# Amazing bullshit true facts that are in fact true. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514 "2013-01-27T03:44:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/41 "2013-01-29T04:42:50Z")
Russ Meyer, mostly known for directing cheesy softcore flicks featuring women with enormous breasts, began his career as an accomplished war photographer and served during WWII. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/42 "2013-01-29T04:54:15Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > While reading about something totally unrelated I came across a brief history of [Walter Jackson Freeman II](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jackson_Freeman_II) and the lobotomy. I was telling people at work all the fascinating facts; the guy who invented this form of brain damage won the Nobel prize for doing so, that the surgery was done with no anaethetic but with a hammer, that many patients died. They sat and believed all this. But they all went searching google because they couldn’t believe that Dr Freeman called his personal van [the lobotomobile](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=lobotomobile&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=eaEEUf7PIIeSiAfrzIHAAw&sqi=2&ved=0CDoQsAQ&biw=1830&bih=969). Too good to be true, eh? If you really want a thought-provoking listen, [‘My Lobotomy’: Howard Dully’s Journey](http://www.npr.org/2005/11/16/5014080/my-lobotomy-howard-dullys-journey) Howard Dully had a transorbital lobotomy in 1960. He speaks here. His voice is a bit flat, but otherwise he sounds mostly normal. But still a sad story. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/43 "2013-01-29T05:31:27Z")
Osama Bin Laden visited Indiana back in the 1970s. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (from Seinfeld) comes from a family of billionaires. Her trust fund makes Paris Hilton’s look like chump change. I have the feeling those are just unknown facts, not bullshit facts. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/44 "2013-01-29T08:40:26Z")
> [@Indian](#): > > _… it was found that the echo was “swallowed” by the original quack, due to the very similar acoustic structure between the quack and the echo. Because of this, it may be difficult to tell where the quack ends and the echo begins._ If this was true it would be true for any echo of any sound. I have heard the echo of a duck’s quack and had no problems distinguishing between the two. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/45 "2013-01-29T12:33:09Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > And he did the surgery in a [tank top](http://5magazine.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/my_lobotomy-freeman_operating1.jpg). > > I’ve read about him a few times over the years. If you really go digging you can find videos of the surgeries being done. They aren’t for the faint of heart. I saw a few back in one of my psych classes [we also went to visit Craig Colony in Sonyea NY - it started as an epileptic colony and turned ito sort of a snake pit by the 70s and into a correctional facility in the 80s] > [@Mahaloth](#): > > The first conscript in World War II was the son of the first conscript in World War I. > > Alden C. Flagg Jr., of Boston, held the first number drawn in the U.S. peacetime draft lottery of 1940. > > His father, Alden C. Flagg, had drawn the first number in the draft of 1917. [From here.](http://www.futilitycloset.com/2010/07/24/like-father-like-son-3/) Now that is a family with seriously craptastic luck!:eek: > [@Malacandra](#): > > During the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland, a single [Finnish sniper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4) accounted for over 500 Russians in less than 100 days, when daylight was short, using a rifle with iron sights. He had half his jaw shot away but lived to the age of 96. At one point the Russians were trying (unsuccessfully) to rub him out with _artillery strikes_. Ever read the statistics for the [Winter War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War)? Finland Foreign Volunteers Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim 337,000–346,500 men 32 tanks 114 aircraft Casualties and losses 25,904 dead or missing 43,557 wounded 1,000 captured 957 civilians in air raids 20–30 tanks 62 aircraft 70,000 total casualties Soviet Union Joseph Stalin Kirill Meretskov Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko 998,100 men (overall) 2,514–6,541 tanks 3,880 aircraft Casualties and losses 126,875 dead or missing 188,671 wounded, injured or burned 5,572 captured 3,543 tanks 261–515 aircraft 323,000 total casualties Finns sort of seriously kicked the Soviet Unions asses. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/46 "2013-01-29T13:20:16Z")
Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard coinvented a refrigerator: [Einstein refrigerator - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/47 "2013-01-29T13:50:39Z")
Szillard and Eugene Wigner traveled to Peconic, NY,where Einstein was staying, in order to ask him to sign a letter urging Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb. When they arrived, Einstein was on the porch, talking to my grandfather. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/48 "2013-01-29T14:30:15Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Szillard and Eugene Wigner traveled to Peconic, NY,where Einstein was staying, in order to ask him to sign a letter urging Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb. When they arrived, Einstein was on the porch, talking to my grandfather. Wow! Do you discuss this in previous threads? I remember reading about that situation in the amazing Richard Rhodes book,\*\* The Making of the Atomic Bomb\*\*, but don’t remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/49 "2013-01-29T14:43:07Z")
