1 Lonely Sunfish Needs Faces
In January 2025, at the Kaikyokan Aquarium in Japan, a resident ocean sunfish became so lonely during the aquarium’s renovation closure that it stopped eating. To help, staff placed cardboard cutouts of human faces along its tank. Remarkably, its appetite returned the next day.
2. In 2014, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas banned Ben Affleck for life from playing blackjack. Security caught him counting cards, told him he was too good, and labeled him an “advantage player.”
3. In 2009, former NFL center Jason Brown walked away from a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the St. Louis Rams to become a farmer. He now runs a 1,000-acre operation called First?Fruits Farm in Louisburg, North Carolina, donating sweet potatoes and cucumbers to local food pantries.
4. George Washington died with a net worth equivalent to $594.2 million today. His presidential salary of $25,000, about $900,000 now, was 2% of the government’s budget at the time.
5. Despite his intensely private nature, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio allowed Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, to use his name and likeness-on the condition they would never turn away a child for financial reasons. The agreement, sealed with a handshake and a promise in 1992, remains in effect even today.
6 Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read
In 2009, Australian criminal turned author Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver-a condition he contracted after catching hepatitis C from a shared razor in prison. During an August 2009 interview on ABC Local Radio, he refused a liver transplant, stating, “I’m 55?years old; I’m not going to put my name down against some 10 year old kid.”
7. In 2017, a 4-year-old girl named Saglana Salchak in Siberia awoke to find her grandmother was sick and unresponsive. After speaking with her blind grandfather, she decided to walk 5 miles alone in temperatures as low as -34°C (-29°F) over several hours to the next homestead to find help-an effort in which she succeeded.
8. Rochus Misch, Hitler’s bodyguard, lived to see the film “Downfall” (2004). He remarked on its historical accuracy, noting Hitler yelled less and the suicide contemplation scene differed from reality.
9. In 2003, con artist Anthony Gignac-posing as Saudi Prince Khalid bin Al Saud-persuaded American Express to issue him a platinum card with a $200 million credit limit by threatening they’d anger the king if they didn’t. Though the card was indeed issued, and he even booked limousines before AmEx flagged the fraud.
10. The shopping cart debuted in 1937 to initial dislike. Men found it unmanly, and women thought it resembled a baby carriage. Inventor Sylvan Goldman hired models to demonstrate its use, eventually making it popular and himself a multimillionaire.
11 Ozempic Boosts Denmark’s Economy
The soaring demand for Ozempic and its sister weight-loss drug Wegovy has boosted Denmark’s GDP by around 1.7-2 percentage points in 2022-2023. This surge has been driven by Novo Nordisk, the Copenhagen-based pharmaceutical giant owned by Novo Holdings A/S, whose profits and share price climbed nearly 40-45%, lifting its market capitalization above the size of Denmark’s entire economy and funneling billions into jobs, infrastructure, tax revenue, and domestic investments.
12. Galapagos tortoises sometimes kill the finches that groom them for parasites by retracting their limbs, flattening themselves, and deliberately falling on the birds to consume them for protein.
13. All diseases classified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and fatal insomnia, have a 100% mortality rate, with no known survivors.
14. In 1999, 11-year-old Mitchell Schop wrote to his favorite band, Cake, requesting they play at his bar mitzvah. After he sang his favorite song to them over the phone, Cake agreed, making his party the first stop on their 1999 world tour.
15. The ancient Egyptian calendar consisted of 12 months with 30 days each, and they added five days of festivities at the year’s end to complete a 365-day year. During these “epagomenal days,” Egyptians celebrated the birthdays of five major deities-Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys-with feasting, offerings, and religious ceremonies.
16 Gunther IV: Richest Dog Worldwide
With a net worth of $500 million, Gunther IV, a German Shepherd, is the world’s richest dog, having inherited his fortune from his father, Gunther III. He inherited the money-which originated from a German countess, Karlotta Liebenstein, in a trust managed by Italian heir Maurizio Mian-and it’s used to fund his lavish lifestyle (luxury homes, private jets, staff) and even businesses like a pop group and a football club.
17. Margot Kidder, known for playing Lois Lane in the original Superman films, experienced a manic breakdown and disappeared for four days after her laptop crashed while writing her autobiography and losing all her work.
18. In the early 1970s, Shirley Clarkson, Jeremy Clarkson’s mother, designed and created the first Paddington Bear toy, which later became a licensed product that helped fund Jeremy’s education and launch his TV career.
19. Research shows that people with social anxiety disorders have a different gut microbiome, and when it is transplanted into mice, it causes the mice to exhibit increased social fear.
20. In September 2024, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine analyzed 333 slaps across 78 professional slap-fighting bouts and discovered that over 50% of slap sequences resulted in fighters exhibiting visible signs of concussion, while nearly 80% of participants showed at least one concussion sign during matches.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Lottery Bump Wins $10 Million
In November 2021, LaQuedra Edwards, a woman in California, intended to buy multiple cheaper lottery tickets and inserted $40 into a vending machine. A passerby bumped into her, causing her to accidentally press the button for a $30 “200X” scratch-off instead. Initially annoyed, she scratched the ticket and discovered she had won a $10 million jackpot.
22. In Denmark, historical criteria for common-law marriage stated that if a man lived with a mistress for three winters, shared meals, and she held the keys to his home, she would become his wife and the rightful lady of the house.
23. In 2003, Hideo Kojima designed a Game Boy Advance game featuring a cartridge with a built-in light sensor. Players charged their in-game weapon by playing outside in natural sunlight, and the game mechanics changed based on the time of day.
24. In the late 1980s, a British woman bought a ring for £10 at a car boot sale-believing it was costume jewelry-and wore it daily. Decades later, an appraisal at Sotheby’s revealed it contained a 26.2 carat diamond from the 1800s, likely misplaced by its unknown owner before ending up at the sale. She then sold it for £656,000.
25. Lyodura was introduced in 1969 and was used as a quick and effective freeze-dried dural patch in brain surgery, rehydrated to seal leaks during neurosurgical procedures. Unbeknownst to users, it was made from cadaveric dura harvested through a black market corpses, carried Creutzfeldt-Jakob prions, and despite the company’s attempt to improve safety in 1987, the product remained on the market until its 1996 ban, by which time over 150 people had been infected.
RE: Fact #27 (Norway’s Unique Monarchical Election) – So, the king pulled up to the harbor and was met by Norway’s Prime Minister, Christian Michelsen. On the Heimdal’s deck, the PM gave this little speech to the king:
“For pretty much 600 years, Norwegians haven’t really had their own king. He’s never been completely ours, always had to share him. He never really called Norway home. But, you know, home is where the country is. Well, today’s a different story. Today, Norway’s new king is coming to set up his home right here in the capital. Chosen by a free people as a free man to lead us, he’ll be all ours. Once again, Norway’s king will be that solid, unifying symbol for everything we do in our new, independent Norway.”
A while down the road, a young Frank Herbert got inspired by this when he read about it. The question that pretty much kicked off the vote was, “Would you still love me if I were a worm?”
RE: Fact #38 (Real-Life ‘Seinfeld’ Plot in 2016) – So, Brian Edward Everidge from Columbiaville got hit with $1,230 in fines and court fees because he pleaded guilty to a charge about returning non-refundable bottles in Livingston County. This offense could actually land him in prison for up to five years.
That’s a crazy unfair penalty
Seriously, you can get away with a lot for murder or manslaughter here, but if you touch the cash? That’s a hard no, lol.
