1 Fake Birthday Boy Got Drafted
In 1977, two American brothers signed up a fictitious boy for an ice cream chain’s birthday club so they could get extra free sundaes. The fake name stayed on the chain’s mailing list like a real customer record. In 1984, the family received a Selective Service reminder instructing the fictitious boy to register for the draft. The mistake exposed that the government had obtained names from the chain’s mailing list through a broker, even as later the chain claimed it had not permitted that use.
2. There is a cave in Kenya that has been linked to a virus with an 88% mortality rate, and it is currently open to the public. Kitum Cave, inside Mount Elgon, became infamous after two visitors later died from Marburg virus disease in 1980 and 1987. Scientists later investigated the cave because Marburg virus is associated with Egyptian fruit bats, which can carry it without looking sick. The cave was closed for a short time after the deaths, but it later reopened to tourists with guides.
3. Humans neurologically enter adulthood at the age of 32 on average, according to research described by the University of Cambridge. The study divided human brain development into five major phases, with adulthood beginning much later than the legal age of 18. Before that point, the brain remains in a prolonged adolescent phase.
4. All 12 astronauts who stepped on the Moon experienced “lunar hay fever” because of highly abrasive Moon dust, which they said smelled like burnt gunpowder. The dust clung to spacesuits and entered the lunar module after moonwalks, where astronauts breathed it in and felt irritation in their noses and throats. Microscopically, these particles are sharp and glass-like, as constant meteorite impacts broke lunar rock into fine powder, and there are no elements like water and air to erode and smoothen them.
5. There is an alternate ending of the “Breaking Bad” finale on the last season DVD, and it turns the entire show into a nightmare for Bryan Cranston’s “Malcolm in the Middle” character Hal. In the scene, Bryan Cranston wakes up in bed beside Jane Kaczmarek, who played Lois on “Malcolm in the Middle.” Hal describes the terrifying events of “Breaking Bad” as if he had dreamed them, mixing Walter White’s drug empire with sitcom panic.
6 Dogs Break Up Owner Rivalries
Dogs authentically get jealous and try to break up the connection between their owner and another dog. In a UC San Diego study, researchers watched dogs react while their owners ignored them and showed affection to a realistic stuffed dog. Many dogs snapped, pushed, or tried to get between their owner and the fake rival.
7. In 2000, American heavy metal band Metallica hired a consulting firm to monitor Napster for people illegally sharing their music. The firm generated a 60,000-page list that identified 335,435 users, which Metallica then delivered to Napster’s office with a demand for their ban. The move came during “Metallica v. Napster, Inc.,” one of the biggest early fights over online music piracy. Napster later blocked hundreds of thousands of users.
8. The Stone Age encompasses about 99% of human history. It began millions of years ago and lasted until different groups gradually adopted metalworking, farming, and settled life. That means nearly everything people think of as “civilization” arrived only in the tiny final slice of the human timeline.
9. When the U.S. attacked Guam in 1898, the Spanish thought the cannon fire was a salute. Spanish officers sailed out to apologize for not firing back because they had no gunpowder, only to learn that the shots came from an American warship during the Spanish-American War. Guam had received little contact from Spain and did not yet know that war had broken out. The misunderstanding ended quickly as Spain surrendered Guam to the United States without a battle.
10. When humans sleep, certain brain signals help neurons shrink so cerebrospinal fluid can wash away waste. Washington University School of Medicine researchers found that neurons help drive this nighttime cleaning system by sending rhythmic electrical signals during sleep. Those waves move fluid through brain tissue and push out metabolic waste that builds up during waking hours. The process works most strongly during deep sleep.
11 San Francisco Owners Lit Fires
The fires that broke out in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake destroyed about 80% of the city, and ruptured gas lines were not the only cause. Some people set fire to their own damaged buildings after realizing their insurance covered fire damage but not earthquake damage.
12. Contrary to the popular image of short, primitive cavemen, early modern humans in Europe 40,000 years ago averaged about 183 cm, or 6 ft, tall. After the invention of agriculture, average height dropped to about 162 cm, or 5 ft 4 in, as diets and lifestyles changed. Humans stayed shorter for thousands of years after farming spread. Humanity only recovered those prehistoric height levels in the 20th century.
13. During his six-day stay in Malta in 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte abolished slavery and feudalism, restricted church power, and created a public education system. He also set up a postal service, reformed national administration, framed a family code, and nominated 12 judges. Napoleon had just seized Malta from the Knights Hospitaller while sailing toward Egypt. His reforms came fast, but French rule on the island soon faced Maltese resistance and did not last long.
14. The founder of Gillette was a utopian socialist who believed all industry should be run by a single publicly owned corporation. King C. Gillette also imagined Americans living together in a giant city called Metropolis, powered by Niagara Falls. He promoted these ideas years before his safety razor made him famous.
15. A 17-year-old girl from Pennsylvania once slept for 64 days, from Thanksgiving in 2012 into January 2013. The teenager, a girl named Nicole Delien, had Kleine-Levin syndrome, also known as “Sleeping Beauty syndrome,” and often slept 18 to 19 hours a day during an episode. She would only get up to eat or use the bathroom while in a sleepwalking-like state, then later remember almost nothing about it. Her long sleep episode made her miss Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and even her own birthday.
16 Sarah Culberson Discovered Royal Blood
American actress Sarah Culberson was born in 1976 in West Virginia and was put up for adoption as an infant. As an adult, she hired a private investigator to find her birth parents and learned that her biological father was from a ruling family in Sierra Leone. That discovery made her a princess of the Mende people. Culberson later used the connection to support education and rebuilding work in Sierra Leone through the Kposowa Foundation.
