1 Stephen King’s Mambo No. 5 Obsession
Stephen King’s obsession with Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” became so intense in the early 2000s that he would listen to it repeatedly-often several times a day-while writing, even creating entire playlists filled with remixes. The constant loop drove his wife, Tabitha, to the brink, and she eventually threatened divorce if he didn’t stop.
2. In 1994, Thomas S. Briggs became the first person to escape from Marion Federal Prison in Illinois by scaling two 15-foot fences topped with razor wire. Just four days later, he voluntarily turned himself in to the FBI in Chicago, claiming he needed their help to patent his homemade water desalination invention-which agents later described as more eccentric than effective.
3. Immediately after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Secretary of the Navy ordered the destruction of all personal logs related to the presidential yacht USS Sequoia during his administration.
4. Marcy Borders, a 28-year-old World Trade Center employee, survived its collapse on September 11, 2001. Her dust-covered photo became iconic, earning her the name “The Dust Lady.” She sadly passed away from cancer on August 24, 2015.
5. Simpsons creator Matt Groening was born to Homer and Marge Groening (née Wiggum). Interestingly, two of his siblings are named Maggie and Lisa, and his grandfather is Abram A. Groening.
6 Australia’s Gambling Ad Slogans
Australia mandates gambling companies to display slogans like “You win some. You lose more” and “What’s gambling really costing you?” instead of the usual “Gamble Responsibly.”
7. Den Fujita, founder of McDonald’s Japan, once claimed, “If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years, we will become taller, our skin will become white, and our hair blonde,” as a marketing strategy.
8. Nvidia founder Jensen Huang’s parents sold nearly everything to send him to what they believed was a prestigious boarding school, which turned out to be a reformatory. There, he taught his 17-year-old roommate to read in exchange for help working out.
9. In 2020, Aidan Jackson, a 17-year-old from England, had a seizure while playing video games online with 20-year-old Dia Lathora from Texas. Despite being over 5,000 miles away, Dia quickly contacted UK emergency services after noticing Aidan stop responding during their Call of Duty session-ultimately saving his life.
10. People with depression often use language differently, frequently using first-person singular pronouns like “me,” “myself,” and “I.” Researchers have found pronouns more reliable in identifying depression than negative emotion words.
11 Michael Jackson’s Shaggy Song Love
It Wasn’t Me by Shaggy was one of Michael Jackson’s favorite songs. Upon meeting Shaggy, Jackson remarked that it sounded like a song he would write, prompting Shaggy to quip, “So you be bangin’, huh?”
12. In the 1980s, East Germany attempted to solve a significant coffee shortage by establishing coffee production infrastructure in Vietnam, its close ally. By the time they harvested any coffee, East Germany had ceased to exist. Today, Vietnam stands as the world’s second-largest coffee producer.
13. In 2008, humans sent a message to the planet Gliese 581c, which is expected to arrive there in 2029. Transmitted via Ukraine’s RT-70 radio telescope as part of the “A Message from Earth” project, the message targeted Gliese 581c-20.3 light-years away-because it lies in the habitable zone, though scientists believe the odds of receiving a reply by 2050 remain extremely low.
14. In 2011, a woman named Michelina Lewandowska survived being buried alive in a cardboard box by her fiancé, Marcin Kasprzak, in England, after he attacked her with a stun gun and bound her with tape because he was “bored” and wanted custody of their son. She used her engagement ring to cut through the tape, broke out of the box buried under soil and logs, and managed to flag down help, ultimately surviving the ordeal.
15. After signing with a record label at 12, Aaliyah’s uncle introduced her to R. Kelly. He became the lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number.”
16 Last Smallpox Victim: Janet Parker
In 1978, Janet Parker, a medical photographer at the University of Birmingham Medical School, became the last known person to die from smallpox after likely contracting it through air ducts connected to a poorly maintained lab researching the virus. The exposure was due to inadequate safety protocols, sparking a national scandal and inquiry into the lab’s violations. Within weeks, Parker died, her father suffered a fatal heart attack while visiting her, and the head of the lab, overwhelmed by guilt, committed suicide.
17. In August 2007, 17-year-old George Hotz became the first person to unlock an iPhone’s SIM lock. He traded his second unlocked 8GB iPhone to Terry Daidone, founder of CertiCell, for a Nissan 350Z and three more 8GB iPhones.
18. The World Trade Center’s owner argued in court that the 9/11 attacks were two separate occurrences, claiming he deserved double the insurance payout. The courts partially agreed, forcing nine of the 20 insurers to pay double.
19. In 2016, a stray dog joined Dion Leonard during the 155-mile Gobi March ultramarathon in China’s Gobi Desert, running alongside him for 77 miles of the grueling week-long race. Leonard named her Gobi and later crowdfunded £5,000 to bring her home to Scotland.
20. Winston Churchill’s son, Randolph Churchill, surpassed his father’s fondness for alcohol and cigars, consuming 80-100 cigarettes and up to two bottles of whisky daily for 20 years. He died at the age of 57.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Deaf Brits vs. Deaf Americans
Deaf Britons and deaf Americans cannot understand each other’s sign languages because British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL) developed independently, with different grammar, vocabulary, and origins. BSL stems from French Sign Language, and ASL is influenced by it but evolved separately.
22. Eddie Slovik was court-martialed for desertion during World War II, and he is the only U.S. soldier who was executed (1945) for purely military offenses since the American Civil War. He deserted, believing prison was preferable to combat, and he anticipated a light sentence. However, authorities executed him to deter others from similar actions.
23. Columbo’s signature catchphrase, “Just one more thing,” originated because a scene was too short, and the writers-unwilling to retype the script on a typewriter-simply added the line at the end as if the character had forgotten something. Columbo, played by Peter Falk, is a shrewd but disheveled detective named Lieutenant Frank Columbo in the crime drama series Columbo (1968-2003).
24. Between 1985 and 1987, California serial killer Robert Edward Maury-dubbed the “Tipster Killer”-murdered five women in the Fresno area and anonymously called a crime-tip hotline after each killing, giving directions to the bodies, to collect a reward. He claimed at least $2,000 in reward money by using fake names and addresses but was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes.
25. Authorities have held (as of 2025) Tommy Thompson in jail since 2015 for contempt of court after he refused to reveal the whereabouts of gold coins he recovered from the 1857 shipwreck of the SS Central America, which he discovered off the coast of South Carolina in 1988. Prosecuted in Ohio, Thompson allegedly recovered thousands of coins worth up to $100 million and now claims he has forgotten where they were hidden.
RE: Fact #9 (Online Friend Saves Gamer’s Life) – So, I had this crazy thing happen when I was playing Destiny with my buddy who lives super far away. Out of nowhere, he started slurring his words and then just went silent, while his character in the game was just doing this weird spinning thing. Luckily, I managed to get another friend who was closer to go check on him. Turns out he was actually having a seizure, and thankfully our other friend got there in time to make sure he was okay. Now he’s on meds for it.
RE: Fact #44 (United Express Passenger Removal 2017) – Yeah, I totally remember that whole United flight thing where they pulled someone off.
Can’t find it for the life of me, but there was this hilarious post on FB a few days later. Someone posted a pic of the airport screen saying their United flight was overbooked, and the caption was something like “LET’S GET READYYY TO RUMBLEEEEE!”
RE: Fact #30 (Canadian Judge on Free Speech) – So, the judge was totally confused why anyone would call the police over a finger wave. He basically said that telling someone to “fu*k off” and giving them the middle finger isn’t the same as a death threat. And it all comes down to the Charter – rude gestures are one thing, but jail time? Nah, free speech totally wins!
