1 Judge Dismisses Lawsuit in Rap
Eminem wrote “Brain Damage” (1999) about his real childhood bully, DeAngelo Bailey. In an interview, Bailey boasted that he hit Eminem so hard, it caused a concussion, made his ears bleed, and temporarily blinded him. Later, in 2001, Bailey attempted to sue Eminem for slander. However, a judge dismissed the case—remarkably—in the form of a rap.
2. Whenever contestants cried out of frustration or disappointment on “The Great British Bake Off,” hosts Mel and Sue would either use their coats to block the cameras or start swearing profusely. This tactic ensured the footage became unusable, thus protecting the contestants’ dignity.
3. Steven Spielberg offered actor Tom Sizemore a role in Saving Private Ryan (1998) on one strict condition: Sizemore had to take a drug test at the end of each filming day. If he failed even once, Spielberg promised to re-shoot all his scenes with a different actor. Sizemore stayed clean and successfully completed the film.
4. In 2016, workers in China found a woman’s body trapped in an elevator for a full month. Earlier, servicemen had investigated a malfunctioning cable and, after banging on the door and receiving no response, cut the power and told residents to use another lift. Shockingly, they returned a month later and found her deceased inside.
5. Introducing peanuts into babies’ diets at 4 to 6 months of age can reduce the risk of peanut allergies by a remarkable 77%.
6 Imahara Built Hospital Baby Yoda
Before he passed away, Grant Imahara built a lifelike Baby Yoda robot to visit and cheer children in hospitals.
7. Teen pregnancy rates in the United States have dropped dramatically—they are now less than a quarter of what they were in the 1990s.
8. In 1900, physician Jesse William Lazear set out to prove that mosquitoes transmitted yellow fever. He allowed an infected mosquito to bite him and subsequently contracted the disease, thereby confirming his hypothesis. Tragically, he did not recover and died 17 days later.
9. In 2015, an 18-year-old Ohio teen named Julian Hernandez discovered that he was listed in a missing children database while applying for college with his high school guidance counselor. This shocking revelation led to the discovery that his father had kidnapped him from his mother when he was just five. Ultimately, the court sentenced his father to four years in prison.
10. A cat named Tommy once dialed 911 to help his owner, Gary, who had fallen from his wheelchair and couldn’t get up. Although Gary had trained Tommy to call 911, he never truly expected the training to be effective—until it actually worked.
11 Bomber Hid Explosive Internally
In 2009, a man attempted to assassinate Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayef by hiding a bomb inside his anus—a method that was described as “a novel technique.” Although he got close enough to shake hands with the prince, his body absorbed most of the blast. As a result, Bin Nayef sustained only minor injuries.
12. In the U.S. military, pilots often receive call signs—nicknames they use professionally—based on early-career mistakes. These humorous or ironic names usually stick with them throughout their careers.
13. In 2014, Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air’s chairman, erupted in fury after being served macadamia nuts in a packet instead of on a plate during a flight. She forced the flight attendant to kneel and apologize, ejected him from the plane, and later demoted him.
14. In 2009, an orangutan at an Australian zoo devised and then executed an ingenious escape plan. She disabled her enclosure’s electric fence by jamming a stick into the wiring and piled up debris to scale a wall. However, after sitting on the fence for 30 minutes, she voluntarily returned.
15. After the Titanic sank, the first recovery ship ran out of embalming supplies. Consequently, the crew chose to preserve only first-class passengers—believing wealthy men needed to be visually identified to resolve any disputes over large estates.
16 Florence Created Dowry Investment Fund
The Black Death caused dowry inflation in medieval Florence. To solve the problem, the government established a public dowry fund: when a girl turned five, her family deposited money into the fund, which accrued interest at about 10% annually and could be withdrawn when she married.
17. In 2022, a dispute between Pantone and Adobe led to the removal of Pantone color codes from Photoshop and other design software. As a result, digital colors turned black unless users paid Pantone a separate $15 monthly subscription fee.
18. One of the world’s largest drug busts occurred in 1989 in Sylmar, California, when authorities seized 20 tons of cocaine—worth $6 billion and accounting for roughly 5% of the world’s annual production. Shockingly, it had been left unguarded and secured with only a $6 padlock.
19. Amazon secured the rights to produce The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power without presenting a specific story to the Tolkien estate. Instead, the company pledged to collaborate closely with the estate to “protect Tolkien’s legacy”—something that the estate felt they were unable to do with previous adaptations.
20. In the 1990 film Pretty Woman, Richard Gere drove a Lotus Esprit because both Ferrari and Porsche refused to associate their cars with a movie linked to prostitution. Thanks to this unexpected product placement, Lotus sales tripled.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Only Six Condors in History
A “condor” in golf—scoring 4 under par—is extremely rare. It includes feats like a hole-in-one on a par five, a two on a par six, or a three on a par seven. To date, it has only been achieved six times in history (as of May 2025).
22. A programming bug caused infotainment systems in Mazda cars to crash whenever someone played the podcast 99% Invisible. The software mistakenly interpreted “% I” as a command instead of a text string.
23. The Postman (1997) runs for 177 minutes. Despite two poorly received test screenings, director Kevin Costner refused to cut the runtime. He also financed most of the film’s $80 million budget himself. It earned only around $20 million at the box office.
24. In 2021, robbers violently stole Lady Gaga’s dogs. An ex-convict named Jennifer McBride later returned them, hoping to claim Gaga’s $500,000 reward. However, a judge ruled she couldn’t collect it, as her involvement in handling stolen property disqualified her from profiting from the crime.
25. During World War II, John F. Kennedy was rejected from military service due to Addison’s disease and chronic back pain. He used his father’s political influence to join the U.S. Navy.
RE: Fact #34 (College Students Failed Simple Test) – It also turned out that women failed the test more often than men. Since then, the main focus of the test has been figuring out why that is.
Wow, that’s a big difference!
