26 Japanese TV “Staff Ate It” Caption
On Japanese TV programs, producers display the caption “The staff ate it later” when food appears on screen. The line tells viewers the food was not thrown away after filming, since it is generally not socially acceptable to discard food in Japan.
27. During World War I, the United States created the United States Housing Corporation in 1918 under the Department of Labor to house war production workers near shipyards and arsenals. In about two years it launched over 83 projects across 26 states, developing 5,033 acres into neighborhoods for more than 170,000 people. The program set federal neighborhood planning standards that influenced later U.S. housing design.
28. In 2001, when playing his first major final at the Masters, snooker player Paul Hunter trailed 6-2 at the interval when his manager told him to use “Plan B,” which Hunter later said stood for “B for bonk” and “Plan B” meant sex with his then girlfriend. He and his girlfriend went to their hotel room, and Hunter returned to reel off four centuries in six frames and win the title.
29. First published in 1982 under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, Stephen King wrote The Running Man in a week, reportedly in just 72 hours. It was pretty much published as a first draft and was later overshadowed by the 1987 film.
30. In 2011, 61-year-old Englishman named Steve Whiteley turned a 2-pound Tote Jackpot bet at Exeter Racecourse into 1.4 million pounds, the largest Tote Jackpot dividend at the time. He picked six winners, including Lupita, which had not won in its previous 26 races, and jockey Jessica Lodge, who earned her first career win; Whiteley said he chose the last pick because “Lodge is just a name that sticks in my head.”
31 Dueling Honor and “Satisfaction” Tradition
Historically, many duels aimed to restore honor rather than kill, following codes that framed the fight as a test of courage and integrity. “Satisfaction” meant risking your life to prove your character, and participants often ended the affair once honor was deemed satisfied, sometimes after first blood or a negotiated reconciliation.
32. In 1974, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to two of its own members, Harry Martinson and Eyvind Johnson, a decision that drew heavy criticism. Martinson struggled with the backlash and in 1978 died by suicide after cutting his abdomen with scissors in a “hara-kiri-like” manner.
33. In Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, baccarat dominates casino floors and player preference. Government accounts show that taxes from baccarat are the single largest source of government revenue.
34. In Colma, California, a necropolis south of San Francisco, the dead outnumber the living by roughly 1,000 to 1. The town hosts numerous cemeteries that serve the region, giving it a population dominated by the interred. Colma leans into the joke with its official motto: “It’s great to be alive in Colma.”
35. In 1966, U.S. Indian Affairs Commissioner Robert L. Bennett imposed the Bennett Freeze on 1.5 million acres of Navajo land to cool a dispute with the Hopi, which barred the Navajo reservation from even basic repairs like fixing roofs or adding gas and water lines. The freeze halted development for 43 years and left communities unable to build homes, pave roads, or install utilities. In May 2009, President Barack Obama signed a repeal, lifting the moratorium and allowing long-delayed rebuilding to begin.
36 Kräkångersnoret Sweden Name Change
After President Carter proclaimed 17 Alaska national monuments in December 1978, hostility toward the National Park Service spiked in 1979. Businesses in the area refused services and lodging to task force rangers, vandals caused about $2,000 in damage to an NPS plane, and another Park Service plane was burned, actions that even prompted local opponents to take down “rangers keep out” signs.
37. In February 2024, officials in Turkmenistan ordered wedding venues to ensure at least 80 percent Turkmen music and to include songs by ex-president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, while banning foreign tracks. He also records with his grandson Kerimguly and even released a rap called “Rovach,” which is a rap song about the dictator’s favorite horse.
38. In 1951, the village of Kräkångersnoret in Sweden changed its name after evolving Swedish usage made it sound like “vomit” and “snot,” rather than its older sense of “crooked inlet.” Residents adopted Lövsele instead, combining Lövånger with sele, a dialect word for lake.
39. In the Babylonian Talmud, 1st-2nd century rabbis debate the Exodus plague of frogs, asking whether the Hebrew points to a single colossal frog rather than many. The argument hinges on the wording of the text, turning a biblical plague into a classic case of rabbinic close reading.
40. Starting in 2004 at his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, psychologist John W. Pilley trained his border collie, Chaser, in a formal research project. Over several years she learned to identify and retrieve 1,022 toys by name and demonstrate category understanding, earning recognition as the nonhuman animal with the largest tested memory before her death in 2019.
41 Dr. Dre Brother Unsolved Death
In 1989, near Crenshaw Avenue in Compton, 21-year-old Tyree Du-sean Crayon, Dr. Dre’s younger brother, died after a fight in which someone knocked him to the ground and he suffered traumatic injuries. Years later there is very little public information, and authorities still haven’t solved the case.
42. R-colored vowels, the “-er” sound in “butter” in North American English, occur in less than 1% of the world’s languages. Yet this rare feature appears in two of the most widely spoken languages on earth: North American English and Mandarin Chinese.
43. In lab studies of zebrafish, researchers found that a fish with a blood alcohol concentration over 0.1 could enter a sober group of zebrafish, and the sober fish would follow it as the leader.
44. For decades, Switzerland stayed out of the United Nations over fears that membership would compromise its neutrality. A national referendum in March 2002 approved joining, and Switzerland became a UN member on September 10, 2002, while maintaining its neutral stance.
45. In July 2025, the Istanbul Jewelers Chamber said Turkish households are estimated to hold about 5,000 tons of gold at home, outside the banking system. That’s roughly $500 billion (at that time), and it was noted that many families prefer to hold savings at home.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 1926 Baumes Law Three Strikes
In 1926, New York passed the Baumes law, named for Senator Caleb H. Baumes, which mandated life imprisonment for anyone convicted of more than three separate felonies, regardless of circumstances. By 1930, 23 U.S. states had adopted similar habitual offender statutes. After prison riots in New York, the state moved to reform the law soon after.
47. In 1934, biologist Robert E. Cornish claimed to revive dogs he had clinically killed with nitrogen gas by strapping them to a giant see-saw to restore circulation while administering adrenaline and anticoagulants. Though some dogs revived, they suffered severe neurological damage and blindness.
48. On August 14, 2010, at the Safeway Classic in North Plains, Oregon, LPGA Hall of Fame golfer Juli Inkster took practice swings with a weighted donut on her 9-iron while waiting to tee off on the 10th hole. A television viewer called tournament officials to report it, and because practice devices are prohibited during rounds, officials disqualified Inkster from the event.
49. From 1950 to 1995, checkers legend Marion Tinsley lost only seven games, two of them to the Chinook computer, while holding world titles in 1955-1958 and 1975-1991. After officials barred a computer from playing for the human crown, Tinsley resigned his title and beat Chinook 4-2 in a 1992 match. The American Checkers Federation and English Draughts Association later called the world title worthless as long as he was alive and made him World Champion Emeritus.
50. Most people rely on a small core of words in daily speech, called the surface lexicon. Most people only use about 1,500 to 3,000 words regularly in everyday conversation.
RE: Fact #37 (Alaska National Park Service Backlash) – When I was up in Eagle, Alaska back then, there was definitely a lot of anti-federal sentiment, more than you might guess from that idea.
It’s pretty funny when you think about it, because Alaska basically relies on the federal government for most of its money, right? They don’t have an income tax, their tax rates are low, and there aren’t that many people. Plus, the second they decided to leave the union, I bet there’d be a quick military operation to Anchorage.
Alaska is one of the wealthiest states because the government owns most of the natural resources there. They don’t need much federal help. You should look into the Alaska Permanent Fund.
RE: Fact #16 (Appalachia Ancient Rivers (New, French Broad, Susquehanna)) – So, we’re talking about the French Broad River in Tennessee, the New River in West Virginia, and the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna is estimated to be between 200 and 340 million years old. It’s also the longest river flowing into the US east coast at 444 miles, and it’s a great spot for kayaking near Harrisburg.
Yeah, the Susquehanna River is definitely up in upstate New York too. I grew up right by it!