This was a $500 scam. If CEOs got penalized the same amount for every dollar they tried to steal, things would be pretty different.
This seems like it’s only for major stuff, like if a criminal was hauling tons of stuff from a recycling center out of state. It’s the most it could be, not what they’re aiming for.
RE: Fact #15 (Egyptian Calendar’s Party Days) – This is the only calendar system that really clicks. I wish everyone would get on board.
What’s that? Someone’s wondering about leap years? Just stick ’em in the extra party time at the end of the year.
Every four years we get a six-day party? Count me in.
I’m cool with 13 28-day periods for the bookkeeping, but 12 is just easier to work with since it divides up nicely.
12 calendar days in 28 days, plus a whole month of celebrating.
RE: Fact #3 (NFL Star Turns to Farming) – I’m thinking of this story as a choice for a better life instead of just focusing on making tons of cash.
The dude was already rolling in cash.
Honestly, I’ve always wondered why people chase after tons of money. I know some seriously loaded business folks, like hundreds of millions loaded, who bust their butts working insane hours just to get even richer. Like, dude, if I had twenty million bucks in the bank, I’d totally just live off the interest, hang out with my people, and actually get to do the stuff I enjoy.
RE: Fact #48 (Ancient Jewish Bathroom Blessing) – Harlan Ellison actually wanted to call it “I Have No Butthole, and I Must sh*t,” but his editor talked him into a different title.
RE: Fact #42 (Tracy Morgan’s 2014 Accident Settlement) – He was joking about how the settlement money meant he could afford to live in a fancy neighborhood. He mentioned that the CEO of Pepsi lived next door and came over to say hi. He told her, “it would be awesome to get run over by one of your trucks.”
That’s why he skipped filming Phat Bitch 3.
Glad to hear it, that gave him the chance to wrap up Who Dat Ninja? 2.
That’s pretty messed up, especially since his friend died in the accident. But hey, I’m glad he can still laugh about it.
RE: Fact #25 (Lyodura Prion Disease Scandal) – Seriously, prion diseases are messed up stuff.
RE: Fact #34 (Monica Seles’ Grand Slam Triumphs) – The cut wasn’t too bad, but she totally spiraled into a major funk over it, and that really messed with her playing. Rough all around.
It’s pretty tough to do your best work when you’re always worried someone might literally stab you in the back while you’re trying to focus.
Yeah, getting stabbed precisely while playing, all because you were playing too well. You’re right back in the spot where it happened, doing the very thing that got you stabbed, and now you’ve gotta be super aware, except you’re totally locked in on your opponent and the ball.
Her opponents were total jerks about it, even voting against keeping her spot on ice.
So, how do you bounce back mentally after losing your groove? It’s one thing if something bad happened to you out in public, but if it went down right on the court, how do you even step back onto the court and play the game like nothing happened?
RE: Fact #19 (Gut Microbiome Affects Social Anxiety) – That whole “we gave mice social anxiety” thing is seriously messed up, like, cartoonishly messed up.
They’ve done way worse to mice, sadly. Those guys got off easy.
Totally makes sense after what Mickey pulled on everyone.
Seriously, if you think that’s rough, you should see what else we do with mice. They’re involved in tons of experiments.
RE: Fact #36 (Blue Öyster Cult’s Cowbell Ban) – So, during that NBC doc about the SNL 50th anniversary sketch, the two guys left from the band couldn’t even agree if it was a cowbell or a clave, or who even played it on the recording. I thought that was hilarious. The whole documentary is pretty neat though, they break down that sketch like it’s some super important historical footage.
RE: Fact #25 (Lyodura Prion Disease Scandal) – Seriously, one of the most messed-up parts of medical history. Totally proves why ethics in healthcare are a big deal and can’t be messed with.
Seriously, this isn’t even close to the worst I’ve seen. Medical history is pretty rough.
RE: Fact #36 (Blue Öyster Cult’s Cowbell Ban) – They banned cowbells for fans, but didn’t make them stop playing them in their music.
Christopher Walken totally would’ve made them play with the cowbell.
RE: Fact #35 (Controversial Debate Strategy: Spreading) – So, this is something I’m pretty familiar with.
Spreading is mostly used in Policy debate because the affirmative side has to back up all the main points of their case, or their “SHITS.” I won’t go into detail here. Basically, by throwing out a bunch of arguments, it’s like firing a minigun of cheap plastic balls at those points while the affirmative tries to bat them away. Sure, a single well-aimed cannonball will wreck one of the points, but if you don’t have a cannon, you might as well use what you’ve got.
After judging and coaching for 20 years, I can tell you spreading has its upsides, but it also has a lot of downsides. A skilled debater can bundle up a lot of those arguments and tackle them in groups. They can attack the connections and uniqueness of those arguments to separate them from their own case’s specifics. Or, since this practice has gotten popular in the moral reasoning debate that is LD, you can just focus on the moral aspect and steer the debate away from analyzing harms, utilitarianism, or whatever value and standard the negative side is pushing.
The second big issue is that speech and debate often involve judges who aren’t experts. Meaning, people who aren’t used to all the tactics at play, and most regular judges can’t stand spreading. It sounds silly, the arguments are usually flimsy, and if you can’t judge debate with a complete understanding of why these tactics work within a very strict interpretation of the rules, you’ll just dismiss spreading as garbage. And personally? I agree. As someone involved in debate, I think it’s bad for the sport, but I’ll judge it because, as it is now, it’s fair play.
So, I used to be a competitive debater ages ago, like over 20 years back. Spreading was a really big deal in NFL debate then, but I heard it wasn’t so popular in the 90s and 2000s. Did it make a comeback, or was it always a thing?
So, here’s why this kind of practice is a big deal for competitive debate.
Basically, students get a topic that sticks around for a while, either a few months or even a whole year. This means they’re super familiar with it and have done a ton of research. The catch? They don’t get to pick which side they argue. A lot of the time, they’re arguing something they totally disagree with, morally speaking.
Now, the Affirmative side usually has a bit of wiggle room to define terms and shape their proposed solution within the topic. Policy debate specifically demands a “plan text” – a detailed outline of what happens if the judge votes for them. LD debate doesn’t really have this requirement.
This setup actually gives the Negation side both some benefits and some downsides. If the Affirmative has really made the most of their definition space, they can block off a lot of potential attack routes. But here’s the thing, there are *always* way more attacks you could make than you have time for. So, Negation’s job is to pick which attacks to go after. Spreading, or rapid-fire speaking, is a way to pack in more of those attacks.
This does take a bit of the fun out of picking the absolute best arguments against your opponent, though. It’s about trying to get a feel for what evidence they have to counter your points. So, they’ll actually enjoy getting more arguments out there because it’s not only effective, but they genuinely have more they’d love to say in the time they have. Don’t just think of this as playing games; it’s not. These are kids who are genuinely excited and want to do their thing, just faster, louder, and with everything they’ve got.
RE: Fact #22 (Danish Common Law Marriage Rules) – Living together for three years and seeing each other? Sounds like marriage material.
RE: Fact #34 (Monica Seles’ Grand Slam Triumphs) – Honestly, most players don’t even come close to winning one in their entire careers.
It’s a bit off because it doesn’t mention that Seles was already a seriously good player, having already snagged 8 Grand Slam titles.
Out of all the tennis pros, besides Monica Seles, who managed to win 8 Grand Slams, a whopping 70% went on to win a 9th, and 65% even hit double digits with 10 or more wins.