RE: Fact #32 (Capri Pants Sparked TV Trend) – Just like in the old Star Trek shows, the actresses wanted to wear miniskirts. They thought women could be powerful and respected without dressing like men. But what seemed modern then, now looks kinda sexist.
Remember when Roddenberry showed off that gender-neutral miniskirt thing?
Dude’s awesome, and I’m totally up for going pantless sometimes.
RE: Fact #40 (Bible Has Second Commandment Set) – One of the most basic kosher rules is about not boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk. Rabbis have debated for ages whether “milk” actually means “oil” in that rule.
This must’ve happened a lot, right? Otherwise, why would they make a rule about it? Some of these old rules from other places are seriously weird.
Judaism is basically 3,500 years of scholars debating the meaning of everything. They’ve spent ages scribbling notes in their holy books, arguing about what it all means. It’s pretty ironic that, given how much they just want to be left alone to discuss things, they’ve faced so much antisemitism throughout history.
So, who thinks it means oil? The text clearly says milk. The words aren’t even close; it uses the Hebrew word for milk, not oil.
The word חֵלֶב means animal fat, and it’s spelled the same way.
Factrepublic reader sometimes invent stuff, forgetting how expensive oil made frying less common back then.
It’s funny how our ideas about food are pretty new. Even watching old cooking shows, recipes from not that long ago seem totally bizarre.
And those Europeans! Just chucking random spices together like nobody’s business after discovering them.
Keeping kosher is really interesting – it’s all over the map. My ex was super strict; no pork, obviously, but also no beef and cheese together, or even one right after the other without brushing their teeth! Their friends at Hillel said that wasn’t the usual way to do things, and everyone’s rules are a bit different. And get this: if I had cheese and they had beef, we couldn’t kiss until we brushed our teeth! I have no idea how common that is, but it was wild.
RE: Fact #5 (Peanuts Prevent Peanut Allergies) – I got a list of foods to introduce my daughter to when she started solids: peanuts, bananas, strawberries, eggs, and wheat.
Raw is key. Cooking it kills off some of the good stuff, so it’s pointless then.
Whoa, I learned that people can be allergic to bananas and strawberries! I always figured allergies were only about foods packed with protein.
I’m allergic to a bunch of stuff – tomatoes, carrots, peppers, asparagus, watermelon, guava, papaya, and more. They all have the same enzyme that messes with me.
I’m allergic to tons of foods because of latex, like bananas. But thankfully, not potatoes, avocados, or tomatoes—those are essential!
I’m a little allergic to eggplant. I figured it out when I asked my friends if it was weird that eggplant makes my tongue itchy, and they all said no and maybe I’m allergic.
I added mint to my diet. I became allergic to it and peanuts when I was a teenager, but I outgrew both allergies.
RE: Fact #38 (Britain Accidentally Funded Own Invasion) – The French navy got wrecked at Trafalgar, so there was no invasion. The Royal Navy totally ruled the waves—any invasion force would’ve been toast.
RE: Fact #2 (Bake Off Hosts Sabotaged Footage) – That’s really sweet!
Mel and Sue are basically why GBBO feels so wholesome, not all cutthroat like other baking shows. They were my absolute favorite part of the original, and it just isn’t the same without them and Mary Berry.
Mary, Mel, and Sue were the best thing about Bake Off. I’m not a fan of Prue. Noel and Alison are great, but Mel and Sue? They were perfect.
I bet it’s not super competitive ’cause there’s no cash prize.
RE: Fact #34 (College Students Failed Simple Test) – Wow, I finally figured out why those tests flopped – I hadn’t considered gravity! I kept thinking the problem was just the line being too high or low. Then I was staring at how to figure the water area as a triangle instead of a square, and that’s when I drew the line correctly.
Seriously, how could a college student bomb that test? Has this person never seen a liquid in a clear container?
I was like, “Seriously? How’s a kid supposed to figure out water levels? They must have thought everyone was special needs!”
Then I saw the “solution,” and I was *so* there with you. How can you even drink from a cup without getting how liquids work?!
Now I’m curious to see how those college kids who bombed that test do on other super basic thinking tests. Just for kicks.
I was trying to figure out the best way to measure that water area—triangle or square? So I drew a really careful line.
Haha, same! I just guessed at first, then figured out how to do it properly and compare answers. Then I saw the “wrong” answer and was totally confused.
The line looks a bit high, but the test is basically all about how water acts.
Same here! I was thinking, “It’s gotta be bigger, but they don’t give you any measurements—like how high the water is or how wide the container is—so how am I supposed to figure out the area?” Then I saw those two answers and thought, “Wait, that’s the whole test?”
RE: Fact #26 (Gas Stoves Emit Cancer-Causing Benzene) – I was a chemistry student back in the late 80s, and that’s when they found out benzene causes cancer. A lot of my professors were furious because, for ages before that—we’re talking the 50s, probably—they’d used benzene to clean their hands after lab work.
The thinking was, get rid of all the other nasty chemicals on their bare hands so they wouldn’t spread them around campus on door handles. So, yeah, they were basically painting every door handle with benzene.
To them, benzene was amazing—a harmless solvent that was also great for making other things.
These same professors also bragged about how much longer chemists lived—from just 25 years in the 1800s to almost normal life expectancy by the 80s. And they totally counted benzene as part of that success.
We’re probably doing the same thing with other stuff right now. The good news is, most of the risks are just barely under our radar. Even if they’re dangerous, they’re not as bad as the stuff we used back then.
With all the plastic around, it seems like we’ve just given up on worrying about carcinogens.
If they find out microplastics mess with your brain like lead does, I wouldn’t be surprised.
It’s kinda sad how California’s warning labels, meant to get people to care about cancer-causing stuff, backfired. Now companies slap them on everything, and nobody even pays attention.
RE: Fact #16 (Florence Created Dowry Investment Fund) – At first, only two lenders were on board because the rules were tough—no money back if the girl died before getting married. But they stuck with it, made some changes, and the whole thing exploded. It was also a handy way for the government to make some cash, since the state ran the fund, which helped with the population problem.
