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Random #433 – 50 More Facts To Feed Your Curiosity

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1 Oscars Voters Must Watch Nominees

Oscars Voters Must Watch Nominees

In April 2025, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Oscar voters must watch every nominated film in a category before they can cast a final-round ballot in that race. The Academy previously relied more on encouragement and an honor system, which critics said let some members vote based on reputation or buzz without seeing all the contenders. The new rule aims to push final voting toward completed viewing and reduce hype-driven ballots.


2. In the United States, the share of adults ages 18 to 29 who reported having no sex in the prior 12 months doubled between 2010 and 2024, based on analysis of the General Social Survey. In 2010, 12% of 18-to-29-year-olds said they had no sex in the past year, and by 2024 that figure rose to roughly 24%.


3. In 2024, a published estimate put Mariah Carey’s yearly earnings from “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at roughly $2.7 million to $3.3 million. The estimate focuses on recurring royalties the song generates as it surges in seasonal listening each year.


4. British musician David Bowie declined an offer of a royal honor twice, including a knighthood, and openly questioned its purpose. In interviews, he said he did not know what the honor was for and stated that it was not what he had spent his life working for.


5. The Nuremberg Charter, drafted in 1945 for the Nuremberg Trials, defined “Crimes Against Humanity” as acts such as murder and persecution committed only in connection with a war of aggression. This wording meant prosecutors could only charge those crimes when they occurred during or around World War II, not as general peacetime atrocities. Legal scholars have noted that American officials supported this narrow definition partly because they were worried that racial segregation and related abuses under Jim Crow in the United States might otherwise fit a broader category of crimes against humanity.


6 Microsoft Zune Awkward Squirting Feature

Microsoft Zune Awkward Squirting Feature

Squirting was what Microsoft called sharing MP3s via its Zune MP3 player, and CEO Steve Ballmer tried really hard to sell the feature, saying, “I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That is a software experience.”


7. An AI company called Builder.ai, also known as Engineer.ai, raised about $450 million from investors including Microsoft and SoftBank and reached a valuation of roughly $1.5 billion, but it actually relied on around 700 programmers in India to manually write code instead of using real artificial intelligence. Founded in 2016 and based in London, it marketed an AI assistant named Natasha that it claimed could build apps autonomously while human engineers did the work behind the scenes. In 2025, after a major creditor seized most of its cash and authorities began investigating its practices, Builder.ai filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its staff.


8. On July 4, 2022, Kazuki Takahashi, the 60-year-old creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, went into the water off a beach in Okinawa as a riptide pulled a girl, her mother, and a U.S. soldier into danger. U.S. Army Maj. Robert Bourgeau, a scuba instructor at the site, fought the current to bring the girl and her mother into the shallows. During the rescue, witnesses saw Takahashi enter the rough water to help (unknown to the soldier), catching only brief glimpses of him before he disappeared beneath the waves. Two days later, the Japanese Coast Guard found his body.


9. In June 2000, outside a nightclub in Michigan, rapper Eminem reportedly saw a man named John Guerra kissing his then wife in the parking lot and reacted by pulling out an unloaded gun and hitting Guerra in the face. Police arrested Eminem, and prosecutors later brought charges over the incident. In 2002, Eminem settled a civil lawsuit by paying Guerra $100,000 instead of taking the case to trial.


10. Raccoon meat was once a staple on American Thanksgiving dinner tables, and, according to reports, you can still buy it in places like St. Louis today. People who eat it say raccoon tastes like a combination of chicken and suckling pig. Marvel actor Anthony Mackie openly endorses it and calls raccoon “honestly the best meat you’ll ever have.”


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11 Disney Hires Ex Convict Allen

Disney Hires Ex Convict Allen

In 1994, Disney made an exception to its internal rule against hiring ex-convicts when it cast Tim Allen as Scott Calvin in the Christmas film The Santa Clause. Allen had served time in prison after a 1978 cocaine trafficking conviction, which normally would have disqualified him under the company’s hiring policy. Executives decided to move forward anyway, betting on his popularity from the sitcom Home Improvement.


12. Hitachi introduced its Magic Wand in the late 1960s as a personal massager, but it became widely known as a powerful vibrator and built a strong following in that role. Uncomfortable with the device’s sexual reputation, Hitachi eventually stopped producing it and distanced the company from the product. Retailers and distributors who saw continued demand worked to convince the manufacturer to bring it back. Production resumed under a new arrangement, with Hitachi’s name removed from the branding and the device sold simply as the Original Magic Wand.


13. In April 2025, the owner of Captain’s Quarters Riverside Grille in Prospect, Kentucky, opened valves and intentionally flooded his own restaurant with clean water ahead of an expected rise in the Ohio River. He filled the lower level to equalize pressure on the walls and doors, hoping the inside water would counteract the force of the river outside. After the river levels dropped, he planned to pump out the water and begin cleanup, believing this controlled flooding would save the building from structural damage.


14. At the beginning of their career in the late 1960s, the future members of British rock band Jethro Tull constantly changed their band name for almost every gig because club bookers rarely invited them back. Jethro Tull was simply the name they happened to be using when a record label finally noticed them and offered a deal. Singer Ian Anderson later said he regretted being stuck with the name, which originally came from an 18th-century English agriculturalist, but the band had already broken through by then.


15. In his early career, novelist Cormac McCarthy lived in deep poverty despite wide critical acclaim and turned down offers of $2,000 (about $16,700 today) to speak at universities about his work. He and his girlfriend bathed in lakes and ate only beans as they scraped by, choosing not to use paid speaking engagements to improve their finances. McCarthy said he refused the money because everything he had to say was there on the page, and he did not need to explain his writing in person.


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16 Brazilian Billionaire Leaves Fortune Neymar

Brazilian Billionaire Leaves Fortune Neymar

In June 2025, a 31-year-old Brazilian billionaire with no heirs allegedly registered a will in Porto Alegre leaving his entire estimated $1 billion fortune to Neymar Jr. In the document, he named the footballer as sole heir and explained that he made the choice because he admired Neymar’s humility and strong family values. Brazilian courts still need to process and approve the will before any inheritance can actually be transferred (as of December 2025).


