The Fact Labyrinth

I'm pleased to announce the release of my new book: The Encyclopedia of Science Oddities. It features more than 160 sub-chapters dedicated to topics including neutron stars, quantum mechanics, & the human brain. Available on Amazon in paperback & ebook: mybook.to/scienceoddities

Contrary to popular belief, "hello" is actually younger than both "hey" and "hi." "Hey" dates back to the 13th century, "hi" to the 15th century, while "hello" is as recent as 1834.

In 2022, Jim Carrey said he was retiring from acting....unless he was handed a script "written in gold ink." Two years later, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 wanted him back as Dr. Robotnik. So they literally delivered his script in 24-carat gold ink. And yes, he came back.

In 2011, a mystery man walked into an Australian TV station and spent five hours inside a bathroom, disposing of $100,000 in cash down a toilet and into a sanitary bin. No one ever figured out who he was, why he did it, or where the money came from.

Ever wondered why we say "o’clock"? It’s a contraction of "of the clock", so "three o’clock" once meant "three of the clock." As mechanical clocks became common, the phrase helped distinguish clock time from other ways of telling time. Eventually, "of the clock" became o’clock.

'Scared Straight' programs were meant to deter youth crime by exposing at-risk teens to prisons and intimidating inmates. Instead, research found they made things worse: participants had about 68% higher odds of later offending than comparable youth who received no intervention.

Have you ever wondered about the most effective way to reduce crime? Daniel Nagin's 2013 review 'Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century' found that increasing the certainty of being caught deters crime significantly more than increasing sentence severity.

The Killers’ 'Mr. Brightside' has never reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart; its peak is only No. 10. Despite this, it has spent a record 10 years in the UK Singles Chart Top 100.

Serious crimes are overwhelmingly committed by fare evaders. LA Metro: 97% of violent-crime suspects had evaded fares. Washington, DC: 99.5% of Part 1 crime (homicide, rape, robbery, arson, or motor vehicle theft) suspects had evaded fares. (Source: City Journal)

Google Trends data from 2004-2020 found searches for skin tanning were relatively more common across much of Europe and the Americas, while skin whitening dominated across large parts of Asia and Africa. (Image source: Google Trends/India in Pixels)

The Zammit family refused to sell their five-acre property in Sydney’s west, despite being offered up to $50 million by developers. As the surrounding land was sold off and developed, an entire suburb was built around their home.

Attractiveness changes how funny we think people are. According to this study, physically attractive people were rated funnier on video than in audio. Less attractive people showed the opposite pattern: they were rated funnier in audio than on video. (library.scottbarrykaufman.co…)

Dentists recommend that after brushing your teeth, you should spit out the excess toothpaste and avoid rinsing with water. This allows the fluoride to stay on your teeth for longer. Despite this advice, surveys have found that three-quarters of people still rinse after brushing.

This is Cymothoa exigua, a parasitic isopod often called the tongue-eating louse. It enters a fish through the gills and attaches itself to the tongue, feeding on its blood until the tongue eventually wastes away. The parasite then stays there, taking the tongue’s place.

The etymology of the word 'bikini' is wild when you think about it. It was named after Bikini Atoll, where the US tested atomic bombs in 1946. Designer Louis Réard hoped his new swimsuit would make an equally "explosive" impact.

Flying has become significantly safer over the past half-century. Worldwide aviation fatalities fell from 6,581 per billion passengers in 1970 to just 42 in 2023—a decline of more than 99%. (Source: US Stormwatch, using data from Aviation Safety Network and the World Bank.)

Believe it or not, this is the most efficient known way to pack 11 identical squares into a larger square. It was discovered by German mathematician Walter Trump in 1979, and no denser arrangement has been found since.

An eagle’s talons can reach around 12 centimetres (5 inches) long. That's roughly the size of a grizzly bear’s claw!

One year after Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong’s name was already fading from public memory. A 1970 Philadelphia survey found that 70% of people couldn’t name the first man to walk on the Moon. Similar polls in other US cities found surprisingly low recall.

In 1968, the Soviets pulled a Cold War space prank with Zond 5. Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich transmitted his voice through the unmanned spacecraft as it flew around the Moon, making US listeners think Soviet cosmonauts might already be on the Moon.

Visual Snow Syndrome is a neurological condition that affects around 2% of people. It causes constant TV-static-like dots across the entire field of vision, and some people can even see the static with their eyes closed.