26 ISS Retirement Set for 2030
The International Space Station (ISS) will be retired by 2030, and plans are in place to deorbit the entire station back to Earth.
27. In the late 1500s, Spanish entomologist Luis Méndez de Torres was the first to realize that the “king” bee was, in fact, a female. However, he referred to it as the “mistress of the swarm” instead of “queen.”
28. The Tata family, one of India’s most prominent business dynasties and founders of the Tata Group, are Zoroastrians. This ancient Persian religion has fewer than 100,000 adherents worldwide.
29. Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, opened in 1842 as the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum, and it is surrounded by about 25,000 unmarked graves. Once the largest mental hospital in the world, Central State Hospital shut down during the deinstitutionalization movement in the late 20th century and ceased psychiatric admissions in 2010. The graves are believed to result from decades of overcrowding, high patient death rates, and minimal burial documentation.
30. An 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River is called “Cancer Alley” due to the high concentration of petrochemical and refinery plants in the area, 200 in total. The plants have caused severe environmental contamination, leading to elevated cancer rates among residents over their span of operation.
31 DMX’s Song Swayed Judge’s Sentencing
When DMX faced five years in prison for tax evasion, his lawyer played the song “Slippin'” for the judge to highlight the rapper’s progress since his difficult childhood. Consequently, the judge empathized with DMX’s circumstances and sentenced him to just one year.
32. After water, concrete ranks as the most widely used substance on the planet. Globally, approximately 14 billion cubic meters of concrete are poured each year, equivalent to more than 30 billion metric tons annually.
33. In 2017, researchers at the Salk Institute created the first human-pig chimeric embryos by injecting human stem cells into early-stage pig embryos to explore growing human organs for transplants. The embryos developed for 28 days before being terminated and were about 1/10,000th human.
34. Danny Boyle, director of “28 Days Later” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” declined a knighthood for directing the London Olympic opening ceremony, stating he is proud to be an equal citizen, which the ceremony celebrated.
35. Elizabeth I inadvertently ruined the marriage of nobles George Talbot and Bess of Hardwick by having them host the deposed Mary, Queen of Scots. The financial burden and rumors of an affair between George and Mary led to their estrangement.
36 Wonder Woman Game Canceled by WB
Warner Bros. Games canceled a Wonder Woman video game that was years from release, despite spending over $100 million on its development. They also closed Monolith Productions, the studio behind the game.
37. The first settlers of Madagascar hunted local megafauna to extinction and destroyed the island’s forest ecosystem, transforming it into barren grasslands.
38. In the 1978 World Chess Championship held in the Philippines, Viktor Korchnoi accused a Soviet psychologist and alleged hypnotherapist, Vladimir Zukhar, of attempting to hypnotize him from the front row. To counter this, Korchnoi enlisted the help of two American Ananda Marga yoga specialists-currently out on bail for attempted murder-believing their meditative presence could neutralize the alleged psychological influence.
39. The “GTA flu” refers to the trend where, upon the release of a highly anticipated video game, a surge of people call in sick to work so they can buy and play it immediately.
40. In 1987, a farmer in Argentina discovered a giant tibia bone belonging to Argentinosaurus, considered by some scientists to be the largest land animal ever to exist.
41 Film Budget Misused for Drugs
In 1977, the exploitation horror film “Last House on Dead End Street” had a budget of $3,000. However, the filmmakers spent only $800 on the film itself, using the remaining $2,200 to purchase drugs.
42. Mafaldine pasta is named after Princess Mafalda of Savoy, who was imprisoned during World War II at the Buchenwald concentration camp, where she tragically died.
43. When Canada’s representative signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, ending World War II, he mistakenly signed in France’s designated spot. Consequently, the three countries following Canada also signed in incorrect spots.
44. A 2002 controlled trial comparing placebo “sham” surgery to real arthroscopic knee surgery for osteoarthritis found no difference in pain relief or function between the two groups over a 24-month period.
45. Islam generally prohibits art depicting living beings. Therefore, Islamic art typically features calligraphic, geometric, and abstract floral patterns.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Colosseum’s Historical Entrances
The Colosseum in Rome originally had 80 entrances, with 4 reserved for emperors, senators, and high-ranking individuals. The remaining 76 were for general spectators. Today, only 3 entrances remain open.
47. Denny is the name given to a ~13-year-old girl who lived approximately 90,000 years ago, discovered in 2012 among bone fragments at Denisova Cave in Siberia, Russia. Genetic sequencing revealed she was the first known first-generation hybrid-born to a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father-making her the only confirmed human ancestor of such mixed heritage.
48. During the 1964 U.S. presidential election campaigns, supporters created sodas for Barry Goldwater and Lyndon B. Johnson. Goldwater’s soda was called “Gold Water,” while Johnson’s was named “Johnson Juice.”
49. An analysis of eight long-expired medications found in a retail pharmacy revealed that 12 out of 14 active ingredients retained full potency for at least 28 years. Remarkably, 8 of these 12 remained potent for at least 40 years.
50. In 2016, two teens died after consuming ‘Dewshine,’ a mixture of Mountain Dew and racing fuel, which is nearly 100% methanol. These were the first reported U.S. deaths linked to this concoction. Two other teens who drank it became intoxicated but survived.