Good job, Canada
But seriously, if you give the wrong cop the middle finger, you’re gonna get popped. They might not be able to charge you with anything serious, but it’ll totally mess up your day, week, and even months.
Even in polite old Canada, the police can be pretty rough.
RE: Fact #39 (Danish Palace’s Cinderella Moment) – Honestly, this is totally the kind of Danish royal drama I’d expect. Like, get this, up until the year 2000, Queen Mary was just selling houses. Then, one night after a few too many at the pub, she met this totally hot guy. They started seeing each other, and after a bit, he drops the bomb, “Oh yeah, by the way, I’m the Crown Prince of Denmark.”
RE: Fact #3 (Kennedy Yacht Logs Destroyed) – People always told stories about JFK’s hookups on that yacht. So probably related to them.
RE: Fact #7 (McDonald’s Japan Founder’s Strategy) – This is his full quote:
“Japanese folks are so short and have yellow skin because they’ve only eaten fish and rice for ages… if we chow down on McDonald’s burgers and fries for a thousand years, we’ll get taller, our skin will turn white, and our hair will go blonde.”
the dumbest way to go about eugenics
Turns out that was a huge chunk of the Meiji restoration; they really pushed Western food and eating styles, especially getting people to eat more meat. Honestly, the average Japanese person is a lot taller now. But yeah, the whole thing about white skin and blond hair does come off a little racist.
People don’t really get how much food was a big deal during the Meiji Restoration. It’s like, the whole political and international stuff from that period kind of stole the spotlight.
But yeah, about that whole white skin thing…
Lots of Asian cultures tend to favor lighter skin, and it’s a big deal in Japan specifically. Historically, darker skin was linked to working outdoors and not having as much money. These ideas were super common back in the 1800s and 1900s, though things are starting to shift now.
So, get this, Japan actually didn’t allow folks to eat anything but fish for a bit before the Meiji Restoration. Apparently, the Buddhist bigwigs thought eating meat meant you might be munching on your reincarnated ancestors! A bunch of Japanese meat dishes we see today are totally thanks to Western cooking. Tempura, for instance, came from Portuguese fried fish.
RE: Fact #41 (Kidney Stones and Roller Coasters) – Think about how much roller coasters would cost if they were first designed to treat people medically.
RE: Fact #26 (Mysterious Caller ‘Christine’) – Sounds more like a ridiculous online prank trend than a fetish. Odd that that’s where people minds went.
RE: Fact #13 (Message to Gliese 581c) – Just to be clear, that wasn’t a real attempt to talk to anyone; it was just a marketing gimmick.
This transmitter put out a signal between 70 kW and 200 kW, depending on who you ask. That’s way, way less power than our early warning radars blast out into space all the time. If aliens were gonna pick up on anything from us, it wouldn’t be some 70 kW signal that only lasted for 6 hours.
For aliens to even catch that signal from so far away, they’d need a receiver as big as a planet or tech that’s way beyond anything we have. And honestly, if aliens could actually pick up a signal like that, they’d totally be able to spot us already from all the other stuff we’re broadcasting.
But, you know, more digging made people wonder if it could actually host life. According to updated ideas about what makes a place habitable, this planet’s probably just too hot to be a real contender for life.
Imagine how wild it would be if the first time we ever heard from aliens was because of some kinda half-baked marketing stunt from a company that’s been gone for ages.
RE: Fact #38 (Nobel Laureates Embrace Arts) – When it comes to what’s best, creativity isn’t just about the science part, it goes way beyond that.
Honestly, nabbing a Nobel Prize doesn’t automatically mean someone’s the absolute top dog in their area. Plenty of seriously brilliant folks never got one.
Nobel usually means you did something new, like coming up with a creative idea that nobody else thought of.
From what I can tell, being a musician is tougher than any other kind of art, especially since they’re the smartest folks around.
A bunch of scientists are also musicians, but not many are into singing or dancing.
RE: Fact #37 (Saudia Flight 163 Tragedy) – Everyone sadly passed away from smoke because the plane doors wouldn’t open quick enough. It looked like the crew and passengers couldn’t get them open from the inside, and it ended up taking like thirty minutes for someone to crack them from the outside.
The flight crew hadn’t flown that plane much before, and honestly, they didn’t seem super prepared from what I read.
Check out the first episode of Mentour Pilot. The captain got kicked out of flight school but still became captain ’cause he knew people. Then, while they were telling him about the fire, he started trash-talking the flight engineer and calling him names. And get this, he was singing and slowly landing and taxiing the plane like there was no big deal
Looks like the fire melted the controls for shutting down or depressurizing the plane. Pretty sure they passed that “no turning back” moment while still flying.
Basically, the pilot was acting super sluggish. It took ages from when they noticed smoke until they decided to land, and then the landing itself took forever, with no rush to get everyone off. The captain even drove around a bit after landing. The whole thing could have been easily avoided; it wasn’t really because the door mechanism was jammed shut.
RE: Fact #33 (Singapore’s 1967 Mass Panic) – Looks like the hospital staff had a pretty wild day.
RE: Fact #35 (Man Survives Air Hose Accident) – So, this guy McCormack, he’s 48, and he was on the rigging between his truck and trailer at Waiotahi Contractors. He slipped and landed right on a brass valve hooked up to his truck’s air brakes. This thing went right into his left buttock and air started blasting into him at like 100 pounds per square inch.
…
… Turns out, their little town only has two ambulances, and shocker, they were both tied up when this happened. The closest rescue helicopter, which is two hours away, was busy too.
“We knew he needed help, like, ASAP,” said Spike. “The pain was just out of this world. Getting him off that nozzle was the absolute worst part.”
As the air kept pumping and McCormack was screaming his head off, his coworkers were scrambling to get him off the nozzle. In a super smart move, they managed to shut off the air and roll him onto his side. McCormack was having a really hard time breathing, so his coworkers tried to keep him chill by putting ice packs on his neck. It was a whole hour before the paramedics finally showed up.
…
When the paramedics tried to stick a needle in for some morphine, the air pressure inside McCormack actually pushed the needle right back out. “It was like trying to jab a needle into a rock,” said Petersen. They also couldn’t get any air into him through a tube in his nose.
The doctors figured out the air had filled up his belly and chest, plus the area around his heart, his lungs, and even behind his eyes. It had apparently separated his fat from his muscles and was squishing his heart.
Getting stabbed in the buttock was actually a big deal for him surviving. “He was really lucky it missed an artery, otherwise he would have just bled out,” Spike mentioned.
After they got him to the hospital, a crew of five doctors ended up putting a hose through his ribs to help him get air into his lungs. While the doctors managed to drain some fluids, the air inside him had to escape the old-fashioned way, which meant a seriously epic case of gas. It took McCormack three days to get back to his regular size, and they let him go home on Wednesday to keep getting better.
Seriously, how do you even get back to feeling normal after your whole body just got ripped apart like that? That’s messed up. Kinda reminds me of that bit in Harry Potter…
It really makes me feel sick when I think about it.
Might have lifelong issues after that, yikes. And think of the coworkers, that’s gotta be wild seeing someone blow up like that. Kind of like Luffy in his Gear 4, but obviously, that’s not supposed to happen in real life.
RE: Fact #16 (Last Smallpox Victim: Janet Parker) – Smallpox is a really nasty disease. When you see how bad it looks on the outside, and then think about what it does to the inside of your body, it’s rough. Just picturing those sores and pus-filled blisters on the inside of your eyelids is pretty grim.