17. Dandruff is a scalp skin condition that affects roughly half of adults. It is often linked to Malassezia, a fungus that thrives on sebum, the oily substance produced by the scalp. Dandruff shampoos often have antifungal ingredients in them to help with the flaking and itching. There is no permanent cure, so most people just keep it under control instead of getting rid of it for good.
18. American singer Tammi Terrell began experiencing migraines at 11 years old after she was assaulted. At 17, she began dating American singer James Brown, who violently abused her. At 21, she became involved with American singer David Ruffin, who purportedly attacked her with a motorcycle helmet and a hammer. At 24, Terrell died of brain cancer.
19. American actor Val Kilmer was not initially interested in auditioning for “Top Gun” in 1986 and only did so because his agent pushed him. He read his audition lines “indifferently” and expected the whole thing to go nowhere. Instead, he learned he had won the role of Tom “Iceman” Kazansky and felt disappointed rather than excited.
20. Napoleon Bonaparte liked simple foods like roast chicken, fried potatoes, hot soup, poached eggs, omelets, and macaroni better than the fancy meals his chefs could have made. He rarely spent more than 15 minutes at the table, treating meals more like fuel than ceremony. He also often used his hands instead of utensils during his meals.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Ennis Cosby Died Changing Tire
American comedian Bill Cosby’s only son, Ennis Cosby, was murdered during an attempted robbery while changing a flat tire in 1997. Ennis had pulled over near Interstate 405 in Los Angeles when an armed man approached him. The encounter ended with Ennis being shot and killed at age 27.
22. The British once set up a fake laundromat in Belfast to catch IRA bombmakers by testing their clothes for explosive residue. The operation ran during the Troubles, when British security forces were trying to identify people connected to Irish Republican Army bomb attacks.
23. Yoko Ono’s 7-year-old daughter, Kyoko, was kidnapped by her father, American film producer Tony Cox, in 1971. Cox was Ono’s ex-husband, and he disappeared with Kyoko after a bitter custody fight. Ono would not see her daughter again for more than two decades. They finally reunited in 1994, when Kyoko was 31 years old.
24. Benford’s Law says that in real-world data, roughly 30% of numbers start with “1,” whether the data involves stock prices, city populations, or electric bills. Forensic accountants use this pattern because naturally occurring numbers often follow it in ways people do not expect. When someone fabricates numbers, they tend to spread the first digits more evenly or choose digits that feel random. That mismatch can help investigators flag suspicious financial records for deeper fraud checks.
25. The reason netting became mandatory at National Hockey League games is that in 2002, a 13-year-old girl named Brittanie Cecil was struck in the head by a stray puck deflected into the stands. She had been watching a Columbus Blue Jackets game against the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena when the puck hit her. Cecil later died from her injuries, making her death the only fan fatality in NHL history. After the tragedy, the NHL required protective netting above the glass behind both goals to reduce the risk of another fatal accident.
RE: Fact #21 (Ennis Cosby Died Changing Tire) – It is so much sadder once you read up on his background and see all the things he was trying to achieve in his life.
Seriously, he seemed like such a solid guy trying to do good in the world. A real tragedy.
His dad dealt with that at one point, too. I remember hearing about it and thinking how awful the senseless loss was. Definitely a tragedy.
Exactly. He had dyslexia and was really driven to help kids struggling with the same thing.
RE: Fact #23 (Kyoko Cox Vanished For Decades) – I know people love to bash Yoko Ono, but her father was a paranoid cultist. Poor woman.
RE: Fact #39 (Mae West Turned Obscenity Famous) – After her time in jail, Mae headed for Hollywood with a new level of fame. When reporters met her at the station, she quipped, “I’m not a little girl from a small town trying to make it big in the city. I’m a big girl from a big town trying to make it big in a small town.” Most people don’t realize she wrote every line she delivered and every song she sang on screen.
What kind of husband do you think I should find? “Why not take a single man and leave the husbands alone?”
“Come up and see me when I’ve only got the radio on.” “I was pure as snow, but then I drifted.” “It’s not the men in my life that matter, but the life in my men.”
She was so incredibly quotable. She also famously said, “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”
There are 10 men waiting for you at your apartment. “Well, I’m a little tired tonight, one of them will have to go.”
RE: Fact #25 (Brittanie Cecil Changed NHL Safety) – Back in 1957, Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies hit a woman with a foul ball. During that same at-bat, as she was being carried off on a stretcher, he hit her again with a second foul ball.
Reminds me of that scene in The Simpsons where Homer jumps the canyon and the ambulance picks him up, only to crash into the tree.
RE: Fact #18 (Tammi Terrell’s Life Turned Tragic) – She actually collapsed on stage in Marvin Gaye’s arms while they were singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Marvin Gaye struggled after that, went into seclusion, released “What’s Going On, ” and was eventually killed by his own father. Motown has so many tragic stories.
His father was a Pentecostal minister. He shot Marvin with the gun Marvin had actually bought him as a Christmas gift, right while trying to break up an argument between his parents.
The first time I read that, I thought Marvin handed his dad a gun right in the middle of the argument.
RE: Fact #50 (Assassins Recorded Alamut Kill Lists) – Maintaining a roll of honor for hits is the most aggressively LinkedIn thing a medieval group has ever done.
“IS YOU TAKIN NOTES ON A CRIMINAL FUCKIN CONSPIRACY?” – Stringer Bell, hearing about this.
RE: Fact #9 (Guam Mistook War For Salute) – Captain Henry Glass was actually warned that Guam might have heavy fortifications and over a thousand soldiers. Instead, a delegation including the port captain and a local named José Paloma rowed out to the ship to apologize for not returning a salute because they were out of ammo. Glass had to explain that the shots were actually hostile and that the U.S. and Spain were at war. The island’s defenses were falling apart, with many cannons completely rusted and unusable. Francisco Portusach, an American merchant on the island, even helped the U.S. crew move coal, despite the Spanish Governor threatening to have him executed for helping the Americans.