RE: Fact #34 (Danny Boyle Declines Knighthood Honor) – David Bowie turned down a CBE and a knighthood.
Word is Paul Weller did too.
Big props to anyone who doesn’t want to be lumped in with Gavin Williamson as a “sir.”
Seriously, when someone like Jimmy Saville held the title, its appeal has gotta go down, right?
So Ken Loach basically said he hated the idea of getting an honour, calling it all the stuff he finds gross – like sucking up to people, bowing to the monarchy, and that whole British Empire thing, which he sees as a symbol of people getting ripped off and taken over. He also mentioned turning down the OBE because he didn’t want to be part of the same club as the ‘bad guys’ who’d received one.
RE: Fact #35 (Elizabeth I’s Noble Marriage Ruined) – Bess was super smart. She ended up marrying the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, which made her the Countess of Shrewsbury. Eventually, she became the richest woman in England, second only to Queen Elizabeth I. She even had Chatsworth built, which you can still visit today – it’s one of the few places where you can see Elizabethan interiors that are basically the same as they were back then.
Bess and her hubby were famous for having massive fights and family drama. The English courts even nicknamed them the “battling Shrews,” and that’s where Shakespeare got the idea for his play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” Just so you know, the play isn’t actually about those little mouse-like animals!
RE: Fact #25 (Naked Man Found in Crawl Space) – I have pest control come out to my place for mole people every six months.
RE: Fact #40 (Argentinosaurus Discovery in Argentina, 1987) – Looks like Argentina’s got their new World Cup goalie sorted.
RE: Fact #45 (Islamic Art’s Unique Characteristics) – With Bess’ first three husbands all kicking the bucket, being estranged doesn’t seem too shabby for George. 😁
So, two people passed away from sickness, and that William St Loe guy, his own brother might have poisoned him.
RE: Fact #1 (Hale-Bopp’s Dual Discovery in 1995) – Bopp was so shocked he thought it was 1895 and acted like it.
Back then, there were solid legal techy reasons for using a telegram, mostly about getting that timestamped confirmation that a message landed.
Hey, don’t go spoiling my joke with facts. And yeah, emails have timestamps on them too.
RE: Fact #31 (DMX’s Song Swayed Judge’s Sentencing) – So, I recently caught that Legal Eagle video about this whole situation. And honestly, saying that showing the video saved him four years of his life feels like a pretty massive stretch. For starters, he already pleaded guilty, so I wouldn’t expect the judge to just hit him with the five-year max the prosecution was asking for anyway. Plus, the defense really didn’t need a flashy video to convince anyone that X was a decent dude who just wasn’t ready for all that sudden wealth. I’m not sure how Judge Jed Rakoff usually operates, but most people probably don’t need to put on a whole show just to dodge the absolute worst-case scenario.
RE: Fact #8 (Horrible Histories: A Sleeper Hit) – So, divorced, beheaded, survived. That’s how I learned what happened to Henry the Eighth’s wives.
RE: Fact #30 (Cancer Alley: Mississippi’s Toxic Stretch) – So, word is, there are a crazy number of cancer cases and other weird illnesses popping up in Metro Charlotte, NC. The guess is it’s from all the old coal ash the power company dumped as landfill over the years.
It’d be pretty wild if it turns out nuclear was the only energy source that *didn’t* cause cancer.
Having zero emissions and highly controlled nuclear material means it’s pretty much the only power source that won’t give you cancer.
Back when I was in Ohio, Duke Energy would tack on this extra charge to our bills to clean that mess up, and it was all over the news. So you could pretty much bet your bottom dollar they weren’t actually doing a thing about it.
RE: Fact #48 (1964 Election-Themed Sodas) – Man, that match was wild with all sorts of weird stuff going on. Karpov’s crew had this Soviet psychologist and hypnotherapist, Zukhar, and then Korchnoi brought in these two American yoga folks who’d actually been convicted of trying to murder someone and were out on bail. Beyond the actual chess, there was so much drama. People were x-raying chairs, arguing about the flags on the board, and Korchnoi was convinced Zukhar was trying to hypnotize him from the front row. Then, Karpov’s team sent him some blueberry yogurt out of the blue, and Korchnoi’s side freaked out, saying it might be some secret code. They later said it was supposed to be a joke, a poke at all the other complaints, but everyone was actually taking it seriously back then.
RE: Fact #39 (GTA Flu: Gamers Call in Sick) – Man, I totally remember grabbing Halo 3 when it dropped. My buddy and I were grinding on it when my Dad got home from work. He asked what we were playing, and we were like, “It’s the new Halo!” He goes, “Really? Did that just come out? Explains why so many folks were out sick today.”
I swear, I read somehwere that someone on in a college posted this email from their engineering prof on Halo 3 day, basically saying “I give up, class is cancelled.”
Back in college, we had a club trip lined up for November 11th, 2011. Our sponsoring professor actually skipped it because he was staying home to play that game.
