26 America’s Two Record Gas Peaks
In the United States (as of March 2026), the highest nominal average price ever recorded for a gallon of gas hit $4.22 in April 2022. The previous major peak came in July 2008, when the national average reached $4.06 per gallon.
27. In 480 BC, a man named Ephialtes of Trachis betrayed the Greeks at Thermopylae by showing the Persians a path around their position. Ephialtes expected a reward for his information, but he never received it. After the Greeks defeated the Persians, the Amphictyonic League offered a bounty for his death, and he fled. A man named Athenades of Trachis later killed Ephialtes for an unrelated reason, but Sparta still honored the bounty and rewarded the killer anyway.
28. In 1994, upcoming tennis prodigy Venus Williams turned down a reported $3 million endorsement offer from Nike when she was 14 because she believed she could earn more after proving herself on the court. She waited instead of cashing in early. In 1995, she signed a reported five-year, $12 million deal with Reebok.
29. American novelist S. E. Hinton started writing The Outsiders when she was just 15 and published it at 18. She released the book under her initials instead of her full name because she worried male reviewers would dismiss a novel written by a young woman. The story reached shelves anyway, and the initials became part of the book’s identity.
30. The 1982 Gandhi movie holds the Guinness World Record for the most film extras in a single scene, using over 300,000 people. The record came from the film’s funeral sequence, where over 200,000 volunteers joined the shoot and another 94,560 contracted performers filled out the crowd. Director Richard Attenborough staged it on Delhi’s Rajpath, and most paid extras received a small fee equivalent to about 40 pence.
31 Geckos Regrow Cartilage Tails
Geckos have bony tails with built-in weak points that let them drop the tail to escape predators. After the tail breaks off, muscles around the break quickly seal torn blood vessels while the detached tail wriggles to distract the attacker. Most geckos then regrow a replacement tail, but the new internal support forms as cartilage instead of bone. The regrown tail also comes back shorter and looks different from the original.
32. In 2022, researchers reported that the Black Death likely originated near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, a Silk Road stop. They tested DNA from people buried in 1338 graves labeled for “pestilence” and identified Yersinia pestis in the remains. The strain they found sits near the ancestral branch that later fueled the wider Black Death outbreak. This discovery indicates that the plague reached the region eight years before it caused widespread devastation across Eurasia.
33. The French Foreign Legion maintains its own vineyard in Provence at Domaine du Capitaine Danjou, tied to the Institution for Invalids of the Foreign Legion, a home created in 1954 for retired, wounded, and elderly legionnaires. Retired legionnaires work the vines and help produce the wine as part of the institution’s daily life and rehabilitation. The Legion then sells the bottles to generate income that supports the veterans’ home.
34. In the 1520s, the first Mughal emperor, a Central Asian ruler named Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur, wrote an autobiography, the Baburnama, that later readers praised for its detailed descriptions of India’s geography, people, and natural world. The memoir also preserves a personal passage from his youth, where Babur describes being infatuated with a boy named Baburi while he was still a teenager. He recorded the feeling plainly as part of his day-to-day narrative rather than treating it as a separate confession.
35. In 2016, researchers at the Rockefeller University tested whether a single photon could register in human awareness using a quantum light source. In each trial, participants had to pick which of two time windows contained a photon, even though the flash would not look like a normal visible spark. After more than 30,000 trials, the team found people chose correctly at a rate significantly above chance, meaning the photon signal reached perception reliably enough to measure. The result suggested the human visual system can carry single-photon information into conscious decision-making under controlled conditions.
36 Dura-Europos Tunnel Chemical Attack
In 256 AD, about 20 Roman soldiers died while trying to defend an underground tunnel during the siege of Dura-Europos after attackers launched a chemical attack using a sulfur-based concoction. Sasanian Persian miners set a fire in the tunnel that produced choking fumes, and the Romans collapsed where they stood as they tried to hold the passage. When archaeologists excavated the site in the 1930s, they discovered the scene effectively sealed and intact, with bodies still piled in the tunnel. Researchers have pointed to that find as the earliest known physical evidence of chemical warfare.
37. The CNS ischemic reflex, the body’s most potent reflex, activates as a final survival measure when the brain is deprived of oxygen. It triggers massive vasoconstriction to force blood upward and restore blood flow to the brain. The surge can become so intense that it completely cuts off blood supply to the kidneys. When that happens, the reflex can cause kidney failure.
38. Some biologists consider humans to be self-domesticated, meaning our species evolved traits similar to domesticated animals without another species doing the selecting.
39. Ractopamine is an animal feed additive used to promote leanness and improve feed conversion efficiency in some farmed animals. Its use is banned or restricted in 168 countries, but producers can still use it in the United States. The compound also showed up in human testing early on, because American stunt performer Steve-O said he served as a test subject in an early clinical trial.
40. In 1441, a border mapping error between the Papal States and the Republic of Florence left a small strip of land in limbo. The villagers declared it the Republic of Cospaia because neither state could clearly claim it after the mistake. Cospaia stayed effectively independent for about 385 years, operating outside the normal taxes and laws of its neighbors. In 1826, it finally ended when the territory got divided between surrounding states.
41 Gut Microbes Drive Food Cravings
Researchers studying the gut microbiome have argued that intestinal bacteria can influence what you crave and how you eat. In one proposed mechanism, microbes release chemical signals that affect the nervous system and can shift feeding behavior toward the nutrients those microbes thrive on. Some scientists even compare the effect to “puppetmasters” that can push cravings by manipulating host signaling pathways.
42. Lebanon has not conducted an official national census since 1932 because population numbers tie directly to Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system. Instead of a full census, the country has relied on estimates and partial surveys for decades.
43. Russian-born Marina Oswald Porter became the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald after his 1963 murder, two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She later testified for the Warren Commission and spent decades trying to live quietly in the Dallas area. As of recent reporting (as of March 2026), she is still alive and keeps a low profile there.
