1 Titanic’s Missed Ice Warning
The SS Californian, a ship that was near the Titanic before its sinking, sent an ice warning stating, “I say old man, we are stopped and surrounded by ice.” However, the message was too loud, prompting the Titanic to angrily respond, “Keep out! Shut up!” The Californian later saw flares during the sinking but couldn’t help.
2. When Steven Seagal hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1991, he claimed he had never heard of the show before. Refusing to be “beaten up,” even for comedic purposes, he instead wrote his own skit where he beat up a group of his own stuntmen, whom he brought on the show specifically for that purpose.
3. During the restaurant betrayal scene in “The Matrix,” actor Joe Pantoliano used a spit bucket because rare beef made him gag. In wide shots, the filmmakers used shiitake mushrooms rigged to look like steak for the actor to eat.
4. Evel Knievel lost his mining job after high school when he attempted a motorcycle-type wheelie in a large earthmover. He accidentally hit the main power line, causing a power outage in Butte, Montana.
5. Early film star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle introduced Buster Keaton to the film industry and mentored Charlie Chaplin. However, his career effectively ended after he was tried and acquitted three times for the rape and manslaughter of actress Virginia Rappe.
6 O’Keeffe’s Artistic Denials
Despite interpretations of her work, American painter Georgia O’Keeffe has consistently denied that her artwork represented female genitalia. She stated, “When people read erotic symbols into my paintings, they’re really talking about their own affairs.”
7. In 2023, a Kenyan male chess player wore a burka as a disguise to enter a women’s chess tournament for prize money. However, his strong performance, silence, and “masculine” shoes raised suspicion.
8. In 1967, the Prime Minister of Albania declared his country to be the world’s first atheist state by banning all forms of religion.
9. The Adam Cult, consisting of a single Bangladeshi family, believed their grandfather, who died in 2000, to be the original Adam and that all religion was fake. In 2007, the family tragically jumped in front of a moving train, and none of the nine members survived.
10. Shige Sakakura was a Japanese baby farmer and serial killer who, along with accomplices Tsuta Oki and Naka Ikai, murdered around 200 infants between 1898 and 1913. Their crimes came to light when a geisha, denied access to her child, reported them to authorities. All three were hanged in 1915.
11 Jewish Law Requires Spousal Consent
According to Jewish religious law, a man must ask his wife’s permission before starting a new job if it reduces the frequency of their conjugal relations.
12. During the Cold War, an early version of the American AIM-9 Sidewinder missile lodged into an enemy jet without exploding. Subsequently, the Russians recovered it after landing and created a reverse-engineered copy.
13. Mario Cipollini, an Italian professional cyclist active from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s and widely regarded as one of the best sprinters of his generation, famously hated mountain stages. He would sometimes skip them altogether, even releasing photos of himself relaxing on the beach while his rivals slogged through the climbs.
14. In 2006, Agricultural Bank of China managers Ren Xiaofeng and Ma Xiangjing stole US $4.3 million from their branch to buy lottery tickets, hoping to win enough to repay the theft and keep the surplus. They won only about US $12,700, attempted to flee, were captured, and were executed in 2008.
15. Quentin Tarantino kept the only copy of the third act of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood locked in a safe to prevent leaks. Brad Pitt later revealed that the only other copy of the script had been burned by Tarantino.
16 Cancer’s Widespread Impact
Nearly 40% of all people suffer from cancer at some point in their lifetime.
17. The first president of Turkmenistan banned beards and dogs from the capital and ordered the closure of all hospitals and libraries outside the capital. He stated that the sick should go to the capital for treatment and that Turkmens did not read anyway.
18. Skin redness caused by sunburn isn’t your skin “cooking.” It’s your body’s response to UV damage. Blood vessels widen to deliver immune cells and nutrients to the area, bringing extra blood to the skin, which makes it look red and feel hot.
19. Freshwater snails indirectly kill tens of thousands of people each year, making them among the deadliest creatures to humans. They host parasitic flatworms that cause schistosomiasis, a disease that damages organs and can be fatal if untreated.
20. In 2015, Georgia resident Ronnie Music Jr. won $3 million from a scratch-off lottery ticket. Instead of using his windfall responsibly, he invested the money in building a large methamphetamine trafficking ring in an attempt to create a drug empire. Less than 18 months later, federal agents uncovered his operation, and in 2017 he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Wright Brothers’ Flight Agreement
Although the Wright Brothers made their historic flight in 1903, aviator Gustave Whitehead claimed to have flown two years earlier, in 1901. To protect the Wrights’ legacy, the Smithsonian Institution signed an agreement with the Wright estate stating that if they ever recognized an earlier flight, they would forfeit ownership of the Wright Flyer.
22. In 2011, a Japanese fisherman lost his boat after an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. The boat drifted across the Pacific Ocean with other tsunami debris and was eventually found in Canada, where it was repurposed for bear-watching operations. The fisherman reunited with his boat in 2015.
23. While filming Die Hard (1988), Bruce Willis permanently lost two-thirds of the hearing in his left ear. The injury occurred when he fired a gun loaded with extra-loud blanks right next to his ear while pinned beneath a table during a stunt.
24. Around the world, supercolonies of Argentine ants are locked in ongoing “ant wars.” Near San Diego, these battles are so intense that the ants clash atop piles of their fallen comrades.
25. Diesel, a pet donkey from Arizona, got spooked during a 2019 hike with his owner and ran off into the wilderness. Five years later, he was spotted in Northern Arizona living among a herd of elk, where he had taken on an alpha role within the group.
RE: Fact #28 (Louisiana Family’s Bank Error) – Buy the bank and cancel all the debt.
Whoa, hold up! Is that even allowed? I don’t think he can do that… can he?
RE: Fact #3 (Matrix Scene’s Spit Bucket Trick) – that’s a waste of steak
RE: Fact #6 (O’Keeffe’s Artistic Denials) – I’ve noticed that most people do that. It’s called projection.
RE: Fact #34 (Dancing in the Moonlight Inspiration) – That’s “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest. Just so you know, it’s not the song “King Harvest” by The Band, and it’s also different from the song “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Thin Lizzy.
Just so you know, this isn’t the same as “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Van Morrison. I know, because when I downloaded it from Limewire way back in 2002, it said Van Morrison was the artist instead of King Harvest, and it’s been stuck in my music library ever since.
Back when it felt like Weird Al wrote every single comedy song.
Haha, seriously! I lived my whole adult life thinking this song was by Van Morrison because that’s how it was downloaded. When I looked up the actual song because of this post, I was really hoping it wasn’t the one I had in mind, and sure enough, that piano intro started.
RE: Fact #37 (Henry George’s Forgotten Legacy) – Shout out to Arden, Delaware. They’re still using a Georgist tax policy after all these years!
I’m not familiar with this person, but Arden is a pretty neat place.