RE: Fact #35 (Elizabeth I’s Noble Marriage Ruined) – Here’s a bit more I read in a book:
So, Scotland’s nobles kicked Mary out in 1567. This whole mess happened after a bunch of complicated stuff, including the really shady murder of her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. She tried to get her power back but failed, so she bounced to England, figuring her cousin Elizabeth I would help her reclaim her throne.
The catch was, everyone suspected Mary had something to do with Darnley’s murder. Plus, she was a Catholic with a pretty solid claim to England’s throne, which made her a real headache for Elizabeth. Lots of English Catholics and European Catholic bigwigs would have much rather seen Mary in charge than the Protestant Elizabeth.
On the surface, Elizabeth acted all sympathetic towards Mary and publicly slammed her dethroning. But honestly? Elizabeth was probably pretty stoked about it. With Mary out of the picture, her baby son James was made king of Scotland, with a Protestant group calling the shots. So not only did Scotland get a Protestant government, but Mary was now safely under Elizabeth’s watch, where she couldn’t stir up trouble about her claim to England.
This led to Mary shacking up with Bess of Hardwick and her husband, George Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury, for 15 years. She totally lived like a queen in exile, refusing to slum it compared to her old royal lifestyle. At first, George and Bess were happy to have her because of the status it brought. And even though she was deposed, Mary still had a legitimate shot at the English crown, so they figured they might be hosting their future queen.
Paying for Mary shouldn’t have been a massive strain, especially since Elizabeth was supposed to cover Mary’s costs. But the payments from Elizabeth were often late or not the full amount. On top of that, whispers started going around that George and Mary were getting cozy. Eventually, all the money spent on Mary and those affair rumors really messed up George and Bess’s marriage. Mary was moved out of their care, but by then, it was too late. George and Bess totally split up and lived separately. Even when Elizabeth tried to get them back together, it just never happened.
RE: Fact #29 (Unmarked Graves at Central State) – So, like, mothers down South used to warn their rowdy kids they’d ship them off to Milledgeville.
Grew up in Atlanta, and I caught this every week back in the mid-70s.
RE: Fact #7 (Saint Longinus and the Holy Lance) – So, here’s a wild fact from the DC comics universe: the main reason Superman and the rest of the heroes didn’t jump in to end World War II is because Hitler had the Spear of Longinus, which basically took away all their superpowers.
It’s kinda funny because over on the Marvel side, the original Human Torch is the one who burned Hitler alive.
So, in the Marvel universe, Hitler also ended up with the Spear of Destiny, but he totally couldn’t get it to do anything.
RE: Fact #10 (Gerard Butler’s Pre-Acting Career) – Law school’s got some pretty serious issues with alcohol and drug use, plus a lot of folks end up bailing pretty fast because it’s just too much. It’s super high-pressure and tends to draw people who are all in or they’re out.
First year of law school is a real grind, retraining your brain to think like a lawyer with all that caselaw. Some folks just can’t get the hang of it. After that first year, it’s smoother sailing as far as school goes. But actually practicing law? That’s a whole different ballgame.
Once you get the hang of spotting the important legal stuff in cases, law school actually becomes a piece of cake. By my third year, I was hardly cracking open a book.
RE: Fact #20 (Persistent Hawaiʻi Earthquake Aftershocks) – So, after that mind-blowing realization, I’ll let you in on how some parts of Earth’s crust are still popping back up, remember how they were squashed down by all that heavy ice during the last ice age? Geology is just incredible.
Being from California, I just gotta mention how the Sierras are practically shooting up, like half an inch every decade! They’ll end up as tall as the Himalayas eventually!
So, England’s basically going underwater, and eventually, Scotland and Wales will be on their own. I mean, geologically speaking, it’s happening pretty soon!
King Constantine’s dream is still alive; the Saxons’ power is gonna crumble!
Some parts of the country are seeing coastal erosion happen way faster and it’s a bigger deal there. The government keeps tabs on it and you can actually look up the details, but I haven’t been able to find a map that shows the whole situation.
RE: Fact #11 (Stanley Cup’s Wild Adventures) – Haven’t had a shot at peeing in the Stanley Cup myself, so I can’t really say, but I’m not gonna judge anyone who has.
So, I’ve actually let one rip during a Grammy ceremony. You never really know when those chances will pop up.
RE: Fact #19 (Drumheller’s Dino Costume Record) – “We really didn’t expect so many people to show up,” Looijen confessed. “Apparently, Guinness noted some folks who got their wristbands but then left the area. They weren’t sticking around as the volunteers asked, which was key for the record since everyone needed to be in the spot together for a whole minute.”
The issue wasn’t the crowd size exceeding 3,000; it was that Guinness reported seeing some of the “official” attendees depart.
Yeah, that makes sense. I wouldn’t really call it a “gathering” if they weren’t all there at the same time.
RE: Fact #1 (Hale-Bopp’s Dual Discovery in 1995) – That was a one-off experience for me. It was almost as bright as the picture in the article, if you saw it with your own eyes. I was planning on heading out of town to see it, but the second I pulled out of my driveway, I was like, “WOW, THAT COMET IS HUGE!”
RE: Fact #38 (1978 Chess Championship Hypnosis Drama) – And here I was thinking chess players were all about logic. Also:
Back in September 1978, the police in Baguio nabbed three folks who tried to shake down Korchnoi for $15,000, threatening to curse him with black magic and make him lose if he didn’t pay up.