44. In northern Australia, Aboriginal Australians traditionally eat something called a bush coconut, but it is not a plant at all. A moth larva lives inside the root of a bloodwood tree, and people dig up the swollen root to pull the grub out. The larva has a white, fatty body that people say tastes like coconut, which is how it earned the name.
45. Before Canadian actor Keanu Reeves became a movie star, he built a reputation on the ice as a high school hockey goaltender in the Toronto area. Reports say he played well enough that people started calling him “The Wall” for how hard he was to beat.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Brains React To Earth’s Magnetism
Some researchers have found evidence that certain humans can perceive magnetic fields in a subtle way, even when they do not consciously notice anything. In laboratory tests, participants sat quietly while scientists changed magnetic field conditions to mimic shifts in Earth’s geomagnetic field. The researchers measured brain activity and saw reactions that tracked those geomagnetic changes. The results suggested the brain can register magnetic-field information without the person feeling an obvious sensation.
47. Saint Patrick was not Irish because he was a Romano-Briton, likely from Wales or western England. Irish raiders kidnapped him as a teenager and held him in slavery in Ireland for six years. He escaped, went back to Britain, and later returned to Ireland as a missionary.
48. The Lockheed Martin F-35 and the World War II-era Avro Lancaster heavy bomber both top out at about 8.2 tons of maximum weapon load. That match-up puts a modern stealth fighter in the same payload class as a dedicated four-engine bomber from the 1940s. By contrast, the Boeing B-17 typically carried about 3.6 tons on a short-range mission.
49. After Croatia finished as runners-up in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final, the national team flew back to Zagreb to an overwhelming reception. More than 550,000 fans reportedly flooded the streets to welcome them home. The turnout became the largest public gathering in Croatia’s history, even without a championship trophy.
50. In 1911, the United States government filed a case titled United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola that targeted the drink’s caffeine content. Instead of naming a person as the defendant, the lawsuit treated the seized shipment itself as the thing on trial. Federal officials argued the product violated the Pure Food and Drug Act based on how it was labeled and what it contained.
RE: Fact #48 (F-35 Matches Lancaster Bomb Load) – I grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, where we have one of the few remaining Lancasters that can still fly. You usually hear it before you see it. It’s wild to imagine what a whole fleet of them would have sounded like.
RE: Fact #37 (CNS Ischemic Reflex Blood Surge) – I’d definitely prefer the risk of kidney failure over my brain being starved of oxygen.
RE: Fact #11 (Chevy Chase Banned From SNL) – I’m not sure how effective the ‘hosting ban’ actually is, given that he’s shown up as a guest at least six times since then. It feels like he probably wasn’t going to be asked to host again anyway.
Lorne Michaels has always been cagey, saying ‘nobody is officially banned’ but acknowledging there’s a list of people who just aren’t getting the call back. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want to burn the bridge completely with a founding cast member who was so vital to the show’s early success, but that doesn’t mean he’s exactly welcome on stage either.
Was Cheri still on the cast when he came back to guest star? It’s pretty vile that they’d welcome someone back in any capacity after they physically assaulted a staff member.
Yeah, she was. He appeared in an opening sketch with Chris Farley in October ’97.
RE: Fact #13 (Japan Adopts Adult Male Heirs) – Most of these adult adoptions, or ‘Mukoyōshi’, happen for two main reasons. First, business succession: large family firms bring in their best managers to keep the company and name alive. Second, it’s a legal loophole for LGBTQ+ couples in Japan. Since same-sex marriage isn’t fully recognized, couples use adult adoption to secure inheritance rights and ensure they can visit each other in hospitals.
I knew about the business side of things, but using adoption for marriage is new to me, it just feels so broken that people have to resort to that just to legally form a family.
Back in the day, US couples used adult adoption to manage inheritance and life insurance payouts more easily, especially if someone had estranged family members who might otherwise try to claim things. It was also a way to ensure a partner had a legal say in medical decisions during emergencies, long-term illness, or end-of-life arrangements when partners were being shut out by biological family.
This kind of thing has been more common than you’d think. Even in the U.S. back in the 70s and 80s, I knew couples who lived their lives together but had to pose as siblings or ‘friends’ to get by. I remember meeting an older man who had ‘adopted’ his younger partner just to make their relationship legally secure.
Can you imagine the HR meeting for that? ‘Congratulations on the promotion.’ ‘Thanks, what’s the new role?’ ‘Son.’
RE: Fact #40 (Cospaia Founded By Map Error) – It’s wild that this went unfixed for 400 years. Eventually, it was just easier to let them be. I’d love to know what the residents thought of suddenly becoming their own micro-nation just because of a drawing error.
They were able to bypass tobacco bans. It was convenient for people in Tuscany and the Papal States to have them around as a loophole, so they left them alone.
RE: Fact #49 (Zagreb’s 550, 000 World Cup Welcome) – Being a World Cup runner-up is an incredibly massive accomplishment.
RE: Fact #27 (Thermopylae Traitor Never Got Rewarded) – Reminds me of Benedict Arnold. He thought the British would treat him like a hero, but they just saw him as dishonorable and wouldn’t give him the positions he wanted. I imagine it’s a special kind of pain to betray your side and then watch them pull off a massive, world-changing win without you.
Genghis Khan had a habit of killing the traitors who helped him defeat his enemies because he knew he couldn’t trust them. It’s a lot like when someone has an affair with a married person, they shouldn’t be surprised when that person eventually cheats on them, too.
It’s not history, but it reminds me of Dr. Yueh in Dune. The movie doesn’t go into it as much, but the book makes it clear that even the Harkonnens, as awful as they were, wouldn’t ever trust a traitor.
RE: Fact #46 (Brains React To Earth’s Magnetism) – Well, for those of us without this superpower, I guess we’ll just have to keep strapping a salamander to our hats.
RE: Fact #2 (Schmidt’s Boomslang Death Notes) – It’s worth mentioning he didn’t think the dose was fatal; if he had known, he definitely would have handled things differently.
