1 Harrison Ford’s Yellowstone Rescue
In 2001, a 13-year-old Boy Scout named Cody Clawson went missing in Yellowstone Park for over 18 hours. He used his belt buckle to reflect sunlight and signal passing planes. Harrison Ford, who was flying his helicopter, spotted his signal, landed, and rescued him.
2. Before the Reagan era, people called trickle-down economics the “Horse and Sparrow Theory.” The idea was that if you fed a horse plenty of oats, sparrows would get to pick them out of its poop.
3. Many competitive Scrabble players quit after the game banned hundreds of “offensive” words, including racial slurs and insults related to gender and sexuality.
4. When someone important to you abruptly leaves, your brain responds in a way similar to physical pain.
5. While voice actor Tara Strong was recording crying sounds for her character Dill Pickles on Rugrats, her performance was so realistic that it made a woman in the studio lactate. The producers had to stop the session.
6 $25M Stolen via Deepfake
In 2024, scammers used a deepfake video conference to trick a finance worker into transferring $25 million. The worker believed he was speaking with multiple colleagues and the company’s CFO, but all of them were fake.
7. Boxing legend Evander Holyfield lost nearly all of the estimated $200 million he earned during his career due to reckless spending, bad business deals, and poor financial advice. By 2019, he was earning up to $106,000 per month from personal appearances but remained “basically broke.”
8. After watching the 2019 adaptation of his musical Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber felt so emotionally damaged that he bought himself a dog.
9. In 1863, Union General Joseph Hooker significantly boosted troop morale by improving soldiers’ diets and hygiene. He issued soft bread four times a week, fresh onions or potatoes twice a week, and dried vegetables once a week. He also required soldiers to bathe twice a week and air out their bedding.
10. The FBI banned solo interviews with serial killers after convict Edmund Kemper told agent Robert Ressler that he could kill him long before help arrived.
11 Cop’s Death Leads to Lawsuit
In 2012, the widow of an Atlanta cop won a $3 million malpractice lawsuit after her husband died during a threesome with a friend and another woman. The jury found that his doctor was negligent in misdiagnosing his heart condition and failing to warn him to avoid physical activity until further tests were completed.
12. In 2015, Thomson Reuters experienced a massive “reply all” email storm when an employee in the Philippines accidentally sent a phone reactivation request to over 33,000 coworkers. Seven hours later, the original email had triggered nearly 23 million emails.
13. We only know about MKUltra experiments because officials misfiled 20,000 pages of records.
14. Vin Diesel’s real name is Mark Sinclair.
15. Goalkeeper Tommaso Berni spent six years under contract with Inter Milan, reportedly earning around €200,000 a year. Although he never made a single appearance for the club, he managed to receive two red cards-one for sarcastically applauding the referee and another for dissent.
16 Excel Art by Tatsuo Horiuchi
Japanese artist Tatsuo Horiuchi paints using Microsoft Excel. He prefers spreadsheets over traditional canvases or drawing software because they offer “more functions and are easier to use.”
17. Although her 27-year-old son died from cancer in 2020, Spanish TV actress Ana Obregón fulfilled her dream of becoming a grandmother by using his frozen sperm. His daughter was born in 2023.
18. Many soldiers in World War II used and abused hard drugs. Japanese, American, and British forces consumed large amounts of amphetamines, but German troops pioneered battlefield pill-popping during the early phases of the war.
19. Yale psychologists compared Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to Sesame Street and found that children who watched Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood remembered more of the storylines and demonstrated a significantly higher “tolerance of delay,” meaning they were more patient.
20. Naturally, one out of every 6,400 hydrogen atoms in water is a deuterium atom. It forms a “heavy water” molecule with a slightly sweet taste and is safe in small amounts. However, replacing more than 50% of the body’s H?O with D?O would be fatal.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Honda Fit 2025 Pricing
Honda sells the 2025 Fit in Japan, starting at ¥1,592,000, which is approximately $10,747 in U.S. dollars (as of March 2025).
