1 Game of Thrones Stars Self-Submit for Emmys
HBO did not submit Alfie Allen (Theon), Carice van Houten (Melisandre), and Gwendoline Christie (Brienne) for Emmy consideration for their work in Game of Thrones’ final season. Consequently, they each paid the $225 entry fee to submit themselves, resulting in all three receiving acting nods.
2. When musician Prince died, he left behind a vault containing nearly 8,000 unreleased songs, but he had forgotten the combination. The massive vault, measuring 6.5 feet tall, several feet wide, and weighing 6,000 pounds, required a professional safecracker to open it.
3. In 1846, astronomers discovered Neptune not by accident but because they noticed Uranus wobbling off course. Mathematicians used Newton’s laws to predict the location of a hidden planet, and when they pointed a telescope there, Neptune appeared exactly as predicted.
4. While filming his scenes, Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin in the Star Wars prequels, would sometimes make lightsaber noises with his mouth. This prompted George Lucas to stop filming and tell him, “Hayden, that looks really great, but I can see your mouth moving. You don’t have to do that; we add the sound effects afterward.”
5. Emilia Clarke read the script revealing Daenerys Targaryen’s fate seven times, thinking, “What, what, what, WHAT?!” because it “came out of f***ing nowhere.” She was so shaken that she cried and took a five-hour walk that left blisters on her feet. Despite her initial shock, she eventually came to support Daenerys’ “Mad Queen” turn.
6 Man Discovers Kidnapping from Age-Progression Image
In 2010, a 35-year-old Philadelphia man named Steven Carter found an age-progression image of himself on a missing children’s site. Although he knew he was adopted, this discovery led him to find out that his mother had kidnapped him from his father when he was an infant 34 years earlier.
7. When cars were new, hitting a pedestrian was a serious matter called a “motor killing.” As incidents increased with more cars and crashes, car manufacturers hired public relations experts to invent the term “jaywalker” to shift the blame to pedestrians for getting hurt and dying.
8. In 2003, the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, organizers of Wimbledon, began paying $2 million annually for pandemic insurance, continuing for 17 years. In 2020, when Wimbledon was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club collected a $141 million payout.
9. Apple paid U2 $100 million for the exclusive right to give its 500 million iTunes customers U2’s album “Songs of Innocence” for free by installing it on their devices without user permission. A week after the release, Apple provided a method to remove it, as only 6.7% of the 500 million had listened to at least part of it.
10. In 1997, 24.6% of U.S. 12th graders smoked cigarettes daily. By 2023, that number had dramatically fallen to 0.7%.
11 GoDaddy’s Deceptive Bonus Email
In December 2020, GoDaddy deceived employees into believing they had earned a $650 bonus. Later, the company revealed this was a phishing test, requiring employees to undergo social engineering training. After facing media backlash, GoDaddy apologized but did not provide actual bonuses.
12. In 1983, an 18-year-old boy fell from Space Mountain and became paralyzed from the waist down. However, Disneyland was not found at fault. During the trial, the jury visited the park to experience Space Mountain, and multiple ride vehicles were brought to the courtroom to demonstrate their functionality.
13. In February 1936, Pope Pius XI received a message from Adolf Hitler, congratulating him on his coronation anniversary. Pius responded with a strong critique of Hitler’s regime. Despite Germany’s foreign secretary attempting to suppress the response, Pius insisted that Hitler receive the message.
14. The “Age of Piracy” lasted about 80 years, beginning in 1648 after the Treaty of Westphalia. This era declined between 1714 and 1723, following the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, Nassau’s recapture, and the capture or death of every famous pirate.
15. Charles Darwin worked about four hours a day, dividing his time into two 90-minute morning sessions and one 60-minute session later. Before the latter, he took an hour-long nap and went on two walks. Under this schedule, he authored 19 books, including “The Descent of Man” and “On the Origin of Species.”
16 Hulk Hogan’s 400-Day Wrestling Claim
Hulk Hogan claimed in his autobiography that he wrestled 400 days in a year due to frequent trips between the USA and Japan.