The New River and French Broad rivers start in North Carolina.
RE: Fact #12 (Howard Unruh New Jersey Rampage) – So, “Unruhe” is the German word for disturbance, and “Unruh” is an old German word that means balance.
Plus, an “Unruh” is actually the balance wheel in a clock. That’s why the Zelda: Majora’s Mask translators changed Clocktown from what would have been “Uhrstadt” to “Unruh-Stadt” – it had a triple meaning. Back then, I mostly just thought of it as the “town of disturbance” as a kid because “Unruh” isn’t a super common word for “balance” or for that clock part anymore.
This is super interesting to me because Majora’s Mask is my all-time favorite video game, and I actually took German in school. Thanks for sharing this!
RE: Fact #9 (Sainte-Croix Hospital Quebec Bench Birth) – It’s pretty wild how much medical places are geared towards people who go there a lot. Makes sense that first-timers would be totally confused.
RE: Fact #15 (Cadaver Eyelids Reopening Phenomenon) – Working in hospice, it’s pretty wild how everyone passes with their mouth wide open, and you just can’t keep it shut. You do your best to clean them up and lay them out, and then you let the families know beforehand that folks can look a little… well, ghoulish after they’ve passed.
How do you politely tell someone their loved one is a bit scary looking? Like, how do you do that nicely?
We used to roll up a hand towel and put it under the chin until rigor mortis made the mouth stay shut.
RE: Fact #43 (Drunk Zebrafish Group Leadership) – This guy totally knows where the good beer is at.
This is why they really follow him. “Take us back to where you got that stuff!”
RE: Fact #30 (£2 Jackpot: Lupita, Jessica Lodge) – He mentioned he picked his horses randomly, saying it was hard to explain his choices. He initially had two picks per race, but that would have cost £32, so he changed it. He chose the last horse just because the name Lodge stuck in his mind. He’s not really into horse racing, only going a couple of times a year. He’s a heating engineer, or at least he used to be.
Jayne Amor, who manages the Tote in Exeter, said the excitement at the racecourse was amazing. She mentioned that everyone at the Tote was cheering for him when they realized it was a single ticket. He came to them after four races to double-check his ticket. His winnings will be in his bank account by tomorrow.
Mr. Whiteley’s £1,445,671.71 winning dividend was the biggest ever for the Tote Jackpot, which requires correctly picking six winners.
Lupita hadn’t won in its previous 26 races, and this race at Exeter was jockey Jessica Lodge’s first win.
Wait, people don’t just pick horses at random?
My wife and I do too. We were at a race once and she did a “wheel bet” like that. She got about 5 out of 7 predictions right. It got super exciting during races 4 and 5 because it looked like she might actually win. But nope, she missed the last two. Still, it was a lot of fun! I think she bet around $5, and the jackpot was a few hundred thousand. Don’t hold me to the exact numbers, though – this was a few years back.
RE: Fact #48 (Juli Inkster Weighted Donut Disqualification) – So, I remember seeing this video where a golfer put down a towel so his pants wouldn’t get grubby during this super awkward kneeling shot. Apparently, someone reported him for “building a stance,” and he ended up getting penalized for it.
This reminds me of another one from way back. Someone called in because a golfer, during a practice swing, hit a tree branch and like, a leaf or tiny twig fell off. They got penalized for improving their lie.
Yeah, I remember reading about that, too! Craig Stadler back in ’87.
If he’d tied the towel around his knee, he would’ve been fine. But laying it on the ground was like building a little platform. Shaking my head. Seriously, tie whoever made that call and the official who ruled it that way to the outside of a ball-collecting tractor at a public driving range.
Golf seems like a cool idea until you actually hear what it’s about or have to sit through watching it.
RE: Fact #46 (1926 Baumes Law Three Strikes) – The companies that provide the infrastructure have always made a lot of money and continue to do so.
RE: Fact #3 (Michael Caine Long-Lost Half-Brother) – It’s wild how some folks romanticize the past, saying mental illness wasn’t a big deal back then. But then you read about this case where Caine’s brother had epilepsy and a hip injury from birth, who ended up in a wheelchair, was locked in a cellar with a stone floor. Apparently, he was even bouncing around on it. It sounds like he might have been pretty intelligent, but all that bashing around could have caused serious brain issues. He never learned to read or write, and his speech was hard to understand. And to top it off, it seems like the family kept him a secret, not teaching him basic skills or telling others in the family about him.
RE: Fact #1 (Mum Bet (Elizabeth Freeman) Lawsuit) – So, the British National Archives say that 30 shillings back in 1780 would be roughly £130 today, which is about $175 in US dollars. But, it also mentions that this was about 9 days’ pay for a skilled worker, which would translate to more like $1,750 nowadays.
It actually makes sense that there’s such a big difference. Over the years, the cost of stuff and the cost of labor have flipped. It used to be really pricey to buy things and cheap to hire people, and now it’s the other way around. I’m just a bit surprised by how much of a difference it is – like 10 times!
Anyway, either amount is incredibly small. It wouldn’t even cover all the work she did for free, let alone make up for a lifetime of being enslaved.
RE: Fact #13 (Columbia House Alias CD Scam) – My brother did something similar back in high school, but it wasn’t about making cash. He had a pretty awesome collection of 90s rock CDs, and yup, Dinosaur Jr. was definitely in there!
RE: Fact #2 (Military Working Dogs’ Rank Protocol) – So, if someone hits or abuses a dog, they can be prosecuted under a specific article of the UCMJ, I think it’s Article 94, for striking a superior or something similar. This way, they don’t need a new rule for animal abuse; they can just use the existing one and its punishment.
Also, the rulebook doesn’t say dogs are forbidden from playing football or becoming sergeant majors.
It’s all just for show, really. Dogs don’t actually outrank their handlers. They’re considered equipment or assets first and foremost. There have only been a few animals that actually had a real rank.
RE: Fact #48 (Juli Inkster Weighted Donut Disqualification) – Golf is like F1 racing to me. It feels like the rules are more important than the actual game.
You really only get to that level once. Everyone else is just out there enjoying themselves, maybe having a beer and riding around in a golf cart, and they’re hard on themselves but still having fun. When you golf with someone who can’t have fun and is too focused on the rules or too serious, it just becomes a real bummer. But that’s not the sport’s fault, it’s the person you’re with.
RE: Fact #13 (Columbia House Alias CD Scam) – Yeah, I did something like that with their movie service too. I’d sign up with a fake name, grab those 8 free VHS tapes, and then write a letter saying my parents were asking them to stop sending mail to my address because, sadly, I had passed away. I was 13 and pulled that trick maybe 4 times.
RE: Fact #35 (Bennett Freeze Navajo Nation Ban) – Back in 1966, this was set up to help sort out a land dispute between the Navajo and Hopi. It ran until 2009. The idea was to ease tensions by making Navajo families move out of the area, but they actually kept living there. The Navajo Reservation has a lot of coal and uranium. When the US government first divided up the land for the Navajo and Hopi, they didn’t really know or care about how many minerals were underground, thinking it was just barren land.
Things got interesting in 1919 when a mining group got interested in the coal in the western part of the Navajo Nation. The whole question of who owned what and what rights came with it became a big deal for the Hopi, Navajo, and the mining companies. The fight over the land kept going, especially for the parts of Black Mesa with lots of coal.
Seriously? The U.S. screwing over a native population for prime real estate? Who’d have thought!
Reading the whole article, it seems like a solution from the 1960s for an issue that started 100 years before that. It sounds like when the Hopi lines were drawn, they didn’t consider the Navajo Reservation that was already there.
Sorting out land disputes is always tricky because, understandably, nobody wants to lose out on land that should be theirs. I’m not sure there’s an easy fix for this one. Perhaps there was a simple answer back in 1870, but definitely not by 1970.
Yeah, totally trying to make it seem like it was their fault as well. Shocker.
