26 Boston Tea Party $2.3M Loss
The tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, had an estimated value equivalent to about $2.3 million in today’s money. That night, members of the Sons of Liberty boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water to protest the Tea Act and British taxation.
27. When bilingual people switch languages mid-sentence, a practice known as code-switching, the brain does not treat the shift as unusual. Researchers at New York University found that the brain uses the same mechanism to combine words regardless of whether they come from one language or two. Their study showed that bilingual speakers process mixed-language sentences using the same neural system that builds sentences in a single language. This suggests that code-switching is neurologically seamless for bilingual brains.
28. Singapore has an official Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) that regulates the ethnic composition of public housing estates. Introduced in 1989, the policy sets limits on how many units in each Housing and Development Board (HDB) block and neighborhood can be owned by households from specific ethnic groups. The system was designed to prevent the formation of ethnic enclaves and encourage daily interaction among Chinese, Malay, Indian, and other communities in the city-state.
29. In 1453, King Henry VI of England fell into a catatonic stupor that lasted about 18 months. The episode began shortly after England suffered a major military defeat in the Hundred Years’ War, and Henry became unable to speak, move, or respond to people around him. During this period he reportedly failed to react even when his newborn son, Edward of Westminster, was presented to him. Historians believe the illness may have been inherited from his maternal grandfather, Charles VI of France, who experienced similar episodes of mental instability.
30. In 2016, researchers in Borneo observed a female orangutan enlist a male to help attack and kill another female, marking the first recorded case of a female orangutan killing another female. During the encounter, the attacking female repeatedly assaulted the victim while the male restrained her, allowing the attack to continue for more than half an hour. Scientists described the cooperation as highly unusual, since orangutan violence rarely involves coordinated attacks.
31 1917 Medal Of Honor Purge
In 1917, the U.S. Army’s Medal of Honor Review Board revoked 911 previously awarded Medals of Honor after raising the standards required for the decoration. Many of the rescinded medals had been granted during the American Civil War, often for actions such as reenlisting rather than for extraordinary combat heroism. Only a small number of the revoked medals were later restored.
32. The rivers in the Swiss cities of Bern and Basel are clean enough that some locals actually commute by swimming. In summer, people jump into the Aare River in Bern or the Rhine in Basel, letting the current carry them downstream toward home or work. Many swimmers place their clothes and belongings in waterproof dry bags so they stay dry while floating along the river.
33. In Nepal, young girls known as Kumari are worshiped as living goddesses until they reach puberty, when they are traditionally replaced after their first menstruation. One Kumari of Patan, chosen in 1953, never began menstruating and therefore remained in the role for more than three decades. She served as the goddess until 1984, when authorities removed her and appointed a successor despite her objections.
34. Switzerland’s sewage system contains millions of dollars worth of precious metals each year, including gold and silver. A 2017 study of 64 wastewater treatment plants estimated that about 6,600 pounds of silver and nearly 100 pounds of gold pass through Swiss sewage annually. Much of the gold originates from gold-refining operations. In most places the metals are too widely dispersed to recover economically.
35. Tuvan throat singer Aldyn-ool Sevek was renowned for producing a style of overtone singing that other performers struggled to imitate. A master of the Mongolian and Tuvan throat-singing tradition, he was widely respected for the unusual depth and clarity of his voice. Fellow musicians often described his sound as virtually impossible to reproduce. Sevek died of throat cancer in 2011.
36 John Robert Gregg’s Speed Writing
Gregg shorthand is a handwriting system designed to be written faster than normal longhand or typing. Developed by American educator John Robert Gregg in 1888, the system uses simple curves and strokes to represent sounds rather than letters. Shorthand writers skilled in it can record speech extremely quickly, and some masters have reached speeds of around 280 words per minute.
37. Some weeds have evolved to mimic the crops they grow among, making them harder for farmers to detect and remove. When farmers repeatedly pull out the obvious weeds, they unintentionally select for plants that look more like the crop, allowing those look-alikes to survive and reproduce. Over generations this process can make the weed increasingly resemble the cultivated plant. The phenomenon is known as Vavilovian mimicry, named after Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov, who first described it.
38. American high school football coach Kevin Kelley of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, adopted an unusually aggressive strategy that almost never involved punting. Instead, his team frequently attempted fourth-down conversions and regularly tried onside kicks whenever the score was within 21 points. Kelley believed keeping possession gave his team better odds than giving the ball away. The approach proved successful, as Pulaski Academy won nine Arkansas state championships, including four consecutive titles from 2014 to 2017 (as of March 2026).
39. In 1487, a young boy claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, the Yorkist heir to the English throne, during the reign of King Henry VII. Backed by Yorkist supporters, the boy was crowned “King Edward VI” in Dublin, Ireland, and became the figurehead of a rebellion against the Tudor king. The uprising ended after Henry VII’s forces defeated the rebels at the Battle of Stoke Field, widely considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses. Because of the boy’s young age, Henry pardoned him and put him to work in the royal kitchens, and the pretender’s real name remains unknown even today.
40. All puppies from the same litter are technically fraternal twins because each develops from a separate egg fertilized by a different sperm. Identical twins in dogs are extremely rare, and the first scientifically confirmed case involved two Irish wolfhound puppies born in South Africa. Veterinarian Kurt de Cramer discovered the twins during a Caesarean section when he noticed they shared a single placenta. DNA testing later confirmed the puppies were genetically identical.
41 1972 Iran Killer Blizzard
The 1972 Iran blizzard is considered the deadliest blizzard in recorded history. From February 3 to 9, 1972, a series of storms buried large parts of the country under snow, with some areas receiving up to about 26 feet (7.9 meters). Entire rural communities were overwhelmed, and around 200 villages were completely buried under the snow. The disaster killed more than 4,000 people across northwestern, central, and southern Iran.
42. Canadian naturopath Hulda Regehr Clark wrote books such as The Cure for All Cancers, The Cure for All Diseases, and The Prevention of All Cancers, claiming she could cure serious illnesses. Clark promoted alternative treatments that she said could eliminate parasites and toxins responsible for disease. Despite her claims of curing cancer, she died in 2009 in California from multiple myeloma, a blood and bone cancer.
43. The Herxheim archaeological site in Germany dates to around 5000 BC and contains the remains of more than 1,000 individuals. Researchers found evidence that many of the victims had been brought from distant regions before being killed at the settlement. Their bones show cut marks, deliberate breakage, and other signs associated with butchery, leading archaeologists to conclude the victims were likely ritually killed and possibly cannibalized.
44. Cats spend much of their lives asleep, typically sleeping between 12 and 16 hours per day. Their long rest periods help conserve energy for hunting and bursts of activity. Some cats, especially kittens and older animals, can sleep as much as 20 hours in a single day.
45. John Lennon ended his five-year recording hiatus in 1980 after hearing the B-52’s song “Rock Lobster.” Lennon later said the track reminded him of his wife, Yoko Ono. In his words, “[Rock Lobster] sounds just like Ono’s music, so I said to meself, ‘it’s time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!’.” The moment helped inspire Lennon to return to recording, which led to the release of the album Double Fantasy later that year.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Aurelian Reunites Rome In Five Years
Roman Emperor Aurelian ruled during the turbulent Crisis of the Third Century and managed to reunite the fractured Roman Empire. He defeated the breakaway Palmyrene Empire in the east and the Gallic Empire in the west, restoring imperial unity. Aurelian also repelled Germanic invasions, introduced coinage reforms, promoted the cult of Sol Invictus as a supreme imperial deity, and ordered the construction of the Aurelian Walls around Rome, which protected the city for centuries. Despite these sweeping achievements, his reign lasted only about five years, from 270 to 275 AD.
47. In 2012, doctors reported the first known case of nonischemic priapism following penile tattooing. A man developed a persistent semi-erection after getting a tattoo on his penis, likely caused by vascular changes from the procedure. Surgeons attempted to correct the condition, but the operation was unsuccessful. Because the erection remained painless and did not affect sexual function, the man ultimately chose to live with it.