When I was seven, I got a really nasty case of chickenpox. It was so bad, I had sores inside my eyelids, sinuses, and even in private places. My hands and feet were completely covered, and I couldn’t see for a whole week because my eyes were so swollen. I even remember wishing I wouldn’t make it. Knowing that smallpox is way worse in every single way genuinely terrifies me.
RE: Fact #17 (George Hotz’s iPhone Unlock) – Hotz was mostly just trying to get his hands on an iPhone, but he also really wanted to keep using his T-Mobile service.
The iPhone came with a catch though. Because Apple and AT&T had a deal where they shared revenue, the iPhone would only work on AT&T’s network and you had to commit to a two-year plan.
Hackers basically spent the whole summer trying to get around that. Hotz mentioned it took him almost 500 hours – like, 8 hours a day – just to figure out how to make his iPhone work with T-Mobile. He said it wasn’t about getting rich. “I just wanted to use it with T-Mobile.”
Steve Wozniak, who used to hack phone systems back in the day, even emailed Hotz to congratulate him on pulling it off.
Wozniak told me it was like something out of a movie, where someone cracks an impossible code. He totally gets that drive to figure things out, and he doesn’t see people like that as criminals. In fact, he thinks messing around and not following the rules is often tied to being creative.
Back in 2011, Sony took Hotz to court for jailbreaking and reverse-engineering their PlayStation 3. But after things were settled, Sony invited him to hang out with some of their engineers because they were super curious about how he’d managed to crack their system.
It’s really cool when people spot brilliance in each other.
Tech folks will always be into it. It’s the higher-ups and the legal eagles who’ll be gunning for it.
Wozniak was kinda into hacking and phone phreaking back then. I bet he really appreciated that kind of ingenuity, given how much he knew about those skills himself.
Woz is totally a legend.
Man, can Konami get this dude on board so we can finally get Metal Gear Solid 4 on every system out there?
RE: Fact #36 (Podber Shoots Warhol’s Art) – Reminds me of an America Dad episode where their neighbor shoots one of his neighbor’s priceless vases. Made the other one super unique and way more valuable.
RE: Fact #41 (Kidney Stones and Roller Coasters) – Doc: You’ve got kidney stones.
Doc: I’m prescribing a day at Disney World. Ride the bumpy rollercoasters three times in the back rows.
*Yeah, the article I read said where you sit on the coaster makes a difference.
Whether you’ve got kidney stones or not, seriously, always try to grab a seat in the back for Thunder Mountain.
Also the back of Splash Mountain.
And the front of Pirates.
And the front of Space Mountain.
Man, some rollercoasters can really mess you up with whiplash and toss you around like crazy, especially if you’re in the back.
Growing up, wooden roller coasters were my jam. Yeah, steel ones have those insane loops and flip you upside down, but you feel totally locked in and the ride’s as smooth as silk. Wooden coasters, though? They toss you around and make you think you might actually kick the bucket. The old, century-old ones are way more of a rush.
RE: Fact #9 (Online Friend Saves Gamer’s Life) – About 17 years back, I was going through a rough patch and thought about taking a bunch of pills to stop the pain.
I shot a text to my buddy online, who lived way over in another state and I’d never even met in person, just saying “Bye.” Then I took the pills and tried to drift off. He got a weird feeling, and when he couldn’t reach me, he ended up calling for help, got my address, and sent an ambulance my way.
They rushed me to the hospital, and honestly, if it weren’t for him, I don’t think I’d still be around. Big ups to Tyler!
RE: Fact #45 (Great White Shark’s Brief Captivity) – So, the first adult great white shark ever put on display at an aquarium didn’t last long, just three days.
This 3.5m shark was accidentally caught in a net off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, back on January 4th and then taken to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium the next day. The aquarium staff mentioned the shark wasn’t eating since it got there and they were trying to teach it to swim in its tank without hitting the sides.
Trying to keep great whites in aquariums before this hasn’t really worked out well. Back in August 1981, a great white managed to hang out at SeaWorld San Diego for 16 days before they let it go. Then, in 1984, the Monterey Aquarium in California gave it a shot for their opening, but the shark only lasted 10 days. They tried again in 2003, but had to release the shark after five days because it wouldn’t eat. They had better luck in September 2004, keeping a young female for 198 days before releasing her, and then again in 2006 with a juvenile male that stayed for 137 days.
After that, the Monterey Bay Aquarium had four more young white sharks for short periods before they stopped the program in 2011.
So, how do they kick the bucket? Do their tank conditions mess ’em up inside, or is it just not eating enough? Or is it stress?
Basically, in the wild, they gotta keep exploring new spots, which, of course, they just can’t do in an aquarium.
RE: Fact #9 (Online Friend Saves Gamer’s Life) – It’s tougher than you’d think because emergency services deal with a ton of fake calls from abroad. My dad had a stroke on the phone a while back, and it was wild how difficult it was to actually get someone to help. I had to call my sister in New Zealand to sort it out. Thankfully, it all turned out okay since it was just a TIA.
So, I had this buddy who lived way out of state, right? We were chatting on Facebook Messenger or something, and he just started spitting out nonsense. I was like, “Whoa, what’s going on?” and he mentioned something about a new med. I ended up hitting up his sister on Facebook, and she contacted their grandma, who he lived with. Turns out, paramedics got called, and he was okay later, but he was having a serious drug reaction when they found him.
RE: Fact #11 (Michael Jackson’s Shaggy Song Love) – So, when my dad passed, we gave the funeral home his go-to mix CD, thinking it was all oldies and classic rock. They played it, and the first song that comes on? Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.” We just let it play, lol.
No way you didn’t check that CD before they blasted it over the loudspeaker. That’s exactly how those secret sex tapes get found.
RE: Fact #43 (OCD Study Reveals Mortality Risks) – Man, my OCD is brutal, and I totally get this. Real OCD is like this constant nightmare that messes with me all day, every day.
I used to feel like banging my head against a wall just to make the intrusive thoughts stop. Things are way better now that I’m on meds and have figured out how to manage the compulsions!
Seriously, I do that too! I’ll shake my head super hard or even smack my forehead when my brain goes to weird places with thoughts or images. It’s awesome that the meds are working for you though, living with OCD is a serious grind.
RE: Fact #39 (Danish Palace’s Cinderella Moment) – They completely overlooked the three sets of bras and underwear that were strategically placed around the candelabras in the reception hall.
RE: Fact #29 (Staples’ Independence Day Origin) – So, after 14 years, they snagged the naming rights for the Lakers arena down in Downtown LA.
Pretty sweet deal for them too, they snagged like 700 mil for that, right? Kinda more of an investment than just an ad, I’d say.
RE: Fact #34 (Rookie Journalist Breaks WWII News) – Clare Hollingworth. She was calling in her report and the higher-ups weren’t buying it, so to get those skeptical Embassy folks to believe her, she held a phone out her window to record the sounds of German troops.
The folks in charge didn’t buy her story.
Every modern account of WWII makes it clear that Germany and the Soviet Union invading Poland wasn’t a shocker. The US and Britain knew thanks to their signals intel, and Poland was definitely in the loop. After the German army lined up most of Poland’s border, Poland wanted to move their troops to the frontier to fight back, but Britain’s Chamberlain talked them out of it, trying to appease Hitler, which didn’t work out.
Just because the top brass and bigwigs in the military and politics knew an invasion was coming doesn’t mean everyone at the embassy, especially the folks just answering phones, got the memo.