I checked Wikipedia, but it doesn’t say when it was shut down. Any ideas why?
I bet greedy people were finding ways to game the system.
RE: Fact #31 (Ecclestone Became Dad at 89) – His oldest kid was 65 when his youngest arrived.
That’s a crazy stat! Might even be a record.
RE: Fact #4 (Elevator Death Missed for Month) – So, I got on an elevator just as they were shutting it down. The doors closed, and then none of the buttons worked! I hit the emergency button. They said someone was coming. Forty minutes later, nothing. I called again, and they said security checked – said they called out but I didn’t hear them. I definitely didn’t hear anyone. Finally, a mechanic showed up and got me out.
Seriously? You’re leaving again because nobody answered, even though someone’s trapped?! That security guard was a jerk.
Seriously? More like reckless endangerment. I’ve had people trapped in that old building’s elevator before—some even fainted from the stress. Getting everyone out alive is way more important than a slightly delayed opening.
RE: Fact #37 (Trigeminal Neuralgia Nicknamed Suicide Disease) – My grandpa had this awful nerve problem. He had tons of surgeries—they’d wrap the nerve in Teflon, over and over, trying to fix the blood vessels. Nothing worked, and it eventually drove him crazy; he died because of it. Twenty years of daily agony.
Someone said it’s easily treated, but it’s only easy if the treatment actually helps. He finally decided the pain relief wasn’t worth all the surgeries and recovery. Towards the end, he’d start eating and just give up, drooling because he was trying so hard to control the pain. He’d just stare off into space with a plate of food in front of him. It was heartbreaking to watch.
Can’t they just cut the nerve? Is it a really important one or something?
It pretty much runs your face. So, even a little breeze or a fan can be really painful for someone with that condition.
That’s awful!
RE: Fact #13 (Macadamia Nut Flight Meltdown) – That family? Total spoiled brats, the whole bunch. The dad, he’s dead now, but he used to go off on how pilots are lazy because of autopilot. The mom? She’s been in trouble a bunch of times for being violent and verbally abusive. And the kids? They’re all pretty terrible, actually. Believe it or not, the daughter’s the best of the bunch.
RE: Fact #6 (Imahara Built Hospital Baby Yoda) – It’s awesome that so many of us online still remember Grant, even five years later. And everyone remembers him fondly, too.
He’s one of those rare people where if you criticize him, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. He was such a kind guy.
An Asian Mr. Rogers of science.
RE: Fact #24 (Dog Thief Denied Gaga Reward) – That article’s a little muddled, but I get the feeling they suspected McBride because she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say where she got the dogs from.
RE: Fact #20 (Ferrari Refused Pretty Woman) – Any real Pretty Woman fan knows Stuckey owned the Esprit; Edward just used it for a night.
RE: Fact #39 (Znoneofthe, Above Backfired Hilariously) – He got what he wanted anyway, ’cause I bet he’d think he was better than anyone else, even if there was a “Znoneofthe” around.
Serves him right for having a name that starts with A! Should’ve been a Z.
Wasn’t there a French soccer player who headbutted someone?
RE: Fact #29 (Mistress Forged Past to Impress) – It’s strange that they say Louis was 34 years older than Du Barry, but she was only three years younger. I mean, back then, who cared if she was 23 or 20 when he was 58?
Ask Leo
Sometimes, it’s better to leave some questions alone.
👌💀
RE: Fact #1 (Judge Dismisses Lawsuit in Rap) – Relevant part – Back in 2003, Judge Deborah Servitto threw the case out. She even wrote her decision as a rap:
“Mr. Bailey complains that his rap is trash / So he’s seeking compensation in the form of cash / Bailey thinks he’s entitled to some monetary gain / Because Eminem used his name in vain / The lyrics are stories no one would take as fact / They’re an exaggeration of a childish act / It is therefore this court’s ultimate position / That Eminem is entitled to summary disposition.”
Fire!
Judge Deborah Servitto retired from the bench just last year.
Court’s adjourned! See ya, Judge Servitto!
Retired at 69—time to run for Senate!
RE: Fact #17 (Pantone Colors Turned Black Overnight) – Back in the 90s, when I started in printing, Pantone was pretty chill. They were the industry standard, but not officially. Then X-Rite bought them, and things went downhill. They kept pushing new color systems to replace the Pantone Matching System.
See, the PMS system is all about mixing colors from a few basic ones. Each swatch book has the recipes. So if a job needs Pantone 322, you can mix it from what you already have instead of buying a ton of ink you might not use again. Pantone would rather you buy every color from them or a fancy ink supplier for each job, which is why they’re pushing things like Pantone Go. It’s a real pain for printers and makes even simple jobs more expensive.
Back in the 90s, Pantone had both CMYK color books and special colors you couldn’t make by mixing the CMYK ones.
Pantone’s spot colors are probably defined using a 6-channel Hexachrome system, I bet.
If Pantone’s stuff is so industry-standard, maybe someone should sue them.
The US isn’t really into busting up monopolies anymore. When the EU does it, Americans get all worked up, complaining about how it’s hurting American companies and demanding the US government punish the EU. So, Pantone getting sued by the DOJ for anti-trust? Fat chance.
RE: Fact #28 (Olympus CEO Blew the Whistle) – Hey, there’s this awesome movie about it, Olympus Has Fallen.
I couldn’t believe it when the Japanese shareholders snatched the US president!
RE: Fact #27 (Timbaland Gifted Royalties to Tedder) – So, when they called about splitting the publishing, I totally cringed. I figured I’d get ripped off—they’d grab half the song or more! But then my manager said, “Tim’s not taking any publishing, man. He’s cool with it being all yours. You wrote it, played it for him ages ago, and he just produced the remix. He’s not trying to steal your money.” That whole thing was a turning point. Tim had all the power, but he said, “I didn’t write it, so I’m not taking any.” It was that simple, and I kept 100%! That changed my life—I even bought a house thanks to him. I’ll be thanking Tim forever for that.
