1 Earth’s Mysterious 26-Second Pulse
The Earth has a “heartbeat” that beats every 26 seconds. Scientists have detected a rhythmic microseismic pulse originating from somewhere in the ocean, yet its exact cause remains a mystery.
2. Oscar winners are forbidden from freely selling or disposing of their trophies. They must first offer them back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for just $1.
3. In 1980, the BBC played a bold April Fool’s prank. They announced that Big Ben would be replaced with a digital display and renamed “Digital Dave.”
4. In 1989, Val Kilmer punched and threw actress Caitlin O’Heaney to the floor during an audition for The Doors. Although the scene didn’t call for violence, director Oliver Stone reportedly laughed it off. Ultimately, the company paid O’Heaney $24,500 to not discuss the allegations publicly.
5. Despite his father’s strong opposition, 19-year-old Fabio Lanzoni moved to the U.S., and within 48 hours of his arrival, he walked into Ford Modeling Agency without an appointment-and walked out with a $150,000 contract. The very next day, Gap Inc. hired him for a launch, and soon after, he began posing for up to 15 book covers a day.
6 Thailand Declared War-Ignored Entirely
Thailand declared war on the United States in 1942. However, the Thai ambassador to the U.S. refused to deliver the declaration, leading the U.S. to simply ignore the war declaration.
7. Harvard initially denied Good Will Hunting permission to film on campus. However, alumnus John Lithgow intervened. When the location manager explained the situation, Lithgow made a single phone call-and secured permission to film in Harvard.
8. In 2015, a Washington Post reporter, Christopher Ingraham, wrote an article calling Red Lake County in Minnesota “the absolute worst place to live in America.” But after visiting the county, he completely changed his mind, and six months later he moved there with his family.
9. Eva Longoria spent $6 million to save a film-based solely on her agent’s advice. Looking back, she calls it the best money she ever spent. The film she saved was the 2014 Hollywood superhit movie John Wick.
10. The Crimean War unexpectedly popularized facial hair in Victorian Britain. Many returning soldiers had grown beards and mustaches to protect themselves from the cold-and their rugged look soon caught on at home.
11 Disney Villain’s Real Horrific Death
John Ratcliffe, the Jamestown governor who is portrayed as the villain in Disney’s Pocahontas, met a gruesome end in real life. After being deceived, ambushed, and captured, Native women skinned him with mussel shells, tossing each strip into the fire as he watched. They saved his face for last-then burned him at the stake.
12. In January 2015, video game speedrunner Niftski made gaming history by completing Super Mario Bros. (NES) in 4 minutes, 54.56 seconds. Remarkably, his run was just 0.3 seconds slower than the game’s theoretical perfect time.
13. While filming The Shawshank Redemption, producers faced an unusual ethical hurdle. The American Humane Society objected to using a live maggot in a scene where a crow had to eat one. As a result, the crew sourced a maggot that had died of natural causes.
14. In 2012, a South Carolina woman named Tracy discovered that her ex-boyfriend had been secretly living in her attic for nearly two weeks. Her adult sons and nephew found him asleep in the back of the attic, which prompted him to flee. Shockingly, they also noticed he had rigged the ceiling vents to watch her in her bedroom.
15. Steven Spielberg required actors to take a leap of faith when working with him. He insisted they forgo upfront salaries in favor of backend compensation-just like he did-explaining, “If my film makes no money, I get no money. They should be prepared to do the same.”
16 Justice Delayed Retirement for Pension
In 1878, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ward Hunt suffered a debilitating stroke. Although he could no longer attend court or deliver opinions, he refused to resign for four more years-solely to qualify for his pension.
17. While filming Planet of the Apes in 1967, the cast self-segregated in a strange, almost method-acting way. Actor Charlton Heston observed, “The chimpanzees ate with the chimpanzees, the gorillas with the gorillas, the orangutans with the orangutans, and the humans off by themselves.”
18. Steven Spielberg fabricated the now-famous story of sneaking into Universal Studios at age 21 dressed in business attire and commandeering an unoccupied office. In reality, he first entered the lot at 16 during a school break-an opportunity arranged by his father.
19. In 1978, the Khmer Rouge captured a New Zealander named Kerry Hamill, suspecting him to be a spy after his yacht accidentally drifted into Cambodian waters. Following his arrest, Hamill was imprisoned at the infamous S-21 prison in Phnom Penh. In a forced confession before his execution, he cleverly embedded clues for his family-using his home phone number as a fake CIA code and naming Colonel Sanders as his commanding officer. These small acts of resistance became part of his tragic legacy.
20. In 2017, Microsoft announced plans to retire its classic Paint software in favor of Paint 3D. However, after overwhelming support and nostalgia from users, the company decided to offer both. Eventually, it dropped Paint 3D-but original Paint remains available even today.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 King Returned to Captivity Voluntarily
King John II of France was captured by the English during the Hundred Years’ War. He secured a temporary release to raise his ransom, while his son Louis remained a hostage. John then returned back to captivity voluntarily when Louis escaped. He famously declared, “If good faith were banned from the Earth, she ought to find asylum in the hearts of kings.”
22. CEO of Nintendo, Reggie Fils-Aimé, fought hard to include Wii Sports as a free pack-in game for the Wii console. Although he eventually succeeded, Shigeru Miyamoto initially opposed the idea and was reportedly not pleased.
23. In the 1790s, France built a nationwide network of signaling towers known as the Chappe telegraph. Using giant mechanical arms to form symbols, operators could relay complex messages across the country in about an hour-decades before the invention of electric telegraphs.
24. Heath Ledger personally directed both of the Joker’s hostage videos in The Dark Knight. Director Christopher Nolan originally asked Ledger to shoot the first clip to capture the Joker’s twisted perspective. However, after seeing the chilling result, Nolan trusted Ledger to direct the second video as well.