RE: Fact #21 (Atomic Clocks Defy Universe’s Age) – What if time messed with its pace?
So, basically, time actually speeds up a little every time you get up. It’s always changing slightly everywhere, depending on how much stuff is around.
Those super-accurate atomic clocks will stay in sync with themselves for like, thirty billion years. They measure a second with almost perfect accuracy, like 99.999999… percent precise.
RE: Fact #6 (Opportunistic Chimpanzee Conflict Behavior) – Here’s a related fact: back in the Wars of the Roses, these two brothers, Thomas and William Stanley, would actually fight on opposing sides. Their whole deal was to make sure one of them always won, so they could then beg for the other’s life. That’s clearly very clever in my book.
During a civil war, Julius Caesar put a cousin of Metellus Scipio on his team over in Africa. Apparently, the reason he did that was this old wives’ tale that said only someone named Scipio could actually pull off a win in Africa.
RE: Fact #22 (Tetris Eases Anxiety, Study Reveals) – Tetris helping with anxiety? Ever cleared 12 blocks without an I-piece?
So, what I’m itching to see next is a study where they deliberately crank up the players’ anxiety by not giving them the I-blocks they expect.
Whoa there, slow down Hitler.
RE: Fact #5 (2023 Ransomware Hits MGM and Caesars) – Man, screw Caesars. I hope they get hit again.
I had a really bad time with Caesars after they paid the ransom. They emailed me saying, “We’ll give you a free hotel stay, $400 for food, and a ton of free play if you come out to Vegas.”
So, naturally, I went. But when I got there, nothing digital worked. I couldn’t use any of the free play, and I couldn’t get my food comps because their system was still down.
When I talked to a host, their reply was, “We just lost $15 million, why would I care about you?” Seriously, what a total garbage response.
Screw Caesars.
I had something really similar happen with MGM around the same time. I never got any credit for it, and then my offers went down to zero pretty soon after. They basically told me, “tough luck.”
RE: Fact #6 (Opportunistic Chimpanzee Conflict Behavior) – I’m playing both sides so I always win.
So, for the guys who aren’t at the top, their approach to finding a mate is basically to hang back until the main guy’s done his thing. It’s called “Moving in After Completion.”
RE: Fact #31 (DMX’s Song Swayed Judge’s Sentencing) – Honestly, that song is seriously amazing.
Your Honor, wasn’t that beat something else?
RE: Fact #47 (Unique Human Hybrid Discovery) – Madagascar used to be home to some seriously awesome animals, like Archaeoindris fontoynontii, Aepyornis maximus, Voay robustus, Cryptoprocta spelea, and Hippopotamus madagascariensis. Pretty wild, right? But then people showed up and, well, wiped them all out. 😪😩😭
If megafauna wanted to hang out with us, they wouldn’t have been so easy to catch and eat, right?
Seriously, did they even say thanks?
Seriously, I’m pretty blown away by how recently some of those guys disappeared. Like, the 1000s and 1500s? That’s nuts.
Whoa, birds as big as 9 ft, 8 in?!
Yep, and lemurs the size of gorillas.
RE: Fact #13 (Gladiator Sweat as Moisturizer) – Seriously, people stay the same no matter how much time flies by.
RE: Fact #14 (Marathon’s Goat Sacrifice Tradition) – So, someone on factrepublic mentioned that way back when, people treated gods more like a business deal than in later religions. Just praying wasn’t cutting it; you had to offer something to get their blessings and keep them from getting mad. For something big like getting Artemis Agrotera to help win a battle for the Athenians, it was a really big deal to keep your promise to her, otherwise, she’d be ticked off that you didn’t follow through.
Basically, priests and priestesses back then were like religious advisors, telling folks what rituals to do to get a god on their side, what sacrifices to make, and when to do it all.
RE: Fact #9 (Han Dynasty’s Jade Burial Ritual) – Seriously, what else? Are eyes considered holes? Am I being dense?
RE: Fact #13 (Gladiator Sweat as Moisturizer) – Back in junior high, some girls had these totally wild potion books. Like, one recipe to make a guy like you involved stripping down, spraying yourself with water, then covering yourself in flour. You’d wait for it to dry, scrape it all off, sift it back into powder, and then use that to bake him a cake.
So, is this the step after you light candles around an altar?
It had some basic stuff like candles and rituals, then the kind of things I was talking about, and then some totally wild stuff.
Honestly, baking your crush a cake is like, most of the work right there.
Putting something like “might have a bit of my t*ts in it” on the cake would probably mess with a teenage guy’s head.
A regular book would have just left it at that, you know, not put the flour on your body before.
Getting a cake: +100 heart points
Turns out the cake was made with “used” flour: -500 heart points
RE: Fact #46 (Colosseum’s Historical Entrances) – Sometime soon, I bet we’ll see a big documentary about how WB totally botched the DC stuff.
Lots of folks might say the animation side did the best, but honestly, even that’s a mess.
Maybe the movie reboot will be better, but I’m not holding my breath.