In case you were wondering what happened to Portusach: After the U.S. captured Guam, the Spanish were sent to Manila. Captain Glass made Portusach the acting-governor because he was the only American living there. However, he couldn’t hold onto power and was quickly overthrown by a local treasurer, who was then also ousted by the native Chamorro population. Portusach eventually wrote a book about it. It’s a crazy story, he was a Spanish citizen who fled, became an American, and then accidentally ended up governing an entire island for a short time before he died in 1919.
Man, imagine being put in charge of an entire island just because you happened to be standing there at the right time.
RE: Fact #17 (Dandruff Fungus Affects Half Adults) – I used to have terrible dandruff, but I started using a strong antifungal shampoo every day for a few months, and it’s been completely gone ever since. Most of the stuff on the shelf is too weak to actually kill the fungus; it just suppresses the symptoms.
RE: Fact #34 (Zhang Zongchang Couldn’t Count Power) –
So that’s how legends get started.
RE: Fact #45 (Don Bolles Investigation Outlived Murder) – That is absolutely fascinating. It is a shame Don was killed for trying to expose local corruption, but it is amazing that so many journalists teamed up afterwards to finish his work.
RE: Fact #11 (San Francisco Owners Lit Fires) – When I was closing escrow on my place, the notary had me sign the insurance papers and mentioned, “You don’t have earthquake insurance, but you have fire insurance, so if the big one hits, you need to open your gas line.” I thought that was a pretty insane thing to suggest.
RE: Fact #13 (Napoleon Rebuilt Malta In Days) – This is why the Ridley Scott movie was so bad. If there is one thing you realize after reading about Napoleon, it’s that the man had immense energy and was completely driven. Eyewitnesses described him as a tireless administrator who could work 18 hours straight. His relentless activity was a huge part of his character, yet the movie made him look uninspired and sleepy. You just watch it and wonder why anyone would follow him; the real Napoleon could convince soldiers sent to arrest him to switch sides.
This is why Waterloo is such a good film. It depicts Napoleon as a bit past his prime, but still capable of brilliance and inspiring total devotion from his followers. The scene where he convinces the army sent to arrest him to join him is both dramatic and funny.
RE: Fact #15 (Nicole Delien Slept Through Holidays) – They call it Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, which sounds kind of whimsical until you realize it actually steals years of someone’s life.
RE: Fact #5 (Hal Dreamed Breaking Bad’s Ending) – Cranston is so good as the neurotic dad that he makes his Walter White character look stoic in comparison.
RE: Fact #1 (Fake Birthday Boy Got Drafted) –
Just to clarify, they sold the list well before 1984. No time-travel involved.
But selling their mailing list in 2019 still doesn’t explain how these kids got a letter from the Selective Service back in 1984.
They must have sold it sometime before 1984. I only mentioned the closing date because I wanted to know who to boycott, and the frustrating answer is that no one is left to hold accountable. Of course, I’d boycott all data brokers if I could.
I think Farrell’s used a mail broker to handle their coupon distribution. They hired a third party that likely managed mailings for dozens of companies, and that firm probably sold Farrell’s list to the government for a profit without Farrell’s permission or awareness.
RE: Fact #50 (Assassins Recorded Alamut Kill Lists) – Back in 1272, they made an attempt on King Edward I while he was on Crusade. Edward managed to kill the guy, but he caught a poisoned blade for his trouble.
RE: Fact #36 (David Wynn Miller’s Gibberish Failed) –
Hang loose, brother.
RE: Fact #7 (Metallica Delivered Napster’s User List) – Iron Maiden actually hired a firm to track where their music was being pirated most and ended up using that data to plan a tour in South America.
This is the difference between a band of idiots and a group of absolute legends.
RE: Fact #41 (Gifted Students Still Quit School) – This fact is like a magnet for people saying, “Oh yeah, the reason I sucked in school is because I was actually just too smart.”
RE: Fact #27 (Side Stitches Still Puzzle Doctors) – My doctor says that side stitch is just your body telling you to head back to the couch where it’s safe.
As Dr. Spaceman put it, “Medicine’s not a science.” And also, “Opposite, opposite!”
We have no way of knowing where the heart is. Every human is different.
RE: Fact #16 (Sarah Culberson Discovered Royal Blood) – I looked into this. She’s considered a princess by the Mende people because she’s the granddaughter of the Paramount Chief. She reconnected with her father after sending him a letter, and he explained that they were just too young and broke to raise a child when she was born.
To put it in perspective, she is a princess of one of 190 chiefdoms in a relatively small country where most of the people face extreme poverty.
I’m curious how this hierarchy actually works. Is it like the Saudi royal family where there are thousands of people in the class, or is it more like finding out your dad was a local mayor in a specific region? I wonder if she’s actually royalty in a major sense or if it’s more of a ceremonial title.
There are 190 chiefdoms in Sierra Leone, so there are probably a few thousand people with that status. For perspective, the country’s total population is about the same as Virginia’s.
I think it’s closer to the latter. Her father was essentially the chief of a town of about 16, 000 people. It’s not quite the same, but it’s a bit like how KJ Apa is a matai in Samoa.
RE: Fact #37 (Samuel Jackson Discovered Glass Secret) – Shyamalan is just a twist fetishist. He tells his family, “Hey, we’re ordering pizza, tell me what you want, ” and then when they open the boxes, BAM, it’s Chinese food. He asks his girlfriend, “Will you marry me?” and at the altar, BAM, it turns out she has to marry a Chinese woman named Mei. Some people find that cute, but it’s a debilitating compulsion. The man just cannot stop.
His family tried to stage an intervention. After everyone said their part and got zero reaction, they pulled his sunglasses off, only to find three pumpkins stacked inside an overcoat.