RE: Fact #28 (Louisiana Family’s Bank Error) – “My moral compass only points in one direction – the right one. There’s a big difference between what’s moral and what’s legal. Honesty and good character kicked in right away, and we realized we can’t do anything with the money. I didn’t earn it, so it’s not ours to spend.”, he said in an interview
But hey, unless it was from a rich uncle or one of those emails from a Saudi Arabian prince promising me $50 billion, that would be a different story!
I’d earn a little bit of interest over a few days. I’d save that up and then report it.
Banks usually take the interest back as well. At least, that’s how they’ve handled it before.
They should have gotten like $500,000 though. 50 billion is a crazy amount of money. They didn’t cause any trouble and it wasn’t their fault. Plus, imagine the heartbreak lol. I think they should have been rewarded.
RE: Fact #7 (Chess Player’s Disguise Unveiled) – What’s strong chess look like to you?
RE: Fact #22 (Japanese Boat’s Pacific Journey) – Totally expected some Canadians to find a broken boat and turn it into a bear-watching spot. And I’m not surprised they went the extra mile to find the original owner in Japan and fix it up for a reunion.
Should have given him a parking ticket.
RE: Fact #42 (James Brown Calms Boston 1968) – You can also check out RFK’s speech on Aeschylus. It’s considered a really important American speech, and some say it stopped a lot of violence from happening. It kinda shows how much the press has changed in the US, that you can hear it but not see it. The reason you can only listen is because the news outlets turned off their cameras back then to show respect for the tragedy.
That speech was incredibly powerful and had no hedging at all. It’s even more touching considering he passed away not long after.
RE: Fact #2 (Seagal’s SNL Debacle) – So, it turns out the episode is showing up in the wrong order on Netflix, and apparently, that’s intentional. Some people are saying Lorne Michaels wants it hidden away. This totally fits with what Odernkirk’s talking about in the video – like, it’s the kind of episode you’d never want to show again.
RE: Fact #44 (Unsolved 2008 Chicago Murder) – Here’s the police sketch. If this person were still around today, they’d be a Black guy in his 40s, somewhere between 6 and 6’2″. This event is still tied for America’s deadliest unsolved mass shooting, with the 1990 Las Cruces Bowling Alley massacre.
This probably won’t ever get solved. There’s no DNA, their hair color is easy to change, no camera footage, and no car model identified. The only way it’ll be solved is if the suspect brags about it and someone reports it to law enforcement. Plus, they’ve had 17 years to get rid of the gun. They might even be in prison for other crimes, considering they were willing to murder five people and even sexually assault one of them. That suggests they don’t experience much fear and need extreme stimulation to feel anything.
He might not even be alive anymore.
Probably dead or locked up for some other stuff.
I used to go to this really cool barber in a strip mall. He was an older guy who’d give cops free haircuts and always called me “young fellow” or “handsome.” He was also involved with the dad’s club and the school yearbook, super easy to chat with. I genuinely liked getting my hair cut there.
Then one Tuesday, I showed up and the place was closed. The next week, the door was open, but he still wasn’t there. After another two weeks with no barber, I had to find somewhere else. Months went by, and he was still closed. Turns out, way back when he was younger, he and another guy were involved in killing someone’s wife for “the mob.” About forty or fifty years later, the other guy was on his deathbed and decided to confess. The story checked out, and my awesome old barber ended up going to prison.
RE: Fact #27 (Pocahontas’ Real Name Revealed) – I’m happy she’s okay
Some white guys came through and saved the day.
She ended up in Gravesend, which sounds like a pretty rough spot.
RE: Fact #7 (Chess Player’s Disguise Unveiled) – So I get the other reasons, but what made his performance seem suspicious?
RE: Fact #1 (Titanic’s Missed Ice Warning) – The wireless operators, who were all pretty young and kinda like the tech bros of the 1910s, used to joke about being “old men.” Since they worked for Marconi and not White Star, they could also sell their stories to the press.
You know, “old man” is actually still used as a friendly nickname among ham radio folks these days.
RE: Fact #31 (Confucius’s Descendants Hold Record) – A bunch of his descendants run a pretty cool tourist spot that I checked out a few years back. Basically, Confucius’ hometown is set up as a shrine to him, and every year, tons of students visit to pray and burn incense for good luck on their tests. That’s because, in Chinese folk religion, Confucius is seen as the god of school.
How does that work exactly? The Chinese must have known he was just a mortal philosopher. So do they think that really smart or historically important people can become gods?
This culture also really values ancestor worship. They totally respect their elders and older generations, and both ancient ancestors and accomplished historical figures are deeply honored. People will definitely ask their ancestors for protection and blessings. It’s a pretty natural progression to then revere not just your own ancestors, but also great historical figures and folk heroes.
Now, it’s important to note that these figures aren’t viewed as gods in the same way as the monotheistic, all-powerful, all-knowing creator God found in Judaism and Christianity. That idea was so unfamiliar to China that different Abrahamic religions, and even different branches within them, had to come up with new terms for that kind of deity.
RE: Fact #35 (Identity Theft: Keirans and Woods) – Before Kieran took Wood’s identity, he missed a court date for car theft and had other legal issues. It looks like he started using Wood’s identity pretty much right after. I’m guessing Wood’s identity seemed like a fresh start, plus a life he could easily ditch if things went south. He probably didn’t expect his new life to actually work out so well.
It’s like The Talented Mr. Ripley, but this guy didn’t even need to kill anyone since the victim had no friends, family, or anyone from law enforcement who cared.
RE: Fact #2 (Seagal’s SNL Debacle) – I think he might be considered the worst SNL host ever.
Al Franken and Tom Davis, who worked together on writing, went to my high school. They visited once when I was still a student there. When we asked them about the worst host they’d ever worked with, they both instantly said Steven Seagal without even discussing it. They mentioned that people on set were really concerned he didn’t know his lines or even what parts he was supposed to play when the show began.
So, Lorne Michaels actually said that, but it sounds like he’s kind of taken it back now. He’s saying it was just bad timing and that everyone was “off” the week Seagal hosted.
Yeah, I’ve heard from other people involved with SNL that some of the skit ideas he wanted to do were seriously messed up, like one where he wanted to play a psychologist who was hitting on a rape victim.
RE: Fact #29 (Lee Lozano’s Unique Art Project) – So, how exactly was this move specifically about fighting patriarchy?
She knew she wasn’t great and wanted to stop women from talking to her.
That’s just one way to look at it. Another way to see it is she just found talking to women boring and that it didn’t help her personal or revolutionary goals, so she decided to make that feeling into art.
It’s like saying, “I want to get closer to my mom, so I’m going to ignore her.”
I think it’s about raising awareness. She’s ignoring women the same way that structures of power have always ignored women. It’s a bit hypocritical, though, not sure if that’s intentional.
