26 Ruby Red Squirt Triggered Bromoderma
A 63-year-old man who drank 8 liters of Ruby Red Squirt every day for several months developed tender, ulcerated red nodules on his hands and fingers. Doctors found that his blood contained nearly twice the normal upper limit of bromine and diagnosed bromoderma, a rare skin reaction traced to the brominated vegetable oil in the soft drink. After he stopped drinking it and received colchicine, the lesions disappeared within four months and did not return after treatment ended.
27. More than 40% of Yemen’s renewable water is used to grow qat, a drought-resistant shrub containing mild amphetamine-like stimulants. Its leaves are widely chewed across the country, while its two-week harvest cycle makes qat one of the few reliably profitable crops for many farmers. Yet irrigation greatly increases its yield, causing scarce water to be diverted from food crops in one of the world’s most water-scarce countries. As drought worsens, qat survives while other crops fail, encouraging further cultivation and deepening Yemen’s water and hunger crises.
28. At the height of the dot-com boom in January 2000, AOL announced a $180 billion merger with Time Warner, the media conglomerate that owned Warner Bros. By the time the deal closed in January 2001, technology stocks had collapsed, AOL’s dial-up business was losing ground to broadband, and the companies’ promised synergies failed to materialize. In January 2003, AOL Time Warner reported a $98.7 billion net loss for 2002, then the largest annual corporate loss ever recorded. Time Warner removed AOL from its name later that year and spun off the internet company in 2009, leaving the deal widely regarded as one of history’s worst mergers.
29. The rete ovarii, an auxiliary secretory organ in women, was first described in 1870 and appeared in early editions of Gray’s Anatomy, but it later disappeared from many textbooks and was often dismissed as a functionless ovarian remnant. In 2025, researchers studying mice found that its three interconnected regions persist into adulthood, contain secreted proteins, and transport fluid toward the ovary. Its connections to nerves and blood vessels suggest that it may act as a sensory and secretory structure supporting ovarian development and maintenance. Although the rete ovarii also exists in humans, its proposed function as an auxiliary organ in women remains unconfirmed.
30. After The Empire Strikes Back (1980) opened in approximately 100 theaters on May 21, George Lucas decided its ending did not clearly show that Luke and Leia were aboard a medical frigate while Lando and Chewbacca occupied the Millennium Falcon. ILM used the three weeks before the wider 35mm release to create three new effect shots establishing the positions of the two ships, while editors extended the score and altered how some dialogue sounded. Wider audiences therefore saw a subtly different ending.
31 Project 816 Never Produced Plutonium
During the Cold War, China spent 17 years secretly hollowing out a mountain in Chongqing for Project 816, an underground complex meant to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Some 60,000 soldiers carved more than 20 kilometers of caverns, roads, tunnels, and passages into the rock. China halted the project in 1984 with construction 85 percent complete. No nuclear material ever passed through the facility. The site was later declassified and opened to tourists.
32. For Titanic, James Cameron’s crew built a 775-foot reproduction of the liner with only its starboard side completed. The real ship boarded passengers at Southampton from its port side, so the production filmed the sequence on the starboard set and flipped the footage horizontally. To make the mirrored image look correct, room numbers and lettering were reversed, while buttons on men’s shirts were reattached to close from the opposite side.
33. Helen Keller joined the Socialist Party of America in 1909 and campaigned for working-class causes until 1921. She also supported women’s suffrage, pacifism, and labor rights while backing Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs. In 1920, Keller helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.
34. After Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote a second book in 1928, but it was not published during his lifetime. Known as Zweites Buch, it recorded his unedited thoughts on foreign policy and expanded upon ideas involving Lebensraum, alliances, and Germany’s future enemies. The manuscript was first published in German in 1961, alongside an English translation titled Hitler’s Secret Book.
35. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) originally portrayed the Buellers as a family of four siblings: Ferris, Jeanie, 12-year-old Kimberly, and 7-year-old Todd. Kimberly and Todd, played by Hannah Cutrona and Josh Peden, were removed from the final cut, although children’s drawings and a framed family photograph still reveal their presence. The official trailer even retains a deleted shot of Kimberly asking whether Ferris has “syphilitic meningitis.”
36 Tristan’s Policeman Made Zero Arrests
Between 1988 and 2010, Tristan da Cunha’s sole police officer, Conrad Glass, did not make a single arrest. The remote South Atlantic island had approximately 270 residents and almost no crime, with only one holding cell available. Glass carried handcuffs, a truncheon, and pepper spray but never needed to use the cell during his 22 years on the job.
