1 Native Americans Rarely Go Bald
Male pattern baldness does not typically affect Native American, First Nations, and Alaska Native peoples, even though the condition can occur in men of any background. It appears most often in white men (followed by Afro-Caribbean men) and less often in men of Chinese or Japanese descent. Family history can still raise your odds if close relatives have the same pattern.
2. Older turn signals in cars clicked because thermal flashers or electromechanical relays physically moved as they cycled the lights on and off. In many modern cars, computers trigger the signals through silent solid-state electronics, so the car plays an artificial clicking sound through the speakers or uses a separate relay under the dash to recreate the familiar noise.
3. In October 2025, showrunners of the show said that each episode of Stranger Things season 5 cost $50 to $60 million to produce. At that rate, the season’s total budget reportedly reached $400 to $480 million.
4. In the 1960s, Dr Pepper pushed a winter sales strategy called Hot Dr Pepper, promoting it when cold-soda sales typically dropped during the holiday season. The company’s own serving suggestion was simple: heat the soda to about 180 degrees in a stovetop saucepan, then pour it over a thin slice of lemon, a Southern curiosity that lingered in some towns until the 80s, long after it faded elsewhere.
5. Each year, over 3,000 people attempt to complete the Appalachian Trail, with only about 25% succeeding.
6 Napoleon II Calls Life Zero
When Napoleon’s son Napoleon Franz, also known as Napoleon II, died at age 21 at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna in 1832, he reportedly summed up his short life with the last words, “My story is my birth and death. Between my cradle and my grave, there is a big zero.” He was buried in Vienna, but in 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered his remains moved to Paris and placed at Les Invalides near his father’s tomb.
7. Titanic became the first movie to earn over $1 billion worldwide without being a superhero film or an established franchise, as James Cameron built it around the real-life sinking of the ocean liner. It remains the only movie to earn $1 billion that is not part of a franchise or based on preexisting intellectual property (i.e., Barbie).
8. In the first edition of The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien never described Gollum’s size, so illustrators like Tove Jansson ended up portraying him as very large. Tolkien later noticed the omission and revised later editions to clarify that Gollum was “a small slimy creature.”
9. In January 2023, Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt discovered that more than 12 million dollars was missing from his investment account at Kingston-based firm Stocks and Securities Limited, leaving only about $12,000. His lawyers called it a case of fraud and gave the firm a deadline to return the money, but as of later that year, he had not recovered the lost funds.
10. Despite its cult status from Back to the Future, the DMC DeLorean earned a reputation for poor build quality and an unsatisfying driving experience, with owners complaining about its underpowered V6 engine and quality-control issues. In 2017, Time magazine cemented that bad reputation by including the stainless-steel icon in its list of the 50 worst cars of all time.
11 Alonzo Cushing Holds In Guts
In 1863, 22-year-old Civil War artillery officer Alonzo Cushing commanded his battery at Gettysburg during Pickett’s Charge when a shell fragment disemboweled him, forcing him to hold in his intestines as he stayed at his guns. He refused to leave the line and kept giving orders until a bullet to the head killed him. In 2014 he was finally awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.
12. In 1968, after he shot civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray tried to escape U.S. justice by fleeing to an African country that had no extradition treaty with the United States. He traveled with two falsified passports, but officials noticed a typo when he carelessly kept both documents in the same wallet.
13. In 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Buzz Aldrin became the first person to urinate on the moon when he used the urine-collection system in his spacesuit soon after stepping onto the lunar surface. No one has contested his claim to the odd lunar first, so he remains the first man to pee on the moon (as of 2026).
14. In 2010, Katy Perry released the single “California Gurls” featuring Snoop Dogg after Jay-Z and Alicia Keys scored a massive hit with their New York tribute “Empire State of Mind.” Perry and her collaborators deliberately crafted the song as a sunny, beachy celebration of California, giving the West Coast its own pop anthem after New York stole the spotlight.
15. In 1999, 15-year-old hacker Jonathan James broke into computer systems at NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, intercepting software and sensitive data. NASA shut down parts of its computer network for 21 days to investigate and repair the breach, a move that reportedly cost tens of thousands of dollars. James later became the first juvenile in the United States to face incarceration for cybercrime.
16 British Army Mandatory Mustache Years
From 1860 to 1916, regulations in the British Army required every enlisted man to grow and maintain a mustache, treating a bare upper lip as a breach of discipline. If a soldier shaved his mustache without permission, he could face formal punishment, including confinement or other disciplinary action, for violating the grooming code.
17. On July 30, 1916, a freight car loaded with TNT exploded at the Black Tom Island munitions depot in New York Harbor, creating a blast so powerful it registered as a 5.5-magnitude earthquake and was felt 90 miles away in Philadelphia. The explosion damaged the Statue of Liberty, and her torch platform has remained closed to the public ever since.
18. The Bank of England’s vaults hold around 400,000 bars of gold, worth over £200 billion (as of October 2020), stacked in massive rows beneath London.
19. In 2022, during a deep-sea expedition to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, scientists found a fully intact beer bottle sitting at the deepest known point in the ocean.
20. In the United States, the average adult man is about 69 inches tall, which works out to roughly 5 feet 9 inches.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Egg Thief Colin Watson Falls
In Britain, a man named Colin Watson built the largest known collection of rare wild bird eggs by repeatedly stealing them from protected wildlife sites across the country. In 2006, he died after falling from a tree while attempting to steal eggs from a protected species.
22. In 2000, an Iowa man and his stepson had the call letters of radio station KORB tattooed on their foreheads after hearing a DJ promise a six-figure payout to anyone who did it. When they arrived at the station, the staff informed them that the on-air offer was merely a prank, leaving them with permanent KORB tattoos and no money. The pair filed a lawsuit over the stunt, but the court eventually dismissed their cases.