48. Mexico’s official name is the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos). The name reflects the country’s federal system of government, which consists of 32 states and a federal district.
49. After American General Benedict Arnold defected to the British during the Revolutionary War, his betrayal outraged people in his hometown of Norwich, Connecticut. Anger intensified in 1781 when British forces under Arnold attacked and burned the nearby port of New London. According to local accounts, furious residents responded by digging up the grave of Arnold’s father and throwing the bones into a river.
50. Taylor Swift sends flowers to American singer Kelly Clarkson after each “Taylor’s Version” album re-release. Clarkson had publicly suggested that Swift should re-record the songs from albums whose master recordings she did not own, allowing her to regain control of the music. At the time, Swift was upset that the masters of her first six albums had been sold to a third party.
RE: Fact #3 (Yuri Gagarin’s Phone Call Landing) – Anyone into space history should check out “The Wrong Stuff” by John Strausbaugh. It’s a great look at the Soviet space program’s massive highs and lows.
That was a solid read. Another good one is Accent by Jed Mercurio. It’s historical fiction about a timeline where the Soviets win the moon race but keep it under wraps. It’s super interesting seeing the main character dogfighting original astronauts over Korea.
RE: Fact #24 (Saudi Arabia’s Hormuz Bypass Pipeline) – It can only handle about two-thirds of the crude oil the Saudis usually ship through that strait. It doesn’t even cover the refined products, so Europe is going to start feeling the squeeze on jet fuel pretty soon.
It can manage roughly 5 million barrels of crude a day, but more than 21 million pass through the strait daily, so that’s maybe a quarter of the total. The real issue is Iran targeting the actual refineries and pumping stations. We could see a massive drop in production capacity if this keeps escalating. Things are looking pretty dire for the region right now.
RE: Fact #33 (Patan Kumari’s 31-Year Reign) – My dad knew a woman who grew up in a cult around LA. Her mom was pregnant when the leader decided she’d be their goddess, so she was raised as one. She left eventually, but she says cult members still track her down sometimes and try to get her back because they still buy into the whole goddess thing.
RE: Fact #32 (Bern And Basel Swimming Commute) – Can we stop spreading this weird myth online? Im from Switzerland and commuting by river is just not a thing. You can clearly see in the pictures that those people are just hanging out on a sunny day.
The idea of swimming to work is easily one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.
RE: Fact #15 (John F. Kennedy Jr Crash) – I was just a baby when he died, but I grew up with this idea that JFK Jr. was destined for greatness if not for that tragic crash. After looking into it, he was just a regular guy and that crash wasn’t some random fluke. He wasn’t exactly a scholar, struggled with the bar exam, and had a mediocre career as an editor. The myth of his perfection existed because he was rich, handsome, and famous. He definitely overestimated himself, which is what led to his death. He made some major errors, especially considering he was already nursing a leg injury.
People never really called that crash a freak accident. It was always pretty obviously blamed on the weather and his lack of experience.
That feels a little simple, but I mostly agree. Look at RFK Jr; the Kennedys aren’t special at all.
I hung out with him a few times. Honestly, the guy was dense as a rock. Super sweet, but totally clueless. Once, when asked about his work, he said “I look the judge in the eye, I say your honor, my name is John Kennedy and I am representing then I say their name and then…”
I bought some flight gear from a guy who had Kennedy’s autograph in his logbook. They took flight classes together. He mentioned Kennedy would copy off people and need the basics explained constantly. He didn’t think he should have passed his test, so when the news broke later, he wasn’t shocked at all. A famous name might open doors, but it won’t change the laws of physics.
RE: Fact #31 (1917 Medal Of Honor Purge) – Reenlisting back then was a huge deal. It’s easy to sign up when you’re caught up in the hype before you know what war is actually like. It’s a totally different thing to know the carnage coming and sign up for it anyway.
RE: Fact #1 (Disney Churros Outprofit Disney+) – If it’s a money loser, then basically anything else bringing in cash is doing better.
Found out today that Costco actually cleared more cash on nail clippers last year than those hot dog deals!
I get the sarcasm, but it’s worth clarifying for others. People aren’t exactly lining up just for the cheap lunch. By keeping food court prices low, they prevent folks from heading out just because they’re hungry. You grab a quick bite and keep wandering the aisles, which is exactly why you showed up.
Profit news can be super misleading if you don’t look at the details. You should look at revenue before anything else. The write-up actually breaks it down: Churros brought in $35 million while Disney+ hit $20.6 billion, so that’s a massive difference. Big companies often take hits in specific areas while chasing growth. A $1.7 billion loss isn’t a huge deal for a business making $20.6 billion a year. Headlines claiming stuff like “profit up 30%” are the absolute worst since it might just mean a jump from ten bucks to thirteen.
They also just pulled a bunch of random guesses to get those figures. Assuming a third of all park visitors buy a churro? They’ve got zero proof of that.
RE: Fact #18 (Admiral Matome Ugaki’s Final Kamikaze) – Kamikazes are this weird mix of fascinating, horrific, and romanticized. I guess for the guys involved, it’s like someone jumping on a grenade to save their buddies, and you have to respect a commander willing to share the same awful fate as his crew. Still, it was pointless from the start. I’m no expert on WWII, but I doubt those strikes changed much. If war is usually a waste, being a kamikaze is even more futile.
RE: Fact #30 (Female Orangutan Murder Alliance) – It’s weird to hear about orangutans being violent, since they seem so chill usually.
RE: Fact #6 (Christine Collins’ Missing Son Case) – The LAPD was so crooked back then that the detective who locked her up eventually got canned for framing someone else for murder.
Yeah, back in those days…
RE: Fact #49 (Benedict Arnold Father’s Grave Desecrated) – Folks in England didn’t really care for him much either. Sure, they might have thrown a fact his way, but they certainly didn’t like or rely on him. That’s just what happens to traitors. Plus, the people you switch to don’t want to make you look like a hero because they’re afraid someone else might jump ship too.
RE: Fact #37 (Nikolai Vavilov’s Crop Mimicry) – Weeds win if they look enough like the crop to get harvested alongside it. People think that’s how rye and oats became crops. Rye looked like barley and wheat, but since it handled cold weather better, it eventually became a valuable crop itself in northern areas.
RE: Fact #41 (1972 Iran Killer Blizzard) – They were probably thrilled after four years of drought. Then the snow just wouldn’t fu*king stop.
One annoying thing about long droughts is that the ground gets terrible at absorbing water. There was some brutal flooding after the ’72 blizzard because the snow melted so fast. I searched a while back to see if soil sealing or hydrophobicity was to blame but couldn’t find any clear research. It’s just a pet theory I’m pretty sure about.
Soil hydrophobicity is definitely real, but usually, drier soil is better at soaking up moisture. That effect only really matters during specific kinds of flash floods.
RE: Fact #37 (Nikolai Vavilov’s Crop Mimicry) – That’s just how evolution functions, right? It isn’t that individuals grow new traits, but rather that only the ones born with the right tools stick around long enough to have offspring.
RE: Fact #23 (Kaiser Wilhelm’s War Outburst) – WWI looks like a carefully laid plan in hindsight, but it was really just a mess of decisions spiraling out of control.
Nothing is ever 100% inevitable. People only say that because they’re repeating what they’ve heard, and looking back at the buildup makes it seem like a straight line to war. It makes for a clean story, but that isn’t how life works. It usually just takes a few hawks in the right spots to force a conflict at a bad time. That could have happened during the Cold War or even today. There’s this book from 1909 called “The Great Illusion” that argued a big war in Europe was impossible because it made no economic sense. The book was a hit, but it was totally wrong because the leaders involved weren’t always thinking rationally. Before 1914, we had crises like the Moroccan and Bosnian ones where leaders saber-rattled but eventually backed down. War only started because a random teenager managed to assassinate a universally hated heir to a crumbling empire. If that hadn’t happened, those hawks might have been replaced by cooler heads. For example, if Franz Ferdinand had survived until he became emperor, he likely would’ve blocked a war in Serbia. You could play the what-if game with almost anyone in power at that time.
