Some of these are new to me. Some are dubious. Some are not actually facts at all. Others are true and interesting.
One accurate example from the list:
There are literally hundreds of corpses on Mount Everest, and they are used as way points for people trying to climb it. The bodies are too high up to be safely retrieved, so they are left there.
True. As of now, approximately 340 people have died on Everest, and 200 or more bodies are still on the mountain. Many of these victims are located high on the mountain, where extreme conditions can make recovery impossible.
#1 sounded a little suspect so I checked. It was a plane crash.
#11 is interesting:
If your toothbrush sits out in the open in your bathroom, it collects fecal matter every time you flush the toilet.
ProTip: close the lid before you flush
Can we say the climibing Mount Everest is a completely stupid waste of human life?
It’s not an accomplishment which has to be respected (except maybe the first person who did that), it’s a ridiculous, pointless exercise.
Some people like to test themselves and Everest is still a test.
Of course the main route is over used and a real test is solo climbing the south west face during winter.
Mainly, it’s just the name recognition Everest derives from being the highest. I don’t know jack about this, but I have read essays by climbers who say that there are many climbs that are more difficult and/or more interesting.
K2 and Annapurna are known for being dangerous with higher fatality rates.
Even then not all routes are the same. SW Everest is one of the challenging routes.
Remember when it was a thing for a billionaire or two to try to fly their hot air balloon around the world? What a waste of media coverage and a joke that was.
We need more billionaires trying out wonky submersibles.
“We need more billionaires trying out wonky submersibles.”
What an absolute idiotic thing to not even check the quality of the sub, though billionaries could surely have paid some expert to determine the chance of dying down there.
But they’re billionaires! They are far too smart about _everything_ to need to do that. Now apologize to them collectively.
They did hire an expert
Then ignored the expert when he said it was not safe
Just think if we could get ALL the billionaires into one sub. No way that could ever implode.
Knowing the skills and abilities billionaire executives and investors (which you essentially have to be to become one) I’m sure it went something like this:
– Someone set up a Cisco/Zoom call to discuss this at a meeting. Whew tough day being a CEO, my eighth call of the day and I have to sit here and talk and give my opinion on stuff even though I don’t know how anything underneath me works at any level of detail. And I’ve already been here 10 hours, wish people underneath me worked as hard as me!
– Hmm flashy Powerpoint, what do I get out of this if its not money? Oh a rare luxury trip of stature saying I did something rare based on history – well I can’t money launder with this like art but I’m game, it will give me something to brag about on the yacht and private island
– Wait is this safe? I’m not going to research it myself, let me hire a consultant! To the lowest bidder of course, I’ll hand that out to the people who really know: the ones that fill out Excel templates and ask other people what they think.
– Eh the cost is nothing, the company I work for has international incorporation in Ireland, domestic incorporation in New Hampshire, our IP lawsuits go through South Texas, and my residence is in Florida – no taxes to worry about!
– And the ones we go worry about, well Trump just gave us another tax break, they won’t hassle us for the bill anyway because the IRS is cut, I just did another stock buyback thanks to my buddies on the board, and I’ve got another company merger and acquisition on the way to make even more – we’ll set the trip when I start cutting jobs and raising prices, gotta pay for the cost of that useless company we’ll write off in four years somehow – hey another $500 mil for me on the way though. Send out the PR while I’m under water!
That’ll be Richard Branson.
Interesting fact, Dick’s name appears numerous times in the Epstein files.
Similarly pointless, but I guess it’s less deadly than Everest, because they used the best quality tech available, so they were less likely to throw their lives away.
The new thing will be paid space flights, some of which already happened. When people make this much money they can’t do anything except spend more money on their ego or things that they can say they were first at instead of something that could make a real difference in the world.
agree, but the on Krakauer book Into Thin Air sort to explained it… people want to get paid for their adventuring by sponsors so they come up with unique niches… oldest, youngest, blind, quadriplegic. The whole guide industry boasting success rates, lower costs, least training required also played into it.
13. a 200 pound falling object (body) would only reach about 120 mph, not 200 mph and unlikely anyone was still conscious after the Challenger blew up
I originally thought they died at the point of explosion, but apparently that wasn’t the case:
So the most accepted reconstruction:
Breakup — loud violent event (they feel it)
Several crew activate emergency oxygen
Cabin loses pressure
Crew gradually lose consciousness
Cabin falls for ~2.5 minutes
Fatal impact with the ocean
They weren’t loose in freefall, they were inside the crew compartment of which might’ve been aerodynamic and heavy enough to get up to 200+ mph from 65,000′.
And some of the crew had activated their escape air packs, which could only be done manually. Some of them were alive for awhile at least.
Number 8 happened at the Hotel Cecil in Downtown L.A. It was basically a skid row hotel. A a piece of useless trivia it next door to the building where U2 did their rooftop concert emulating the Beatles.
“… you will suffocate to death.”
Thank you, Prof. Redundant.