Plus, Seles is the only one to ever get to 8 titles before hitting 20.
RE: Fact #47 (Survivor’s Miraculous Fall in San Francisco) – Terminal velocity is pretty much terminal velocity. Some folks just get unbelievably lucky.
I’m betting I’ll end up kicking it by tripping over a doorway that’s barely an inch off the floor.
So, I met this dude at a skydiving thing ages ago. He actually made it through a double parachute fail – like, both his main and reserve chutes messed up. He even had a t-shirt that read ‘I survived a fall from 12,000 feet’. Turns out, he crashed into a bunch of trees on the way down, which slowed him enough, and then his reserve got caught in the top branches, stopping him before he hit the ground. Last I heard, he just had a small break and a few scrapes and bruises. Talk about a crazy mix of terrible luck with the double malfunction – that’s super rare – and then landing in just the right spot to walk away from it all.
So, I read a fact here yesterday where this woman actually made it through both chutes failing, and get this, her husband was apparently trying to cash in on her life insurance.
RE: Fact #30 (Shyam Lal’s Pond Digging Dedication) – If he’d had some backup, it might have saved him some time and money.
RE: Fact #11 (Ozempic Boosts Denmark’s Economy) – It looks like the fat acceptance movement kind of fizzled out once Ozempic became a thing.
That’s great. That whole movement kicked off with good intentions, but it totally turned into some kind of obsession with weight, lol.
It began with good intentions, but things went south fast when companies realized they could use it to hawk clothes and makeup to plus-sized women.
It wasn’t the movement that did it, but rather that most Americans were overweight, making it seem normal. But now? We’re basically going back to how things were in the lunchroom back in ’86.
Haha, imagine in 15 years hearing those ads saying “Did you or someone you care about use Ozempic for weight loss? You might get money!”
RE: Fact #14 (Cake Plays Bar Mitzvah 1999) – So, MTV News actually did a story on this. This kid sang a song that wasn’t even a single or a hit, it was like, the second-to-last track on an album. The band was totally blown away by that because it proved he really knew their stuff.
I recall that MTV News story about it. I think Cake mentioned they did it to back traditional coming-of-age rites, or something along those lines.
Fast forward a few years, and the cynical part of me figured the kid had to be the son of some big shot at a record label, or that his folks forked over a ton of cash for it. So, I went looking for the scoop.
Turns out, no. The kid was just a regular dude, a real go-getter. Loved that he had the guts.
I totally remember that MTV news thing! I think the obscure song was “Race Car Ya-Yas.” No clue why that one’s still in my head.
They were totally blown away when he dropped that “like testicles from rearview mirrors” line right in front of his mom, and that’s pretty much why they caved. At least, that’s how I remember it.
Big, fluffy dice still look awesome hanging from the rearview mirror, just like they always did.
RE: Fact #35 (Controversial Debate Strategy: Spreading) – “Competitive debate” is barely like actually debating, is it?
The whole thing about getting a point just ’cause you brought up an argument and the other person didn’t fire back seems okay in theory, but the made-up nature of the rules lets you get clever and pull stunts like that.
It’s kind of like how Olympic fencing is sort of like a real sword fight, and I bet it does teach a bunch of the same stuff. But because you get points for just a little tap anywhere on the other person, the whole game plan is way different from actually trying to, you know, fight to the death, where a bunch of quick grazes wouldn’t matter as much as one solid stab to the stomach.
RE: Fact #20 (Slap Fighting Concussion Study) – You gotta have had a concussion already to even think about becoming a slap fighter, right?
Seriously, if you check out any of these videos, they’re not even slapping, they’re just straight-up open-palm punching each other in the chin or jaw. It’s wild, like just giving someone a free shot from super close, as hard as they can.
Curious to see how often the first player actually wins.
This is almost as good as “Ow my balls” entertainment.
Honestly, that sport competition was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I caught some clips on the penguinz0 YouTube channel, and it looked like the contestants were risking serious brain damage with every single slap.
What sports do you think are even more ridiculous? I just saw slap fighting for the first time, watched about five minutes, and honestly, it was hands down the most absurd sport and entertainment I’ve ever come across.
Besides being clearly super dangerous, watching these big guys just whacking each other made me think there was absolutely zero fun to be had.
RE: Fact #26 (Hiker’s 24-Day Hibernation Survival) – Here’s the deal, scientifically speaking: He’s totally fibbing. It’s like that Prahlad Jani guy who said he survived on sunlight but, you know, also really liked gargling water and had a secret mini-fridge stashed in his cave.
So, he’s straight-up lying about his body temp? Or what’s the deal?
Honestly, it’s wild no one else is calling him out for this. It’s pretty much common knowledge you can’t last more than a few days without water. I reckon he’s either fibbing or just not recalling things right.
So he’s saying he hasn’t had anything to eat or drink, but then he can’t recall anything after the second day? Weird… He took a tumble into a stream, so water was all over the place. Gotcha! Hibernation – that’s definitely it!
RE: Fact #26 (Hiker’s 24-Day Hibernation Survival) – So, this guy, Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, disappeared on Mt Rokko in Japan back on October 7th. He’d been out for a barbecue with coworkers and, instead of heading back down the mountain the same way they did, he decided to hike it. Big mistake – he got lost, took a tumble in a stream, and busted his pelvis.
Fast forward 24 days, and some hiker stumbles upon him. This guy’s body temp was down to about 22 degrees Celsius, his pulse was super faint, and multiple organs were failing, plus he’d lost a ton of blood.
The docs who looked after him reckon he lost consciousness after that fall. Then, his body’s survival mode must have kicked in, basically putting him in hibernation as the mountain got as cold as 10 degrees Celsius.
Dr. Shinichi Sato, who’s in charge of the emergency unit at the hospital, explained it to the reporters, saying he went into a state like hibernation, and a lot of his organs slowed way down, but his brain was kept safe. He’s pretty sure the guy’s brain is back to normal.
The doctors were saying they don’t think he’ll have any long-term problems from it all.
Uchikoshi himself said he doesn’t remember anything after the second day of his whole ordeal on the mountain, which is a pretty common place for people to go hiking and have picnics. There was actually a story going around when he was still in the hospital that he’d been drinking bottled water and barbecue sauce before he passed out.
Experts are scratching their heads about how he even pulled off surviving like that with his metabolism practically shut down.
RE: Fact #3 (NFL Star Turns to Farming) – Looks like nobody, not even the writer of the article, bothered to check the wiki. The deal was approved with 20 million guaranteed, but the Rams let him go three years into it. So, he decided to walk away with what’s probably more than 20 million.
He earned enough to call it a day and ditch the CTE risks for his future. Now he’s just living the good life. Totally perfect.
So, I haven’t looked up his whole NFL background, but I’m pretty sure that was after he spent seven years with the Ravens.
Doing some rough, back-of-the-napkin calculations, even if he just put that $20 million into a regular checking account earning a measly 0.4% interest, he’d be making $80k a year just on that alone.
Basically, if he’s as sharp as he seems, he’s already way past “unbelievably rich.” As long as he doesn’t start blowing cash on those silly things designed to rip off wealthy folks, he’s golden. He’s right up there with that Tom from Myspace guy – you know, the ones who got ridiculously rich but instead of turning into total jerks trying to get even richer, they just retired and chilled out.