RE: Fact #28 (Venus Williams Turned Down Nike) – $3M versus $12M sounds like a huge difference, but one figure doesn’t list a timeframe while the other does. If the Nike offer was for one year, the Reebok deal might not actually be as great as it sounds. More importantly, if they were for different years, couldn’t she have just taken both?
I imagine the omission of the timeframe is intentional, a lie by omission. This came up when King Richard was released, and I never could find the original contract terms either. If the $3M offer was truly better on a per-year basis, and she signed the $12M/5-year deal early in her career, she might have been able to land an even bigger payday if she’d waited out that first year.
Often, there are non-compete clauses for a set amount of time that prevent you from signing with a rival. A competitor can buy out that non-compete, but it’s usually a hassle and doesn’t always work out.
RE: Fact #49 (Zagreb’s 550, 000 World Cup Welcome) – That doesn’t surprise me. If Scotland ever finished as a runner-up, I’m pretty sure every single person in the country would be there to meet them at the airport.
RE: Fact #31 (Geckos Regrow Cartilage Tails) – The tails grow back without those fracture planes, so they can only drop it again at a different spot.
They can still drop a regrown tail, but it has to be at the same spot or higher up than the original break, since the new section lacks those built-in breakage points.
RE: Fact #44 (Bush Coconut Is Moth Larva) – So, since it’s an insect gall, it definitely isn’t related to Rocky Mountain Oysters.
Of course it’s found on a bloodwood tree. That sounds like the perfect name for a forest in a horror game.
Bloodwood is a beautiful material. It’s incredibly dense and the shavings actually smell like pipe tobacco.
RE: Fact #50 (Coca-Cola Barrels Put On Trial) – This is just an in rem action. They aren’t literally putting these items in a courtroom; it is just the standard way to establish the legal status of a piece of property.
RE: Fact #5 (Michael B. Jordan’s Name Echo) – I had a line of four uncles who were all named Arthur, running from Arthur A to Arthur D.
RE: Fact #45 (Keanu Reeves Nicknamed The Wall) – “The Wall is a man of singular focus, determination and will. I once saw him defend a goal using nothing but a fu*king pencil.”
RE: Fact #48 (F-35 Matches Lancaster Bomb Load) – Imagine trying to explain to a WWII bomber crew that in 80 years, a single pilot in a stealth fighter would be carrying the same payload as their entire plane. They’d think you were crazy.
I think you’re underestimating their optimism. Sci-fi books back then already assumed we’d have routine space travel for everyone by the year 2000.
They went from using biplanes in the Navy to having jets and intercontinental ballistic missiles by the end of the war. That decade was an incredible time for aviation innovation.
RE: Fact #14 (Cleveland’s Substitute Died Penniless) – Funny enough, the city of Cleveland was named after General Moses Cleaveland, not Grover.
It’s wild to name a whole place after someone, only to decide to change the spelling because you think the original looks weird.
King County in Washington was named after a pretty obscure VP, William R. King, whose only claim to fame was dying 45 days after his inauguration on foreign soil. Then in 2005, the county just decided they were retroactively named after Martin Luther King Jr. instead, apparently, you can just do that.
RE: Fact #1 (Career Catfishing Job Bait) – Where I’m from, this is illegal. The government and labor regulators would do everything in their power to shut a business down for that. Whatever is in your contract has to be accurate.
Here in the U.S., we have almost zero labor protections and no actual requirement for employment contracts, even for salaried roles. You might have a case if you could prove they grossly misrepresented the job, but it’s rarely worth the time and effort.
For a country obsessed with being armed, you guys sure are terrible at fighting for basic rights.
I’m from Australia, and that would be strictly illegal here. The government would be all over them so fast they wouldn’t know what hit them. You might even have a tort case if you suffered a loss, like moving for the job. I’m no lawyer and suing is a total pain, but it could be an option.
RE: Fact #10 (Clarkson Refused Dr. Luke Credit) – Kelly Clarkson basically walked away from a fortune just to avoid having her name on a record with Dr. Luke. She’s mentioned before that she felt forced to work with him by her label at the time, and she didn’t want any association with him. She even said she knew she deserved a writing credit because she changed parts of the song, but she didn’t care about the money, she just wanted her name kept as far away from his as possible.
RE: Fact #38 (Humans Are Self-Domesticated) – I saw a presentation once that compared Neanderthals and humans to the differences between wolves and dogs, or boars and pigs. It argued that humans show all the classic signs of domestication, like neoteny and reduced aggression. The talk was actually about ancient aliens, so it was probably nonsense, but the biological points sounded pretty convincing. I don’t think we were domesticated as livestock, but I’ll keep an eye out if I ever get abducted by a UFO.
Speak for yourself! Besides, brain folds are what actually matter because they increase the surface area for neurons. The rest is just connections.
RE: Fact #37 (CNS Ischemic Reflex Blood Surge) – I’m a doctor and you missed the most fascinating part. This kicks in when blood CO2 levels hit about 8%. The medulla oblongata acts like an autopilot, keeping our body running without conscious effort. Once it senses CO2 above 8%, it triggers this reflex to force oxygen to the brain. When levels drop back to a safe range, it shuts down the process. Most people won’t even realize it’s happening at first beyond maybe a headache or feeling sleepy, but then your blood pressure spikes and your face flushes as the body desperately rushes blood to your brain. It’s basically a sign you’re suffocating without even knowing it.
RE: Fact #41 (Gut Microbes Drive Food Cravings) – I see. So it’s my gut bacteria’s fault I’m an alcoholic. Guess there’s nothing I can do about it.
RE: Fact #1 (Career Catfishing Job Bait) – I once interviewed for an event coordinator role at a major hotel chain. I was told that after landing the job, I’d spend a week rotating through different departments to get a feel for how everything worked. Instead, I spent the first, second, and third weeks stuck behind the breakfast bar. When I finally asked what was going on, they admitted that was the actual role and they’d basically baited me into it knowing I never would have signed up otherwise. I walked out right then and there.