RE: Fact #36 (Butterworth Rejected for Own Story) – People really thought Mathew Broderick was a bad choice for his role in Glory, saying he was way too young to play a colonel. Turns out, he was actually older than the real person he played, and they looked super alike.
Looking at them side-by-side, you really weren’t kidding!
It’s easy to forget how young many people in the military were back then. Like, Napoleon was only 24 when he came up with the plan for the siege of Toulon and got promoted to general. And Alexander the Great was fighting in battles at 18 and leading them by 20. During the Civil War, they even had kids, like, elementary school age, playing drums right in the middle of battles with bullets whizzing past.
RE: Fact #19 (Deadly Freshwater Snails) – Are the tiny snails in my fish tank a risk, especially if water gets in my mouth or during tank cleaning? I’m a bit freaked out now.
Generally no, unless you found these snails in a river or something. That’s why I give my pet scorpions crickets from the store instead of ones I catch from my backyard. There’s too big of a chance a backyard cricket might have a parasite.
RE: Fact #28 (Louisiana Family’s Bank Error) – Something similar happened to me with a house closing once. I put down a $10,000 deposit, but it accidentally got credited as $100,000. They had to pull $90,000 back after I pointed it out. The mortgage company saw all those transactions and got super suspicious, so I couldn’t close until the bank manager sent them a letter explaining the mix-up.
I wish schools taught us more about real-world stuff. When I was buying a house, I had no idea I shouldn’t do anything with my credit. I opened a Home Depot card because I was planning to fix up the house after closing, and then I immediately got calls saying I had to prove I didn’t owe them anything and all sorts of other paperwork to make sure I didn’t lose out on my future home. I’m sure some people would think this is obvious or a silly mistake on my part, but I honestly had no clue and wouldn’t have done it if I’d known better.
Yeah, I can totally see that happening. Any changes to account balances right before closing get a super close look, and I bet your lender was way more stressed about it than you were. I’ve seen last-minute stuff totally mess up the whole deal.
It’s wild when people buy a car right when they’re closing on a house.
RE: Fact #42 (James Brown Calms Boston 1968) – I saw James Brown perform in a small auditorium in Minnesota, and I had seats in the second row. About midway through his incredible show, he asked for a moment of silence to honor Hubert Humphrey. The crowd was really into it, standing and hyped up, and he said it so fast that most folks didn’t react right away. Then, he shouted, “A MINUTE’S SILENCE IN HONOR OF HUBERT HUMPHREY!!!” and the whole place went completely quiet – you could have heard a pin drop. This happened many years after Humphrey had passed away.
Seriously, why do you think he picked HHH? It feels kinda out of nowhere, was he way more well-known than I realized?
Humphrey was a real legend in Minnesota politics. He served for a long time as a Senator, was a big advocate, even became VP and a Presidential nominee. That dude really worked hard for Minnesota.
RE: Fact #35 (Identity Theft: Keirans and Woods) – Turns out Keirans and Woods both claimed the same dad in Kentucky. A DNA test in 2023 proved Woods was the real deal, and Keirans wasn’t. Keirans then pleaded guilty to identity theft and fraud in 2024 and got 12 years.
Back in the late ’80s, Keirans was homeless in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and met Woods, who was also homeless, working at a hot dog stand. Woods later said Keirans stole his wallet back then. In 1990, Keirans got a Colorado driver’s license using Woods’s identity. He was working as a newspaper carrier and apparently committing crimes like car theft under Woods’s name. Things cooled down for Keirans after he got married and had a kid. To back up his fake identity, Keirans used Ancestry.com to get Woods’s birth certificate. He then used that and the fake driver’s license to build a new life as Woods. Under this fake name, Keirans opened bank accounts, applied for titles, deeds, and loans, and got jobs. He ended up in IT, becoming a top administrator at a hospital system for the University of Iowa, making over $140,000 a year while working remotely from his home in Wisconsin.
To keep his scam going, Keirans blocked Woods from getting his own identity back. Woods, who moved around a lot and was often homeless, tried multiple times to tell authorities his identity was stolen, but no one believed him. Over several years in the late 2010s, Keirans took out more than $200,000 in loans in Wisconsin. During this time, YouTuber Yousef Saleh Erakat featured Woods talking about his struggles in videos that got over a million views. Woods used money from Erakat to sign up for credit monitoring, which alerted him to the loans Keirans had taken out. Woods went to a bank in California to try and sort out the loans, saying he didn’t want to pay for debts that weren’t his. The bank staff didn’t believe him and called the authorities, who then contacted Keirans. Keirans sent the authorities documents that convinced them the real Woods was lying. As a result, Woods was actually put on trial for identity theft. The judge, according to records, called Woods “crazy” and ordered him to be institutionalized. Woods was forced to take psychiatric medication and spent over a year in jail.
Then, in February 2023, a detective named Ian Mallory started looking into Keirans. Mallory works for the University of Iowa Police Department. He was initially doubtful of Woods but decided to dig deeper after Keirans insulted his police work. It turned out both Keirans and Woods were using the same birth certificate and claiming the same father in Kentucky. This gave Mallory the idea to do a DNA test. The test confirmed that Woods, not Keirans, was the one whose identity had been stolen. Keirans confessed to the whole thing, telling investigators, “My life is over.” On April 1, 2024, Keirans pleaded guilty to identity theft and fraud and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Woods was cleared of any wrongdoing.
I’m not sure I get what advantage he gained by stealing another homeless person’s identity. Couldn’t he have done all of that using his own identity?
So, I’m thinking it started as a safety thing, but then it really worked out for him and he got kinda stuck with that new persona. Just my two cents!
So, Keirans was apparently delivering newspapers and also supposedly pulling off a bunch of crimes using Woods’s name, like stealing vehicles. Woods ended up using money from Erakat to sign up for a credit monitoring service, and that’s how he found out about the loans Keirans took out in his name. Keirans also apparently committed theft and other crimes and took out loans he never intended to pay back, all while pretending to be Woods.
It’s wild to think the only thing that actually got the police to do their job was their bruised egos. So typical for enforcement, right?
Seriously? Only 12 years for stealing someone’s identity for over 30 years? That’s some bullsh*t.
RE: Fact #25 (Diesel the Donkey’s Elk Adventure) – So I looked up some of the sources because I had no idea donkeys could take down mountain lions. Totally learned something new today! I guess knowing that would’ve changed how I felt about the movie Shrek.
RE: Fact #37 (Henry George’s Forgotten Legacy) – Honestly, it’s not that surprising he’s been forgotten. The media often pushes a certain narrative, and a lot of people seem to want to erase the progressive era. It feels like nobody remembers the tough times for labor, or how people were actually killed for stuff we take for granted today. Folks who are all about business and conservatives, no matter which party they’re in, have been trying to undo and get rid of any memory of progressive movements like the New Deal.
