Interesting Facts - Page 59

291
In Communist Romania, the secret police was known as the Securitate. 1 in 43 Romanians was an informer.
292
Until the early 20th century, it was common for young boys to wear dresses instead of pants. For example, here is a picture of a two year old Franklin D. Roosevelt.
293
The tiny suburb of Medina, Washington has a population of 2,969 but at one time was home to the two richest people in the world: Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
294
Don't trust low numbers in poll data. A certain percent of people will give a nonsensical response to polls just for fun. This phenomenon has been called "Lizardman's Constant", so called because one poll suggested that 4% of Americans believe that the U.S. government is secretly run by lizard people.
295
Certain tribes in the Amazon used to collect the shrunken heads of their defeated enemies. In the early 1900s, Western collectors started buying the heads. This caused an increase in murders as "headhunters" killed people and shrunk their heads to make money.
70 Comments
+15
Level 19
Aug 27, 2019
How come that Medina, Washington could have a Net worth more than the GDP of New Zealand??? Like, Come on, how could be a town that’s has a net worth of over $204.9 BILLION?!
+4
Level 78
Oct 8, 2021
Imagine the wealth per capita
+1
Level 49
Jul 6, 2022
I know right
+4
Level 72
Sep 1, 2019
Pants would have been really unworkable with pre-20th century diapers, so the dress thing makes total sense to me.
+1
Level 82
Mar 4, 2024
Some people do still use cloth nappies though?
+12
Level 92
Nov 25, 2019
Anyone who's ever done the "How'd I wind up in this corner of YouTube" chain of 4 random videos will suspect that at least 4% of people are that crazy as just a starting point.
+6
Level 60
Mar 5, 2020
Yeah, I was thinking folks shouldn't assume those answers are given to be funny. The Flat Earth movement is real.
+1
Level 26
Sep 23, 2020
it is not real the countries are not flat because the countries are wide that time the countries could not be wide that is a circle country shape that is flat
+2
Level 70
Jan 29, 2021
Does a 'Flat Earth' believer think that the moon is a flat disc hung up in the sky?
+4
Level 66
Aug 8, 2021
No, they think Hollywood has big projectors.
+1
Level 48
Nov 21, 2024
What?
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I love that there's no 19.
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69420
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01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110101 01110000 01101001 01100100
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26?
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28 between Myanmar and Astana.
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Level 55
Jan 31, 2021
Or do they believe that it's a solar panel getting energy from the sun (true), but randomly floating around in space 😂
+10
Level 70
Feb 5, 2021
I think that for people to accumulate a 100 billion dollars and not spend it by helping the needy of this world is beyond me. I don't call giving a million or two here and there as spending. They should have a few million dollars in the bank and the rest should have been used already.
+6
Level 70
Feb 5, 2021
WHO prioritised 11 African pathogens that are most likely to cause severe outbreaks in the near future: Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, chikungunya, Ebola, Lassa, Marburg, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Nipah, Rift Valley fever, severe acute respiratory syndrome, severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, and Zika.

progressing at least one vaccine through to the end of phase 2a for each of the 11 epidemic infectious diseases would cost a minimum of $2·8–3·7 billion ($1·2 billion–$8·4 billion range).

...........And these people have 100 billion in their pockets:

+4
Level 52
Oct 27, 2022
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world and, since opening in 2000, has donated well over $44.3 billion. And, as of Spring 2013, Bill had donated $28 billion of that out of his own pocket. And to add on to that Bill Gates said that when he's gone his money will not stay in his family or go to his children. He plans to donate the vast majority of it to charities that help people in less fortunate situations.

Among the good causes the BMGF supports is malaria control, basic sanitation, infectious diseases control, it works globally.

Just thought I'd defend Bill.

+5
Level 51
Jun 3, 2021
fact now outdated due to musk having more money, change to 2 of the richest people
+2
Level 51
Jun 3, 2021
the average networth of medina is 69m LMAO
+4
Level 79
Feb 27, 2022
There legitimately are people who believe in the lizard people - and quite a few equally stupid things - and their numbers are growing. I've personally known some of them.
+1
Level 49
Jul 6, 2022
I wonder if I can go to Medina, Washington and ask one of them for money if I do meet one of them
+1
Level 78
Oct 17, 2022
I do agree with the genuine premise of Lizardman's Constant, but as kalba said there are a few who actually believe that, and the "lizards run the world" thing specifically started out as a dogwhistle used by neonazis, since using the original "Jews" got them weird looks, so it's plausible in my opinion some answered with that in mind to try and use the poll as a gauge for how accepted their ideas are.

Nowadays though the lizard conspiracy is a lot more popular taken literally, and idk how many neonazis in the US are entrenched enough to know its origins.

I'd guess most of those "yes" answers were jokes, but even that conspiracy theory has a history predating the poll that could have influenced its numbers.

+1
Level 54
Jan 7, 2023
#293 is inaccurate, as Bernard Arnault is the richest person. I would reword it to two of the richest people.
+1
Level 63
Feb 3, 2023
What about Elon? He doesn't live there, but he's still pretty dang rich.
+1
Level 56
Feb 11, 2023
Fact 292 'it was common for boys to wear dresses in the early 20th century' attached photo is from 1884.
+1
Level 82
Mar 4, 2024
'UNTIL the early 20th century'