It sounds like the land dispute was settled only after that weird incident at Black Mesa. Both the Hopi and Navajo tribes promised they wouldn’t let another resonance cascade happen.
So, on Navajo land, there’s Hopi land, and then more Navajo land, all within Arizona. What’s funny from the outside looking in is that the Navajo Nation switches to daylight saving, but Arizona and the Hopi don’t. This means for half the year, if you drive from Utah to New Mexico through the reservation, your clock will go back and forth an hour something like ten times.
Unless it’s a Public Law 280 jurisdiction, Indian reservations aren’t really part of states, so state laws don’t apply there. Public Law 280 came from the “termination era.”
RE: Fact #31 (Dueling Honor and “Satisfaction” Tradition) – They had some pretty wild ideas about honor, huh?
RE: Fact #45 (Turkey Household Gold Hoards (5,000 Tons)) – When Turkey first opened up to international markets and moved away from a state-controlled economy in important areas, lots of new banks popped up. They ended up scamming people with really high interest rates, then funneled the money away and went bankrupt. A lot of folks couldn’t get their money back.
The coup was in 1980. Money was being funneled around 1993 and 1994. Those banks were either shut down or merged into government-controlled institutions, and really strict banking rules were put in place. That’s why the same thing hasn’t happened in the last 30 years.
It’s kinda pointless though since a dictator took over who thinks low interest rates keep inflation down. He still hasn’t realized he’s wrong, even after he sent inflation sky-high to 33%. I’d still be hanging onto that gold.
RE: Fact #25 (Paternal Alcohol, Autism/ADHD Risk) – So, research has looked into how substance use before and during conception can impact sperm quality. It generally takes around 70 days for sperm to develop, mature, and be good to go for fertilization.
RE: Fact #2 (Military Working Dogs’ Rank Protocol) – I need 20 scratches, stat!
We had IED detection dogs on our deployment. It’s a bummer that you can’t play with them like regular dogs, or they can lose their bomb-sniffing skills more easily. I wasn’t in the handler training, but everyone who went said the same thing. The dogs got a lot of affection, but it was usually as a reward for good work or training.
Here’s something else interesting: these dogs typically have more than one handler. So, even though you can adopt them when they retire from service, the first handler usually gets priority for adoption. I’m not sure if it’s still around, but there used to be a website for adopting retired working dogs. They got into some trouble because regular folks were able to adopt them before the handlers could.
RE: Fact #35 (Bennett Freeze Navajo Nation Ban) – I’ve seen some real animosity between tribes, like the Hopi and Navajo. I once worked with a Hopi guy who told me about it. The only other groups I’ve seen with that kind of deep-seated tension are the Crow and Pawnee against the Lakota and Cheyenne. It sounds like those four tribes are still pretty much at odds.
Yeah, I worked with someone from the Flathead tribe in Montana who really disliked the Crow. He said a lot of other tribes felt the same way because of how the Crow worked with the US government during the wars. If we ever had a temporary worker who was Crow, he’d basically ignore them. It was pretty eye-opening for me since I didn’t grow up around that kind of history or learn about it in school.
The Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes don’t really get along here in Wyoming. They were both put on the same reservation, and one tribe is doing better financially than the other.
RE: Fact #22 (Female Morning Clitoral Tumescence) – Heard it as “morning dew” myself.
RE: Fact #29 (Stephen King “The Running Man” Week) – Guess you can do a lot when you do a ton of cocaine.
There are a lot of people struggling with coke addiction who aren’t writing critically acclaimed books.
He was super productive and did really well, even for a novelist who used coke. He famously doesn’t even recall writing Cujo.
So, basically, the director of photography, Armando Nannuzzi, got seriously hurt and lost an eye while filming because King wanted to use real lawnmower blades even though people were worried it wasn’t safe. Armando sued him for that, which makes total sense since having two eyes is kinda crucial for that job. They ended up settling the lawsuit without saying how much money was involved.
On a slightly funnier note, a camera assistant named Silvia Giulietti mentioned that King used to eat sardines every morning. So, apparently, he’d show up to set all day with his breath smelling like cocaine and fish.
Looks like the lawnmower hit a piece of wood and some pieces went into the guy’s eye.
RE: Fact #11 (Japan “Gunma Empire” Internet Meme) – It’s funny when people find out stuff about Gunma, like how they’re the only place in Japan with a Haägen-Dazs factory. This means that what would normally be over $6 for a fancy ice cream cup ends up being only about $2 across Japan because of their local supply chain. People often joke, “Praise the great Gunma Empire!”
Shoutout to anyone from Gunma reading this.
So that’s why Haagen-Dazs is so popular in Japan.
I always figured it was because it’s fun to say in Japanese and sounds super dramatic. I guess Baskin-Robbins, which is called “31” there, is probably the opposite for the same reason.
RE: Fact #41 (Dr. Dre Brother Unsolved Death) – In 2023, only about 58% of murders in the US were solved.
I think people assume crimes involving famous folks or those close to them are straightforward to solve. My guess is they’re more often targets of crimes of passion than random acts of violence.
I think people generally assume that if someone is murdered, the person who did it will eventually be caught, like top investigators are involved in every single case.
RE: Fact #21 (Roman Doorway Deities (Janus, Cardea)) – Yeah, that’s because the Romans were really into mixing and matching beliefs. They had this whole “Roman interpretation” thing going on, which basically meant they’d either fully adopt a god from a place they conquered into their empire, or they’d blend a foreign god with one of their own.
The classic example is how they mashed up their gods with the Greek ones. But they did it with others too. Like, they’d sync up Thor with Hercules, or Odin with Mercury. They even merged their sun god Sol with the Syrian sun god Elagabal. Fun fact, the emperor Elagabalus was even named after that guy!
RE: Fact #18 (WWII U.S. Support Versus Combat) – A historian in a Netflix WW2 docu-series described the American approach to problems as “overwhelming them” rather than solving them. He talked about how much stuff they shipped over, even tons of lingerie, to bribe locals for info.
Japanese soldier: I only get one ration of rice every three days.
American soldier: I’ve been to the ice cream ship three times this week.
Japanese soldier: 🗿
Yeah, Japan’s logistics were a mess back then, and the Allied navy was pretty much sinking every Japanese ship they came across.
The Japanese Navy and Army were often butting heads, too. The Navy ended up not sending enough supplies and leaving a lot of Army units stranded because of it. They figured the Army troops would just take food from the locals when they arrived in new areas.
If Japan had kept fighting after the atomic bombs, millions of civilians would have just starved during an American invasion.
On the flip side, America has always had some of the best logistics in the world.
RE: Fact #14 (Susanna Hoffs “Eternal Flame” Nude Recording) – Did the producer watch that happen?
When she tells the story for laughs, that’s what it sounds like. But actually, the vocals were recorded after the band finished the music tracks. She was by herself, in the dark, behind a barrier. She said it felt freeing, kind of like skinny dipping. You can totally hear her “bedroom voice” on that song. It was a huge hit in five countries. Everyone loves Susanna Hoffs. She’s still incredibly beautiful even in her sixties.
It’s funny, I feel like “bedroom voice” doesn’t quite fit with what inspired the song. The Bangles visited Graceland together. When they were leaving after a tour, they saw this strange ornamental thing by Elvis’ grave. They asked a security guard about it, and he said, “That was an eternal flame.” Seriously, “That was an eternal flame” might be one of the saddest sentences ever.
Yeah, it kinda makes sense that being naked might help you hit certain notes or get your voice to sound a certain way, especially since you’d be thinking about being naked while people are just on the other side of the curtain.
RE: Fact #14 (Susanna Hoffs “Eternal Flame” Nude Recording) – So, back in the 80s, there were whispers that Donna Summer was actually having real orgasms when she recorded “Love to Love You Baby.” She later admitted she was totally faking it, but said she *was* lying on her back, sort of squirming around in the dark behind some curtains while she was recording it.
