chocolate he’d ever had, and the first time he’d seen a Black person. That positive experience with someone he’d been taught to fear was a huge deal. It made him want to move to America.
He seemed like a great guy. He started our family tradition of chocolate Advent calendars – always got my dad amazing ones for me and my siblings. His kids all became teachers in American cities. Really cool guy, really cool family.
Churchill wanted to get them armed up and shipped off east.
Yeah, Operation Unthinkable was pretty unthinkable.
I’m wondering if that also caused a fuss about forcing prisoners of war to fight for the Nazis. Or did that happen after they surrendered?
RE: Fact #28 (William Shatner’s ‘Get a Life’ Moment) – Leonard Nimoy got fed up with fans sometimes, but he came around later.
Even if the show wasn’t a big deal to some, it really mattered to others. I read Whoopi Goldberg saying Uhura was the first black woman on TV she saw who wasn’t a maid. It made her think she could be anything she wanted.
RE: Fact #20 (Lodi Parachute Center’s Deaths) – Someone kicked the bucket here a few years back, and the news story about it was crazy—tons of people guessed it was this place.
Apparently, they’re infamous for safety issues, like untrained instructors and stuff.
I can’t say for sure, but that’s what I recall.
Been skydiving for 30 years. Yeah, it’s awful.
Years ago, I went skydiving for the first time because my wife’s friends were the instructors and photographers. They chose Lodi because the rules were super relaxed, so they could progress faster and be more flexible.
Looking back, it was way crazier than we thought at the time.
Lodi’s a total mess. Imagine twenty skydivers, all over the place, losing each other, splitting up, nearly colliding – both before and after they open their parachutes. And nobody speaks the same language! What could go wrong?
How can you tell if a place is legit?
RE: Fact #25 (American IQ Decline Study) – I think smartphones are the reason.
RE: Fact #14 (Princip’s View on WWI) – Honestly, those “singular moments in history” aren’t as big a deal as people make them out to be. Europe was already teetering on the brink of war for ages – one little thing was all it took to set everything ablaze. This was just the spark, but something else would’ve done the trick eventually.
So, what little thing will set us off?
I’m pretty sure it’ll be incredibly dumb, whatever it is.
RE: Fact #14 (Princip’s View on WWI) – So, there were six guys trying to kill him that day. Mehmedbašić missed. Čubrilović blew it with a bomb and a gun. Čabrinović’s bomb bounced off. Popović, Princip, and Grabež didn’t even try.
Then Franz Ferdinand gave a speech, all bloody from the first bomb that hit their car.
On the way back, they wanted a quicker route but didn’t tell the driver. He took a wrong turn, onto a bridge where Princip was waiting. The driver realized his mistake, hit the brakes, and the car stalled—right in front of Princip. Princip just walked up and shot him.
I thought Princip was bummed about his first try and was just moping when, bam, Ferdinand shows up.
RE: Fact #22 (Zoos Assist with Medical Scans) – I hauled a 800-pound patient to the zoo for an MRI. She wasn’t the nicest person.
RE: Fact #31 (Controversial Goldfish Blender Exhibit) – Back in February [2000], this artist Marco Evaristti put ten goldfish in blenders at the Trapholt Art Museum in Denmark. People could actually blend the fish if they wanted to! Apparently, two got blended right at the opening, and the cops shut it down after some animal rights folks protested. The museum director even said five more fish were blended later that weekend.
I’m curious how many fish got blended because folks didn’t think the blender would actually work.
Wouldn’t it have been awesome if those blenders zapped you instead of blending?
Yeah, I guess that’s part of the artistic expression.
It’s wrong, but it works as art because it makes you think about what it means to be human.
People see a button. They’re told exactly what it does. They can see it in action. They know it’s harmful.
And they still push it.
Most of them couldn’t even tell you why. They just did it.
Humans are strange creatures.
Lots of people are saying this, but once the first fish got blended, it was obvious it was real. I seriously doubt they removed the blenders after they were used; they probably just left them out in the open for everyone to see.