Some people are just really honest, and that’s awesome.
Honestly, Timbaland should’ve gotten a cut of that. He totally revamped the song, and it blew up because of it. Super generous of him to pass.
That reminds me of that Shep Gordon story – he helped Squeeze get their music catalog back! They got this random call saying he’d bought it for them, it was already with their lawyers. They asked how much they owed him, and he said nothing, just a favor. He’d never even worked with them, just liked their music and knew they were struggling to get the rights back. It’s good to know there are still people like that around.
Really talented and successful people don’t need to copy others; they’re confident they can create more on their own.
RE: Fact #50 (China’s Salad Stacking Fad) – I made this at Genghis Grill. The trick was using sliced sausage to build a little fence around the bowl, making it taller.
That carrot cantilever thing in the video is super effective.
RE: Fact #25 (JFK Used Influence to Enlist) – They started taking anyone, even people they didn’t really want at first. Grandpa tried to join up early to be a mechanic, but they turned him down because of his bad eyesight. Later, right in the middle of the war, they drafted him into the infantry, and he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Nobody wanted to be in front of him – he’d shoot anything that moved, because of his vision. He even shot a cow once, apparently.
Maybe the cow was in on it?
RE: Fact #21 (Only Six Condors in History) – Tolkien loved golf, and that’s how he came up with the name “Gondor”.
Seriously, I just checked it out. Hole 15 at Penati, Slovakia, is a par 6, and Rhys Enoch won there in 2019 during a European Challenge Tour event. And get this, the world’s longest hole? That’s hole 7 at Satsuki GC in Sano, Japan.
Wow, I didn’t know there were Par 6s! I always figured 5 was the max.
RE: Fact #14 (Orangutan Outsmarts Zoo Security) – It’s all about making a statement.
My local zoo built this awesome orangutan enclosure – it’s huge! They said they made it escape-proof because orangutans are crazy smart. Guess what? Those orangutans escaped in their first week.
Maybe it just wanted to show that it could.
This guy I knew in high school, he and his ex went through a brutal breakup. He’d planned to egg her house, but ended up just leaving a single egg on her porch – like, a little passive-aggressive “I *could* have, but I chose not to” thing.
He was totally hammered.
RE: Fact #33 (Actress Used FBI for Info) – Rosini was a really important guy in the FBI, even working with the CIA to find Bin Laden, both before and after 9/11. That’s why Fiorentino’s last movie role was a straight-to-DVD thing in 2009.
Wasn’t she a total nightmare on the first movie, so they ditched her for *Men in Black 2*?
Yeah, I figured. Kevin Smith wasn’t exactly nice to her after *Dogma*, but it seems like he feels bad about it now; they made up after his heart attack. Plus, those old gossip rags said Tommy Lee Jones wouldn’t work with her again on *Men in Black II* because he couldn’t stand her antics.
She was going to be the new partner.
The producers figured people wanted Jones back.
Jones would only return if Fiorentino wasn’t around.
Most of her movies are pretty forgettable, except for a few good ones.
RE: Fact #18 ($6 Billion Cocaine Behind Padlock) – “just a padlock” —nobody’s dumb enough to mess with a cartel sitting on six billion dollars’ worth of coke.
RE: Fact #36 (Mormon ‘King’ Assassinated, Killers Fined) – Around Little Traverse Bay, folks always joked about the “Beaver Island split”—how storms from the northwest would vanish near the island. They’d say it was because the Mormons blessed the place! Actually, the land just weakens those storms as they pass over the water, but it was a fun story.
God’s own land
RE: Fact #42 (Not A Crook Nixon) – He later said in an interview, something like, “If the President does it, it’s not a crime.” Total crook.
He was just ahead of the curve.
RE: Fact #38 (Britain Accidentally Funded Own Invasion) – Basically, the British knew what was going on with Louisiana but let the Americans have it because they didn’t want to get involved.
Britain basically shrugged off American antics, pre- and post-independence, especially when France was involved. That’s why all the fuss about farmers beating pros is irrelevant; you guys beat a colonial army while the French took out the reinforcements – without France, America was toast.
RE: Fact #31 (Ecclestone Became Dad at 89) – “I just really want to make sure this kid never knows me.”
That might be a good thing.
Even if the guy’s a terrible dad, it’s awful to have kids knowing you’ll barely be around past their tenth birthday. It’s way worse than doing something good.
The mom was 45 when she got pregnant! Seriously, what irresponsible people. The kid will probably lose both parents by their early forties.
To be clear, if it was an accident, both parents are dumb and irresponsible. If they did it on purpose, they’re dumb, irresponsible, and awful.
Those people who think I’m saying having a kid in your 40s is “evil” clearly aren’t reading properly. The dad was eighty-nine! Read the whole thing, seriously.
RE: Fact #15 (Titanic Rich Preserved, Poor Ignored) – At first glance, it feels like a “society’s messed up” moment. But seriously, those folks are long gone. If you have to pick and choose which bodies to preserve, focusing on whether preserving them will actually be useful seems like the best approach.
I was down in the dumps, but dealing with a parent’s death and their estate is tough enough when you know the cause of death. I can’t even fathom how much harder it must have been back then, with how wealthy some of those folks on the boat were.
Rich people are more likely to want their family members’ bodies back for a private burial.
It seems like some of the bodies were buried at sea, especially crew and third-class passengers. Basically, they rescued the poor folks only to dump them back in the ocean.
It’s a total “ugh society” thing, but way deeper than you’d think at first.
Keeping the dead around feels kinda gross, haha.
RE: Fact #40 (Bible Has Second Commandment Set) – So, what’s the rabbi’s take on oat milk oatmeal?
RE: Fact #27 (Timbaland Gifted Royalties to Tedder) – Timbaland sounds like a really great guy from everything I’ve heard.