Back in the day, DC was crushing Marvel everywhere except the movies. Now, even though Marvel’s not doing great, DC’s movies have been just ‘okay’ for fans since 2020. And this is with all the other parts of DC falling apart.
Fingers crossed James Gunn’s Superman turns things around. We haven’t seen anything as good as those direct-to-video movies like *Under the Red Hood*, *Justice League: Doom*, and *The Flashpoint Paradox* since then. That was when *The Dark Knight Trilogy* was still a thing, shows like *Brave and the Bold* were awesome, and *Arrow* and *The Flash* weren’t a mess yet. Plus, the Batman Arkham Games were changing the game for licensed video games. Oh, and the comics were killing it too. What a time!
DC could totally be amazing again. Really hoping Gunn can make that happen.
The animation side of things has been a bit of a rollercoaster, much like the games, I reckon. They’ve put out a ton of stuff, that’s for sure, and they’re always giving new ideas a shot.
RE: Fact #36 (Wonder Woman Game Canceled by WB) – Man, Monolith Productions really broke my heart. Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War were just amazing. It’s a real bummer we won’t be getting any more of their awesome stuff.
Still totally bummed Nemesis is stuck in copyright hell. What a fantastic system. Guess they might license it. Yeah, I’m out.
Seriously, what’s so annoying is that they came up with the Nemesis System to stop people from buying used games, which was apparently a big deal for Arkham Asylum. That’s the only reason that cool feature even exists.
Fryer apparently said they couldn’t do a massive open world like GTA back then, and the team wasn’t really into making it a multiplayer thing.
It would be awesome if game studios were still pushed to try new things. We’d probably have a bunch of amazing, one-of-a-kind ideas like the Nemesis System out there right now.
Back in ’98, I played Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and absolutely loved it!
RE: Fact #9 (Han Dynasty’s Jade Burial Ritual) – Wow, 9 holes exactly!
RE: Fact #17 (Menstrual Blood Origins Explained) – Yeah, the inside of your uterus does shed off, and it’s packed with blood and tissue. So your period isn’t just bleeding; it’s also bits of that bloody tissue coming out.
But for what we were talking about, you’re totally right. Your uterus isn’t like a container that just holds onto blood to release later.
Seriously, do people actually believe this stuff?
As a gay dude, I don’t really think about vaginas at all, but even then, I never would have imagined menstrual cycles worked like that, haha.
For starters, a bladder full of blood that just sits there for a month sounds like a major sepsis and blood clot risk, but even if you didn’t know that, wouldn’t a blood bladder function more like a bladder for pee, instead of this slow, painful leakage thing?
Maybe I’m being a bit much, but I reckon it takes some seriously messed-up critical thinking skills for a sound adult to even entertain that idea for longer than a blink.
Seriously, if they can’t even get basic consent into sex ed, how many actual facts do you think women are learning about their bodies?
Huh? Nah, women don’t think we have blood bags that burst every month. Personally, and I bet other women do too, I figured the lining just kinda crumbled and dripped out as liquid, not that we’re actually bleeding from some kind of tear, like this article claims.
RE: Fact #5 (2023 Ransomware Hits MGM and Caesars) – Yeah, honestly, MGM might have played that really smart. If I were a hacker, I’d be targeting Caesar’s ’cause they’d cough up cash to bail themselves out, whereas MGM seems more the type to just eat the loss instead of paying you.
So, that’s why the FBI’s telling folks not to cough up the ransom. You can hit them up, and they’ll actually talk to the hackers for you, trying to buy you some time to figure out the malware or how bad things really are. But honestly, most companies still end up paying in the end.
Ideally, no one would pay, and this wouldn’t be a money-making scheme.
Seriously, it’s always worth coughing up the cash ’cause the losses from not paying are way bigger than what they’re asking for – that’s the whole idea, right? The folks behind this know that shutting everything down would cost a hundred million, so they’re just asking for thirty mil, and then it’s like a win-win for everyone, kinda.
RE: Fact #7 (Saint Longinus and the Holy Lance) – Hold up, are you saying that 2005 flick *Constantine* isn’t historically on point? Tilda Swinton with no wings is gonna flip.
So, on the historical accuracy front for Constantine, it’s spot on about Rachel Weisz being a total babe. She totally still is, but back in the day? Yeah, she was too.
So I found out today that she’s been married to Daniel Craig since back in 2011.
RE: Fact #16 (Terry Wallis’s Remarkable Recovery) – Think about that medical bill.
Put me back in the Minimally Conscious State.
Glad you’re up! Here’s that hospital bill, it’s a cool $745 million.
You might want to be sitting for this. Oh, he faked it again.
RE: Fact #30 (Cancer Alley: Mississippi’s Toxic Stretch) – So, I was working for the American Chemistry Council when Hurricane Katrina hit. After the storm, every single one of their member factories in the disaster zone was totally fine. They had this one area they were really worried about, they called it something else, but it was a major concern, and we were super relieved when they all checked in okay.
The oil refineries, though, they were tied up with their own industry groups, so we didn’t really deal with them. It’s funny, because in the same area where those chemical factories were safe, these refineries would somehow leave their flood doors open, forcing them to shut down. That’s what caused gas prices to jump way up, over five bucks a gallon.
