1 Sleep Activates Brain Waste Clearance
Sleep triggers a wash cycle in the brain, according to a 2013 study involving live mice. During sleep or anesthesia, the interstitial space in their brains expanded by more than 60%, increasing the exchange of cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid. This increased flow cleared beta-amyloid faster than during wakefulness, suggesting that sleep helps remove potentially harmful waste from the brain. Therefore pulling an all-nighter stops this waste from clearing can cause brain fog.
2. Japanese television journalist Toyohiro Akiyama became the first Japanese person in space when he flew aboard Soyuz TM-11 to the Mir space station on December 2, 1990. Akiyama had quit a four-pack-a-day smoking habit during training, and he battled cigarette cravings and severe space sickness while delivering live reports from orbit. His nausea became so extreme that his fellow cosmonauts later said they “hadn’t ever seen a man vomit that much.”
3. The famous “London Fog” of Victorian novels was not merely natural weather. Smoke from soft bituminous coal burned in homes and industry mixed with ordinary fog and became trapped beneath still air, producing the thick, toxic “pea-soupers” that plagued the city. The five-day Great Smog of December 1952 became so dense that cinemas closed because audiences could not see the screen from the fourth row. The disaster killed thousands and helped bring about the Clean Air Act of 1956.
4. On August 29, 1973, the two-man submersible Pisces III was laying transatlantic telephone cable 150 miles southwest of Ireland when a fouled towline opened its rear machinery hatch, flooding the compartment and sending the craft 1,575 feet to the seabed. Inside, a 35-year-old engineer named Roger Mallinson and a 28-year-old pilot named Roger Chapman remained cold and wet in darkness, speaking and moving as little as possible to conserve oxygen. A 76-hour international rescue effort overcame broken ropes, leaks, and electrical faults before lifting Pisces III to the surface on September 1. When rescuers finally opened the hatch after 84 hours and 30 minutes, only 12 minutes of oxygen remained. It remains the deepest successful submarine rescue in history.
5. In 2005, a University of Northern British Columbia graduate student named David Radies was conducting random sampling for a lichen diversity study when he found logging tape tied around a red cedar he estimated to be at least 2,000 years old. The tape revealed that he had stumbled upon an ancient inland rainforest scheduled for logging, one of the rare biodiversity pockets covering only about 1% of the Robson Valley. The timber licence no longer covered that particular forest by 2008, sparing it from logging. In 2016, British Columbia protected 11,190 hectares as Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Park.
6 Simpson Jurors Endured 265-Day Sequestration
During the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the jury remained sequestered for 265 days, the longest jury sequestration in history. The court isolated the jurors to shield them from intense media coverage and other outside influences. Guards supervised them around the clock as officials restricted television and news access, monitored their mail, and limited contact with their families. The extraordinary confinement reportedly cost about $2 million.
7. Nearly 70% of Americans play video games for at least one hour each week, according to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2026 report. The ESA and YouGov found that 67% of Americans ages 5 to 90, or 212.3 million people, met that threshold, an increase of 7.2 million from 2025. Weekly gaming included more than 80% of Gen Alpha and Gen Z, 50% of Boomers, and 32% of the Silent Generation.
8. The story behind Cinderella may predate Christianity by centuries. Its earliest known variant follows a Greek slave girl named Rhodopis, whose historical inspiration lived during the 6th century BC. Greek geographer Strabo recorded the tale in his Geographica sometime between about 7 BC and AD 24. In the story, an eagle steals Rhodopis’s sandal and drops it into an Egyptian king’s lap, prompting him to search for her and make her his wife.
9. Actress Ariana Richards, who played Lex Murphy in Jurassic Park, auditioned by recording herself screaming as if a Tyrannosaurus rex were attacking her. Steven Spielberg reviewed the audition tapes late at night while his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, slept on the couch. Ariana’s scream jolted Capshaw awake and sent her running into the hallway to ask whether their children were okay. A few days later, Spielberg invited the 12-year-old actress to his office and gave her the role.
10. Brazil nuts contain so much selenium that a single nut can supply 68 to 91 mcg, or about 124% to 165% of an adult’s recommended daily amount of 55 mcg. Because their selenium content varies, five nuts could contain between 340 and 455 mcg. At the high end, that exceeds the adult daily upper limit of 400 mcg. Consuming too much selenium over time can cause garlic breath, a metallic taste, hair loss, brittle nails, nausea, and nervous system problems.
11 Pliny Documented Beer-Foam Bread Leavening
In the 1st century AD, Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote that the Gauls and Iberians skimmed foam from beer and mixed it into bread dough. The foam carried yeast from the brewing process, causing the dough to rise and producing what Pliny called “a lighter kind of bread than other peoples.” Bakers were harnessing yeast fermentation nearly 2,000 years before scientists understood the microorganisms behind it.