37. About 955 million years ago, the Laurentian Mountains rose across what is now Canada and may have rivaled today’s Himalayas in height. Hundreds of millions of years of erosion wore the range almost down to its roots. Later, continental glaciers up to two kilometers thick further flattened the terrain, carved valleys, and created the lake-filled landscape now seen in Quebec’s La Mauricie National Park.
38. According to the Bank of England, most money in the UK economy is created by commercial banks when they issue loans, not by printing presses. When a bank grants a £100 loan, it credits the borrower’s account with £100 in new deposit money that did not previously exist. Repaying the loan deletes that electronic money, meaning banks create money rather than wealth. Banks create around 80% of the UK’s money this way, although regulations, capital requirements, and payment obligations limit their lending.
39. A man in his 40s adopted a carnivore diet that included 6 to 9 pounds of cheese, sticks of butter, and extra fat added to his daily hamburgers. After about eight months, painless yellow cholesterol deposits called xanthomas appeared on his palms, soles, elbows, and even his eyelids. His cholesterol exceeded 1,000 mg/dL, compared with his previous range of 210 to 300 mg/dL.
40. Solomon’s paradox describes how people can give reasonable advice to others but fail to apply this advice to their own situation. However, researchers discovered that participants eliminated this gap by practicing “self-distancing” and viewing their own situations from a third-person perspective.
41 New York Times Shunned Crosswords
In 1924, The New York Times dismissed crossword puzzles as a “sinful waste” and a “primitive sort of mental exercise,” then refused to publish them for nearly two decades. After Pearl Harbor, a December 1941 memo argued that readers would need relaxation and something to occupy them during bleak blackout hours. The newspaper finally published its first Sunday crossword on February 15, 1942, before making the puzzle a daily feature in 1950.
42. According to story co-writer David S. Goyer, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) modeled its central comeback arc on Rocky III (1982). He and director Christopher Nolan wanted an aging, physically frail Bruce Wayne to be defeated by an opponent who was physically superior, then struggle back to his feet. That premise led Goyer to suggest Bane, although Nolan initially considered the character silly. Goyer later said they were “literally” retelling Rocky III.
43. In 2018, Australian brewer Carlton & United Breweries withdrew a Yak Ales advertisement after an advertising standards panel ruled that it vilified redheads, but the company did not apologize. The campaign claimed a “Ginger Gene” was spreading through its beer and offered $500 to anyone who found a hidden bottle of Rusty Yak Gingery Ale and helped “prevent its spread.” The panel found that the advertisement portrayed red hair as undesirable and was likely to encourage ridicule. The brewer pulled the campaign while insisting it was merely an affectionate, light-hearted joke.
44. About 5,500 years ago, prehistoric people repeatedly climbed to Cova 338, a cave 2,235 meters above sea level in the eastern Pyrenees in Europe, apparently to collect and fire-process copper-bearing rock. Archaeologists found 23 hearths filled with crushed, deliberately burned fragments resembling malachite, suggesting visitors returned on planned expeditions for about two thousand years. If further testing confirms the mineral and its purpose, the cave could represent an unusually early high-altitude copper-mining camp in Europe.
45. After completing Red Dawn (2012), MGM reportedly spent less than $1 million changing the invading army from Chinese to North Korean. Filmmakers altered the opening sequence, re-edited two scenes, substituted dialogue, and digitally replaced Chinese flags and military symbols with North Korean versions. MGM made the change to protect its access to China’s lucrative film market, but the movie was never released there.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Fanny Blankers-Koen Won Four Golds
At the 1948 London Olympics, 30-year-old Dutch mother of two Fanny Blankers-Koen won four track-and-field gold medals despite critics saying she was too old to compete and should stay home with her children. She took gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 80-meter hurdles, and 4 x 100-meter relay, becoming the first woman to win four Olympic titles at a single Games. She returned to Amsterdam as a national hero, riding through the city before an immense crowd and earning the nickname “The Flying Housewife.”
47. Before settling on the name Nirvana, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic joined Melvins drummer Dale Crover to record 10 songs at Seattle’s Reciprocal Recording studio on January 23, 1988. The session lasted about six hours, but producer Jack Endino charged them for only five, leaving Cobain with a bill of $152.44. That same evening, the band performed at Tacoma’s Community World Theatre under the name Ted Ed Fred.