23. In 1403, during the Battle of Shrewsbury, the future King Henry V was shot in the face with an arrow that lodged about 6 inches into his skull. A surgeon named John Bradmore, who was in prison at the time, crafted a custom hollow extractor and slowly widened the wound over days before removing the arrowhead and packing the cavity, saving Henry’s life and leaving him with a lifelong facial scar.
24. In 153 BCE, the Romans chose January 1 as the start of the new year because that was the day newly elected consuls officially took office in the Roman Republic. This political decision tied the calendar to the start of the consular term, and later reforms preserved January 1 as New Year’s Day in the Julian and then Gregorian calendars used in much of the world today.
25. After the Kosovo War in 1999, many ethnic Albanian parents in Kosovo began naming their newborn sons “Tonibler” to honor British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his role in the NATO intervention that helped drive Serbian forces out.
RE: Fact #25 (Kosovo Boys Named Tonibler Blair) – Why did my brain say “toe nibbler” instead?
Yeah, probably because that’s exactly how it’s written, lol. If the fact had Tony Blair’s name first, we’d have picked up on it sooner, but I didn’t see where that sentence was going.
RE: Fact #14 (California Gurls Answers Empire State) – Seriously, both those tracks went straight to number one!
Both of them definitely sold a ton of copies. Empire State of Mind, though, probably sold just a little bit more.
For me, ‘Empire State of Mind’ totally comes out ahead for its legacy. ‘California Gurls’ was a massive success, sure, but it felt more like a fleeting moment compared to ‘Empire State of Mind’. That song just has way more cultural influence.
Miami kinda missed out on the attention, with those other two cities grabbing all the focus. At least until Pitbull dropped ‘International Love’.
Mister Worldwide just keeps winning, it doesn’t even matter which part of the country is in the lead.
RE: Fact #47 (Jules Vernes Early Product Placement) – Yeah, if you’re reading this classic, just skip the foreword. I missed that and the ending got spoiled for me. Still, it’s pretty good — definitely worth a read.
RE: Fact #24 (Roman Consuls Make January First) – Yeah, that’s true, but I think it was way more complicated than that. Even back in Shakespeare’s time in England, they only updated the year halfway through March. So figuring out the exact “official” dates for events can get pretty messy.
I actually think starting the new year in March makes more sense than jumping into the dead middle of winter. Spring is here, life’s back, it’s fresh, new beginnings and all that.
Also really ties the whole sept, oct, nov, dec thing together
Scotland switched to January 1st back in 1600, but England didn’t until 1752.
RE: Fact #22 (KORB Forehead Tattoo Radio Prank) – And talk about adding insult to injury, apparently The Smoking Gun reported that KORB actually changed its name after that whole tattoo kerfuffle. Now they go by ‘KQCS, Star 93.5’.
RE: Fact #37 (Dinner For One European Tradition) – It’s been on Danish TV for New Year’s Eve since the eighties. You drink every time James drinks or stumbles on the tiger.
RE: Fact #30 (Sedition Act Leaves Jefferson Exposed) – John Adams was the most moral and principled founding father — except when it came to Jefferson. Honestly, I can’t blame him.
RE: Fact #6 (Napoleon II Calls Life Zero) – that hitler guy did something kinda nice i guess
there’s nothing nice about it hitler didnt get to have a tomb in vienna cuz itd be a reminder of how german speaking people got humiliated his mom was basically forced to marry napoleon as part of some peace deal after the austrians got beat up by him so he was like a product of napoleon messing with the austrian royal family and the french messing with german speaking people
its funny he complained about being a nobody and now everyones talking about what hitler did with his dead body
if you look at this one thing by itself its a pretty cool thing to do even if hitler did it
RE: Fact #26 (Lorelei Linklater Begs Boyhood Death) – I thought it was a solid watch. Not anything game-changing, but there were some fresh and heartfelt moments.
Back then I didn’t get the hype, but now I see how much of that stuff actually hit home—being a kid of divorce, I had so many super relatable memories. Guess that was the whole point.
Like, the production schedule was actually pretty groundbreaking, even if the plot and story weren’t.
It was a slow-moving movie, well-shot
RE: Fact #31 (Creedence Clearwater Revivals Southern Swamp) – It’s a pain getting to the bayou when you’re stuck in Lodi again.
If a group of young British white college students could suddenly turn into old black southern delta bluesmen, they’d be swamp rockers.
I always thought this song was about the tiny town of Lodi, NY. But in classic American style, there’s probably a dozen Lodis in the US.
Fair enough, some parts of the delta really do feel like the bayou.
RE: Fact #10 (DMC DeLorean Cult Lemon Car) – I’ve owned a DeLorean for more than ten years now, so I’ve heard all these questions a million times. Here are some quick answers to the most common ones: Yeah, the DMC-12 definitely didn’t have much power. Even with its six-cylinder engine, those new US fuel efficiency rules pretty much killed its speed, making it feel slow. But it could still hit 88mph! You just wouldn’t see it on the original speedometer, which only showed up to 80mph because of old federal laws. These cars can certainly be unreliable, especially the ones made early on. Many were put together by hand from teams who didn’t have much experience, all within about twenty months. So they never really moved beyond the initial issues. People often say DeLorean ‘exploited’ Irish and British factory workers, but actually, that plant offered badly needed jobs. Plus, taking on staff from both Ireland and Northern Ireland could have actually helped ease tensions between those areas if the company had kept going. And DeLorean wasn’t some co*k dealer or user. His arrest for trafficking happened because of this ridiculous sting operation, cooked up by an acquaintance who’d already been caught by the FBI. That guy promised a ‘big fish’ to the FBI for headlines and a lighter sentence. Knowing DeLorean desperately needed money, he set him up with undercover agents to be a middleman in a huge deal that would pay a lot. DeLorean really didn’t want to get involved, but he was so desperate to save his business that he went along with it at first. When he tried to back out, one of those undercover agents straight-up threatened his family, saying his ‘daughter’s skull would be caved in’ if he didn’t cooperate. DeLorean gave in, but he wrote a letter to his lawyer saying he was scared for his life and what to do if he died. Of course, DeLorean was arrested and put through a very public trial. His company went bankrupt and became a huge joke. Not many people recall he claimed entrapment, the jury sided with him, and he was quickly found innocent. But by then, of course, the harm was already done. Roughly 8,500 DeLoreans were made, and about 6,000 are still out there, with most still good enough to drive. Because production ended so suddenly, there was a massive supply of spare parts left over, which actually makes keeping a DeLorean running easier than you’d think. The DMC isn’t a quick car, its handling isn’t great, and seeing out of it is tough. But I promise you, it’s the most fun car you’ll ever drive around town. At every red light, folks will pull out their phones to snap pictures. Whenever you fill up, people will walk right up to you, super curious, asking questions. Parking valets will even shift Lambos and McLarens to give you the prime spot out front. It’s an absolute blast!