12. Nathan Fielder attended Point Grey Secondary School in Vancouver alongside Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Fielder and Rogen performed together on the school’s improv team, which won the British Columbia championship at the Canadian Improv Games. The team advanced to the national competition but, as Fielder later recalled, got “crushed.” Rogen and Goldberg eventually named their production company, Point Grey Pictures, after the school.
13. After Japan lost four aircraft carriers and more than 3,000 men at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy hid the scale of the defeat from the public, the Army, and much of its own Navy. On June 10, the Navy gave a military liaison conference only an incomplete account, while a detailed report submitted five days later remained restricted to the highest levels. Japanese news announced a great victory, and even the Imperial Japanese Army briefly believed the fleet remained in good condition. Only Emperor Hirohito and the highest-ranking Navy commanders received accurate information about the carrier and personnel losses.
14. The earliest known written mention of a Rock, Paper, Scissors-style game came from Ming-dynasty writer Xie Zhaozhe around 1600. He called the Chinese hand game shoushiling and claimed it dated back to the Han dynasty, which lasted from 206 BCE to AD 220. Chinese hand games later reached Japan, where the familiar rock, paper, and scissors version emerged during the late 19th century.
15. During New York’s 1929 skyscraper race, the Chrysler Building secretly assembled a 27-ton, 185-foot steel spire inside its unfinished crown. Workers joined its five sections within a seven-story shaft, then hoisted it into place in just 90 minutes on October 23. The surprise raised the tower to 1,046 feet, overtaking the 927-foot 40 Wall Street, then known as the Bank of Manhattan Company Building. Chrysler held the title of the world’s tallest building until the Empire State Building surpassed it in 1931.
16 Journalists Planted Occult Hand Phrase
A secret society of American journalists called the Order of the Occult Hand spent decades slipping variations of the phrase “It was as if some occult hand had…” into print as an inside joke. The prank began in 1965 after a Charlotte News police reporter named Joseph Flanders used the line in an article, inspiring his amused colleagues to form the group. A Chicago Tribune journalist named James Janega exposed the Order in a 2004 investigation. In 2006, its members chose a new secret phrase and resumed their campaign.
17. Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998) followed a no-punching rule for its hero, but network censors did not impose it. Series producer John Semper Jr. said he created the restriction because he did not want children to learn to “solve problems through simple violence.” He instead made Spider-Man defeat enemies through more tactical methods.
18. The dinosaur Utahraptor ostrommaysi nearly received the name Utahraptor spielbergi because it resembled the oversized Velociraptors in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Jurassic Park film. A paleontologist named James Kirkland planned the tribute to attract publicity, and a museum had already printed hundreds of shirts bearing the proposed name. Less than two weeks before publication, his employer ordered him to change it after Universal Studios threatened museums using “Jurassic” in their exhibit titles. Kirkland instead named the species after paleontologist John Ostrom and Dinamation president Chris Mays.
19. Oglethorpe University in Georgia sealed the room-sized time capsule named “Crypt of Civilization” in 1940 and scheduled its opening for 8113 CE. Its creators filled it with records and artifacts from 20th-century life, including electric microfilm readers and picture projectors. They also included a small windmill that could generate power for those devices if electricity was no longer in general use by the 82nd century.
20. In 2023, Scientists revived a microscopic nematode worm found in a fossilized gopher burrow about 130 feet below the surface of Siberian permafrost, where it had remained frozen for roughly 46,000 years. After researchers thawed it, the worm started moving and eating bacteria, then reproduced without a mate through parthenogenesis. It had survived through cryptobiosis, a dormant state that slows metabolism to undetectable levels. Researchers identified it as a previously unknown species, Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, and raised more than 100 generations of descendants.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Isaac Davis Deposited Stolen Money
On the night of August 31, 1798, two thieves carried out America’s first major bank robbery by stealing $162,821 from the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia. Officials instead jailed a man named Patrick Lyon, the blacksmith who had fitted the vault locks, even though he had left the city before the crime. A man named Isaac Davis exposed himself as one of the real robbers when he deposited the stolen money into several banks, including the one he had robbed. Davis confessed and received a pardon after returning the money, while Lyon spent three months in jail, contracted yellow fever, nearly died, and was later cleared.
22. Manufacturers began making waterbeds for dairy cows in the late 1990s. By the early 2000s, a two-chamber design had become common, with one chamber supporting the cows’ vulnerable knees. University of Missouri researchers found that 1,500-pound cows took 8.5 minutes to lie down on a standard mattress but less than five minutes on a waterbed. Longer resting time correlates with greater milk production, while blood flow to the udders increases by 20 to 30 percent when cows lie down.
23. A man named Abduwali Muse, the Somali pirate later portrayed in Captain Phillips, helped hijack the American cargo ship Maersk Alabama in April 2009 and held its captain, Richard Phillips, hostage. US Navy SEAL snipers killed Muse’s three accomplices during the rescue, while authorities captured Muse and transported him to New York. After he pleaded guilty to hijacking, kidnapping, and hostage-taking, a federal judge sentenced him in 2011 to 33 years and nine months in prison.