RE: Fact #38 (Apollo Ten Forced Profanity Training) – Going all that way and back with a crew of military guys without a single swear word? That is almost as impressive as landing on the moon.
Holy hell… Can you believe this? Over. I am absolutely standing on the surface of the moon!
RE: Fact #25 (Brittanie Cecil Changed NHL Safety) – I was at a game once and saw a guy a few rows ahead of me get hit in the face with a puck. He spit out a few teeth right there in the middle of the rink.
Yeah, I’ve seen it happen more than once. One time the puck ripped through the netting; they stopped the game to fix it and had to take the guy out on a gurney with blood pouring from his mouth.
It always amazed me how people at high school basketball games didn’t pay attention. I saw so many people get hit in the head with balls because they weren’t watching. It wasn’t too dangerous, but for hockey? You really have to keep your eyes on the game.
a stray puck often moves too fast for even a fan paying full attention to do much about it.
What? A puck is way smaller and faster than a basketball. You blink and you lose track of it. Even if you see it coming, it’s really hard to dodge.
RE: Fact #3 (Human Brains Mature At Thirty-Two) – 18, 24: You think you know everything. 25, 29: You realize you don’t know anything and start panicking because you aren’t sure how to find the answers you need. 30+: You realize nobody actually knows what’s going on, and we’re all just figuring this out as we go.
I think most people realize that nobody has all the answers the moment they start a real job.
Actually, that’s just when you realize a lot of people are incompetent, which might just confirm what you already suspected back in school. You don’t fully grasp how little anyone knows until you’ve been in enough workplaces to see that chaos, or the absence of it, is usually just a result of whether a group of people can manage their emotional outbursts.
I’m 45. Around 43, you start realizing how much more life would make sense if you’d actually paid attention to those “boring” lessons back in the day. In your thirties, you start appreciating the big life advice you were given as a kid. In your forties, you notice that all the practical stuff, fixing things around the house, budgeting, even how to debate, was actually covered in high school. We’d all be better off if we’d just paid attention back then.
RE: Fact #26 (Bread Stales Faster In Fridge) – You can fix stale bread pretty easily in a microwave or toaster. Plus, keeping it out stops it from growing mold as quickly.
If I don’t refrigerate Trader Joe’s Tuscan Pane, it gets moldy in two days.
RE: Fact #47 (Baby Backwash Changes Breast Milk) – That’s actually why breast milk is packed with antibodies. Whatever the baby backwashes, the milk changes to match it. If the baby is sick, those germs become the template for the antibodies the mom’s body has to produce. It’s honestly really cool.
RE: Fact #47 (Baby Backwash Changes Breast Milk) – Just wait until the baby gets a contagious mouth fungus. It ends up colonizing inside your breast and creates the most agonizing pain you can imagine while breastfeeding.
I almost gave up because the pain was just unholy, searing, and all-consuming. Meanwhile, the kid is just like, “oh, my bad, let me pop off and relatch a few more times.”
My kid caught herpes and passed it to my wife’s nipples. She had sores all over them, which is why we rushed our nine-day-old to the hospital. She just wanted some relief from the shock of that pain. It turned out to be herpes and our baby was potentially hours away from dying. After 21 days in the hospital, our kid was released, and three years later, she is happy and healthy.
I don’t mean to be intrusive, but how does a nine-day-old get herpes? That sounds completely horrific.
I spent years smelling like vinegar because soaking my nipples in it was the only way to keep the thrush at bay while breastfeeding. If I missed even a day, I could feel it coming back. Apparently, I’m just really prone to it, which is just great.
RE: Fact #45 (Don Bolles Investigation Outlived Murder) – He was killed by a car bomb outside a hotel in Phoenix. He was well-known for reporting on the mob there, though a land developer was the one who went down for the murder.
RE: Fact #10 (Sleeping Neurons Flush Brain Waste) – I love the idea of my brain taking a bath at night. Deep sleep is basically just hygiene for your mind.
And people say I’m depressed, I’m actually just prioritizing my mental health by getting extra sleep!
It’s not depression, guys; it’s OCD, I’m just obsessively cleaning my brain.
RE: Fact #9 (Guam Mistook War For Salute) – The garrison didn’t even know a war was on because they hadn’t heard a word from Spain in over a month. As someone who’s used to being connected 24/7 in the modern world, it’s impossible to even imagine what that kind of isolation would feel like.
RE: Fact #37 (Samuel Jackson Discovered Glass Secret) – I really loved this series. I always wished Bruce had more lines, but seeing his diagnosis now and his struggle with speaking, I understand. My heart goes out to him and his family.
I don’t know, I liked “Unbreakable” and “Split” as standalones. I wasn’t a fan of the tie-in or “Glass”.
I liked the tie-in because it took the early movie logic of “mental illness is magic” and reframed it as “Oh, this is a superhero universe where some people have powers slightly beyond human limits.” I didn’t care for some of the world-building in “Glass”, but that shared universe concept helped me move past the clunky exposition at the start of “Split” that I really disliked.
Same. “Glass” was a chore to get through. M. Night giveth, and M. Night taketh away.
RE: Fact #48 (Lionel Messi’s Tax Fraud Conviction) – So have Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlo Ancelotti, Di Maria, Marcelo, Modric, Falcao, and Mourinho. It’s actually pretty common, to be honest.
RE: Fact #13 (Napoleon Rebuilt Malta In Days) – He did reinstitute slavery in the French empire at one point, so he certainly contained multitudes.
Yeah, Napoleon didn’t have a fixed stance on slavery. He abolished it in Malta, but reluctantly brought it back in 1802 to appease plantation owners who threatened to defect to the British. Then he abolished the slave trade in 1815 to make himself look more liberal.
Haiti fought for their own freedom, it wasn’t just handed to them, and they’ve been punished for it ever since.