25. Harry S. Truman remains the last U.S. president to serve without holding a college degree. Although he briefly attended Spalding’s Commercial College and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, he never completed a formal degree.
RE: Fact #44 (Butterflies Remember Caterpillar Life) – So, they basically zapped caterpillars whenever they smelled something specific—like, a lot, about 70% of them learned to avoid it. Then, when they became moths or butterflies, they still steered clear of that smell, even though it wasn’t hurting them anymore. This shows that their memories and nervous system stuck around even after they transformed.
RE: Fact #28 (Salamander Injects Pheromones Through Bites) – Salamanders are awesome, but I’d never heard of this one! Turns out it only lives on the east side of Pigeon Mountain in Georgia. Pretty crazy, a truly unique species.
If they’d found an easier way to mate, maybe they wouldn’t be so rare.
RE: Fact #16 (Justice Delayed Retirement for Pension) – Isn’t that pretty unfair? Things were way tougher back then, and it’s not like he asked for a stroke. I’d be doing the same thing if I were him.
RE: Fact #10 (Facial Hair’s Crimean Comeback) – I read somewhere that guys started shaving clean because of WWI—gas masks made it necessary.
So, that’s supposedly why the US military says no beards. They also wanted a super “professional” image, which I think is connected to clean-shaven faces.
But, seriously, we all saw Navy SEALs with huge beards! It’s just a way to control people and stop guys from having scruffy faces. And hey, they *do* have “no shave chits” for guys with bad razor burn.
From what I heard from some Swedish soldiers at a NATO base, in the Swedish military, you just tell your boss, “I’m growing a beard,” and they give you a month. If it looks terrible after that, you gotta shave it. But that’s just what I heard.
By the way, I’m not one of those guys who hates the military. I’m a proud vet, even re-upped once. I just didn’t agree with some of their silly rules.
Gas masks are the key – beards mess up the seal. Everyone needs a good mask fit. Sailors especially, since they need both gas masks and SCBAs.
Short hair kept lice and other bugs away. Trench warfare really changed things in the army.
Romans? Short hair, clean-shaven guys. No trench warfare or gas masks for them.
RE: Fact #21 (King Returned to Captivity Voluntarily) – World War I British Army Captain Robert C. Campbell was captured by the Germans in 1914. He asked the Kaiser to let him see his dying mom, and the Kaiser said okay, as long as he promised to come back. Campbell visited his mother for two weeks and then went right back to the prison camp, staying there until the war ended.
Keeping your word wasn’t unusual for prisoners of war, even way back when. During the Civil War, neither side could really handle all the prisoners – the camps were awful, disease-ridden, and starved. Some officers figured it was easier to let prisoners go, as long as they promised to go home and not fight again. Most soldiers were poor farmers, so getting back to their farms was a much better deal than dying in a camp.
He probably figured backing out would leave another soldier in the same boat high and dry.
The best bit? After Campbell got back to the POW camp, he and some other prisoners tried to escape.
I bet he didn’t promise not to run away.
RE: Fact #22 (Wii Sports Almost Didn’t Happen) – Nintendo totally blew everyone away with that move. Best decision ever, then they got arrogant and the Wii U flopped. Remember Duck Hunt with the original NES? Bundling games sells systems. They’ll probably do the same thing with the Switch 2 – get greedy, mess up, and then learn their lesson.
One Christmas, Mom said no Xbox 360 because we couldn’t afford games, too. Then, bam! A holiday bundle with Forza Motorsports 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance showed up – best Christmas ever! Maybe she always planned on getting it, but she warned my brother and me a month early so we wouldn’t be bummed.
I’ve been thinking, if Nintendo Land came free with every Wii U, would it have done better? That game was awesome for playing together on the couch – we played it tons as a family!
Edit: Whoops, I forgot Nintendo Land *was* included with the deluxe Wii U. Guess nothing could’ve saved that console.
The main problem was calling it the Wii U, and not understanding that the Wii’s success was a one-off, not something they could repeat. It wasn’t about the lack of a pack-in game.
Nope, it was all about the image. My buddy did promotional stuff for Nintendo—you know, those girls at events showing off games. She had no clue the Wii U was a whole new system; she thought it was just an extra bit of hardware. She really didn’t know what the Wii U was, and she worked for Nintendo!
RE: Fact #24 (Heath Ledger Directed Joker Clips) – Sure, I’ll rewatch The Dark Knight again.
RE: Fact #23 (France’s Pre-Electric Chappe Telegram) – They also used colored lights at night—different colors meant different letters. Scientists figured out red and blue were easiest to see from far away, but blue glass was tough to make back then, so they went with green and red instead. Railroad folks used that same idea a hundred years later for their signals, and eventually, it made its way to traffic lights. That’s why you’re stuck in rush hour.
RE: Fact #8 (Reporter Moved to ‘Worst’ Place) – I’m curious how anyone could jump to that conclusion without even being there.
RE: Fact #9 (Eva Longoria Saved John Wick) – She got twelve million back, six million profit. She wasn’t in the sequels.
RE: Fact #2 (Oscar Trophies Can’t Be Sold) – So, can I keep the trophy and sell it, or does my kid get it next?
Upgraded to the next level.
They might say that, but I’m not sure a second generation thing would fly in court.
RE: Fact #15 (Spielberg’s No-Pay Movie Rule) – I remember reading somewhere that Spielberg really looked out for Ke Huy Quan’s deal on *Temple of Doom*. His family had just come from Vietnam, and Spielberg made sure they got a fair share.
He’s a really good guy.
Yeah, we may not love billionaires, but Lucas and Spielberg seem pretty alright.
Key Huy Quan totally stole the show. “Indy, I love you.” That line still gets me.
He’s still getting a cut of the profits! The whole story’s pretty interesting.