RE: Fact #31 (Controversial Goldfish Blender Exhibit) – Bummer.
That’s a real bummer. It won’t undo what happened, but maybe it did some good overall?
People in my country eat an average of 23 chickens a year, and almost all of them are from factory farms.
If that “art” made even one person think twice about how they treat animals, it was worth it.
Yeah, that’s what I saw in this art. Ordering food is about as much work as turning on a blender, at least that’s how it feels to vegetarians looking at a menu.
Just so you know, that same artist also put three piglets in a cage to starve, but someone stole them.
That “And Now You Care” exhibit? Turns out, those three piglets had tons of food and water – nobody expected that! So, no starvation there. It was all a publicity thing to highlight how a crazy 20,000 piglets die daily on Danish farms, a lot from starvation.
RE: Fact #49 (Louisiana Sheriffs’ Political Power) – Louisiana’s been a pretty corrupt state for a while now.
Huey Long stuff is always a good read. Ever look into how LSU got the government to pay for Tiger Stadium?
It’s wild how crappy some city neighborhoods and schools are, yet the football fields are super nice with huge scoreboards.
Huey Long’s career was totally insane. The guy was all about building roads and hospitals, but also had goons kidnapping his political enemies.
RE: Fact #34 (Paul Bettany’s Sudden Proposal) – People think I’m crazy and weird when I do that.
You missed “stalking.”
RE: Fact #39 (Rats’ Music Preferences on Drugs) – So, what do you do?
I’m a scientist.
Cool! What kind of science are you into?
I get rats stoned and play them tunes.
RE: Fact #38 (Warren Buffett’s Coca-Cola Obsession) – That Warren Buffett thing about loving Coke…got me!
So, Warren Buffett gets almost six cases of Coke delivered to his house every month…
RE: Fact #10 (Quasicrystals: From Rejection to Nobel) – Even Linus Pauling, a super smart and respected scientist, got a bit carried away sometimes. Turns out, Nobel Prize winners often think they’re experts in stuff way outside their area of expertise.
Even experts, and I don’t mean just Nobel Prize winners, sometimes focus too much on their area of expertise.
Most of these fit into two groups: super-woo-woo stuff like homeopathy and ghosts, and, well, seriously racist stuff.
It all boils down to wishful thinking. Some folks really want to believe in magic cures and immortality, while others cling to the idea of racial superiority.
Kary Mullis, the 1993 Nobel Prize winner for inventing PCR, also believed in astrology and wrote about a talking, glowing raccoon that he thought might be an alien. Seriously, a talking raccoon? Couldn’t it have just been a regular raccoon?
I’m guessing his chemistry interest goes beyond just schoolwork.
Sounds like someone slipped him some acid, or maybe pulled a prank with a painted raccoon.
RE: Fact #27 (IKEA’s Naming Inspired by Dyslexia) – IKEA wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if I was just looking at stuff like Bookcase 307 and Kitchen Chair 22.
RE: Fact #46 (Pompeii Escapees Rebuilt Nearby) – Man, I wish that were me!
Pliny’s boat got close to Herculaneum, and ash and pumice started raining down. The captain wanted to turn back, but Pliny said, “Fortune favors the brave!”, and told him to head for Pomponianus’ place. They reached Stabiae and found Pomponianus, but the wind trapped them there. They waited a while, but got scared their houses might collapse, so they left that night. A cloud of hot, poisonous gas hit them, and Pliny, who wasn’t in great shape to begin with – he was a bit overweight and had breathing problems – died. They went back three days later after the gas cleared and found his body; nothing looked outwardly wrong. Twenty-seven years later, Tacitus asked Pliny the Younger to write about what happened to his uncle. The younger Pliny thought the gas killed him, but there were other stories floating around – one said Pliny went in just to see what was happening and then asked a slave to end his suffering. Another idea was that he died of a stroke or heart problem.
Yeah, right, “fortune favors the bold.” More like, “fortune favors the lucky.”