Let’s be real, if the Cuban Missile Crisis had triggered WW3, people would just be saying it was bound to happen. It probably did in some alternate universe where the Cold War wrapped up with a third world war.
I always thought the Cuba situation was a prime example of everyone being a WWII vet. Deep down, they all knew they didn’t want to go through that nightmare again, so they kept their heads.
RE: Fact #16 (Macklemore’s Independent #1 Hit) – Hearing stuff like this makes me realize how long ago the 2010s really were. It’s enough time to see how different the culture used to be compared to now.
RE: Fact #40 (South Africa’s Identical Puppies) – It’s probably way more common than reported. I don’t know many folks running DNA tests on random puppies to see if they’re clones.
RE: Fact #4 (Dr. Abid Hanson Flight Death) – “The US Supreme Court ruled last week that Olympic Airways must pay a doctor’s widow $1.4m. The case arose out of a flight from Athens to San Francisco in January 1998, when Dr Abid M Hanson, aged 52, a Californian doctor, was travelling home with his wife and children. Dr Hanson had an asthmatic reaction to cigarette smoke, and his wife asked three times that he be switched to a seat nearer the front of the plane, away from the smokers. The flight attendant at first said there were no empty seats, and later said she was too busy to help him find a passenger prepared to change places with him. It was alleged, however, that there were 11 empty seats and a large group of airline employees, who could have been asked to switch seats. About two hours into the flight, Dr Hanson moved to the front of the plane to get further from the smokers. Leaning against a seat near the plane’s galley, he gestured to his wife to bring him his emergency kit, which she did, and administered a shot of epinephrine. She awoke an allergist with whom they had been travelling, who gave him a second shot. When Dr Hanson’s heart stopped, the allergist administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation and oxygen. Despite all efforts, Dr Hanson died. In their 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that the flight attendant’s refusal constituted an “accident” under the treaty governing airline liability, the Warsaw Convention. Richard Daynard, professor of law at Northeastern University in Boston, who is chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, which assists in suits against tobacco companies, said that a successful suit by a passenger against an airline over smoking may be unprecedented.”
RE: Fact #19 (Central African Citizenship: 35 Years) – Back in 2012, the fees to apply for naturalization hit 5 million XAF, which is about €7, 622 or $9, 021.
And considering the GDP is roughly $400 a year, you’d better start saving early for that 35-year journey toward citizenship in the CAR.
RE: Fact #16 (Macklemore’s Independent #1 Hit) – Saved you a click: >It was also only the second independent song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, nearly 20 years after Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” in 1994.
I would’ve put money on The Offspring having a number one hit on Epitaph.
That Lisa Loeb example feels like a bit of a stretch. It was produced independently, but didn’t hit the charts until it landed on the Reality Bites soundtrack through RCA. Calling it independent with Universal and RCA involved is definitely pushing the definition.
Independent just means the artist didn’t have a label contract back then.
RE: Fact #41 (1972 Iran Killer Blizzard) – To put it in perspective, Buffalo had a record storm that dropped about 7 feet of snow and basically paralyzed the city. 26 feet is taller than a two-story home. I can’t even imagine that covering an entire region.
RE: Fact #6 (Christine Collins’ Missing Son Case) – “;…because Capt. Jones, afraid that Collins would publicly embarrass the Los Angeles Police Department with her claim that they’d reunited her with the wrong child, had her committed to an insane asylum. What was the end game for this POS? Just say she was crazy and blow her off forever? >Christine was not released until ten days after Hutchens admitted that he was not her son and filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department. She won a lawsuit against Jones and was awarded $10, 800, which Jones refused to pay.”
RE: Fact #3 (Yuri Gagarin’s Phone Call Landing) – “At about 7 kilometers above the Earth, Gagarin ejected from Vostok 1 as planned and parachuted to the ground. A local farmer and his daughter observed the spherical metal ball of Vostok 1 smashing into the ground, followed by Gagarin gently floating in for a landing in his orange flight suit. Gagarin later recalled: “When they saw me in my space suit, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don’t be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!””
Russia couldn’t figure out how to land the ship with a pilot inside within the weight limits, so they just had the craft crash while the human ejected.
Also, Yuri was super short because the capsule was tiny, so they needed small guys to fit inside.
The Soviets kept that quiet for a while because they worried people would claim the flight didn’t count if the ship didn’t land in one piece.
Is the part in the Top Gun sequel where the plane blows up and he walks into a diner supposed to be a nod to this?
This stuff has happened before. In the sixties, a B-52 went down over North Carolina and the crew bailed. A Black trainee was actually arrested by military police for ‘stealing’ his own parachute when he tried to get back to base. They didn’t buy his story until his white colleague showed up and forced them to check with the tower.
RE: Fact #20 (Philibert Aspairt Catacombs Death) – It’s honestly wild that only one person has disappeared in over 200 years of the catacombs existing, especially considering how pitch-black and maze-like they are. That guy was just incredibly unlucky.
RE: Fact #33 (Patan Kumari’s 31-Year Reign) – Dhana Kumari Bajracharya has her own Wikipedia page. It looks like even though her official status is gone, she still lives as a Kumari and the locals still treat her like one.
<blockquote><p>It is said that the priest who wanted Bajracharya’s Kumari pension to be cancelled died suddenly and unexpectedly. The natives of Patan believe till this day that the priest was punished by the Gods for this illegal cancellation of the Kumari pension. .</p></blockquote> Guess he shouldn’t have fu*ked with the Jesus… I mean, Kumari
Don’t forget that time she and Harold went to White Castle and made Neil Patrick Harris cool again.
I’m mostly confused about why she didn’t start puberty. Maybe a god can actually hit the pause button on periods. Honestly, that’s a deity worth worshipping.
If you keep looking for young girls who haven’t hit puberty yet, you’re bound to find an outlier who just never does.
RE: Fact #16 (Macklemore’s Independent #1 Hit) – Some people can’t stand this track now, but it’s such a time capsule. It really feels like the anthem of 2010s millennial culture. A lot of the hate comes from when Macklemore won Best Rap Album over Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, ” which is widely viewed as a masterpiece. Even Kanye’s “Yeezus” was in the mix, and people felt strongly about that too.
RE: Fact #4 (Dr. Abid Hanson Flight Death) – I was once seated next to a chain smoker and asked the flight attendant to move since I booked non-smoking. She checked and said my seat was technically right, since the smoking section started literally at the next seat.
Back in the 80s, I was a smoker and the designated section was in the back. I sat down and lit up once the sign went off, but saw the guy in front was clearly bothered. I realized he had the last non-smoking seat and I was in the first smoking one. I felt bad making someone uncomfortable, so I put it out and didn’t smoke the rest of the trip. Sorry you had to deal with that.
This is what boggles my mind about smokers. I go way out of my way to make sure nobody has to deal with the sh*t I’m pumping into my lungs.
I really dig this story. It’s not about the smoking or anything, but just seeing a person show genuine kindness to someone else totally out of the blue.
Classic case of the imaginary no-peeing zone in the pool. Who are these geniuses coming up with such brain-dead zoning laws?
RE: Fact #18 (Admiral Matome Ugaki’s Final Kamikaze) – What a wild story. First, it was only a two-seater plane. Then, the guy whose seat the admiral snagged just had to hop in too, turning it into a completely useless suicide mission. Just a total, dumb waste of lives.