And it wasn’t just a coincidence that the oil price surge made it profitable again for the Texas oil guys running things from the White House, including George W. Bush. Lots of people got chewed out for trying to explain away that the Texas oil crowd would totally get prices back down soon and wouldn’t try to profit from a disaster.
But surprise, surprise, nobody learned a thing, no one took action, and no one got in trouble. That’s why you’re screwed.
RE: Fact #33 (Human-Pig Hybrids Created in 2017) – So, how do you think orcs actually showed up?
RE: Fact #24 (Tragic Crash of Flight 8303) – Yeah, the real issue here is corruption. Wealthy parents basically bribe their kids into professions where they don’t have any actual skills or training, and then those kids end up causing huge problems.
It’s like, “Oh, but my son’s a pilot,” or “My son’s a doctor,” or “My son’s a government worker.”
RE: Fact #22 (Tetris Eases Anxiety, Study Reveals) – Videogames totally help me chill out and get my head straight. It’s like they level me out.
RE: Fact #4 (Japan’s Post-WWII Zaibatsu Dismantling) – “Dismantled” is a funny way to say they got knocked down a bit, but then put back together as Kairetsu and are still kinda in the game.
RE: Fact #18 (Modu Chanyu’s Loyalty Test) – So, Sima Qian tells us Modu was a pretty sharp kid, but his dad, Touman, totally favored another son to take over. To get Modu out of the picture, Touman sent him off to the Yuezhi as a hostage. The plan was that Touman would then attack the Yuezhi, hoping they’d off Modu in revenge. But nope, Modu pulled a fast one, swiped a speedy horse, and zoomed back to the Xiongnu. They were so stoked to see him, they treated him like a rockstar! Because he was so brave, his dad put him in charge of 10,000 horsemen.
Anyway, Modu’s reputation for guts started attracting this crew of seriously dedicated warriors. He whipped up this special arrow that made a whistling noise when it flew and got his guys to shoot wherever they heard that whistle, all at the same time. To make sure they were really loyal, Modu told his warriors to shoot his favorite horse, and anyone who didn’t swing that arrow got the boot right then and there. He did the same thing again, this time with one of his favorite wives, and again, anyone who hesitated got whacked. Once he was totally sure his remaining guys were one hundred percent in, he told them to take out his dad during a hunt, and boom, arrows everywhere, his dad was done. Since none of his crew flinched when he gave the order, and with his dad out of the way, Modu declared himself the big cheese, the chanyu, of the Xiongnu.
RE: Fact #28 (Tata Family’s Zoroastrian Heritage) – The Parsi community has been in India for ages, and they’ve really added a lot to Indian society overall. Even though there aren’t a ton of them, they’re known for being super educated and business-savvy. They actually had to leave their original home because of Muslim conquests, religious persecution, and even genocide, eventually finding a new home in India.
RE: Fact #18 (Modu Chanyu’s Loyalty Test) – You’d totally think this was some kind of test, right? Don’t shoot, and you’re a traitor. Shoot, and you’re a moron who blasted his wife.
RE: Fact #9 (Han Dynasty’s Jade Burial Ritual) – You got me counting my holes.
RE: Fact #3 (2003 Hepatitis Outbreak at Chi-Chi’s) – Pretty sure they took the green onions off the Taco Bell Mexican pizza ’cause of some kind of outbreak. Those green onions are apparently a real pain.
Like lettuce, onions have little nooks and crannies that are tough to get really clean. Plus, they’re pretty delicate, so you can’t scrub them hard, and people usually eat them raw.
My mom mentioned my grandma was always giving lettuce a good soak and rinse way back in the 70s, so I don’t think this whole contaminated veggie thing is a new issue.
Onions can actually make you feel pretty sick if they’re bad. You know how people blame potato salad’s food poisoning on the mayo? Turns out, it’s often the onions causing the trouble, not the mayonnaise. Commercial mayo is usually super safe because it’s acidic.
RE: Fact #22 (Tetris Eases Anxiety, Study Reveals) – Kate Sweeny, a psychology professor at UC Riverside, headed up a new study suggesting that playing Tetris can get you into a “flow” state – that awesome feeling where your brain is totally absorbed, time kinda melts away, and everything else just fades out. Sweeny mentioned that this focused distraction can actually make anxious times way easier to handle.
In the test, they got 290 college students into the lab by telling them it was a study about how attractive people are. After filling out a survey and having their picture taken, the students were told their photos would be judged by others. While they were “waiting” for those judgments, they played Tetris for ten minutes.
The students had no idea the researchers were actually checking out how the game affected their anxiety during that waiting period…
Sweeny explained, “The Tetris study is really important because it actually changes the flow state and shows what happens because of that change. It gives strong proof that flow genuinely boosts well-being when you’re waiting – it’s not just that they happen to go hand-in-hand.”
Basically, Tetris isn’t just a fun blast from the past – it’s a way to manage your feelings. When things feel chaotic, lining up those blocks perfectly might be your brain’s way of taking a breather.