So, on Guns N’ Roses’ “Rocket Queen,” you can actually hear real sex sounds from Axl Rose and Steven Adler’s girlfriend at the time, Adriana Smith, in the studio.
In the liner notes, they called one of the engineers “the fu*king engineer.”
Heard some similar stories about Cyndi Lauper recording “She Bop” naked in the studio and tickling herself. Not sure if those are actually true, though.
I’m pretty sure it’s confirmed that Jim Morrison’s girlfriend was doing him when he recorded the vocals to Five To One. You can definitely tell once you know. The song has this ominous, going to war, sound, but the title was most likely a euphemism for masturbation. It was taken from a joke in a Hemingway novel where these soldiers are teasing a priest. One of them makes a reference to masturbation as ‘five against one’ and keeps needling the priest to see if he gets the joke.
RE: Fact #25 (Paternal Alcohol, Autism/ADHD Risk) – It doesn’t say if they looked into whether dads who drink and have unprotected sex might be more likely to have ADHD or autism themselves.
It’s actually worse than that. The study they cited didn’t even account for parents having ADHD. Since ADHD can be passed down and is linked to drinking too much, the conclusion they’re hinting at in the title just doesn’t make sense.
Looks like about 60% of people with ADHD also deal with substance abuse.
This makes me wonder about something interesting to research: How does this model perform with populations that have different rates of alcohol consumption? For example, do active Mormons tend to have fewer kids with autism or ADHD? I’m using a stereotype here, but are kids from groups known for heavy drinking, like Irish people, more likely to be autistic?
Yeah, it seems like folks in places like Wisconsin tend to drink more.
RE: Fact #46 (1926 Baumes Law Three Strikes) – It’s like the three-strikes law from the 90s.
Yeah, this went on into the 2000s. I was on a jury in California and we gave someone their third strike. We didn’t handle the penalty part, but found out later the guy got life for robbing a donut shop. No weapons were used. I haven’t served on a jury since then.
That sounds really tough. I’m sorry you’re dealing with all that.
RE: Fact #49 (Marion Tinsley Checkers Champion Dominance) – So I was on the train, and this guy tells his friend, “Man, I’m really good at checkers.” And I just thought, that’s kind of like saying, “Man, there aren’t many things I’m good at.”
I heard something pretty similar not too long ago. It was something like, “A gentleman knows how to play chess, but a fool knows how to play chess really well.” Or maybe that wasn’t exactly it.
RE: Fact #8 (Dave Givens 186-Mile Commute) – “Yeah, I figured some people might have commutes this long, but I honestly didn’t think mine was the longest! Someone else had a 175-mile commute from Chicago, and another person had one that was 164 miles from North Carolina.”
Wow! I can’t even get my head around this fact. I mean how do folks manage to do this every single day?
I know a couple of people who live in Manchester and work in London, which is about a 2-hour, 200-mile trip each way. They take the high-speed train, but it’s still crazy to think that those 600-seat trains are packed every weekday morning, leaving every 10-15 minutes during rush hour. It really shows this isn’t that uncommon. I’ve even heard of people in the UK commuting even further, like a woman who goes from Newcastle to London, which is a 300-mile trip one way. I bet in places with even faster trains, like France, these kinds of long commutes might be pretty standard.
It seems like Americans just can’t wrap their heads around high-speed rail.
Yeah, long commutes are rough, but a train commute feels way better than driving. You can actually chill out on a train. I’ve seen regular train riders who are pros at timing their naps.
RE: Fact #13 (Columbia House Alias CD Scam) – Carl’s Jr. was giving away a free triple burger to new sign-ups, plus their usual free single item. So, that’s two free burgers in total. Bottom line, I ended up with 14 fast food email accounts.
Seems like there’d be a decent market for Carl’s Jr. burgers at flea markets.
RE: Fact #28 (Paul Hunter “Plan B” Masters Comeback) – Man, I wish all jobs were like this! Imagine telling your boss, “Hey, rough day, mind if I bring my girlfriend over for a quick fu*k?” and they’re cool with it, saying, “Sure, you get a 20-minute break once she’s here.” That’d be something else.
RE: Fact #7 (Leonardo DiCaprio 2005 Bottle Attack) – Yeah, I’ve totally mixed up exes with huge celebrities before. It’s a struggle, for real!
RE: Fact #50 (Surface Lexicon: 1,500-3,000 Words) – My dad’s not like that. He uses about 15, but he doesn’t say much.
RE: Fact #27 (United States Housing Corporation (WWI)) – This was pretty neat to see! It was a federal plan aimed at fixing local housing shortages, and in just two years, they went from zero to building tons of awesome, well-designed homes and whole neighborhoods.
The idea of the government building tons of houses and apartments has historically been super effective for dealing with housing shortages and affordability issues, pretty much everywhere and in every situation. It’s a shame we probably wouldn’t even consider that now.
Also, those “brutalist apartment blocks” might not be the most scenic from above, but they can be decent places to live if they’re in city centers with good access to stuff and services. The problem comes when they’re used to isolate and warehouse low-income people instead of integrating them.
Yeah, and when people actually keep up and decorate those brutalist apartment buildings like the designers meant them to be, they can look really good! A lot of them were supposed to have plants all over them, but the current owners are too focused on making as much money as possible to bother with any landscaping.
Totally! I was just looking into how housing shortages have played out historically, and it’s wild how similar things are to about a century ago. The main difference now is we don’t have the fear of Bolsheviks and communist revolution pushing the government to take action.
Take the UK, for instance. After World War I, they passed the 1919 Housing and Town Planning Act, which resulted in over 200,000 homes being built.
RE: Fact #34 (Colma, California Necropolis Motto) – Yeah, it’s because you can’t be buried in San Francisco itself. About a hundred years back, they even moved all the bodies that were already buried there over to Colma.
What’s the reason for this?
This city is so expensive, even the dead can’t afford to live here.
San Francisco has pretty limited space, so it doesn’t really make a lot of financial sense to have people occupying prime real estate when they’re no longer around.
This whole thing kicked off in San Francisco around the early 1900s, but they weren’t the only ones. Some cities actually started this process even earlier. You could say San Francisco was a bit late to the game, especially since it’s a pretty young city.
Paris and London also had periods where they moved a lot of bodies and graveyards around. Space was definitely a factor, but there was also a fear that decomposing bodies were making people nearby sick. Germ theory wasn’t super clear back then, and people were really wary of bad smells. Diseases like cholera were terrifying, so they were open to anything that seemed like it might help.
There are some wild stories about Parisian graveyards being so packed that bodies didn’t break down properly and turned into a soapy substance. Plus, there were tales of animals digging up shallow graves or getting into mass graves before they were sealed, and then being seen carrying body parts. It doesn’t really matter how often this actually happened; what mattered was that people believed it.
So, it ended up being seen as a major public health issue that the government needed to deal with. Some cities started moving graveyards out of their more populated areas. This started around the late 1700s in Paris, and I think they were either the first or among the very first to do this mass relocation of the dead.
In Paris, this meant moving a ton of people into the catacombs, but they also set up larger burial grounds outside the city. However, a lot of those have since been absorbed by urban sprawl and aren’t really suburban anymore. Père Lachaise is one example.
Some folks who loved garden design saw this as a chance to create graveyard parks. You know those beautiful graveyards people like to visit? A lot of them started from this trend. Highgate cemetery is one of them.
Once trains became a thing, these park-like graveyards became a nice little family outing. Plus, trains made moving a lot of bodies much easier.
RE: Fact #49 (Marion Tinsley Checkers Champion Dominance) – This reminds me of Paul Morphy. He was basically a chess Grandmaster when no one else was even close. Once he realized no one on Earth could challenge him, he quit chess. Everyone else was left fighting for second place until Morphy passed away at just 47.
RE: Fact #10 (United States ADHD Medication Share) – ADHD meds totally changed my life.
RE: Fact #22 (Female Morning Clitoral Tumescence) – My wife sometimes tells me late at night, when we’re both almost asleep, that she was turned on this morning.