RE: Fact #37 (Cockney Rhyming Slang ) – Loads of rhyming slangs are out there, like “apple and pears,” “rubbity-dub,” and “busy bee.” Dimwell Street slang is weird though – it doesn’t actually rhyme! Nobody knows why, maybe it’s super complicated with secret rules, maybe Dimwell’s just a weirdly named place, or maybe it’s just made up to mess with outsiders, which is pretty common for slang.
RE: Fact #6 (Thailand Declared War-Ignored Entirely) – Thailand was basically Japan’s puppet during World War II. The US probably thought their declaration of war was a bit much.
Then Thailand jumped in and attacked British Burma, Malaya, Laos, and Cambodia for the Axis powers – so it’s pretty clear who was fighting whom.
RE: Fact #16 (Justice Delayed Retirement for Pension) – It’s not the worst justice decision ever.
RE: Fact #25 (Truman: Last Degree-Less President) – Fun fact: His middle name is just “S,” not an abbreviation.
RE: Fact #29 (Dönitz Condemned For U.S. Tactic) – To be fair, out of all the awful people running Germany’s military back then, he wasn’t the absolute worst. It wouldn’t have been right to hang him while someone like Speer got a short prison sentence.
RE: Fact #13 (Maggot Scene Delayed by Ethics) – This feels like a blanket ban. The idea’s good, but some situations might seem dumb, even though they support the main point.
RE: Fact #36 (Sunlight Skunks Beer In Seconds) – I really like Corona with skunk spray.
RE: Fact #26 (BBC Slammed for Mexican Insult) – So, no complaints here. The Mexican ambassador will be there, basically asleep, watching it all happen. It’s all good.
They probably would have gotten away with it, if they hadn’t directly challenged the ambassador.
So, Clarkson and May went to the embassy to apologize to the ambassador, and Clarkson says they got completely smashed on his tequila.
RE: Fact #9 (Eva Longoria Saved John Wick) – Making movies is a crazy gamble. Even with a killer cast, director, and script, the pre-production costs alone can be insane. We all see the finished film and think it was a sure thing, but until everything clicks, it’s like having all the best stuff but still messing up the recipe.
RE: Fact #29 (Dönitz Condemned For U.S. Tactic) – The Brits let the Bismarck survivors drown, scared of German U-boats. American subs didn’t save anyone from the Japanese ships they sunk. War’s a nasty business.
British ships left the Bismarck wreck, with German sailors still hanging onto the nets. Some Germans even fell off British ships as they sailed away—a British sailor thought he spotted a U-boat, but it turned out to be a false alarm; later research showed there weren’t any U-boats around.
That’s not quite right. Both U-556 and U-74 were close enough to see the Bismarck during the final battle. U-556 was out of torpedoes and fuel, so it passed the baton to U-74 to keep an eye on things. Here’s what their patrol reports said:
U-556 (May 27, 1941, Midnight): “What can I do?! I see the Bismarck firing star shells and defensive fire. Heavy artillery attacks. It’s awful being so close and not able to do anything—I’m out of torpedoes and fuel. All I can do is scout and guide in other subs. I’m sending bearing signals to the other boats.”
U-74 (May 27, various times):
“Around 4:30 AM, I saw a shadow on the other side of the Bismarck, about 8-10 kilometers away. I turned to close in, but lost sight of it as the visibility changed.
I’m staying on this side to maybe attack any enemies coming this way. It’s a terrible night. The waves are too big for torpedoes. U-556 should be nearby. I’m getting U-556’s bearing signals now and then, but nothing from the Bismarck. I’m seeing the same things U-556 reported.
4:30 AM: Felt three big explosions—one was really powerful.
4:33 AM: Saw more shooting at 290°.
6:30 AM: Made visual contact with a sub around 6:30 AM that handed off contact with the Bismarck at 270°.
I can only move towards 250°, the waves from 300° and 320° are still getting bigger.
7:26 AM: Had to dive because of two ships about 5 kilometers away from a rain squall. I was taking sound bearings, but the equipment wasn’t working perfectly.
9:22 AM: From 9:00 to 9:40 AM, I heard a lot of heavy and medium explosions to my left. I went underwater, heading north to avoid the waves. When I surfaced at 9:22 AM, nothing was in sight. I figured the explosions were bombs, judging by our battle reports.
Later that night, U-74 rescued three Bismarck survivors.
If the Allies had lost, the people who ordered the firebombings in Japan would’ve been in big trouble for war crimes.
Curtis LeMay would’ve either been hanged right away or a big shot in Japan’s experimental air force.
RE: Fact #7 (John Lithgow Saved Harvard Shoot) – I’ve always been a huge fan of John Lithgow’s acting. Turns out he’s a really great guy, too! His Smartless interview recently was awesome.
Back in ’99, I went skiing near Whitefish at Big Mountain. The first night we were there, I saw him – I was thirteen and a HUGE fan of 3rd Rock from the Sun! I didn’t say anything, but the next day while I was getting my skis, he asked if I knew who he was and wanted an autograph. I mumbled something about not wanting to bother him, but he insisted, and even got my whole family in a picture with him. I gotta find that photo somewhere! He was really cool.
Wow, he is seriously perceptive! So cool.
His performance of 3rd Rock from the Sun is my all-time favorite.
It’s kinda funny how we have Third Rock and Thirty Rock, but nobody’s made a Three Hundred Rock yet.
Dick Solomon was awesome. He totally rocked both roles—the lovable him and the scary Arthur Mitchell—showing just how talented he is.
RE: Fact #47 (Nissan Rebranded to Escape Datsun) – Everyone in our family loved our Datsun 510 station wagon.
My first car? A Datsun 200sx. I bought it with 200,000 miles on it, and ditched it at a party at the University of Florida – it had 320,000 miles by the time I was a freshman.