RE: Fact #6 (Dogs Break Up Owner Rivalries) – My dog absolutely hates nail trims, so we don’t do it as often as we should. One time, my husband and I were trimming our cat’s nails, showering him with praise and affection. The dog watched us with a face that belonged in a sad animal commercial. When we were done, the dog walked over and reluctantly offered us his paw. I guess making him jealous was the trick to getting him to cooperate.
We had a wiener dog that used to eat carrots with the most judgmental face whenever we fed the rabbits.
A buddy of mine had a dog that would get incredibly jealous of his cat. You’d call the cat, and the dog would come sprinting over. It was hilarious. One time, the dog got out, and nothing would make him come back, not shaking the food bag or calling his name. I figured I’d try a different approach, so I yelled, “HERE KITTY KITTY!” and the dog came running back immediately.
That’s how I get my cat Lenny to come to me. I just start cooing over our other cat, Betty, and Lenny immediately shows up wanting attention.
Model-rival training at work! It’s actually a really effective way to train a lot of different animals, even parrots.
Haha, I remember seeing a YouTuber training a parrot where a human acted as the ‘rival.’ It never occurred to me that it was actually based on pure competitiveness.
RE: Fact #29 (Mauritanian Girls Face Marriage Fattening) – Isn’t that the same country that was the last to end slavery and also threatened to execute a journalist back in 2014 for heresy because of a post criticizing how religion supports the caste system? He eventually got exiled to France.
Most of the country still backs slavery. What’s worse is that the lower class actually supports it because they’re glad the slaves are ranked even lower than they are.
RE: Fact #19 (Val Kilmer Resented Top Gun) – His totally chill and indifferent attitude is exactly what made him perfect for the character of Iceman.
RE: Fact #25 (Brittanie Cecil Changed NHL Safety) – Ariana Grande actually got hit twice at Panthers games. Back in 1998, when she was five, she made headlines after getting hit by a puck, which left her with a bruise and a mention in the paper. Then, just months later at the arena’s grand opening, she got hit again, this time on the wrist. The team eventually gifted her gear and let her ride the Zamboni because the odds of that happening were just absurd.
If kids are going to keep attending games, you really should gear them up for protection.
She performed the anthem there as well.
RE: Fact #10 (Sleeping Neurons Flush Brain Waste) – It’s still early days for the research, but there’s a theory that some forms of meditation might produce a similar cleaning effect.
RE: Fact #12 (Cavemen Were Taller Than Farmers) – It is worth noting that human height varies a lot. Pastoral cultures in Africa can be very tall, even historically, while hunter-gatherers in places like Papua or South America tend to be much shorter.
I agree it’s not as simple as just eating more protein. Plenty of groups have high-protein diets but still have an average height that’s, well, average. There is definitely more to it than just that.
RE: Fact #2 (Kitum Cave Hid Marburg Virus) – The silver lining with a virus that deadly is that it’s usually hard for it to spread to large crowds because of how quickly it incapacitates or kills the host.
It’s probably more about the transmission method than the mortality rate. It requires direct contact with bodily fluids like blood, so it isn’t airborne like the flu or COVID. It spreads more like hepatitis C. That explains why outbreaks usually hit healthcare facilities and why medical workers are often the ones affected.
And the opposite is true for something like COVID. Because so many people had mild symptoms, they were spreading it before they even realized they were sick.
That’s just effective strategy. Max out your spread early on, then ramp up the danger once you’ve already penetrated enough countries to make containment impossible.
Plus, it isn’t airborne and has a very short incubation period, both of which make it much easier to track and limit exposure.
RE: Fact #14 (Gillette Founder Imagined Niagara Metropolis) – At the time, he probably thought the five-blade razor was the truly radical and impossible thing to achieve.
RE: Fact #4 (Moon Dust Gave Astronauts Hayfever) – “Turns out Moon rocks are toxic. I am deathly ill. Still, they’re a great portal conductor. Let’s see if jumping through portals can somehow leach the lunar poison out of my bloodstream.”
RE: Fact #8 (Stone Age Dominated Human History) – It’s both fascinating and a bit sad that while Homo sapiens have been around for 300, 000 years, we only have written records for the last 5, 000. There’s so much human history we’re totally in the dark about, especially if you include the history of Neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis.
It makes more sense when you remember that writing isn’t something humans are born knowing how to do. It’s an invention that must be learned. We’re wired for language, not necessarily writing. Most of our history was spent using oral traditions, art, or symbols. Early writing was mostly for record-keeping in Mesopotamian cities. Even cultures that had writing didn’t always write down their myths; the Norse sagas weren’t written down until long after the region turned Christian. It’s a fascinating evolution, but it really is a shame how much knowledge vanished just because it was only passed down through speech.
RE: Fact #35 (Japan Airlines Survivors Died Waiting) – With over 500 casualties, JAL123 remains the deadliest single-aircraft crash. It actually saved more lives four years later because Captain Dennis Fitch remembered the case while trying to land a crippled DC-10 using only differential power. When investigating, other pilots couldn’t replicate their success in a simulator. Controlling a plane with just engine power was a theory, but not fully understood until then. People realized the plane would wave up and down, known as a phugoid cycle. In extreme scenarios, solid crew resource management is often the only real chance you have. Decades later, both JAL123 and UA232 are still core case studies for emergency protocols.
Sioux City was absolute top-tier airmanship. No shade on Sully, but that crew set a standard that’s incredibly difficult to match.
RE: Fact #42 (Prince Collaboration Died Over Smoking) – Just saying, Prince’s request was definitely more out of left field than Damon just saying, “maybe another time.” The stories about Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson trying to collaborate are way more interesting, Jackson complained about Mercury’s cocaine use, while Mercury was fed up with Jackson bringing his chimp, Bubbles, into the studio.
Good grief, could you imagine being there all coked out with a primate in the room? I would be absolutely terrified.