48. In 1979, eight East Germans from two families crossed the Iron Curtain in a homemade hot-air balloon built with taffeta, a sewing machine, a motorcycle-engine blower, propane tanks, and a homemade flamethrower. The successful balloon used 1,250 square meters of fabric. After a 28-minute nighttime flight, the families landed near Naila in West Germany.
49. The first British edition of Moby-Dick, published in 1851 as The Whale, omitted the epilogue explaining that narrator Ishmael survived the destruction of the Pequod. The reason remains unknown, although scholars believe the printer probably lost it while rearranging other material. Some British reviewers consequently mocked the apparent absurdity of a story narrated by a man who had drowned with everyone else, while the American edition published a month later included the missing epilogue.
50. Before powered human flight, toys recognizable as modern paper airplanes were commonly called paper darts, paper gliders, or paper kites. An 1864 children’s book included instructions for a familiar folded design 39 years before the Wright brothers’ first powered flight. The term “paper aeroplane” appeared during the 1890s, but “plane” did not fully replace “dart” until the 1950s and 1960s.
RE: Fact #12 (Book Wormholes Exposed Thomas Wise) – Thomas J. Wise was a famous British book collector who became known for messing with rare books and manuscripts to make his own collection look better. One of his tricks was ripping individual pages from books at the British Museum to complete his own copies. Since he only took a few pages at a time, it was incredibly hard to notice. Years later, librarians managed to find some of the stolen pages by comparing paper details. Wormholes from bugs actually lined up across pages that used to be together, and other marks like folds or stains acted as proof that the missing pieces came from the museum’s copies. It turned into a kind of book investigation: the damage that would usually ruin a book’s value actually became the evidence that linked the stolen pages back to their original homes. They couldn’t track down every single leaf, so we might never know the full scale of his theft.
RE: Fact #23 (Body-Snatching Attempt Forced Elvis Reburial) – There was a lot of drama surrounding Lincoln’s grave until they built that massive underground tomb to keep him and his family secure. When I visited Springfield in the 70s, my mom mentioned that Lincoln could finally rest, which gave me the idea that his grave had been targeted by thieves and moved a bunch of times.
RE: Fact #36 (Tristan’s Policeman Made Zero Arrests) – This reminds me of that line: “On the scale of Maine to Alaska, how bad is violent crime where you are?”
RE: Fact #42 (Batman Comeback Mirrored Rocky III) – It should have been a complete Rocky III homage. Bruce Wayne befriending and training with an old rival, hugging on the beach, Alfred dying because Bane pushed him too far, and a Survivor track blasting during the final fight.
RE: Fact #27 (Yemen’s Qat Drains Scarce Water) – I think that 40% figure comes from older data, so it might be even higher now. Many Yemenis will skip meals just to chew khat, which really highlights how common the habit is there.
RE: Fact #39 (Carnivore Diet Triggered Widespread Xanthomas) – It really shows how resilient the human body is, if you can get to the point of having cholesterol buildup on your eyelids and still be alive.
RE: Fact #28 (AOL Merger Preceded Historic Loss) – How much that merger sucked really depends on your perspective. AOL came out of it looking like geniuses because they were headed for a cliff anyway.
RE: Fact #15 (Rayner Unwin Recommended Tolkien’s Hobbit) – Ten-year-old Rayner was already earning a shilling per report as a test reader for his father’s publishing company. His review of the Tolkien manuscript said: ““Bilbo Baggins was a Hobbit who lived in his Hobbit hole and never went for adventures, at last Gandalf the wizard and his Dwarves persuaded him to go. He had a very exciting time fighting goblins and wargs. At last they got to the lonely mountain; Smaug, the dragon who guards it is killed and after a terrific battle with the goblins he returned home , rich! This book, with the help of maps, does not need any illustrations it is good and should appeal to all children between the ages of 5 and 9.”” Rayner later mentioned that back then, if he thought a book was worth publishing, “it was published.” “The Hobbit” hit the shelves on September 21, 1937.
RE: Fact #47 (Nirvana’s Ten-Song Demo Cost $152.44) – It is wild that Cobain paid for that entire recording session with his janitor wages. The fact that they ran out of tape mid-song and just let it fade out because they couldn’t afford another reel says everything about how scrappy they were back then.