RE: Fact #32 (Ref Used Rock-Paper-Scissors Kickoff) – Big Coin’s been running English football from the shadows. Mess with them, and you’ll pay the price.
Big Coin is a bunch of jerks.
RE: Fact #50 (MRI Killed Child With Oxygen Tank) – This room setup needs a rethink to avoid another disaster like that.
That accident? Pure corner-cutting. Probably got some nurse or tech in trouble, and that’s the end of it. A kid dying is a pretty serious wake-up call.
Nah, my sister messed up bad at work – killed a patient! They just gave her a slap on the wrist. She got sued too, but insurance covered it.
RE: Fact #31 (Dead Pixel Delayed Goofy Movie) – Dead pixel on screen? Were they recording the screen? I’m a bit baffled.
Me too! Yeah, that’s their story. I figure it was before digital, and cheaper than shooting it on film.
No animation cels from A Goofy Movie exist because of that.
RE: Fact #4 (Val Kilmer’s Violent Audition Incident) – She quit the business, and says acting jobs vanished fast after she signed that deal. They probably labeled her like Harvey Weinstein labeled actresses who said no: a “difficult” person.
Yeah, definitely not the only woman who’s been abused by a powerful guy and had her career ruined because of it.
Funny thing is, Kilmer’s apparently a tough act to follow.
RE: Fact #15 (Spielberg’s No-Pay Movie Rule) – Seemed like a pretty safe bet back then, Spielberg was huge in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
RE: Fact #12 (Mario Speedrun Nearly Perfect) – He basically aced every level except one. SMB1 checks for level completion about three times a second, so to pull this off, he must have only missed one frame throughout the entire game.
RE: Fact #47 (Nissan Rebranded to Escape Datsun) – So, by the way… Goldstar became Lucky Goldstar, which then became LG.
RE: Fact #44 (Butterflies Remember Caterpillar Life) – They don’t just turn to mush; some parts stay intact.
Seriously, are you a Chrysalis expert or something?
Caterpillars totally melt down, it’s just like T2. Same color and all.
I recall winning the sperm race.
So, SciShow or a similar channel recently did a cool segment on this, showing a caterpillar’s wings inside during dissection. Metamorphosis is basically a couple of awesome molts as the creature grows. Moths make silk cocoons, but butterflies use their hard exoskeleton as a safe space for their soft new skin to grow for weeks. The whole “melting” thing isn’t totally off, as the caterpillar’s old mouthparts and gut get broken down for nutrients. The insect’s final form only hardens and dries after it leaves the cocoon or chrysalis.
RE: Fact #39 (Church Hid Priests in Centers) – So, what’s the deal with those places?
It’s like house arrest, they’re committed to the church for life, it’s a big deal. Most priests don’t own much outside their church anyway. They take it seriously, so if you mess up, they won’t just kick you out. You’ll get stuck doing chores and won’t be representing the church anymore. I used to be a private chef for Jesuits, so I know.
Funny thing is, a priest dating a woman? He’s way more likely to lose his job than if he did something else. They’ll take away his priestly stuff, but he’s still gotta stick to that whole celibacy thing. Little kids are protected, but date a grown woman and poof, he’s out.
Sounds like they’re dodging the law.
Likely running a summer camp for young boys.
I went to high school in Los Gatos, class of ’76. My dad was really Catholic, so we went to St. Mary’s. I used to bike up College Ave. to Sacred Heart Jesuit. Dad said it was a retirement home for priests – leave them alone, he said.
Years later, I realized it was a place for, uh, guys who’d done wrong, maybe a kind of “rehab” before they went elsewhere.
Funny story: I got chased up that hill by the cops on my little Honda 100, zoomed off the road near the entrance, and hid for hours before getting away. Crazy times.
Man, this totally reminded me of that time we were messing around at the lake after closing and had to run from the rangers! We were almost across the parking lot when they came around the corner. We hid in the bushes right in front of the ranger station—hilarious!
We listened to them talking about us for ages. Seriously, good times.
RE: Fact #36 (Sunlight Skunks Beer In Seconds) – Back in 1875, a German chemist, Dr. Carl Lintner, noticed that beer exposed to light developed a really bad taste and smell. Then, in the 1960s, Yoshiro Kuroiwa figured out that this off-flavor was mainly caused by MBT, which formed when light broke down the bittering stuff (isohumulones) in the beer, with riboflavin helping things along. His team also found that blue light was the worst offender. In bright sunlight, the bad flavor could happen almost instantly—tasting tests showed you could detect it after only 10 seconds! Even in weaker light, like in a store display case, it still happened, just more slowly—it might take days or weeks to notice.
RE: Fact #46 (Rice Terraces: Ancient Farming Wonder) – Wow, there are tons of things called the eighth wonder of the world.
Those “wonders” are so old, nobody’s really sure where the list came from. Let’s just drop it.
They’re usually credited to Antipater of Sidon, a Greek poet from around the 2nd century BCE. He wrote a poem listing them, and while there were other versions floating around, his is the one that really stuck. So it wasn’t official, but it wasn’t just some random list either.
RE: Fact #45 (Ghosn’s Nissan Turnaround Gamble) – That name sounds familiar! It was a huge deal, if I recall. He got arrested in Japan in 2018 for messing around with Nissan’s money—apparently, he hid how much he was actually making and misused company cash. Then, in 2019, while he was under house arrest, he totally escaped Japan by hiding in a big box on a private jet.
That guy’s Metal Gear Solid cosplay is seriously dedicated.
The funny thing about that whole Ghosn thing is that Japan couldn’t get him back, but they *did* manage to get the two Americans who helped him escape, straight from the US. Those guys got sent to Japan in 2021, convicted, and thrown in jail.
That’s wild. I feel for those guys.