How many times do I have to say “please wake me up by riding my face”?
Yeah, I wish I could imagine that being fun too, but I’m pretty sure I’d just dream about drowning when I woke up.
Seriously, this hits home. And I was just supposed to figure it out somehow, even though there was no way to actually know.
Well then, wake me up! I’m usually interested, but I won’t be often!
Glad I could jog your memory about that part!
Hey, I totally tell my husband stuff like this, but it’s not because I expect him to just *know*. More like, “Wow, I was really into you earlier, but then, you know, life with three kids happened.”
RE: Fact #29 (Stephen King “The Running Man” Week) – It’s wild how often I discover that fictional stories were actually inspired by Stephen King’s books.
I recently watched all the movies based on Philip K. Dick stories. Most people know Blade Runner and Total Recall, but there are loads of others out there.
A lot of the confusion comes from the fact that he was writing under a different name, Richard Bachman, for a while.
It’s wild how many folks probably don’t even know that “Stand by Me” and “The Shawshank Redemption” are based on Stephen King stories, let alone that they came from the same collection of short stories!
My two paperback copies of “The Bachman Books” are practically falling apart from how much I’ve read them.
I absolutely love “Shawshank” and “Stand by Me.” I haven’t seen “Apt Pupil,” but it’s a bummer to hear it didn’t get great reviews. I’m pretty sure Hollywood will get around to making “The Breathing Method” into a movie someday, or maybe even an anthology series. There’s so much good stuff there, it feels like it could really go somewhere.
RE: Fact #33 (Macau Baccarat Tax Revenue Dominance) – With 1.5 billion people and only one city where gambling is allowed, plus one game that’s super popular with Chinese folks, it’s pretty wild to think about, but it also makes sense statistically.
RE: Fact #40 (Chaser Border Collie 1,022 Toys) – We actually trained our family dog to grab a bottle of wine from the kitchen rack. He was just like ‘Chaser’ a Bordeaux Collie.
RE: Fact #50 (Surface Lexicon: 1,500-3,000 Words) – And the rest of them listen to Aesop Rock.
RE: Fact #37 (Alaska National Park Service Backlash) – Even after all these years, descendants of families whose land was taken for the Buffalo National River still mention in the National Park Service’s Buffalo River page comments that their land was stolen. I remember hiking the Buffalo River Trail quite a while ago, and in some spots near private property, the trail markers were pretty scarce.
I don’t think you should be forced to move just because your land is now part of a national park. It should really just be a zoning issue, preventing you from building things like condos. If you want to sell, the government should just buy you out, or you should be allowed to stay there until you or your descendants decide to sell.
I remember reading about Dorothy Molter a while back; her story touched on this. She lived on Knife Lake in the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Over the years, the area became inaccessible except by boat. Some articles called her the loneliest woman in America, which felt a bit off since the same article mentioned she was known for the root beer she served to her 6,000 visitors annually. It was a pretty interesting story that explained how the area became so restricted.
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. You can find houses and private land inside national parks, but you’ve got major limits on what you can build. Plus, selling them is tough because of those restrictions and the fact they’re usually in remote, hard-to-get-to spots. Hunters tend to be the ones who end up buying them.
Here’s the thing, the US doesn’t have “right to roam” laws like some other places. If folks were allowed to hike on private land with some basic rules, it wouldn’t be a big deal for privately-owned spots to be part of what’s basically a national park. Of course, these laws would have to be written to protect landowners from liability and stuff.
Other countries have managed to do this, and there’s no real reason we can’t figure it out too. All the potential problems can definitely be worked out with smart legislation. I think the main obstacle is this weird cultural obsession with owning property.
RE: Fact #3 (Michael Caine Long-Lost Half-Brother) – The article says he was shocked to find out it was true and that his mom had been visiting David every Monday for almost 50 years.
Seriously, how much shame do you have to feel to secretly do something like that for five decades?
It’s a good point. Having “different” kids back then, especially in the early to mid-20th century, was seen as really shameful. Think about the Kennedys – they had a daughter who was considered “different,” and they ended up lobotomizing her and keeping her hidden away, and they were pretty high-society in America. So for a working-class woman in 1920s Britain who had a child without being married? That would have been a huge deal.
Also, Joe Kennedy was apparently sympathetic to the Nazis and was considered a coward.
Joe Jr. wasn’t much better; he apparently shared his father’s Nazi leanings and would mock his brother’s illness behind his back.
And JFK wasn’t exactly a saint either.
JFK apparently gave Jackie multiple STDs which are thought to have contributed to her miscarriages and stillbirths. When she had her first stillborn baby, he was off on a yacht, not even there for his deceased child.
He wasn’t a great dad, either. Part of being a good parent means respecting the other parent of your child.
It used to be super common to put people with intellectual disabilities “away and out of sight.” Doctors often told parents to just move on and act like their kids didn’t exist, almost forgetting about them. So, I’m not sure if there was a lot of shame involved, especially since Caine’s mom was around when this was so widespread.
RE: Fact #12 (Howard Unruh New Jersey Rampage) – This person was a tanker in WW2. I’m not saying that excuses anything they did, but back then, WW2 vets were generally expected to just “suck it up” when they returned home. A lot of them turned to drinking to cope. I’ve been rewatching Band of Brothers lately, and reading about the Easy Company survivors after the war is really tough. Those guys went through so much, survived, and were just expected to “man up and tough it out.” It’s good that mental health care has gotten so much better since then, especially for military folks and veterans, though we’re still working on it.
My grandpa used to beat up my uncle. My uncle was conceived after my grandma was raped during WWII when she was in a concentration camp. He ended up as a drug addict and died living under a bridge.
My dad also got beat by my grandpa, and he passed that abuse down to my brothers and me. He was a serial cheater and had 11 kids, 5 with my mom. I have kids myself, but I’m not going to raise them in an abusive home. We’re doing okay without me hitting my kids.
The effects of war don’t just end when the fighting stops. I can’t say for sure that my brother’s addiction issues are directly because of our abusive childhood, but the extra trauma we all went through because of this generational cycle certainly doesn’t help rule it out.
RE: Fact #31 (Dueling Honor and “Satisfaction” Tradition) – When someone asks for a duel, it means they’re really standing firm on an issue. It’s like saying, “I’m not budging on this, and I expect you to either back down or be ready to fight for your side too.”
But if you challenge someone to a duel and then back out after they accept, that’s pretty uncool.
RE: Fact #8 (Dave Givens 186-Mile Commute) – He probably spent more time living in his car than on the ranch.
Wow, 30 cups of coffee is a lot! He probably ended up needing the bathroom way more often than he was actually at home or work.
You get pretty used to a lot of caffeine. When I’m not sleeping well, I’ll end up drinking a whole pot of coffee a day. I’ve actually been doing that lately, and I’ve been trying to cut back since last weekend. I don’t personally remember coffee ever making me need to go to the bathroom a lot, but maybe I just don’t notice it or connect the dots. Anyway, your body just adapts to it. I don’t get shaky, my heart rate doesn’t really go up, I just have to pee more often.
Seven hours a day is totally wild, and honestly, it’s not worth it, no matter where you are. You basically have zero free time during the week, only weekends.
I used to commute 4 hours a day for about 4 months when I was moving across the state for a girl. I found a closer job after that. The worst part was I was only making $12 an hour, so it really wasn’t worth it. Actually, scratch that, *she* made it worth it because we’re still together.
RE: Fact #19 (Dodgers-Marlins Batboy Gallon-Milk Bet) – “Nobody comes out on top in a dairy challenge.”
RE: Fact #47 (Robert E. Cornish Dog Resuscitation Experiments) – So they killed the dogs clinically, but what does that mean? Did they just suffocate them until their hearts stopped? Too bad they didn’t have a defibrillator or CPR back in the 1930s, huh?
