Interesting FactsNOV 29, 2023

“Did You Know?”: 50 Of The Most Interesting Facts, Presented By Dougie Sharpe (New Facts)

Gabija Saveiskyte and Kornelija Viečaitė

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Image credits: dougiesharpe

#1

“Did You Know?”: 50 Of The Most Interesting Facts, Presented By Dougie Sharpe (New Facts)

At 2:30 in the morning, sheep farmer John Wierwille, awoke to hear a commotion on his property. He went outside to see his sheep backed into a corner of the fence surrounded by 11 coyotes and his guard dogs, Casper and Daisy standing between them.

Casper charged at the coyotes, most likely to get their attention off Daisy, who was then pregnant with 8 puppies. The fight resulted in many of the coyotes dead and a missing Casper. A few days later, Casper returned home with his bruised and beaten. John took Casper to the vet and, after the dog was nice and healthy again, they returned home. Now he is an inside dog.

dougiesharpe, John Wierwille

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199points

#2

Street food in Vietnam is so convenient, healthy and cheap; Mcdonalds and Burger King have both failed in the country.

dougiesharpe, KurisuHippo

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192points

#3

During a military training exercise in Lithuania; 5 soldiers serving in the reconnaissance unit were declared missing after they failed to arrive at a predetermined location. A search party was initiated, for 24 hours the 5 soldiers avoided military members with trained dogs as well as military search helicopters.

Once they had completed their mission, the soldiers resurfaced. When asked, "where have you been, we've been looking for you!?" the soldiers replied, "yeah, we know, and you didn't find us, so we win"

dougiesharpe, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Lithuania

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172points

Doug Sharpe has 445k followers on his Instagram page, where he shares short fun facts in video format. He posts daily, usually one fact a day. He has even more subscribers on YouTube – 508k as of November 2023. Doug also has a Twitch channel where he streams the creative process behind his Fun Facts videos.

For those who want some more in-depth knowledge, he's also got you covered. You can find longer format videos on his channel that delve more deeply into topics like the history of the Michelin star restaurant rating or a story about a Native American war chief who helped defeat the Nazis during WWII.

#4

Yuri Knorozov was soviet linguist who cracked the code of the Mayan hieroglyphic writing system and he always credited his cat, Asya as the coauthor of all his work; but his editors would always remove her which enraged him.

dougiesharpe, cvillestorm

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161points

#5

A nursing home for people with dementia in Dusseldorf, Germany set up a fake bus stop to prevent dementia patients from just wandering off. The program was so successful, other homes started copying and expanding on the idea.

dougiesharpe, conceptphoto.info

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142points

#6

The interrobang is a punctuation mark meant to capture the excitement of an exclamation point and the disbelief of a question mark.

dougiesharpe, User:WP

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142points

We've already featured Dougie Sharp on Bored Panda and spoke with him twice before. The Fact Guy started his career on Instagram in the summer of 2021 and went on TikTok in October 2021. By October 2022, he was posting daily videos with fun facts on TikTok, but by April 2023 he was mostly focusing on content for YouTube.

Doug told Bored Panda that he made these kinds of videos "on and off" from 2018, but mostly only for family and friends. "I posted a couple on Instagram in the summer of 2021 and they had pretty good views and I was like ‘Oh cool, maybe I should make more of these'," he told us in April 2023.

#7

Humans feel more empathy for dogs than we do for other humans.

dougiesharpe, Terricks Noah

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140points

#8

A man paid a traffic fine by presenting the police with 137 one dollar bills folded into origami pigs that he placed inside of donut boxes.

dougiesharpe, Kejeki

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137points

#9

In 2009, Unlimited IT hired a carrier pigeon to race their internet connection to figure out what would transfer files quicker? A carrier pigeon with a USB stick or their internet.