That was really well put. I actually have a couple of buddies who own DeLoreans. One time, I got to take one for a spin, and it was a total ‘never meet your heroes’ moment, especially with those drum brakes. Ugh. The other thing I recall being tough to find or fix were the door’s torsion bars. Is that still a problem, or has the aftermarket come up with a fix for them now?
RE: Fact #43 (Lindbergh Kidnapping Creates Federal Crime) – It still isn’t. Kidnapping and moving someone across state lines is a federal crime. The law says that if the victim isn’t released unharmed within 24 hours, it’s assumed the kidnapper crossed state lines, which lets federal authorities get involved. But that assumption can be challenged in court.
Hey, where did that myth come from that you gotta wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing?
That idea comes from the belief you shouldn’t waste the police’s time, and it’s often used in fiction to show why cops aren’t helping heroes. In real life, if you think someone’s missing, you can report it and the police have to take that report. There’s no waiting period to report someone missing.
RE: Fact #44 (Picketts Charge Confederacys High Water) – Pickett takes the brunt of the criticism, but he was just following Longstreet’s orders, and Longstreet was following Lee’s. Lee’s decision to launch a full frontal attack on positions that had been heavily fortified overnight? That was a huge mistake in the eyes of nearly everyone around him at the time. It’s weird that modern Gettysburg accounts don’t carry that same criticism.
The Lost Cause folks couldn’t accept Lee being anything less than perfect, so they always blamed his worst moves on others. Lee just seemed convinced the Union center was weak and could be broken. That didn’t sit well with Longstreet, Pickett, and a few others at the time. Even if the center was actually weakened, it was an insane risk. But honestly, Lee was always a gambler—his biggest wins came from bets that probably would’ve blown up in his face. More than once, those gambles almost ended in disaster. In the end, Pickett’s Charge just fits his personality. Gamblers keep going until they lose, and at Gettysburg, Lee’s gambles ended up with a crushing loss.
I get why Lee might have thought that, especially since he’d been pushing on the Union flanks for a couple days, so it makes sense they’d pull their reserves away from the center.
The post-war revisionists didn’t like Longstreet either because he called them out on their crap. He switched to the Republican side, backed reconstruction, and even led Black militia troops against a white supremacist mob.
RE: Fact #36 (Liam Neeson Boxer Before Hollywood) – That’s a specific set of skills.
RE: Fact #42 (Miyake Event Time Stamps Vikings) – I think the same kind of event in 993 or 994 is being used to estimate how many Vikings were in America.
The thing is called a Miyake event, it happened more than once, and one of those events helped confirm the vikings were in North America. The title’s right.
RE: Fact #6 (Napoleon II Calls Life Zero) – so after someone says something super profound they gotta just pipe down till they kick the bucket or they might say something dumb later like coffee gives me the sh*t
RE: Fact #33 (Rib Hadda Spams Akhenaten Court) – His requests for help clearly went unanswered and really pissed off Akhenaten. The irritation with Rib-Hadda is in EA 117, where the pharaoh says to him, “Why do you keep writing to me alone?” Lmao, damn.
RE: Fact #48 (San Patricios Hanged In Mexico) – Did they leave because of Catholicism or was it something else?
Catholics were really discriminated against in the US back then, even in the military. I think that was a big part of why they left.
It’s kinda wild to me that the military’s so focused on protecting your religious freedom now, especially when you’re serving.
RE: Fact #46 (Japan Separates Shinto From Buddhism) – Religion in South, Southeast, and East Asia is way different from how it’s usually seen in the rest of the world. In the West, when we talk about religion, we tend to think of it as something that’s all or nothing — you’re either Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrian, or part of some other faith. That doesn’t really happen in much of Asia. People there can be part of multiple religions, and it’s not seen as conflicting, unlike how most Westerners would think. In China, most people mix in rituals from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In Japan, most people follow both Buddhism and Shinto. Same thing in many parts of Asia. Temples in Southeast Asia were often used by both Hindus and Buddhists without any issue. The last Manichean temple in China actually influenced some schools of Chinese Buddhism and is still used as a temple by Buddhists today. Kinda like how religion worked in Europe and other parts of the world before monotheistic faiths took over. For instance, Mithraists, people who worshipped Isis, and others in Roman Empire would often follow other local or imperial gods. There’s actual record of Christianity blending with local pagan traditions — like Manichaeism or Pachamama worship in the Andes. So yeah, the idea of someone being part of two religions seems weird in the West, but historically, it’s not that strange — especially in Asia. The real thing that stands out is how religion got split up. If you want to learn more, I recommend John Green’s Crash Course on Religion series on YouTube: [link]
RE: Fact #40 (Easy Bake Ovens Burn Children) – The thing about the Creepy Crawler oven was you could lift the safety bar and pull out the metal tray while it was still hot enough to burn the fu*k out of you. That really taught you the value of patience—and Creepy Crawlers.
RE: Fact #41 (Babies Make Mama Papa Everywhere) – I think it’s funny that the physical sign for “no” is usually just someone turning their head side to side, like a baby saying no to food.