Okay, so “clinically dead” used to mean your heart and breathing stopped. That’s something you can totally recover from! I know this because I was “clinically dead” for a few minutes this summer and was walking around just fine a few days later. Guess by today’s standards, I still technically was, but I was back to enjoying donuts and looking at cute stuff less than a day later. Fu*k off, reaper!
So, funny thing about defibrillators – they don’t actually jump-start a heart that’s already stopped. Their real job is to, like, pause the heart for a sec so it can hopefully get back to a normal rhythm if it’s gone haywire, like with ventricular fibrillation.
RE: Fact #39 (Talmud Giant Frog Exodus Debate) – Sounds like a pretty sweet day in ancient Egypt, being a giant frog and all.
That would be an awesome Godzilla in History episode if a giant frog popped out of the Nile.
RE: Fact #23 (Gothic “Lesbian Vampire” Archetype) – What did one lesbian vampire say to the other? “See you next month!”
RE: Fact #34 (Colma, California Necropolis Motto) – When I lived in SF and visited Colma, I felt like even the people who lived there were kind of dead too.
Totally! It definitely gives off that “permanently sleepy town” feeling.
RE: Fact #33 (Macau Baccarat Tax Revenue Dominance) – A good chunk of that tax money probably comes from British spies and supervillains having big tournaments to decide the fate of the world.
RE: Fact #47 (Robert E. Cornish Dog Resuscitation Experiments) – Yeah, even before you tried, I would’ve figured that wouldn’t be great for your dogs, even if you did manage to get one back.
RE: Fact #15 (Cadaver Eyelids Reopening Phenomenon) – That’s what people used pennies for back in the day.
RE: Fact #4 (South Korea StarCraft Marathon Death) – Hope we all get to die doing something we really enjoy.
Yeah, maybe when you’re 82, not 28.
RE: Fact #42 (R-Colored Vowel Rhoticity Rarity) – As a school speech therapist, all those “r” sounds really kept me busy! Haha.
When I was a kid, I talked like that too and even got my own speech therapist because I was so tired of always being called ‘cute’. I feel you!
Most kids can break out of a bad pattern with some therapy, but a few end up carrying it with them into adulthood.
RE: Fact #9 (Sainte-Croix Hospital Quebec Bench Birth) – Last time I had surgery, they scheduled it for super early, like 7 am. That meant getting there by 5:30 am, and I didn’t have any say in the timing. On the day, we drove over, found parking, and headed to the entrance, only to find it locked. There was a sign saying to use the ER entrance before 6 am, but no directions. So we had to walk around the building, find the ER, and then figure out how to get to the surgery area from there, which was a pain. We eventually made it, but seriously, if you schedule me for an early appointment, could you at least leave the main doors unlocked?
So, at this one part of my hospital, they book appointments for 8:30 AM, but the doors don’t even open until then. Once you get inside, the reception desk is shut, and you can hear them gossiping behind it. You have to sign in, but they won’t let you do that until 8:45 AM. Then they get mad that you’re late for your appointment!
Yeah, I’ve been to a place like that. The area’s open whenever the building is, but the front desk staff don’t start until your first appointment. So they get in, get ready, boot up their computers, and then it’s already ten minutes past your appointment time. One time, it canceled my kid’s appointment for being late even though we were at the unmanned check-in desk way before the appointment.
Haha, sounds like my wife too! She was 38 weeks pregnant with twins and went in to have them. They had to walk all the way to the maternity ward, only to be told, “Oh, you need to walk back to the front desk at the main entrance to sign in properly. Then come back here.”
Hey, so in Calgary, Alberta, where I live, all the hospitals have these computer carts on wheels. They’re super handy for situations like this and let them admit you to any part of the hospital.
At 25 weeks, we had some worries. Since it was the weekend and general admitting was closed, 811 directed us to the hospital and told us how to get to labor and delivery. Once we arrived, they sent my husband to the ER for admitting but kept me and started things.
My wife and I had a similar experience. We tried the front doors, but they were locked. We figured the ER would be the next best bet, but we couldn’t find any signs for it. We had to walk all around the place just to find it. And when we finally got to the ER entrance, there was nobody there! The desk was completely empty, so I ended up wandering through the hospital until I found someone, anyone, to get their attention. It still amazes me to this day.
RE: Fact #15 (Cadaver Eyelids Reopening Phenomenon) – It looks like mortuary aids are these special covers that hold the eyeball in place using spikes.
RE: Fact #17 (Razzies Ryan Kiera Armstrong Backlash) – If you see a kid not acting well, it’s the grown-ups’ fault. Start with the director, then the producers, and then the director again.
Jake Lloyd totally bombed, but honestly, that’s exactly what George Lucas was going for. He chose him, he directed him, and he decided when a scene was good to go. Then he just let Lloyd catch all the flak.
RE: Fact #32 (1974 Nobel Literature Swedish Academy Scandal) – I’d never heard that Harry Martinsson’s suicide was due to backlash from winning the Nobel Prize, and the info linked doesn’t say that either. It sounds more like he was the sensitive poet type who dealt with mental health struggles his whole life.
RE: Fact #11 (Japan “Gunma Empire” Internet Meme) – So, the border between Gunma and Nagano runs through Kenashitouge mountain, which has these super dangerous valleys with natural hydrogen sulfide gas.
There’s this big sign right at the border marking Gunma and warning people to stay away because of the poisonous gas. The thing is, the sign looked like it was saying the area beyond was dangerous *because* it was Gunma, and it turned into a whole meme on the internet because of that.
The old sign was really beat up and hard to read. When they put up a new one this year, it turned out that even the people in charge of the area knew about and were in on the joke! The new sign was made to look old and worn, keeping that spooky vibe even though it’s totally new.
RE: Fact #5 (Ryanair Nut Allergy Incident 2014) – Yeah, I agree, that guy was a jerk. But it does make you wonder how someone so sensitive could even fly. Like, what if someone just ate peanuts in the airport before getting on the plane and had some dust on their clothes? How can you really tell if someone’s a risk if you’re just following the announcement?
Maybe they were on an earlier flight on that same plane. I doubt those budget airlines are cleaning well enough to really matter if someone on that flight had peanuts. The person who ate them even after the announcement is a real jerk, but I can’t imagine taking that kind of risk if you had a severe allergy.
RE: Fact #17 (Razzies Ryan Kiera Armstrong Backlash) – As I’ve gotten older, I have less and less respect for the Razzies. They just feel like bullies now.
RE: Fact #21 (Roman Doorway Deities (Janus, Cardea)) – But what about the kitchen drawer god?
And then the Romans showed up with their gods, which they’d picked up from the Greeks. They invaded Greece, took it over, and snagged all their gods. They just slapped Roman names on them because their old gods were pretty weak – like, Geoff, the god of biscuits, and Simon, the god of hairdos. They had stuff like the God of War, the God of Thunder, the God of Running Around and Jumping, and all that. They probably thought, “Let’s grab some of those! Good thing they have some decent gods, because ours are kind of lame.”
RE: Fact #6 (Starbucks Gift Card/App Float) – It looks like about 10-20% of all vouchers bought never get used. So, any voucher your company sells basically means 10-20% profit with no extra effort.
Back in the day, gift certificates were actual paper ones. If you bought something cheaper than the certificate’s value, stores would often give you cash back. Switching to those debit card-style gift certificates was a clever move for retailers.
Seriously, I miss the old-school punch cards at coffee shops.
This is where the real value is. It’s not about gift cards that take ages to be used up. Yeah, customers have less buying power over time, but any card that’s redeemed still costs the company money – even if it was bought like, a year and a half ago.
The 80% that do get redeemed are basically like interchangeable debts, or what us folks who didn’t study finance might call “funny money.”
Earning money from investments is also a big deal. You make that money by just holding onto your cash for a while.
I’m wondering how they get rid of these on their books. They pretty much count the money as earned revenue when they issue the gift card, right? But after 5 years, is there a way to remove them from the balance sheet if it’s likely they won’t be redeemed anymore?