24. Italian-American inventor George Sperti, best known for creating Preparation H, also invented an ultraviolet lamp and the first practical method for freeze-drying orange juice concentrate. His lamp added vitamin D to milk without altering its flavor, and General Foods bought the invention for $300,000. Sperti donated the entire payment to the University of Cincinnati and later donated most of the money from his 127 patents to research institutions. He never married and lived with his unmarried sister, Mildred, who worked as his assistant until her death in 1987.
25. After Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Georgia, won the state basketball championship, a coach named Cleveland Stroud discovered that an ineligible player had appeared for 45 seconds in a postseason game. The student had failed a required class, so Stroud and a principal named Henry Gibbs reported the violation despite knowing the state could revoke the title. Officials stripped the school of its championship, but the town supported Stroud and raised so much money for a replacement trophy that organizers returned some donations. Stroud later received an International Olympic Committee Award, and the school named its new gym after him.
RE: Fact #10 (Brazil Nuts Risk Selenium Overload) – Also, if you eat Brazil nuts and then have sex with someone who has a nut allergy, they could have a reaction.
RE: Fact #3 (London Smog Closed Movie Theaters) – It didn’t help that the government pushed people to buy cheap, low-quality coal. People were happy to do it because it was an incredibly bitter winter and you didn’t even need a ration coupon.
RE: Fact #43 (Lavender Marriages Hid Hollywood Stars) – There is a great book called Lavender House about a gay detective investigating a murder at a place where everyone is in a lavender marriage, everyone knows the truth, and they are all basically dating each other’s spouses. It is a murder mystery, but they mostly live quite happily.
RE: Fact #12 (Nathan Fielder’s Team Won Provincials) – Every time I see something like this, I realize how boring my high school was, mostly just limited to sports and an underfunded band.
RE: Fact #13 (Japanese Navy Hid Midway Defeat) – Japan lost 4 carriers at Midway compared to America’s 1. Their report claimed 2 Japanese carriers were damaged, while 2 American carriers were sunk and others damaged. This led to a lot of overconfidence in the Japanese army and navy for months, as they didn’t expect themselves to be in such a strong position, which helped the allies in the Guadalcanal campaign. As for the survivors, many were sent to isolated posts in Southeast Asia, and the wounded were kept under armed guard.
RE: Fact #9 (Ariana Richards’ Scream Woke Capshaw) – She had already handled Graboids, which are dinosaurs you can at least see coming.
RE: Fact #5 (David Radies Saved Ancient Forest) – I work in the logging industry, and I can tell you this company definitely knew what they were doing. They were knowingly trying to wipe out a natural treasure, and someone in the government must have given them the green light. You don’t just miss a forest that old. It’s criminal.
I saw a 1950s “How It’s Made” video on YouTube about plywood production. It was such a waste watching them grind up those old-growth trees.
RE: Fact #40 (Onion Rings Require Diced Disclosure) – Why would they even use diced onions? It seems like it would be more expensive since you need more labor and a binding agent to keep the ring shape.
I think Burger King uses them. It is actually kind of nice because you don’t end up pulling the whole onion string out on the first bite and leaving just the breading behind.
If you want to make proper onion rings, you need better quality onions. Using chopped ones usually means the quality is lower, plus they are likely pre-chopped with extra additives that are cheaper than real onion.
RE: Fact #7 (Americans Game Weekly Across Generations) – My mom logs way more hours playing games than I do, but she just plays those casual word scramble games on her tablet every day.
RE: Fact #18 (Utahraptor Nearly Carried Spielberg’s Name) – “Hey! Stop giving our movie free publicity and positive promotion!”
RE: Fact #1 (Sleep Activates Brain Waste Clearance) – REM sleep plays a huge role here. Back when I used edibles before bed, it would knock me into deep sleep too fast, and I missed out on that necessary mental cleanup. I was using it to cope with PTSD. It took about 10 years, but I don’t need it to sleep anymore and I feel so much better, though having dreams again is a strange feeling.
Actually, it’s the complete opposite. You skip or reduce REM right after pulling an all-nighter; your brain prioritizes slow-wave sleep with a lot of Delta activity. That’s when the glymphatic system clears out metabolic waste. Those big, slow waves are essentially your brainstem signaling everything to take the trash out. REM increases later in a normal night once the ‘cleaning’ is done. Also, your take on weed is way off: THC decreases the time it takes to fall asleep but increases REM latency in the short term, and over the long term, it just ruins your deep sleep and memory formation.
Weed really messed with my sleep. I’d sleep ‘hard, ‘ but I never actually felt rested. It was awful. I’m much better off without it now. The brain fog was so bad I couldn’t even string sentences together.
RE: Fact #11 (Pliny Documented Beer-Foam Bread Leavening) – It’s amazing that humans were selectively breeding plants and animals for ages before we formalized the idea of evolution. You have to wonder how it took us so long to figure it out. It’s even crazier that people still argued against it even after dog breeding had been documented for so long. Like, we can genetically condition an animal to fetch ducks without damaging them, but the environment can’t influence what breeds?
