During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against U.S. civilians in San Diego, California, hoping that the plague would spread as much terror to the American population. Japans surrender came only 5 weeks before the plan was to be executed. The chemical warfare research unit that was behind this has a ghastly history of human experimentation, including vivisection and amputations on up to 250,000 “research subjects.” For example: Prisoners had limbs amputated in order to study blood loss. Those limbs that were removed were sometimes re-attached to the opposite sides of the body. Some prisoners’ limbs were frozen and amputated, while others had limbs frozen, then thawed to study the effects of the resultant untreated gangrene and rotting. Some prisoners had their stomachs surgically removed and the esophagus reattached to the intestines. Parts of the brain, lungs, liver, etc., were removed from some prisoners

In 1933 America’s most decorated Marine, General Smedley Butler, told the House of Representatives that wealthy businessmen tried to recruit him in a coup to overthrow President Roosevelt and install a fascist government. It was known as The Business Plot and is one of the best stories never told in school.

There are only 29 games with an Adults Only rating. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft refuse to ever hold them on their platforms, no major retailers ever sell them, and only 3/29 of them have no sexual content.

One night, Elvis flew from Graceland to Denver and back just to buy a Fool’s Gold Loaf – an 8,000 calorie sandwich made from a hollowed out load of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam and a pound of bacon.

In the original ‘Good Will Hunting’ script, there is a surprise gay sex scene between the two straight leads. It was purposely put there as a test to see if studios actually read the script. Harvey Weinstein was the only producer who mentioned the scene, so his studio got the movie.

Photojournalist Kevin Carter killed himself 3 mos. after winning the Pulitzer Prize because of the toll taken by the atrocities he had witnessed. Suicide note: I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist…I am depressed…without phone…money for rent…money for child support…money for debts…money!!!…I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain…of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners…I have gone to join Ken (recently deceased colleague Ken Oosterbroek) if I am that lucky”.

There is a psychological phenomenon called the Backfire Effect. Essentially, the more you try to convince someone they are wrong using facts and figures, the more convinced they become that their preexisting beliefs are correct

On Japanese island Yakushima, macaque monkeys are known to ride deer for transportation, and in return they groom deer and share food with them.

Every autumn you can exchange chestnuts and acorns against gummy bears at the HARIBO factory in germany because the founder was a passionate hunter and wanted to give even poor children the opportunity for some free sweets.

The skeleton found by Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly inside the wrong coffin at Sad Hill cemetery, was a real human skeleton. A deceased Spanish actress wrote in her will she wanted to act even after her death.

Muhammad Ali painted his friend Joe Frazier as an uncle tom, turning many against Frazier. Frazier’s children were bullied and he received threats. Ali promised that he would crawl across the ring and call Frazier the greatest if he beat him, which he refused to do after losing to Frazier.

A 7 inch Yorkie saved 250 US soldiers 3 days of digging and kept 40 US planes operational during WWII by running a wire through a 70ft pipe. Bob Gapp and Bill Wynne set up Smoky (the dog) when it became imperative that phone wires be strung to the airfield from three squadron areas. A culvert 8” in diameter and 70-feet-long under the taxiway was the logical place. If dug up by hand it would have required many men three days work and the planes to remain operational would have to be moved to the steel matting along the runway. The runway was being bombed daily. Wynne coaxed Smoky through from the far end.

Typically, three drugs are used in lethal injection. Sodium thiopental is used to induce unconsciousness, pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest, and potassium chloride to stop the heart.