This feels a bit like that whole Operation Barbarossa situation.
Observer: “Seriously, the enemy’s gearing up for an attack!”
Commander: “Nah, I’m not buying it.”
Observer: “Just listen to this, what do you hear?” (Sounds of a whole Nazi panzer division getting ready just a mile away)
Commander: “I hear the sound of you SHUTTING UP AND GETTING OUT OF MY FACE!”
Observer: 🤦♂️
Stalin’s really the one who takes the cake for this.
RE: Fact #27 (Charles Ramsey’s Big Mac Reward) – Seriously, I still recall when this went down. It was everywhere! Some creep kept these girls locked up for like, over 10 years. Hope they’re doing awesome now.
I read a book by one of the women, and it was really intense.
So, I’ve read two books lately – one Gina and Amanda wrote together, and another by Lily Rose Lee. Lily’s book really made an impression on me, way back when I first read it. As for Ariel Castro, what a terrible, spineless guy. He couldn’t even handle being locked up and just ended it all in jail.
Michelle Knight’s story was the toughest one. Her family pretty much didn’t even seem to care that she disappeared. Her kidnapper even rubbed that in her face. On top of everything, she was starved and beaten until she had miscarriages from the rapes.
RE: Fact #15 (Aaliyah’s Musical Introduction) – So, Aaliyah got signed to her Uncle Barry Hankerson’s label, Blackground Entertainment. Since R. Kelly was Barry’s main guy, it pretty much makes sense that he’d be the one writing and producing Aaliyah’s album. It wasn’t some random thing that Kelly ended up being the only songwriter and producer for Aaliyah’s first album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.”
Actually, R. Kelly’s first album, “Born into the 90s,” came out just a couple of days before Aaliyah turned 13. It had a hit song called “She’s Got That Vibe” back in ’91, where R. Kelly lists a bunch of women’s names. One part goes, “Little cute Aaliyah’s got it, yeah, she’s got that vibe.” Barry Hankerson actually produced that album.
Aaliyah’s first single, “Back and Forth,” which R. Kelly wrote, got a sneak peek when R. Kelly’s huge hit “Bump -n- Grind” dropped, that track went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994.
Just a quick note on the other names mentioned in that “She’s Got that Vibe” shout-out, besides Aaliyah. Kelly also mentions JoAnn, who was his mom and passed away a few years after the song came out. Then there’s Theresa, his older sister, who he claimed molested him when he was a kid. Stephanie is probably the singer Sparkle, who was signed to Kelly’s label “Rockland” and is also the aunt of the child in that disturbing child porn video where Kelly urinated on them. Montina was a dancer who sued Kelly for secretly recording them during sex, and she was one of the women in the leaked sex video.
That last paragraph really got me, seriously mind blown, learned something new today for sure.
Totally wasn’t expecting Bump n Grind to hit number one, that was a surprise!
RE: Fact #5 (Simpsons Creator’s Family Namesakes) – So, Matt was gonna try and sell one of his comic strips to a TV place, but then chickened out at the last second ’cause he didn’t want them owning the rights. So, he had to pull a new idea out of thin air, scribbled some characters on a sticky note, and just slapped the first names that popped into his head on them. Turns out, the spur-of-the-moment pitch was a hit, and that’s how we ended up here.
So, those guys first showed up as these short bits on The Tracey Ullman Show. My dad actually worked on the show back then, and the way he talks about it, it was just a super low-key, no-big-deal animated thing. Nobody really thought it would amount to much. Dad’s got some of the original family drawings from Groening, done before the sketch even aired, but somehow he misplaced the one of Bart.
It was one of his regular comic strips, I think “Life in Hell.”
So, the story goes that those first shorts look so unpolished ’cause Matt’s speedy sketches were actually used as the characters just as they were, no touching up or redoing them at all, which apparently surprised him!
So, basically, Groening came up with the main idea for the show, but Sam Simon is the one who sprinkled in all those awesome details we’re obsessed with.
When I first saw those clips from the pilot episode in the clip show, I figured it was just a joke.
RE: Fact #40 (Tubman Casting Controversy) – Whoa, I figured getting to be a studio exec meant you had a pretty sharp mind, but turns out that’s not always the case.
When we were kids, they told us you gotta be smart to get rich, but honestly, you just need to be a bit shady.
So, is that what they teach you guys over in America? Where I come from, it felt more like a toss-up, but if you’ve got the brains and put in the effort, things could definitely get better.
RE: Fact #27 (Charles Ramsey’s Big Mac Reward) – So I was looking into what Charles Ramsey’s been up to lately, and get this – this article said he got $2,000 in McDonald’s gift cards and just handed them all over to homeless people. He was quoted saying, “They gave me $2,000 in McDonald’s gift cards, they gave me 20 cards with $100 on each card. I gave them to every homeless person I can find, they got wind of that, I can’t get no more free McDonalds now.”
A decent hero. They might not be the most charismatic on TV or the best talker, but they’re still more of a hero than most folks will ever be, and they’ve got a good heart.
RE: Fact #22 (Eddie Slovik’s Sole Execution) – He had a bunch of chances to back out and get off pretty light, but he wouldn’t budge. A lot of his higher-ups mentioned that carrying out his execution was one of the toughest calls they ever made, but they figured it was necessary for the Allied Cause. Major General Norman Cota said:
“Considering how things looked to me in November 1944, I felt it was my responsibility to this country to sign off on that sentence. If I hadn’t approved it – if I’d let Slovik get away with what he was doing – I don’t know how I could have faced any decent soldier on the front lines.”
Slovik ended up in an unmarked grave at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E, with 93 other American soldiers who were also executed. This section, known as “the dishonored dead,” has been called a “house of shame” by the cemetery staff. Everyone else in that plot was convicted of murder, rape, or torture. No American flag is allowed to fly over this area, and all the graves are turned away from the main military cemetery.
Slovik’s wife kept asking every President, from Truman to Carter, to bring his body back to the US and get his military pension sorted, right up until she passed away in 1979. They all said no. Then, in 1987, Ronald Reagan agreed to have Slovik’s remains returned after WWII Veteran Bernard V. Calka asked him to. Calka paid $5,000 for it, and Slovik was finally buried next to his wife.
RE: Fact #27 (Charles Ramsey’s Big Mac Reward) – Amanda Berry’s 6-year-old daughter was also rescued along with her.
Ramsey shared the crazy stuff that went down Monday night, saying he heard a girl yell out like a car had just hit a kid.
He dashed out of his living room, Big Mac still in hand, and rushed to the house to help get a woman out, who turned out to be Amanda Berry.
Amanda said, “I’ve been stuck in here. He won’t let me go. It’s just me and my baby.”
Ramsey and Angel Cordero busted the door down…
…
Once the cops got there, Berry told them there were more women inside. When the police brought them out, Ramsey told the news, “it was unreal.”
Amanda was last seen after working her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland back in 2003, right before her 17th birthday.
The other two ladies are Georgina “Gina” DeJesus, who went missing at 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, who disappeared in August 2002 when she was 21, according to the police.
This story is all about burgers.
They snagged and nabbed the guy at a McDonald’s. Turns out, when he took the kid he had with one of the victims out, he’d usually hit up McDonald’s for playtime. Pretty much all he’d give the victims to eat was McDonald’s stuff.
RE: Fact #48 (1965 Jordan-Saudi Arabia Land Swap) – 19 km of coast isn’t a big deal for Saudi Arabia, they’ve got tons of it.