RE: Fact #5 (Only Quarter Finish Appalachian Trail) – I'm part of that 25% who actually finish. most people who quit do so in the first 200 miles, they just realize it's not for them and head home. if you can make it past that point, though, your chances of finishing are pretty high, like 80%. of course, stuff can still happen – injuries, no cash, family emergencies… but if you can push through, it's an amazing adventure. those 6 months were the best time of my life, hands down.
i lasted 2.5 days and was pretty miserable. this one guy didn't even make it to the start, he bailed in the parking lot. i had 7k set aside for the trip, so i just decided to enjoy my summer. ended up doing a cross-country road trip with a friend, which was awesome. and it actually led to me moving to a new city, which set off a whole chain of new experiences. no regrets here
yeah, having 6 months to just do whatever in your 20s or 30s is probably a highlight for a lot of people. it's like, the ultimate freedom.
RE: Fact #28 (Jakarta Becomes Worlds Largest City) – That’s fucking nuts. My country has a population of 7 million. I can’t even wrap my head around 41 million people living in one city.
The whole population of Australia is just 24 million.
Jakarta’s population density is around 20,000 people per square kilometer, while Australia as a whole is about 3.
Jakarta has more people than 159 countries. If it were a country, it’d be the 38th most populous.
RE: Fact #50 (Gaia Theory Earth Self Regulating) – It’s cool, but you gotta keep in mind that the strong version of Gaia is pretty controversial. Most scientists these days go with a weaker version where feedback loops just show up from biology and chemistry, not from purpose.
So the weak version is basically just “if things don’t work they die and if they do they don’t” but on a global scale?
RE: Fact #12 (Passport Typo Traps James Ray) – Here’s a somewhat funny detail: when he was in London, he actually contacted the Daily Mail. He wanted them to connect him with the leading racists of the time so he could become a Rhodesian mercenary. It just goes to show, some things really never change.
RE: Fact #27 (Lertlaks Glitched Thai Millionaire Win) – I’m not sure how they knew, but maybe it was caught on camera.
I’ll bet once a contestant gets to the final few questions, every single part of their attempt gets thoroughly checked over.
If you watch the fact about Charles Ingraham, the guy who faked his way to a million, you can tell pretty early on—like by the fourth question—that something was off. His body language was weird, he kept second-guessing himself, and yet he always ended up going back to his original doubt and guessed right. But back then, they didn’t have the proof to take it away from him. Only later did they get enough evidence to go after him with fraud charges.
RE: Fact #31 (Creedence Clearwater Revivals Southern Swamp) – Also John Denver’s from New Mexico and never even been to West Virginia before he wrote that song.
RE: Fact #37 (Dinner For One European Tradition) – I’m from the UK and I never would’ve known about it if it weren’t for the internet.
I first heard about it on QI a long time ago.
I remember from QI too. For some reason, the rest of Europe just loves slapstick.
RE: Fact #15 (Jonathan James Teen NASA Hacker) – What a truly tragic end. Jonathan James was discovered having taken his own life in 2008; he’d shot himself. It sounds like he felt driven to this because he thought he’d be unfairly charged for things he didn’t do. In his suicide note, he insisted he really had no involvement with TJX. He said he totally lost faith in the so-called ‘justice’ system. He hoped his final act, along with the note, would truly get people’s attention. Feeling like he’d completely lost command of his life, he saw this as the only path to take it back.
RE: Fact #45 (Steve Urkel One Episode Takeover) – Even if Carl Winslow wasn’t a cop, I still don’t get why he didn’t just get Urkel to leave. All Urkel did was make unwanted advances toward his daughter, break stuff, accidentally swap his and Carl’s souls into dolls, and so on.
RE: Fact #38 (Romans Blast Las Medulas Mountains) – Las Medulas shows how humans have always been changing nature for profit.
RE: Fact #34 (Super Bowl Classified Top Risk) – Man, that’s wild. I worked the Super Bowl in Vegas on the TV crew, and there were like four security check points between the entrance and where we were working. Plus, so many fences and backup barriers.
A few years ago I remember the Department of Energy was flying low-flying helicopters around the stadium area for weeks before the Super Bowl. They supposedly had sensitive detectors looking for unusual radiation. At the time I was skeptical because I knew it wouldn’t be easy to spot radiation that far away, but there were a few papers about how you could detect it indirectly—by checking for ionized air or plasma pulses or something—so you didn’t need to see the radiation directly to know there might be an issue.
They probably were also doing baseline measurements. Find out what’s normal for the area and then compare everything against that.
That’s NEST, the Nuclear Emergency Support Team. They scan the area weeks and then days before looking for any signatures.
The Hunt for Red October kinda leaked some super classified American navigation stuff called gravity gradiometry. Subs using changes in Earth’s magnetic field to move silently. That book was about 70s submarine warfare even though it came out in the 80s and got turned into a movie in 1990. If they had that kind of tech back then, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say they could detect radiation for top-secret stuff. Probably built for presidential and other super secure operations.
RE: Fact #49 (Stranger Things Boosts Eggo Sales) – People actually do pay attention to product placement. That message came from Apple.
RE: Fact #7 (Titanic Lone Billion Dollar Original) – It’s not like they can actually make a sequel for it.