RE: Fact #46 (Neanderthals Lived Dangerous Lives) – Neanderthals and cave hyenas were battling it out for territory – seriously brutal stuff. Picture this: fighting a pack of giant hyenas with spears. Ouch.
RE: Fact #41 (Lunchbox Revenge from Michael J.) – Fox recalled…“[Tartikoff] really didn’t like me in the role. He urged Gary [David Goldberg, creator] quite a few times in the first season to fire me.”
…
Fox continued: “He said, ‘Look at that kid, that’s not a face you’re going to see on a lunchbox’,”.
Despite this, the show’s creator, Gary David Goldberg, believed in Fox’s comedic talent and defended him saying: “I don’t know about lunchboxes, but I give him three jokes he gives me five laughs.”
…
In a playful response to Tartikoff’s initial doubts, Fox had a lunchbox made with his picture on it and sent it to Tartikoff with a note saying, “Brandon, this is for you to put your crow in, love Michael J. Fox.”
Tartikoff…eventually admitted he was wrong about Fox’s potential.
He kept the lunchbox behind his desk as a reminder of the unpredictability of show business.
RE: Fact #28 (Olympus CEO Blew the Whistle) – He wrote a book, and we had to read it for class. It was actually pretty interesting.
RE: Fact #19 (Amazon Bought Rights Without Story) – They inherited the rights after Christopher Tolkien passed away; basically, they got a big cash offer. That’s all there is to it.
RE: Fact #48 (The Flying Nuns of Argentina) – After ages, some of the guilty parties finally faced justice and were convicted of war crimes. The ringleader got life in prison in Argentina back in 2011.
Milei’s government put him and other awful people in a cushy VIP prison for their final days.
Why’s he so interested in those people from way back when? What’s the deal with him and them?
RE: Fact #42 (Not A Crook Nixon) – Guess what? Nixon gave that speech at Disney World, in the Contemporary resort.
RE: Fact #3 (Spielberg’s Drug Test Ultimatum) – When that last test came back clean:
“WE’RE IN BUSINESSS!!”
He was awesome in that part—totally believable as a grizzled army sergeant.
Maybe quitting helped them look less miserable for a while.
RE: Fact #18 ($6 Billion Cocaine Behind Padlock) – Hey everyone, Lockpicking Lawyer here, and we’ve got another cheap padlock to try today!
Whoops, someone left a bunch of cocaine here, unlocked.
RE: Fact #7 (Teen Pregnancy Rates Plummeting Fast) – I’m in education, and kids just don’t go out as much anymore.
I also teach, and while it’s just my observation, there’s way less hallway make-out sessions than there used to be—even ten years ago.
My wife’s a teacher, and she says the same thing—high school dating’s not what it used to be. Sure, there are some couples, but kids aren’t obsessed with relationships like they once were. If they do “date,” it’s usually a group thing, like going to see a movie, maybe something popular like the latest Minecraft flick. It’s pretty interesting, actually.
We’ve tamed them online.
So, The Atlantic wrote about this, backing up what you’ve seen. Apparently, way back when, around 75% of high schoolers had a boyfriend or girlfriend. That was pretty much the same for the generation before that. Now, it’s more like half. They also mentioned that the way kids define relationships might be changing, with these “situationships” that aren’t exactly called “relationships,” but are kind of similar.
RE: Fact #27 (Timbaland Gifted Royalties to Tedder) – I totally won a remix contest Timbaland put on! He even called to congratulate me, which was awesome. He’s such a cool guy. And he dropped the remix just like he promised!
RE: Fact #40 (Bible Has Second Commandment Set) – So, this verse is why many Hasidic Jewish people don’t mix beef and dairy. Lots of them even have two fridges – one for meat, one for dairy.
RE: Fact #10 (911 Cat Rescue Actually Worked) – Cats are awesome sometimes! My mom once chucked a cat at a burglar who broke into her house when she was a kid. He totally scarpered.
RE: Fact #36 (Mormon ‘King’ Assassinated, Killers Fined) – I saw one coworker making fun of another. A few hours later, the guy who got mocked really put the other guy in his place – by grabbing him by the neck. I was right there. The jerk had to apologize.
He stupidly asked me if I’d seen it.
Nah, I played dumb. No way I’d mess with someone who could easily choke me out.
That shut everyone up.
The other two who’d looked over? They claimed they saw nothing either. And they also suggested avoiding trouble.
lol.
RE: Fact #1 (Judge Dismisses Lawsuit in Rap) – Seriously? Some bullies just never grow up. They think it’s okay to beat someone up, laugh about it, then get all butt-hurt if someone writes a song about them. The nerve!
RE: Fact #35 (Mercy Led to Execution Anyway) – Sometimes doing something nice backfires.
Dirk would’ve been in big trouble if that guy died because he didn’t go back to help.
“Double execution for you!”
That’s basically sending Tenacious D to the deepest, darkest hell.
RE: Fact #33 (Actress Used FBI for Info) – Way better plot than her Jade movie.
My dad was an extra in that Jade movie. They almost gave him a line in the police station bit, but his Southern accent was too much for them, so they went with someone else.
RE: Fact #47 (Medieval Cure Beats Superbugs) – We tried it outside the main experiment, and it worked. But a past attempt bombed, maybe because they messed up the recipe. Getting the method exactly right is key, Harrison says, since another team’s 2005 attempt to copy the recipe flopped – their stuff didn’t kill the bacteria. One guy called it “loathsome, odorous slime” after nine days. Still, it and vancomycin killed about the same amount of MRSA in lab tests.
RE: Fact #45 (Princesses Snuck Into VE Day) – More pictures and details here.
With the Queen Mum and King George VI’s okay, the pair, and sixteen bodyguards, snuck out of Buckingham Palace for what turned into an amazing night.
They were probably undercover, maybe plainclothes security keeping an eye on things from afar.
RE: Fact #21 (Only Six Condors in History) – Getting a hole-in-one on a par 5 is insane!