RE: Fact #20 (Randolph Churchill’s Excesses) – So, I had this coworker way back when, in the early 90s, before offices went smoke-free, who was going through like 80 to 100 cigarettes a day. Seriously, he barely had his hand free, and when he took a puff, it was like his absolute survival depended on it. Tough break for him.
RE: Fact #24 (The Tipster Killer’s Calls) – Seriously, how long did he think he could pull this off before someone would finally say, “Hey Bob, kinda weird how this guy might be connected to all those murders, huh?”
RE: Fact #38 (Nobel Laureates Embrace Arts) – When creativity strikes, it’ll find its way out. But I also reckon it’s probably tied to growing up in a well-off family. Chances are, those kids got into stuff like music and art early on, and had better educational opportunities as they were growing up, which helped them really shine.
Before you go suggesting something like that, you gotta show there’s actually a connection between winning a Nobel Prize and being wealthier than the typical scientist.
I looked at the paper, and honestly, it’s trash. I wouldn’t make any conclusions from it.
What they did was basically compare the publication info of chemistry Nobel laureates with a survey sent to everyone currently in Sigma Xi.
Shockingly, hobbies are different for folks born between 1850 and 1940 compared to people alive now.
If you sent out the same survey, you’d also find that having had cholera, not having indoor plumbing as a kid, and smoking cigarettes are all strongly linked to winning a Nobel prize.
RE: Fact #17 (George Hotz’s iPhone Unlock) – Geohot’s a total genius, no doubt about it.
Back when I was a broke college kid, I had a little side gig unlocking and reselling US iPhones to folks in Europe before they even hit the shelves over there. Thanks, George!
I hung out with this guy at summer camp one time, think he was fifteen? Bro was already a pro at counting cards and would totally hustle people at Egyptian Ratscrew. Then, he’d even start calling out the cards they were about to pull. Seriously blew my mind.
RE: Fact #6 (Australia’s Gambling Ad Slogans) – Seriously, we gotta get rid of those ads altogether.
Seriously though, there has to be a way to completely stop these ads. I don’t gamble myself, but if I did, I’d be so ticked off about how many times I’ve told Sportsbet I’m “not interested” in their ads or that their brand just isn’t my vibe.
Nah, folks hooked on this stuff aren’t gonna bail. And those guys betting small on those wild multis? They won’t either.
So, over in Denmark, they have this thing called ROFUS, which is basically a registry for folks who want to voluntarily ban themselves from gambling. You can sign up for pretty much any time period you want – 24 hours, a month, three months, six months, or even for life.
Once you’re on that list, it’s illegal for any gambling place, online or in person, to let you play or even send you ads while you’re banned. They also have to shut down your account right away and give you back any money you haven’t used.
The only catch is, unless you go for the lifetime ban, it’s pretty much set in stone. If you do opt for the lifetime ban, you can ask to be taken off the list, but you have to wait at least a year.
Seriously, it makes you wonder why more places don’t have something like this set up.
So, in my country, they just okayed gambling ads, and surprise, surprise, way more folks are getting hooked and are totally screwed financially. Who could have guessed that? Wild, huh?
RE: Fact #22 (Eddie Slovik’s Sole Execution) – WWI – About 5,584 fellas went AWOL from April 6, 1917, to the end of 1918. The AEF court-martialed 2,657 of them for it. 24 got the death penalty, but nobody actually got shot.
WWII – Over 50,000 U.S. soldiers went missing. Around 21,000 were found guilty and punished in some way. 49 were sentenced to death, but only one guy, Slovik, was actually executed.
He probably should have just tossed that letter, like they said. It basically showed he was pushing back against them, and that he’d actually thought about it. Makes you wonder if that letter was a big reason they decided to go through with the execution.
It really shows you how incredibly over the top Slovik must have been about it.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the nail that sticks out gets hammered.
Or, how much everyone heard about what he did.
RE: Fact #33 (Singapore’s 1967 Mass Panic) – So, there’s this thing called Koro, right? It totally freaked people out in Singapore because of this wild story going around that eating pork from pigs that got vaccinated for swine fever would make your bits shrink.
Seriously, I deserve some serious props for Googling “genital shrinkage Singapore” and probably getting those genital enlargement ads following me around for ages.
A few people really step up and make sacrifices to keep things running smoothly 🫡
Head over to your Google account settings and ditch your Google ad ID. That should stop Google from sending you those personalized ads.
RE: Fact #6 (Australia’s Gambling Ad Slogans) – Seriously, it doesn’t help one bit. They ought to just go all the way and completely ban all ads, just like they do with tobacco.
Totally, and everyone’s on the same page except our spineless government who totally chickened out of the plan.
Gambling lobbying is everywhere.
RE: Fact #49 (Headless Humans in Ancient Texts) – So, it’s totally possible…
RE: Fact #46 (Kosher Meat and Sciatic Nerve) – Basically, kosher butchers only deal with the front part of four-legged animals. The back half, sciatic nerve and all, usually ends up with a non-kosher butcher. You *can* find kosher filet mignon, but it’s a lot of work to remove that nerve, so it’s pricey, even for kosher stuff.
This has definitely shaped Jewish cooking. Since the meat from the front half is often tougher, a lot of traditional Jewish dishes involve slow-cooking or stewing the meat, rather than grilling or roasting it.
RE: Fact #40 (Tubman Casting Controversy) – I bet that exec was so coked up, it would have taken out a regular person.
RE: Fact #37 (Saudia Flight 163 Tragedy) – Those pilots really messed up. Reading the cockpit transcript is enough to make your head spin.
RE: Fact #15 (Aaliyah’s Musical Introduction) – Jail’s just a place, man.
RE: Fact #25 (Tommy Thompson’s Gold Coins) – That’s crazy how they can just lock him up forever for that. I mean, I’m not saying I’d forget where 500 gold coins are, but seriously, what if your brain just straight up forgot and you ended up stuck in jail for like, 10 years, all because the judges really want to find the treasure?
RE: Fact #23 (Columbo’s Catchphrase Origins) – So, I’ve got a few more Columbo trivia tidbits for ya. Turns out, the show was massively popular over in communist Hungary and Romania. They’ve even got a bronze statue of Columbo on a street in Budapest! Get this: after one season wrapped up, a rumor started flying around that the Romanian government was holding back some episodes. The government got so worried this rumor might cause an uprising, they had the Romanian ambassador meet up with Peter Falk. He ended up filming a public service announcement in Romanian, basically telling everyone that the season just ran out of new episodes and nothing was being kept secret. Falk actually shared this whole story in his autobiography and when he was on Letterman.
So, get this: one reason they were cool with it in Hungary was that the government figured Peter Falk was actually Hungarian, like one of their own. After I was in Budapest, I was chilling on a main street, and I totally spotted what looked like a statue of Columbo and his dog across the way. I asked my partner, “Is that Columbo over there?” We went to check it out, snapped some pics, and naturally, I had to dig into it once we were back at the hotel. It’s a pretty sweet statue, looks super real.
His accent might sound a bit non-American because of how deep it is.
Nah, they didn’t. The whole Hungarian thing about him only popped up ages after the Iron Curtain came down.
See, back in the 70s and 80s, we got tons of US crime shows on TV. Think Columbo, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, Streets of San Francisco, all that. I figure the socialist government figured it was a good way to show folks just how many bad guys were running around in the shiny America everyone envied.
They were all super popular, but yeah, only Columbo actually got a statue. And that went up about 20 years after socialism wrapped up, by the way.