RE: Fact #39 (GTA Flu: Gamers Call in Sick) – I figured it was that Dragon Quest thing too, especially since even the Japanese business guys take them off back when we had the NES/SNES.
RE: Fact #23 (Arachnid Invasion at Maryland Plant) – Check out the paper if you’re curious, it’s got pics showing just how much webbing there is.
Seriously, it’s mind-blowing. They also mentioned that every little dark spot you spot in any of the pics is probably a spider.
RE: Fact #25 (Naked Man Found in Crawl Space) – So my brother was living like that for a bit. He got busted when he actually left a note for the owners, asking them to “keep it down after 10pm.”
Someone in the house cracked a joke, and he was the only one who cracked up.
Someone needed TP, so they yelled through the vent, and a few squares got passed up.
RE: Fact #26 (ISS Retirement Set for 2030) – It’s a bummer there aren’t any plans to build something like it again anytime soon, right? Like, will we ever get to see something like that again?
RE: Fact #27 (Bee Gender Discovery by Torres) – Mistress of the swarm totally sounds more badass than queen, right?
His first thought was “Hive Hoe.”
RE: Fact #27 (Bee Gender Discovery by Torres) – So, pretty much any bumblebee you see buzzing around flowers is a girl, usually one of the workers. The boy bumblebees? They’re kinda useless, don’t go out to collect food or help the hive. Their only job is to hook up with new queens, and then they’re done for. The queen, though, she keeps all the sperm from the guys she mated with to make more babies for her whole life, mostly turning out more girl workers.
RE: Fact #33 (Human-Pig Hybrids Created in 2017) – They weren’t trying to create some freaky pig-man army. The whole idea was to figure out a way to grow human organs in animals for people who need transplants. Pigs are pretty close to us genetically and their organs are about the same size, so they’re a good fit.
As of now, no pig has managed to grow a pancreas made completely of human cells, but it looks like that could happen pretty darn soon.
RE: Fact #2 (Comedian Tommy Davidson’s Early Rescue) – He was awesome on In Living Color. So many talented people on that show.
He was totally awesome on that show, really unforgettable.
I’ll always remember him as Varnell Hill from Martin, the old host of the show who got famous. That’s the one episode of Martin that cracks me up every time. The bit where he bursts out singing with Jodeci just gets me laughing so hard, I can’t help it.
RE: Fact #6 (Opportunistic Chimpanzee Conflict Behavior) – I’m always blown away by how our closest animal relatives act, and how we humans do the same things, sometimes without even realizing it. I first heard about this in a class about addiction, where they explained that addiction is a health problem, not a character flaw.
So, bonobos, I’ve heard they’re pretty much as close to us genetically as chimpanzees, maybe even more so. Instead of fighting, they seem to hump each other when they’re feeling stressed out.
RE: Fact #8 (Horrible Histories: A Sleeper Hit) – And the same folks ended up making Ghosts.
They’re gonna be making Horrible Science pretty soon too.
The current cast, or the “new” cast of HH?
RE: Fact #25 (Naked Man Found in Crawl Space) – Yeah, he totally showed up with no clothes on.
Folks without homes or who are struggling mentally often crash in spots they figure are out of sight. A really common place for this is on property that seems to be empty.
I’ve actually run into them myself sometimes when I’m out walking my dog in different areas.
Honestly, the way they tend to keep to themselves isn’t anything special; a lot of them do it because, from what I’ve gathered, homeless shelters can be even rougher than just living on their own.
So, this is just what I’ve seen and heard, but yeah, keeping to themselves is like a defense thing. Folks without homes often have a bunch of health problems, both in their head and their body. Sometimes that’s actually why they ended up on the streets in the first place.
As for shelters, man, those places are rough. You’ve got fights, assault, people stealing stuff, and then there’s that dude two beds over muttering to himself and you’re just hoping he doesn’t decide to stab you in your sleep.
From what I’ve gathered, shelters can be worse than being locked up. That’s what a guy who’d been homeless for 25 years told me.
My work put me right in touch with a lot of these individuals, and pretty much every night at a shelter is a gamble.
So, not only are these people totally ignored, but we treat them like stray animals in a pen and then act shocked when they mess with our peace of mind or when we have to face how dire their situation really is.
RE: Fact #8 (Horrible Histories: A Sleeper Hit) – This show has me knowing all the English kings and queens since 1066, I can sing it to you in less than 20 seconds.
RE: Fact #28 (Tata Family’s Zoroastrian Heritage) – Those Zoroastrians who moved to India to escape religious persecution have done incredibly well in business. They started out in the cotton and opium trade, and then branched out into other stuff later on.
So, in the beginning of her book, “The Tatas, Freddie Mercury & Other Bawas: An Intimate History of the Parsis,” Coomi Kapoor tells this old story about the very first Parsis who came to India.
Basically, these Zoroastrians were escaping trouble back home in Persia and ended up sailing to India. They landed in a place called Sanjan, a port in Gujarat, and asked the local boss, Jadi Rana, if they could stay.
Jadi Rana wasn’t too keen, saying his place was already full and couldn’t take in any more people. But the leader of the group, who was a priest, asked for a cup filled right up to the top with milk. Then, he put sugar in it and showed Jadi Rana what the Zoroastrians would be like for India – they’d make it sweeter, just like the sugar in the milk, without messing anything up.