22. During the Irish Famine, a phenomenon called Souperism emerged. Schools provided food to starving children on the condition that they receive Protestant religious instruction. However, those who “took the soup” faced scorn from their peers, and the stigma lasted beyond the famine.
23. When Quentin Tarantino learned that Video Archives, the video rental store where he had worked in Hermosa Beach, California, was closing, he bought the entire inventory and recreated the store in his basement. For him, “that place was a lifesaver.”
24. In 1942, the U.S. military printed and distributed currency with the word “HAWAII” stamped over it. This precaution ensured that if Japan invaded the islands, the money would become obsolete and wouldn’t affect the mainland economy.
25. Pandas are only fertile once a year, and their fertility window lasts just 36 hours!
RE: Fact #24 (WWII Hawaii Emergency Currency) – I found a super rare version of these at my regular coin shop. Apparently, some guys on the USS Missouri ran a bunch of Hawaii bills through the ship’s post office machine the day Japan surrendered. That means there aren’t many of these bills around with the ship and surrender date stamped on them.
RE: Fact #23 (Tarantino Saves Video Archives) – I hoped he’d buy the place and make it a museum right there.
RE: Fact #14 (Vin Diesel’s Real Name) – Funny, right? Even with a name like Vin Diesel, I never once doubted it was real!
RE: Fact #9 (General Hooker’s Troop Reforms) – Crazy how just bread and dried veggies were considered a big upgrade.
RE: Fact #39 (Dionne Quintuplets’ Exploitation) – Then came IVF and the Octomom.
RE: Fact #21 (Honda Fit 2025 Pricing) – I discovered a Honda Fit hybrid in Jamaica that gets amazing gas mileage—over 40 MPG!
Meh, not that great, huh? My old Honda Fit got 40 MPG on the highway.
My Ford Escape, a regular-sized diesel SUV with a stick shift, got an amazing 53 miles to the gallon in France! No fancy turbo or hybrid stuff, just a standard diesel engine. I even switched the dashboard to miles, not kilometers, and checked the gas mileage myself— I drove almost 800 miles on one tank! My wife’s car back home, about the same size and power, only gets half that— around 26 mpg in town and 32 on the highway. It’s crazy how much worse the fuel economy is here. Seems like someone’s keeping our cars inefficient.
RE: Fact #4 (Heartbreak Feels Like Pain) – Long-term relationships leave a huge imprint on your brain. It takes a ton of rewiring to adjust after a loss. That totally explains why I still feel like my brain’s rebuilding itself years after losing someone important. That article is fascinating.
For someone who’s died, you hold onto the good memories. Those stay good, and when you’re reminded of them, it helps you keep going. You take what time you have. That’s just how it is. They were loved, and they loved you back.
But with an ex who cheated? Every time I think about them, it’s like getting stabbed all over again. All the good memories are ruined because you realize how naive you were, thinking they cared as much as you did. You weren’t loved, you were betrayed and dumped. You’re not alone because things are out of your control; you’re alone because the person you cared about most chose someone else.
RE: Fact #25 (Pandas’ Short Fertility Window) – Pandas are endangered, it’s our fault. They were doing great until we messed up their homes and made it hard for them to mix their genes. And hey, lots of other plants and animals are getting help because of panda conservation too. I work at the Panda Base in Chengdu.
RE: Fact #32 (Cosmic Ray Alters Election Vote) – A single-event upset (or SEU, also called a single-event error) happens when a single charged particle hits a sensitive part of a microchip—like in a processor, memory, or transistor. This creates a charge that changes the chip’s state, causing a glitch or a “soft error.” You can find examples of notable SEUs, including those from the Belgium elections, on Wikipedia.
RE: Fact #43 (Singapore’s Massive Reserves) – Singapore’s leadership seems pretty good.
A zero-tolerance approach to corruption really helps things.
A minister got busted, convicted, and tossed in jail for being corrupt. The bribes were peanuts compared to what happens in other places. It’s even funnier considering how much he makes – seriously dumb to throw that away for bribes that weren’t even a third of his yearly salary! We take public service integrity seriously.