You gotta make a big curve, skip the long way, then sneak the ball in the hole from your sleeve while you’re “searching”.
Why can’t they just wallop that ball like Arnold? Are they kidding?
It’s like a long, downhill par 5, super dry. My club has a hole just like it. I once crushed a 340-yard drive there—normally I only hit about 220.
Big hitters could easily go 400+, and with a lucky bounce, an eagle’s totally possible, even though only six people have ever done it.
Someone even got an albatross last year!
RE: Fact #12 (Pilot Nicknames From Early Mistakes) – Touchdown’s the best one I’ve seen. He played college football and scored touchdowns. but the real reason behind the nickname? They thought he might have Down syndrome.
We’re somehow connected. A buddy of mine used to tell me that same story about this guy.
That cracked me up.
RE: Fact #10 (911 Cat Rescue Actually Worked) – Tommy, being a cat, only did what he wanted… unless he really, really had to.
“If he kicks the bucket, I’ll have to eat him, geez.”
RE: Fact #36 (Mormon ‘King’ Assassinated, Killers Fined) – It happens sometimes in small towns. A guy who needs killing gets killed, and everyone’s all, “Yeah, whatever.” Either nobody saw anything, or, like here, the guys who did it get a slap on the wrist.
My grandpa was a kid in central Illinois back in the 50s, and this guy showed up wanting to start a local KKK chapter. Then, bam! He got shot. End of story.
It’s ironic that a Klansman got lynched.
RE: Fact #46 (Neanderthals Lived Dangerous Lives) – I heard somewhere that humans and Neanderthals got hurt in a lot of the same ways as rodeo cowboys, which makes it seem like they hunted animals using similar techniques.
Or maybe scientists have been keeping secret caveman rodeos from us.
Something fishy’s going on with those caveman rodeos and monster truck rallies.
I read that Neanderthals were so big and strong, they could just charge at their prey. We humans, on the other hand, were smaller and had to be smarter, using tools and throwing things to hunt. That probably helped us survive better.
I’ve read that our shoulders are slightly different, making throwing and archery easier for us than for Neanderthals, who probably relied more on thrusting. I’m not totally up on the latest research, but ideas about ancient humans shift around a lot, so we’ll probably have a clearer picture soon. Still, even if that’s true, it’d be just one thing among many that led to Neanderthals dying out.
RE: Fact #44 (Eminem Researched His Opponent) – It kind of worked, since half the rap was about how messed up Rabbit’s life was—his mom and friends, too. So, pointing out his good life was extra effective.
Still feel bad for Cheddar Bob.
RE: Fact #45 (Princesses Snuck Into VE Day) – Wasn’t there a whole Crown episode on this?
I saw it in a flashback during season six, episode eight.
It was a movie, A Royal Night Out. Funny thing is, they shot the bombed-out London scenes in Hull because they needed a place that looked like it had been bombed for ages.
It’s a little weird seeing an underground jazz club with same-sex couples in the background, but hey, artists gotta do what artists gotta do.
RE: Fact #28 (Olympus CEO Blew the Whistle) – Six months after becoming president, he was promoted to CEO, then blew the whistle just two weeks later. Sounds like he saw something seriously illegal and decided, “Nope, not going down with this ship!”
Totally wrong. He’d been pestering the bosses with questions ever since those rumors started months before his promotion – he was such a pest they paid him off with the CEO job. They never let him near the financial stuff because he hadn’t earned their trust. They just wanted him to sit there, do nothing, and keep quiet until he got with the program. But he dug around, found even more dirt, and blew the whistle on the whole fraud.
That’s not quite how it happened. There’d been rumors in the news for a bit, and Woodford had been digging around long before he got promoted. They probably made him CEO to get rid of him and pay him off. He didn’t actually have *any* power as CEO – just a figurehead. He never saw the books, they wouldn’t let him. He wanted to see them before and after becoming CEO. He went public not because of anything he found out as CEO, but because he realized, once he was CEO, that he was powerless to investigate.
RE: Fact #13 (Macadamia Nut Flight Meltdown) – Cho Hyun-ah got nailed for breaking aviation safety rules, bossing people around, and abusing her power back in 2015. She did five months for it. Then, this past April, her younger sister, Cho Hyun-min, had to say sorry for throwing water in someone’s face at a work meeting. She admitted she’d been a real idiot. Both sisters quit their jobs afterward.
That’s great the government’s finally making those super-rich guys pay up! Five months is a pretty long wait though.
Way to go, government! Finally making those super-rich pay their fair share. American working folks, listen up.
Glad it worked out!
The ending wasn’t great, it’s all been swept under the rug. After their dad died, a big fight broke out over who got what. One sister got the boot because she didn’t get along with her older brother; the other sister’s still involved in the family business.
I remember that happening, and she totally deserved the backlash she got online.
That’s funny, I read about that! I thought it was great they got in trouble for it.
RE: Fact #34 (College Students Failed Simple Test) – I figured you had to guess how much water to use. It’s tough to get it exactly right, especially if you have trouble thinking clearly – you might use way too much or none at all.
The hard part is just drawing a line to show you understand the water level is always parallel to the ground.
How do people mess that up, and why are girls worse at it than boys? It’s baffling. There’s no real reason.
I think the instructions might be confusing. Maybe people think they have to copy the picture exactly to show they understand spatial things. You should be able to tell what a glass of water looks like even if it’s tilted, unlike a koala that can’t recognize a eucalyptus leaf on the ground.
There’s a similar test where you have to pick the right shape out of a bunch of similar ones at different angles.
RE: Fact #16 (Florence Created Dowry Investment Fund) – Ten percent a year is awesome!
The bad news? You’re stuck in medieval Europe.
If you lived through the Black Death – and let’s just forget about losing half your family – things actually got pretty good afterward.
Before the plague, Europe was packed, super expensive, and really rigidly structured. There were tons of ways to end up working for someone else just to eat.