RE: Fact #19 (Drumheller’s Dino Costume Record) – Seriously, Drumheller is a super cool spot to check out. We end up camping there pretty often. They’ve got a dinosaur museum, and the whole town is decked out with dinosaur stuff. Some of it’s a little cheesy, but some of it’s pretty neat.
The landscape around there is wild. You’ll go from farm fields to these crazy canyons and sandstone pillars in no time at all.
Seriously, calling the Royal Tyrrell Museum just a “dinosaur museum” is selling it way too short. It’s easily one of the top, if not THE top, dinosaur museums anywhere on the planet. Their collection is seriously unmatched. If you’re into dinosaurs, you absolutely have to check it out.
Seriously, a TON of dinosaur fossils have been dug up in Drumheller. They found this super amazing fossil of a dinosaur that’s basically Ankylosaurus’s cousin – you know, the armored one with the club tail? It was seriously awesome. Too bad the oil company that found it was in such a rush during the dig, they actually broke it right in half.
They totally messed up when they tried to lift it, using two bars that moved separately. If they’d just braced those bars together on the ends, it wouldn’t have snapped. It’s a real shame.
RE: Fact #26 (ISS Retirement Set for 2030) – Seriously, when they were gearing up for the launch, it felt like such a massive sign of how far we’d all progressed. I recall learning about it back in elementary school when they sent up the first piece.
It was a pretty big deal.
Just a heads-up, we’re totally shutting the whole thing down, no backup plan, and yeeting it into the ocean.
It’s wild that folks are still arguing about whether the Earth is flat these days.
RE: Fact #21 (Atomic Clocks Defy Universe’s Age) – My watch does that too, but it actually gains three seconds every day.
RE: Fact #12 (Winning at Rock, Paper, Scissors) – Poor, predictable Bart. He always goes with Rock.
Good ol’ Rock. Can’t beat it!
RE: Fact #23 (Arachnid Invasion at Maryland Plant) – Tons of flies and bugs are probably chilling on those condenser pools maybe? Basically their own endless buffet.
My apartment post-college had these huge floodlights right by my balcony, and I was also super close to a swamp and wetlands area.
Seriously, it was like a spider paradise. The flies would hatch in the swamp nearby, buzz over to my balcony lights, and then all these spiders, like 5000 of them, would have a field day.
It was a nightmare for us, but the spiders were living it up, especially after we pretty much stopped bothering with the balcony.
Honestly, if you’d had all those bugs without the spiders, you’d probably have avoided the patio too, and the bugs would have ended up inside your place, right? I used to hate spiders, but then I moved into an older house in a bug-heavy area. Turns out, if you just leave the spiders alone, they actually keep other pests out, and they usually don’t bother you much if you do the same.
RE: Fact #21 (Atomic Clocks Defy Universe’s Age) – But they still can’t quite nail a perfect three-minute egg timer.
RE: Fact #50 (Fatal ‘Dewshine’ Incident in 2016) – Wild that the dinosaur with that name popped up in Argentina, right?
Pretty much the same as Lou Gehrig getting Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Man, I really gotta binge The Sopranos again.
RE: Fact #37 (Madagascar’s Settlers Altered Ecosystem) – We’ve been wiping out big animals everywhere we’ve settled. The idea that early humans lived peacefully with nature is totally wrong. For the past hundred thousand years, we’ve been messing with ecosystems and food chains. It’s just gotten way easier lately with technology and our growing numbers.
Basically, all animals mess with their surroundings. Some totally take over, some wreck it completely, and some just chill. Humans are the same, we just have the bonus of knowing we can do things differently.
RE: Fact #24 (Tragic Crash of Flight 8303) – Seriously, even after reading all that, I just can’t wrap my head around how folks with the brains and hustle to be pilots could mess up so badly.
RE: Fact #15 (Misdated Birth of Jesus) – So, does anyone else find it kinda weird that “BC” stands for an English phrase, but “AD” is short for a Latin one? It’s like they labeled the history after Christ back in Roman times, and then centuries later, in England around the 1700s, they suddenly thought, “Oh yeah, we probably need a name for all the stuff that happened before that, too!”
Back when this whole system started, it was just AD. Usually, they’d say how many years it was since the king started ruling. Since they figured Jesus was the ultimate king, they just counted all the years from when he was born. For stuff that happened before Jesus, they’d just say it was during whatever emperor’s time, like “the 10th year of King Herod’s rule” or “Augustus’s 8th year.” Christian monks wrote in Latin, so AD was in Latin, too.
BC showed up later. English-speaking historians came up with it to talk about the years before Jesus in a straight timeline.
RE: Fact #29 (Unmarked Graves at Central State) – Seriously, the bad treatment was way worse than that.
The care there went downhill big time, and the place got a terrible reputation for how they treated people. People were saying all sorts of awful things, like kids locked in cages, grown-ups strapped down tight, and forced treatments using electricity, insulin, and freezing cold baths. A big investigation back in 1959 showed that not a single one of the 48 doctors on duty was actually a mental health specialist.
Totally feels like a scary movie set.