RE: Fact #11 (Alonzo Cushing Holds In Guts) – stories behind most Medal of Honor awards are pretty wild – super brave, selfless, and they just dont care about the danger or pain, it’s crazy
take Senator Daniel Inouye for example, he was a japanese american in wwii, part of the 442nd infantry, leads a charge on a bunker, gets shot in the stomach, still manages to clear a couple more machine gun nests with a bullet in his gut, then throws a grenade into the bunker, loses his arm at the elbow, and still orders his guys back because he doesnt want them to get hurt by a live grenade, figures out the spoon is still down, uses his other hand to get the grenade out and throws it, killing the guy inside, gets up again, jumps in and kills another dude, gets shot again, passes out, wakes up and tells his guys to keep going, passes out again, and later gets his arm amputated without proper anesthesia, survives and becomes a senator, sh*t’s insane
adrenaline’s no joke
rip to a total legend
like that movie Hacksaw Ridge, they had to tone down the actual events or it would’ve been too hard to believe
they gotta tone down real life stuff or it’s too much for people to handle, and even then folks think it’s over the top
RE: Fact #4 (Dr Peppers Hot Lemon Soda) – so i found out about this from Blast From The Past, where christopher walken’s character is super into dr pepper even after living in a bomb shelter since the 60s
that movie always makes me laugh, we rented it when i was a kid and my sister warned me that the guy eats his parents at the end, i was so anxious waiting for it to happen and then we just laughed so hard when it never did
its hilarious when you’re waiting for some big plot twist that never happens, like with nightcrawler, i thought it was about the xmen guy and i’m an hour and a half in with no superpowers in sight, great movie but kinda funny
i remember christopher walken offering hot doctor pepper to his guests and i thought it was a joke
RE: Fact #32 (Viking DNA Traces CCR5 Resistance) – So since the virus didn’t exist back then, it’s just a coincidence that this ended up giving some people resistance later on?
Yeah, it affects your immune cells. People think it became common because it offered protection from some viruses hundreds or thousands of years ago. But it does come with downsides—there are a few diseases and conditions it makes you more vulnerable to. There’s a Wikipedia page with more details if you’re curious. If you’ve got your raw genetic data from 23andMe or something similar, you can upload it to Promethease and it’ll tell you if you have the mutation. That’s how I found out I have two copies myself. Around 1% of Europeans have two copies. Two copies make you effectively immune to HIV, while one copy gives you partial immunity.
You know, sometimes you just get these random mutations that stick around. Evolution kinda pushes out bad ones and picks up good ones, but it mostly just lets neutral ones slide.
Same gene that helped people survive the black plague.
RE: Fact #40 (Easy Bake Ovens Burn Children) – So around 2000, my sister got a life-sized Barbie and the hair wrapped around her neck while she was sleeping and almost choked her. My mom rushed in and cut the hair off to save her. Mattel gave her a new one for free.
I have a Barbie with spark skates attached that actually have real sparklers on her feet. They spark when you roll her along. Who even thought that was a good idea?
We’re sorry, here’s another creepy child-strangling doll.
That was my first thought too. My mom’s a smart cookie though. She gave that Barbie a nice bob and it never been an issue since.
RE: Fact #12 (Passport Typo Traps James Ray) – It just seems like being a criminal was so simple in the 60s. I mean, regardless of if Ray actually killed King, he just bounced around, pulling off random robberies and frauds in the US, Mexico, Canada, and England. He only got nabbed because he had a couple of fake passports sitting right next to each other. Who assassinates a nationally famous person, flees overseas, then manages to rob a bank, and after all that, tries to sign up as a mercenary for another country’s army?
Is there actually some doubt about whether Ray killed King? Asking seriously.
The King family actually doesn’t think he did it.
Something that pops up with many famous assassins is how fascinating they are, yet also clearly unhinged in some way. They usually only got known for being an assassin, a scam artist, or a serial killer. Nothing else. Oswald pretty much fit the serial killer pattern so well it’s not even funny. That’s actually my biggest reason for not buying into conspiracy theories; who would pick someone so untrustworthy? He was truly just a dumb fu*k.
Pretty much describes half of all James Bond villains.
RE: Fact #33 (Rib Hadda Spams Akhenaten Court) – Say “stop” to opt out.
RE: Fact #25 (Kosovo Boys Named Tonibler Blair) – This is probably why you don’t see anyone named Tonibler in Iraq.
For a bit during the first Gulf war, George Bush became kinda popular in Kuwait after H.W. I don’t think George Junior got the same kind of reception.
I was in Kuwait right after the first Gulf War. All the graffiti got wiped out in hours, except for some tags that said “We love you John Major” and “We love you George Bush.” And a few in Arabic on certain houses, which I was told were homes of people who worked with the Iraqis. I asked a friend about it, since Major had just been voted the most unpopular prime minister ever, and he said, “Without Major and Bush, we would all be dead.”
RE: Fact #10 (DMC DeLorean Cult Lemon Car) – Forget the time travel in Back to the Future, the truly wild part is thinking that DeLorean could actually reach 88 miles an hour.
Come on, after all the stuff Doc put into it, chances are only the car’s outside body was still original. He definitely always talked up how cool it looked, never how well it actually drove.
RE: Fact #35 (Indiana Gas Boom Burns Itself) – The way gas is wasted doesn’t actually change reservoir pressure. The gas was always going to come out anyway. Modern frac tech and flowback might’ve helped a little, but there’s a reason there’s no oil boom in Indiana now, even with all the new stuff. It’s just how the reservoir works.
Yeah, gas is usually on top of oil, so it shouldn’t mess with positive oil pressure. Some gas does mix with oil anyway. Most wells aren’t capped, and they just let methane spew out — you can see that with a thermal camera. There’s no shortage of gas, it’s just not practical to bring it to market most of the time. You need pipelines. So unless the gas is close to a population center or someone invests in liquefying it, it just gets wasted.
RE: Fact #48 (San Patricios Hanged In Mexico) – One of the big final things was when the American officers burned all their rosaries on a bonfire in front of them.
1840s Texas was wild. It’s the closest thing in US history to an old-fashioned Balkan-style race war.
The closest we’ve come in US history to an old-fashioned Balkan-style race war.
RE: Fact #3 (Stranger Things 5 Mega Budget) – Those last three episodes really could’ve just been one, right? Way too much stuff that didn’t need to be there.
They could’ve given us some real moments, too. How about an emotional response from the kids after almost seeing their parents get slaughtered? I bet the daughter still thinks they’re gone. If they hadn’t said a tiny thing, I’d totally assume the dad was still just knocked out by the bed.