In my APUSH class, even in a decent school district, the whole labor reform movement only got about half a chapter, if that. But we spent weeks on Roosevelt, like he was the only “American-sponsored” reformer of the progressive era. Most of that was just about national parks and his “big stick” policy anyway. Our education system is fu*ked, and that was intentional.
Yeah, some places have actually made this illegal. For example, Houston tried to go with Georgist policies, but they were blocked from doing it. That’s a big reason why they’re so relaxed about zoning now.
RE: Fact #41 (Douglas Adams’ Cosmic Inspiration) – It’s even funnier because when he stood up and asked for directions, the first few people he ran into were deaf. He thought he was going crazy.
RE: Fact #17 (Turkmenistan’s Unusual Presidential Decrees) – I found out about this from a Tropico loading screen!
Some of the loading screens have some really cool stuff on them.
RE: Fact #19 (Deadly Freshwater Snails) – Yeah, they have a parasitic flatworm that lives in gross water and can actually kill people. It’s estimated to kill somewhere between 10,000 and 200,000 people each year.
If you take humans out of the picture, the mosquito is the deadliest animal, thanks to spreading blood diseases with their dirty mouthparts.
Just for context, malaria actually took out around 600,000 lives in 2023.
Even with only 10,000 deaths, it’s still the 4th deadliest animal out there. The crazy thing is, animals in general aren’t as dangerous as most people imagine.
Honestly, people are the deadliest creatures out there. All the research points to humans causing way more fear in animals than any other predator by a huge amount.
RE: Fact #30 (Australia’s Nauru Annexation Proposal) – Don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to commodities. Remember how everyone thought guano would always be valuable? Then they invented synthetic fertilizers, and poof! Now we’ll have to wait and see what happens to economies that are super reliant on oil.
It’s still useful today because you can’t make the element phosphorus from scratch, and guano is still a great way to get it. They just ran out of it on the island.
That’s why OPEC countries are putting their money into other ventures. I remember hearing the UAE leased Chicago’s parking meters until around 2085.
RE: Fact #8 (Albania’s Atheist Declaration) – It stayed that way until Enver Hoxha passed away in ’85, and then it was officially done away with in 1990.
He also built tons and tons of bunkers that people are still finding today.
RE: Fact #13 (Mario Cipollini’s Mountain Avoidance) – So, you were wondering if it’s possible to skip some stages in certain races without being totally out of the whole competition. Turns out, in this case, he would have just dropped out of the entire race, not just skipped a few stages here and there. I guess that makes sense if he wasn’t aiming for a specific jersey and had already hit his personal goals for the race, like winning a stage. Nowadays, races are definitely set up to discourage that sort of thing.
He would have already taken home a win or two in the early stages, and probably snagged some sprint sections within a stage as well. That would have given his sponsors tons of media coverage, which they would have loved.
So, the Wikipedia article mentions that sprinters who aren’t aiming for the points jersey often do this to save energy for the rest of the season. I’m guessing it was just the beach photos that some people had an issue with.
This used to be super common, but not so much anymore in the big races. The only thing I can recall from this year is Caleb Ewan pulling out of the Tour of Basque Country to skip mountain stages, though he ended up retiring from the sport a few weeks later anyway.
RE: Fact #38 (Hitler’s Konto 5 Bribery Fund) – A big reason for some of the terrible decisions that ended up losing them the war was that their generals only backed those decisions and stayed loyal due to bribery. That means they weren’t getting good advice or pushback on bad ideas. Also, when there were attempts to assassinate Hitler, it was usually by German generals trying to save Germany from losing the war. So, you can see how some awful, war-losing decisions were made.
Basically, the German generals were ambitious and pretty self-serving. They didn’t really respect Hitler, but it wasn’t because they were against Nazism. It was more about class stuff and professional jealousy. A lot of them came from old, aristocratic military families and saw Hitler as an outsider – like some guy from Bavaria who didn’t belong with them.
Their arguments with Hitler weren’t usually about ideology. The main clash was that Hitler wanted to go for symbolic or ideological goals, while the generals preferred what they thought were straightforward military wins. It was more about their own pride and different ideas on strategy, not about them morally disagreeing with the Nazi government.
This created a really messed-up command structure. There was confusion about who was in charge, lots of infighting, and they constantly undermined each other, as well as their allies.
This doesn’t mean Nazi Germany would have automatically “won” if Hitler had just let the generals do their thing. We can’t really say for sure. But history doesn’t show any sign that the German military leaders or most of the public were actually against Adolf Hitler’s ideas.
RE: Fact #47 (Vienna’s Population Decline) – Back in 1910, that place was the capital of an empire.
RE: Fact #16 (Cancer’s Widespread Impact) – If you live long enough, you’re bound to get something eventually.
RE: Fact #3 (Matrix Scene’s Spit Bucket Trick) – Yeah, I always thought they did that whenever an actor was shown eating. The idea is you don’t want them to actually eat the food they’re pretending to eat, since they have to film so many takes.
RE: Fact #33 (Swanson’s Turkey TV Dinner Solution) – This is kind of like how tater tots were made from potato scraps too small for fries.
RE: Fact #38 (Hitler’s Konto 5 Bribery Fund) – It looks like a lot of the top generals and field marshals were getting pretty big secret payments from Hitler. Some of it was in lump sums, and some was regular extra cash on top of their already good salaries. For example, Guderian apparently got a massive estate in Poland that was worth about 1.25 million marks.
He might have done that to make sure they’d stay loyal to him. Otherwise, it just feels like he wasted a bunch of resources on a long war. Maybe he thought it would be a “short” war, and that’s why he did it.
There’s a great YouTube video by CGP Grey called “The Rule for Rulers” that explains this really well and it’s definitely worth checking out. It basically shows how this is a natural phenomenon that occurs in any system with power, whether it’s a dictatorship or a democracy. The main thing that changes is who holds the power.
Yeah, folks who received gifts would definitely stick by him, and anyone who missed out would just be hoping to get in on the good stuff.
To keep their key people loyal, dictators have to pay them. That’s the main thing, everything else comes after.
RE: Fact #20 (Lottery Winner’s Meth Empire) – The main idea was solid: using lottery money to fund a business that could bring in good money for a long time. But this guy’s way of doing it didn’t quite work out.
He might have been on meth, to be fair.
This totally reminds me of a hilarious line from My Name Is Earl: “People on meth shouldn’t make meth. It’s always the second batch that blows up.”
RE: Fact #24 (Argentine Ant Supercolonies Battle) – Years ago, I helped write a book about ants, and the research was incredible. We saw them raid colonies for slaves, tend to their captives, and so much more. It would have been great if it could have paid the bills, though. Ant research is endlessly fascinating and rewarding, but, you know, we also need to eat and have running water. I still love looking back at my old field notes and observations; it’s like discovering an alien world right here on Earth.