RE: Fact #7 (Saglana Salchak ) – So, for those who missed the article, the grandma was already gone when help showed up, and the mom was looked into for putting the kid in danger. Plus, folks were wondering if the local child welfare folks dropped the ball and why the grandparents didn’t have a phone or radio since that stuff’s pretty normal around there. The kiddo got medical attention and was all clear except for a little cold.
That extra info really helped, this story sounded super scary! I know kids can bounce back, but it’s wild to think of a four-year-old wandering around in those temps for hours by themselves. 😕
Seriously, if you’re living five miles out of town and the weather’s bad, how do you not have some kind of signalling gear?
RE: Fact #24 (Car Boot Sale Diamond Discovery) – That “super big” stone was thought to be fake because back in the 1800s, diamonds weren’t cut to sparkle as much as they are now. The owner, who had no clue how valuable it was, wore it for years while doing all sorts of things, from errands to everyday chores.
…
Jessica Wyndham, who heads the jewelry department at the auction house in London, mentioned, “The owner would wear it out shopping, just wear it every day. It’s a nice-looking ring. But it was thought to be a costume piece. Nobody had a clue it was actually worth anything. They got enjoyment out of it all that time.”
“They’d been to a bunch of car boot sales over the years. But they don’t really collect antiques or diamonds. This is a totally unexpected bonus, a fantastic discovery!”
Seriously, it just goes to show how dumb diamonds are if you can’t even tell the real ones from the fakes.
It’s pretty wild how lab-grown diamonds are actually purer than natural ones, and without any of the guilt about how they were mined. Most of the time, it seems like people judge how serious someone is about marrying them based on how much cash they drop on the ring.
RE: Fact #5 (DiMaggio’s Hospital Charity Promise) – Ran into him in Marin, just north of SF, when I was ten, waiting at the pharmacy. My stepdad was totally losing it. I, naturally, didn’t clock Joe because he looked nothing like the kid on his baseball card. I shook his hand, but I left not really buying what my stepdad was saying. I’m still not completely sure it was him.
RE: Fact #41 (Hawaiian Origins of Orange Chicken) – Orange chicken? Heck yeah, I’m all about it. No clue who came up with it, and honestly, I don’t even care.
It’s pretty cool how China didn’t get all bent out of shape when Americans added fruit to one of their dishes, unlike some other place.
Honestly, those Italian snobs should get it straight – they’re the ones using tomatoes and peppers from America.
That Trader Joe’s orange chicken is seriously amazing. I just tried it for the first time recently, and wow, it’s so tasty.
Seriously, all that frozen Asian stuff at Trader Joe’s is amazing. I just figured this out too. It’s a bummer the closest one is 40 minutes away, but I still make the trip every couple of weeks to load up.
RE: Fact #12 (Galapagos Tortoises Hunt Finches) – Given how long tortoises stick around, I’m curious if for finches this kind of thing happens more than once per generation. Or maybe, each time this rare trick goes down, the crafty tortoise just hangs back, letting the whole thing fade into finch lore and eventually, finch myth.
First thing’s first, make sure nobody else is around.
RE: Fact #18 (Paddington Bear’s Surprising Origin) – He has this bit in one of his shows where he talks about having a bear from when he was a kid, the kind with the eyes all torn out, totally useless to anyone. I always get a kick out of thinking he’s talking about that original Paddington bear, the one the inventor sewed himself! It’s like, everyone in the country was after that bear, Jeremy!
I’ve got this Paddington Bear I got back in the mid-seventies, and man, I absolutely adored it. Now, you can barely even tell what it is anymore.
Even like that, if he can show it’s the real deal, it’d still go for a lot. Especially if he could sell it with the story of a mom making a teddy bear for her kid.
I’d be super curious if he’d actually claim a teddy bear is his priciest possession, but I’m guessing it’s more likely a tractor.
He won’t consider selling it unless he’s in a bind for cash.
RE: Fact #23 (Kojima’s Sunlight-Powered Game) – If you happened to fire up the game on a Sunday, the helper character would greet you at the title screen with, “Today is Sunday, the sun’s day!” What a neat little find it was back then.
RE: Fact #29 (1997 Jarrell Tornado’s Destruction) – This dude I knew lived close to where the tornado hit. He was telling me how he was cleaning up his place, finding bits of flesh on his buildings and stuff, and he didn’t even know if it was from an animal or his neighbor.
It was a truly awful experience.
Some women were pitching in after it all happened. They were trying to get people’s stuff back to them.
One thing they were chatting about was photos. They were trying to figure out who the pictures belonged to, but most of them were just torn up pieces. They had an easier time with photos that had names or notes written on the back.
Everything was just flattened.
My boyfriend and I also pitched in to help look for stuff once all the bodies and big junk were cleared out. We mostly found tiny bits of paper, like, smaller than a postage stamp. Someone even found an old baby spoon! But we grabbed everything we could, just in case someone could recognize it as something their lost loved one owned.
It was rough knowing so many of those folks went home thinking they were safe, only to not make it. Totally heartbreaking.
RE: Fact #13 (Transmissible Diseases: 100% Fatal) – I did a course on hospital sterilization, and seriously, if they even think prions might be around, they’ll toss out super expensive gear without a second thought.
RE: Fact #38 (Real-Life ‘Seinfeld’ Plot in 2016) – He almost pulled it off, but getting pulled over did him in. Plus, talking to the cops sealed his fate.
Seriously, what kind of lame cop would actually enforce that?
“Why’d I pull you over?”
“It’s the cans, isn’t it? They’re the reason, right?”
RE: Fact #9 (Con Artist Gignac’s Bold Scam) – So, he got busted ’cause he ordered pork at the hotel place.
RE: Fact #32 (James Rothschild’s Double Inheritance) – Looks like someone’s Crusader Kings game is off to a good start.
It’s the best feeling ever when all your sneaky plans work out and your heir ends up snagging two kingdoms in Crusader Kings.
Whew, it usually takes ages for my inheritance plans to actually work out, you know, instead of just going to war with everything. But with these new admin governments, I’m actually being pushed to get good at scheming now, haha!
Even with all those kingdoms, it’s still just the Habsburgs getting it on with each other.
RE: Fact #6 (Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read ) – Super weird dude. Cuts off someone’s toes on Monday, then turns down a transplant for some noble cause on Friday.
If you wanna get why Aussies are mostly for gun control, check out “chopper read Russian roulette against journalist” on youtube. It totally explains it.
He’s a narcissist, thinks he’s awesome ’cause of stuff like that, and also because he only killed crooks or beat up his wife when they talked back.
It’s wild how many criminals, especially those in gangs, see themselves as these almost noble figures. They act like misunderstood antiheroes, even though they’re out there brutally torturing and killing, ripping off and bullying regular folks who are just trying to get by, and usually beating their wives and kids if they’ve got them.
RE: Fact #25 (Lyodura Prion Disease Scandal) –
So, this stuff they used for brain surgery was basically a fast and easy fix. It was freeze-dried tissue you could keep on the shelf for ages, and all you had to do was soak it in water for a bit to get it ready.
The catch was, people buying it had no clue where the stuff came from, how it was really processed, or how risky it was.
Turns out, the main ingredient for this product was the tough outer covering of a human brain from a dead person.
Usually, they’d grab this tissue during an autopsy and then sell it off to the company that made the product.
Once people started getting neurological diseases from using it, an investigation found out the company had been getting this donor tissue through shady, black market dealings.
The people doing the autopsies would just take the tissue from bodies, no matter if the family had even said okay to the autopsy, and sell it in bulk to reps from the company.