RE: Fact #20 (David Goggins Lost 106 Pounds) – You have to respect the grind, but honestly, he did some reckless stuff. Jumping into marathons without any real training and pushing himself until he got rhabdomyolysis? That’s just dangerous.
He’s definitely had his share of surgeries from overuse. It goes to show that your body has limits regardless of how tough your mind is. I work out daily and do high-volume bodyweight stuff, but I always rotate muscle groups and prioritize recovery. If something hurts, I stop. Pushing through pain is the fastest way to a long-term injury.
RE: Fact #34 (Hitler’s Second Book Remained Unpublished) – >He insinuated that in the far future a struggle for world domination might take place between the United States and a European alliance comprising a new association of nations, consisting of individual states with high national value.
Well, that aged weirdly.
RE: Fact #29 (Rete Ovarii Rediscovered In Mice) – The male version gets plenty of study because it is crucial for sperm transport. The female version just got dismissed.
RE: Fact #10 (Turkey Parthenogenesis Produces Only Males) – Interesting. Since turkeys have ZW sex chromosomes, ZW for females and ZZ for males, an egg carries either Z or W. During egg formation, a “polar body” splits off with matching chromosomes. In parthenogenesis, that polar body recombines with the egg, resulting in either ZZ or WW. Because WW isn’t viable in turkeys, only the ZZ males survive to hatch.
I have to recommend my favorite genetics game for my students that explains how bird genetics affect their appearance. It’s called Pigeonetics, and the name is a great pun. It doesn’t run well on mobile, but I use it with my 8th graders every year and they always seem to like it.
RE: Fact #17 (Iron Man Received A Nose) – I mean, it’s armor, right? Why would it even need a nose? So he can smell all the aliens he’s blasting? Lol.
RE: Fact #10 (Turkey Parthenogenesis Produces Only Males) – California condors have done it too. We know because the rehab program tracks their genetics closely. The female had access to a male and he did sire some offspring, so it’s unclear why others developed without him. The clones didn’t really thrive, though. Looking closer at my source, there were actually two mothers who had fatherless sons.
RE: Fact #42 (Batman Comeback Mirrored Rocky III) – Bane yelling “I ain’t getting on no plane, fool” at the start would have been a massive giveaway.
RE: Fact #12 (Book Wormholes Exposed Thomas Wise) – Stealing from the British to pad your own collection? Talk about how the turn tables.
RE: Fact #1 (Giant Squid May Number Millions) – Large, sturdy predators often spend a lot of their time being sedentary, and that seems to be the case for deep-sea creatures too. I don’t have a lot of expertise here, but I assume they spend most of their time just resting.
RE: Fact #43 (Yak Ales Ad Vilified Redheads) – There’s an N, an I, two G’s… and an E. Only a ginger can call another ginger a ginger.
RE: Fact #10 (Turkey Parthenogenesis Produces Only Males) – But then they can produce female offspring by mating with… eh, never mind.
RE: Fact #46 (Fanny Blankers-Koen Won Four Golds) – Thirty-year-olds really don’t look like they used to. Based on those wrinkles, I would’ve guessed she was in her late 40s.
She was born right when WWI ended, grew up through the Great Depression, and lived through WWII.
RE: Fact #35 (Ferris Bueller Deleted Two Siblings) – It is wild that the movie could be edited to cut them out entirely without messing up the existing scenes or dialogue. I have always thought it must be surreal to shoot a film only to find out you were cut from the final version.
RE: Fact #37 (Laurentian Mountains Possibly Rivaled Himalayas) – Facts like this always make me think of that scene in The Time Machine where he pulls the lever, jumps 80, 000 years forward, and watches societies rise and fall over and over again.
RE: Fact #38 (Commercial Bank Loans Create Money) – This is the case in most developed countries, not just England. Banks are generally capped on the money they can create through things like reserve and capital ratios.
RE: Fact #40 (Solomon’s Paradox Disappears With Self-Distancing) – This reminds me of Jung’s concept of the shadow and how we can see everyone else’s blind spots so easily but have such a hard time facing our own.
RE: Fact #5 (Madonna Reshaped Deadpool’s Prayer Sequence) – I always figured they were just embellishing that story on the press tour since they never actually explained what her note was. If it was such a brilliant suggestion and it’s in the film, why not just tell us?
RE: Fact #37 (Laurentian Mountains Possibly Rivaled Himalayas) – There are no fossils in the Appalachians because those mountains are older than bones.