I’m pretty sure there’s a bit of truth to it, but not the whole story. I can’t recall the exact details, but the Decoder Ring podcast did a couple of episodes on it. From what I remember, his account had some holes, especially with the PSA – there aren’t any copies out there or any records of it ever happening.
I think they found someone who worked at the broadcasting place, but unfortunately, I don’t remember what they said. It might be worth giving it another listen because I remember it being pretty fascinating.
Though, I could be misremembering since it’s been a few years, and what I’m saying might not be accurate.
RE: Fact #1 (Stephen King’s Mambo No. 5 Obsession) – Totally makes me think of that Nathan For You bit where he gets that Uber driver to blast that song nonstop to tank his ratings. One guy completely freaks out.
So, I’ve got this friend who’s super into N4Y and also really into collecting records. He shares all the cool stuff he finds on instagram. I figured it’d be hilarious to mail him a copy of Mambo #5, totally anonymously. I even managed to snag a radio promo version with a bunch of different takes on the song. I sent it off, and then… crickets. Nothing. Like, a whole year went by, and I finally brought it up. He got totally bent out of shape and went off, “Seriously? That was you? What the heck is wrong with you?” I mean, the song’s not great, but that seemed like a pretty wild reaction. Turns out, someone had, uh, taken a massive dump into the mailbox where I’d put the package. The postal service just threw it in a plastic bag and still delivered it.
Things really took a turn with this story.
RE: Fact #26 (Mysterious Caller ‘Christine’) – Sounds like a bit of a fetish to me.
Christine introduced herself and mentioned she had two daughters who were acting up and needed their heads shaved as punishment.
It gets even stranger.
Then she said she wished she could be there to see and hear them begging their “mummy” to stop.
RE: Fact #28 (Balloon Daycare at Disney World) – Totally makes sense, balloons aren’t exactly animal-friendly. That’s a smart way to deal with it.
Seriously, they shouldn’t be selling balloons at all.
They likely won’t have them at Animal Kingdom, but you might be able to bring one you got from a different park.
How about selling the balloon and then charging for daycare services? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Not into it? Then don’t grab a balloon.
RE: Fact #19 (Marathon Dog Companion: Gobi) – It totally reminds me of that team down in South America during a race. They tossed a stray dog a meatball, and that was all it took! The dog stuck with them, going through jungles and rivers right alongside them from then on.
RE: Fact #21 (Deaf Brits vs. Deaf Americans) – ASL and French Sign Language are pretty close, so people who know one can understand some of the other.
Moving to America from England meant picking up a whole new way to talk. My mom, bless her, could chat in nine different sign languages. Super cool thing I remember is helping out a deaf dude from Africa who couldn’t speak English, but we totally clicked using ASL.
Heard that ASL is pretty popular in places like Turkey too.
Loads of African sign languages actually came straight from ASL, like, really recently.
Andrew Foster brought a ton of it over. When he was doing missionary stuff, he set up 32 schools for Deaf folks in Africa.
In places where Deaf and disabled people are often treated pretty poorly, Foster and ASL have made a huge, positive difference.
RE: Fact #39 (Danish Palace’s Cinderella Moment) – So, the real-life Cinderella who left her shoe at Prince Christian of Denmark’s 18th birthday party has been found, and get this – she actually planned the whole fairy tale!
Turns out, Anne-Sofie Tørnsø Olesen is the one who owns the stiletto that got left behind at Christiansborg Palace after Sunday’s big bash for Prince Christian’s milestone birthday.
The Danish royal palace even had a bit of fun with it on Instagram on Monday, posting a pic of a sparkly single shoe that turned up after the party wound down.
“Is it Cinderella who forgot her shoe last night?” the caption read.
Anne-Sophie, an 18-year-old student, was one of the 200 lucky young folks invited from all over Denmark, plus the Faroe Islands and Greenland, to celebrate the prince’s birthday, representing her Egedal Municipality.
But she decided to make the night even more unforgettable by deliberately recreating that classic kids’ story by leaving her shoe behind.
“I wanted it to be a Cinderella-style fairytale ending,” Anne-Sophie told Danish news outlet Se Og Hør. “I thought it was pretty funny myself, and I’d already chatted with my family and friends about it, and they thought I should go for it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”
However, pulling it off wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. The first time she tried to subtly ditch her heel, someone immediately handed it back to her.
She told TV2 that she was determined to make her plan happen, so she gave it another shot.
“When my plus-one from Egedal Municipality and I were leaving Christiansborg by the stairs, it just fell off, and I hightailed it out of there so no one could stop me,” Anne-Sophie explained to the outlet.
Anne-Sophie mentioned that even though she’s single, she doesn’t really see her and Prince Christian ending up like Cinderella and her prince.
“It’s not like I think I’m going to marry him or anything, but I was kind of hoping someone would find it amusing, and it would also draw some attention to the royal house,” she told TV2.
They did chat at the event, though Anne-Sophie can’t quite remember what they talked about.
“I don’t really recall what I asked, because I was so flustered, but I think it was about what he thought of the whole thing – and about inviting so many people to the castle,” she told TV2.
The Danish palace has confirmed that the shoe and its owner will be reunited.
So, I’m happy they double-checked that the shoe was gonna be sent back.
RE: Fact #30 (Canadian Judge on Free Speech) – Happy charter-enshrined middle finger to all of you from Canada!
RE: Fact #25 (Tommy Thompson’s Gold Coins) – Basically, it’s like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.”
Tommy Thompson sounds like a real swashbuckler
This is giving me major Dick Tracy vibes, like “Hey, you heard about Tommy ‘The Tommy gun’ Thompson?”
RE: Fact #40 (Tubman Casting Controversy) – So, get this: John Wayne played Genghis Khan in this movie called The Conqueror back in 1956. Apparently, it’s considered one of the absolute worst films ever made, so bad that Wayne actually got a Golden Turkey award for it after he passed. Plus, a bunch of the crew ended up getting cancer from making it.
Seriously, they actually gave them cancer? This whole thing sounds like a total mess.
So, get this: out of the 220 people on set, 91 ended up getting cancer by 1980, and 46 of them didn’t make it. When people found out, a lot of them figured filming out in Utah, close to where they were doing nuclear tests, was the reason. Some of the folks who got sick also thought their smoking might have played a part. The idea that the filming location had something to do with everyone getting sick still sticks around, partly because a bunch of them got cancer way earlier than you’d normally expect.
They filmed in a few spots in Utah, like Snow Canyon, Pine Valley, Leeds, and Harrisburg. They also did some outside shots in the Escalante Desert near St. George, Utah. This place is about 137 miles downwind from the Nevada National Security Site, where the government was doing nuclear testing back then, so it really got hit with fallout. In 1953 alone, they set off eleven nuclear bombs above ground there as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole.
The cast and crew went through some rough times out there. The producer, Howard Hughes, even had 60 tons of dirt shipped to Hollywood to make sure the studio scenes looked just like the Utah scenery. The filmmakers knew about the nuclear tests, but the government had told everyone living there that it was totally safe. From 1951 to 1962, they detonated over 100 nuclear bombs in the area.
RE: Fact #24 (The Tipster Killer’s Calls) – So, it’ll run you about two grand for three times, if anyone else was curious.
Seems like there are simpler ways to rake in that kind of cash. But hey, who am I to say?
Seriously, IDIOT!! If it was like half a million bucks or something, I’d totally get why you’d spill the beans. But you’re handing over proof that you did a murder for less than two grand each time? That’s wild.