RE: Fact #33 (John Downey Survived Twenty-Year Imprisonment) – Spending 20 years in a Chinese prison because your CIA mission went south is quite the career detour.
RE: Fact #13 (Japanese Navy Hid Midway Defeat) – I remember reading an account from a Japanese civilian after the war. He said they realized they were losing because the press kept announcing “victories” that were happening closer and closer to Japan on the map.
RE: Fact #25 (Cleveland Stroud Reported Championship Violation) – I touched it before it went out of bounds, coach. I touched it. It’s their ball.
Just so everyone knows, the show ‘Pablo Torre Finds Out’ tracked down BJ Porter, the guy who played that student. He even ended up playing college ball at Weber State with Damian Lillard.
I saw that a few months ago. It was a really interesting interview.
RE: Fact #45 (Oleg Gordievsky’s Dirty Nappy Getaway) – So there was a baby involved in the escape? Did they really bring a baby along to help rescue someone from the KGB?
RE: Fact #39 (Roman Shipwreck Lead Shields Experiments) – The same thing happens with steel from ships that sank before nuclear testing began. Everything on the surface is at least slightly contaminated.
RE: Fact #44 (Southern Baptists Split Over Slavery) – Reminds me of that Emo Philips joke about the guy on the bridge where he narrows down their religious denomination to a specific region and year before shouting, “Die, heretic!” and pushing him off.
RE: Fact #30 (Anorexia Patient Reached Record-Low BMI) – It’s so annoying that they gave hypothetical BMI examples instead of just listing the actual person’s stats. It’s like they wanted to obscure the reality.
The article wouldn’t let me see anything beyond the BMI, so thanks for sharing those details. For those in the U.S., that’s roughly 5’6″ and 42 lbs.
That is absolutely horrific. I’ve dealt with GI issues that made me drop a lot of weight, and the lowest I ever hit was 86 lbs at 5’5″. It was miserable. I felt awful, looked scary, and was in constant pain. That was only a 14 BMI. I can’t even imagine being that much thinner. It must have been hell. My heart goes out to her, anorexia is such a brutal disease.
Jesus. That’s around my height. Even when I was a size 0, I still weighed 100 lbs. That poor person was way beyond any standard clothing size.
RE: Fact #46 (Shaker Community Grew To Three) – There is a cool, preserved settlement in Kentucky you can tour. The buildings are actually quite nice.
RE: Fact #6 (Simpson Jurors Endured 265-Day Sequestration) – I’ve always wondered what happens to people’s jobs when this happens. How do people live? Jury duty definitely isn’t covering my salary. How are people expected to keep up with bills when they’re stuck on a jury for that long?
Financial strain is a legitimate reason to be excused. That’s why long-term juries usually end up being made up of civil servants, retirees, or the unemployed. Some companies do provide full pay for a set amount of time, though.
RE: Fact #48 (2001’s Centrifuge Made Walls Walkable) – Kubrick was a genius when it came to pioneering new ways to film. For “Barry Lyndon, ” he famously wanted to shoot using natural candlelight. Modern cameras couldn’t handle it, so he grabbed specialized lenses from NASA. The result was one of the most uniquely beautiful films ever made.
He didn’t actually borrow the lenses from NASA. They were made for the Apollo program, but Kubrick bought them directly from Zeiss. Zeiss only made ten of those f/0.7 lenses, Carl Zeiss kept one, six went to NASA, and three went to Kubrick.
RE: Fact #6 (Simpson Jurors Endured 265-Day Sequestration) – Part of me thinks, “I’d have books, that’s fine, ” but then a more sensible part kicks in and says, “you’d barely see your family or your cats for nine months, ” and I realize, no way.
I fly out for work weekly, from Tuesday morning through Thursday night. I got a jury summons for a four-month trial where they wanted me available either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday for six hours. Who has time for that? Luckily I wasn’t picked, because that would have forced me to try and live on that tiny daily stipend.
RE: Fact #20 (Nematode Awoke After 46, 000-Year Freeze) – This gives me hope. Even if we wreck the planet for ourselves, life finds a way to survive.
RE: Fact #49 (Plastic Surgeons Number Just 7, 719) – The five least common specialties are: Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Clinical Neurophysiology, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, Pediatric Anesthesiology, and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.
There’s a wide range of pediatric subspecialties that don’t seem to be included here, which often struggle to fill match positions and pay less than a general pediatrician. I’d bet those are even rarer.
Those are all subspecialties that require fellowship training, so they aren’t really comparable to residencies like plastic surgery.
I know someone who worked in pediatric emergency/critical medicine. They still keep their license, but they moved into public medicine instead of direct patient care. I totally get why.