I interviewed for an A/V position at a hotel. They told me it was mostly setting up gear with “maybe an hour of sales per week.” When I asked to see the equipment, the interviewer brushed me off, saying he was too busy for a tour. I took the job because my options were limited and I didn’t want to travel. Turns out, there was zero equipment and they actually needed someone to build their entire A/V department from the ground up. When I pushed back, they offered me a $30k raise and a director title. I’m still there, mostly working from home now with four techs under me. It ended up working out, mostly.
The exact same thing happened to me! I got hired as a chemist, only to find out they actually wanted a forklift driver. What the heck? I walked out immediately.
Wait, what? Being a certified forklift operator is a specialized skill. It’s completely absurd to hire for a STEM position and then just throw a scientist or engineer into warehouse logistics.
A hotel hired me for a finance role, but then had me working the bar and handling food service because they couldn’t manage their own staffing. They were shocked when I walked out on day three after asking when I’d actually start doing the work I was hired for and being told to just shut up and do what I was told. I’m not cut out for customer service, mentally or socially.
RE: Fact #35 (Humans Detected Single-Photon Trials) – I actually took part in one of those studies. They put you in a setup like an eye doctor’s office, and at first, they shine a pretty bright laser into your eye. Then they dim it until you aren’t sure if you’re actually seeing it or just spotting noise in your vision. They’d hit either the left or right side of your field, and you’d have to guess. Sometimes I was certain I saw a faint spot, and other times I was totally guessing.
That’s a classic psychophysics experiment. You test people with varying stimulus intensities and figure out the probability of a correct response based on that strength. At very low levels, it’s basically a coin flip, but at higher levels, it’s nearly 100 percent. In between, you usually see a transition that forms a kind of sigmoid curve.
RE: Fact #2 (Schmidt’s Boomslang Death Notes) – This has to be the guy who inspired every single video game NPC who leaves a diary for the player to find later while exploring their house.
9 pm – Mild limb necrotization and a faint craving for human brains. I’m going to pop some aspirin and try to sleep it off.
This reminds me of the employee journal in the Resident Evil 1 remake where a guy writes about a scientist friend acting weird and saying they need to get out. Then the sirens go off, and he writes about how the dog kennels are empty and he doesn’t have to feed them anymore. Then they give him a hazmat suit until he develops lesions and they tell him to just take it off and not to worry. The entries get shorter and more confused until they’re just one or two words. I never finished the game, but that part was genuinely creepy. Plus, a zombie popped out of the closet, then the one on the floor stood up and I was just like 😭😭😭💀💀💀
We cannot get out. We cannot get out… We cannot get out. The end is coming, and then drums, drums in the deep… they are coming.
“The symptoms are worsening, I fear the end is near. My only hope is that nobody touches my secret stash behind the desk, the code is 6342.”
RE: Fact #12 (Three Hosts, Same Quayle Joke) – Back then, all the late-night shows seemed to pull from the same news cycle. You could always count on the same handful of topics, Clinton, Lewinsky, Quayle, O.J., it was like a shared grab bag for every host.
RE: Fact #32 (Black Death Traced To Issyk-Kul) – When you really think about it, a Silk Road trading hub was probably the perfect environment for an outbreak like the plague to explode.
RE: Fact #37 (CNS Ischemic Reflex Blood Surge) – The mammalian diving reflex is similar. When your face hits cold water, your heart rate drops and your vessels constrict to keep your vital organs running. It’s wild how many extreme emergency protocols our bodies have built in.
RE: Fact #46 (Brains React To Earth’s Magnetism) – I suspect this is why I get lost on cruise ships since the boat changes direction. My wife doesn’t struggle with that at all, though she has a harder time navigating on land.
RE: Fact #31 (Geckos Regrow Cartilage Tails) – This is true for most, if not all, lizards that can drop their tails. They have special points in their vertebrae and muscles that let them quickly sever the limb and close off blood vessels to prevent bleeding. They can drop them multiple times, but any future breaks have to happen closer to the body than the first one because the regrown cartilage part doesn’t have those specific break points.
RE: Fact #40 (Cospaia Founded By Map Error) – One of the best facts about Cospaia is that its first president was the local priest. He only got the job because he was the only man in the area who could read.
It reminds me of how, when the Congo was decolonized, there were fewer than 30 university-educated citizens in the whole country. They didn’t have a single local doctor, engineer, or lawyer.
RE: Fact #14 (Cleveland’s Substitute Died Penniless) – If I had a nickel for every time a draft dodger served two nonconsecutive terms as US president, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it’s still pretty weird that it happened twice.
RE: Fact #46 (Brains React To Earth’s Magnetism) – A while back, researchers trained people to use a buzzer that vibrated when they faced north. After wearing it for a few months, they could still sense north even when blindfolded and spun around, even after the device was removed.
I’ve always had a great sense of direction. It feels like I can physically sense where my chosen landmark is, so maybe I’m using this ability too.
RE: Fact #17 (Vanna White’s 8, 000 Dresses) – Even cooler, according to Wikipedia, she holds the Guinness World Record for the most frequent clapper, with over 3.2 million claps during her time on the show.
RE: Fact #38 (Humans Are Self-Domesticated) – I took a course on this, and the physical changes are even wilder. We ended up with smaller teeth, less prominent brow ridges, and more juvenile facial features, essentially the same domestication syndrome seen in dogs compared to wolves. The theory is that by consistently ostracizing or killing the most aggressive individuals, we effectively bred ourselves to be more cooperative over generations, which altered our development. We essentially domesticated ourselves to be nicer, and looking ‘cuter’ was just a byproduct. I went down this rabbit hole on wikipedia a while back and still think about it.