RE: Fact #20 (Paint Survives Microsoft’s Axe) – Paint’s been around since the very first Windows way back in 1985! They added Paint 3D in 2017, which could handle 3D stuff, alongside regular Paint. Then, kinda surprisingly, they said they were getting rid of Paint, but tons of people complained, so they made it a free download instead. It’s still in Windows 10, though they did briefly try to remove it from some versions. Later, they even took Paint 3D out of the Microsoft Store entirely.
RE: Fact #2 (Oscar Trophies Can’t Be Sold) – So, Harold Russell selling his Oscar in 1946 after winning it for “The Best Years of Our Lives” was a huge deal because he didn’t have to follow that old rule.
Yep, Oscars from before 1951 are good to go.
Even so, they’d have had to leave the Academy. They got past winners to go along with the new rule to stay in.
RE: Fact #23 (France’s Pre-Electric Chappe Telegram) – Way back when, like two thousand years ago, the Athenians had this clever system. They used torches to start, then unplugged matching water cylinders – one for sending, one for receiving. Another torch signal meant to plug it up. The amount of water left showed a Greek letter marked on the cylinder. They’d refill and do the next letter. That’s how they sent messages far away.
That’s way more complicated than this system. It’s also much less high-tech than mechanical arms. But hey, if it’s dumb but works, it ain’t dumb.
The Chappe system sounds way more complicated, but it was probably much faster. I might have exaggerated how complex the Athenian system was, though. They likely used shortcuts—pre-written messages, abbreviations, and stuff like that—to make things easier.
The Athenians could have built robotic arms, no problem, but they lacked telescopes to see faraway details beyond what a simple torch could show. So they had to figure out a messaging system that didn’t need super-clear visuals at the receiving end.
Empty the water tubes. When you see the light, do the same. Mark the water level with a letter. When it hits your target letter, signal the other person. You should both have the same amount of water, at the same letter. They write down the letter. Repeat. It’s slow, but it works!
RE: Fact #35 (Teen’s $280M Scam Exposed) – So, Minkow gets out, does some market manipulation, goes back to jail. Then he gets out again, rips off his church, and goes right back. Makes you wonder about this guy, huh?
The more I hear about that guy, the less I like him.
That’s a great Norm Macdonald reference!
Seriously, the guy behind the Fyre Festival is already planning Fyre Festival 2, even after getting out of jail for the first one’s mess.
RE: Fact #17 (Apes Ate Separately On Set) – Babylon 5 used a lot of extras in alien makeup. The guy who made the show said the same thing happened—during lunch breaks, they’d all sit with others playing the same alien race.
I was a film/TV extra for ages. It was a constant thing with costumes.
That makes sense, since you’re probably on the same team.
RE: Fact #12 (Mario Speedrun Nearly Perfect) – Niftski, a super Mario Bros. speedrunner, is getting ridiculously close to a perfect run! After almost a year and a half since his last world record, he just clocked in at 4:54.56. That’s only 18 frames from a flawless run, according to tool-assisted speedrunners on reddit who figured out the absolute best possible time is 4:54.26. He’s only 0.3 seconds away!
Dude, didn’t he totally bomb that last pipe jump? He went way too far and it cost him a bunch of time.
He did, but not quite how you’d expect. The trick is to barely nudge the screen past the pipe to teleport to the water part. He jumped a bit too far, maybe two frames extra. Someone who’s really good at the game could probably explain it better, but that’s the basic idea.
He has to; otherwise, the pipe won’t work right. He went exactly far enough to trigger the shortcut.
RE: Fact #25 (Truman: Last Degree-Less President) – He went to Seton Hall for a year and a half.
He gets law.
He knows his stuff about law.
He was never cut out to be a varsity athlete.
RE: Fact #1 (Earth’s Mysterious 26-Second Pulse) – With everything going on, I doubt many people would even notice an ancient evil rising from the earth.
Seriously, I bet on him!
Big bucks! No losers! Stop!
He still owes me three fifty.
RE: Fact #31 (Dead Pixel Delayed Goofy Movie) – Honestly, releasing a summer vacation movie in April makes way more sense than around Christmas, right?
Die Hard was pretty silly.
I’m only hearing Goofy’s yell as Hans takes a tumble.
RE: Fact #17 (Apes Ate Separately On Set) – Roddy McDowell sometimes cruised around Hollywood in his ape suit, just for fun.
RE: Fact #41 (Walken’s Accent From ESL Neighbors) – That SNL skit made me think about a town, maybe in Pennsylvania, where everyone talks like Christopher Walken.
I’ve always thought a country album called *Walken in Memphis* would be awesome for him.
That reminds me of that Simpsons episode in Bronson, Missouri—everyone’s talking like Charles Bronson!
RE: Fact #40 (Mugabe “Won” His Own Lottery) – Wow, crazy coincidence! Turns out, it’s a 1 in 1 chance.
Let’s have another look at the numbers!
Nope, the math checks out. President Mugabe was the victor!
RE: Fact #4 (Val Kilmer’s Violent Audition Incident) – Wow, my family was just chatting about our fave Val Kilmer films.
Factrepublic always seems to dredge up someone’s worst moment right after they pass.
RE: Fact #6 (Thailand Declared War-Ignored Entirely) – After the war, that ambassador went back to Thailand and became prime minister.
From 1945 to 1947, Thailand zipped through seven Prime Ministers—three were the same guy! He was PM three times himself: four months, then a year later one month, and finally six months, two decades after his first go. His younger brother took over for a year before he got the job back. Thai politics is Crazy!
His younger brother acted as a Southeast Asian country’s Prime Minister in that Marlon Brando movie, “The Ugly American,” before becoming Thailand’s real Prime Minister. They were even in different political parties back then.
Thailand’s WWII-era leader returning to power and cozying up to the Americans caused a big pause in the middle.
RE: Fact #48 (Boole Died From Cold Water) – Sick and freezing? Let’s make it twice as bad.
You’re freezing inside, so let’s get you freezing outside to even things out.