RE: Fact #47 (Penile Tattoo Causes Permanent Erection) – From the source –
A 21-year-old Iranian man]has a permanent semi-erection after having “borow be salaamat”and the letter “M”tattooed on his penis. The man, whose name is unknown, was diagnosed with nonischemic priapism – a condition resulting from the inability of blood to exit the penis. His case was detailed in the latest issue of the *Journal of Sexual Medicine*. “In our case, most probably, the handheld needle penetrated the penis too deep, creating an arteriovenous fistula, ” wrote the study authors from Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in Kermanshah, Iran. A fistula is a connection between two organs or vessels – in this case an artery and a vein – that normally don’t connect. “For eight days after tattooing, the penis was painful, and thus there were no erections, ” the authors wrote. “After that, the patient noticed longer-than-usual sleep-related erections. This progressed, within a week, to a constantly half-rigid penis, day and night.” … During a normal erection, blood rushes into the penis through the arteries to build up pressure and later leaves through the veins. But in nonischemic priapism, blood continues to enter faster than it can leave, causing persistent pressure and a permanent erection. The problem resolves naturally 62% of the time, the researchers reported. And when it doesn’t, men have the option of selective arterial embolism – a procedure that blocks the offending artery. Instead, the Iranian man chose to have a shunt implanted to drain the excess blood, according to the report. “Predictably, the procedure was unsuccessful, ” the authors wrote. “Because of the painless nature of erections, moderately good preservation of erectile function during intercourses, and disappointment with former surgery, the patient has declined to undergo further therapies, and lives with his condition.” Despite his permanent erection, the man has no regrets over his penis tattoo, according to the report. Nevertheless, the report authors advise against the practice. “Based on our unique case, we discourage penile tattooing, ” they wrote.
RE: Fact #30 (Female Orangutan Murder Alliance) –
The story revolves around two unrelated adult female orangutans, Sidony and Kondor. Both subjects of the University of Zurich’s Tuanan Orangutan Research Project living in the Indonesian wild. Over the course of 11 years and 26, 000 hours of observation of neighborhood females, Sidony and Kondor had not always gotten along. For instance, Sidony, who was about 20 years Kondor’s senior, was observed in 2009 chasing a then-adolescent Kondor away from her 7-year-old daughter, smacking and biting her as Kondor persisted in her approach. By July of 2014, Kondor was full grown and had already given birth to her first baby. Her infant had died a few weeks earlier, and Kondor was already being courted by a young male named Ekko. Kondor and Ekko were “officially a thing” at the time they wandered into the middle of Sidony’s territory. This is usually no big deal to female orangutans, they don’t defend their territories, and usually don’t complain about sharing space. However, once in Sidony’s territory, Ekko approached Sidony and her 4-year-old son, Sony. He gave her the once-over, and then returned to Kondor to mate with her. When Sidony didn’t immediately retreat, Kondor interrupted their lovemaking to attack the older female. Ekko immediately joined her, and not merely by way of suggesting to the older female that they’d like some privacy. For a half an hour, Kondor and Ekko took turns relentlessly beating and biting Sidony, who never actively defended herself. Sometimes they attacked together, other times one of them assaulted her alone while the other blocked her escape. This attack lasted until Guapo, an older male, came to Sidony’s defense, shielding her, but not using physical force. Over the next few days, Kondor continued to try to attack the severely wounded Sidony, Guapo always intervened on the older female’s behalf, and always without using direct violence. Sidony was last seen alive 12 days after the incident, and was found dead on the 16th day due to wounds sustained during the attack. “*”We reported this case because it was not only first lethal aggression in orangutans, ””* says researcher Anna Marzec, a doctoral student at the University of Zurich, via email, “*“but also because it was very different from lethal attacks reported for other primates.””* “For starters, ” females don’t normally attack other females; when a primate attacks to kill, the instigator and aggressor is practically always male. “Secondly, ” the target of this attack was not Sidony’s child, but Sidony herself. Although infanticide is practically unheard of in orangutans, by either males or females, baby killing is not all that uncommon in other primates like chimpanzees. However, even though Sidony had a young child, Sony was not harmed in the attack, which rules out that motive. “Finally, ” this interaction was unusual because it was different from joint attacks observed in any other primate. For instance, it’s normal enough for chimpanzees to get together to launch a lethal surprise attack on an individual or another band of their own sex, and it’s far more common for the attackers to greatly outnumber the victims. But in this case, Kondor enlisted the help of only one other individual, and one of a different sex, to attempt to kill another female. It’s all *highly* unusual.
RE: Fact #24 (Saudi Arabia’s Hormuz Bypass Pipeline) – Are they actually keeping up with the maintenance? Stuff like that takes forever to get running again.
It’s definitely still in use. There’s enough chaos nearby to keep it running, plus it feeds refineries out in western Saudi Arabia.
RE: Fact #11 (Rahma Haruna’s Bucket Life) – That wiki page doesn’t show a picture, but there is one available elsewhere.
RE: Fact #21 (Ioannis Ikonomou’s 21 Languages) – What a classic example of a random, terrible Wikipedia profile photo.
They’re forced to use public domain photos, and most options don’t fit that criteria.
RE: Fact #20 (Philibert Aspairt Catacombs Death) – I’m not buying it. I saw As Above So Below, so I don’t even want to think about what happened to the rest of the people.
RE: Fact #10 (Last Dinosaur May Be Triceratops) – Finding dinosaur bones is super rare anyway. Most animals just rot away instead of turning into fossils over time.
RE: Fact #17 (Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue Warning) – I love that bit from Herodotus where Dionysius tries to get the Greeks to train properly before fighting the Persians. They all just gave up because they didn’t want to put in the work. So he basically said “forget you guys” and became a pirate lord. You’ve got the strong, the weak, and then the pirates.
RE: Fact #47 (Penile Tattoo Causes Permanent Erection) – I guess a guy who’d tattoo his junk is probably the same type who wouldn’t care much about a permanent erection.
RE: Fact #31 (1917 Medal Of Honor Purge) – Saying most were revoked just for reenlisting during the Civil War isn’t quite right. There were 949 guys who signed up for nine months, then got asked to extend their service after the Confederates moved into Pennsylvania. Some said yes, but nobody really knows how many because the record-keeping was a mess. When it came time to hand out medals, they basically told the commander to guess. He handed out 864, but there’s no proof even 300 actually signed up again. Those medals got taken away because they were handed out for literally nothing.
You say it was for nothing, but Gettysburg was won because thousands of guys stayed in the fight even though their contracts were up in 1863. Most volunteers signed on for two years back in ’61. Plus, they’d just survived the meat grinder at Chancellorsville, so they knew sticking around meant a high chance of getting killed or mangled. I remember reading about a New Jersey regiment that finished the war without a single original ’61 veteran, they were all gone, dead, or had deserted. So yeah, offering a Medal of Honor to keep guys in the fight was a tactic. A pretty shady one, which is why those were later rescinded.
RE: Fact #38 (Kevin Kelley’s No-Punt Strategy) – The coach is a total jerk, plus PA is a private school that recruits players and plays in a lower division because of their size. It’s pretty easy to rack up wins when your roster is loaded with talent and you’re playing tiny schools with half the players.
RE: Fact #9 (Nashville’s $1.26B Stadium Subsidy) – Billionaires own these sports teams, so why are they asking for public funds? If they are such huge money makers, why not pay for it privately?
Plenty of places don’t hand out tax money for these projects. California basically never does it. Places like SoFi Field or Oracle Park were built with private cash, but then you have New York and Tennessee just handing out tax dollars regardless.
RE: Fact #46 (Aurelian Reunites Rome In Five Years) – It’s tough to cram everything he did into one fact, so I’ll add more here. Aurelian, or “the World Restorer, ” took over when Rome was at its absolute bottom. The East, Britain, and Gaul had split off, and German tribes were running wild in Italy. He kicked out the invaders, brought back the lost territories, and then started major reforms. He unified the empire’s religion around Sol Invictus, which helped hold off Christianity for a while. He also stopped rampant inflation by cracking down on the mints and giving workers a steady supply of grain. He really turned things around.