17. In the 1950s, Austrian American architect Victor Gruen, the pioneer behind the first modern shopping malls, imagined them as true town centers rather than just retail hubs. His early plans called for mixed-use complexes that combined commercial stores with libraries, apartments, offices, green spaces, post offices, and medical services under one roof. He wanted these malls to function as walkable community spaces where people could live, work, and access public services, not just shop.


18. Hidetaka Miyazaki, the director behind games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, openly describes himself as someone who “absolutely suck at video games.” In interviews, he has said that he rarely plays his own titles and, when he does, he uses every tool available to make them easier on himself.


19. The nonprofit that runs Wreaths Across America is led by the same Worcester family that owns the Worcester Wreath Company, the for-profit supplier that provides all of the organization’s wreaths. As of 2023, the charity had grown into roughly a $30 million operation and spent its donated funds buying wreaths exclusively from Worcester Wreath, which in turn received most of its revenue and profits from those sales.


20. In December 2016, after singer George Michael died at age 53, stories began to surface about how he had quietly given generous sums of money to both large and small charities as well as to individuals in need. Friends, charities, and beneficiaries revealed that he had written big checks without wanting his name attached and had stepped in privately to cover debts and medical bills. Reports also showed that he would sometimes volunteer anonymously at homeless shelters, working alongside staff without drawing attention to his celebrity status.


15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


21 Valerie Dachshund Survives 529 Days

Valerie Dachshund Survives 529 Days

In November 2023, a 10-pound mini dachshund named Valerie ran away during a camping trip to Kangaroo Island, a remote island in southern Australia, and then survived alone in the bush for 529 days. Her owners, Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock, searched and later relied on local reports and wildlife rescuers to track her across the island. In early 2025, rescuers finally began spotting her regularly and spent about two months trying to trap her. They eventually captured her alive and well and returned her to her owners, who took her back home after her year-and-a-half survival ordeal.


22. Frank Matthews, a major American drug trafficker who built a nationwide heroin distribution empire, skipped bail in 1973 while facing federal charges and disappeared with an estimated $20 million. Authorities had arrested him and accused him of running a large-scale drug network that stretched across multiple U.S. cities. After he failed to appear in court, investigators traced some of his associates but never found Matthews himself. Decades later, he remains one of the most notorious fugitives in U.S. drug enforcement history, with no confirmed trace since his 1973 disappearance.


23. In 1993, near the end of the Cold War era, U.S. Defense Secretary Les Aspin and Deputy Defense Secretary William Perry hosted a dinner at the Pentagon that industry insiders later called the ‘Last Supper.’ They brought together the heads of major defense contractors and told them that steep post Cold War budget cuts were coming and that the Pentagon expected them to consolidate if they wanted to survive. In the years after that dinner, a wave of mergers and acquisitions reduced the number of prime defense contractors from 51 to just 5.


24. A Japanese veterinary officer named Hiroshi Yamasaki deserted the army after he witnessed the Rape of Nanking and could not accept what he saw. Leaving military service behind, he chose to dedicate the rest of his life to humanitarian work instead of war. He opened a clinic that treated poor people and often refused to charge them for care.


25. Napoleon’s battlefield reputation grew so fearsome that the anti-French coalition drafted the Trachenberg Plan specifically to avoid facing him directly in combat. Instead of challenging Napoleon in a single decisive battle, the plan instructed allied armies to retreat or maneuver away whenever he personally took command. When he moved to one front, the coalition forces targeted his marshals and generals separately on other fronts, attacking them in isolation.


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1 COMMENT

  1. RE: Fact #16 (Brazilian Billionaire Leaves Fortune Neymar) – Picture this: you’re insanely wealthy, then you just hand every single dime you have over to another insanely wealthy person 🫩

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  2. RE: Fact #32 (Mithridates Inspires Mithridatism Poison Immunity) – Haha, word is he tried to poison himself, but his immunity made the poison useless.

    10
  3. RE: Fact #31 (A10 Warthog Recycles Shell Casings) – That’s pure madness. They came up with the gun idea long before the aircraft even existed. The military was basically like, “We need a machine gun that can chew up tanks—yeah, and while you’re at it, make it fly too.”

    9
    • I actually spent time as an intel analyst with an A‑10 squadron, and that bird showed why it’s still relevant in today’s wars.
      First off, the A‑10 can hug the ground at a crawl. That low‑and‑slow flight gives you a huge edge – you can intimidate a small force, spot a lone soldier, even count heads on the battlefield or spot someone hiding in a bush.
      It also hauls an enormous stash of ammo, so it can stay over the fight zone for ages. Sure, a bigger bomber might lug more bombs, but it can’t see anything down there.
      Because of that mix of low‑speed, long loiter and huge payload, the plane is a natural close‑air‑support and CSAR workhorse. In rescue missions the A‑10 usually ends up running the show, covering that outer ring around the ingress point and taking out anything that shows up. As soon as an A‑10 rolls in, it becomes the de‑facto commander, no matter who got there first.
      People talk about tank busting, but you don’t always need to blow a tank apart. Knocking out a track or a gun can be just as effective if the enemy isn’t dug in.
      When it comes to CAS, nobody does it better. The Army loves the A‑10 for a reason. Many pilots are FAC‑A qualified, so they often don’t even need a JTAC on the ground – I’ve seen some wild stuff happen because of that.
      The GAU‑8 has a super low CEP, making it deadly in tight spots. Add the years of upgrades and you’ve got a very capable platform.
      It even has a secondary anti‑surface‑warfare role – you won’t find a helicopter doing that job.
      Helicopters can handle some of the same tasks, but they’re slower, fly lower, carry less ammo, and lack the armor and durability of the A‑10. The plane can even limp back on one wing and one engine if it has to, and it’s not built for dogfighting. Most enemy missiles are cheap and ineffective, and the few that pose a real threat either stay out of range or get taken out by SEAD.
      Bottom line: the A‑10 fills a niche that’s hard to replace. Every aircraft has its limits, but each type exists for a reason, and the A‑10’s role is one of the most important out there.