17. Auschwitz operated a brothel, Block 24, where female prisoners were forced to have sex with selected male inmates as part of a reward system.
18. Buzz Aldrin was known among his fellow astronauts to be notoriously difficult to work with, to the extent that Neil Armstrong was offered the option to replace him for the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Armstrong considered it for a day before deciding to keep Aldrin on the mission.
19. Voice actor Casey Kasem, known for voicing Shaggy from “Scooby-Doo,” quit the Transformers cartoon project because it featured a fictional Saharan kingdom named “Carbombya.”
20. The US Air Force delayed awarding John Chapman the Medal of Honor partly because US Navy SEALs blocked it, fearing they would have to admit leaving a soldier behind. When the award became inevitable, the SEALs nominated the soldier who left Chapman for the same award for the same battle.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Anna Nicole Smith’s Legal Defeat
In 2014, Anna Nicole Smith’s estate lost its final attempt to claim $44 million from J. Howard Marshall’s estate. Smith had married the oil tycoon when he was 89, and she was 26. After Marshall’s death the following year, he left his $1.6 billion estate to his son, excluding Smith, despite her claims that he promised her $300 million.
22. In 2013, the first known Tinder match occurred in Antarctica. Two researchers, one at McMurdo Station and another camping in the Dry Valleys, both swiped right on each other. They were separated by about a 45-minute helicopter ride.
23. Portugal fought a 13-year colonial war to retain its African colonies long after other European nations had relinquished theirs. Eventually, the military, weary of the futile conflict, overthrew the dictatorship and established a democracy.
24. Disney once attempted to open a park designed to let guests “experience what it was like to be a slave.” Unsurprisingly, the project was a complete disaster.
25. In the late 1960s, stand-up comedian George Carlin earned approximately $250,000 annually. However, in 1970, he revamped his routines and appearance, growing his hair long, sporting a beard, and wearing earrings to appeal to a younger audience. Although his income initially declined by 90%, his career ultimately flourished.
RE: Fact #30 (Princess Diana’s Will Overlooked) – Her will’s people *could’ve* done what she wanted, but they didn’t, and the courts let them get away with it because of a missing detail. Let’s be real, other people’s greed is why the godchildren got screwed.
It was also because of the words they used. The court let the executors skip Diana’s letter because it didn’t use the right legal terms. They used words like “discretion” and “wishes,” so Diana’s family got to decide whether to follow her wishes or not. Still a pretty crappy thing to do!
Writing a will like that practically begs for trouble. Get it done now, while you’re still able, and make it crystal clear so there’s no room for arguments later.
RE: Fact #40 (Carlo Acutis: Gamer Saint) – He’s not quite a saint yet, just beatified. They were going to make him a saint right after Easter, but then the Pope died, so it got pushed back.
Seriously, I’m at a ton of kid events lately—communions, confirmations—and the priests are *always* talking about this guy. It’s obvious they wanted a cool saint, so they picked a kid and made up some miracles. It’s like the Vatican ran out of ideas and needed a new character, but ended up with something super awkward.
Francis wanted to make him a saint before he kicked the bucket. The papal change means the mass is up in the air, but it’s still happening.
RE: Fact #7 (Origin of the Term Jaywalker) – It’s funny, this whole Jaywalking thing isn’t really known outside the US, and in a lot of places, crossing wherever you want isn’t even illegal.
Yeah, I figured. In Europe, you’re supposed to use crosswalks if there’s one close by, but it’s pretty vague what “close by” actually means. It’s not a big deal if you don’t, anyway.
RE: Fact #41 (Soul Asylum’s Video Finds 21 Missing) – Wow, that’s crazy. The UK part showed Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol, missing since 1991, found dead in 2007; Peter Tobin was nailed for it. The US part had Curtis Huntzinger, found dead in 2008, his killer Stephen Daniel Hash copped to manslaughter and got 11 years. Then there was Aundria Bowman, a teenager missing since 1989, her adoptive dad Dennis Bowman confessed to killing her and another woman, Kathleen Doyle, in 2020. The Australian version featured backpackers, lots of them turned out to be victims of Ivan Milat, busted in 1994.