RE: Fact #8 (America Stores Electricity In Water) – That info is dated. The stats show massive battery growth, especially in Texas, which has grown huge recently. Batteries are totally changing how the grid functions, and costs are dropping fast. California is a perfect example, they run on solar for hours after sunset because of their battery setup, and they keep expanding.
MW isn’t the right way to measure energy storage. You should really be using MWh.
RE: Fact #37 (Nikolai Vavilov’s Crop Mimicry) – A grim detail: Vavilov, the guy who gave his name to that type of mimicry, ended up executed under Stalin because they disagreed on how plants evolve.
I remember hearing about that. Didn’t it involve plants getting stronger by dealing with tougher environments?
RE: Fact #28 (Singapore’s Ethnic Housing Policy) – Kind of wish more places did this. Ethnic enclaves sound nice, but they usually just create more distance between people.
Singapore is a rare beast because 80% of people live in public housing, and it’s been a one-party state for decades. Aside from maybe Vienna, no one else can really copy their model.
RE: Fact #36 (John Robert Gregg’s Speed Writing) – Steno machines are actually faster. To get certified, rookies need to keep up 225 wpm with over 95% accuracy for five minutes during a two-person Q&A. Pros often hit 250 or 260 for the high-level certs, and some can even push 280. The record is somewhere around 370 wpm.
Wild. So do they just go home and type everything out later? How does that work if you need the transcript? Is it just like typing out what someone said?
Basically, you type on a machine in court that records every keystroke. Once you’re done, you just hook the machine up to a computer and download everything. Special software translates the shorthand into full text, then you go through and clean up any errors. You handle stuff like “strike that” notes during this editing phase. If you work for a courthouse, it is just a constant cycle of transcribing, editing, and turning things in. If you’re a freelancer doing depositions, you’re also dealing with travel and tight deadlines. Most court reporters have this unique vibe: they’re like a mix of a cat person and an 80s office worker. They have barely any spare time, stay on call constantly, and work their fu*king tails off. They basically own the record; if it isn’t transcribed, it didn’t count, so they can keep proceedings on track. If someone is blabbering too fast, the reporter will tell them to slow down, and the judge usually backs them up.
RE: Fact #41 (1972 Iran Killer Blizzard) – There isn’t much info out there, but 26 feet of snow is absolutely wild. I doubt modern society could handle that much volume.
The reporting seems thin here, and it might be confusing total snow depth with drift accumulation. It’s pretty much physically impossible for the weather to dump that much precipitation without some intense tropical energy.
RE: Fact #21 (Ioannis Ikonomou’s 21 Languages) – Guess Estonian is one of the three he hasn’t picked up yet. The other two are Maltese and Irish.
It’s pretty wild he managed to learn Basque, since it’s not really related to any other language.
RE: Fact #13 (Post-Micturition Convulsion Syndrome Explained) – Nobody else gets the shivers when they pee? That’s too bad. It honestly feels like you’re urinating down your back. There is really nothing quite like it.
RE: Fact #23 (Kaiser Wilhelm’s War Outburst) – Wilhelm was super weird about his English family and had a chip on his shoulder regarding his withered arm. He’d show up to family events in over-the-top military gear just to impress Queen Victoria, who reportedly found him exhausting.
RE: Fact #12 (Perfidy: Fake Surrender War Crime) – It’s a war crime because it leads to troops killing those trying to give up. It makes a white flag meaningless. If you can’t trust a surrender, how do you ever stop the fighting?
Most rules of engagement exist so enemies show mercy when you’re the one in trouble. You protect captives hoping they’ll do the same for you. Once that mutual understanding dies, it gets really ugly.
A lot of these rules keep the long-term financial drain of war down too. Otherwise, you’d just have tons of maimed soldiers returning home to be cared for. It’s why there are restrictions on specific weapons meant to cause permanent damage.
I’ve talked to plenty of gung-ho military types about this. These laws exist to keep your own people safe. You want your soldiers coming home in one piece, but if you start treating the other side poorly, they’ll do the exact same thing to yours. Some guys get it, but others think following laws hurts their ability to win. Plus, it doesn’t help when high-level officials start demanding no mercy for enemies, which clearly ignores international rules.
RE: Fact #14 (Bonn-Oberkassel Puppy Nursed By Humans) – We haven’t evolved a bit in 14, 000 years. Stone age folks took care of a sick puppy and buried it right by their side when it passed. It makes total sense that we’re still dropping three grand on emergency vet visits in the middle of the night for a dog that likes eating socks.
My dog actually managed to break her ear just from shaking her head too hard. Cost a few thousand to fix that little goofball. She gave me her word she wouldn’t mess up the other one, so we’re all good now.
Thank god for pet insurance. My dog jumped off the bed and it cost 13k to fix. I bought him a ramp, but he ignores it most of the time. We keep trying though!
RE: Fact #15 (John F. Kennedy Jr Crash) – So, a wealthy guy thought he was better than he was, then killed himself and others. Got it.
I guess he was just keeping the family tradition alive by driving when he shouldn’t and getting someone killed. What a legacy.
RE: Fact #26 (Boston Tea Party $2.3M Loss) – It’s funny how careful the protesters were to avoid messing up the rest of the ship.
RE: Fact #1 (Disney Churros Outprofit Disney+) – I’m pretty sure the parks are way bigger money-makers than any other part of the business, aside from maybe the merch. I’ve always heard Disney is basically a park operator that happens to own a bunch of movies and shows to drive attendance.
Wouldn’t surprise me. I was stuck at an Orlando conference a while back and felt like a prisoner on the property with no easy way to get around. It fu*king sucked because work wouldn’t pay for a car, so I was stuck shelling out for everything. I have no clue how a regular family manages to go.
I heard an executive mention they ran meetings there just to keep the staff from finding trouble, lol.
For sure, those attractions are so popular that the high cost is basically just a way to manage the massive crowds.
I’ve been saying this on boards for ages and always get shouted down. When they rolled out the reservation system in 2020, they used the pandemic as a convenient cover, but they’d been plotting it for years without knowing how to sell it. Lockdowns were the perfect trial run. Once things cleared up, they got heat to remove the limits, so they kept the prices high and switched to surge pricing instead. People complaining that “not everyone can afford this” don’t realize that’s exactly what Disney wants. If they had their way, they’d have slightly lower attendance with way higher ticket costs, keeping total revenue flat while making the experience better for wealthier guests who spend more on trinkets.
It’s not even working, either. They keep jacking up the rates and the place is still a total madhouse.
RE: Fact #17 (Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue Warning) – Exactly. Like many have noted on social media, it was Athenian arrogance that caused the disaster in Sicily back in 415 BC. It eventually led to their defeat by the Peloponnesian League and the rule of the Thirty Tyrants. It’s a core concept of political realism, but people love quoting it without understanding the history behind it.
RE: Fact #6 (Christine Collins’ Missing Son Case) – Lots of movies claim to be true stories, but the reality is usually boring. This one is actually the opposite.
RE: Fact #27 (NYU Study: Seamless Code-Switching) – I’ve got a friend in Sweden who speaks perfect Swedish, but we usually game in English just because. We switch back and forth without thinking. If a third person joins who isn’t used to it, we’ll flip mid-sentence and keep going. Using English casually like that has definitely made me way more comfortable with it.
RE: Fact #39 (Lambert Simnel’s Kitchen Fate) – It means he was just a pawn for adults and didn’t actually lead anything. That explains the job and the pardon. Executing a kid would’ve looked terrible, but they couldn’t just let him go either, since others might use him as a figurehead. Giving him a kitchen job where he could be watched was a smart move.
I don’t know, remember how Richard the Lionheart died?