Let’s face it, no one really cared about Mr. Wheeler. He probably just kicked it from sepsis, since it seemed like even the nurses completely forgot about him.
I was really hoping to see Karen Wheeler come through Max’s portal, especially since she was right there. That would’ve been a huge moment for Holly, a perfect way to connect things. But nope, nothing.
Remember when Max and Holly just sat around chatting for ages? Like, they should’ve been heading for the opening, not talking!
Honestly, the entire season felt like it could’ve been summed up in a quick message.
RE: Fact #43 (Lindbergh Kidnapping Creates Federal Crime) – Should point out that “federal crime” and “serious crime” aren’t the same. Murder, for instance, isn’t a federal crime. Most federal crimes involve some kind of cross-state connection. It’s supposed to be about interstate commerce, but the courts will go with the tiniest link to commerce if they think the law makes sense.
RE: Fact #30 (Sedition Act Leaves Jefferson Exposed) – Yeah, Adams and Jefferson didn’t get along a lot, but honestly, maybe that’s also because the vice presidency just wasn’t that big a deal back then. For most of U.S. history, the VP role was kind of a dead end—nobody really cared about it. It wasn’t until the Eisenhower era that the VP started having real power. Even though Ike wasn’t a total newcomer, he wasn’t used to the backroom politics needed to push agendas. So he leaned on his VP, Richard Nixon, who was a D.C. insider.
Didn’t get along? Actually, they were super close early on during the Revolutionary War and kept writing letters after politics. The only time they kinda turned against each other was during that 10-year stretch when Adams was ambassador in France and later as VP and president.
RE: Fact #37 (Dinner For One European Tradition) – I first saw this in Norway years ago when I was living there. It airs every year on December 23rd there. I’d never heard of it before. It’s definitely worth watching — pretty funny in a slapstick way.
RE: Fact #9 (Usain Bolt Loses Twelve Million) – Man, he really should’ve just stashed his money away in Switzerland.
RE: Fact #4 (Dr Peppers Hot Lemon Soda) – alright got nothing to do today so lets try this
RE: Fact #3 (Stranger Things 5 Mega Budget) – Wow. No wonder it took them a whole decade to crank out just 40 episodes of this show.
I was just scrolling through Amazon Prime and found this old series I used to watch when I was little. It had four seasons, and each one had 22 episodes! I’ve been totally bingeing the sh*t out of it. Man, I really miss when seasons were long like that.
I’m watching Voyager right now, and back then, 25 episodes in a season was totally normal. The way they told stories was completely different, very episodic. But they’d do these ‘ship in a bottle’ episodes, using the same old sets and maybe just one guest bad guy. All the cash they saved from those went straight into the big season finale with all the explosions and stuff.
Didn’t they say they wanted every single episode of the last season to feel like a mini-movie? Because if so, I really don’t think they hit that mark.
It honestly drives me fu*king crazy because these are NOT mini-movies. The scenes are super short, they switch viewpoints every couple of minutes. What’s even worse, each one feels like two thirty-minute episodes just awkwardly put together. I would have been totally fine, even thrilled, if they actually felt like little movies. But they just aren’t written that way at all.
Well, they never actually specified that these mini-movies had to be any good, did they?
RE: Fact #26 (Lorelei Linklater Begs Boyhood Death) – He downplayed her role in the second half of the movie. I think this fact makes it sound way more intense than it actually is.
She went off to college and started living on her own. That’s totally normal and super common.
Yeah, it felt normal. Your siblings are your whole world when you’re a kid, and usually you grow apart as everyone goes off chasing their own dreams.
I actually used to know Loreli. Not super well, but enough to get a sense of her personality. She used to date my friend. She hung out at the dive bar I worked at and lived with him and four other dudes in a crumbling mansion in North Portland. Think fight club house. She definitely came across as really well adjusted and normal. I don’t think she had any issues with her dad—she never said anything negative about him and didn’t seem upset when I casually mentioned Dazed and Confused is one of my top five movies. I didn’t even know she was that Loreli Linklater until I got to know her for a few months.
RE: Fact #28 (Jakarta Becomes Worlds Largest City) – Fun fact: the ranking change happens because the UN switched to a new way of defining city populations.
Bonus fact: Jakarta is actually a province. That’s why it has a governor instead of a mayor. The five boroughs—North, East, South, West, and Central Jakarta—are all cities too, each with its own mayor. Central Jakarta is the capital of the province. Even more fun: each of those five cities has a kecamatan that acts as its capital. Like, Menteng is the capital of Central Jakarta. TLDR: You dawg, I heard you like capitals…
So I was thinking, last year’s official pop was 10.6 million.
That’s a lot of fuckin’
Jakarta proper is 10 million people. The whole Jakarta metro area hits 42 million.
RE: Fact #17 (Black Tom Blast Scars Liberty) – It actually turned out German agents were behind it, but everyone kept it under wraps so the U.S. would stay neutral in WWI. That depot was being used to get supplies ready for their enemies.
RE: Fact #40 (Easy Bake Ovens Burn Children) – I remember this because I got that oven for Christmas 2006 and I was so mad when we had to send it back! We got an exchange voucher from Hasbro though, and I still remember standing in my parents’ office, looking over my mom’s shoulder while we went through a long list of toys I could get instead. I ended up picking the Fur Real Friends Chimpanzee — I loved him a lot — until one night, when his shiny black eyes just stared back at me in the dark. So I got up and moved him to my little sister’s room so I could sleep. LOL!!!
I didn’t realize they were never replaced with a fixed version, but that totally explains why I stopped seeing them. I remember a bunch of kids I knew had one and then suddenly nobody did, but I never really asked why. lol. Maybe my parents sending it back is why the one my sister and I shared disappeared. I was really young back then and my memory’s garbage. I do remember eventually getting that creepy crawler oven thing though, and that was real.