Because they got it all illegally like that, there was no info on the patient’s history when they sent it off to be made into the product.
They’d sterilize the harvested tissue in big groups using gamma rays and freeze-drying.
The company was pretty sure their sterilization process was strong enough to kill off any diseases in the tissue, so they weren’t worried about CJD-infected tissue mixing with other stuff in the same sterilization tank.
Now, it’s thought that pretty much all the Lyodura that caused problems was contaminated with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease during that whole process.
RE: Fact #13 (Transmissible Diseases: 100% Fatal) – Yeah, I lost an immediate family member to this thing too. Went from diagnosis to gone in just 36 days.
So sorry for your loss, I had someone pass from it too. It was like seeing someone get super late-stage dementia in just a few days. The way it just hit them out of nowhere was really rough.
I hadn’t heard of that either. That’s pretty wild. CJD happens to about one out of a million people each year, and it usually starts around age 60.
Man, it was the same deal here, every single day was just rougher, like it was going downhill super quick, it’s basically dementia cranked up to the max.
RE: Fact #40 (Buffett DNA Test Results) – So, these two stayed pals? Did they figure they’d ditch the friendship if they weren’t family?
Most DNA tests turn out like that.
RE: Fact #7 (Saglana Salchak ) – Kids in Siberia are out on their own arctic rescue missions at age 4. Meanwhile, I was eating Play-Doh when I was 4.
RE: Fact #33 (Italy’s 1991 Economic Standing) – So, over the last 30 years, Italy’s inflation-adjusted economy grew by 22%, which is a bit less than Japan’s 27% and a fair bit behind Germany’s 42%. But the real kicker for how these rankings shake out is China, which absolutely blew everyone away, growing a massive 339% during that same period.
So, Japan was basically stuck in a stock market slump for 30 years back then, which makes it pretty wild that Italy grew even less. Growing less than 1% a year is basically standing still, even for a country that’s already developed.
So, get this, economists say there have only ever been four types of economies on the planet: advanced, developing, Japan, and Argentina.
If you factor in total productivity, things look even worse. Our productivity is pretty much stuck where it was in the early 70s.
But honestly, even if productivity had been growing steadily, there’s no way Italy would be the fourth biggest economy by 2025. China and India have been seriously picking up the pace over the last three decades.
Yeah, Italy’s not around 50th today, it’s more like 7th or 8th.
RE: Fact #23 (Kojima’s Sunlight-Powered Game) – Man, I really dug this game. I snagged it at Target with my allowance when I was a kid. It was supposed to be like $30 or $35, but it only scanned for $5! The teen working there and I were both a bit baffled, but he just let me have it for the fiver. Good memories!
RE: Fact #43 (Clarence King’s Secret Life Revealed) – He pretended to be black because he was into a black woman and was worried she wouldn’t want to marry a white geologist. He only lied about his race and his job. He was a great husband in every other way.
It also says a lot about how people viewed blackness back then, that a white guy with blue eyes could get away with passing as “black.”
Edit: Apparently, he also lied about setting up a trust fund for his wife and kids.
Yeah, Ada was his only wife. But he was lied about more than just his race and his job; he fudged his past, his schooling, his name, how well-known he was, and all that. The guy went to Yale. Seriously, he must have cooked up a whole new life for himself.
That dude was a master of deception.
So, get this, around the same time, there was this other dude, Joseph Rock, who was German. He apparently sweet-talked his way into a botany professorship at the University of Hawaii, even though he didn’t have any academic credentials for it. Later on, though, he turned out to be a pretty solid scholar, doing some cool anthropological work with the Naxi people down in Southern China during his research expeditions.
RE: Fact #40 (Buffett DNA Test Results) – I was chilling in the Keys when Jimmy passed. The radio was playing his tunes non-stop that whole weekend. Up until then, I’d only really known “Margaritaville,” so it was cool hearing a bunch of his other stuff.
RE: Fact #2 (Ben Affleck Banned in Vegas) – I always figured getting booted for “counting cards” was pretty bogus. It’s like the casino’s saying using math is some kind of uncivilized thing, you know?
Basically, it’s a reminder that most people agree businesses should be allowed to make money, as long as they’re following the law.
RE: Fact #50 (Sun Exposure: Risks and Benefits) – So, vitamin D is good for ya, and get this – people out soaking up the sun are way more active than those chilling on the couch.
So, basically, people who have more vitamin D in their blood tend to be healthier, right? But, strangely, taking vitamin D supplements doesn’t seem to help much in most studies. What’s interesting is that there’s more and more proof that getting sunshine is good for you for reasons other than just vitamin D. For example, sunlight can help your body make nitric oxide from your skin, which can actually lower your chances of heart problems.
RE: Fact #2 (Ben Affleck Banned in Vegas) – So, this actor guy was apparently using this “perfect basic” trick. Basically, it’s when you keep track of the cards as they’re dealt to figure out if you or the house has the upper hand in the next rounds.
Usually, you gotta play for a while to actually make any money from that tiny edge the trick gives you.
Later on, Affleck basically confirmed this whole thing, saying some casinos told him he couldn’t play blackjack anymore.
He told Details magazine back in October, “That’s right. I spent some time learning the game and got pretty good at blackjack. And once I was decent, the casinos asked me to stop playing.”
Affleck, who was 42 at the time, was talking about that April incident at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Vegas where they kicked him out of playing the game.
He told Details, “It should tell you something about casinos when being good at the game is against their rules. They’re super friendly and all, patting you on the back, when they think you’re just gonna walk in and lose a bunch of money. But if they think you might actually win some, it’s like, ‘You know what? Maybe try craps or roulette instead?'”
He went on to say, “I’ll put it this way: a bunch of casinos told me, ‘Hey, you can’t play blackjack here. We know you count cards. But, come on in, do whatever you want, catch a show, grab a meal. We’ll treat you, you know. Play roulette, we know you don’t play craps, but hang out, we still want you here and want your business.'”
Seriously, the fact that being skilled at a casino game is actually against their rules is pretty telling, right?
Playing that way is totally legit, but the casinos can still totally stop you from using their stuff, for pretty much any reason they feel like.
To fix this, they’d need a law that makes casinos serve everyone, no matter what, as long as they’re not breaking rules.
But honestly, I bet that would just turn the casino into a place nobody wants to be. Casinos keep that fancy vibe by kicking out folks who might mess it up.
It’s a total scam, always has been. If, for some reason, they couldn’t ban card counters, I bet they’d just ditch blackjack altogether, or at least the higher stakes.
No matter what, they’re always gonna rig the game to win.
RE: Fact #3 (NFL Star Turns to Farming) – That totally makes me think of John Urschel. He was an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens and was about to sign a big contract after five years in the league. But that was right when CTE research was really starting to get noticed.
So, he quit because he was concerned about his side gig as a professor with a PhD from MIT.
It’s just a shame that talent and ambition aren’t spread around evenly, you know?
RE: Fact #44 (Push-Up Weight Percentage Explained) – So, I can bang out way more pushups than I can do bench presses with like, 70% of my bodyweight. Guess benching really calls for more muscles to keep things steady.
Seriously, like, hardly anyone does push-ups correctly.
As a vet, totally agree. Those guys who do the “army correct form” barely go down past halfway, and the ones with wide arms don’t have to go down as much either. They’re probably not even doing a proper push-up because their arms are spread out way too wide, which isn’t the right way.
Yeah, I’m with you on this. Funny thing is, getting pushups right actually feels way easier than a bunch of the weird ways people do them.