RE: Fact #38 (Justin Tuck Tackled Wall Street) – That reminds me of Alan Page. He was an NFL MVP and Super Bowl winner who started law school while he was still playing. He actually took a job at a firm before he retired, and eventually became an Assistant Attorney General and a state Supreme Court justice. Incredible career path.
RE: Fact #22 (Cow Waterbeds Increase Milk Production) – I remember reading years ago that you could tell the cows loved the waterbeds because they would actually wait their turn to use them.
RE: Fact #19 (Time Capsule Included Emergency Windmill) – So they’ll forget how to use electricity, but they’ll remember they have an appointment to open a box 6, 000 years later?
It’s probably more so that if someone finds it in a post-electric society, they can still gain knowledge and see what life was like.
RE: Fact #20 (Nematode Awoke After 46, 000-Year Freeze) – It makes you wonder how old that thing actually is. It lived before that permafrost even existed. It’s crazy stuff; we still know so little about our world.
RE: Fact #36 (Solar Storm Outstripped Carrington Tenfold) – If you enjoy survival games, check out The Long Dark. It’s about trying to stay alive in remote Canada during the dead of winter right after a massive solar storm.
RE: Fact #33 (John Downey Survived Twenty-Year Imprisonment) – Dulles was director until ’61. Why didn’t the directors who followed offer any concessions to get him out?
During the Cold War, standard U.S. policy was to never admit to using covert intelligence officers. The idea was that acknowledging them ruined “plausible deniability” and compromised operations everywhere, so they stuck to the story that Downey was just a civilian army worker. Eventually, they did admit he was CIA, which was part of the whole thaw in relations with China.
RE: Fact #24 (George Sperti’s Inventions Funded Research) – I did a deep dive and found out the FDA forced a change to the original Preparation H formula, which used to contain a live yeast cell derivative. I think some other countries still have the original version, but we don’t have it in the US anymore.
RE: Fact #2 (Toyohiro Akiyama Battled Orbital Nausea) – Nicotine withdrawal is the worst. Space is the last place I’d ever want to deal with that.
RE: Fact #41 (Henry Ford Hired Disabled Workers) – Labor turnover is one of the biggest costs for a business because of the time and money spent on onboarding. These disabled workers didn’t have many other options, so they weren’t going to be headhunted by competitors. You hire them once and they often stay in the same position for five or even twenty years, unlike someone who quits after a year.
RE: Fact #47 (False Cognates Share Accidental Similarities) – Years ago, someone told me the English word “sheriff” was borrowed from the Arabic “sharif.” Actually, it comes from the Old English “shire reeve, ” which just got slurred together over time.
RE: Fact #44 (Southern Baptists Split Over Slavery) – Episcopalians are a distinct denomination only because of the American Revolution.
RE: Fact #39 (Roman Shipwreck Lead Shields Experiments) – When Romans smelted the lead for those ships, the process burned off the naturally occurring uranium. The lead would have been slightly radioactive at the time, but after centuries, almost all of that isotope has decayed into stable Lead-206. That’s why you can take an ingot from those shipwrecks and it’s radiation-free enough for high-precision scientific gear. I could write a book about this, but I’ll leave it there.
RE: Fact #40 (Onion Rings Require Diced Disclosure) – How did you find this obscure fact? Also, after reading it, does it apply to actual diced onions or just dehydrated ones used for rings?
RE: Fact #23 (Abduwali Muse Received 33-Year Sentence) – The resemblance between the pirate and the actor who played him is honestly uncanny.
RE: Fact #15 (Chrysler Building Hid Record-Breaking Spire) – The wildest part is that there was actually a dentist’s office inside that steel spire.
RE: Fact #32 (Souk Al-Manakh Crippled Kuwait’s Banks) – Wow, I’m from Kuwait and I spend a lot of time following the market, but I had no idea about this. Thanks for the heads up!
RE: Fact #34 (Stephen King Won Name Removal) – This reminds me of that I, Robot movie. It had nothing to do with the actual book, yet they kept the name. Isaac Asimov really should have sued them for that.
It did include the three laws of robotics. But the book series would be tough to adapt because it’s essentially just a collection of short stories that function as logic puzzles.
I love the Asimov robot series and I’m not a fan of that movie. Since the books are just loose collections of procedural stories, I don’t mind when adaptations write their own plot as long as they stick to the logic puzzle format based on the three laws.
RE: Fact #4 (Pisces III’s Oxygen Nearly Ran Out) – I never would have guessed there was more than three days of oxygen in a sub like that.
The system was rated for 72 hours, but they’d already used eight. To stretch the air, they moved as little as possible and stopped talking. They also let the CO2 levels climb higher than normal; it’s uncomfortable, but it won’t kill you right away.
RE: Fact #50 (Milkshakes Began As Whiskey Eggnog) – I’ve never understood why ice cream cocktails aren’t more of a mainstream thing.