I mean, even back when I was a kid, I knew a full oven could be a mess. Me and my friends always loved dropping snacks in there. Those combo things were awesome.
RE: Fact #18 (Bank Of England Gold Mountain) – So we literally dig it up from the ground, clean it all up, and then just stash it away somewhere.
In Canada, we just don’t even bother digging it up. That way, nobody can steal it.
Actually, Canada’s one of the rare countries that doesn’t hold any gold reserves anymore. They actually sold all theirs off in the last twenty years or so.
RE: Fact #22 (KORB Forehead Tattoo Radio Prank) – I’m kinda fuzzy on whether it was this particular station or a different one, but I’m pretty sure someone actually got paid out. I heard they called the station up to double-check if it was for real, and that ended up making a verbal agreement that was actually enforceable. Way different from just some April Fool’s thing on a website.
Oh, you might be thinking of that guy who got ‘KRUD’ tattooed right on his forehead. Seems like he actually won his lawsuit against the radio station, if I recall.
That whole thing was on one of those TV judge programs though, so I always kinda wondered if it was actually true or just made up for the cameras.
Alright, new plan: I’ll get my buddy who works at some big company to set up a phony promotion. Then I’ll give him a call on his work phone, make sure it’s recorded, and get him to verbally confirm it. Bam. Easy money.
Just so you know, you’d totally have to erase every single trace of ever knowing him and basically never talk to him again after that if you both wanna avoid jail time.
RE: Fact #9 (Usain Bolt Loses Twelve Million) – Ah, is that why he’s been popping up in all these ads recently?
Nah, I’d actually much rather watch a series of silly novelty races. Like, Bolt racing against different kinds of animals.
Huh, guess it really is everywhere! He was even in a laundry detergent ad where I live. Good on him for finding ways to keep making money.
Totally saw that commercial when I was using my VPN!
Even in Ireland! He’s all over the buses here, advertising detergent.
Yeah, so I’m completely cool with him doing all that.
RE: Fact #6 (Napoleon II Calls Life Zero) – most of his body got moved to paris in 1940 but his heart and guts stayed in vienna thats some traditional stuff for the habsburg family his heart is in some urn and his guts are in another one whats up with that tradition
RE: Fact #24 (Roman Consuls Make January First) – It’s actually crazy how much of our modern lives still run on Roman Republic admin stuff. Before 153 BCE, the year started in March—which is why months like September, October, November, and December don’t match their numbers anymore. We’re basically stuck with a 2,000-year-old system patch that never got fully removed.
RE: Fact #21 (Egg Thief Colin Watson Falls) – Yeah, he was probably a real rotten guy.
Just noticing, if you rearrange ‘Colin Watson’, it spells ‘Owl Sanction’.
Definitely no kidding around, that dude was totally wrecked.
RE: Fact #34 (Super Bowl Classified Top Risk) – If you’re wondering, other Level 1 SEAR events are things like the Rose Bowl, the Boston Marathon, and the United Nations General Assembly. Level 2 SEAR events include the Kentucky Derby, the Indianapolis 500, Las Vegas New Year’s Eve, and Papal visits.
Was the Boston Marathon always level 1 or only after the deaths?
RE: Fact #35 (Indiana Gas Boom Burns Itself) – A bunch of tiny towns have these super fancy town halls from that era, built when taxes were high and people thought the good times were gonna last.
RE: Fact #18 (Bank Of England Gold Mountain) – Oh, I totally saw a documentary about that! It’s like, the bank is managed by goblins and you have to ride a roller coaster just to get to your vault when you want some cash.
RE: Fact #46 (Japan Separates Shinto From Buddhism) – Like, it gets even messier because there were all these different kinds of Buddhism in Japan. And same with Shinto—there were all sorts of different versions of it too. What you see as Shinto nowadays is basically a mix at best, and more like a made-up version at worst.
I’m glad the vengeful spirits got merged together. There were just way too many to keep up with.
And it at least makes it easier for superpowered teenagers to know who to fight. Also, having all the life energy systems work together seamlessly without needing adapters is a big plus.
It’s cool to see that the worship of vengeful spirits actually started as a way of protesting the rulers back in the 10th century. Instead of saying outright that the leaders were failing, people just asked the vengeful spirits to stop the disasters—kind of like sarcasm. So worshipping those spirits was really just a form of anti-emperor sentiment. Meanwhile, State Shintoism in the 19th century was just a way to give legitimacy to the emperor, who had been forgotten for 600 years.
RE: Fact #50 (Gaia Theory Earth Self Regulating) – Isn’t this kind of the theme that shows up in some Final Fantasy games, including the movie?
RE: Fact #32 (Viking DNA Traces CCR5 Resistance) – Some old voice in my head just said, “Back in my day, we only got sick from plowing fields in the cold, not plowing animals.”
There are some people who’d say neigh.
RE: Fact #27 (Lertlaks Glitched Thai Millionaire Win) – In other countries, the host doesn’t see the answer until the contestant says “final answer” — she shouldn’t’ve had that edge.
The main issue is that the Thai version isn’t licensed — Celador hasn’t gotten the rights from the copyright holder yet. The system they used wasn’t made by Celador, it was built by them themselves, so that’s why the glitch happened.
I remember an interview with Regis where he confirmed this. His screen only highlighted the answer after the contestant said “final answer.” He didn’t go into details, but it probably made sense, just in case there was a wiring mix-up.
It probably works best if the host doesn’t know the answer so they can’t steer the contestants either on purpose or just by accident. How the host reacts to what the contestants say can hint if they’re right or wrong. Body language, facial expressions, or even tone of voice can give big clues. Of course, you can’t stop the host from giving hints if they actually know the answer, and I’ve seen that happen on quiz shows. But it still makes sense to keep the host in the dark if possible.
The UK version has always had that, and in the newer seasons one of the lifelines is ask the host.