Winston, the 11-month pigeon, was to fly 60 miles, and the same files he was carrying to the office were then sent via internet. It took Winston just over an hour to get to the second office, and another hour to transfer all the files. By that time, only 4% of the online data transfer had been completed.

dougiesharpe, Rajesh S Balouria

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133points

Dougie told us previously that making videos about fun facts filled a hole when he just had nothing to do. "I started posting on TikTok daily on August 1st, 2022 and have been so happy people have enjoyed the facts as much as they have," he told us back then. "It's crazy to see where all my accounts are at today. I'm just really stoked people like the content," the creator gushed.

#10

Free range Turkey and Chicken farms often include Alpacas as part of their flock to help protect the birds from predators.

dougiesharpe, Dmitry Zvolskiy

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132points

#11

In the first Polish encyclopedia published in 1746, if you looked up the word HORSE, the definition said "Everyone knows what a horse is."

dougiesharpe, Benedykt Chmielowski

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125points

#12

A supplier once told David Tran the creator Sriracha hot sauce that it was too spicy and suggested he add a tomato base to make it sweeter. David replied “hot sauce must be hot! If you don’t like it hot, use less. We don’t make mayonnaise here.”

dougiesharpe, Steven Depolo

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122points

Doug takes his work online seriously. Back in 2022, he told us that he spends almost 2 hours researching a fact and bases it on at least 3 sources. "It's been a really long process to get my production to where it is today," he said. "The fun facts were not good at the start but they got better and better with time and practice. I'm really happy and grateful everything is where it is today."

#13

A French court stopped some parents from naming their daughter Nutella, saying it could lead to her being made fun of and ridiculed and would be contrary to the child's best interest.

dougiesharpe, Janine

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118points

#14

When Almon Strowger noticed his business was falling off he went to investigate and found out one of his competitors wife had got a job as a switchboard operator and was rerouting all of his calls. So he began inventing! He went to work and invented the automatic telephone exchange and the rotary dial in 1889 which allowed people to dial phone numbers and connect calls from their own home. Almon's invention eliminated the need for human telephone operators.

dougiesharpe, Berthold Werner

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109points

#15

While on a night out drinking. Dan Saunders went to use the ATM, he transferred $200 from his credit account to his savings account. The ATM said transaction cancelled but the machine spit out $200. Over the next 5 months Dan withdrew 1.6 million dollars.

dougiesharpe, Eduardo Soares

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107points

Dougie also previously shared with Bored Panda that ideas for his videos come from simple curiosity. "I wouldn't be able to go through the rest of my day if I had a question sitting in the back of my head. If I have a question or someone near me has a question, I NEED TO KNOW THE ANSWER, I'll become obsessed with the question if I don't learn the answer. And sometimes that leads me down deep rabbit holes," Doug admitted.

#16

The Pink Tax is the extra amount women pay for everyday products marketed towards women versus the same product but marketed to men.

dougiesharpe, OddCommieKitty

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106points

#17

A carton of expired milk has been living in MIT’s Random Hall Residence for over 28 years and has gained a cult like following.

dougiesharpe, MIT

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100points

#18

In the early 1990s, you could very accurately predict U.S. military action or upcoming global crisis by how much pizza was being delivered to U.S. intelligence buildings.

The phenomenon was first discovered by Frank Meeks, who owned 60 Domino's Pizza stores in the Washington, D.C. area.

dougiesharpe, Norma Mortenson

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99points

Researching and writing the scripts for videos is the best part for Doug. "When I'm researching, I get to treasure hunt the best parts of the fact. I usually use 3-6 sources and will pull the best piece of information from each and use them in my script. I like that I can highlight what I think is most cool, interesting or funky about the fact," he told us back in April.

#19

After the tragic story of an unwanted baby being abandoned in a field in Iowa hit the news. Nebraska introduced a “Safe Haven Law”, where parents could drop off unwanted children at Nebraskan hospitals no questions asked and without repercussions.

dougiesharpe, MousseSuspicious930

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97points

#20

The Netherlands is banning artificial soccer fields and mandating all soccer fields be made from real grass from 2030 onwards due to the cancer risks associated with artificial grass.

dougiesharpe, Drguttorm

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96points

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