RE: Fact #4 (Hayden Christensen’s Lightsaber Sound Effects) – This keeps happening, it seems. Liam and Ewon did it in TPM, and Laura Dern does it in TLJ too.
It’s awesome seeing those Star Wars kids all grown up and actually *in* Star Wars! They can barely keep from doing their own kid-version sound effects – it’s like the magic never fades, it just needs a chance to shine through.
That NASCAR guy, Ross Chastain, reminds me of those old NASCAR GameCube games. He and his brother used to hug the wall at full speed to win, right? Anyway, he was lagging, said screw it, tried the wall trick, and it totally worked! Goes to show, sometimes what wins in video games can actually win in real life.
Took me way too long to realize Ewon and Ewan were the same person! I was so confused 🤣
RE: Fact #25 (George Carlin’s Career Transformation) – Back in 1969, $250,000 was like having $2.14 million today.
Early on, Carlin was pretty conventional—suits, short hair, the whole deal—compared to how he’d later become.
In the late sixties, he was making around $250,000 a year. Then, in 1970, he totally switched things up—long hair, beard, earrings, jeans and t-shirts. This cost him some TV gigs because, back then, comedians were expected to be all clean-cut. He got new managers to help him look more “with it” for a younger crowd. They booked him in smaller clubs, and even though his income dropped a ton (like 90%), it turned out to be a great move for his career in the long run.
RE: Fact #43 (Chocolate River’s Massive Expansion) – 1.25 million liters is about 330,000 gallons.
RE: Fact #21 (Anna Nicole Smith’s Legal Defeat) – Anna passed away in 2007, so her estate had to do the digging.
RE: Fact #28 (Pringles’ Legal Battle Over Chips) – It’s a lose-lose situation.
RE: Fact #47 (Women Dominate Car Purchases) – It makes sense, given how it works. Buying from a dealer is way more typical than buying off some random guy on Craigslist.
RE: Fact #23 (Portugal’s Long Colonial War) – I figured Salazar’s dictatorship was over, but it went on longer than I thought.
His last years are pretty funny, though. So, in August 1968, he had a massive stroke. He went into a coma in September. The president, thinking he was a goner, fired him and put Caetano in charge. But Salazar lived another two years! After waking up from a month-long coma and being surprisingly alert again, they didn’t even tell him he’d lost his job. They just let him pretend to be in charge until he died in July 1970.
RE: Fact #40 (Carlo Acutis: Gamer Saint) – He used tech to spread his faith.
RE: Fact #8 (Wimbledon’s Pandemic Insurance Pays Off) – Turns out, insurance actually pays out sometimes.
RE: Fact #38 (Bench Press World Records) – So, I watched a few docs on weightlifting, and wow, those shirts! Sometimes they’re even double layered. They’re so tight, they sometimes have to be cut off the lifter – no way to get them off otherwise. They’re like giant rubber bands, stretching as the weight goes down and then helping push it back up. I was blown away by how huge the difference is between equipped and unequipped lifting. I knew there were different categories, but I figured it’d be like 15-30%, not almost double!
RE: Fact #18 (Buzz Aldrin: A Difficult Astronaut) – Buzz really wanted to be the first guy on the moon—much more than Armstrong did. This caused some tension with NASA’s higher-ups. In the end, they decided Armstrong would go first because he was the mission commander and that’s how the lunar lander was set up.
RE: Fact #29 (Beavers Foil Czech Dam Project) – 1.2 million for a dam? Wow, back home that wouldn’t even pay for the initial checks and site surveys.
RE: Fact #12 (Space Mountain Fall: No Liability) – I remember reading about this case back in law school. If I recall correctly, he was standing up in the ride, even though they told him not to.