RE: Fact #11 (Pliny Documented Beer-Foam Bread Leavening) – Lots of big discoveries seem to happen in weird ways. Gunpowder, for example, was a happy accident by monks looking for a fountain of youth potion. The same goes for medicine, chewing on a plant that coincidentally had aspirin precursors. Then there’s Penicillin, discovered because a scientist went on vacation and came back to find mold had killed the bacteria in his petri dish. There are so many ancient stories like this that didn’t have clear explanations until modern science caught up.
RE: Fact #29 (Reason Magazine Showed Subscribers’ Homes) – [Here’s what that looked like, in case you were curious.]
RE: Fact #40 (Onion Rings Require Diced Disclosure) – Interesting. I dug into this further and it is all about food labeling regulations. If you look at § 102.39, I checked to see if there was a court case that triggered this requirement, but I couldn’t find one.
That is strange. The whole reason Pringles are sold as “potato crisps” instead of “potato chips” is because the big chip companies didn’t want the competition from chips made out of potato flakes. I also believe that if too much air is whipped into ice cream, it has to be labeled as a “frozen dessert” rather than “ice cream.”
RE: Fact #12 (Nathan Fielder’s Team Won Provincials) – Sometimes you lose the battle but win the war. I’m sure Fielder, Rogen, and Goldberg are doing just fine compared to the team that beat them in the high school national championships.
I doubt the other group was some team of villains. I’m sure some members from both sides found success in comedy, while others moved on to different paths.
RE: Fact #31 (WWII Veterans Number Roughly 31, 000) – I think I had this realization back in high school, that during my lifetime, every single veteran from the 20th century’s conflicts will be gone. Growing up, WWII was such a huge cultural backdrop in the 90s and early 2000s, but it’s sobering to know that in a few short years, nobody with a personal memory of that era will be left.
RE: Fact #38 (Justin Tuck Tackled Wall Street) – A lot of pro athletes end up in private wealth management like he did. Their name recognition helps bring in high-net-worth clients. They often go into sales or relationship management roles. Take Colt McCoy in commercial real estate, they basically wine and dine prospects, trade stories about their playing days, and then get down to business. Firms love having former athletes around to network. I’m sure he’s good at his job, though the real finance stars are the PhDs and investment banking experts. He could probably run his own firm if he wanted to.
RE: Fact #18 (Utahraptor Nearly Carried Spielberg’s Name) – I don’t understand how a museum could be sued over a time period. I also don’t see how a museum exhibit could hurt a movie’s success.
Universal would definitely lose in court, but most museums just don’t have the cash to fight them.
RE: Fact #21 (Isaac Davis Deposited Stolen Money) – Sometimes I feel like people are getting dumber, but then I read stories like this and realize we’ve always been this way.
You can thank modern technology for making it easier than ever to broadcast our stupidity, which is really skewing our perspective.
RE: Fact #20 (Nematode Awoke After 46, 000-Year Freeze) – “Dude, I feel so relaxed, I slept really well tonight. I wonder what time it is.”
RE: Fact #22 (Cow Waterbeds Increase Milk Production) – I had no idea it took a cow that long to lie down, 8.5 minutes on a standard mattress versus 5 on a waterbed. That’s a serious amount of time.
RE: Fact #47 (False Cognates Share Accidental Similarities) – My favorite example is how “emoji, ” which comes from Japanese, is totally unrelated to “emoticon.” “Eh” means picture and “moji” means character, while “emoticon” is just a mix of emotion and icon.
This still feels a bit dubious to me. Emoticons were around for about five years before emojis, so it isn’t hard to imagine a Japanese computer user in the 80s seeing them, forgetting the exact name, but remembering the “e-” and “mo-” and having their brain fill in the rest. It’s also very common for Japanese to shorten English words, blend them, and make them their own. Even without a provable link, I find it hard to dismiss the idea that a Japanese programmer wouldn’t have seen an American computer back then.
RE: Fact #45 (Oleg Gordievsky’s Dirty Nappy Getaway) – I read his biography, “The Spy and the Traitor”. Parts of it feel like a spy thriller; his escape from Moscow was genuinely movie-worthy, complete with boneheaded mistakes, quick thinking, and a tense car chase. It is a fantastic read if you have any interest in real-world spycraft. He was actually promoted to run the London KGB office, so he definitely wasn’t a low-level operative.
RE: Fact #50 (Milkshakes Began As Whiskey Eggnog) – It’s a shame I can’t live back when people actually thought those drinks were “healthful” without questioning how ridiculous that is.
RE: Fact #6 (Simpson Jurors Endured 265-Day Sequestration) – “Sequestered jurors can get antsy and snappish. Instead of ensuring that the defendant gets a fair trial, discussions between jurors can become contentious, heightening the pressure on jurors who are holding out on coming to a consensus.” I’ll be honest, if I’d been effectively locked away for 265 days, I’d agree to whatever verdict got me back home to my family.
That happened to me on a civil jury. A lot of the other jurors had no interest in following the instructions. It became about sticking it to the government or the person whose land was being seized. When we couldn’t decide after a full day, the bailiff said we couldn’t leave until we did. The rest of us just caved and picked the same number as everyone else so we could finally go home. I actually told the lawyers about it later and gave a sworn statement, but both sides had already decided those jurors were crazy and settled out of court. They did say my info was helpful, though.