      10
      • A bunch of these abbreviations are clear once you see them in action, but a few are pretty vague. Here’s a quick rundown for anyone who isn’t sure:

        CSAR – combat search and rescue
        IP – initial point
        PJ – Air Force pararescuemen
        M‑kill – mobility kill
        CAS – close air support
        JTAC – joint terminal attack controller
        FAC‑A – forward air controller
        CEP – circular error probable
        SAM – surface‑to‑air missile
        SEAD – suppression of enemy air defenses

        Let me know if I got any of them wrong.

        5
  4. RE: Fact #29 (Nine Year Old Boards Vegas Flight) – Back in high school I was a janitor at banks and even the airport, and here’s the thing: act like you own the place and most folks won’t question you. I’ve strolled right past bank security, slipped behind the teller cages to reach the break room, and nobody bothered to ask who I was or what I was doing.

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    • Back when I was a delivery driver, we’d often get massive catering‑size orders for downtown government offices. I’d stroll into the lobby lugging a giant box of plain brown bags, and every guard would just say, “just go around the metal detector, man.”

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    • I tried that at a members‑only dive bar nearby for a couple of months this summer. I just strolled in, grabbed the same spot if I could, and ordered the same drink each visit. It made me look like a regular, though it depends on how the bartender feels.
      Eventually they caught on that I wasn’t actually a member. From then on, every time I walked in they’d ask, “Are you a member?” 🤣 Got me wondering if they’ve started asking everyone that walks in.

      4
    • I was doing a co‑op at a nuclear research lab back in college. Every few years they run intrusion drills to see how solid their security is. One time the tester actually got right up to the reactor control room door, but then hit a wall—until a staffer saw them and let them in.

      5
  5. RE: Fact #31 (A10 Warthog Recycles Shell Casings) – A B‑1 Lancer has to shuffle fuel right before it releases the payload so the balance stays right. The crews joke that dropping bombs is like cruising over a bunch of squirrels.

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  6. RE: Fact #31 (A10 Warthog Recycles Shell Casings) – I love this tidbit: the A‑10 actually lists two separate ground‑turn radii—one for left turns, another for right. The reason is the cannon pushes the nose gear off‑center, so the triangle formed by the wheels isn’t even; one side from the pivot wheel out to the front wheel ends up longer.

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    • Also, the cannon sits off‑center. They mounted the barrel so it fires straight along the aircraft’s centerline, which helps tame the massive recoil.

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    • I love that Helldivers 2 wanted the eagle strafing run to hit the actual A‑10’s firing rate. Turns out blasting that many rounds would crash the game, so they had to tone down the rate.

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      • Yep, that’s pretty much what an A‑10 does – it makes the simulation for any ground vehicle or soldier crash, sending them up in a fiery wreck.

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  7. RE: Fact #35 (Norway Mountain NATO Bunker Busstop) – It’s kind of like the huge BT Tower in central London- they kept it an official secret until ’78 because it was vital for the nation’s telecoms. You could still go inside, but actually gathering details or talking about it was technically illegal.

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  8. RE: Fact #30 (More Births To Fortysomething Mothers) – Back in 1990 teens were responsible for almost 13 % of all births; now it’s down to about 4 %. Even scarier, the birth rate for girls 10‑14 fell from 1.4 down to basically zero.

    At the same time, the age group that dominates births has shifted. These days most kids are born to moms aged 30‑34, whereas a decade ago the 25‑29 bracket was the most common.

    And more women over 35 are joining the party. Between 1990 and 2023 the fertility rate for 35‑39‑year‑olds jumped 71 %, and for 40‑44‑year‑olds it surged 127 %.

    For a quick snapshot of 2023:
    – Under 20: 4 %
    – 20‑24: 17.2 %
    – 25‑29: 27.4 %
    – 30‑34: 30.5 %
    – 35‑39: 16.8 %
    – Over 40: 4.1 % (still only a small slice).

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  9. RE: Fact #27 (Dry Cleaning Uses Solvent Not Water) – So you’re saying there isn’t a whole gang hanging out in the back rooms, just clawing at every stain with their fingernails?

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  10. RE: Fact #6 (Microsoft Zune Awkward Squirting Feature) – I have a feeling typing in “zune squirting” would just break my company’s internet rules.

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  11. RE: Fact #42 (1992 First Confirmed Exoplanets Discovered) – Turns out the Earth’s plates have only begun shifting not that long ago either.

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  12. RE: Fact #25 (Trachenberg Plan Avoids Napoleon Directly) – That’s basically the Fabian strategy – the way they handled Hannibal. Instead of going for big, decisive battles, you just wear the enemy down with little fights, hit‑and‑run raids, mess up their supply lines and sap morale. You only use it when you’ve got time on your side, usually because you’re defending close to home while the opponent is far away with long, costly supply routes, or when you just don’t have a better plan.

    The name comes from Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman dictator who was put in charge of stopping Hannibal after the Carthaginian crossed the Alps and beat the Romans at Trebia in 218 BC and Lake Trasimene in 217 BC. After those crushing losses, Rome gave Fabius full authority, and he switched to a grinding, attritional approach: constant skirmishes, starving the Carthaginians and denying them any big victories.

    10
    • First off, the Trachenberg Plan isn’t the same thing as a Fabian approach. The coalition leaders basically gave Napoleon’s big army a wide berth when it moved forward, but they didn’t dodge fighting altogether. Instead they swooped in on the bits of his force led by weaker generals. So whenever Napoleon tried to push, he’d see the enemy pulling back, only to discover that his own detachments had been beaten far down the line. It’s a weird, bite‑by‑bite style of loss tailored to the Napoleonic problem.

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    • It’s cool that the description points out two of Hannibal’s big wins but totally omits Cannae—still hailed as a premier strategic triumph and taught in war schools today. And think about it: those three battles came right after each other, Rome got absolutely crushed every time, yet somehow they cobbled enough manpower together to pull off a final victory. Wild stuff.

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      • Had Carthage actually given Hannibal the help he needed at the crucial times, the world we live in today could be nothing like it is now.