RE: Fact #35 (Americans Outwork the Japanese) – From what I’ve seen, Japanese folks put in crazy long hours, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually *doing* anything all that time. It’s a lot of showing up, busywork, and not much getting done. Looking busy is more important than actually producing results.
RE: Fact #40 (Carlo Acutis: Gamer Saint) – So, can someone dumb this down for me? I’m totally lost, even after checking Wikipedia.
Is he, like, a big deal in the Catholic Church—a miracle worker if you go to his grave—who also happened to be a gamer?
RE: Fact #44 (Zlatan’s Painful Trophy Pursuit) – Wow, ACL tears really mess up your knee. I wouldn’t want to go through that, but good for him on reaching his goal! Hope he heals completely, though he might have done more damage than he realizes.
RE: Fact #35 (Americans Outwork the Japanese) – Officially, it might look one way, but tons of Japanese office workers put in way more hours than are recorded. They might clock out at 5, but stick around much longer – it’s just not official, so it doesn’t show up in the stats. That makes comparing things tricky.
Plus, that doesn’t even include the “voluntary” after-party drinks at people’s houses.
RE: Fact #3 (Neptune’s Discovery Through Uranus Wobble) – After that win, they shifted their focus to Mercury, figuring a hypothetical planet, “Vulcan,” really close to the sun could explain Mercury’s weird orbit. That idea stuck around and people looked for it for ages, until Einstein’s relativity showed why Mercury’s orbit is so strange – no need for a new planet after all.
RE: Fact #20 (Medal of Honor Delayed for Chapman) – This video’s the first ever recording of a Medal of Honor action. It shows exactly why Chapman got the medal, and why the Navy and the whole US military tried to bury the whole thing. Basically, a bunch of screw-ups—a soldier falling out of a helicopter, a messed-up backup plan, bad intel, and poor communication—led to 19 US casualties.
So, Chapman’s Medal of Honor is awesome, but his wasn’t the first recorded heroic action. Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart’s bravery in Mogadishu in ’93 was caught on an early drone. There’s more drone footage from that battle, too.
That footage of Gordon and Shughart probably won’t ever be public; word is, it’s pretty rough to see.
Chapman’s was the first Medal of Honor given based only on video evidence – no one else saw what happened except on that video. Usually, you need several witnesses to back up a story like that.
The whole thing’s really about how hypocritical Slabinski and the Naval Special Warfare guys are being. It blew up, especially after they pushed Chapman’s Medal of Honor stuff to the side because some of the museum board are ex-SEALS. They’ve really tried to cover up what went down on that op. I don’t blame Slabinski; he had to get his team out to avoid getting wiped out – Chapman told him to. But minimizing Chapman’s bravery after he called in air support and covered their retreat? That’s messed up.
RE: Fact #4 (Hayden Christensen’s Lightsaber Sound Effects) – Ewan McGregor said on Graham Norton, or so I thought, that he and whoever else were doing it while filming the Mustafar fight in Revenge of the Sith. Turns out I goofed—he didn’t say it happened *during* that fight. But he did say it’s a hard habit to break because the sound is so cool and satisfying, you just can’t help yourself.
RE: Fact #20 (Medal of Honor Delayed for Chapman) – Want to see how the “good guys” make themselves look better by changing history? Just check out US military medals. Take Hugh Thompson, for example. He got the Distinguished Flying Cross for stopping the My Lai Massacre in 1968, but tossed it because the official story was totally made up – they tried to make it sound like a real battle, not the slaughter of innocent people by US troops.
RE: Fact #1 (Game of Thrones Stars Self-Submit for Emmys) – It’s pretty rare for actors with small roles to even get nominated for Emmys, let alone be considered. But HBO submitted a bunch in 2019, and they all got nominated! Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Alfie Allen, Gwendoline Christie, and Carice van Houten. Only Peter Dinklage actually won, though.
I checked, and only 4 out of 6 Game of Thrones nominees for Best Supporting Actress won nothing. Crazy!