RE: Fact #33 (Nimoy’s Vulcan Salute Origin) – Picture yourself in that synagogue, not having a clue some kid in the back was memorizing a hand gesture that would later be super famous.
RE: Fact #27 (Snowboarders Once Banned) – High school history report: Resorts wouldn’t let snowboarders in, saying snowboards weren’t “approved equipment”.
RE: Fact #34 (Gropecu*t Lane’s Name Change) – That level of detail would make a period drama or fantasy show look like a joke—a really edgy, gritty, and explicit joke trying too hard to be Game of Thrones.
A really nasty Tiffany problem.
RE: Fact #37 (Heimweh: Swiss Homesickness) – It’s awesome that they thought only Swiss people could get this for 200 years.
RE: Fact #32 (Cosmic Ray Alters Election Vote) – He totally should’ve won! Even God was on his side!
RE: Fact #34 (Gropecu*t Lane’s Name Change) – Medieval streets were often named for what went on there—like Butcher’s Row, Silver Street, or Fish Street. Prostitution was pretty common in medieval cities; one old London book mentions Love Lane as a place for “ladies of the night”. Then there’s Gropecunt Lane—pretty self-explanatory! Bristol also had Hoorstrete. But Fucking Grove in Bristol was out in the sticks, so maybe sex there was more for fun than business.
RE: Fact #26 (Florence Nightingale’s Hammer Name) – She was really good at keeping track of things. So, when she got sick and was stuck in bed, she crunched the numbers and showed how clean hospitals and proper wound care saved lives.
I saw a documentary about statistics that really got me thinking about this. It wasn’t just the number-crunching; it was how she turned all those boring tables into awesome, easy-to-understand charts. That made the science stuff actually matter to everyday people and politicians, which was huge for social change.
RE: Fact #4 (Heartbreak Feels Like Pain) – Losing someone you love is rough. It can take ages to get over the feeling that they’re just around the corner.
Turns out, the part of your brain that remembers people is also the part that remembers where things are. When someone close to you is gone, it takes a while for your brain to adjust to that new reality. It can feel like your brain is actually broken, making it hard to think clearly.
So, be nice to people who’ve lost someone. It takes way longer to heal than most people realize.
Just be nice to everyone, really. You never know what’s going on in their lives.
“The Grieving Brain” is a great book that explains all this in more detail, if you’re interested.
RE: Fact #33 (Nimoy’s Vulcan Salute Origin) – My JCC teachers used this sign to call us in from the playground when we were kids.
RE: Fact #50 (1950s Law Silenced Jesus) – Turns out, Ben-Hur’s not actually named Ben.
RE: Fact #48 (Sumerians’ Base-60 Legacy) – So, they got to 60 because of how they counted on their fingers. They’d use their left hand, say, and count each finger section with their thumb – that’s three sections per finger, times four fingers, twelve total. After hitting twelve, they’d use a finger on their right hand to keep track, and start counting again on the left. Once they’d used all five fingers on the right, that made sixty, which became their main number.
That’s pretty smart! Like a human calculator.
RE: Fact #49 (Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto) – Saw this movie recently, and it’s pretty good! The pandemic’s impact is definitely felt in the dialogue—you can tell they were struggling. They didn’t seem to know much about online gaming, which is a shame, because this could’ve been huge if a big streamer or Discord server had promoted it. It’s a bit rough around the edges, made by a bunch of misfits, but there are some really sweet and funny parts.
RE: Fact #6 ($25M Stolen via Deepfake) – Cheap webcams and video conferencing software squeezing the image make this totally possible.
Totally, especially if it’s a remote company. Working in IT, I’m always running into people who are still pretty new to computers.
RE: Fact #12 (Thomson Reuters’ Email Disaster) – I get a kick out of that and usually make things worse by telling people to knock it off.