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      • Hannibal was a total monster. Even using the lowball numbers from back then, his army at Cannae still holds the record for the most enemy killed in a single day. You didn’t see anything like that again until the Napoleonic wars when cannons became common.

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  13. RE: Fact #33 (Monopoly Go Billion Dollar Marketing) – It’s fu*king crazy that Star Citizen sits at third and still hasn’t dropped. What a total train wreck.

    10
    • You can actually play it, but it’s packed with glitches. It’s still unfinished, and the players seem to kinda like the broken bits. Just don’t mention the BMM or we’ll start whining.

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    • Been nearly 14 years since they kicked off development. Back then I was single and still living with my parents. Now I’m married, have my own house and kids, and they’ll probably graduate high school before it finally comes out.

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      • I’ve been following Star Citizen for almost 14 years—back when I was single and still living at home, and nothing’s really changed. My whole life now just revolves around its development.

        5
  14. RE: Fact #28 (Walter Francis White Undercover Lynchings) – White spent a huge chunk of his career trying to turn lynching into a federal offense. He spent decades hammering Congress for an anti‑lynching bill, constantly battling the stubborn opposition of Southern Democrats and others. In the end, no federal law made it through while he was alive.

    Picture someone walking up and saying, “Hey, can we make killing people by lynching a federal crime?”

    Southern racists: “Nope.”

    How on earth could they say that? What excuse were they using?

    20
  15. RE: Fact #23 (Pentagon Last Supper Defense Mergers) – What they left out of that fact is that items listed at $5.62 suddenly swelled to $750 even though there were just five contractors on the job. How does that even happen? 🤬🤬🤬

    20
      • They rake in $824 billion each year and have missed audits for seven straight years. So who’s actually watching them? Definitely not the taxpaying public.

        10
    • Honestly it comes down to the extra oversight. A wrench might be five bucks, but if you have to push a stack of paperwork through approvals, the labor time bumps the total cost.

      I’m not saying oversight is terrible—just that it brings trade‑offs we have to weigh and balance.

      5
      • People just don’t get how the revolving door works between government buying and the defense sector.

        Big names like Lockheed, Raytheon or GD aren’t snapping up ex‑military acquisition officers because they already have contracts. They land those deals because they bring in folks who know the FAR inside‑out. Most of those experts are career military officers who spent their whole lives dealing with the FAR.

        That’s also why new startups shy away from government work – the paperwork and overhead are massive, and the margins aren’t big enough to make scaling worth it. It’s why we’ve been shifting toward OTAs for cutting‑edge projects since around 2018.

        9
      • The military loves throwing new requirements at you and letting scope creep run wild. My dad was a defense contractor for the Navy, and the service folks would keep adding sh*t to a ship design. Every tweak meant a ton of extra work, sometimes even a full redesign. Budgets were more like suggestions.

        6
  16. RE: Fact #12 (Hitachi Magic Wand Rebranded Original) – So they quit making it while it was still popular, then kicked back into production once they tweaked the name a bit? Or did they slip a “new magic wand” version in between?

    7
    • Before, when they handed out home screeners there was no way to police anything. The Academy has always wanted members to watch every nominee, but they never had a way to force it.

      Now they’re still on an honor system—if you watch a movie outside their private streaming service you have to fill out a form saying you did, hoping that’ll push folks to be straight‑up about it.

      So a better headline would be “Academy takes extra steps to push voters to see every nominated film.”

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      • Back when the whole system first got going, if a film wasn’t showing at your nearby cinema you had no way to see a nominee once its run was over. Being able to go back and watch a movie after it’s been nominated is actually a pretty recent perk.

        11
  17. RE: Fact #13 (Kentucky Restaurant Owner Self Floods) – It’s basically a positive‑pressure cleanroom. The clean side blows out any water, so the dirty water can’t get in. All you gotta worry about is water damage—no junk, no mud. Nice trick.

    12
    • The neat part is that since this place gets flooded a lot, they built the lower half so it can take it. No drywall, barely any wood, and the floor’s mostly tile, so water doesn’t ruin everything.

      7
      • Man, that sounds like a solid plan. It’d cost way less than the usual flood clean‑up and you can fire it up super easily.

        2
  18. RE: Fact #5 (Nuremberg Charter Limits Crimes Definition) – If what you’re about to do could be seen as a crime against humanity, you probably shouldn’t do it—even if some clever loophole tries to claim it’s technically fine.

    6
  19. RE: Fact #20 (George Michael Secret Charitable Giving) – People say that once you start bragging about a good deed, it turns into a PR stunt rather than anything genuine. George Michael was a fantastic guy.

    10
    • Whenever I see someone filming themselves on YouTube saying “just handed a random homeless person a hundred bucks,” it really rubs me the wrong way. Sure, some will claim they’re promoting philanthropy, but that’s not how I see it.

      12
  20. RE: Fact #21 (Valerie Dachshund Survives 529 Days) – Kind of hilarious that on predator‑free Kangaroo Island, lil Valerie ended up as the top predator for almost two years.

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    • It’s kinda funny how they say Kangaroo Island has no predators, but the interview with the group admits they were actually trapping feral cats, so it isn’t predator‑free.

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  21. RE: Fact #4 (David Bowie Twice Refuses Knighthood) – That reminds me of the Onion piece where Queen Elizabeth says she’d rather die than be forced to knight a DJ.

    9
  22. RE: Fact #5 (Nuremberg Charter Limits Crimes Definition) – There was also targeted propaganda aimed at Black American soldiers stationed abroad, both in earlier conflicts and in Vietnam, basically asking “what the fu*k’s the point of fighting for a country that oppresses you every day?”

    11
    • High‑up US officials weren’t thrilled when Black soldiers started hanging out with French and British forces in the two world wars. They’d seen how African and Asian colonial troops were treated overseas and knew it didn’t line up with what happened back home.

      By the second war that tension sparked a lot of flare‑ups: white American servicemen in Britain, France and Italy got angry when pubs and cafés refused to keep things segregated.