True, but to be fair, that was just one chimp. Prince would have had to deal with four Gorillaz.
RE: Fact #33 (Patti Davis Posed For Playboy) – Jackie Martling had this joke that Patti knew Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s because he started talking to her again.
RE: Fact #49 (Nicholas Comper’s Firework Joke Killed) – Just for context, this happened during the IRA sabotage campaign of 1939-40, not the later troubles with the Provisional IRA. The campaign caused 10 deaths total, but most of those happened after Comper’s incident.
People are definitely misreading the headline and assuming this was from the Troubles. Also, there really isn’t proof that he said that since there were no witnesses; it was just the defense’s story.
RE: Fact #40 (Keith Richards Kept Steady Marriage) – Let’s check the math. 42 years ago was 1984. He had plenty of time to be as wild as he wanted since The Rolling Stones had already been active since the mid-60s.
Yeah, Keith mostly sobered up during the late 70s. These days he is basically just a cool guitar-playing grandpa.
I once wanted to be a neuroscientist just to study what I called the ‘Keith Richards Effect’, the idea that someone could survive such a lifetime of wild chemistry that their brain eventually just gets used to functioning in a state of constant euphoria or weirdness.
RE: Fact #7 (Metallica Delivered Napster’s User List) – You wouldn’t download a car, would you? Well, yeah, everyone would download a car if we actually could.
You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a baby. You wouldn’t shoot a policeman and steal his helmet, then go to the bathroom in it and send it to his widow, and then steal it again! Downloading films is theft, and if you do it, you’ll deal with the consequences.
RE: Fact #46 (Fidel Castro Wore Double Rolexes) – A man with one watch knows what time it is, but a man with two is never quite sure.
RE: Fact #22 (Belfast Laundromat Sniffed IRA Bombs) – Back in the day, senior IRA leaders had a hard time meeting without being watched or bugged. They started holding their most important talks at funerals, surrounded by big coats and bowed heads in a crowded room where surveillance seemed impossible. Or so they thought, the British security services were known to bug the coffins.
RE: Fact #36 (David Wynn Miller’s Gibberish Failed) –
There it is, a sovereign citizen idiot with a fancy language.
RE: Fact #35 (Japan Airlines Survivors Died Waiting) – It was handled terribly. The USAF in Japan tracked the plane in distress and found the crash site in under 20 minutes, but the government blocked any outside help. Hideo Yokoyama’s “Seventeen” is a fascinating fictional take on the aftermath and the press coverage. He had been a reporter near the site, and the incident caused him to quit journalism entirely.
RE: Fact #12 (Cavemen Were Taller Than Farmers) – Early agriculture was definitely labor-intensive compared to hunting and gathering. Anthropologists like Jared Diamond and James Suzman have looked into this, with Suzman pointing out that hunter-gatherers often worked only about 15 hours a week. Agriculture took way more effort, and they didn’t even have draft animals like oxen until much later. Archaeological evidence also shows that farming led to more viral diseases and physical deformities. That said, diet isn’t the only factor; there’s also climate. Bergmann’s rule explains that humans in warmer environments tend to be smaller to help dissipate heat better.
RE: Fact #30 (American Psycho Scared Luxury Brands) – Yeah, Mary Harron talks about this on the DVD commentary. There was a scene where an escort touches Patrick’s arm and he was supposed to say, “Don’t touch the Rolex.” They couldn’t get the clearance, so they changed it to “Don’t touch the watch.”
I get it. If you’ve read the book, which is a total slog at times, the author meticulously lists every single brand and model Patrick Bateman owns. It’s so detailed it drove me crazy.
That’s because that’s all Patrick notices. He obsesses over every tiny detail of what someone wears, but he doesn’t even see the person. It’s rarely “Paul is in the room, ” it’s usually “someone who looks like Paul.” That tension is completely intentional.
Exactly. As a reader, you’re meant to be fascinated and horrified by how fixated Patrick is on brands and image.
Fun fact: Bret Easton Ellis was basically just picking clothes at random from catalogs. If you actually tried to assemble those outfits, they’d look ridiculous, which really leans into the satire.
RE: Fact #14 (Gillette Founder Imagined Niagara Metropolis) – The concept of a Utopia is pretty delusional, but I’ll give him a pass for the razors.
The idea of an actual realized Utopia is nuts. Using utopian ideals as a goal, though, is okay.
RE: Fact #30 (American Psycho Scared Luxury Brands) – A funny detail most people forget is that Patrick Bateman is obsessed with Donald Trump and patterns his entire life after him.
RE: Fact #12 (Cavemen Were Taller Than Farmers) – Higher protein intake definitely drives average height up. You can see it in many countries that underwent rapid development and got better access to protein-rich food, leading to taller subsequent generations. The shift toward cheaper, carb-heavy diets after agriculture started likely explains why height dropped over the years.
RE: Fact #20 (Napoleon Ate Simple Soldier Meals) – Napoleon wasn’t much of a drinker, and he usually just ate the same rations his soldiers had on the field. I wonder if that came from living a Spartan life as a young officer, especially since he sent most of his pay home to help his widowed mother and siblings get out of debt.
RE: Fact #37 (Samuel Jackson Discovered Glass Secret) – He should direct a new film under a pseudonym so nobody suspects a twist, and then have the pseudonym reveal itself in the end credits.
RE: Fact #24 (Benford’s Law Exposes Fake Numbers) – To get how this works, imagine picking a random number between 1 and 1, 000 to be the length of a list. Say you pick 500. How many numbers starting with 1 are in that list? You have ‘1’, all the ’10s’, and all the ‘100s’, that’s 111 total numbers. But for numbers starting with 6, you just have ‘6’ and the ’60s’, which is only 11. Keep picking different list lengths, and you’ll find that if the length is 200 or more, you always get those 111 ones, but you’d need a list of 700 or more to get that many sixes. Most of the time, you’ll end up with way more ones. If you run enough trials, the average forms a curve showing that, unless the list length is fixed by some external factor, the first digits will usually be small.