It’s also about the angles. Doing a push-up from the bottom is pretty much the same as a bench press regarding the strength you need and the muscles you’re working. But then, as you push up, you change the angle, which means less of your weight is on your arms and more is on your feet. So, at the top, it might be only about half your body weight. It’s like doing a bench press where the weight magically gets lighter as you lift it.
So, while keeping your muscles stable is important, this is the real deal: it’s all about using different kinds of resistance compared to the same old thing. In physical therapy, we often start folks off with those stretchy therabands before they get into weights like dumbbells.
I totally agree with you about the stabilization muscles.
Totally. That’s why pressing on the Smith machine feels way easier with the same weight.
RE: Fact #45 (Hetty Green: Frugal Millionaire’s Legacy) – So, Hetty Green was famously cheap, right? Like, legendarily cheap. Apparently, when her son Ned broke his leg, she wouldn’t shell out for real medical help. Instead, she tried to get him treated at a clinic for folks who had no money. Turns out, the injury got infected, and his leg ended up having to be cut off.
Yeah, I really don’t think she was a great mom.
Poor Ned. It’s totally understandable not wanting to spoil your kid, but not giving him the care he needs just ’cause you’re a stingy old hag is pretty low, don’t you think?
That sounds like a pretty serious mental health thing.
It’s not really a difference of opinion, it’s just that the logic completely falls apart.
Even her going to a free clinic when she could totally afford it, basically taking away a spot from someone who really needs it, is just messed up from an ethical standpoint.
RE: Fact #43 (Clarence King’s Secret Life Revealed) – Someone caught Jeopardy last month.
RE: Fact #30 (Shyam Lal’s Pond Digging Dedication) – When it was just a little 1/4 acre, 2-foot deep pond, not one villager chimed in with “Hey, looks like this guy’s onto something, let’s lend a hand!”?
Seriously curious about how this all worked out, especially since it’s a village with no power. If the pond was filling up as he dug, how would he even get anything done once it was too deep to stand in? Digging 15 feet by hand is tough, especially when you’re the only one doing it.
Yeah, that makes sense. I figure the pond’s water level goes up when it rains and then gets lower as summer goes on. So, by the time summer’s over and it’s about to rain again, it might be pretty low, or even totally dried up.
If you’re familiar with your surroundings, you can figure out where to find water, even pretty deep down. There are always clues above ground.
Back in the day, folks would dig up water sources just by using a bucket and diving in, or with a long stick that had a bucket on the end, and long shovels to scoop sediment up or drag it along the bottom. People have been doing this for ages, way before we even have written records. Even during the Islamic golden age, the Banu Musa brothers designed and illustrated mechanical devices for this very purpose.
Plus, water levels can change with the seasons. So, when the water level drops, they could dig even more.
Here’s something people often overlook, especially when looking at history – folks accomplished a ton back then because they put in serious time and effort. Modern machines just make things faster. Building a bridge or a cathedral could take generations, or digging a pond could take decades.
It’s kinda like that kids’ story. “Wanna help me dig this pond?”
“Nope, not me,” said the pig.
“Nah, I’m good,” said the dog.
And so on.
RE: Fact #48 (Ancient Jewish Bathroom Blessing) – Even though I’m an atheist, I’m still really grateful for all that stuff.
Basically, this blessing is all about not waiting till you’re sick to appreciate being healthy. It’s more about thanking God for feeling good every single day.
So, quick question: can you breathe through both nostrils right now? ‘Cause that’s a pretty awesome thing, honestly, and we should totally be celebrating it.
RE: Fact #1 (Lonely Sunfish Needs Faces) – So, Wikipedia says back in the day, when folks figured these fish just went with the flow, they called ’em “megaplankton.” Can you believe people thought they were so chill and inactive they were basically just plankton?
RE: Fact #39 (Gulf War’s Daisy Cutter Bombs) – That BLU-82 bomb? It was pretty much one of the biggest non-nuclear bombs ever dropped.
It was like a bunch of kids with fireworks about to go off. They just had to use them up.
When I shipped out of Iraq, it was just three days before they were going to blow through a whole bunch of the unit’s old .50 cal and MK-19 ammo. Don’t get me wrong, I was stoked to hop on that Blackhawk, but man, the idea of just letting loose and blasting tons of ammo before it expired kinda bummed me out about leaving the war zone!
That M-72 LAW, which came out during Vietnam, was still being used all the way through the Gulf War and even later. Crazy, right? Even the M3 grease gun saw action with tank crews back in the Gulf War.
So, the USS Missouri was hanging out at Gulf 1, all set to get retired after the war. Its job was to help prep the beach for this fake Marine landing – a trick to keep the Iraqis on their toes and their guys stuck guarding the coast.
The Missouri’s captain went all out, firing every last shell from the big 16-inch guns, knowing this was probably the old battleship’s swan song. The Iraqis actually shot two Silkworm missiles at her from shore, and the crew basically told them “no thanks” by blasting back 54 rounds from those 16-inch cannons and wiping out the launch site.
RE: Fact #17 (Margot Kidder’s Manic Episode) – I totally bricked my laptop on a personal project once, lost like 400 hours of my life with it.
I’ve been hanging onto backups forever, so much so that I sometimes forget I’m doing it precisely because this exact situation has happened to me before.
I’m always thinking, “Why didn’t this person back stuff up somewhere else!?” But then again, I didn’t either until I lost tons of hours on an audio project.
RE: Fact #7 (Saglana Salchak ) – My four-year-old sometimes forgets to pull her pants all the way down to pee.
Your four-year-old has you to help look after her. If she were stuck with a blind grandpa and a sick grandma out in the middle of nowhere in Siberia, she’d likely be a lot like that little girl in the story, which is a real bummer. Kids should just get to be kids, but with so much poverty going around, not everyone’s lucky enough to have what they need to just worry about whether they need to pull their pants down to pee.
RE: Fact #19 (Gut Microbiome Affects Social Anxiety) – How about we flip it? Pretty please? I’m really hoping we can.
Folks have tried this, and it seems to help with anxiety and depression, at least. It’s still pretty new and not fully understood, even for the more straightforward uses, but if there’s a university hospital nearby, it might be worth signing up as a volunteer.
Just a heads-up, this involves putting stuff from someone else’s gut into yours, even if it’s a couple of steps removed. You gotta be okay with the idea.
Seriously, most medical stuff is pretty nasty to think about. But hey, if it gets the job done, that’s what matters.
RE: Fact #27 (Norway’s Unique Monarchical Election) – So, check this out, something pretty darn similar went down in the UK with King Charles II.
After the English Civil War, the UK totally chopped off their king’s head and became a republic, only to dive straight into a military dictatorship almost right away. Then, when Cromwell kicked the bucket, they had elections for the first time in ages, and the royalists ended up snagging a ton of seats. Seeing this from overseas, King Charles II penned a letter to parliament basically saying, ‘Hey, if you guys want me back, I’m cool with it, and we can just act like none of this ever happened.’ And Parliament was like, ‘Yeah, sounds good, why not?’
RE: Fact #28 (Borderline Intellectual Function Statistics) – I used to do case management for a non-profit, focusing on mental health. That was pretty much most of my clients, particularly those who were homeless on and off. There are tons of folks who are just barely functional enough to get by in today’s world. And those without a safety net? They’re really in a tough spot.