Gosh, you’re freezing! Let’s get you out of those cold clothes and into a nice, cool bath. What would you do without me? By the way, did you sign those life insurance papers?
Seriously, how’d anyone make it through the 1800s? Wait, nope, just looked at the stats – no way.
His wife figured whatever cured him should be like what made him sick, so she wrapped him in wet blankets since he got sick from getting wet.
RE: Fact #35 (Teen’s $280M Scam Exposed) – Seems like every young entrepreneur who hits it big is a scammer these days. How many total losers have gotten into Forbes 30 under 30?
Lots of big companies start out with a bunch of lies, hoping to clean things up later once they’re rich. Get caught too soon, though, and you’re just another scammer instead of a success story.
Getting that rich honestly? Forget about it. There aren’t any good examples.
RE: Fact #46 (Rice Terraces: Ancient Farming Wonder) – They say if you lined up all the steps, they’d go halfway around the world. I wonder if that’s actually true.
I’m pretty doubtful about any claims of measuring something that goes all the way around the world.
Your doubts could wrap around the world!
RE: Fact #42 (Davis Improved Army, Then Fought It) – The US Army went from 16,400 soldiers in 1855 to a whopping 2.1 million by the end of the Civil War.
The Union Army had a whopping 2,672,341 enlistments during the Civil War—some for 90 days, others for the whole shebang. That’s a lot different than the number of guys actually serving at any given time, which topped out at 550,000 in 1862 and stayed around 625,000 to 650,000 from 1863 to 1865. I’ve seen some numbers suggesting a peak of 700,000, but I’d have to do some digging to find the exact date. And remember, the whole Union population at the war’s start was only about 22 million.
Wow, as someone who works in logistics, I can’t even fathom how they pulled that off.
RE: Fact #21 (King Returned to Captivity Voluntarily) – So, they called him Jean II “The Good,” right? He got captured at the Battle of Poitiers—that was early on in the Hundred Years’ War—by Edward the Black Prince. Then, the prince and the future Charles V the Wise had to clean up the mess—war, plague, revolts…the whole shebang. John II was swapped for his son Louis and some other people, but Louis bolted after three years. John II went back to England and kicked the bucket in London a short time later. They took his body back to France and buried him in the royal graveyard until the French Revolution.
The battle of Poitiers, with his other fourteen-year-old son, might be another fight.
This 14-year-old kid became the Duke of Burgundy and basically ran France until he died. He united a bunch of countries, launched crusades, got super rich, and then threw the biggest parties ever. He totally deserves his own factrepublic post.
Did they trash the necropolis during the Revolution?
Wow, they dug up 42 kings, 32 queens, and a whole bunch more royalty—plus some regular folks and priests—from St. Denis. They tossed ’em all in mass graves in 1793, even John II the Good!
RE: Fact #2 (Oscar Trophies Can’t Be Sold) – That’s the dumbest, most self-centered thing I’ve ever heard. They gave it to you, so do what you want with it.
Even Pawn Stars had to return a Grammy they got because it turns out you can’t sell those.
RE: Fact #30 (Women Banned From Herbertstraße) – I heard Tijuana’s strip clubs are pretty much the same. They don’t let single women in, supposedly to keep guys from getting caught cheating.
They likely don’t want other women stealing their customers.
To keep those workers safe from unfair blame and attacks
RE: Fact #36 (Sunlight Skunks Beer In Seconds) – My friend brewed a banana IPA that was seriously bad. Some bottles ended up in someone’s yard—they were found when a tree got pruned, after sitting there for about a year. We drank them on a dare. They were amazing! Tasted like chocolate beer.
Sell those old things
Bruised Banana IPA
RE: Fact #50 (MRI Killed Child With Oxygen Tank) – Metal that sticks to a magnet in an MRI room? That means something went seriously wrong.
RE: Fact #5 (Fabio’s $150K Walk-In Break) – He’d been a model in Italy for a while, so he wasn’t some newbie.
He probably waltzed in with a big portfolio and a ton of contacts, maybe even some Italian connections.
People love to pretend it’s all magic, but it’s usually a lot less exciting.
The person who started this whole thing is the one doing the magic, not Fabio. But Fabio did say he got it all pretty easily, like it was handed to him. That gave him free time for sports and weights.
RE: Fact #8 (Reporter Moved to ‘Worst’ Place) – Maybe he always planned on moving there, but couldn’t afford it. So he wrote a nasty article, and the county basically paid him off to get him to move.
Maybe he just wanted to tank the property values so he could snag some cheap land. The whole thing was a scam!
Seriously, a couple years later, he got busted for letting loose rattlesnakes and dumping nuclear waste near where he wanted to live. He even hired a Mongolian horse army to, you know, lightly rape and pillage some villages.
A seriously clever plan.
Breckenridge is terrible, the worst place in America. I’ll never change my mind about it.
Last time I was in town, I totally lucked out and played a VR Donkey Kong game at the arcade – for free! Someone left credits behind, so that was awesome. It’s a pretty cool city, if you ask me.
RE: Fact #29 (Dönitz Condemned For U.S. Tactic) – I also recall hearing that the US submitted their own unrestricted sub warfare orders against Japan as evidence to help Doenitz. They were practically identical.
That helped him get a shorter sentence; he proved the Allies did the same things they were accusing him of.
Makes me think this might’ve been Turtledove’s inspiration for the final Timeline 191 book.
The Pacific admiral who unleashed unrestricted submarine warfare for the US also defended himself, saying he should be tried too if Dönitz was.
American subs really wrecked Japan’s stuff.
RE: Fact #3 (Big Ben’s “Digital Dave” Prank) – Surprisingly, not many people got the joke.
That’s kinda what makes it really funny, though.
