Some facts feel like they should not be true, or at least should come with a warning label. This mixtape pulls together strange history, science, crime, pop culture, and human behavior into one collection of details that range from fascinating to deeply unsettling.
Patton’s Controversial War Conduct
1. In World War II, General George S. Patton was removed from command after two separate episodes in which he struck shell-shocked soldiers in a field hospital. Reports of his conduct provoked a major public uproar in the United States. General Dwight D. Eisenhower directed Patton to apologize to the men he had struck. Eisenhower then reassigned him to assist in commanding a ‘phantom’ decoy formation outfitted with inflatable tanks.
2. In 2016, a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was discovered carrying fertilized eggs, offering insight into the evolution of egg-laying and into gender differences within the dinosaur.
3. Whenever a dog sees its owner, its brain releases the same chemicals that human brains produce when people are in love.
4. An MP3 player has been produced specifically for prison inmates. It includes an app, JPay’s music store, which displays the songs purchased most often by inmates in their prison.
5. The Vectrex was a home gaming system released in North America in November 1982 that included a built-in 9-inch black-and-white CRT screen, a removable corded gamepad, graphics rendered with vectors, and titles that used translucent color overlays. It sold for $199 at launch.
6. In 1889 the Cleveland Street scandal showed that a male brothel serving homosexual clients in London was patronized by leading figures of the Victorian aristocracy, including Lord Arthur Somerset, who served as equerry to the Prince of Wales. Accusations were also leveled at Prince Albert Victor, who was second in line to the throne.
7. German investigators had DNA tying someone to a $6.8 million jewelry robbery, but because the sample matched identical twins and there was no proof identifying which twin committed the crime, they were unable to bring charges.
8. New Mexico first used the Sunshine State label informally before gaining statehood in 1912 and placed it on its license plates in 1932. The slogan was never formalized, and Florida later passed an official resolution and claimed the phrase in 1970.
9. Bananas, like most biological material, naturally include some radioactive isotopes even without man-made pollution or contamination. The dose is about 0.1 microsieverts (a sievert measures the biological impact of radiation). To receive the amount of radiation released by Japan’s Fukushima disaster, one would need to eat 76 million bananas.
10. Adolf Hitler enjoyed the Disney animated film The Three Little Pigs and often walked around whistling the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.”
Harrisburg River Statue Prank
11. A 25-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty stands in the river near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was placed there as a prank in 1986 and was initially constructed from Venetian blinds and plywood. A local attorney confessed to his participation in the prank 25 years later, saying ‘well after the statute of limitations had expired.’
12. In 2001, Barbara Lee misread the sign language used by two deaf men as gang gestures in a Florida sports bar. She left but returned shortly with a juvenile and 19-year-old Marco Ibanez, who is accused of pulling out a knife and stabbing the men.
13. The Irish language is classified as endangered, with fewer than 80,000 native speakers remaining.
14. In the 1920s, Russian surgeon Serge Voronoff inserted thin slices of monkey testicle tissue into the scrotums of human patients in an attempt to improve their sex drive.
15. The International Space Station uses gyroscopes to adjust its orientation so its solar panels face the Sun.
16. In Australia, after cutting the cake, the person celebrating a birthday traditionally kisses the closest person of the opposite sex.
17. While filming “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Carrie Fisher directly advised Daisy Ridley about handling her costume. Fisher told Ridley, “You should fight for your outfit. Don’t be a slave like I was.” The remark referred to Fisher’s own experience with Princess Leia’s slave costume and warned Ridley to push back if a costume made her uncomfortable.
18. In 1970, John Lennon paid all the fines for 96 people who had been arrested while protesting the apartheid South Africa rugby team playing in Britain.
19. In 1947, as a prank, Ross Petrie climbed Mount Hood in Oregon in the middle of the night and secretly left a morning newspaper and a quart of milk for his friends, who were spending the night on the summit. Mount Hood’s elevation is 11,250 feet, and it is estimated that a trained, fit person can take about 4 to 7 hours to climb to the summit.
20. In 1968, four submarines sank under mysterious circumstances. In January an Israeli submarine disappeared, and four days later a French submarine vanished without a trace. In March a Soviet submarine exploded and sank, and in May a U.S. submarine also exploded and sank. All their causes remain officially unknown.
Jellyfish With Full Vision
21. The box jellyfish has 24 eyes, two of which can detect color, and four parallel processing areas that function in competition with each other. That makes it one of the few animals with a full 360-degree field of vision.
22. During a six-month strike by Irish banks in the 1970s, people cashed their paychecks at pubs, which helped keep the economy running.
23. Apple and Facebook announced they will pay to freeze eggs for female employees who want to postpone having a child while they pursue their careers.
24. When surrealist poet Robert Desnos began reading the palms of fellow prisoners as they were led to the Nazi gas chambers, his excitement was so contagious as he predicted long life, more children, and great happiness that the guards were unable to carry out the executions.
25. Clinical lycanthropy is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which the affected person believes they can, or already have, transformed into a nonhuman animal. Patients behave in ways that mimic animal conduct, such as crawling, growling, or howling.
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