So, I used to do criminal defense, and what you see a lot of are people who just don’t have all their marbles, you know? They get bored ’cause they can’t hold down a job, so they mess around with drugs and alcohol. That, combined with already not making great choices, just leads to a total mess. I’m kind of at a loss for what to do with them. They’re not bad enough for life in prison, but honestly, nobody should have to hire them. And that’s why they keep pulling stunts like swiping bags from cars.
Look, I might be a bit of a dreamer, but I figure sometimes we, as a society, just gotta face it: there’s always gonna be some folks who need a bit more support than most, and we should totally be there to give it. It should be on us as a society to provide that safety net. I’ve seen this point made elsewhere too, but if we’re not looking out for each other, especially those who are struggling the most, then what kind of society are we? Of course, if folks keep breaking the law, we shouldn’t be letting them get away with it, but honestly, I don’t think rehabilitation is really working too well in our country right now.
I used to do training at retail shops. I have a feeling the real number is a bit more than what people are saying. Some folks just don’t seem to get simple stuff. Like, this one girl couldn’t figure out a 50% discount for a whole month, even with help, and then she started applying it to everything in the store. I never found out what happened to her since she bounced after her three-month review without even grabbing her purse from her locker and just vanished.
Then there was this other lady who kept making the same basic errors and would lie about it. She’d been at that store for ages, and they sent me in to coach her up again. The store manager was set on keeping her because she was worried the lady would be homeless if she lost her job. From what I gather, she’s still there. She actually tried to get me to be a reference for her at my next gig, but I totally pleaded with them not to hire her. Her constant lying was a nightmare to deal with, and that next job was way more involved.
If you’ve ever worked retail or some other crummy job, you’ve probably seen this before. You know, folks who seem like they’re doing alright, not exactly geniuses, but not obviously struggling either. Then, you see them day in and day out and it hits you – they’re just doing the absolute most they can, scraping by.
Yeah, that really fits with what studies have shown about those fringe groups.
Lots of people get the Dunning-Kruger effect wrong when they talk about it casually. The truth is, studies have repeatedly shown that people who are really bad at thinking actually know they are.
And they feel pretty embarrassed about it. So, they don’t end up being good at much, other than covering up their weaknesses. They do this by lying or pretending they know things, like staring hard at a paper to look like they’re really studying it, when they actually can’t understand it at all.
RE: Fact #27 (Norway’s Unique Monarchical Election) – Kings aren’t elected.
So, the big boss’s authority comes from what regular folks want, not from some silly water show.
RE: Fact #46 (Jayne Mansfield’s Tragic Impact on Trucking) – Mariska Hargitay and her brothers and sisters were snoozing in the back. They just had a few scrapes after the wreck.
The car’s roof got ripped right off, and all three adults and the dog up front passed away right then and there. Those kids totally lucked out.
Edit: Yeah, I see what you mean about “lucked out” not being the best way to put it.
So, get this: when I was a kid, I was snoozing in the back of our pickup. We got smacked from behind, and the camper shell just went flying off, landing on the car that hit us. Honestly, if it had happened just an hour sooner, me and four of my siblings would have been totally crushed.
Totally reminded me of that scene in Ghost Ship, the one with the wire, where growing up just meant you were perfectly positioned to hit it.
Mariska’s the main star on Law and Order: SVU.
Seriously blew my mind finding out she’s Jayne Mansfield’s daughter! Just learned that a few weeks back.
RE: Fact #31 (Luxurious Themed Rooms at One-Two-Two) – So, get this: The Pirate Room actually had this bed that rocked like crazy, so you felt like you were on a ship during a storm. Plus, they had these hidden water jets in the walls that would soak you for the most realistic “leaky boat sex” feeling.
So they don’t have any options for getting abducted by hot pirates?
That’ll be an extra charge.
RE: Fact #38 (Real-Life ‘Seinfeld’ Plot in 2016) – So, my grandparents lived in Michigan, but it was only a 10-minute drive to Indiana. I totally remember them always taking me over there just so they could pay a nickel less for the deposit and then get an extra nickel back. Haha!
So, I was living in Toledo, but I did a bunch of charter bus trips over in Michigan. The counties right on the border, they were really strict about scanning barcodes to make sure they were from MI, but if you went further inland, like to Lansing, they weren’t so bothered about it.
It was kind of weird when I was walking around town with this girl I was dating there. She just chucked a Vernors bottle on the ground like it was no big deal, saying “someone will pick it up.”
If my date littered, I’d totally lose interest. It’s just not cool, like, at all.
So, I had this friend from Michigan come visit me in Philly. She finished her soda while we were out and about, and she was about to hand her empty bottle to this guy camping out on the sidewalk. I had to tell her that’s not really a thing most places, and trying to offload your trash onto a homeless person here in Philly is probably not a good idea.
So, if a can has a recycle value on it, I can only get that done in the state where I bought it?
Wouldn’t have been worth the extra gas, really.
That’s kinda silly, the math everyone’s doing.
RE: Fact #21 (Lottery Bump Wins $10 Million) – This woman who blows $30 on those “serious gambling problem” tickets really needs to have a good excuse ready in case one actually wins.
So, this woman snagged ten million bucks, but she still had to make up a whole story for her husband about why the winning ticket was thirty dollars.
RE: Fact #6 (Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read ) – That flick about him, done by the same director who did “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” is pretty good, you should give it a watch.
Just a regular guy who’s into a little bit of torture, you know?
Folks in the US probably know Eric Bana from “Troy” or “Munich,” but Aussies recognize him from “Chopper” and “The Castle.”
As an overly enthusiastic American, Chopper was my introduction to Bana, and honestly, it’s still the one I dig the most.
RE: Fact #4 (Washington’s Wealth in Today’s Terms) – It’s good he was getting paid, right? The whole idea there is that the pay would be enough for anyone to live on while in office, so it wouldn’t just be rich folks who could run the country.
I’ve always thought we should really bump up what elected officials make, to be more in line with what people in similar big private jobs get paid. But then, any other money they earn during their terms, and for a bit after, should be taxed 100%.
You know, the top 500 or so big shots at a place like Google are pulling in around a million bucks a year.
So, like, the top 500 execs at a company as big as Google are pulling in around a million bucks a year, but here’s the kicker: that’s just their base pay. The real number is more like $10 million to $90 million total when you factor in bonuses, stock, and all that other jazz.
And don’t forget the lifetime salary they set up so ex-presidents wouldn’t be broke. Andrew Jackson was the first one to get that, I think.
Presidents didn’t start getting lifetime pensions and Secret Service protection until the Former Presidents Act was passed in 1958.
Nah, it was Eisenhower. That whole lifetime pension and all the other perks came about because Truman had some real money troubles after leaving office. The Former Presidents Act got passed back in ’58.
RE: Fact #33 (Italy’s 1991 Economic Standing) – My hunch on why Italy’s been stuck is they hung onto manufacturing too long and didn’t really shift to a knowledge or service-based economy. Lots of countries have seen huge growth by riding a manufacturing wave – think the US back in the 50s, Italy in the 60s, South Korea in the 80s, and China recently. But as countries get wealthier, their economies really need to move beyond just making stuff to keep expanding. Services end up taking over from manufacturing. It’ll be fascinating to watch if China can pull off that shift. Trump’s talking about taking the US back to a manufacturing-focused economy. For Italy to keep growing, they really need to boost their high-tech and service industries.
This is a really solid point. As an Italian myself, I think this is pretty much the main problem.
What really boosted Italy after the war is now holding it back. Even though companies here have held up really well against tough competition from Asia, the profit margins and opportunities for growth are just way too small compared to tech and finance – two areas a G7 economy really needs.