Robert Sapolsky studied baboons and found that after the most aggressive males died off from a disease, the entire troop became much more peaceful. I’m not sure how they’ve fared since the 80s, but it was a massive shift in their group dynamics.
Even better: the baboons were actually happier and healthier. The system remained stable too, because the less aggressive baboons would team up to keep the bullies in line.
Can we bring that back? People on public transport are way too aggressive.
I get that you’re joking, but that path leads to eugenics pretty quickly.
RE: Fact #20 (Sesame Street Taught Mr. Hooper’s Death) – That scene where they have to tell Big Bird that Mr. Hooper isn’t coming back is truly heartbreaking. Big Bird is supposed to be six years old, and Carol Spinney and the rest of the crew did a phenomenal job handling that moment.
If he is only six and already that tall, imagine how huge he will be when he is fully grown.
RE: Fact #7 (Rocky Mountain Locust Vanished) – To save you the trouble of reading, here is the summary: They migrated between the Rockies and the prairies, breeding in each location in a cycle. When the bison were wiped out, there wasn’t anything left to keep the prairie grass at the right height. Then, settlers plowed and farmed most of the remaining land. In the end, there wasn’t enough of their original prairie breeding ground left for the cycle to continue, so they didn’t have the numbers to survive the migration back to the mountains.
Also, the gold rush likely played a part. Panning the rivers is believed to have killed off a lot of grasshopper eggs. Grasshoppers also have an epigenetic trigger that makes them turn into locusts if their population density gets too high.
RE: Fact #16 (Presidential Names Kept Repeating) – Obama being a “II” rather than a “Jr.” is technically a bit cooler than the rest of us stuck with our dad’s exact name. It’s wild how many guys just decide to copy-paste themselves onto their kids and call it a legacy.
I’m a “II” as well. My dad named me the second because he didn’t want me to be a Junior, even though he still calls himself Derek Senior.
He definitely messed that up. Why would anyone want to be called “Derek Senior” when you could go for “Derek, First of his Name”?
RE: Fact #16 (Presidential Names Kept Repeating) – Actually, while Bill Clinton was named after his father, he never met him; his father died in a car accident three months before he was born.
RE: Fact #29 (S. E. Hinton Hid Her Name) – She based the story on her own friends and how they were treated by the rich kids. She’s from the same place I am, and they’ve actually turned the house where they filmed the movie into a museum!
I read this when I was a young teen, and it was the first time I really understood social class. Let’s just say I definitely wasn’t a Soc.
I read it as a pre-teen, and I think it was the first piece of art or literature that ever made me cry. It hit me like a train.
RE: Fact #36 (Dura-Europos Tunnel Chemical Attack) – I recall a story about chemical warfare in the Peloponnesian wars involving “mad honey.” The idea was that the honey was left in an abandoned town with a note pretending the residents had left and were offering it as a gift. Once the invaders ate it and were incapacitated, the locals returned and killed them.
That sounds like a legend rather than something backed by physical evidence. The Greeks were known for embellishing their stories quite a bit.
RE: Fact #4 (Psychiatrist Blamed Adams’s Parents) – I really respect that doctor’s ethics. Not bending to the parents’ demands or blindly taking their side was incredibly rare back then.
I had a similar experience growing up. They sent me to a psych when I was 6. After a few sessions, they asked my parents what was wrong with me, and the psychiatrist said, “He’s a fifty-year-old man in a child’s body. He thinks about dying a lot and wonders what he’s doing with his life.” What the hell was I going through at home?
I used to run away from school just because it was the only time I was allowed out of the house without my parents. The school called in a psychiatrist, but they insisted my parents sit in, so I was terrified to talk about the abuse. This happened even after social services had been called years prior because I kept showing up to school covered in bruises, but again, they questioned me right in front of my parents. The idea that parents could do no wrong was the default for a long time.
I get it. My parents weren’t trying to be abusive, but they made some massive mistakes. School was the only place I felt like I could relax. My mom has book smarts, but zero common sense, if there’s a slow or wrong way to do something, she’ll find it. And my dad is so wrapped up in her that he won’t call out her nonsense. I love her, but without my dad there to manage things, she would be a disaster. The phrase “We’ve decided” still makes me tense because it always meant they were about to screw me over. It meant they’d made a huge life choice without asking me, usually with my mother manipulating my dad into agreeing. Once she had her mind set, no amount of pleading or explaining would ever change anything.
My own therapist and the team treating my mother and siblings concluded that I was being abused. I was incredibly lucky. I don’t think things would have ended well without that support.
RE: Fact #27 (Thermopylae Traitor Never Got Rewarded) – I’m just curious, back then, without photos or ID cards, how hard would it actually be to just vanish and start over with a fake identity?
Probably harder than you’d think. Since there were no photos or IDs, people were very unlikely to trust a stranger unless someone they already knew could vouch for them.
RE: Fact #30 (Gandhi Used 300, 000 Extras) – Gandhi is honestly the longest, most boring movie I’ve ever managed to sit through.
RE: Fact #26 (America’s Two Record Gas Peaks) – The classic playbook: 1) Run on the economy. 2) Make the economy worse. 3) Get voted out. 4) Blame the other side for the economy until the next election. 5) Get elected again on the economy. 6) Make the economy worse.
RE: Fact #33 (Foreign Legion Runs Veteran Vineyard) – > “We receive no subsidy, ” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Bouchez. “So, we’re forced to generate our own resources. We make wine for this reason. In addition to its excellence, it obeys our code of honour: ‘Tu n’abandonnes jamais les tiens, ni au combat, ni dans la vie’.”
Historically, monks did this with beer and wine too, so the Legionnaires are kind of like them. Almost.
This sounds like a movie pitch. You’ve got retired, battle-hardened winemakers living the quiet rural life when bad guys show up to terrorize the local town, forcing these veterans to dust off their skills and take up arms again.
Since it’s the French Foreign Legion, they wouldn’t even need a reason for Jason Statham’s accent.
