mindblowingfactz

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In 2009, an orangutan at an Australian zoo aborted an “ingenious” escape plan. She first short-circuited the electric fence surrounding her enclosure by jamming a stick into the wires. Then, she piled up debris to climb over a wall. She sat on the fence for 30 minutes before voluntarily returning to her enclosure.

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The zoo describes her as “ingenious,” noting that she has tried to outsmart her keepers in the past. Veterinarians stood by with tranquilizer guns, just in case.

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In 2013, a man in Florida ran to his brother’s bedroom after hearing him scream, only to find the entire room, along with his brother, swallowed by a sinkhole. They were never able to find his body.

“Everything was gone. My brother’s bed, my brother’s dresser, my brother’s TV. My brother was gone.”

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It opened up again 2 years later. and again.

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In 2015, a woman’s parachute failed to deploy while skydiving, resulting in life-threatening injuries. Days earlier, she survived a mysterious gas leak at her house. Both incidents were later found to be intentional murder plots orchestrated by her husband.

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"He was burdened by debt and needed his wife’s life insurance money to start a new life with his lover."

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In 2005, a Chinese lottery ticket seller discovered he could still buy lottery tickets within a 5-minute window after the winning numbers were announced. This loophole allowed him to win over $3 million. When the Chinese authorities became aware of his actions, he was sentenced to life in prison.

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"He asked his neighbors and friends to cash the tickets at the Welfare Lottery Center and to bring back the money," Xinhua quoted the court sources as saying.

The lottery center found the prizes were illegally claimed and police arrested Zhao in January.

The court jailed him for life for fraud and confiscated all his property.

[mindblowingfactz]

Katy Perry was raised in a strict religious household. As a child, she and her siblings were not allowed to eat Lucky Charms cereal because the word “luck” reminded their mother of Lucifer. Additionally, they were required to refer to deviled eggs as “angeled eggs.”

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[mindblowingfactz]

James Doohan, who played Scotty on “Star Trek,” was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The university gave him the degree after a survey revealed that half of its students were inspired to pursue engineering careers because of his character.

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Star Trek’s influence became evident when he received an honorary doctorate in Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering after half of the students stated that Scotty had inspired them to pursue the subject.

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During a particularly cold spell in the town of Snag (Yukon) where the temp reached -83f (-63.9c), you could hear people speaking 4 miles away along with other phenomena such as people’s breath turning to powder and falling straight to the ground & river ice booming like gunshots. 

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[mindblowingfactz]

All of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world run on Linux.

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[mindblowingfactz]

Tasmanian devils give birth to 30 to 40 offspring, but the mother only has four teats. The first four to attach to the teats survive, while the others perish.

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"So it's an early natural selection, which is a bit brutal."

Most of the surplus devils die after birth, about the size of a grain of rice.

The surviving devils will spend about five months in the pouch, then the mother starts to leave them alone in the den.

[mindblowingfactz]

When a crow dies, other crows gather to investigate what happened and why the crow died.

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They can investigate, identify, and remember to hold grudges.

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In 2009, Stephen Hawking hosted a party open to everyone but only sent out the invites the following day, after the party was over, so that only time travelers would have known to attend. As expected, no one showed up.

Hawking said he hoped that copies of the invite might survive for thousands of years, and that “one day someone living in the future will find the information and use a wormhole time machine to come back to my party, proving that time travel will one day be possible”

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[mindblowingfactz]

In English, a “French exit” is to sneak out of a party without telling anyone. In French, it is known as “partir à l’anglaise” - to leave the English way.

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Examples include relatively innocuous acts such as leaving a party without bidding farewell in order to avoid disturbing or upsetting the host, or more problematic acts such as a soldier leaving his post without authorization. Also known as Irish goodbye.

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Minutes before the 2004 tsunami hit Thailand, a 10-year-old girl warned her parents it was coming. While they were on the beach, she recognized the warning signs of a tsunami, having learned about them in her geography class just two weeks earlier. Her quick thinking is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of tourists.

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Tilly Smith had learned about tsunamis in her geography class. Tilly was equipped with that knowledge when the Smith family decided to walk along the beach for a morning walk. Suddenly, "I saw this bubbling on the water, right on the edge, and foam sizzling just like in a frying pan," she remembered. "The water was coming in, but it wasn't going out again. It was coming in, and then in, and then in, towards the hotel." She recognized it as an indication that earthquake-driven waves were only minutes away.

[mindblowingfactz]

There was a man so dedicated to April Fools' Day that he flew hundreds of tires into a dormant volcano in Alaska and set them on fire, fooling the local public and the Coast Guard into thinking the volcano was active.

The architect of this prank was Oliver “Porky” Bickar, a World War II veteran. He had informed the FAA, fire department, and police about the prank. However, he forgot to notify the Coast Guard, which led to their genuine reaction and immediate investigation. Once informed, most residents of Sitka found the joke to be fantastic. An Alaska Airlines flight departing from Sitka was even diverted so that passengers could witness the faux eruption. Later, the admiral in charge of the Coast Guard in Alaska told Bickar that he thought the prank was brilliant.

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In 2015, a 100-year-old pub in London, the Carlton Tavern, was illegally demolished by developers. As a result, they were ordered to rebuild it brick by brick. Notably, the Carlton Tavern was the only building on its street that survived the Blitz during World War II.

The Carlton Tavern is a pub located in Kilburn, London. It was originally built in 1921 but was illegally demolished in 2015 by the developer CLTX, based in Tel Aviv, who did not obtain the required planning permission. As a result, Westminster City Council ordered the pub to be reconstructed. The Carlton Tavern reopened its doors on April 12, 2021.

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[mindblowingfactz]

In Japan, there are companies known as "black companies" that are infamous for their unethical business practices. These include unpaid overtime, verbal abuse, and harassment. Employees are often forced to work on weekends and holidays and are threatened with lawsuits or discrediting if they try to leave the company for another job.

In the most extreme cases, grumpy bosses rip up resignation letters and harass employees to force them to stay.

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[mindblowingfactz]

Nickelodeon nearly canceled the Christmas episode of “Hey Arnold!” because executives believed kids wouldn’t be interested in its portrayal of the Vietnam War. However, one executive changed her mind after her nine-year-old son saw a rough cut of the episode and asked, “Mom, is that what Vietnam was all about?”

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