RE: Fact #4 (Washington’s Wealth in Today’s Terms) – So, when it came time to figure out his presidential pay, Congress looked back at how he’d handled things during the war. Back then, he’d told them he didn’t want a salary, just to be reimbursed for his costs, and everyone thought that was pretty classy.
But then he sent in his expense reports, and let’s just say they were a bit much. We’re talking about something like $160,000 in today’s money, which is a staggering amount, like $280 million in today’s dollars. He expensed things like ice cream, interest on money he lent himself to cover those expenses, outfits for Martha, and all sorts of other stuff.
That’s why, when he asked Congress to cover his presidential expenses, they decided a salary was the way to go.
So, according to the Ron Chernow biography, he was secretly stressing about going broke all the time, but he always had to pretend he was totally over money.
Basically, someone found a way to make money by bending the rules, a story we’ve heard a million times in politics.
Totally. The guys who started New England were totally smuggling stuff. When Parliament dropped the tea tax, it made tea cheaper for everyone, but that totally messed with the smugglers’ cash. So, they got some Americans to believe that even with lower taxes, it was still unfair, and that’s why they dumped tea in Boston Harbor.
Can you elaborate more?
George Washington wasn’t about making bank while serving his country. He preferred to volunteer and only get his expenses covered.
Still, Washington worked out a pretty sweet deal for himself. He was used to the best of everything, which meant a brand-new, top-of-the-line carriage for the trip to Massachusetts. His uniforms were tailor-made, and his swords and epaulets were perfect. His field tent and everything in it were fancy, and his personal table was always elegant – even more so when Mrs. Washington was around. General Washington understood, maybe better than anyone, that a big part of his job was getting rich Americans to fund independence. He had to meet them as an equal, which, honestly, he was.
When he finally gave up his commission in 1783, he handed Congress his expense report. It was a shocking amount, somewhere around $475,000. That’s about ten times what he would have made with a salary, which would have been $6,000 a year for eight years, totaling $48,000.
Congress didn’t seem to have any issues with it or think Washington’s “expenses” were unreasonable.
He offered Congress the same deal: serve for free and just get reimbursed for expenses.
This time, Congress, possibly nervous about spending ten times more, said no. They decided on a salary of $25,000 a year – a massive amount back then. The VP only got $5K. They stated that the President’s expenses should come out of his salary to avoid constant small requests, including all the extensive hosting and entertaining expected of a POTUS. Despite this, George Washington still had to pull money from his own funds and even go into debt to maintain the style he felt was fitting for the President of an independent nation.
RE: Fact #1 (Lonely Sunfish Needs Faces) – You really don’t see how emotional and smart a lot of animals are until you spend some quality time with them.
Most people who own cats probably thought they were kind of aloof or something before they actually got one.
That totally reminds me of orcas. I recall hearing that when Tilikum from SeaWorld was taken from his group, they chased the boats for weeks, just wailing and crying. Orcas actually stick with their pods, and especially their moms, even when they’re grown. Tilikum was just a two-year-old when that happened.
Also, orcas have their own languages and traditions that are specific to their pods and where they live. Since Tilikum never got to see anyone from his own pod again, he basically couldn’t talk to anyone like he used to.
Orcas have their own languages and cultures, specific to their pods and where they live. Tilikum never got to meet anyone else from his pod, so it was like he could never talk to anyone again.
That’s both the coolest thing I’ve read all day and super sad.
Seriously, how do you manage to drag that orca around with its whole family trailing you and yelling at you to quit it? That’s wild.
RE: Fact #8 (Hitler’s Bodyguard Reviews ‘Downfall’) – Imagine a Vietnam vet seeing a movie about that war made today – it’s kind of like that, with a 60-year jump.
Gives you some perspective, right?
Just to be nitpicky, we’d have to wait another decade for that; Downfall covered Hitler’s last days of the war.
Man, time is wild right now.
Heads up, the folks already in the military who are gonna be in charge of planning the big 100th anniversary shindigs for Pearl Harbor, D-Day, VE Day, and all that jazz? They’ve already climbed the ranks a bunch.
Crazy how Martin Luther King and Anne Frank were born in the same year, right?
Just 80 years separated the end of the American Civil War from when those atomic bombs hit Japan.
RE: Fact #34 (Monica Seles’ Grand Slam Triumphs) – From January ’91 to February ’93, Seles totally owned it, snagging 22 titles and making it to 33 finals out of the 34 tournaments she entered. She went 159 wins and 12 losses overall, and get this – 55 wins and only 1 loss in Grand Slams. She really would’ve been the GOAT.
I’m totally with you on that. She was just wiping the floor with everyone back then. Pure dominance. Even though she still had a killer career, I reckon she’s got the biggest “what if” in tennis history.
Besides Hingis, I can’t really think of another women’s player who comes to mind. She snagged 5 slams before she turned 19, but injuries messed up her career. It’s tough to say how many more she might have grabbed, though, especially with Serena’s game taking off right when she started getting hurt. Fans totally missed out on what could have been an awesome rivalry. Before she stepped away the first time, Serena was up 7-6 in their matches.
Mind-blowing stats, especially for a teenager! Totally think she would have passed Margaret Court and Djokovic in Slams if she’d been able to finish her career without issues.
RE: Fact #16 (Gunther IV: Richest Dog Worldwide) – Check out that documentary on Netflix, the one about Gunther’s Millions. Seriously, the whole thing’s pretty much just a way for them to dodge taxes and launder cash internationally. And the fact that it’s all about a dog? That’s actually one of the tamer aspects of that family’s story, wild ride.
haha yeah, I’d never even heard of that until I read the fact. My first thought was totally “someone’s def messing with the tax system here.”
He totally nails his job by being super good and looking after all the important money stuff.
RE: Fact #22 (Danish Common Law Marriage Rules) – Every second winter, it’s like “sorry, this isn’t working out.” By the fourth winter, it’s “hey, what’s new?”
RE: Fact #42 (Tracy Morgan’s 2014 Accident Settlement) – I made all my cash out on the road!
On tour?
Nope, a truck ran me over!
RE: Fact #49 (Charles Lightoller’s Titanic Escape) – When a sinking ship breaks apart, those big pockets of air can be a real problem. Imagine you’re in the water and a huge air bubble pops up – you could get pulled down with it, way deeper than you could swim out of.
Forget that old story about sinking ships sucking you down like a whirlpool; it’s not like that, but these air pockets can totally drag you under.
The flip side is just as risky: when heavy stuff breaks loose from the ship, it can shoot up to the surface like a rocket. So if you’re moving lumber and your ship sinks, you better get out of the way fast. That stuff will blast upwards and can wreck anything in its path.
That totally reminds me of the SS Arctic disaster. The captain’s son was on board, and they both made it out of the sinking, but then the son got killed when the paddle wheel snapped off and shot back up from the water.
This is straight out of a Final Destination movie.
How’d he go?
Oh, he got skewered, no, sliced clean in two, by a log.
So, it makes me think of the Shinano, this Japanese aircraft carrier that got taken out by a US submarine. When it went down, the elevator was open, and as the ship sank, water just flooded in through it, pulling a bunch of guys who were swimming back into the ship, and they were totally trapped.
I’m getting a flashback to all the little things I used to do with my plastic cup when I was a kid, playing in the tub.
Archerfish got her! I actually worked on and practically lived on a sub from the same group when I was a teenager.