RE: Fact #25 (Truman: Last Degree-Less President) – He was the last president to sport any facial fuzz, actually. After beating Thomas Dewey in the ’48 election, Truman took a few weeks off and decided to let his beard grow out. He ended up with a mustache and goatee combo he nicknamed “Jeff Davis.”
RE: Fact #13 (Maggot Scene Delayed by Ethics) – Darabont mentions this in his script notes. They needed a dead maggot for a scene, so they went to a fishing store, checked their bait, and found one. Darabont even offered an autopsy to prove it died naturally! The ASPCA person on set wasn’t amused. Later, the prop guys made a tiny director’s chair out of matches for the live worms to chill in between shots.
This is great! Sometimes you gotta pick your battles, and that ASPCA person was clearly just trying to cover their involvement in that whole live-bait fuss.
Their job is enforcing the rules, even though the rules miss a few weird situations. The studio’s on board with the rules, and the ASPCA person is just making sure everyone follows them.
Buying a can of live bait is a joke – half of them usually kick the bucket within 24 hours. What a waste!
Feeding a dead animal to your bird could be risky.
Just wait till they find out about those poor chickens crammed into tiny cages their whole lives.
The ASPCA person on set didn’t think it was very funny.
Seriously, they’re there to be a pain, so maybe they should get used to some teasing.
Look, I’m all for helping dogs and horses, but worrying about the rights of maggots and other bugs we normally kill? That’s a bit much.
They’re not trying to be jerks for no reason. It’s kinda dumb here, but generally, it’s a good thing they’re around. That’s how we keep directors from throwing animals off cliffs.
RE: Fact #23 (France’s Pre-Electric Chappe Telegram) – Terry Pratchett used that system in his *Going Postal* book. And get this – France still has a nationwide audio alarm system. It goes from station to station, warning everyone about nukes or bioweapons. They test it every first Wednesday at noon, and it sounds just like those WWII air raid sirens in the movies.
RE: Fact #5 (Fabio’s $150K Walk-In Break) – Remember Derek Zoolander? Kids these days probably wouldn’t get it, but way back in the 90s, before all that other stuff, he was a *huge* male model.
My mom was obsessed with those cheesy romance novels in the 90s – that guy was in all of them!
Lots of stores, like Shopko, Pamida, Kmart, and Walmart, used to have tons of Fabio books.
RE: Fact #20 (Paint Survives Microsoft’s Axe) – If it works, don’t fix it.
Microsoft’s always messing with stuff that’s perfectly good, making it worse, then making everyone use the crappy new version.
RE: Fact #33 (Radiologists Joke X-rays) – As a radiologist, we usually call this the Throckmorton sign.
Oh, I saw that in the article too. Throckmorton definitely sounds way cooler.
Sounds like something straight outta MST3K! Those names—Bolt Vanderhuge, Butch Deadlift, Throck Morton, Big McLargehuge, Roll Fizzlebeef—are perfect.
Throckmorton’s way more common in medicine. I even had to check what John Thomas was to make sure it meant the same thing.
RE: Fact #15 (Spielberg’s No-Pay Movie Rule) – Spielberg’s a huge name, tons of hits under his belt, so it all worked out for him in the end. But man, that sounds like a terrible deal.
He’s totally not talking about the average Joe on set. It’s only the big shots – the director, producer, and highest-paid actors – who get the lion’s share of the money.
It’s only for movie stars, not regular actors who need the money to make ends meet. Stars are already famous and well-off.
That’s a good point! It’s less of a bad deal and more of a gamble, then.
RE: Fact #7 (John Lithgow Saved Harvard Shoot) – I didn’t realize he did scary stuff until I saw Dexter—man, that was terrifying!
RE: Fact #11 (Disney Villain’s Real Horrific Death) – It freaks me out that people don’t instantly die when they’re skinned alive. Guess I’ll add that to my list of bizarre but possible ways to kick the bucket.
I read somewhere that without skin, people get hypothermia faster and die. So, they’d skin people near a fire to help keep them alive longer.
Skin’s main job is holding onto moisture. If it doesn’t, you dry out.
RE: Fact #49 (LA’s Hidden Oil Pumping Field) – It’s like those cities with all the empty apartment buildings and construction cranes everywhere.
NYC has some cool subway vents and emergency exits that look like hollowed-out buildings.
I’d love a documentary like those “secrets of NYC” ones – I bet there’s a crazy amount of cool hidden stuff happening in the city.
RE: Fact #24 (Heath Ledger Directed Joker Clips) – Smiling throws people off. It’s simpler than trying to explain what’s eating you.
Great actor, way too soon.
Man, what a loss. He was the best live-action Joker ever, a truly great actor, gone too soon. It’s a shame to think of all the amazing things he could’ve done with today’s media.
RE: Fact #20 (Paint Survives Microsoft’s Axe) – Man, I really miss the old days of computers without all the ads and tracking. Microsoft, get on it!
Microsoft, get on it… Maximize shareholder value?
RE: Fact #38 (F1 Drivers Sweat Off Kilograms) – Top athletes? They sweat.
RE: Fact #3 (Big Ben’s “Digital Dave” Prank) – I’m shocked they didn’t torch parliament sooner!
RE: Fact #13 (Maggot Scene Delayed by Ethics) – Turns out, those maggots were actually waxworms—we got them from the bait shop. Anyway, the crew made Frank Darabont a director’s chair out of matchsticks for the waxworm and gave it to him at the end of the day.
RE: Fact #42 (Davis Improved Army, Then Fought It) – If I remember right, most of the new weapons went to armories in the South.
They smuggled in tons of rifles and gunpowder.
It’s kind of funny how a lot of those gun-running ships were loaded with fancy stuff – designer clothes and European art. High-class Southerners, whose imports were cut off by the blockade and whose local businesses were wrecked by the war, really craved that stuff. The very people the South was fighting for were more interested in getting their hands on fancy French things and Dutch paintings than making room for more ammo to keep their soldiers fighting.