Henry VII had good reasons to show mercy. Killing a child would have made him look weak and insecure, which was risky given how questionable his claim to the throne was. Plus, since he came to power after Richard III supposedly did away with the Princes in the Tower, he wanted to avoid looking like he was doing the same thing to the Earl of Warwick. Still, Henry VII eventually had the Earl killed when he was in his twenties following an escape attempt. People say it smoothed the path for his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who had a more legitimate claim than the Tudors.
RE: Fact #46 (Aurelian Reunites Rome In Five Years) – Like Mike Duncan mentioned in his Roman history series, Aurelian had the highest peak performance of any emperor, even if others had longer careers.
Wait, a full podcast about the Roman Empire? That is exactly what guys want to hear.
Love that Duncan mention. He also called him the “left hand of God” during those five years.
RE: Fact #13 (Post-Micturition Convulsion Syndrome Explained) – I’ve always compared that feeling to the relief you get after finally using the bathroom. It’s a seriously underrated sensation.
That’s why I’ve heard them called piss shivers back in the day.
It really is. You can’t just force it, so you appreciate it when it happens. It’s not just peeing, it’s that moment after you’ve been holding it way too long and finally let go.
That’s exactly like the relief you feel when you let out a massive sneeze. It feels amazing!
RE: Fact #2 (Andrew Carnegie’s 2, 509 Libraries) – One of the spots in Waukegan, IL, was a personal favorite of Ray Bradbury. They recently turned it into a local history museum, [including Bradbury’s personal book collection.]
I love places like this, but 19 hours a week? That’s wild. Even with a tight budget, that’s barely anything. It’s like they’re trying to keep people away, especially with those weird closing times.
Hardly anyone visits, and it’s all run by volunteers. I work by a tiny spot with similar hours and they get maybe 1, 000 guests a year.
RE: Fact #48 (Mexico: United Mexican States) – It’s funny because we use both México and Estados Unidos Mexicanos; both are on our passports. We just never say the long one in person. That’s strictly for legal paperwork.
People say America instead of the full country name all the time, so trimming it down is pretty standard.
Take the UK as another example. Nobody says the full title unless they’re filling out boring paperwork. Trying to find your country on those drop down menus is such a headache since you never know if they’ll list it under U, G, B, or just the specific region.
The lack of any standard is super irritating. Most of the time it just goes by United Kingdom though.
RE: Fact #26 (Boston Tea Party $2.3M Loss) – Legend says they turned the ocean into tea, at least if you believe Schoolhouse Rock. Though I might be misremembering the cartoon, I thought it involved someone chucking tea and then tossing a bucket of seawater to hit the King. Either way, it’s a weird story.
Jokes aside, I do wonder what that much tea actually did to the local ecosystem.
It doesn’t come up much, but it shows how little the harbor was actually affected.
RE: Fact #50 (Taylor Swift Thanks Kelly Clarkson) – Her father actually offloaded those recordings. Those greedy jerks walked away with a double payday while we keep acting like this is news 🙃
It’s wild how everyone glosses over that she’s basically a nepo baby whose folks paved the way for her career. The whole idea that she’s just a self made mogul who got swindled doesn’t really hold up once you look at the facts.
RE: Fact #25 (Strauss & Howe Name Millennials) – Most people call it junk science, but this bit always stays with me: > No one, for example, can foretell the specific emergency that will confront America during what we call the “Crisis of 2020”, nor, of course, the exact year in which this crisis will find its epicenter. What we do claim our cycle can predict is that, during the late 2010s and early 2020s, American generations will pass deep into a “Crisis Era” constellation and mood, and that, as a consequence, the nation’s public life will undergo a swift and possibly revolutionary transformation. -Strauss & Howe “Generations” 1991
They actually nailed a few things in those 90s books that are worth checking out. Predicting a big shift in the early 2000s, a major devaluation, and a crisis around 2020, none of that was obvious back then. They weren’t claiming to be psychics; they just used long-term cultural trends to guess how we’d handle big events. It’s hard to ignore how much they got right compared to everyone else.
Oh wow, boom and bust cycles lead to social unrest? Stop the presses, nobody has ever mentioned that before!
I mean, claiming there’s a crisis every decade or so isn’t exactly a groundbreaking observation.
RE: Fact #45 (John Lennon Inspired By Rock Lobster) – Anyone calling this an insult should realize the band loved her and was directly referencing her with those dolphin shrieks. I’m saying this as someone who really isn’t a fan of her music either.
There’s a great video essay about Yoko Ono and the Beatles. It’s really worth checking out.
RE: Fact #46 (Aurelian Reunites Rome In Five Years) – And then he gets taken out by his own guards. “With this character’s death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created.”
Rome’s biggest issue wasn’t really the outside enemies. Even in the 5th century, most barbarians couldn’t beat the Western Empire in a fair fight. The real problem was that solid leaders kept getting assassinated by the senate, guards, or generals who put weaklings in charge. Rome’s worst enemy was itself. It was the same for the East; the Ottomans eventually won, but Byzantine civil wars, like the fourth crusade or the 14th-century infighting, crippled them long before that.
RE: Fact #44 (Cats Sleep Up To 20 Hours) – No matter how beat you are, you’ll never be as tired as a cat that did absolutely nothing all day long.
RE: Fact #28 (Singapore’s Ethnic Housing Policy) – They try to keep ethnic ratios balanced for residency approvals, which makes it way tougher for some groups. In Singapore, they use an acronym called CMIO, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Other. They nudge the numbers to keep things ‘balanced.’ My agent was thrilled my parents were Chinese, even though I’m American. If I had been just a ‘regular’ American, I would’ve been in the ‘other’ pile, but they stuck me in the Chinese bucket even though I don’t speak the language.
For context, it’s not really balanced anyway, it’s roughly 75% Chinese, 15% Malay, 7% Indian, and 3% other.
RE: Fact #36 (John Robert Gregg’s Speed Writing) – I was in the last shorthand class at my high school back in ’96. Man, I feel old.
One of the younger actors in a play I was in recently told me they were in the final group to ever learn cursive at their school.
RE: Fact #40 (South Africa’s Identical Puppies) – Also, they aren’t always just fraternal twins. Dogs can end up with a mixed litter if they mate with different dogs in a short window. Owners sometimes get a nasty surprise when they think their dog is carrying a purebred litter but then find out they had a run-in with a neighborhood mutt.
RE: Fact #22 (Japan’s 33, 000 Century Companies) – Nintendo actually started back in 1889 as a business making playing cards. They didn’t get into the video game world for another 80 years or so.
That’s so silly, imagine how massive they’d be today if they’d been making games the entire time! /s
The French car company Peugeot used to make saws, then moved on to pepper grinders and bikes. They didn’t start building cars until a century later. Maybe they should’ve stuck to the grinders.
RE: Fact #38 (Kevin Kelley’s No-Punt Strategy) – Accd to the source
Kelley believes, and has data to back it up, that the “opportunity to create a turnover” via an onside kick is greater than the loss of field position from a failed kick. There’s more. His teams also neverpunt because the chance to run four downs worth of plays is seen as more valuable than field position. Pulaski also receives kicks with unusual formations, creating space and limiting penalties and injuries. It blitzes often because “sacks change the game” more than allowing a first down. … …Kelley’s reasoningis that turnover margin is among the most predictive stats when it comes to determining a game’s outcome. While winning an onside kick isn’t officially considered a turnover, he says it’s the same thing. “If I kick it down the field and we force the return man to fumble, then that’s a turnover, ” Kelley said. “Either way, we get the ball.” The downside of failing to recover is the opponent is given better field position, but Kelley’s numbers show field position is an overrated variable, especially when considering most failed onside kicks wind up in the mid-field area. “You win games by winning the turnover value, not field position, ” Kelley said. Kelley deploys a slew of different onside kicks and believes the pros are mistaken in how they try to pop the ball in the air rather than force a frontline defender to choose whether to field or block. “They are doing it all wrong in the NFL, ” he said. He also believes that games are not necessarily just 60-minute contests, but the culmination of a week of preparation and practice. By attempting so many onside kicks, opponents are forced to spend valuable time during the week practicing on how to defend Pulaski on that single play. “The amount of time a team spends on that is less time they spend on other things, ” Kelley said. * [Kelley and Pulaski Academy won 9 state championships overall])and in 2016 he was named *USA Today* High School Coach of the Year. * [In 2020, Bill Belichick]described Kelley as “probably the top high school coach in the country”
RE: Fact #29 (Henry VI’s 18-Month Stupor) – This was way more than just a military loss. England’s kings had been pushing their claim to the French crown since the 1340s. Henry’s old man crushed it during the Hundred Years’ War and even secured a deal naming him heir to the French throne. When both leaders passed away just two months apart, Henry stepped up as the first guy to rule both England and France. He controlled more territory than anyone since Charlemagne, finally locking down the legal right his family spent a century fighting for. Then this specific fight happened, and he kissed France goodbye for good.