      10
      • Speaking like a Brit here, that isn’t quite right. In fact, a bunch of pub owners actually chose to split up their venues to help out our US buddies. They could’ve been clearer about it though. When every tavern in the town slapped up signs that said “Black Americans Only,” the American officials got even more annoyed.

        2
    • There a picture’s that pretty well‑known – it’s a Viet Cong sign they left for Black U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War. The wording reads something like, “U.S. Negro armymen, you’re committing the same disgraceful crimes in South Vietnam that the KKK is doing to your families back home.”

      10
  23. RE: Fact #26 (Chicago Parking Meters Privatization Windfall) – They should make it a crime to sell off any infrastructure that’s been paid for with public money.

    8
      • We’re already drowning in debt, and the interest alone outspends the whole military budget. Soon enough that interest will eclipse even Medicare and Medicaid spending.

        6
    • Sure, turning public assets over to private hands is the classic move for fixing a budget. You pull in a massive lump sum instantly, then ordinary taxpayers end up footing the bill for a century.

      7
      • I used to be on staff for two tiny towns, each under 500 folks. Both were pretty broke and mostly lived off the liquor‑store taxes. Each place had its own city well for water. One town handed its well over to a private firm because they didn’t want to cover maintenance costs. The other town kept the well in public hands. Fast forward ten years and the town that sold the well is paying over $100 a month for water, and every city‑council meeting is full of complaints about it. The town that kept the well is still paying under $30 a month, and they can even lower the charge for seniors or disabled residents who need help.

        4
    • If they’re offloading public infrastructure to a private firm, we should at least put it to a public vote. Otherwise, democracy was a sham from the start.

      3
      • The piece even notes the council pushed the deal through 50‑2, never even bringing it up to voters. Makes me wonder how many of those 52 councilors are still on the city payroll. They saw a fast cash grab and didn’t care about the future, since their gigs only last until the next election.

        4
  24. RE: Fact #8 (Kazuki Takahashi Dies Rescuing Swimmers) – So heartbreaking, yet that person was totally selfless and heroic. You’d probably assume famous folks would never risk their own life for someone else, even once.

    13
    • I don’t recall the exact number, but a ton of folks actually die while trying to rescue someone. If you can’t swim well, be careful. Back when I was a lifeguard we ran drills and it was insane.

      6
      • I heard he passed, but I had no clue he died trying to rescue people who were drowning. Yu‑Gi‑Oh was a massive part of growing up for me. Looks like he actually lived up to his own hype.

        5
  25. RE: Fact #24 (Hiroshi Yamasaki Deserts After Nanking) – That mess was so awful a fu*k Nazi actually tried to shield the Chinese from the Japanese, and he kept pushing back until the German brass got fed up and sent him back. That’s John Rabe.

    13
    • Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, rescued every Jew he could in that situation. It makes you wonder how many more would have done the right thing if they were a bit removed from their own culture. Was it mostly just peer pressure?

      8
  26. RE: Fact #34 (Lucy Lambert Hale Child Socialite) – Victorian ideas of beauty were totally different from what we consider attractive now—back then people actually prized thin lips, not the full ones we tend to like today.

    17
  27. RE: Fact #2 (Young Americans Becoming Sexless ) – Dating apps are basically a joke, and nobody even talks to each other when they’re out on the street, so it’s no surprise.

    If you’re single and reading this, I dare you to walk up and strike up a conversation with that cute person.

    18
  28. RE: Fact #8 (Kazuki Takahashi Dies Rescuing Swimmers) – Heard that jumping in to rescue a drowning person is super risky—when they panic they can yank you under too, so that backs up the point. Still crazy heroic as fu*k.

    8
    • Back in 2020 I pulled a kid with Down syndrome out of the water. He nearly dragged me down, but I slipped my legs under his arms, looped my arms around his chest and lifted him up. Luckily he stopped fighting right as I was about to lose my grip. The whole rescue lasted just a couple of minutes, but I was more wiped out than ever. I got home and slept for a half‑day.

      4
  29. RE: Fact #18 (Miyazaki Says Terrible At Games) – He says he dives into a game before it ships, playing it nonstop. After launch, he usually avoids it because he knows he’ll keep finding unfinished bits or annoying bugs. So yeah, he hardly plays his own titles once they’re out—not because he’s terrible at them, but because he doesn’t want to be nagged by the flaws he spots. Still, he admits he’s not exactly a pro at his own games.

    20
    • He goes through each game they put out on his own, pulling every mechanic he can. He does it just to see if he can actually beat them, using that as his measure of how tough they are.

      8
      • That’s the obvious move, lol

        Everyone’s gonna grab any tool they can

        Practically zero—like 0.0001%—of players actually do those level‑1 challenges

        Come on, you’re all fussing over summons when the game gives you tons of ways to tweak your play.

        6
  30. RE: Fact #14 (Jethro Tull Randomly Chosen Name) – They keep dropping records that all have the exact same title, which just makes everything way more confusing.

    11
  31. RE: Fact #3 (Mariah Carey Christmas Royalties Millions) – People keep talking about stuffing their 401k or kicking off a new business, when they could just be writing the next Christmas smash instead.

    15
  32. RE: Fact #15 (Cormac McCarthy Rejects Paid Lectures) – Picture me soaking in a fu*kin lake while my boyfriend refuses to hand over cash for that crap, I’d be legit furious, lol

    16
    • Seriously? My first thought was “is he clueless?” Maybe he saw it as a principle thing, but come on, they’re not asking you to sell cigarettes to minors—they just want you to talk to college students about your own literature.

      6
      • He moved his under‑age girlfriend across state lines and even federal ones, breaking the Mann Act. He totally deserves jail time. He’s a piece of sh*t, lol

        13
  33. RE: Fact #32 (Mithridates Inspires Mithridatism Poison Immunity) – Some guy managed to become immune to Black Mamba and Inland Taipan bites with this technique, hoping to pull a universal antivenom straight from his own blood.

    13
  34. RE: Fact #12 (Hitachi Magic Wand Rebranded Original) – My mom got one, says it’s great for her knees, so I’m still buying into that.