Thanks for the explanation. It’s not about the number 1 itself, but the fact that it is the first digit. That sounds silly, but it finally clicked for me.
Exactly. Presumably, twos are more common than threes, but not as common as ones.
RE: Fact #28 (Astronauts Cannot Drive After Landing) – One Skylab astronaut mentioned in an interview that a week after he got back, he was shaving at home. He pumped some foam out of the can and just let go of the can, totally shocked when it dropped instead of floating.
It’s like the astronaut version of flipping a light switch during a power outage and being confused for a second when it’s still dark.
RE: Fact #7 (Metallica Delivered Napster’s User List) – “60, 000-page list of 335, 435 users” , what font were they using that only put about 5.5 users on each page?
I didn’t really think about the math behind that when I shared this fact. It does seem pretty weird.
RE: Fact #43 (Ariel’s Red Hair Beat Blonde) – The red hair is iconic! It really made her pop.
RE: Fact #43 (Ariel’s Red Hair Beat Blonde) – Can confirm, yellow is a nightmare to darken, especially with paint-based cels. If you go too dark, it looks like a stripe rather than a shadow. Too light, and it doesn’t show up on film. Too gray, and it looks mucky; too green, it looks sickly; too orange, it looks ginger. If you mix red and dark, it ends up looking brown or dirty. Adding multiple layers of cels on top of each other only makes managing those colors way harder.
Were they using ink on paper for the original Little Mermaid? I’m trying to wrap my head around how cels worked before computer animation.
RE: Fact #14 (Gillette Founder Imagined Niagara Metropolis) – A lot of old-school business owners were like that. You should look into the founder of Ralston Purina.
Christian socialism was popular for a bit in the US, but then national socialism gained traction, and now socialism is basically dead here.
The prosperity gospel started creeping in whenever capitalists needed a religious excuse for being financial predators.
RE: Fact #29 (Mauritanian Girls Face Marriage Fattening) – Isn’t “gavage” the same thing used to force-feed geese for foie gras? Thanks, American Dad.
Gavage is the practice, not the tool. The tool is just a funnel.
The one I saw was basically a long-necked gun you’d shove down the goose’s throat and trigger to dispense the feed. It was unpleasant to witness, to say the least. I’m not a fan.
RE: Fact #15 (Nicole Delien Slept Through Holidays) – Nicole Delien was diagnosed with Kleine-Levin Syndrome when she was six. By 2012, she was using her platform to raise awareness about the condition, which causes episodes of extreme lethargy and hypersomnia. These episodes often forced her to miss major family milestones like Thanksgiving and Christmas. In one instance, after she missed a Katy Perry concert due to a flare-up, the singer actually arranged to meet her backstage at a later show.
That was cool of Katy Perry. I wonder how she managed school, though. I imagine they had to send the work home and she just did it whenever she was actually awake.
RE: Fact #40 (Keith Richards Kept Steady Marriage) – “Happily married” in the world of rock stars usually just means he doesn’t bring groupies home.
True, but I haven’t heard any rumors about Keith since he married. I think he’s a much more dedicated family man than most other rock stars.
I happen to know his guitar tech. Keith is faithful to his wife and is a genuinely dedicated family man.
RE: Fact #36 (David Wynn Miller’s Gibberish Failed) – “a word that starts with a vowel followed by two consonants means ‘no contract’ and will therefore void any document” What? “Sorry, I don’t have to pay you for installing the railing on my deck. Why? You used the word ‘attach’ in the contract, and that makes the whole thing void, you ignorant fool!”
RE: Fact #4 (Moon Dust Gave Astronauts Hayfever) – They’re basically indestructible microscopic razor blades. Moon dust feels like free cancer, doesn’t it?
RE: Fact #4 (Moon Dust Gave Astronauts Hayfever) – From what I understand, that burnt gunpowder smell happens because the iron in the dust oxidizes instantly when it hits the oxygen inside the lander.
Right! During the Apollo missions, they weren’t even sure if that reaction would spark a fire inside the lander.
As someone who loves high-pressure situations, that sounds both terrifying and exhilarating. If you’re going to go, at least it’s in a history-defining way that teaches the world something new. Just repressurize the lander and hope for the best. That pretty much sums up the attitude during the Apollo and Mercury programs.
RE: Fact #21 (Ennis Cosby Died Changing Tire) – This reminds me of Michael Jordan’s father, who was shot while sleeping in his car. It’s just devastating when people are killed for no reason.
This was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this fact. For a second, I thought I was in the conspiracy sub.
That type of “gang initiation” has been around for a long time. I never even got to meet one of my uncles because he was shot with a shotgun while sleeping in the back of his truck. They tried to dispose of the body, but he was found dead the next morning.
I heard a rumor that MJ’s dad was killed over a gambling debt, but that’s never been substantiated. It’s just something that’s always been talked about.
I know it is just a rumor, but after hearing that he acted like a cheap, greedy jerk to Chamillionaire, I find it pretty easy to believe it could be true.
RE: Fact #42 (Prince Collaboration Died Over Smoking) – They were very different, so it makes sense. Damon likes to let his collaborators do their own thing and keep things authentic, but I get the feeling Prince was on the other side of that, he wanted full control over his art.
Some artists just don’t click. It seems like Prince and Damon probably would have been one of those pairings.
I love this perspective. It feels like the total opposite of the AI crowd pushing technology to generate art.
RE: Fact #20 (Napoleon Ate Simple Soldier Meals) – I wonder if he was just one of those people who views food purely as fuel and never really cared about the culinary experience.
I think he was just too focused on his work to care about the fancy gourmet stuff. He’d much rather be handling administration or touring his territory.