RE: Fact #22 (Wii Sports Almost Didn’t Happen) – Even then, it was only in the West; they didn’t include Wii Sports with the console in Japan.
RE: Fact #18 (Spielberg Lied About Studio Break-In) – It’s all about connections.
I landed this job because the interviewer and I went to the same high school AND college – total coincidence! We spent more time talking about our hometown than the actual job. Before that, I was getting shot down everywhere; career week was brutal. My GPA was a 2.7, so clearly it’s all about who you know, not what you’ve done. I did well in the internship and earned a spot in their leadership program, but that connection got me in the door.
It’s annoying how people get all weird about this. Lots of super-rich and powerful folks are basically born into it – nepotism, you know? I don’t mind that in theory – Spielberg’s amazing – but what about the rest of us? It feels like money and power are *huge* factors in how life turns out, and if you don’t have them, you’re constantly swimming upstream.
These days, it’s mostly athletes who really make it big from nothing. At least, that’s true in the UK. Most famous folks – actors, singers, politicians, the whole lot – they’re basically all rich kids who went to fancy private schools. There’s a whole bunch of info out there showing just how many celebrities went to these schools; it’s a real eye-opener how many rich kids are in the media and entertainment world.
Footballers, and other athletes, are pretty much the only famous people left who come from working-class or lower-middle-class backgrounds. Even those with famous family members in the sport deserve a ton of credit; there’s no way to buy your way to the top in sports – it’s all about talent and hard work.
My buddy’s helping his 16-year-old son launch a landscaping biz. The kid’s a hard worker, really smart, and he’s earned his success—though it definitely helps that his portfolio shows off his amazing yard and his first clients are all wealthy family friends. He’ll be rolling around in a dually before he even graduates!
It’d be awesome if he opened a manscaping business. Not many rich guys are into that, apparently.
It’s not just about who you know, it’s about being able to keep trying even if you mess up. I tried once, blew all my cash, and that was that.
I’m too beat to look it up, but there’s this saying about a carnival game, right? It’s like life’s a carnival game – rich kids get tons of tries, while the rest of us are lucky to get even one if we scrounge up enough money.
RE: Fact #40 (Mugabe “Won” His Own Lottery) – Yeah, that guy. A total racist, he just switched up the type of racism in Rhodesia.
RE: Fact #50 (MRI Killed Child With Oxygen Tank) – MRI safety training always covers this.
RE: Fact #29 (Dönitz Condemned For U.S. Tactic) – Donitz’s three-week Nazi chancellorship was pretty darkly humorous. They ran the whole thing out of a random high school gym, mostly arguing over which Nazi medals to keep.
RE: Fact #19 (Hamill Coded Clues Before Execution) – The title threw me. Basically, a storm blew his boat into Cambodian waters, they grabbed him, tortured him, thinking he was a spy. He wasn’t! To get them off his back, he confessed, making up crazy stuff – like saying his bosses and colleagues were his childhood buddies, and even Colonel Sanders! It’s wild he could still crack jokes under that kind of pressure.
Cambodia’ll make you want to punch Henry Kissinger. Seriously, you’ll never look at him on TV or in a magazine again without wanting to throttle him. After seeing what he did there – his “statesmanship” – you’ll wonder why he’s not on trial.
Just a heads-up: The Cambodian genocide is seriously disturbing stuff, so maybe skip it unless you’re in a good headspace to handle it.
Hey spy, what’s your name? Jack Meoff
So, who’s your boss?
His name’s Ben. Ben Dover…
Torture’s a bad idea, it just doesn’t work. They don’t get the answers they want, so they think the person’s lying and torture them more. It’s a vicious cycle, ending with the prisoner saying whatever they think the torturers want to hear.
If you keep pushing this guy, he’ll eventually spill the beans, but that doesn’t automatically make it true!
So, Jack Bauer tortures people in 24 because he’s always got a crazy deadline, right? But that’s exactly when torture wouldn’t work. A terrorist could just send him on a wild goose chase, and that’s game over for Jack.
RE: Fact #24 (Heath Ledger Directed Joker Clips) – Look at me.
LOOK
AT
ME.
That was some seriously amazing theatre. Dead silent the moment he got serious.
Totally! That whole movie was wild, but that bit? Seriously shocking.
Me too! My jaw was on the floor the whole drive home. Plus, I heard tons of kids crying and parents bailing before the movie ended.
Man, I totally got sucked into that movie as things went sideways and the Joker kept outsmarting Batman. That bit with the Joker hanging out the cop car window, that moody music…it’s just stuck in my head. Seriously, some of the best ten seconds of film ever. It wasn’t just dark, it was gorgeous. That was the first Blu-ray I got for my new Sony HD TV—the picture was unbelievably sharp and vibrant.
Top moment of the whole trilogy
That scene’s a masterclass in “less is more” filmmaking. The Joker acts all goofy and happy most of the time, but then *bam*—that one quick glimpse shows the real rage lurking beneath the makeup. You don’t need to see it all the time; that tiny flash is enough to make him terrifying. If he was angry the whole movie, he’d just be a cartoon villain.
RE: Fact #46 (Rice Terraces: Ancient Farming Wonder) – Hand-carved, using shovels, not spoons.
RE: Fact #12 (Mario Speedrun Nearly Perfect) – Check out Summoning Salt on YouTube; they’ve got a video explaining the run. The idea of a “perfect run” has gotten even better lately.
RE: Fact #27 (Cuba’s Super Cow Monument) – Wow, Ubre Blanca was an amazing milk producer! She made a whopping 109.5 liters of milk in a single day back in January 1982 – that’s over four times what a normal cow does. And get this – she gave 24,268.9 liters in one lactation period that ended in February 1982! Guinness World Records even gave her the nod for both those feats. Poor thing.