RE: Fact #16 (Excel Art by Tatsuo Horiuchi) – I helped a business owner who designs aviation fuel systems—he’s been doing it for over 30 years, makes a ton of money, and uses chair PNGs in Excel instead of actual valve diagrams.
RE: Fact #22 (Irish Famine’s Souperism Controversy) – Reverend Edward Nangle, who started the Achill Mission Colony back in the 1830s, is a good example of souperism. During the Famine, he fed the kids in the Colony’s schools, which made them really popular. People accused him of “buying souls” because of this. But souperism wasn’t always so straightforward; lots of non-Catholics gave food without pushing religion. Many Anglicans, even the Archbishop of Dublin, Richard Whately, spoke out against it. Plenty of Anglican soup kitchens didn’t try to convert anyone, and Quakers, who just focused on charity, were never involved.
Quakers always seem to be on the right side of history, don’t they? Like during WWII, they really went out of their way to help Japanese Americans in those internment camps – bringing food, finding them jobs, helping them get settled. I really respect them.
Quakers and Sikhs: Same goal, feed people, no sermons.
RE: Fact #30 (Laser Sights and The Terminator) – Lasers weren’t really around until the early 2000s, so that “took off” claim is a bit much.
So, if they were brand new in ’79, they were probably pretty pricey. If they became popular five years later, that might not have anything to do with a movie; maybe they just got cheaper.
RE: Fact #27 (Snowboarders Once Banned) – Snowboarding’s image is outdated, but honestly, my inner skier still gets annoyed by some snowboarders’ habits. Those lift-line backups they cause can be a real pain.
RE: Fact #30 (Laser Sights and The Terminator) – Man, laser sights just highlight how shaky my hands get. Gotta eat something before heading to the range.
RE: Fact #10 (FBI Ends Solo Interviews) – That’s just terrible policy for any criminal interview.
That’s terrible policy for any interview, really. Best to have another person there, especially if it’s private.
RE: Fact #2 (Trickle-Down’s Horse and Sparrow) – They figured giving all the money to the rich would help the poor, but Hoover didn’t get it. Money goes up, not down. Give it to the poor, and the rich will have it soon enough. At least the poor would get to touch it first – Will Rogers
RE: Fact #22 (Irish Famine’s Souperism Controversy) – Lots of stories got really blown out of proportion over time, but some were actually true. Irish academics say it wasn’t common, and writers made the term famous after the famine.
RE: Fact #9 (General Hooker’s Troop Reforms) – It’s a fact: prostitutes help keep soldiers’ spirits up.
RE: Fact #39 (Dionne Quintuplets’ Exploitation) – The Dionne quintuplets were a huge deal. Like, there’s even a quick joke about them in the movie *My Man Godfrey*. Someone says, “I didn’t know Godfrey had five kids!” and the other person replies, “If a woman in Canada can have five, why can’t Godfrey?”
RE: Fact #12 (Thomson Reuters’ Email Disaster) – Working for a huge company, I get a kick out of this yearly email disaster. It’s always someone accidentally sending a massive group email that explodes into a crazy reply-all chain with everyone getting angrier and angrier.
I work at a mid-sized company and totally bombed when I accidentally hit reply all to our local office—about 200 people. A couple others replied, a few coworkers teased me, and that was it. It’s easy to do, right? BCC is the way to go.
RE: Fact #40 (Smooth Brain Is a Disorder) – Lissencephaly is really, really brutal. Most kids don’t live past 9 or 10, and even then, they don’t have much brain activity.
RE: Fact #11 (Cop’s Death Leads to Lawsuit) – She got $3 million, and he got nothing?
RE: Fact #48 (Sumerians’ Base-60 Legacy) – Base 60 is awesome because it’s divisible by tons of numbers! Think 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and even combinations like 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60. Base 10 only works with 1, 2, 5, and 10.
RE: Fact #21 (Honda Fit 2025 Pricing) – Honda Fits are really popular in Thailand. Bummer that all these big trucks are becoming a thing here. Driving small cars was already tough, and now with these massive SUVs and Raptors everywhere, it’s even worse.