That’s definitely it. There’s plenty of evidence he could appreciate good food when he had the time, but he just prioritized work above all else. Even when not on campaign, the guy was a machine. Interestingly, the Duke of Wellington was famously indifferent to food, there are stories about him eating rotten eggs without a second thought. If Huel existed back then, he would have been their target audience.
Maybe. I’m the same way, I view eating as a chore. If I could just swap out my digestive system for something that didn’t need constant refueling, I would do it in a second.
On one campaign, he saw his soldiers rubbing onions on dry bread and called it the perfect meal for a long march. The soldiers even wrote the ‘Song of the Onion’ about it, it’s actually kind of funny because it mocks the Austrians for not having any.
RE: Fact #18 (Tammi Terrell’s Life Turned Tragic) – If her life were a script, critics would call it unrealistic or just exploitative tragedy. She dealt with abuse from her mother, was gang-raped at 11, and suffered constant physical abuse from James Brown and David Ruffin as a young woman. She was only 24 when she died after a brutal battle with cancer, even though she had finally found happiness with her fiancé, a doctor.
RE: Fact #34 (Zhang Zongchang Couldn’t Count Power) – “You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You’re all bastards, Go fu*k your mother.” , “Poem about bastards” attributed to Zhang Zongchang Brilliant.
During a drought in Shandong while his army was stationed there, Zhang walked into the local dragon god temple, slapped the statue, and said: “The Jade Emperor is also named Zhang, so why make things tough for little old Zhang Zongchang? If it doesn’t rain in 3 days, I’m going to raze this temple and bombard your mom!” It didn’t rain, so he actually had his artillery squad shell the sky. While he was poorly educated, the act reportedly created enough nucleation sites in the clouds to bring rain. He traded a sore hand and some artillery shells for a relieved local population and a massive ego boost.
RE: Fact #8 (Stone Age Dominated Human History) – My international development lecturer told us early on that it’s a huge mistake to assume progress is just something that happens automatically over time.
RE: Fact #8 (Stone Age Dominated Human History) – The term ‘Stone Age’ is honestly way too broad. Polynesians were technically in a Stone Age until they encountered Europeans, yet they were the best ocean navigators in history, reaching almost every island in the Pacific and even moving South American crops across the ocean.
RE: Fact #19 (Val Kilmer Resented Top Gun) – In fairness to Val, the role was pretty one-dimensional. We all love the movie, but he was right to think the part lacked depth. He had already proven himself as a serious actor, so he clearly cared more about the craft than his agent did at the time. It worked out, though, the movie made him a massive star, which gave him the leverage to pick better, more challenging roles later on.
He read the lines with zero interest specifically because he didn’t want the part. The casting team just misinterpreted his total boredom as the character being ‘too cool to care, ‘ which is exactly why they gave him the role.
That sounds like the kind of story you tell after the fact, though. Like, you go into an audition thinking you have a cool take on the character, but if you don’t get the part, it’s no big deal.
RE: Fact #28 (Astronauts Cannot Drive After Landing) – They also have vision issues, but I doubt that was the main reason for the driving ban.
RE: Fact #32 (New Yorker Devoted Issue Hiroshima) – 30, 000 words for an entire issue. I really can’t imagine a modern outlet doing that; it would just get turned into a six-part series behind a paywall.
Sure, our communication styles have shifted since ’46, so maybe a 30, 000-word piece isn’t the norm anymore, but don’t act like long-form, deep-dive journalism is dead. It’s not just limited to bite-sized content either. >paywall Imagine that, people wanting to be paid for their talent and time!
It was meant to be a four-part series originally, but the magazine decided to package it all together at once. Unsurprisingly, it ended up getting published as a book later.
RE: Fact #41 (Gifted Students Still Quit School) – Middle and high school are incredibly boring. College was much better because I finally had the freedom to choose my own path.
Maybe it depends on where you go, but I actually found college worse than high school. The first two years were just a repeat of high school because of the general education requirements. My upper-level degree courses were great, but they were bogged down by so many classes I didn’t need. It felt like I spent more time on irrelevant stuff than on my actual major. It really gives you the illusion of choice.
For me, the issue was homework. It would drag my average down if it was graded. In college, it wasn’t as common. My thermodynamics professor really got it; we had homework due every class, but as long as you maintained a 70% average, it didn’t impact your grade. He told us on the first day: if you have a big test, a paper, or a hot date, just skip the homework and catch up later.
That was my experience, too. I refused to do high school homework and was basically a B student. In college, I found that I could just listen to lectures, review my notes, and crush the curve. It was eye-opening. I loved college.
I was the complete opposite. Tests always dragged my grades down, so I had to ace every homework assignment and project just to keep my head above water.
RE: Fact #39 (Mae West Turned Obscenity Famous) – Even though critics hated the play, it sold out consistently and outlasted most others that season. It brought in roughly 325, 000 viewers before the police arrested Mae and charged her with obscenity in 1927. She ended up serving 10 days in a workhouse and paying a $500 fine, but the controversy just boosted her popularity nationwide.
RE: Fact #44 (Copper Scroll Listed Hidden Treasure) – It was probably mostly looted back in the day. When they finally found Herod’s tomb after centuries of searching, it had already been looted, likely within a couple hundred years of the burial. The scroll also mentions silver in a tunnel under Hyrcania, but I didn’t find anything there when I checked.
RE: Fact #31 (Ferrari Means Smith In Italian) – I remember hearing a joke on British TV about how romantic the name Roberto di Matteo sounds, but the English version, Bob Matthews, really doesn’t have the same vibe.
It’s like the fancy Italian sports sedan, the Maserati Quattroporte, which just means “four door.”
So Enzo Ferrari, one of the coolest names ever, just translates to Lawrence Smith? I don’t know why, but that makes me sad.