RE: Fact #22 (Little Red Schoolbook Censorship Storm) – Does anyone remember DARE? I remember that class gave me information I was curious about but couldn’t find elsewhere. I have talked to other adults who feel the same, though I have also heard people say it actually made them curious about trying drugs. I wonder if any broad awareness campaign really works for kids, or if we need a totally different approach.
The issue with DARE was that it was so clearly full of it that even the kids could tell. Even the parts that were true didn’t matter because we didn’t trust them. Plus, ‘scare you straight’ stories don’t really work on preteens because they’re too abstract, kids that age aren’t great at thinking about long-term consequences. We absorbed the facts, but not the fear.
Exactly. Once we grew up and tried weed, we realized the DARE officer was lying to us. We naturally assumed they were also full of it about the dangers of harder drugs and alcohol.
I had drug education in the early 80s before DARE was a thing, and it was just hilariously bad videos and film strips. It 100% backfired and sent me to the library to read everything I could about those substances, and I ended up seeking them out a few years later.
My memory of DARE is sitting in the school gym while teachers tried to scare us with wild stories about what would happen if we licked random stickers. They were definitely talking about acid, but we were just third graders who had no idea what was going on.
RE: Fact #10 (Clarkson Refused Dr. Luke Credit) – Good for her for steering clear of him. It’s frustrating how the industry keeps shielding guys like that while artists have to jump through hoops just to avoid being linked to them.
RE: Fact #9 (Frank Ocean’s Contract Escape) – Do you think this explains why he hasn’t released anything in such a long time?
He was definitely working on music and gearing up for a full album, but everything changed after his brother passed away in 2020 and he scrapped the project. You could tell something was in the works, the cover art for the singles released around then all pointed to specific songs on the album, and there was even a music video filmed with Rosalia.
RE: Fact #16 (Presidential Names Kept Repeating) – Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr., named after his biological father. His mother left the father shortly after the birth due to abuse and later remarried Gerald Rudolff Ford, who adopted and renamed the boy. Ford didn’t find out his biological history until he was a teenager, and he always considered his stepfather to be his real father.
RE: Fact #36 (Dura-Europos Tunnel Chemical Attack) – This makes me think of the story about Hannibal using biological weapons. He was known for his land battles, but there’s a story that when he was outnumbered at sea, he had his men throw pots of poisonous snakes onto the enemy command ship. Once that ship went down, he cleaned up the rest. He’s one of my favorite generals in history.
RE: Fact #50 (Coca-Cola Barrels Put On Trial) – Suing an object is more common than people think, specifically in civil seizure cases. It’s called an In Rem action. Some other crazy case names include ‘United States v. One Solid Gold Object in the form of a Rooster’ and ‘State v. Bag of Approximately Four Hundred and Ninety Thousand Dollars.’
It is funny how that “approximately” allowed the police and prosecutors to pocket a grand or so in rounding errors.
The Treasury seized the golden rooster because it violated the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which banned private ownership of over 50 ounces of gold. The owner fought it, and the jury eventually ruled in favor of the statue.
It gets even crazier. The judge actually refused to grant the statue bail, the government claimed it was a threat to national economic security, and the defense brought in art experts to testify about how pretty it was. When the owner finally won, the government asked the judge to ignore the jury’s verdict and rule against them anyway, but he said no.
Saying the “jury found in favor of the statue” doesn’t really explain what the actual outcome was, lol.
RE: Fact #43 (Oswald’s Widow Still In Dallas) – I’ve always felt bad for her. She grew up in the Soviet Union, which was brutal. She met Lee Harvey Oswald and moved to the U.S. for a better life, but he treated her horribly. Being Russian during the Cold War meant people were suspicious of her from the start, and that only got worse after her husband assassinated JFK.
The claim that she was treated poorly checks out. According to her history, she and Lee moved quickly in 1963 after their landlord threatened to evict them if he didn’t stop beating her.
RE: Fact #3 (Ram 2500 DUI Leader) – I’ve been road raged at three times in my life. Twice by a bald guy in a Ram.
RE: Fact #15 (Your Brain Rewrites Memories) – “From scratch” isn’t quite right. Isn’t the brain fascinating enough on its own? It would be more accurate to say the brain “reconstructs large portions” of a memory rather than creating it from nothing. The original phrasing here is a bit loose.
RE: Fact #34 (Babur Wrote Baburi Crush Passage) – Historians love Babur’s writing because it wasn’t meant as propaganda. He documented his wins, his losses, the scenery, and his personal feelings in incredible detail.
RE: Fact #44 (Bush Coconut Is Moth Larva) – I have to admit, calling it a bloodwood apple sounds pretty metal.
RE: Fact #26 (America’s Two Record Gas Peaks) – This was right at the end of George W. Bush’s second term. Bill O’Reilly was telling people to sell their SUVs, ride bikes, and cut back, claiming politicians couldn’t influence gas prices. Then, naturally, he turned around and blamed Obama for the rising costs.
Gas prices really aren’t under the control of US politicians in the short term. Unless the goal is to make the price go up, then there are plenty of ways to mess that up.
It’s called a rocket and feather commodity. The price shoots up fast, but it’s stubborn and slow to come back down.
RE: Fact #30 (Gandhi Used 300, 000 Extras) – Coordinating 300, 000 people for one scene back in 1982 without CGI or digital crowd tools is a logistical miracle. That record will probably never be broken now that VFX can just generate infinite crowds.
RE: Fact #19 (Cows Lactate After Calving) – The veal industry is actually a byproduct of the dairy industry, not a totally separate thing.
most dairy calves don’t actually become veal. There just isn’t enough demand for it in the US to account for all the calves being born. Most Holsteins are raised until they’re about two years old before being processed. Their meat isn’t quite as high quality as traditional beef, but it’s still sold and eaten.
I remember when Ponderosa was still around; they’d have all-you-can-eat steak nights that were allegedly dairy cow. Honestly, it was still pretty tasty if you had it rare with a little salt.