When skilled workers died, their apprentices inherited their businesses. If the apprentices died, anyone who knew the trade could take over. And if your master died, you were free! If the whole family died, you could basically take their stuff and pretend to be them.
Love this little history tidbit! Entire noble family—gone. All their fancy friends—poof! Only distant relatives left, and they barely knew the family. Meanwhile, you’re a lowly serf, and *your* family survives. No pictures, just names in some dusty church records. Nobody left for miles…so who’s running the show now, huh?
It made marrying an older daughter more appealing—nobody wanted to wait too long, because the longer you waited the more problems popped up. Seriously, it was a brilliant solution to a ton of social issues.
So, “monte” means fund, get this – “Monte delle doti” is basically a dowry fund.
I wonder if some guys were thinking, “Should I marry her now, or risk someone else snagging her?”
I’d totally marry a hot older woman for a sweet 60-year investment deal.
RE: Fact #8 (Doctor Died Proving Mosquito Theory) – My grandpa always said: you can be totally wrong and still be right about something. Sometimes it’s better to just be alive and not know for sure.
RE: Fact #30 (Beach Towels Have Two Sides) – If you dry yourself on the softer side, wasn’t that side just sitting in the sand all day?
RE: Fact #44 (Eminem Researched His Opponent) – Clarence’s parents had a really great marriage.
RE: Fact #10 (911 Cat Rescue Actually Worked) – 911, what’s up?
*slapping noises*
I’d say it’s more like someone slapping a fish than a cool guitar riff.
My owner fell out of his wheelchair, should I call an ambulance?
Amazing how nature works, this city animal.
RE: Fact #50 (China’s Salad Stacking Fad) – Way back when, Pizza Hut in China was a fancy place to eat.
RE: Fact #35 (Mercy Led to Execution Anyway) – That’s harsh.
RE: Fact #12 (Pilot Nicknames From Early Mistakes) – I heard a funny story about this pilot named John. He was bummed his name was so boring, and wanted a cool callsign. Guess what they gave him? John.
I worked for a woman named Fish for “Fu*k Is She Huge.” She was Like, six-four.
Cruised with Fish back in 2010. That woman’s awesome. She can really party.
That’s hilarious!
He was like Bob from Top Gun 2, a regular guy.
Greyskull, Doomsday, and…John?
RE: Fact #19 (Amazon Bought Rights Without Story) – HBO wanted to redo Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, focusing on the Third Age. The Tolkien estate wasn’t thrilled with Jackson’s version and didn’t want a remake.
Netflix wanted to make several shows, like one about Gandalf and another about Aragorn. Someone involved said their plan was too much like Marvel, and the estate was totally freaked out.
Amazon didn’t have a specific plan, just a promise to work closely with the estate and let them protect Tolkien’s work. It turns out Netflix’s offer was way higher than what Amazon offered; Amazon’s bid was much lower.
Amazon’s second age show was the best idea out of the three, even though it’s a bit of a mess and they don’t quite have all the rights they need.
An MCU-style Middle-earth sounds terrible, so I don’t blame the Tolkien estate for rejecting it. Still, looking at the adaptation we got, it’s hard to imagine Netflix doing a much worse job.
Show 1 ended with a crazy surprise – young Gandalf popped up after the credits! But then, the Gandalf show took forever to come out, needed tons of seasons to wrap things up, and got canceled after only two.
Didn’t Amazon already do that?
He’s definitely not Gandalf, seriously…
Nope, turns out he *is* Gandalf!
Seriously, how can the estate complain about the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but be cool with that Amazon mess? The movies are about as perfect an adaptation as you can get. I’d get it if they were mad about *The Hobbit* films, though.
The movies are awesome, but they’re not perfect adaptations. The feel and what they’re trying to say is really different. They messed up Faramir—he’s just a goody-two-shoes in the movies. Denethor’s super simplified, and Aragorn’s your basic action hero, not the wise, healing king from the books. They even cut out the Scouring of the Shire, which is a bummer because it shows how evil is everywhere, not just one big fight. There are other smaller things that change the story’s meaning, so it’s no surprise Christopher Tolkien hated them. He spent his whole life working with his dad on this stuff, so of course he’d be upset. The movies are all action, but the books are so much more than that.
I didn’t feel as bad for the estate before *The Hobbit* came out—that movie’s exactly what they said *Lord of the Rings* was all about.
RE: Fact #49 (Mitochondria’s Link to Autism) – I’ve talked to some mitochondria biologists, and they seem to think *everything* is a mitochondrial problem. It’s like they only have one tool and see every issue as a nail. But I think mitochondria are just super sensitive to what’s going on in the cell.
Me too! What’s the big deal with mitochondria?
It’s the powerhouse of the cell
RE: Fact #26 (Gas Stoves Emit Cancer-Causing Benzene) – I got really into this before buying a gas stove. Even in the worst-case scenarios I found – all burners blasting, old stove, no ventilation – the benzene and nitrogen dioxide levels were still below OSHA’s limits for full-time exposure. Seems like people are blowing this out of proportion to push greener options. It’s not right, and it makes people distrust science.
Thanks for the info! I’ve never heard anyone in Brazil mention this, but I’ll definitely make sure my kitchen’s well-ventilated when I move.
RE: Fact #12 (Pilot Nicknames From Early Mistakes) – I heard this crazy story about a pilot who flew his plane back to the carrier and got a nasty case of food poisoning on the way. It was bad, like, really bad stomach stuff. Cleaning up the mess afterward was totally gross. They started calling him “Pigpen” after that.
I really liked the “bad dog” one – it was about someone who couldn’t wait to poop until they got home.
RE: Fact #22 (Mazda Crash Triggered by Podcast) – Mazda systems tuned to that Seattle radio station were having the same problem.
Back to Bricked in the Morning on 97.5 FM! I’m Wacky Willy, and your Mazda’s toast! Jimmy, blast ’em!