I figure he planned to off them regardless and was looking for notoriety for the killings. The money was just a bonus, not the main driver. Kind of like a twisted way to get a few cents back for your empties.
Most serial killers are all about the attention, though.
RE: Fact #32 (Ledger Declines Hosting Oscars) – So, it sounds like he bailed on showing up to present, not on hosting the whole thing.
RE: Fact #17 (George Hotz’s iPhone Unlock) – Pretty sure he hacked Sony and jail broke the PS3. Sony tried to sue him, and he even dropped a diss track.
He’s a total legend. Makes you wonder what he’s up to these days.
RE: Fact #4 (Dust Lady of 9/11 Remembered) – Man, what a rough story. She went through some serious trauma and didn’t have cash for therapy, so she ended up hooked on stuff. Then, things start looking up a bit after Bin Laden bites the dust, but she gets hit with cancer from all the toxic junk she breathed in when the towers fell. Couldn’t afford treatment, so the cancer took her. It’s just not fair.
She was totally broke for treatments, so her cancer got the better of her.
The way you put that, it sounds like hearing about Bin Laden’s death was what gave her the boost she needed to get clean and sort her life out. It’s super sad, but the idea of someone hitting their lowest point, then finding out Bin Laden was dead, and then getting their life back on track because of it actually made me chuckle.
Update – Still feel bad for her.
America: “9/11 was a tragedy, and all the survivors are total heroes.”
9/11 survivors: “I’ve got cancer.”
America: “That’s rough, pal. You’re on your own.”
Being a hero in America between 9/11 and Covid is a real tough gig.
RE: Fact #24 (The Tipster Killer’s Calls) – First time you see a dead body, that’s pretty wild, right? Second time, though? You’re probably the reason for it.
RE: Fact #42 (2020 Oregon Stolen Car Crash) – And then they fall for each other. Sounds like a new Hallmark movie, right?
So, word is they hooked up.
RE: Fact #44 (United Express Passenger Removal 2017) – So, get this, Wikipedia totally missed the part where one of the news sites brought up the doctor’s disciplinary record. I can’t recall the specifics, but man, it was so obvious how easily the media gets played. It had zero to do with the actual story and felt like United totally threw it in there just to make him look bad.
Seriously, most media these days is just plain lazy.
Man, I still remember that whole thing with the cop who killed Jean Botham back in Dallas. They tried to pin it on him with some random weed ticket, like that made the whole wrong apartment murder okay.
They tested the victim for drugs after they died and then used a positive THC result to make him look bad in the news, but they didn’t even test the killer for drugs or give them a breathalyzer.
RE: Fact #23 (Columbo’s Catchphrase Origins) – Could be a lucky break, but they totally played that up so the crowd and the bad guy would think he was a pushover.
Most of the time, he’d ask a bunch of simple questions that made him seem a bit clueless, until that one last “oh, just one more thing” question would really nail it, and you’d realize he was pretty sure the suspect was holding out on him.
The best part is when the suspect slowly starts to realize what they’re up against. It’s awesome how this messed-up, squinty weirdo totally saw it coming from the get-go and is trying to bait them into confessing.
Sometimes they figure out Columbo’s a bit of a strange one pretty quickly and tend to steer clear, hah. Doesn’t really do them any good, though.
That’s one of the best happy accidents ever. It’s not just a quick, easy fix for a script, but it also sets up awesome twists perfectly. Plus, faking everyone out, making them think the scene’s done, only for him to pop back? That totally builds suspense, especially with that killer last line.
Seriously, these guys stumbled onto pure writing gold just ’cause they were lazy and didn’t want to type.
Yeah, but that was to get both the viewers and the guy in trouble to underestimate him.
Oh, it was way more than just that. If you really think about it, it became his whole thing for a good reason – it’s actually brilliant. Before he’d use that phrase, he’d have the suspect describe the whole situation. And the suspect, as you’d expect, would lie and twist things to make it sound how they wanted, and everything would seem to fit perfectly within their made-up story. They’d finish spinning their lies according to their plan when they saw the Lieutenant turn away. But then Columbo would turn back and start asking more questions – and now the suspect has to not only lie in a way that makes them look innocent but also make sure their new lies don’t mess with the picture they just created, because they’ve just finished painting it from top to bottom. Super tough to pull off!
RE: Fact #35 (Man Survives Air Hose Accident) – It’s like getting skinned alive, honestly. The pressure all over, under and on top of your skin… I can’t picture anything that would hurt more, everywhere at the same time.
RE: Fact #14 (Michelina Lewandowska Escapes Bruied Alive) – The judge told him the death he was going for would have been a long, drawn-out one, after sentencing him to 20 years for trying to murder her.
RE: Fact #9 (Online Friend Saves Gamer’s Life) – Back in 2000, I was deep into an MMO and someone in the game had a medical emergency. This was way before we had good ways to chat in the game itself, so she was using an IRC group. Folks from her guild in the US, Canada, UK, and Europe all pooled their info about her, figured out where she was, and managed to get emergency services to her house. Her daughter even made a character a few months later just to say thanks for saving her mom.
Edit: My bad, I didn’t explain that well. We *did* have in-game chat, but it was super basic – like just talking to people nearby or private messages. There wasn’t any group chat for people all over the place to talk to each other.
RE: Fact #50 (Secret Hideaways for U.S. Senators) – Back in the 90s, I worked for a senior senator who really disliked the word “hideaway.” He much preferred “Capitol office” and would always say, “I am NOT hiding from anyone!”
Seriously, if you get how the hill’s actually set up, that term is pretty dumb.
For anyone who doesn’t know, all the main offices for the lawmakers in DC are in totally different buildings. You either have to cross a street outside or take the underground tram to get between them.
It just makes total sense for members to have a little private spot for meetings or chats with their colleagues or staff, right there in the same building as the House or Senate chamber.
That tram looks totally cool, and I’m really hoping to hop on it sometime.
So, did you end up telling him to put his name on the door?
RE: Fact #49 (Headless Humans in Ancient Texts) – So, it could have been gorillas, right? The way they hold themselves would make their faces look like they’re tucked into their chests from our perspective. Then, over time, with people making up stories and stuff getting mistranslated, it turned into this weird picture of a headless person.
Nah, they were just pulling stuff out of thin air. That same writing also talks about people who were basically just giant feet or had dog faces, that sort of thing.
It’s like that bogus idea that cyclops came from dwarf elephant skulls. There’s zero proof for that, and it would only account for a tiny sliver of mythological monsters. It really seems like the whole point was to take normal humans or animals and spin tales where just one thing about them was messed with to make them seem scary. When you look at it all together, there’s really no reason to believe any of it was based on actual events.
Seriously, it’s wild how folks forget that ancient people could totally invent things. They had stories and made-up tales way back then too. It’d be like some scientist 2,000 years from now finding the Blair Witch Project and thinking it was actually real.
That’s what I was thinking. Art was super open to interpretation back in the day, and a quick sketch of a gorilla could totally have the face look like it was on the chest, with the shoulders and back all bunched up above it.
That explanation makes a lot of sense—people back then weren’t really sure where they lived, saying Africa or India, and the whole story seems to have faded out about when orangutans first showed up in western records.
RE: Fact #10 (Depression and Pronoun Usage) – Doesn’t that happen to anyone who’s sick or hurt? Pain really narrows your focus, right?
Feeling under the weather and hurt usually brings down your mood.
It’s really common for chronic pain or illness and depression to go hand-in-hand, so you’ve totally got it right.