Julia Garner took home the prize though, and she totally deserved it—she was amazing in Ozark.
RE: Fact #44 (Zlatan’s Painful Trophy Pursuit) – It probably wasn’t great for his health.
Nah, not for most people, but Zlatan’s one of those guys who bends reality with sheer force of will. Just a little, but seriously, 8 goals at 40? That’s insane, especially if he’s healthy, and he did it all messed up.
RE: Fact #5 (Emilia Clarke’s Reaction to Daenerys’ Fate) – Saying Daenerys was always like that because of Qaarth, Astapor, or Viserys isn’t really fair. The books show her becoming brutal gradually, but seasons 5-7 didn’t get that across.
RE: Fact #17 (Auschwitz’s Disturbing Brothel System) – They were always cycling through women because they were constantly sick or worn out.
RE: Fact #31 (Disney’s Duck Becomes Mascot) – Disney sold a Cupid image to the Army’s 3rd Weather Squadron for a buck. The squadron still uses it on their patch. My squadron, the way cooler 18th, had urinal cakes with that goofy naked baby on them. We’d use them for special events, like when important people visited or during squadron competitions.
RE: Fact #46 (Nzeli the Gorilla’s Family Choices) – I bet she’s moving between groups to help them share info on safe spots and good food sources. She’s probably a total lifesaver for them, like a traveling expert.
RE: Fact #13 (Pope Pius XI Criticizes Hitler) – Three years later, he kicked the bucket, and some pushover took over. Crazy, huh?
RE: Fact #18 (Buzz Aldrin: A Difficult Astronaut) – Deke Slayton, the guy who picked the astronauts, offered Neil Armstrong Jim Lovell’s spot. Neil was the best, Lovell was number two. Slayton asked if Neil wanted Lovell instead of Aldrin, who was a bit of a handful.
Armstrong said no after thinking it over. He figured Lovell deserved his own shot at leading a mission, and that he could handle Aldrin, plus Aldrin was a whiz at orbital mechanics – he practically wrote the book on it! The guy was amazing; he’d done the only successful spacewalk in the whole Gemini program. Everyone else either failed or nearly killed themselves. One astronaut, Gene Cernan, lost ten pounds and was too weak to even lift a teacup afterwards!
Armstrong wanted Aldrin’s skills, even if Aldrin wasn’t the easiest to get along with.
RE: Fact #50 (Walking Dead’s Alien Pitch Approval) – Zombies and aliens? That’s a killer combo
RE: Fact #33 (Navajo Code Talkers in WWII) – Turns out, it wasn’t only Navajo. There were also Comanche, Meskwaki, Chippewa, Oneida, Hopi, and Cherokee.
RE: Fact #14 (Age of Piracy: A Brief Era) – The Wild West too didn’t last long! It’s nuts how much some short periods in history can change things!
RE: Fact #5 (Emilia Clarke’s Reaction to Daenerys’ Fate) – Still bummed about how the Long Night went down. Eight years of building up the White Walkers and the Night King, only to have it end like that. And don’t even get me started on those scenes where the main characters are totally surrounded, no way out, then bam, the camera cuts away and they’re magically surrounded somewhere else!
RE: Fact #43 (Chocolate River’s Massive Expansion) – Let’s be honest, Burton’s idea of a fish tank full of chocolate was a bit much.
RE: Fact #31 (Disney’s Duck Becomes Mascot) – Donald Duck’s totally the perfect Oregon fan.
RE: Fact #43 (Chocolate River’s Massive Expansion) – So, the old Willy Wonka movie was all about Charlie, but the new one’s more about Wonka himself.
RE: Fact #39 (Twins in Newborn TV Roles) – This article really freaked me out. Picking babies as young as two days old, especially twins because they’re often premature? It’s messed up. Both the producers and the parents are to blame – it’s totally exploitative. And the fact that the kids don’t get any of the money in the UK? Seriously? I don’t have kids, but I can’t imagine putting my baby to work just days after they’re born.