    13
  35. RE: Fact #22 (Frank Matthews Vanishes With Millions) – Frank Matthews, aka “Black Caesar,” ended up as one of the biggest drug kingpins America ever saw. He was born in ’44, started with small‑time crimes down south, then by the late ’60s and early ’70s was running a huge heroin‑cocaine operation that spanned 21 states. He went after the Mafia’s turf, set up his own South American supply lines, and wasn’t shy about flashing his cash.

    In ’73 the feds finally nailed him on tax evasion and drug charges. Even with his empire, they cut his bail and he walked free. Then, just days before his next hearing, he disappeared – taking an estimated $20 million in drug money and a girlfriend with him. He was never seen again.

    The FBI chased his trail for decades, but got nada – no sightings, no bank activity, nothing. By 2025 the case was officially shut down. Some folks think he was killed; others reckon he slipped abroad and started fresh under a new name. Either way, his vanishing act stays one of the biggest cold cases in U.S. crime history.

    14
    • If I had to guess, he’d probably head to Brazil or Argentina. He could just melt into the crowd, pretend to be anyone he wanted. Getting a fresh identity and passport—maybe a few—would be simple enough if he needed to move around.

      In those countries he could also find doctors willing to change his looks, just in case someone recognized him.

      He’d stay low‑key, no flashy clothes, jewelry, or fancy cars, just blend in.

      Back in 1973 all that could be done for under a million bucks. He’d likely stash the cash in bearer bonds or some off‑shore account that hides his name and gets good tax treatment.

      And the US didn’t limit how much cash you could carry then, unlike today’s $10k reporting rule, so he could lug piles of cash everywhere as long as he kept it quiet and maybe paid for personal security when needed.

      With that kind of cash he could chill on a beach forever, as long as he didn’t draw attention.

      His girlfriend could pose as his wife and enjoy the same high‑life.

      A lot of fugitives get caught because they keep old habits that give them away. But if he planned right, cut ties with his past, picked up new hobbies and stayed under the radar, disappearing would be pretty doable.

      7
      • Another take: maybe he bailed, the CIA knocked him off, grabbed his dirty cash, then used that cash to cover up off‑the‑books ops.

        15
      • He’d have stuck out in Argentina. My grandpa escaped there after WWII, and if you’re not white you really stand out. I’ve heard the typical Argentine is around 79% European ancestry.

        Just so you know, he was a Basque Holocaust survivor, not an SS guard on the run.

        7
    • If I were sitting on $20 million—basically around $55 million in today’s dollars—I’m sure I could just disappear with no trace.

      15
      • Back in ’73 you could just hop over to Mexico without a passport. Once you’re there you could pick up a fresh identity—stuff was a lot looser then. With that new name you could head to Brazil or Argentina, get another local citizenship and keep moving.

        After that you’d probably get some plastic surgery to mask your looks, then hide out on a beach for a few years, playing tourist and taking in the sights. No flashy clothes, jewelry, cars or fancy houses—pay for security but act plain, blend in.

        Don’t reach out to anyone from your old world. Skip birthday calls, steer clear of former friends, and never drop a clue.

        It’d be tough for someone with a lot of connections, but with $20 million in 1973 you could probably hire a PI or lawyer to keep an eye on things, using a middleman. Still risky, but doable.

        5
      • These days it’s way tougher. Back in the day the airports barely had any security, so slipping out was a piece of cake.

        10
    • Most likely he packed up, fled to a remote spot, got some nice plastic surgery, and paid enough to keep at least five layers of anonymity around him at all times.

      You can’t really fault Frank for using whatever he had to keep things working in his favor. The real issue is with the judge—or whoever decided his bail.

      7
  36. RE: Fact #33 (Monopoly Go Billion Dollar Marketing) – Most people overlook just how huge the mobile gaming scene is. I only just stumbled on Monopoly Go today—never heard of it before. Crazy.

    9
  37. RE: Fact #18 (Miyazaki Says Terrible At Games) – I think the Ninja Gaiden Black devs have said they never managed to clear the toughest difficulty.

    8
  38. RE: Fact #10 (Raccoon Meat Thanksgiving Table Staple) – My grandparents only ate it because they were out in the sticks and short on cash. They kept saying it was greasy and had a gamey flavor. I’d take deer, squirrel or rabbit over it any time.

    7
    • Been there, tried raccoon, and yeah, it’s not exactly a tasty dish—there are other choices that hit the same flavor notes better.

      Sure, what the animal ate or how it lived might matter, but the gamey bite is just weird for all these critter meats—beaver, rat, even possum. They all come off a bit sour, like something rotting or a body‑odor vibe.

      4
      • I can vouch for that. As a kid a rural acquaintance once asked us over for “a nice dinner,” and they served barbecued raccoon. It’s still the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted—greasy, gamey, and just plain gross.

        10
      • My grandma told me that if you want to eat a raccoon or possum, you should catch it alive and let it nibble on stuff for a couple weeks to get the best taste. She always used sweet potatoes as the feed.

        10
    • If you rank foods by taste, herbivores come out on top, omnivores are next, and carnivores finish last. Sure, there are quirks—pork’s a clear exception.

      13
  39. RE: Fact #16 (Brazilian Billionaire Leaves Fortune Neymar) – He’s still breathing, not dead. At 31 he’s got plenty of time unless something horrible hits. Odds are he’ll age, maybe start a family, maybe rethink things. From what I recall, this looks more like a PR stunt than anything genuine. Remember, you can rewrite your will any day, folks.

    11
    • Neymar’s humility and family values

      That’s all you need to know it’s ironic/satire, in case you don’t know Neymar he believes he’s the god of football even though he never really achieved anything that impressive, also he cheated on his pregnant girlfriend

      6
  40. RE: Fact #20 (George Michael Secret Charitable Giving) – Just because someone’s famous doesn’t mean they’re all evil ego‑junkies.

    12
  41. RE: Fact #28 (Walter Francis White Undercover Lynchings) – Mark Twain wrote a story where two newborns get swapped—one is the white son of a planter’s wife, the other a house‑slave’s kid who looks white. The book tracks them growing up until they finally learn the truth as adults. It’s a pretty cool read, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson.