OJ Simpson’s first name is spelled “Orenthal,” but he pronounced it “o-REN-thee-ul.” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/50 "2013-01-29T15:16:34Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Szillard and Eugene Wigner traveled to Peconic, NY,where Einstein was staying, in order to ask him to sign a letter urging Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb. Next fact: the letter was never used. Szilard left it in his briefcase while talking FDR into the project. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/51 "2013-01-29T15:16:55Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Ho Chi Minh once worked at a hotel in Harlem. > > General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, victor at the Alamo, once lived in Staten Island. And Joseph Bonaparte, brother to Napoleon, former king of Spain and Naples, lived for a few decades in Bordentown NJ. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/52 "2013-01-29T18:22:01Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > And he did the surgery in a [tank top](http://5magazine.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/my_lobotomy-freeman_operating1.jpg). > > I’ve read about him a few times over the years. If you really go digging you can find videos of the surgeries being done. They aren’t for the faint of heart. [Documentary on him.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgwByKdeQpM) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/53 "2013-01-29T22:31:53Z")
In the absence of inbreeding, the number of a bee’s ancestors in prior generations follows the Fibonacci series, since drones develop from unfertilised eggs and hence have no father. So a drone has one mother, who has a mother and a father, who have between them two mothers and one father, who have between them three mothers and two fathers, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/54 "2013-01-30T00:25:53Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear UK)'s mother marketed the stuffed [Paddington Bear](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddington_Bear#Stuffed_toy) I’m not trying to be a jerk, but why is that interesting? It sounds like she had a rather mundane job. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/55 "2013-01-30T00:26:03Z")
A properly shuffled deck of cards has a sequence that has never been seen before in the history of the world and will never be seen again. In other less surprising words, 52! is a very big number. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/56 "2013-01-30T00:34:34Z")
The first American periodical dedicated solely to abolition of slavery was published in the South, specifically Jonesborough, TN. Publication of _The Emancipator_ started in 1820. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/57 "2013-01-30T00:47:59Z")
(double post) ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/58 "2013-01-30T00:56:27Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I’m not trying to be a jerk, but why is that interesting? It sounds like she had a rather mundane job. I take it back, I think. I thought your link was just to Paddington Bear (it took me to the mobile wiki page), but now I see that she had some part in creating the stuffed animal. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/59 "2013-01-30T04:47:40Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > JFK, whose health was always frail, managed to get assigned to PT-boat duty in the Pacific. When PT-109 was shot out from under him, he badly injured his back and never really recovered from the injury. For the rest of his life, he wore a truly massive back brace, strapped on by yards of ace bandages, to help control the pain. (You can see in many filmed instances that he turns his whole body, not his head and shoulders.) “In J.F.K. File, Hidden Illness, Pain and Pills”, LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN and TODD S. PURDUM. New York Times 17 Nov 2002 > [@](#): > > For many years, Kennedy’s back problems were largely attributed to injuries suffered when his Navy patrol boat, PT-109, was sunk in World War II. In fact, he had back pain before that. Mr. Dallek said his vertebrae may have begun degenerating as a result of the steroids he may have taken for intestinal problems in the late 1930’s. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/60 "2013-01-30T13:09:52Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > In fact, he had back pain before that. Mr. Dallek said his vertebrae may have begun degenerating as a result of the steroids he may have taken for intestinal problems in the late 1930’s. In a recent documentary on the Kennedy clan, I think they mentioned that he started having back problems while he was in college, which ties in with the 1930s timeline. There were two, “The Lost Kennedy Home Movies” and “Kennedys Home Movies,” both released in 2011, and I don’t recall which one mentioned it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514.md?page=4)