Can you imagine having your family fight for a hundred years, getting everything running perfectly right when you take over, then blowing it at the finish line and making it all pointless? He realized he was the one who fu*ked it up, and his legacy would be the King who lost France forever. Not to mention, that failure sparked the political chaos known as the War of the Roses, which eventually ended with him dying in the Tower of London and his entire House dying out.
In his defense, things were already crumbling before he was old enough to take charge. He wasn’t exactly a powerhouse, but he was dealt an impossible hand. If Henry V had lived a full life, maybe it would have played out differently, but I don’t see any other ruler managing to keep those territories together under the circumstances.
RE: Fact #3 (Yuri Gagarin’s Phone Call Landing) – They had a landing go off-course back in 2008 with Peggy Whitson on board. The capsules are meant to manage the descent, but if the guidance system bugs out, they just fall ballistically. I think that was the time the antennas broke and they had to just hang out until choppers found them. For years, they packed a survival rifle because once, a capsule landed and was surrounded by wolves for hours. They stopped carrying it eventually since having a gun in the station made everyone uncomfortable.
Just imagine the recoil pushing you back in zero-g? No one really knows. They should totally set up a space firing range for the sake of science.
RE: Fact #13 (Post-Micturition Convulsion Syndrome Explained) – Interesting. I get those sometimes and just assumed they were standard for everyone.
They’re actually pretty common. People don’t realize women get them too, though it happens less often.
I had no clue this was a thing. Do you actually get cold, or do you just randomly start shivering when you go?
RE: Fact #23 (Kaiser Wilhelm’s War Outburst) – Actually, a surprising amount of folks from the countries involved were on vacation when war broke out. That definitely added to the chaos, with people working in secret, poor communication, and wires getting crossed.
RE: Fact #43 (Herxheim’s 1, 000 Ritual Killings) – > The deposition of the human remains occurred only within the final 50 years of occupation at the site.[1]
Could this indicate a long famine? Maybe things got so bad they eventually just gave up and moved away?
RE: Fact #42 (Hulda Clark’s Cancer Death) – So ironic. I can’t handle people pushing this fake science stuff. I moderate a group for parasitology and constantly see these “cleanser” grifts everywhere online. It’s gross. I’ve written long breakdowns for other communities about why these scams are so widespread. Some folks assume I’m working for big pharma, but I’m just trying to stop people from getting scared into buying fake cures for illnesses they don’t even have. For instance, I see people suggesting garlic cleansers all the time. I got sick of typing out long explanations, so I made a 12-minute video breaking down the myth. Now I just drop the link instead of arguing with someone who’s lost the plot. Heads up, the video is pretty technical. I’m also planning to cover the myth that toxoplasmosis causes schizophrenia next.
I take homeopathy with a grain of salt… after diluting it in 12, 000 gallons of water.
Just don’t act like you can cure parasites and I won’t have to film a video about you.
RE: Fact #8 (America Stores Electricity In Water) – Just to clarify something that might be confusing: 94% of US electricity storage is actually water reservoirs. It’s not 94% of total power generation. The reason we do this is for renewables. Solar and wind are great, but they don’t produce on a schedule, so supply and demand often don’t match up. Storing energy lets us save power for when we really need it. The main point is still: make power when you can, use it later.
Pumped hydro is a smart way to soak up cheap energy. Dams are built for water management just as much as power, so flipping the pumps to refill the reservoir is a perfect way to balance the grid during high-demand hours.
Could you pair those up? Like having a solar plant that uses its extra juice to pump water back into a reservoir? I might have the terminology wrong, but that’s the idea.
The secret weapon of renewables is that they sometimes create massive surpluses for basically free. When power prices drop that low, other projects become viable, like turning seawater into drinking water or filling up reservoirs for hydro. There’s so much we could do with that extra power to make life cheaper and better.
Yep, that’s exactly how it works. You pump the water up when you’ve got extra power, then run it back down when you need to meet peak demand.
RE: Fact #30 (Female Orangutan Murder Alliance) – Even for orangutans, it’s apparently all about “That b*tch been talkin sh*t about me.”
RE: Fact #27 (NYU Study: Seamless Code-Switching) – Depends on how fluent you are. Growing up Filipino, my family and community switched back and forth so much that I feel like a mix of both languages is my native tongue.
In Belize, there are lots of Mennonites who use German, Spanish, and English. It’s a total mindfu*k to watch them blend all three in a single sentence like it’s nothing.
RE: Fact #32 (Bern And Basel Swimming Commute) – I’m in Basel and the water is definitely clean, but no, people don’t swim to work. It’s only warm enough for a few months in the summer, and mostly folks just jump in to float down the river for a couple kilometers for fun, not to commute.
My cousin did it every day for a year, mostly just to see if he could pull it off. There aren’t many, but you definitely see a few commuters.
RE: Fact #35 (Aldyn-ool Sevek’s Unmatched Voice) – Is there a connection? Like, did the tumor change how he sounded, or does intense throat singing actually cause cancer? Or is it just a weird random thing?
RE: Fact #43 (Herxheim’s 1, 000 Ritual Killings) – I wish they’d define what “great distance” means here. The location is in southwest Germany, so are we talking the French border, Iberia, or somewhere near the East?
Also, were these folks all from the same spot, or brought in from many distant places? I’m curious if this was just a conflict between two groups or some strange society.
I don’t have time to look it up, but I recall reading that they checked trace elements in the bones. It turns out they came from various spots, some as far as 500 kilometers away.
RE: Fact #45 (John Lennon Inspired By Rock Lobster) – He probably means the dolphin-like squeaks one of the girls does. That part definitely sounds like the experimental noises Yoko is known for.
Those sounds make it a terrible karaoke track. I totally forgot they were there until I was looking at the screen and saw “manta ray sounds” pop up.
The cool thing about the B-52s is that they had plenty of musical variety.
RE: Fact #14 (Bonn-Oberkassel Puppy Nursed By Humans) – Try picturing being a puppy for over 14 millennia. Just non-stop chewing and needing to go potty four times daily for that long.
RE: Fact #27 (NYU Study: Seamless Code-Switching) – Weird timing, I was just reading about this. I asked my bilingual son to try it, and he nailed it instantly. I tried it with my Japanese, but it was way clunkier.
It just happens naturally. I’ll be speaking English and swap in a Spanish word because it hits harder or explains the point better.
You should check out some Gibraltarian clips. Hearing a British accent flip into a heavy Andalusian dialect five times in one sentence is wild.
RE: Fact #25 (Strauss & Howe Name Millennials) – Let’s not label these guys historians. They’re more like cultural speculators. It feels like those people who try to use biblical numerology to map out the Mayan calendar, just super simplified pop history that basically borders on fiction.