RE: Fact #44 (Switzerland United Nations Membership 2002) – The vote on joining the UN was super close too, it almost didn’t pass.
RE: Fact #1 (Mum Bet (Elizabeth Freeman) Lawsuit) – So only after she won her freedom did she change her name to Elizabeth Freeman. Her old master later asked if he could hire her and pay her a wage to work for him, but she decided to work for the lawyer who helped her out.
So, how did she sue when she was a slave? Doesn’t that cost money and stuff?
RE: Fact #3 (Michael Caine Long-Lost Half-Brother) – Back in the early 60s, my doctors told my parents I needed to be in a state hospital because of my seizures. We had to really push for me to attend public school, as people with epilepsy were seen as mentally and emotionally “unstable.” Other kids weren’t even supposed to talk to me. I bet a lot of kids who didn’t belong there ended up in those institutions.
In one of the Mad Men seasons, Don slept with a woman whose brother had epilepsy and was treated like he was broken. It was really sad. He’d work at a place until he had a seizure and then get fired right away.
Yeah, that sounds like what happened with my uncle too. He used to work for a delivery company that hired people with disabilities. He had a really bad seizure, somehow lost track of a package, and they let him go.
There’s a great book called The State Boys Rebellion about kids who were negatively impacted by early IQ tests, mainly from the late 40s through the early 60s. Back then, IQ tests were pretty much just knowledge tests, covering things like spelling and math. Some of these kids were wards of the state and didn’t get a consistent education, but they were otherwise smart and totally normal. However, because of their test scores, they ended up being institutionalized. The book talks about their time in these institutions, the terrible overcrowding and abuse, and how they were used in experiments. For instance, they were given radioactive oatmeal without knowing it or consenting. What I found really striking was how well some of them did after getting out – some even went to college, had successful careers, and built healthy families.
So, in my area, doctors seemed to be a bit ahead of the curve. We had a couple of kids at my primary school who had epilepsy. Their classmates learned that if one of them had a seizure, they should just comfort them, put a coat under their head, and let a teacher know. The kids usually bounced back within 15 minutes.
RE: Fact #4 (South Korea StarCraft Marathon Death) – So apparently, you can work 80+ hours a week, but playing video games for that long is where people draw the line?
RE: Fact #9 (Sainte-Croix Hospital Quebec Bench Birth) – That’s certainly one way to change hospital policy.
RE: Fact #40 (Chaser Border Collie 1,022 Toys) – That dog sounds amazing! It’s incredible how smart they can be and how much they can understand. It’s like they have their own little language going on. And a snuggle bug too – the best kind of dog!
RE: Fact #24 (Superconducting Super Collider Cancellation Fallout) – Wow, PhD grads at my wife’s company start at $250k and can make over $400k after just a year. They must be devastated.
RE: Fact #38 (Berdymukhamedov Horse Rap Weddings) – So, I found out about this from a review of someone’s trip on Turkmenistan Airlines. Apparently, even people just passing through Ashgabat on their way to and from Bangkok can get caught up in this.
Turkmenistan really has a terrible human rights record, especially when it comes to how they treat minorities and the lack of freedom of the press and religion. Ever since they gained independence from the Soviet Union back in 1991, the country has been under oppressive totalitarian rule. First, there was Saparmurat Niyazov, who was president for life until he passed away in 2006. Then Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow took over in 2007 after winning an election that wasn’t democratic. Now, his son Serdar is president, having won the 2022 election that international observers said wasn’t free or fair, and he’s sharing power with his dad.
Turkmenistan would be a funny place if it wasn’t real. It’s like a Sasha Baron Cohen joke. The last dictator even renamed bread after his mom. Imagine asking, “Can I have a slice of Martha?”
People experienced this while on board and waiting at the Ashgabat airport.
RE: Fact #12 (Howard Unruh New Jersey Rampage) – Wow, that’s incredible that Charles Cohen survived his family’s murder by hiding in a closet when he was just 12. And it’s wild that his granddaughter, Carly Novell, did the same thing during the Parkland shooting in 2018, hiding in a closet just like her grandfather did back in 1949.
Man, this country is something else.
That’s a really poignant and useful story about their family.
Yeah, people are starting to think trauma can actually get passed down through DNA.
If there’s a shooting happening, and the shooter isn’t around, just get into the closet and stay on the ground!
yeah, the shooter lived longer than that kid.
RE: Fact #50 (Surface Lexicon: 1,500-3,000 Words) – Ha, 1500? That’s a lot. Me and my coworkers can totally manage with just saying “happy days” and “living the dream” for ages.
During COVID, I worked in the hospital linen room. I was partnered with this older guy who’d been there since the 70s. Every single day, when something bad happened or someone got chewed out by management, he’d say, “Ain’t we having fun?”
So one day I asked him why he said that so often. He told me, “Because I’ve been saying it every day since the 1970s, and it annoys people, so I keep doing it.”
He was a real legend. You can see him in the background of an episode of Rosie and Jim.
RE: Fact #48 (Juli Inkster Weighted Donut Disqualification) – I’m not sure what’s more wild: the rules in pro golf or the folks at home criticizing the officials.
Someone pointed out that CBS got in trouble for adding bird sounds to a golf broadcast. Apparently, a viewer heard a bird that wasn’t supposed to be in that region.
RE: Fact #43 (Drunk Zebrafish Group Leadership) – “What did you do today?” “Oh, same old. Got a bunch of zebra fish drunk and watched them form a cult of sober fish.”
Looks like you to are wondering where the funding comes from.
You’re not wrong, there was actually a study on how bees communicate by giving some of them cocaine.
RE: Fact #49 (Marion Tinsley Checkers Champion Dominance) – Am I mistaken, or isn’t checkers a solved game?
Checkers was “weakly solved” back in 2007, which was after Tinsley passed away. This means if both players play perfectly from the start, the game will always end in a draw.
The person who led the effort to solve it mentioned they were driven by wanting to beat Tinsley. The program that solved it had actually been in the works since the 80s, and Tinsley had played it and won a few times. Their last match was for the world championship. Tinsley drew six times straight before pulling out of the match because he was sick with cancer. After that, the developers figured the only way to show they could beat Tinsley was to create a program that couldn’t lose.
Basically, “weakly solved” means there’s a strategy that guarantees the best possible outcome no matter what the other player does, right from the start. If both players use it, it’s a draw.
A “strongly solved” game has a strategy that works from *any* point in the game. These are usually super simple games, like tic-tac-toe, that have been completely figured out.
Keep in mind, both of these require a lot of computing power. I mean, you can’t just play out every single game of checkers – there are way too many possibilities, more than the universe has existed for, even if you played a billion games a second. That’s not a practical solution.
Then there’s “ultra-weakly solved,” which just tells you who wins if both players play perfectly, without necessarily explaining how. Hex is a good example of this, and the proof is pretty neat.
RE: Fact #25 (Paternal Alcohol, Autism/ADHD Risk) – This really seems like something worth digging into more with research. Pretty much all the family planning info I got was all about the mom.
RE: Fact #20 (Harry Cohn Three Stooges Suppression) – It’s kind of like what’s happening with streaming right now, where the companies keep their numbers super private, so no one really knows what shows are hits and what ones are flopping.
The Writers Guild did manage to get some internal metrics in their deal and also secured residuals for super popular shows on streaming. They admitted though that writers still don’t get a ton of info about their own shows.
Super easy, just check out any rule 34 forum and see how much adult content there is. The more adult content, the more popular the show. That’s my go-to for picking out new cartoons or anime to watch.
RE: Fact #23 (Gothic “Lesbian Vampire” Archetype) – Just wanted to point out that a guy actually came up with this trope, not a lesbian. I don’t think he was trying to be titillating or anything, but it seems like when he was writing one of the first vampire stories, this idea just popped into his head, like it was meant to be.
It’s worth mentioning that Carmilla got a lot of its ideas from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’, which was an unfinished ballad written 70 years before.