I saw something super intense once! I was chilling on a wooden deck in rural Thailand when tons of black ants started rushing out, some carrying their baby pupas. Then, I noticed a whole army of red ants marching in a line towards the black ant nest. They went in, started killing the black ants, snatching their babies, and basically took over the whole colony while the remaining black ants escaped. It was wild!
RE: Fact #44 (Unsolved 2008 Chicago Murder) – They’re probably dead or in jail by now. It’s super rare for someone to pull off a crime that big and then never do anything illegal again.
RE: Fact #50 (Hamster Wheel Attracts Wildlife) – It’s super addictive for hedgehogs – they’ll run themselves ragged! If you have pet hedgehogs, you gotta keep an eye on them. And if one’s pregnant, take the wheel away about two weeks before she’s due. Apparently, hedgehogs have given birth while running on wheels before, and the babies didn’t make it because they got flung off.
RE: Fact #39 (Arabian Desert’s Lush Past) – Wild to think lions and hippos used to roam where it’s now just endless sand. Earth sure does love a dramatic makeover.
RE: Fact #40 (Lazenby Leaves Bond After One Film) – Lazenby wasn’t much of an actor, but he was naturally athletic, so his Bond felt like a believable action hero.
It was so refreshing to see Lazenby actually throw punches and kicks and toss people around, especially after all those silly action scenes from the Roger Moore movies. I think he was a martial arts expert back then, maybe even taught it. I also thought he was a pretty good actor in that film.
I’m pretty sure he was a car salesman. He actually got the job after an audition where he broke the stunt coordinator’s nose because he didn’t realize he was supposed to pull his punches.
Honestly, whenever he tried to do that Connery-style smarm, it just didn’t land at all. But when he was just being himself, Lazenby actually acted pretty well.
He was a decent Bond, just not Sean Connery.
Most people aren’t, actually. Just one person is.
RE: Fact #43 (Nosferatu Survives Legal Battle) – This is also where that “sun kills vampires” idea comes from. Before this movie, most vampire myths had the sun weakening them, not actually killing them.
RE: Fact #29 (Lee Lozano’s Unique Art Project) – Found something interesting about her: Lozano’s friend Sol LeWitt apparently mentioned that she made a point of ignoring waitresses. I guess I’m just too into food, but that’s pretty wild. You’re hungry, you want to eat, and then you just can’t because the person taking your order is a woman? Socially, I can see how it might seem possible, but it’s super extreme. And for almost 30 years to avoid buying anything or doing any business that involves talking to a woman? That’s just nuts.
So she wouldn’t talk to her mom but was okay with crashing at her place?
Yeah, she sounds like a real jerk. I know people are debating it and all, but honestly, she was either mentally ill or just a jerk, no in-between. She just lived her life totally ignoring half the people out there. That’s not normal behavior, and it’s definitely not “art.”
Did she just ignore the waitress, or did she keep talking to other people at the table when the waitress came over?
She’d have the male diners tell the waitresses what she wanted. Like if they asked, “How y’all doing? What can I get you to drink?” she’d have a guy say, “Tell her I want a Pepsi.” I guess if she had a guy with her, she could talk to women indirectly, kind of like a stand-in. It’s a weird way to protest the patriarchy and capitalism, though.
RE: Fact #14 (China Agricultural Bank Scandal) – It sounds like they’re really strict about theft where you are. Has anyone in the US ever been executed for stealing?
RE: Fact #38 (Hitler’s Konto 5 Bribery Fund) – That’s really interesting. I read most of the article, and it really highlights how the German officers who were totally loyal to Hitler didn’t get the same rewards like money or land as those who disagreed with him and the Nazi regime. It even mentions that some who had doubts about the plan for the Jews changed their minds once they were showered with money and land.
RE: Fact #10 (Sakakura’s Heinous Crimes) – Shige was born in 1868 in the Tsu Domain, her dad was a mechanic. As an adult, she married into the Sakakura family in Hioki Wakasa. In 1898, she started working as a midwife, taking in illegitimate babies for 40-50 yen each and then killing them. By May 1913, it’s thought she and her accomplices had killed about 200 infants. They were busiest during the Russo-Japanese War, when lots of Japanese soldiers died, leaving widows behind. To stay hidden, they kept moving to different places around the prefecture.
Her operation fell apart when she killed a geisha’s baby. The geisha used to visit her to see her child and got suspicious when she wasn’t allowed to anymore. She called the police, who arrested Sakakura and her friends. Ten days later, the newspapers reported on the case, and it became a huge national story.
Whoa, that Zashiki-Warashi episode of Mononoke was actually based on something that really happened.
I remember hearing about something similar happening in London. It’s wild how things like this can happen when there aren’t strong social safety nets in place.
Honestly, I’m a bit confused about what this “operation” was. Was there supposed to be more info?
RE: Fact #17 (Turkmenistan’s Unusual Presidential Decrees) – Yeah, a lot of people automatically picture North Korea when they hear “isolated country,” but Turkmenistan is right up there with it as one of the strangest places on the planet.
It was cool seeing ItchyBootscrossing from Iran into Turkmenistan, on their way to Uzbekistan. In Turkmenistan, the roads suddenly got super empty, and it was tough to find gas. Plus, women were out there sweeping the empty city streets with hand brooms, kind of like you see in North Korea.
NK gets more attention than Turkmenistan because of its nuclear stuff and always threatening the US, South Korea, and Japan. Turkmenistan, on the other hand, is just kinda chilling on its own and doing its own thing.
RE: Fact #13 (Mario Cipollini’s Mountain Avoidance) – So, riders like him would jump into a big race like the Tour de France knowing they weren’t gonna finish the whole thing. Their job was to sprint and snag stage wins, and then bail when the race hit the mountains. It’s really a team sport at that level, and he played his part by aiming for those stage victories.
He mentioned that not finishing the Tour is one of his biggest regrets. Given he’s currently in prison for domestic violence charges, that really says something about his character.
That’s one of his other regrets.
It’s the hypocrisy that really gets me.
Even so, his team would’ve probably been stoked if he’d won the green jersey too. He was the top sprinter back then, but he never actually won the green jersey at the Tour ’cause he always bailed out.
You can grab a green jersey from Ali Express, you know?
RE: Fact #40 (Lazenby Leaves Bond After One Film) – Clint Eastwood’s agent really didn’t want him to do *Fistful of Dollars*. And honestly, looking at it from a normal point of view, the agent had a point. It just turned out that the agent was completely mistaken.
RE: Fact #46 (Oklahoma Jail’s ‘Baby Shark’ Lawsuit) – My family has prison guards, and I’ve seen firsthand that it’s not a job that attracts the nicest folks.
I’ve noticed that everyone I know who’s been a jail or prison guard originally wanted to be a police officer but didn’t make it through the testing.