It wasn’t 265 days spent deliberating. The whole trial and decisions took 265 days. They were locked in a hotel without much media access because of attempts at jury tampering. The actual decision only took about four hours.
I was a juror for 22 days. Two of the jurors got really irritable once they stopped getting paid for the time they missed.
RE: Fact #28 (Isao Inokuma Died By Seppuku) – Seppuku was usually done to regain honor after a major failure or shame
RE: Fact #26 (Voltaire’s Aliens Discovered Microscopic Whale) – Micromégas! Such a great story. I remember reading it years ago in an anthology of early sci-fi.
RE: Fact #28 (Isao Inokuma Died By Seppuku) – “Last notable case” feels like it’s doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and I’m not sure I want to know why.
We had a guy attempt this in a rural part of the South a few years back. He was going through a bad breakup, got drunk, and tried to disembowel himself before going for his throat. He lived, though. He managed the first part but passed out before he could finish. It was pretty gnarly. I knew him beforehand, and from what I hear, he’s doing okay now.
RE: Fact #17 (Spider-Man Solved Fights Without Punching) – “I didn’t want to teach kids to punch, I wanted to teach them to constantly judo throw.”
RE: Fact #36 (Solar Storm Outstripped Carrington Tenfold) – Some conspiracy theorists believe the Sun triggers a micro-nova every 12, 000 to 14, 000 years and that we’re due for the next one soon.
RE: Fact #27 (Scrotie Boosted Hockey Through Vulgarity) – The fact left out that he’s the “unofficial” mascot. The school administration tolerates him but doesn’t actually endorse him. He’s allowed at games, but they’ve banned him from appearing on the main campus.
I like to imagine the board has this yearly meeting to decide whether to keep the mascot around, and there’s one specific guy who keeps lobbying to make it official only to get shot down every single time.
RE: Fact #45 (Oleg Gordievsky’s Dirty Nappy Getaway) – I had to read his book for a college class, and it is pretty interesting. What sticks with me is that one of his motivations was seeing how much more vibrant the music and art scenes were in Denmark compared to the Soviet Union.
RE: Fact #7 (Americans Game Weekly Across Generations) – That’s not surprising at all. Most of us grew up with flash games, consoles, or PC games in the 2000s, and the generation before us was big on Sega and Nintendo. Who doesn’t remember playing random online games as a kid and ending the day with a round of Super Smash Bros?
I think it surprises boomers because they still view video games as kids’ toys. For millennials, though, they’re an entertainment or even artistic medium. I’ve kept playing games as I’ve gotten older, just like I’ve kept watching movies or reading books.
RE: Fact #1 (Sleep Activates Brain Waste Clearance) – Sleep is amazing. People who can just drift off easily are so lucky.
RE: Fact #2 (Toyohiro Akiyama Battled Orbital Nausea) – Aren’t astronauts supposed to be in peak physical condition? How did Japan end up picking a chain smoker?
RE: Fact #10 (Brazil Nuts Risk Selenium Overload) – “Where are we gonna find 200 gallons of selenium at 2 a.m.?” “No problem.” 😐 “Head and Shoulders!” “The dandruff shampoo?” “Yeah, that’s the stuff. The active ingredient is selenium sulfide.” “How do you guys know that? You don’t know anything!” “Haven’t you noticed how shiny and flake-free our hair is? 😁”
I think it’s been proven that “Ca-Caw Ca-Caw” and “Tookie Tookie” don’t really do the trick.
RE: Fact #25 (Cleveland Stroud Reported Championship Violation) – Having integrity is hard sometimes, but I guess that’s the whole point of it.
RE: Fact #26 (Voltaire’s Aliens Discovered Microscopic Whale) – This reminds me of an old Twilight Zone episode where two guys land on a planet and find a civilization of microscopic people. The episode is really about the danger of an inflated ego. At the end, after one guy leaves, a pair of giants arrive and accidentally squish the guy with the God complex while trying to pick him up.
Wasn’t there a reverse version of that? A tiny astronaut lands in a lady’s house during the Dust Bowl and turns out to be a human from a planet of giants.
This episode really sticks with me for a few reasons. First, the old woman was Agnes Moorehead, famously Endora from Bewitched. That character was so vibrant and loud, which makes her performance here a complete 180. Second, she was the only actor in the whole thing. Third, there wasn’t a single word of dialogue. It’s a total masterclass in filmmaking that it stays so gripping without any talking.
RE: Fact #8 (Rhodopis Was Cinderella’s Earliest Heroine) – Labeling this as “the story of Cinderella” feels like a reach. It only captures a tiny sliver of the narrative. To me, the true oldest version is the tale of Ye Xian, which actually features all the classic elements we recognize.