RE: Fact #31 (1917 Medal Of Honor Purge) – Worth noting that the military has a ton of different awards now based on how impressive or critical a situation is. Back in the day, though, the Medal of Honor was basically the only game in town. Once they rolled out a better system to distinguish between just doing your daily chores and being a total legend, a lot of those older MoHs got pulled because the standards were updated.
RE: Fact #35 (Aldyn-ool Sevek’s Unmatched Voice) – Are you sure it wasn’t the cancer itself changing the sound? My buddy has GERD and it gives his voice a totally different quality.
Same here. My singing got real throaty and heavy because acid really did a number on my esophagus.
It turned out alright for Bonnie Tyler. Her voice changed for the better after she had surgery on her throat.
RE: Fact #7 (Henry Cavill’s Superman Disguise Test) – Living in New York, you’re basically conditioned to ignore everyone. We just stare straight ahead and only scan for delivery bikes about to wipe us out.
Specifically, when you see some dude in a Superman shirt acting like Henry Cavill in Times Square, you just assume he’s a weirdo trying to scam tourists.
Also, locals avoid Times Square like the plague unless they work there, so it’s way more likely tourists would be the ones to recognize him.
Great point. Tourists don’t have that city radar. Honestly, I have a slight facial difference, and Manhattan is the only place I’ve felt invisible. Even in smaller spots, shopkeepers remember me if I visit twice. I’m not saying I’m special, but regular people don’t realize what a luxury it is to just blend into the crowd.
That’s a big city thing. You can’t stop to study faces or outfits when you’re passing hundreds of people or your brain will fry. Coming from a small town where you nod at everyone, moving to a massive city is a total culture shock.
I do look sometimes, but most folks you pass are just regular people. The odds of spotting someone famous AND guessing right are super low. That factrepublic bit was just him trying a meme once, and there are tons of lookalikes out there.
I’ve seen plenty of celebs in NYC. I’ve probably walked right past tons without realizing, but the ones I did spot, I just left alone. Especially if they were hanging with their kids. I used to live by Matt Damon and he always kept his hat low, giving off a ‘leave me be’ vibe. I do remember Val Kilmer, though, because he was standing tall and grinning like he wanted to be seen, which just made me ignore him even more.
RE: Fact #50 (Taylor Swift Thanks Kelly Clarkson) – >[prince also threatened to do this back in 1999]and eventually [got his masters back in 2014].
RE: Fact #42 (Hulda Clark’s Cancer Death) – She is the reason people buy into that nonsense about diabetes stemming from a pancreatic fluke infection. Treating diabetic patients is tough when she’s caused such damage with her pseudoscience.
I bet her fans see her dying of cancer as evidence she was onto something. It’s just like how flat earthers keep trying to measure the Earth’s curve to prove it’s actually flat.
My husband works with kids facing brain cancer and has had parents ask about using her methods for their children’s care.
RE: Fact #11 (Rahma Haruna’s Bucket Life) – Makes me wonder if she had something like the case of Brooke Greenberg. That poor girl never grew past being a toddler and passed away at 20 while being very tiny.
Not exactly the same. Mentally, Rahma seemed to be at a teenage level. People have shared videos of her talking about her hopes and how much she loved her family.
Maybe it wasn’t researched enough, but with Brooke, they mentioned different body parts aging differently. Perhaps Rahma’s head grew normally while the rest of her body just stayed small.
RE: Fact #34 (Swiss Sewage Gold Discovery) – It’s the same deal as all that gold in the ocean. It’s there, but the price to get it out is way too high.
You can technically turn other metals into gold, but the power required to do it on any useful level is way too expensive.
[“It would cost more than one quadrillion dollars per ounce to produce gold by this experiment, ” Seaborg told the Associated Press that year. The going rate for an ounce of gold at the time? About $560.]
RE: Fact #15 (John F. Kennedy Jr Crash) – I’m starting to think this so-called “Kennedy Curse” is just two big assassinations followed by a bunch of rich, entitled people partying their way to an early grave.
I read a book that argued the curse was “just the result of a Kennedy family ethos to take big risks in order to get big rewards”. Basically, the tragedies happened because they kept rolling the dice and losing. The book claims even the assassinations were partly tied to them avoiding recommended security. They jumped on the lobotomy trend early because it was the “in” thing, instead of waiting to see if it actually worked, and they paid the price. It goes through all the incidents and shows how they fit that pattern.
JFK’s brother died in a WWII bombing run. He had done enough, but he kept volunteering for more because of that same “go big” mentality.
There’s no such thing as a Kennedy curse. It’s really just wealthy, entitled guys acting super reckless with expensive stuff and making life-ruining decisions.
RE: Fact #38 (Kevin Kelley’s No-Punt Strategy) – Everyone knows punting is usually the wrong move. The problem is coaches get fired for trying something risky that fails, but they stay safe by sticking to conventional stuff even when it fails too.
Common knowledge? lol go away or post some evidence to back up that sh*t.
RE: Fact #18 (Admiral Matome Ugaki’s Final Kamikaze) – >>After listening to the announcement of Japan’s defeat, Ugaki made final entry in his diary noting that he had not yet received an official cease-fire order, and that as he alone was to blame for the failure of Japanese aviators to stop the American advance, he would fly one last mission himself to show the true spirit of bushido. His subordinates protested, and even after Ugaki had climbed into the back seat of a Yokosuka D4Y4 of the 701st Kokutaidive bomber piloted by Lieutenant Tatsuo Nakatsuru, Warrant Officer Akiyoshi Endo, whose place in the kamikaze roster Ugaki had usurped, climbed into the same space that the admiral had already occupied. Thus, the aircraft containing Ugaki took off with three men, as opposed to two each in the remaining ten aircraft. This would almost be noble if he didnt take 20 other guys with him.
Unless, of course, the real deal was that he was about to face trial and likely get executed anyway. If they’d managed to win the war, or even ended it with something besides total defeat, he definitely wouldn’t have been on that flight.
RE: Fact #10 (Last Dinosaur May Be Triceratops) – This piece claims they actually found dino remains caught up in the asteroid debris.
I heard the Tanis site was kept under wraps because it was so unique. It would be wild if they really found impact fossils there.
The main guy leading that dig is pretty shady, sadly.
The secrecy makes it impossible for others to verify their work, which is a major red flag given the lead researcher’s background and potential for faking data. My peers don’t think very highly of him.
RE: Fact #25 (Strauss & Howe Name Millennials) – I remember being called Gen Y because we followed the X crowd, which is why the younger ones became Gen Z.
We’re still Gen Y, if that stands for ‘Y are we dealing with another traumatic cultural event?’
As a millennial, I feel for the younger generation. At least we had the 90s without social media pressure.
RE: Fact #5 (Cecilia Gimenez’s “Monkey Christ” Restoration) – She was pretty mortified at first, but she ended up helping promote it by donating the admission fees to charity.
RE: Fact #11 (Rahma Haruna’s Bucket Life) – She was from my hometown. Never met her, but I remember my mom coming home completely devastated after running into Rahmatu. That memory stuck with me.
That must have been such a heavy moment for your mom. Life just isn’t fair sometimes. If they only had better medical care, who knows how things might have turned out.
RE: Fact #5 (Cecilia Gimenez’s “Monkey Christ” Restoration) – It’s a bit sh*tty that her legacy is that botched painting when she was actually quite talented. Check out the other restoration she did for comparison.
Seems the real facts are buried in the comments. Someone mentioned that restoration projects usually look like a mess halfway through. Still, people are being pretty harsh toward her. It’s giving me those ‘lady sues McDonald’s over hot coffee’ vibes, just minus the injuries.
I was online when this blew up and turned into a meme. The way my circles played it, she was just some random grandma who jumped in without permission to vandalize the art. That wasn’t the full story, but it’s what went viral. Looking back fourteen years later, and not being a fu*king 12-year-old anymore, I feel awful for her. I’m studying art now, and if my early work went viral and the world decided to roast me, I’d be wrecked.