So my nephew was a correctional officer and he actually didn’t even finish high school. He ended up needing to get his GED to even be eligible for the job, and he didn’t even start working on that until after his interview. They hired him anyway and basically held his spot for him until he got his GED.
Initially, he had a really hard time seeing the prisoners as people. But after a few years on the job, he started to see them differently. In the end, he quit because the environment just got to him, and now he’s working for the little town he lives in.
That’s pretty wild because they also apparently won’t let you be a cop if you’re too smart.
My grandma was a CO and she’s super mean. Years ago, I called her out, and to this day, she’ll deny it or make a subtle jab about it. She just can’t let it go!
It’s wild how some people just hold onto grudges forever.
RE: Fact #25 (Diesel the Donkey’s Elk Adventure) – Donkeys are super social and can bond with pretty much anything. They’re actually smarter and way braver than fancy horses. Plus, they’re strong and stubborn as fu*k, so if you needed a boss, a donkey would be a solid pick.
When I was a kid, we had a donkey named Picaro, and I have really great memories of him. We had a big pasture and a barn for him, but he had other ideas. He was super smart and figured out how to open our back door and come inside when we were eating dinner. He’d just stand there with those big sad eyes like, “Why didn’t you invite me, you people.”
He also figured out how to unlatch the fence gate and wandered into the small town about a mile away. He even walked into the local bar, which the customers thought was hilarious. They’d buy him a beer, and he basically became a local celebrity.
What a fantastic animal. I love donkeys.
That’s a pretty wild story! I only ever met donkeys once, at my ex’s grandparents’ ranch. Apparently, one of the more stubborn ones actually sat on the grandma! She ended up punching it and yelling at it until it got off her.
Someone should totally write a children’s book about Picaro. Maybe something like “A Beer For Picaro”?
RE: Fact #14 (China Agricultural Bank Scandal) – There are some big, illegal money scams out there where you might actually get away with it, and then there are the ones that were totally screwed from the very beginning. This whole situation sounds like one of those doomed ones.
Yeah, kinda. It surprisingly worked the first time, but then he tried it again and it didn’t work out.
RE: Fact #33 (Swanson’s Turkey TV Dinner Solution) – So, how did they leave out the best part of this story? Apparently, all the turkey was kept in refrigerated train cars that only worked when they were moving. This meant they had to shuttle them back and forth between Nebraska and the East Coast until they could find a solution.
RE: Fact #11 (Jewish Law Requires Spousal Consent) – The Rabbis teach that women would rather have a poor guy who’s great in bed than a rich guy who doesn’t satisfy his wife.
RE: Fact #11 (Jewish Law Requires Spousal Consent) – Back in the day, people valued work-life balance and would check with their spouse first. Now it’s all about putting in tons of unpaid overtime and hustling hard.
2,000 years ago, people focused on growing their families. Now, it’s all about growing shareholder value.
RE: Fact #5 (Arbuckle’s Film Industry Impact) – He wasn’t acquitted three times. The jury was deadlocked twice, which is why there were more trials.
RE: Fact #26 (Fusako Sano’s Captivity Tale) – The police really didn’t help at all here. The kidnapper had a prior arrest for assaulting another girl, but when Sano went missing, the police just brushed it off, saying it was probably a North Korea kidnapping, and then did nothing. The mom tried telling the police multiple times that she suspected someone upstairs, but they wouldn’t even come to check.
Japan has a super high conviction rate. They mostly only bring cases to trial if they’re absolutely sure they’ll win.
So, it seems like a lot of Japanese police officers are, well, not the sharpest tools in the shed, or maybe just don’t feel like doing much. I remember this one time, they were super close to catching the person who killed that English teacher from Britain. But, get this, none of them had a radio, so the guy got away and was on the run for ages. There are tons of other stories like that too.
And the Chief resigned over that whole thing
RE: Fact #12 (Cold War Missile Mishap) – That article is wild! It says the Soviets copied the missile so well that when the Americans got one later, you could swap parts between a K-13 and a Sidewinder, and they’d fit perfectly. You could even mix and match internals and the missile would still work.
The Soviets were super strict about getting exact copies. It’s said that when they copied the B-29 to make the Tupolev Tu-4, the flight sticks even had “Boeing” written on them. Apparently, the reason given was that Stalin threatened to have them shot if it wasn’t a perfect replica.
RE: Fact #7 (Chess Player’s Disguise Unveiled) – Why do we need separate male and female divisions for games like these?
So, there aren’t exactly male and female divisions. It’s more like an open division for everyone, and a women’s division. The reason for this, according to the FAQ on factrepublic, is to boost female participation in chess. The really big tournaments are open to anyone, but because chess is generally male-dominated, mostly men end up in those top events. This has a psychological effect – younger girls coming into the sport don’t see as many role models as young guys do, which can be a bit discouraging. The women’s-only tournaments are a way to try and even out participation and give female players more recognition. While these tournaments might not have the same level of top talent as the open ones, they still have great games with lots of back-and-forth action and interesting positions.
Usually there’s an open division and a women’s division. From what I gather, there’s nothing stopping female chess players from playing against men, they just usually don’t.
Judith Polgar often competed at the top level in open tournaments. She surpassed Bobby Fischer’s record for the youngest grandmaster and was ranked 8th in the world in the early 2000s.
RE: Fact #18 (Sunburn Redness Explained) – I sometimes feel like we should stop calling it sunburn and just call it what it really is: radiation damage. It might make people take the sun’s dangers more seriously.
RE: Fact #20 (Lottery Winner’s Meth Empire) – He had passion and a bit of luck – what more could you want? It just so happened he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
Or maybe a tube sock filled with nickels.
RE: Fact #27 (Pocahontas’ Real Name Revealed) – A historian said this a hundred years later with no original sources to back it up. Basically, they totally made it up.
The source for that was “Trust Me Bro”.
RE: Fact #32 (Lady Chatterley’s Trial Humor) – So, the court went with the old rule of “variable obscenity,” which basically meant keeping certain books away from kids, women, and working folks because they thought those groups could be easily led astray.
And get this, three of the jurors were women, and the rest were everyday workers like teachers, dockworkers, drivers, and salesmen. It’s pretty unlikely any of them even had live-in maids.
RE: Fact #30 (Australia’s Nauru Annexation Proposal) – So, back in 1964, there was a whole idea to move the people of Nauru to Curtis Island, which is off the coast of Queensland, Australia. By then, Nauru had been mined so heavily for phosphate by companies from Australia, Britain, and New Zealand that the island was really messed up, and people thought it wouldn’t be livable by the 90s. Fixing it up just seemed too expensive.
The Australian Prime Minister at the time, Robert Menzies, said in 1962 that the three countries involved in the mining had a responsibility to help the Nauruan people and suggested finding them a new island. Then in 1963, the Australian government suggested buying up all of Curtis Island and giving the Nauruans ownership of it, making them Australian citizens.