RE: Fact #22 (Cow Waterbeds Increase Milk Production) – Cows can definitely be trained. There’s a farmer near my hometown who uses a fully robotic milking setup. The cows graze all day, and when they feel ready, they just walk into the stall on their own. The robot hooks them up, milks them, and lets them go. It took some training, but the cows seem to love it.
RE: Fact #4 (Pisces III’s Oxygen Nearly Ran Out) – The main reason they survived is that Mallinson insisted on swapping in a fresh oxygen tank, even though the old one was still half-full. It wasn’t protocol and it was a massive pain to move the heavy tank, but he followed his gut.
RE: Fact #21 (Isaac Davis Deposited Stolen Money) – Hello, I would like to deposit this oddly specific amount of $162, 821 into my account, please.
I’ve even hauled loot inside using those classic burlap sacks with dollar signs on them, the very same kind this bank uses.
Sorry sir, we only take bags marked LOOT. Thanks for your business.
RE: Fact #13 (Japanese Navy Hid Midway Defeat) – As Admiral Yamamoto reportedly said, “The American Navy and Air Force are completely and utterly destroyed! Their failed nation is totally obliterated! Thanks for your attention to this matter!”
RE: Fact #41 (Henry Ford Hired Disabled Workers) – I like how people always ask, “But did he pay them the same?” which just shows they are unwilling to read the actual text. The first line literally says it would go against his philosophy to hire disabled men, pay them less, and accept lower output. Even more interesting is that he set up work for bedridden men to screw nuts onto bolts; they performed the work as well as those in the shop and received full pay, with production rates actually 20 percent higher. For all the things you can rightfully criticize Henry Ford for, he really understood that treating employees well leads to better work.
RE: Fact #3 (London Smog Closed Movie Theaters) – People died; this wasn’t some quaint historical fog. My parents remember dealing with it and described it as absolutely foul.
RE: Fact #42 (Soviet Submarine Fired Sixteen Missiles) – The crazy part isn’t just the speed, but preventing the sub from shooting to the surface. Dumping over 650 tonnes of missiles in three minutes makes the boat much lighter than the water it displaces, so it wants to rise rapidly. The crew has to flood ballast tanks almost instantly to stay at the correct depth. That instability is why firing a full salvo was rarely attempted before, but Behemoth proved a boat could empty its tubes before being taken out.
RE: Fact #25 (Cleveland Stroud Reported Championship Violation) – I’d like to think I’m a person of integrity, but disqualifying a team over 45 seconds of play because a student failed a class seems really extreme to me. Rules are rules, but does this really outweigh everything else? Unless that player changed the outcome of the game, it just feels like such a harsh reaction.
RE: Fact #24 (George Sperti’s Inventions Funded Research) – Everyone should keep a tube of Preparation H around. If you put it on a burn quickly enough, it can stop it from blistering or turning into a second-degree burn. I’m not saying people should go out and burn themselves just to test it, but it actually works.
RE: Fact #14 (Shoushiling Predated Modern Rock-Paper-Scissors Game) – Wait until you find out playing cards originated in China, too. Honestly, China has a long history of inventing fundamental paper goods like money, toilet paper, cards, windows, and origami.
RE: Fact #48 (2001’s Centrifuge Made Walls Walkable) – That’s exactly why those conspiracy theories exist claiming Kubrick filmed the moon landing.
RE: Fact #42 (Soviet Submarine Fired Sixteen Missiles) – It makes me wonder how they managed the submarine’s buoyancy. That is an incredible amount of weight to shed in such a short time.
RE: Fact #35 (Achilles Bled Before Becoming Invulnerable) – He was actually wounded by Memnon, an Ethiopian prince and demi-god who was arguably the second-best fighter in the war behind Achilles.
RE: Fact #28 (Isao Inokuma Died By Seppuku) – You have to be in an incredibly dark place to decide that’s how you want to go out.
RE: Fact #11 (Pliny Documented Beer-Foam Bread Leavening) – They were essentially using yeast to make beer before they even understood what yeast was, which is how they got the foam for the bread in the first place.
RE: Fact #12 (Nathan Fielder’s Team Won Provincials) – As to who beat them: it was mostly because the Ottawa improv scene was so strong they lost almost immediately. If you know the area, they’re neighbors and rivals with Montreal, the home of Just for Laughs. They mentioned in the original interview that the other teams were extremely polished and practiced like a full-time job, whereas they only met up maybe once a week. Canadians are genuinely hilarious and come from all over; it’s definitely one of our best cultural exports.
RE: Fact #17 (Spider-Man Solved Fights Without Punching) – He actually does punch a few times in that show, though he definitely uses a lot more kicks.
RE: Fact #37 (Bog Butter Survived Centuries Underground) – Bog butter is even wilder when you realize they’re often found in the same places as preserved bog bodies. Delicious!
RE: Fact #34 (Stephen King Won Name Removal) – This movie and Virtuosity really satisfy a weird craving I have for early computer-generated nonsense.