Even a great host might have tells. Like if someone said something that would cost them a million, you’d feel like you had to point it out.
That makes sense because even a seasoned host might accidentally give it away if they react with their voice or body movement while reading out the possible answers.
RE: Fact #12 (Passport Typo Traps James Ray) – My first thought was that was a weird destination, but then I remembered he was planning to be a mercenary in Angola, Rhodesia, or South Africa. And yeah, those absolutely sound like the places a white segregationist would admire.
Totally, I thought it was a weird idea too, but I kinda forgot about Rhodesia there for a second. That actually explains things pretty well.
He probably had this completely deluded thought, something along the lines of ‘They’re all just savages, so obviously they’ll make *me*, a white man, their king!’
Hold on, all three of those countries already had white governments. It was likely more about ‘Getting paid to shoot n…!’
Those areas were all governed by white minorities or colonials back then.
RE: Fact #23 (Arrow Lodged In Henry V) – It’s weird that the surgeon was in jail.
Was he pardoned after that? The fact only says he got cash for his efforts.
The surgeon was also a blacksmith, and he ended up in prison for making fake coins. That same skill let him build a custom sterile tool to pull the arrowhead out of the king’s jaw.
So you’re saying sterile tools? That doesn’t make sense because germ theory came way after Henry V’s time.
So what happened to him after? Was he pardoned?
RE: Fact #47 (Jules Vernes Early Product Placement) – Poor Verne. If only he’d taken the time to learn about product placement and other marketing tricks, maybe he wouldn’t be completely forgotten and irrelevant today.
RE: Fact #38 (Romans Blast Las Medulas Mountains) – Man, reading that on factrepublic is wild. Greenland ice core samples showed air pollution peaked back then, with lead levels so high they wouldn’t show up again for another 1700 years—like during the industrial revolution. That’s insane.
A lot of Roman lead mining was actually about separating out the silver, since it’s often mixed in with lead in the ore.
Yeah, galena is the name for the mixed silver and lead ore, or at least one of them.
RE: Fact #33 (Rib Hadda Spams Akhenaten Court) – Rib-Hadda was eventually exiled by his younger brother, and not long after that, depending on how you read EA 162, either got killed or was offered a mayorship in Sidon. That’s a pretty big gap in interpretation.
Yeah, that’s just a classic “send them to the train station” thing.
He was either offered some super fancy, luxurious shoes, or they just shoved cement in his feet and dumped him in the river. We’re honestly not sure which happened.
RE: Fact #7 (Titanic Lone Billion Dollar Original) – But what about the original Avatar movie?
It’s pretty silly they don’t count it, especially since the follow-up dropped a whole decade after the first movie. Still, it is technically a franchise now.
Except it wasn’t a franchise back when it made that billion dollars.
Sure, it’s a franchise these days, but it definitely wasn’t when it first launched. Their phrasing is totally designed to get a specific answer.
Right? The original Frozen should totally count, but it doesn’t just because it ended up getting a sequel…
I completely agree. That’s basically saying this whole accomplishment becomes pointless the moment Titanic 2 eventually appears.
RE: Fact #32 (Viking DNA Traces CCR5 Resistance) – I’ve got a version of that gene that would cut my viral load in half if I ever got HIV. I’m 61 and I don’t do any risky stuff, but it’s kinda cool.
RE: Fact #15 (Jonathan James Teen NASA Hacker) – Back in ’83, some kid accidentally made it look like a nuclear attack was happening. Governments believed it was real, and we got terrifyingly close to nuclear war. Good thing they literally decided to just play tic tac toe at the very end.
Sadly, it feels like nuclear doom is on my mind pretty much constantly.
RE: Fact #8 (Tolkien Shrinks Gollum After Jansson) – I’ve heard authors do stuff like this frequently. They picture a character so clearly in their head, like they’re 50, they just forget to actually mention that in the book.
Here’s a great example from the early art in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. A character named Twoflower gets called ‘four eyes’. The artist thought that was literal and drew him with four eyes.
When I read it, I wasn’t really sure about the eye situation myself. Rincewind had no clue what glasses were, so his way of describing things really showed that.
It’s interesting how Tolkien didn’t really give visual descriptions for his Dwarves and Elves in Lord of the Rings. He just assumed everyone knew what they looked like already. Ironically, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves premiered that very same year, and Tolkien totally hated it!
The dwarves in Snow White are really tiny, but visually, they’re pretty close to what Tolkien had in mind, aren’t they?
RE: Fact #44 (Picketts Charge Confederacys High Water) – On the same day, Grant took Vicksburg, cutting off reliable Confederate supply lines through the Transmississippi. While the east stayed pretty much the same in terms of front lines, Grant, Sherman, and others were already breaking up the western Confederate states.
Like a lot of historians have pointed out, the Eastern Theatre gets all the hype in people’s minds, but actually, the Civil War was won in the West, along the Mississippi.
Fair point — if Lee had actually crushed the Union Army at Gettysburg, like he hoped, say killing or capturing half the soldiers and taking most of the field artillery, the Confederacy might’ve had a shot at winning even with Grant’s win at Vicksburg. The Western Theater was where the war was really won, but the Eastern Theater was where the South even had a real chance.
RE: Fact #18 (Bank Of England Gold Mountain) – Good thing they didn’t go and sell any of it when prices were super low back in the 90s, huh?
Yeah, I actually looked that up, and you’re spot on. They really didn’t unload much of it during the nineties.
RE: Fact #38 (Romans Blast Las Medulas Mountains) – That was a serious effort.
60k slaves, a ton of water, and 250 years.
They left an amazing mark on the world, but the brutality it took to get there is pretty scary.
Mining at Las Médulas and other Roman sites was huge and definitely messed up the environment. data shows ice cores from Greenland point to a spike in mineral air pollution back then. Lead levels during the Roman era were way up and didn’t go back down until the Industrial Revolution, about 1,700 years later.