    13
  42. RE: Fact #30 (More Births To Fortysomething Mothers) – Usually a baby does best when the parents actually want one, are ready for the responsibility, and have the money and support to raise them right. A 40‑year‑old is way more likely to hit those marks than a teen parent.

    16
    • Yep, my mom was 34 when she had me, and I never lacked anything. She’d been at her job longer than I’ve existed, so she built up a huge PTO stash that covered all the holidays and every doctor’s visit. She even chipped in for my first year and a half of college. Then I landed a full‑ride, and she tossed a bit extra to help me snag an off‑campus apartment for senior year. My preschool buddy’s mom was in the same situation—older parents who can actually spoil their kids. Ready parents rule!

      11
    • Folks forget how brutal pregnancy can be on a teenager. There’s this weird notion online that being younger makes for a better pregnancy, but that’s just not true… the sweet spot is really in your 20s to mid‑30s when the body is stronger.

      9
      • Nobody’s saying it’s better for the mom, they’re claiming it’s better for the baby, and it’s true that kids born to women in their 40s have higher rates of chromosomal problems, birth defects, and low birth weight or premature delivery.

        7
      • One point is the pelvis usually doesn’t widen until about seventeen, so having a baby before then is even more risky.

        5
  43. RE: Fact #9 (Eminem Settles Nightclub Assault Lawsuit) – Eminem kinda reenacted that whole Guerra thing on The Eminem Show. He ended up pleading guilty to having a concealed gun, got two years’ probation, and the assault‑with‑a‑dangerous‑weapon charge got tossed as part of the deal. In “Sing for the Moment” he even mangles Guerra’s name, spitting “You’re full of sh*t too, Guerrera, that was a fist that hit you.” The Genius note says he’s calling Guerra a “guerrera,” which is Spanish for a female warrior, basically saying he fights like a girl. Guerra’s lawyer later tried to spin the whole kiss thing as just a friendly gesture, saying it wasn’t like they were sneaking off in the back seat to make out or anything.

    16
  44. RE: Fact #14 (Jethro Tull Randomly Chosen Name) – They kept swapping names just to stay on the London club circuit – things like Navy Blue, Ian Henderson’s Bag o’ Nails, and Candy Coloured Rain. Anderson says he once spotted a poster at a club, stared at a band name he didn’t recognize, and then realized it was actually them. Most of those monikers came from the booking agent’s office; one of the guys, a history nerd, tossed them the name Jethro Tull after the 18th‑century farmer. It stuck because the Marquee Club manager liked the show enough to give them a weekly slot. In a 2006 interview Anderson admitted he had no idea Jethro Tull was a dead guy who invented the seed drill – he just thought their agent had made it up.

    14
  45. RE: Fact #7 (Builder AI Exposed Human Coders) – Sounds like those Whole Food places where you just pile stuff into your cart and leave, and they magically charge you for everything. Actually, it was just a team of employees watching the feeds and jotting down what you put in or took out.

    15
    • You’d be surprised what goes down when a Waymo robo‑car hits a scenario it can’t handle. Turns out a person is actually remote‑controlling it behind the scenes.

      2
      • That’s a different story. Waymo’s fleet runs on its own most of the time, but the onboard computer will ping a real person whenever it runs into something it can’t figure out. The engineers then take that encounter and the human’s solution to fine‑tune the self‑driving software. It’s a pretty sensible way to roll out and teach AI – just so people don’t assume we’re tossing AI into messy scenarios without any human eyes or fixes.

        8
  46. RE: Fact #24 (Hiroshi Yamasaki Deserts After Nanking) – If you’re curious about that period, Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking is a solid, worth‑reading book.

    12
    • “The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe” is a pretty cool read. Rabe was a Nazi living in China, but he and a few other foreigners stepped in to shield Chinese civilians from the Japanese.

      Afterward he went back to Germany to tell people what’d gone down, but Hitler brushed him off because Japan was Germany’s ally then. Rabe tried to clean up his Nazi past, blowing all his cash on it, which left him broke. When word got out in Nanking, the locals pooled together to send him money, even though they were poor themselves.

      That’s the gist, though it leaves out a lot of detail.

      8
  47. RE: Fact #2 (Young Americans Becoming Sexless ) – These kids are just screwed, for fu*k’s sake—no cash, no place to stay, no work, and now even sex is off the table.

    7
  48. RE: Fact #25 (Trachenberg Plan Avoids Napoleon Directly) – Napoleon was such a legendary commander and thinker that folks kept copying his moves long after tech had outgrown them, which caused way more needless bloodshed – think the American Civil War. He’s honestly one of the smartest leaders ever. A ton of today’s gadgets and roads trace back to projects he started or upgraded.

    10
    • Basically, the old conflicts kicked off with the Civil War and just kept the same tactics right through to WWI, at least according to my notes.

      7
      • People often picture WWI troops marching in slow, Civil‑War‑style lines, but that’s not what actually happened. The manuals officers cracked before the war were based on the Franco‑Prussian, Russo‑Japanese and Boer conflicts. Their doctrine was all about fire‑and‑move: lay down suppressing fire, close the distance, and finish the fight with a bayonet. It wasn’t perfect, but it was seen as the better option compared with getting stuck under enemy fire.

        In theory artillery and machine‑guns should’ve backed that up, but the massive, rapid buildup of many armies and the lack of experience meant the support often fell short or was misapplied.

        3
      • No, not exactly. Sure, there were a bunch of new tactics in the Great War, it wasn’t just endless waves into machine‑gun fire. The real snag was that artillery was the go‑to answer to those guns, and while it could suppress the enemy for a bit, trying to move across a landscape ripped apart by shells was a nightmare. The big guns shredded everything—rails, telegraph lines, the lot—and the tech of the time couldn’t patch it up quickly. Armies back then depended on railways and telegraph wires, so if you pushed forward over that wreckage, all your supply lines stayed stuck behind you while the other side still had working rails and communications. Keep pressing forward and you’re basically handing the enemy a chance to counter‑attack and win.