The Nissan Versa Note is about the same size, but I think it has a slightly bigger trunk.
I should add, I’m a huge Honda Fit fan – I wanted one, but snagged a great deal on the Note instead. They’re both good cars in that same category.
RE: Fact #33 (Nimoy’s Vulcan Salute Origin) – I figured it was just a V for Vulcan.
RE: Fact #36 (Lobsters Pee to Communicate) – Cool, we’re pretty alike!
RE: Fact #7 (Holyfield’s Fortune Lost) – I feel sorry for him, but man, $106,000 a month broke? I wish that were my problem.
RE: Fact #32 (Cosmic Ray Alters Election Vote) – That’s why we have ECC memory.
RE: Fact #12 (Thomson Reuters’ Email Disaster) – So, this happened back in 2001 when I was at Kodak. We had a new bigwig, and someone thought it’d be a great idea to send their picture to everyone worldwide. Except, this person didn’t get the picture size thing, and sent a massive 16MB picture to every single Kodak employee.
Sixteen megs was huge back then, especially sending it to everyone, even those on dial-up. It crashed our email for three whole days!
Turns out, whoever did it used one of those tools that shrinks the picture *on screen*, but the full-sized picture was still attached to the email. They totally goofed on resizing it.
RE: Fact #49 (Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto) – It’s a wild documentary, filmed entirely in the game. Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane wrote and directed it.
RE: Fact #20 (Deuterium in Water Explained) – That molecule is seriously thick.
RE: Fact #44 (Enzo Ferrari’s Reclusive Life) – He used purple ink and lived at his factory in Maranello.
His house got turned into a factory, but you can still see his old place – it’s pretty basic. He lived a simple life, from what I could tell.
RE: Fact #34 (Gropecu*t Lane’s Name Change) – That’s a bad name; they’ll need to change it again soon when Gen Z figures out what it really means.
RE: Fact #16 (Excel Art by Tatsuo Horiuchi) – I thought he’d colored the cells, but actually, he used the graphing tools.
RE: Fact #46 (Mysterious English Sweating Sickness) – Most people think it was probably some weird hantavirus nobody’s ever seen before. If that’s right, it might have wiped itself out by being too deadly. Diseases that kill their hosts too quickly often die out because they can’t spread. Some COVID versions are less deadly than the original for this very reason—people live longer to spread it.
RE: Fact #2 (Trickle-Down’s Horse and Sparrow) – I get why they put so much work into rebranding that “eat our sh*t” economic idea.
RE: Fact #46 (Mysterious English Sweating Sickness) – Henry VII’s oldest son, Arthur, the Prince of Wales, kicked the bucket from the sweating sickness. He’d married Catherine of Aragon when they were both really young, and went to live in Wales with her. Six months later, they both got sick. Catherine lived, Arthur didn’t. Because Arthur died, Henry VIII became king after their dad died. And Henry VIII even married Arthur’s widow, Catherine.
RE: Fact #13 (MKUltra Files Misfiled) – About 20,000 documents survived Helms’s cleanup because they were accidentally filed with the financial records, and someone found them in ’77 after a FOIA request.
The billing office—they never threw anything out.
RE: Fact #41 (World’s Oldest Pie Recipe) – I dunno why I bothered tracking down the original source, but here it is. I guess I just wanted the real recipe first, then it turned into fact-checking Wikipedia. Their sources are usually sketchy, but this one looks good.
RE: Fact #10 (FBI Ends Solo Interviews) – That Mindhunter scene was awesome. I really miss that show.
RE: Fact #18 (WWII Soldiers and Hard Drugs) – When I was about six, I read about the Rangers in *The Great Raid* and how they used speed to keep going when the Japanese were after them. Around the same time, my great aunt was really sick, and they said her heart wasn’t beating fast enough. So I asked my parents why we couldn’t give her something to speed it up.
RE: Fact #47 (St. Patrick’s Captivity and Return) – No snakes in Ireland since…