15 Rivers of Trivia That Flooded Our Banks This Week
Socrates said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Unfortunately, that means you will never be truly wise because you know all sorts of things. In fact, we’re now going to give you even more knowledge, all as part of our quest to set you free from wisdom. Wisdom is overrated. Far more useful is knowing trivia, such as the truth about burning space underpants.
Soaring Jizz
The word “jizz” has an official meaning in the field of birding. It refers to the general vibe that a bird gives off, and has been used by bird watchers for over a century.
Isaac Turnbaugh was found not guilty of shooting his friend in a pizza restaurant. Seven years later, he told police he did it. When they told him they couldn’t arrest him for the crime, since he’d already been tried, he got angry and attacked them.
Yucky Rice
Originally, you weren’t supposed to eat the rice in sushi. For centuries, rice’s only role was to help preserve the fish. You’d eat the fish but would throw the rice away.
The military tried a venture called the Shelf-Life Extension Program, through which they kept drugs for a year after the official expiration date, instead of throwing them away. Drugs last a lot longer than they say they do. Through this program, the military saved $260 million.
Deadliest Catch
In 2019, a man in France tried fishing in a river with a magnet to see what he could find. He pulled out an unexploded bomb from World War I, which blasted him with mustard gas. Police had to clear a whole section of the city.
Astronauts don’t wash their clothes. It’s not a responsible use of water. Instead, astronauts aboard the space stations wear clothes for a week then dump them, to burn up in the atmosphere.
The highest radiation dose anyone has ever been recorded as receiving on their whole body happened in 1964. A worker at a chemical treatment plant mistook a bottle of concentrated uranium nitrate solution for a bottle of cleaning fluid. He emptied it into an open container and died two days later.
In 2005, Rosa Parks sued OutKast over their song “Rosa Parks.” The rap duo, like many people, were surprised to learn that Rosa Parks was still alive.
Shigeki Tanaka
A witness to the Hiroshima bombing won the Boston Marathon just a few years later, in 1951. Incidentally, that same year, the Marathon banned Koreans, saying, “While American soldiers are fighting and dying in Korea, every Korean should be fighting to protect his country instead of training for marathons.”
In 1998, a rogue weather balloon attracted attacks from three different countries. America, Britain and Canada all fired at the balloon, and all of them missed. It drifted next to Russia.
Can’t Get Next to You
When The Temptations fired their lead singer, David Ruffin, they faced some continued problems from him. Mainly, he kept sneaking into shows, hopping onstage and singing as though he were still part of the group.
A fan at a baseball game died thanks to a foul ball in 1902. He was keeping score, and he asked his friend to pass him a knife, so he could sharpen his pencil. The ball hit the knife and drove it into his chest.
One potential way of deterring crime in a specific location involves painting giant eyes that stare at the area. The drop in crime is arguably not worth the overall rise in fear.
Oliver Bickar came to Sitka in Alaska in 1974 and dumped a bunch of burning tires into a volcano. This made it look like the volcano was erupting, terrifying the town. It was April Fools’ Day.
Incognito
One time, tourists visited Balmoral Castle and Estate and saw a woman with a headscarf, not realizing she was Queen Elizabeth. After talking to her for a bit, they asked her, “Have you ever met the Queen?” “No,” she replied. Then she pointed to her bodyguard. “But he has.”