        9
  49. RE: Fact #34 (Lucy Lambert Hale Child Socialite) – When she was 12, a Harvard student named William Chandler started sending her poems—he’d later become her husband. That was just the first of a string of love affairs, like with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who she met while vacationing in Maine and began writing to in 1858, when she was 17. Back then people said she had dark hair, blue eyes, clear skin and a knockout figure. She treated guys with a mix of flattery, teasing, cajoling, paying close attention but also tossing in a bit of indifference and occasional cruelty.

    👧🏻: “Piss off”

    👨🏻: “My 13‑year‑old crush is so mean”

    19
  50. RE: Fact #17 (Victor Gruen Utopian Community Malls) – We set out wanting a nice, walk‑able town square, and now it’s turned into a cathedral‑sized Auntie Anne’s‑and‑Sears complex. Typical.

    7
  51. RE: Fact #6 (Microsoft Zune Awkward Squirting Feature) – There was this one guy at the meeting who actually knew, but he didn’t want anyone thinking he was a pervert.

    17
    • I once read something from a Microsoft guy who said you often have to play the “porn but not porn” defender when people come up with dumb feature ideas. One example they tossed out was a random‑sharing app that would just blast your vacation photos to anyone in your contacts because “that’d be cool.” He wrote about how awkward it was to bring up the obvious worry: “What about the pictures you don’t want out there?” He imagined himself explaining that to a room full of super‑prude folks, stumbling over the phrasing—something like, “Uh, maybe there are family shots you’d rather keep private? Like parents with newborns, or naked baby pictures. Maybe we shouldn’t make it easy for those to get shared.”

      8
    • Sounds like that meeting at my dad’s job years ago. He worked for a big health system in southeast Michigan, launching a bunch of OB/GYN clinics and they were using the boring corporate trick of naming each site after the street it sits on. One of those streets? Big Beaver Road, no kidding. It made it all the way to the final sign‑off until a woman in the room jumped up and shouted, “We are NOT calling this place Big Beaver Gynecology!” They ended up picking a different name.

      9
      • Or just run with it—like that Wendy’s in Beaver, Utah, which has a sign that literally says “Welcome to Wendy’s Beaver.” I get that a gynecology clinic isn’t the same thing. (Side note: Beaver is actually in Utah, not Colorado.)

        7
      • Love that. I used to be at a big tech firm that basically ignored privacy, and we had a project named “Privacy as a Platform.” When the guys started calling it “PAP,” a woman on the team just said she’d never work on anything called “PAP” and demanded a new name.

        11
  52. RE: Fact #30 (More Births To Fortysomething Mothers) – Looks like we can finally afford a kid once we’re past 40, lol. That’s just the Union these days 🤣

    18
    • In your 20s and 30s you’re juggling everything—career, cash, a car, dating, maybe marriage, a house, kids. Hit the 40s and it’s basically just the kids. By the 50s you finally have the cash and free time, so you splurge on top‑tier gear for your hobbies and pile up video games you wish you could actually play, only to realize you’ve outgrown the interest.

      13
      • Buying a house isn’t something you do in your 20s or 30s now. These days the typical first‑time buyer is about 40. Looks like we’re heading toward a reality where you have to spend half your life stashing cash just to have a chance at the other half.

        7
  53. RE: Fact #11 (Disney Hires Ex Convict Allen) – People used to joke that Eisner would hang out by the back door of the Betty Ford clinic, scooping up actors who were desperate for any gig. I figured he’d probably try the same trick with ex‑cons, looking for cheap labor.

    12
  54. RE: Fact #35 (Norway Mountain NATO Bunker Busstop) – Man, that totally sounds like the secret nuclear bunker they have in Brentwood, UK

    9
  55. RE: Fact #17 (Victor Gruen Utopian Community Malls) – Yeah, some malls are exactly like that. One right near me actually includes a public library and the city’s performing arts center. Another one even houses the local Fact Office, and a different one has a sheriff’s station inside.

    4
  56. RE: Fact #17 (Victor Gruen Utopian Community Malls) – That’s the direction a bunch of malls near me are taking. They’ve started adding clinics, and they often turn the empty areas into cheap senior‑care spaces.

    9
    • The mall in my hometown barely had an anchor left. It still kept a theater, a few little beauty salons, and one food‑court spot open. The empty bays got filled with all kinds of things – a kids museum, an MMA gym, a branch of the city library, and other random uses.

      8
    • New malls are actually jumping on this idea a lot lately. Take Ponce City Market in Atlanta – it used to be an old factory and now it’s huge. The ground and second levels are a mix of eateries, shops and office space. Above that you get a blend of apartments and more offices, and the top floors are all residential. They even put a tiny amusement park on the roof, complete with mini‑golf.

      The place is awesome, plus they turned the old industrial rail spur into the Atlanta beltway – a massive pedestrian and bike viaduct that runs across the city.

      4
    • The malls that are still hanging in my neighborhood are basically turning into town squares or community hubs with events. One even went outdoor and it’s doing a lot better now.

      6
      • Picture a big‑box store shutting down and the empty lot turning into a rotating local market with different vendors popping up regularly—would be awesome.

        6
      • Picture a politician laying a wreath on a grave right after cashing a check from the “Wreath Evangelists for Freedom” shell corporation.

        2
    • I can’t think of a charity that’s any more American. They take the donations and spend it on wreaths for graves—what’s the societal benefit?

      8
      • If those vets could speak, they’d probably say you should pour your time, cash and effort into helping active service members, other vets, and their families.

        4
      • It doesn’t matter, but dead veterans are a super convenient cause, kinda like unborn babies. They never ask for anything, so you can slap them onto any agenda and they won’t protest. One minute you’re all high‑moral about them, the next you just ignore them, and they can’t call you out. That’s a plain‑as‑day scam, hidden from criticism because people just take the virtue‑signalling at face value.

        3
  57. RE: Fact #29 (Nine Year Old Boards Vegas Flight) – Pen testing is usually split into seven parts: you kick off with pre‑engagement talks, then gather intel, do threat modeling, run a vulnerability analysis, move on to exploitation, handle post‑exploitation, and wrap it up with a report.

    He’s pretty much ready to be hired.

    9

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