Moving the Nauruans to Curtis Island was estimated to cost about £10 million, covering things like houses, infrastructure, and setting up farming and fishing businesses.
But here’s the thing: the Nauruan people didn’t actually want to become Australian citizens. They wanted their own land on Curtis Island to be an independent country. Australia wasn’t on board with that, so Nauru decided to go another route and become an independent nation, running their own mines on Nauru instead.
The Nauruans were super rich back then. Even though the mining messed up the island pretty badly, the money from selling phosphates made almost everyone a millionaire. Most folks didn’t have to work or had easy government jobs.
If they’d become Australians, they would’ve faced higher taxes and more financial scrutiny, which the government really didn’t want. Later on, the government messed up and stole all the money from their sovereign fund, leaving nothing. Now, the people on the island are broke and living in an environmental disaster zone.
Doesn’t the Australian government use it as a prison camp for migrants?
People on Nauru are pretty upset these days because their parents and grandparents didn’t invest the money wisely and just blew it on random stuff, like owning a bunch of cars.
A lot of folks there spend their time riding their motorbikes around the main road on the island, all day, going around and around. It seems like there’s not much else to do. One young guy they talked to said he seriously thinks he’ll end up dying in a couple of years because his life doesn’t have anything exciting enough to look forward to. It’s really a shame.
RE: Fact #26 (Fusako Sano’s Captivity Tale) – According to what Sano herself said, she was pretty scared at first, but after a while, she just kind of gave up and accepted what was happening. The story is that Sato kept her tied up for months and used a stun gun on her if she didn’t record horse races on TV. Sano also had a knife held to her and got beaten. Her kidnapper did share his men’s clothes with her and gave her food three times a day, either instant stuff or meals made by his mother who lived downstairs. He also cut her hair. Since there wasn’t a bathroom or toilet upstairs where Sano was kept, she could only bathe once in a while when he let her.
She mostly listened to the radio while she was held captive, and it’s said she was only allowed to watch TV in the final year. The door wasn’t ever locked, but Sano didn’t leave the room for nine years. She later told the police she was too afraid to try and escape and eventually lost the will to do so.
Sato’s mom lived downstairs and apparently had no contact with her son’s captive because he got really aggressive whenever she tried to go upstairs. But, the police think the mother must have known Sano was there. For instance, it’s claimed she bought feminine hygiene products for the victim.
So, the mom went to the police because she suspected her son was holding someone captive upstairs. The cops didn’t check it out, which is why yeah, she knew about it and yeah, she did try to get something done.
RE: Fact #48 (Rumford’s Soup Feeds Generations) – So, the Bavarian government wanted to set up workhouses for people getting welfare, as a way to reform them. Count Rumford was tasked with finding the cheapest possible food that was still filling and good for you. His soup became pretty famous among charitable folks all over Germany, and he ended up opening soup kitchens in lots of German cities.
Rumford’s soup basically had equal parts pearl barley or barley meal and dried peas, plus some veggies and four parts potato. You’d add salt as needed and some sour beer, then boil it slowly until it got thick. Potatoes weren’t in the earliest versions, but they got added later. People usually ate it with bread. Apparently, in some versions, the bread was meant to be added uncooked, right before serving the soup, with the soup poured over it. Rumford mentioned that the barley really helped thicken the soup and make it richer, and he actually called that grain “Great Britain’s rice.” Some variations included cereals, a little bit of meat, and other stuff too.
That sounds tasty, but I’m not so sure about the uncooked bread.
In this situation, if the original statement was in German, “uncooked” might not be the best translation. It could actually mean the bread just isn’t toasted, because otherwise it would just be “serve with dough.” Untoasted bread soaks up liquids more easily than toasted bread does.
RE: Fact #21 (Wright Brothers’ Flight Agreement) – This fact makes it seem like the Smithsonian is the only reason Whitehead isn’t recognized for first in flight.
From what I gather, the whole Smithsonian deal has more to do with Samuel Langley, who was in charge of the Smithsonian back then. Apparently, there were competing claims, and he had a lot of institutional backing.
RE: Fact #46 (Oklahoma Jail’s ‘Baby Shark’ Lawsuit) – Being forced into stress positions is messed up and totally not okay.
It’s wild to me to hear about stress positions and how my step-dad apparently loved to use them. And yet, my mom still won’t admit there was abuse.
When they do this, they deliberately crank the volume past the pain threshold, to ear-damaging levels, and just leave it there. That’s something people don’t talk about much.
RE: Fact #33 (Swanson’s Turkey TV Dinner Solution) – Yeah, a lot of today’s food comes about like that – they look for stuff no one’s making money off of and then figure out how to sell it. Take chicken wings, for example. They used to be pretty much scrap meat, and now they’re probably the most expensive part of the chicken. We even grind up bugs to make gelatin and candy.
Did you know bugs can also be used to make colors and dyes?
It’s pretty wild that purple used to be a royal color just because it took so many sea snails to get enough dye from them – like, tens of thousands!
It’s a real bummer about chicken wings. They used to be 69 cents a pound back in the late 80s, and some jer*k really bumped up the prices to what they are nowadays.
Back in 2014, I knew a bar in Maine that had $0.10 wing Tuesdays and $0.17 wing Thursdays. They’re not around anymore, but I bet that same deal would cost like $1 per wing in 2025.
RE: Fact #49 (Anendophasia: Silent Thought Process) – That sounds nice. Mine never shuts the fu*k up.
My inner voice is pretty busy these days, working on a novel with tons of typos and revisions!
Sometimes I get a few different inner voices talking to each other in my head, and on top of that, I’m trying to think about something else. It’s super annoying when that happens.
RE: Fact #30 (Australia’s Nauru Annexation Proposal) – Interesting bit of history: the Australian constitution actually has a clause that says if New Zealand ever decided to join Australia, Australia would be required to accept them and couldn’t turn them down. Also, back in 1902, Australia gave Maori people the right to vote. This happened way before Aboriginal people got the vote in 1962. One of the main reasons New Zealand was hesitant about joining Australia at the time was due to the poor treatment of Aboriginal people, and they were worried the Maori would face similar issues if they were under the same government.
Australians would totally be happy to have New Zealanders join them if they wanted to, no question. They seem to like New Zealand and its people and would welcome them. The only thing is, it’s not totally clear if New Zealanders feel the same way, so it probably won’t happen.
Canada had a similar deal back when the US articles of confederation were in place. They could join if 9 other states agreed, and no other colony had that option.
Just wanted to point out that the statement “Australia has to take them, they are not really allowed to refuse” isn’t quite right when you check out clause 6 of the constitution. It really just gives New Zealand the option to join, it doesn’t force Australia or the Commonwealth to accept them.
RE: Fact #24 (Argentine Ant Supercolonies Battle) – Reminds me of a Warhammer book.