RE: Fact #5 (Michael B. Jordan’s Name Echo) – I figured he added the ‘B’ because the famous Michael Jordan was already in the Screen Actors Guild from his Space Jam days.
RE: Fact #5 (Michael B. Jordan’s Name Echo) – I bet in about 600 years, some guy named Michael Z. Gordon is going to be confused about naming his own son.
RE: Fact #24 (Portugal’s Aljubarrota Underdog Victory) – The Portuguese used a great defensive setup called ‘the square’ and were backed by English longbowmen. There is even a legend about a local baker named Brites de Almeida who supposedly killed seven enemy soldiers with a bread shovel after the fight.
I actually have a century-old wooden Portuguese bread shovel in my garage as a souvenir. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could do some real damage back in the day.
To this day, the U.K. still keeps a company of longbowmen on standby to help defend Portugal.
English longbows were basically the ultimate weapon of the Middle Ages. I wonder if this was another case like Agincourt, where the opposition completely underestimated how deadly those bows actually were.
The conditions were also terrible for the cavalry. Agincourt was still close enough that the English lost their baggage train and had to start executing prisoners because they were afraid they might revolt.
RE: Fact #42 (Lebanon Skipped Census Since 1932) – That’s because the country uses a power-sharing structure based on 1932 demographics. The President is Maronite, the Prime Minister is Sunni, and the Speaker is Shiite, among others. Since 1932, the percentages of those groups have shifted significantly, so holding a new census would completely disrupt the national power balance.
RE: Fact #32 (Black Death Traced To Issyk-Kul) – The Mongols were masters of biological warfare. They famously launched plague-ridden corpses into cities they were besieging.
They weren’t immune, though. That actually helped kick off the decline of the Mongol Empire.
RE: Fact #39 (Steve-O Tested Livestock Additive) – >Stuntman and comedian Steve-O has publicly spoken of his involvement as a test subject in an early ractopamine study whose aim was to determine the stress limits of ractopamine saturation in humans. Glover says “Based on how dangerous the study was, the more money you get.”
I know people who have done clinical trials for money. One was in a weight loss pill trial and was supposed to follow a strict diet; when they didn’t lose weight, they figured they were in the placebo group and started eating whatever they wanted until they got kicked out. Another person joined a trial for bipolar disorder and ended up with permanent brain damage. They’re on welfare now.
RE: Fact #41 (Gut Microbes Drive Food Cravings) – Damn, I think I have the wrong bacteria. All mine seem to want are energy drinks and Slim Jims.
RE: Fact #34 (Babur Wrote Baburi Crush Passage) – I wonder how his family and peers viewed this relationship? It couldn’t have been seen as shameful, or later emperors like Akbar would have likely scrubbed it from the record. Maybe they just willfully ignored the nature of his feelings because it was unthinkable to them, or maybe since Babur wasn’t accused of anything considered a crime, his romantic attachments were just overlooked.
RE: Fact #47 (Saint Patrick Was Romano-Briton) – At least he’s actually associated with the place he’s a patron saint of, unlike most others.
RE: Fact #31 (Geckos Regrow Cartilage Tails) – So, if we took that ability and put it into a human to regrow an arm, they’d just end up with a floppy, boneless limb.
RE: Fact #10 (Clarkson Refused Dr. Luke Credit) – That has to be the most expensive way to say no, but it’s honestly the right call. Walking away from that much money just to stay unlinked from someone she clearly despises shows a level of integrity that the music industry almost never sees.
The worst part is realizing that by her declining that writing credit, the money probably just ended up in Dr. Luke’s pocket anyway.
RE: Fact #18 (Jupiter’s Lightning Burial Spot) – Imagine being a devout Roman and watching someone get struck by lightning, knowing the King of the Gods basically just decided to vaporize that one specific guy.
I wonder how they handled people who survived a strike and had those lightning-shaped Lichtenberg figures on their skin? Did they think the guy was a child of Jupiter, or did he suddenly end up starting his own cult?
They usually thought a different god had stepped in to save them from Jupiter’s wrath. It’s pretty funny that people viewed thunderstorms as the god literally attacking mankind.
Either that, or they assumed Jupiter wasn’t competent enough to finish the job, so you had to do it yourself to avoid ticking off the other gods.
RE: Fact #8 (Eva Braun Met Hitler 1929) – “So, tell me about your exes.” “Well, there was my niece. She shot herself.”
RE: Fact #33 (Foreign Legion Runs Veteran Vineyard) – One day you’re storming a desert outpost, and the next you’re arguing about whether the tannins are too aggressive. That is genuinely the most respectable career pivot I’ve ever heard of.
RE: Fact #32 (Black Death Traced To Issyk-Kul) – As the origin of that specific outbreak, sure. But Y. pestis was also behind the 6th-century Plague of Justinian and kept circulating around the Mediterranean for a few hundred years after that.
Yeah, the term “Black Death” specifically points to the 1340s outbreak. The Yersinia pestis bacterium has been around for ages; it’s even been found in Neolithic human remains.
RE: Fact #27 (Thermopylae Traitor Never Got Rewarded) – Lol, it’s like that meme where the boss is shaking the clueless worker’s hand. The Spartans paying a bounty to kill the traitor is basically just taking out some jerk who was causing them trouble.
RE: Fact #19 (Cows Lactate After Calving) – It’s always surprising to me that people don’t realize this. They breed the cow, take the calf away, keep milking, and repeat. People should really know where their food comes from.
It is not really about whether people should have seen this coming. The real question is how anyone can justify supporting these industries once they know the truth. There is so much money and influence working to keep the reality of the dairy and veal sectors quiet, and most people have no idea what it actually entails for the animals.
RE: Fact #17 (Vanna White’s 8, 000 Dresses) – I remember her mentioning on air that she’d tried on maybe 10 or 15 times the number of outfits that actually made it to the show, so the real number could be 80, 000 or more, though I’m not totally sure.