Yeah, I get that the trope definitely came from a place of lesbophobia, but man, I’m here for it. I’m a huge fan of Carmilla and the trope in general.
Carmilla is how I found out about this too! So cool!
RE: Fact #6 (Starbucks Gift Card/App Float) – Yeah, most people don’t really grasp just how complicated finance can be.
Think about it: big companies have way more than just a checking and savings account. They’ll move all their cash into their checking account first thing in the morning because it’s cheaper for transactions. Then, they spend the day paying bills, doing payroll, and receiving payments.
At the end of the day, they figure out how much money they need to keep handy overnight and move the rest into a savings account to earn interest.
Then they repeat the whole process the next morning. It might sound like a small thing, but big corporations make millions doing this, and it gets even more profitable and complex from there.
Yeah, some online banks really drag their feet on external transfers. It seems like they’re earning interest on the money while it’s in limbo. My HYSA, Optum, can take more than 5 business days, sometimes even 7 or 8, to clear one.
Banks that do treasury services like that also get paid for every single transaction. A lot of people don’t know that companies like ADP, Paychex, and Venmo actually make money from “the float” – that’s the interest they earn on all the money they hold onto for a little while.
Yeah, that’s exactly why companies like Venmo charge a fee if you want your money immediately. Otherwise, they hold onto it for a few days and earn interest before sending it your way.
RE: Fact #47 (Robert E. Cornish Dog Resuscitation Experiments) – So, if you didn’t read the article, this guy wanted to try bringing a death row inmate back to life after they’d been executed, but he wasn’t allowed to. I just saw an episode of Tales from the Crypt that I’m pretty sure was inspired by him.
Seriously, why would he do that? Just to get killed again down the road?
He did his whole life sentence, so I guess he’s free to go.
Yeah, they don’t really talk much about what happens after. That person probably wouldn’t even stay awake, let alone be able to do anything, and they’d be put down afterward.
The prisoners apparently volunteered, saying it was their last good deed for humanity to help clear their names. Stuff like this is actually what helps develop everything from chemical warfare defenses to how emergency responders operate.
RE: Fact #27 (United States Housing Corporation (WWI)) – Can you imagine a government actually building housing to help people? And for the rich to have to pay for it?
What blows my mind is the timeline. Are you saying they found architects, came up with good-looking designs for houses and neighborhoods, and actually built a ton of it in only two years? It’s like whole communities popped up almost instantly.
Yeah, I’d have to check, but if they’re using a standard design for all the houses, you’d be shocked how fast they can build them. Subdivisions are usually just about building the same house repeatedly. Teams specialize in one part, like framing, so they can have a bunch of houses going up at different stages. They get faster with each one because they’re doing the exact same thing as before and know what’s coming. It’s pretty simple to replicate quickly once you have a basic setup.
RE: Fact #39 (Talmud Giant Frog Exodus Debate) – So, the Hebrew text in the book of Exodus actually uses the singular form for frog (“Va’Tzal HaTzfar’de’a”). If it were plural, it would be “VaYa’alu HaTzfarde’im.”
And get this, the story gets even wilder because later in the same chapter, they *do* talk about frogs in the plural. The interpretation is that a single, massive frog came out of the Nile, and when the Egyptians tried to kill it, it just kept spawning more frogs.
That’s actually how most Orthodox Jews understand it today.
Nah dude, a giant frog is a much simpler explanation.
That’s pretty much how biblical scholars work. I’m an atheist but I really enjoy learning about religious studies. When it comes to the Bible, it usually comes down to a few questions: Is there another historical record that backs up an event? If yes, then it’s generally considered true. If it might be a forgery or something added much later as the Bible was translated, well, that’s interesting! And the third question is if something was mistranslated and then repeated and mistranslated again over time.
Haha, “Biblical Frog Piñata” definitely wasn’t on my bingo card for today!
Yeah, like that Cloverfield movie! I’d love to see a monster flick that takes place way back in ancient times. I’m over seeing the Statue of Liberty get wrecked all the time.
RE: Fact #4 (South Korea StarCraft Marathon Death) – I’m guessing stimulants were involved and played a part in his passing.
If you’re not moving around much, like just using your keyboard and mouse, I can totally see how someone could get sucked into a computer screen for ages without feeling sleepy.
RE: Fact #36 (Kräkångersnoret Sweden Name Change) – That would be a killer name for a metal band, for sure. It’s got both an umlaut and that Swedish “Å” thing going on.
Or as we Swedes say, it has both a Swedish Å and a Swedish Ä 😉
RE: Fact #10 (United States ADHD Medication Share) – When I was studying in another country, getting Adderall was tough. But we always had a lot of US students studying abroad, and they basically acted like Adderall dealers. I asked one of them why they all sold it, and they told me it was a common tip from previous students on how to make extra cash for visiting tourist spots. These US students on semester abroad programs didn’t get regular grades; they just got a pass or fail for the semester, so many treated it like a long vacation.
RE: Fact #46 (1926 Baumes Law Three Strikes) – So, in this Simpsons episode, Snake, the crook, gets executed because he lit up inside the Kwik-E-Mart. That was his third strike. His other two strikes were burning down an orphanage and blowing up a bus full of nuns.
I was definitely fooled at first.
RE: Fact #1 (Mum Bet (Elizabeth Freeman) Lawsuit) – I would have taken any minute of freedom offered, even if I knew I’d die at the end of it, just to stand as a free woman for one minute.
RE: Fact #8 (Dave Givens 186-Mile Commute) – Spending seven hours in the car daily sounds totally wild if you’re not actually driving for work.
Yeah, totally, getting a pilot’s license, buying a plane, and building a runway and hangar on the ranch sounds like a really smart move. It’d cut down that 7-hour drive to just 2-2.5 hours of flying if you get the right plane.
So, there’s this dude I know who works over in Brooklyn but crashes way upstate. He’s got a solid 3-hour commute each way, and get this – he drives the whole thing!
That’s fu*king ridiculous. They’re literally burning money. Assuming an 8 hour shift, that’s fourteen hours a day just working!
Even if you’re driving for a living, that’s still pretty wild behavior. I’m saying this as someone with a Class A license who drives OTR.
RE: Fact #10 (United States ADHD Medication Share) – The US prescribes a lot of drugs, pretty much across the board. You could see it as a good thing, like people getting the meds they need, or a bad thing, where folks are getting drugs they don’t really need or are abusing them. The reality is, both of those things are happening.
The US has the highest prices for prescription drugs, but drug use is only a little higher than in other wealthy nations. When it comes to ADHD meds, it’s not really about the price, but more about whether they’re legal and how they’re treated in other countries. Amphetamine salts aren’t usually legal elsewhere, but things like Methylphenidate are generally legal and a common choice for folks with ADHD and narcolepsy.
Yep, adderall is thought of as a “narcotic” in a lot of places, like the Scandinavian countries. Ritalin, though, isn’t.
Yeah, that’s a big part of why our healthcare bills are so steep. GLP1s really show this. They’re amazing for saving lives, and folks who need them in our country are getting them. Plus, we have a huge obesity problem, meaning way more people here need GLP1s compared to elsewhere. Instead of staying healthy with diet and exercise, we end up footing the bill for diabetes management, weight loss drugs, and the increased risk of other illnesses tied to being overweight.
RE: Fact #24 (Superconducting Super Collider Cancellation Fallout) – You can still see parts of the old SSC that was being built in Waxahachie, Texas. The main building is now a chemical plant, and it’s directly across the street from a Cowboy Church. It’s wild to think about how the outskirts of Dallas could have become a hub for science and tech.
I’ve lived in DFW my entire life and thought about this quite a bit. I remember being a kid and getting so excited when it was being built. It’s actually what got me interested in atoms, colliders, and all that science stuff.
I also recall hearing different stories about why they stopped the project. Someone once told me it was because fire ants were eating through the cement! It’s pretty wild to think about.
I doubt they’ll even teach science in Texas anymore. That timeline was way better.