RE: Fact #23 (Bruce Willis’ Hearing Loss Incident) – It looks like there’s a pretty strong link between hearing loss and dementia.
Yeah, I totally get that. My dad’s been getting pretty forgetful and sometimes seems a bit lost, and I’ve been trying to convince him to get hearing aids, but he’s really set in his ways.
RE: Fact #21 (Wright Brothers’ Flight Agreement) – Before the Wright Brothers, people had already gotten things into the air. The Wright Brothers got the spotlight mainly because their flights were controlled, while others just showed that a powerful engine could lift something off the ground. Back then, just flying in a circle was a big deal.
RE: Fact #29 (Lee Lozano’s Unique Art Project) – Sounds like a mental health issue.
RE: Fact #26 (Fusako Sano’s Captivity Tale) – I’m not really into fate or anything spiritual, but it genuinely seems like some folks are just born with a bad streak. It’s wild how a ridiculous amount of terrible stuff can just keep happening to them, and it’s not even their fault. My dad was totally like that – he had to deal with a hilariously large amount of sh*t from the moment he was born until the end.
In a crazy world, some folks just seem to catch all the bad breaks or get all the good luck.
I’ve always felt pretty lucky. Whether it’s getting gifts or winning random contests, good things usually just seem to come my way.
It’s not like bad stuff never happens to me, but when it does, something even better comes along to balance it out. Sometimes multiple good things happen, like they’re a gift. I used to just take this for granted until I got close with people who have had a tougher time with luck.
Derren Brown did a really interesting special/experiment about this topic called “The Secret of Luck.” It might have something to do with being more present, actively looking for opportunities, and how we choose to see things.
Or, maybe the universe just makes things a bit easier for some of us. I’ll always remember telling my friend not to worry because everything works out, and she told me that wasn’t really her experience. I was honestly confused because I thought everyone went through life like that.
Most of us are right there in the middle.
There’s an episode of The Simpsons about something similar. There’s this character, Grimes, and he goes through the most awful stuff. He gets super mad because Homer is just a bumbling idiot but ends up with everything Grimes ever wanted and worked so hard for.
RE: Fact #9 (Tragic End of the Adam Cult) – What’s the link between “grampa is magic” and “let’s kill ourselves”?
RE: Fact #41 (Douglas Adams’ Cosmic Inspiration) – Later in life, he admitted he might have exaggerated for interviews and similar situations.
We humans are pretty good at telling stories, even though our memories aren’t always the most reliable evidence.
RE: Fact #17 (Turkmenistan’s Unusual Presidential Decrees) – One of my favorite things about him is that he wrote this book called the Ruhnama, which is like a memoir mixed with a historical fable and a religious text. Here’s what he did with it:
* He mandated that every mosque in the country had to keep a copy and treat it just as respectfully as the Quran.
* He declared September 12th, the day the book came out, a national holiday.
* He set up a whole department at the Turkmen State University just to research the Ruhnama.
* It became the official history textbook for all high schools and universities.
* And get this, he even had the Russians launch a copy of it into space!
That last bullet point is fantastic. The rest is typical crazy dictator stuff, but asking your ally to join the crazy train and them actually doing it just so they can keep using your country as a launch site… that’s a work of art.
Sounds like you’re talking about the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan. Still makes sense with what you’re saying though.
this guy also had this huge statue of himself, covered in gold, that spun on top of a giant tripod to always face the sun. They officially called it the “Monument to Neutrality.” And his title, “father of the Turkmen,” was gold too – he picked that himself. The current dictator moved it to a less prominent spot in 2010, and it doesn’t spin anymore.
Just so you know, Turkmenbashi passed away while in office. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov took over, and he liked being called the Protector. He wasn’t much better, though. According to a US embassy report, Berdimuhamedov apparently doesn’t like people who are smarter than him, and since he’s not that bright, he’s suspicious of a lot of folks. John Oliver even did a whole segment on him, it’s pretty wild.
And Arkadag isn’t in charge now either. His son, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, is the current leader. He got elected in 2022 in what was totally a legitimate election with zero issues. The media, out of the goodness of their hearts, decided to call him “the son of the nation.”
The people there really deserve a lot more.
RE: Fact #45 (Giovanni Vigliotto’s Bigamous Record) – So, Vigliotto used to meet his future wives at flea markets and would propose on the first date. He’d quickly plan the wedding, then disappear with the new wife’s money and stuff. He’d tell them he lived far away and asked them to pack everything to move with him. Once packed, he’d drive off with their belongings and was never seen again.
His second-to-last victim, Sharon Clark, who managed a flea market in Indiana, decided to go after him herself. She eventually found him in Florida, and the police arrested him on December 28, 1981.
He apparently denied fraud and offered to plead guilty to bigamy if the fraud charge was dropped.
Vigliotto’s trial ended on March 28, 1983. The jury took only 24 minutes to find him guilty of all 34 bigamy and fraud charges. He got 34 years in prison—28 for fraud and 6 for bigamy—and was fined $336,000.
He always claimed his only crime was being a hopeless romantic who liked women.
What a fu*king twat
Wow, it’s wild that so many women said yes on the very first date!
It seems like you’re saying that at a certain age, women might be more inclined to get married if a good guy proposes, perhaps seeing it as an easier path than dating.
RE: Fact #23 (Bruce Willis’ Hearing Loss Incident) – So, I’m curious, what’s the deal with “extra loud blanks”? And why would someone use them in a movie, especially since sound is usually added later in post-production anyway?
RE: Fact #5 (Arbuckle’s Film Industry Impact) – He had a tough start. His real name, Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, was a nod to Senator Roscoe Conkling, who was known for having many mistresses. His dad chose it to imply, “I suspect my wife cheated and this kid isn’t mine.” Even so, he disliked being called Fatty and his friends always called him Roscoe.
When he was 11, his mom passed away, and he had to start working because his dad totally bailed on him. This was back in the late 1800s, and parents could just do that back then.
It’s cool that you’re thinking about how dads don’t just opt out of supporting their kids these days.
Yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from. I read about Roscoe Conkling a while back and then came across this weird story. What a messed-up thing to do to a kid, right? It seems pretty wild, and I was curious if anyone else had heard of this or if his dad was just a really odd dude.
RE: Fact #16 (Cancer’s Widespread Impact) – My doctor mentioned that most men pass away with prostate cancer, rather than because of it. So, 40% sounds about right.
Yeah, when you’re 80 and probably only have 5-10 years left, but you’ve got prostate cancer that’ll take you in 10-15 years, it’s less risky to just let it ride and keep an eye on it, rather than do surgery or chemo on someone that old.
My dad found out he had stage 4 prostate cancer when he was in his early 60s. He went into remission for a few years, but it’s back now. They still say he’ll die from something else, and he’s not even 70 yet.
Yeah, older folks tend to have slower metabolism and cell growth, which can slow down certain cancers. Prostate cancer is a good example of this.