Maybe this is just my bias, but I can’t even wrap my head around how someone could have 80, 000 noticeably different dresses.
RE: Fact #6 (Burt’s 92-Year Spite Will) – To clarify the fact, the will stated that his estate couldn’t be touched until 21 years after the death of his last surviving child or grandchild who was already alive at the time of his death. The guy was clearly unhinged. He had healthy horses at his lumber mill starved and worked to death because he thought they were “too fat, ” and he fired the boss who refused to do it. He just wanted a “lean and disposable” stable. Eventually, 12 family members were paid out in 2010 after the last eligible grandchild died in 1989. The group included three great-grandchildren, seven great-great-grandchildren, and two great-great-great grandchildren. They received payouts ranging from $2.5 million to $16 million.
Just a small correction: it was 21 years after the death of the last of his children or grandchildren who was alive when Burt died. If a descendant was born after he died, they wouldn’t have been included under the terms of the will. This is related to the rule against perpetuities.
Yeah, as soon as I read about him firing the guy who refused to starve those horses, I decided he was a complete piece of work.
I assumed he was a terrible person the moment I saw the size of that estate. You usually have to step on a lot of people to get that wealthy.
I’m shocked nobody tried to get the will thrown out on the grounds that he wasn’t mentally competent.
RE: Fact #9 (Frank Ocean’s Contract Escape) – The Rolling Stones once thought they were finished with their label, only to realize they still owed them one more song. Crucially, the contract didn’t actually require the song to be released. So, the Stones recorded a song called Cocksucker Blues, knowing it couldn’t be released, just to spite the label. It accidentally got included in a box set years later, though. It’s actually a pretty good song, too.
Something about that story is off. There’s a two-hour Stones movie called Cocksucker Blues that basically functioned as a behind-the-scenes and concert film. It wasn’t made decades later, either.
I like that you think the song is pretty good. It’s like the Stones were saying, “We’re going to give you a garbage song, but we’re still going to do it with some level of professional quality.”
RE: Fact #24 (Portugal’s Aljubarrota Underdog Victory) – When those 200 years of independence ended, it was basically a dynastic collapse. The next king was Spanish, he was the son of a Portuguese claimant and married another Portuguese claimant who died young. Normally, England would have stepped in to help keep Portugal independent, but the English queen married that same Spanish king, who was already the King of England. That was Philip II of Spain, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and the guy the Philippines were named after.
RE: Fact #40 (Cospaia Founded By Map Error) – This is such a cool story, no taxes, no army, and a motto of ‘perpetual and firm liberty.’ They turned a clerical mistake into a 15th-century tax haven. I spent time digging into the archives and the ‘Tobacco Paradox’ for a history project called Arca Arcana if anyone wants a deeper look at how they lasted four centuries.
If you’re into this kind of thing, look up Moresnet. It was a tiny territory centered on a tin mine between the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany that remained independent from 1814 to 1914.
RE: Fact #9 (Frank Ocean’s Contract Escape) – Frank Ocean really outsmarted them. He fulfilled his contract with that visual album that wasn’t even for sale, then dropped his actual album independently the very next day. It’s so satisfying to see an artist finally beat the system after watching so many others get pushed around by labels.
RE: Fact #11 (Chevy Chase Banned From SNL) – It sounds like his behavior was a nightmare for years. Will Ferrell was apparently the one who reported him to Lorne Michaels after the 1997 incident. It’s wild that someone with that kind of reputation was allowed to keep coming back, even if it wasn’t for hosting duties.
RE: Fact #34 (Babur Wrote Baburi Crush Passage) – It’s a cool read, but it’s tough. Since they are his personal journals, people often pop up in the narrative and then disappear. Plus, the number of similar names is wild, so definitely make sure you get an annotated edition.
it is six centuries old and it’s a translation of a translation from archaic, obscure languages.
It’s not as archaic as you might think. Chaghatai or Turki is still mostly understandable for someone who knows Uzbek or Uyghur. But you’re right, it’s not exactly mainstream language.
RE: Fact #48 (F-35 Matches Lancaster Bomb Load) – The Lancaster could haul a 22, 000lb bomb. Also, range is a huge factor. I doubt we’ll see many F-35 sorties carrying more than two 2, 000lb bombs, which is about the limit for internal storage anyway. Plus, the F-35 has to carry its own air-to-air missiles for self-defense, whereas the Lancaster relied on its eight turrets for that. It’s an interesting comparison, but not exactly apples to apples.
That makes sense, especially since the Lancaster was a dedicated bomber while the F-35 is a multirole fighter.
The F-35 is like that trust-fund kid on vacation who brings five huge bags but has someone else carry them. It acts as a massive force multiplier, scanning targets and relaying info to older, non-stealth aircraft in the squadron. It really shouldn’t need to be the one hauling the heavy payload.
RE: Fact #25 (Bend Blockbuster Became Field Trip) – I am not even 30 yet, and the place where I used to rent games is now basically a museum exhibit. That is wild.
RE: Fact #2 (Schmidt’s Boomslang Death Notes) – The journal entries, according to various reports: > “4:30-5:30pm:” Strong nausea but no vomiting. Took a suburban train to Homewood. “5:30-6:30pm:” Heavy chills and shaking, followed by a 101.7 fever. Gums and mouth started bleeding around 5:30. “8:30pm:” Managed to eat two pieces of milk toast. “9:00-12:20am:” Slept well. Urinated mostly blood at 12:20am. Drank a glass of water at 4:30am, which caused violent vomiting, bringing up dinner. Felt better and slept until 6:30am. “September 26, 6:30am:” Temperature 98.2. Had cereal, poached eggs on toast, apple sauce, and coffee for breakfast. Minor bleeding from the mouth and nose persisted.
The guy is so nonchalant about dying. He’s basically like, ‘I’m bleeding from my orifices, but whatever. Time for poached eggs and coffee.’