This ain’t your grandpa’s rock station! Get ready for a non-stop rockin’ good time!
That NPR station goofed—they sent their logo without the right ending, and it totally crashed the infotainment system. It couldn’t figure out what to do with it.
A bit of data checking would have fixed those problems. But who’s got time for that in a week coding session?
Someone really let a sixteen-year-old loose on this, huh? Hilarious.
RE: Fact #37 (Trigeminal Neuralgia Nicknamed Suicide Disease) – Hey, I’m a pain doctor. Trigeminal neuralgia? It’s a real wild card – pain can range from mildly annoying twinges to absolutely crippling agony on one side of your face. Treatment’s a mixed bag, too. We’ve got meds to chill out the nerve, surgery to snip some fibers near the brainstem, and everything in between. And even if two people seem to have the same problem, they might respond totally differently to treatment. It’s a tough one.
Ever met people who think LSD and shrooms are amazing? They totally shut that stuff off for me. I know a doctor in New York trying to get 2-bromo-LSD out there for the same reason.
RE: Fact #37 (Trigeminal Neuralgia Nicknamed Suicide Disease) – My dentist thought I had some weird nerve problem in my upper left jaw, even after three root canals. She sent me to a neurologist. It turns out the first endodontist missed a whole root! That was the real problem. I probably didn’t even need the other two root canals. My dentist’s X-rays didn’t show it, but the second endodontist spotted it right away.
So the first endo paid you back for all those extra surgeries, huh? That doctor sounds like a real nightmare.
Seriously, this guy was a total jerk. It wasn’t just the messed-up tooth and all the extra work/bills. I paid $250 for a consultation – X-rays and five minutes of him saying I needed a root canal.
I booked an appointment, showed up, and they didn’t have it. I was furious! I’d gotten up early, driven ages, and missed work. They squeezed me in, eventually.
Then, during the root canal, he chewed out his assistant for the music being too loud – it wasn’t! Then he went on and on about his neighbors…who, get this, are my best friend’s parents! Apparently, he bought land next to them and was mad about their farming.
He also burned my lip with that filling tool.
My old dentist was horrified when I told them – they stopped sending patients there. It took two years and moving to a different state before I found out how badly he’d botched the root canal. All I could do was leave a terrible review on factrepublic.
RE: Fact #11 (Bomber Hid Explosive Internally) – Picture this: you’re about to shake someone’s hand, and BAM! They explode.
RE: Fact #20 (Ferrari Refused Pretty Woman) – Ferrari and Porsche: Gotta protect the brand.
Lotus: Gotta move some cars.
Lotus: It’s free, grab it!
RE: Fact #43 (Royal Fool Buys a Stamp) – So, those prices are kinda guesswork. It’s hard to sell a stamp collection quickly, especially a big one; there just aren’t many buyers, and trying to sell a lot all at once would crash the prices. Plus, like classic cars, this market’s fading as the older collectors pass away.
Fewer and fewer people collect stamps these days. Guess it’s mostly older folks passing away.
My collection had tons of common stamps—the usual ones with the queen’s picture and a value. I sold them all; they were still good for postage, and small businesses buying them in bulk paid a decent amount. New barcodes have made things trickier, but that’s someone else’s headache now.
I’d bought most of them for face value, so the guy who owned them basically spent his life buying five-pound notes for five pounds and selling them for two or so—we got a little less than half, I think.
The rest—foreign stamps, some used, some not—were pretty much worthless. We didn’t have a good list of what we had, which made it even harder to sell. It had *some* value on paper, but the market’s so dead that unless we wanted to become stamp dealers ourselves, the only option was to sell the whole lot to someone who’d take a chance on finding something good. Maybe they found something.
It was a tiny part of a big estate, so the money itself wasn’t a huge deal. But it took way more time and energy than it should have. The worst part was seeing how a lifetime of work ended up being almost worthless, both financially and intellectually.
RE: Fact #48 (The Flying Nuns of Argentina) – That’s seriously messed up.
Milei actually said the dictatorship wasn’t so bad!
Being a former libertarian, I’ve noticed a weird thing: modern libertarians seem to have a real soft spot for some dictators. It’s totally ironic seeing the people online saying a dictatorship is “based”—they’re practically obsessed with those guys. I’m pretty glad I got out before things got completely bonkers.
RE: Fact #41 (Lunchbox Revenge from Michael J.) – My sister went to a Knicks game last year, and guess who was there? Michael J. Fox! When they put him up on the big screen, she said the place went wild. He’s a total sweetheart.
RE: Fact #2 (Bake Off Hosts Sabotaged Footage) – There’s this awesome Tumblr post about someone crying over a flat pastry, and in the background, Mel and Sue are shouting a really bad word repeatedly.
That’d totally be a highlight for the Great British Bake Off.
We all swear a lot to make up for eating bland food, but Bake Off is just too nice for that kind of talk.
RE: Fact #17 (Pantone Colors Turned Black Overnight) – I hate companies that rip people off with DLCs.
RE: Fact #31 (Ecclestone Became Dad at 89) – Give Mick Jagger some more time.
De Niro and Pacino are definitely in the running too.
They’re both pretty old dads, actually.
He had great-grandkids born in 2014, 2014, and 2019, and his youngest kid arrived in 2016.
RE: Fact #43 (Royal Fool Buys a Stamp) – Back in 1904, £1,450 was like having £225,000 today—a crazy amount for a single stamp!
That stamp’s worth around £8 million now. Not a bad way to fight inflation!
Turns out George wasn’t so dumb. It was a smart move, but you gotta have the cash to start with, and be okay with maybe losing it all if things go south.
That stamp lets you use the postman perk—send postcards to a quarter of a million people at once!
Back in 1904, a postcard in the UK only cost half a penny! So, £1,450 would buy you a whopping 696,000 postcards.
RE: Fact #48 (The Flying Nuns of Argentina) – One was the aunt of Geneviève Jeanningros, you know, the nun who cried at the Pope’s funeral.