RE: Fact #31 (Potatoes Test Boeing Wi-Fi) – Totally. I’ve been in tons of meetings with folks who are pretty much clueless.
RE: Fact #42 (2020 Oregon Stolen Car Crash) – So, like, two stolen cars just smashed up right outside my place, and these two dudes hopped out and just casually strolled off! Weirdest part? They both had dealer plates on their rides, totally bizarre. But hey, at least I scored a free Bluetooth connector for my car from all the junk that ended up on my lawn. Gotta find the bright side, right?
RE: Fact #3 (Kennedy Yacht Logs Destroyed) – So, back then, the Acting Secretary of the Navy, Paul Fay, was actually one of JFK’s really good buddies.
Back in August 1982, Anne Gorsuch Burford, who was the EPA administrator at the time, was at a lunch on a boat called Sequoia. She apparently told eight people from the Reagan Administration that she was deliberately holding back federal money for cleaning up a toxic waste spot near Los Angeles. Her reason? To mess with the Senate campaign of Jerry Brown, who was the Governor of California back then and a Democrat. Later, Congress got upset because they thought the EPA wasn’t handling these toxic waste sites right and asked for the EPA’s records. Gorsuch refused to hand them over, and that made her the first-ever agency head in the US to be held in contempt of Congress.
Her son is currently an associate Justice of the Supreme Court as of 2017.
Loads of fancy folks, but no actual rulers.
Wow, I never realized those two were connected. Every time I saw her name pop up, I didn’t link her to that guy who got the job. It’s wild how the senate screwed Obama and his pick over.
So, this wild story about Paul Fay and JFK, right? Fay was chilling, watching JFK shoot himself up with the stuff he needed for Addison’s. After seeing the needle in Kennedy’s leg, Fay was like, “Man, it probably doesn’t even hurt you anymore.” Well, Kennedy pulls the needle out, and bam! Sticks it into Fay’s leg. Fay’s yelling, and JFK’s just like, “Yeah, that’s pretty much how it feels for me too.”
Same needle? Things were pretty wild before AIDS hit, huh?
Totally get it. I had to give myself shots for migraines a few months back and I can see why you’d want to stab someone if they said that. Now they’re testing me for Addison’s, and thankfully, they can mostly manage it with pills. They only use needles for emergency hydrocortisone if I go into an adrenal crisis.
RE: Fact #43 (OCD Study Reveals Mortality Risks) – Whoa, that’s neat! This is going to be a big help for me, especially since my OCD is mostly about being scared of dying.
At least you won’t have to sweat it as much as other people do, so that’s a plus.
As someone else who obsesses over death because of OCD, I actually LOLed at this comment and it really helped take the edge off. So thanks!
Seriously, same. My OCD and anxiety are way calmer knowing this. It’s a big relief, especially since I’m already stuck on the idea that something’s really wrong with my son, beyond his severe OCD. Guess I’ll just focus on him maybe not living as long as others because of his OCD, if he doesn’t kick the bucket from whatever else my brain is currently freaking out about. You get it if you get it.
So, my OCD brain was like, “Awesome, another bad dream to add to the collection, cheers for that.”
RE: Fact #22 (Eddie Slovik’s Sole Execution) – Man, he was drafted, not even a volunteer. It’s messed up to execute someone over something like that.
I’m curious about what made him eligible after being ineligible. I’m guessing the army probably lowered their standards as the war progressed, or maybe something else entirely happened.
The standards didn’t actually drop; the draft board had a target number of recruits, and they were running short on top-notch guys.
Here’s how it basically worked in WWII:
Your local draft board was made up of volunteers from the community. Every guy between 18 and 45 had to sign up.
The board would get a quota for their area and choose who to send. The idea was for the community to send those not essential for local jobs. But, lots of young men volunteered early on, so draft numbers were really low at the start of the war.
By 1943 and 1944, with the invasion of Europe happening, they desperately needed people. Local draft boards were pretty much grabbing every guy under 25 and sending them out. We’re talking about needing 1.5 million guys from a country that had been fighting hard on multiple fronts in two oceans for three years. They were running out of eligible men, with only convicts and older guys left.
They switched to a lottery draft for Vietnam. This was partly because people complained that during WWII, community leaders were sending off other local kids to keep their own sons out of the war.
RE: Fact #18 (WTC Insurance Dispute) – So…
9 companies paid double, and 11 paid for one?
Guess nine companies paid double, and eleven went for pricier legal teams.
I’m pretty sure the actual words in the policy were just as important as the lawyers’ opinions on it.
A typical 9/11 situation.
RE: Fact #47 (Brutal Execution: Blowing From a Gun) – So, things didn’t exactly go as planned with some of those executions. Like at a big one in Firozpur back in 1857, they were supposed to use blanks, but some cannons ended up loaded with grapeshot. A bunch of people watching got hit, and some lost limbs because of it. Now that’s what I call a low-key start to things.
RE: Fact #16 (Last Smallpox Victim: Janet Parker) – Reminds me of this awful story about a Dartmouth professor, Karen Wetterhahn. She got organometallic poisoning through her glove and, sadly, passed away.
This story really sticks with me. Back then, everyone figured the gloves were totally chemical-proof. She did everything by the book, and she still passed away. I make all my students study her case so hopefully, they’ll get a better grip on the risks they’re taking when they’re in a lab.
RE: Fact #43 (OCD Study Reveals Mortality Risks) – So, this study looked at over 61,000 folks with OCD and about 613,000 without it, keeping tabs on them for more than 40 years. Turns out, people with OCD were way more likely to pass away sooner than those who didn’t have it. Specifically, they had an 82% higher chance of an earlier death overall. For natural causes, it was a 31% bump, and for unnatural causes, a huge 230% jump.
When it came to those unnatural deaths, suicide was the biggie, almost five times more likely for people with OCD compared to others. Plus, they had a 92% greater risk of dying from accidents, like car crashes or falls.
On the flip side, it was kinda weird because people with OCD actually had a 13% lower chance of dying from cancer. They’re still trying to figure out why that is, though.
So, it’s wild that people with OCD had a 13% lower chance of dying from cancer, right? Nobody’s really sure why that is.
I’m too lazy to dig into this myself, but did that cancer death stat factor in that people with OCD might just die sooner from other stuff? ‘Cause, you know, the older you get, the more likely you are to get cancer. I’m guessing from age 69 to 78, a bunch of people might end up getting cancer during that time.
I get what you’re saying, but it’s also possible that folks with OCD tend to worry more about their health, which means they’re more likely to see a doctor for stuff others might brush off.
This is a pretty big deal when it comes to cancer treatment, because the signs of early-stage cancer are often so mild that people who aren’t constantly checking on their health could easily miss them. People with OCD might actually be quicker to get treatment when the cancer is still at a stage where it can be dealt with.
If you’re driving and realize one of your side mirrors is a little crooked, and you get totally focused on fixing it, you could end up under a truck or in a tree.
Totally been there where my actions weren’t about what’s safe or logical, but just what my OCD told me to do.
RE: Fact #8 (Nvidia Founder’s School Misunderstanding) – And honestly, that’s just a slice of how messed up the troubled teen industry is and why it totally needs to be banned everywhere.
Check out elan.school if you’re running out of stuff to get worked up about
Seriously intense. I’d never read anything that gave me the chills like that before this one.
Yeah, I get that, but the fact this guy ended up being so successful doesn’t exactly strengthen our argument. It’s like, “Dude gets wrongly sent to a reform school and then becomes a CEO of a huge company.”
Fortune 1 CEO, if you wanna get technical XD