🤯 GET READY TO GO FACT YOURSELF BECAUSE THIS WEEK WE’RE DIVING HEADFIRST INTO THE RABBIT HOLE OF SECRET GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTS THAT SOUND LIKE THEY WERE RIPPED STRAIGHT FROM A SCI-FI NIGHTMARE!

👽 From psychic spies trying to win the Cold War with their minds to the absolutely bonkers scheme to turn your innocent house cat into a purr-fessional surveillance operative 😹, we're counting down the

. Forget your usual conspiracy theories, because these are DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS and documented debacles that will make you question everything! Was your grandma's iPad really just glitching? Or was it the lingering effects of some forgotten government mind-control project? 🤔 Join us as we expose the moments governments around the globe collectively decided to ask, “What if we played God… but, like, really, REALLY stupid?” 🤦‍♀️ Buckle up buttercups, because reality is about to glitch harder than dial-up internet! 💾

Here’s the top-secret, taxpayer-funded insanity we’re unpacking:

* #10: The Psychic Warriors of Stargate Project: Did the U.S. Army try to out-Jedi the Soviets? You bet your Cold War bunkers they did! Learn about Project Stargate, the CIA and U.S. Army’s psychic espionage initiative where agents tried to “remote view” enemy locations with just their minds 🧠. Yes, actual minds! One operative allegedly spied on a Soviet submarine factory from Maryland and even claimed to astral-project to Mars in 1 million B.C. 🚀. Fueled by Cold War paranoia and maybe a sprinkle of LSD-fueled ambition 🧪, they spent millions for… classified shrugs 🤷. Stranger Things? More grounded.

* #9: Operation Acoustic Kitty: Meow-vel at the CIA’s $20 million attempt to turn Fluffy into 007… with whiskers! In the 1960s, they surgically implanted microphones, transmitters, and batteries into cats to make them stealth audio surveillance tools 🎤🐈. The tail was the antenna! The first field test? A furry agent becoming immediate roadkill 🚕💥. Deemed “a complete failure” due to the “inherent un-trainability of felines”. Even Bond wouldn't try to wiretap with Garfield 😹.

* #8: MK-Ultra: Get ready for the deeply illegal mind control experiment where the CIA basically dosed everyone with LSD, dabbled in electroshock therapy, and generally acted like your high school chemistry teacher took over the government 🧪🤯. They tested LSD on prisoners, sex workers, soldiers, and civilians without consent. One subject thought he was Jesus 🤦‍♂️, another tried to swim across New York Harbor 🏊‍♂️🗽. Most records were shredded in a cover-up ✂️. Inspired half of Stranger Things, The X-Files, and every Alex Jones monologue ever 👽.

* #7: The Soviet Mind Machine Experiments: Did the Soviets try to build machines to read your soul? Allegedly! In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Soviet scientists explored “psychotronics” to detect lies, read thoughts, and maybe even measure auras ✨. They even had an “aura camera” to spot liars based on spiritual energy shifts! Machines like the “Bioscope” were meant to replace human interrogators 🤖. Even the Soviets weren't convinced by their own mood-ring-waving interrogation tech 💍.

* #6: Project Sunshine: Hold onto your ethically sourced hats, because during peak nuclear testing in the 1950s, U.S. and UK scientists SECRETLY HARVESTED BONES FROM DEAD BABIES around the world to study the effects of radiation on human tissue 💀👶. No consent, just clandestine bone collecting on over 1,500 cadavers 🦴. One British mother found her daughter buried without legs decades later. Declassified in the ‘90s, sparking MASSIVE OUTRAGE 😡.

* #5: DARPA’s Robo-Dolphin Spies: Flipper goes full tactical! In the early 2000s, DARPA launched a classified program to equip dolphins and sea lions with surveillance gear and even offensive weaponry 🐬<0xF0><0x9F><0xAA><0xB2>. Think underwater recon, mine detection, and yes, possibly NOSE-MOUNTED WEAPONS TO STAB ENEMY DIVERS 🗡️! Trained dolphins allegedly patrolled harbors during the Iraq War. The Navy insists they’re happy, PETA isn't convinced 🤔. Prepare for the dolphin coup! 🐬✊

* #4: Nazi Meth Zombies (a.k.a. Operation Pervitin): WWII wasn't just about tanks and planes; it was fueled by METH! The Nazi military handed out millions of methamphetamine tablets (Pervitin) to soldiers to create sleep-deprived, invincible “super soldiers” 💊💪. One Finnish soldier took 30 pills, blacked out for a week, skied 250 miles, and woke up next to a dead reindeer with grenades in his mouth 🤯🦌💣. Blitzkrieg = methkrieg. So yes, part of WWII was basically The Walking Dead meets Breaking Bad 🧟‍♂️🧪.

* #3: HAARP — The Government Weather Machine?: What if the Weather Channel had a death ray? Enter HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) in Alaska, a real U.S. military and academic project studying the ionosphere 📡. But conspiracy theorists (and some suspicious military papers) think it can manipulate weather, cause earthquakes, or control minds ⛈️🧠. A patent for altering the atmosphere sounds suspiciously like HAARP tech 📜. Alexa, start a hurricane? 🌀

* #2: Project A119 — Let’s Just Nuke the Moon: Before we planted flags, we almost nuked the Moon. For PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 💥🌕! In 1958, the U.S. Air Force had an actual plan to detonate a nuclear weapon on the lunar surface just to scare the Soviets 😨. The paperwork exists! And get this: CARL SAGAN was on the math team calculating the visibility of the explosion from Earth 🤯. Buzz Aldrin punching a Moon conspiracy theorist now seems tame 👊.

* #1: Unit 731 — Japan’s Nightmare Science Division: The most evil lab you’ve never heard of, where NO ONE WENT TO JAIL 😡. During WWII, Imperial Japan’s Unit 731 conducted horrific human experimentation on thousands in occupied China—vivisection, plague infection, freezing, bioweapons—all in the name of science 🧪💀. Victims were called “logs.” The U.S. government granted immunity in exchange for the data 🤬. Imagine Josef Mengele getting a job at MIT 🏥.

🤯 CAN'T GET ENOUGH FACT-TASTIC INSANITY? We’ve got bonus WTF facts, like the U.S. Air Force considering nuking the Moon 🚀🌕, Canada’s failed “Gaydar” machine 🌈, DARPA’s zombie goats 🐐🧟‍♂️, and the CIA’s porn-as-a-weapon Cold War strategy 🎬!

🎧 TUNE IN TO GO FACT YOURSELF FOR A WILD RIDE THROUGH THE DARK AND UTTERLY BIZARRE HISTORY OF GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTS! IT’S TRUTH. IT’S SHOCKING. IT’S GO FACT YOURSELF! 💥

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Get ready for a wild ride through the annals of unbelievable audacity in this week's episode of GO FACT YOURSELF! 🎙️🔥 We're diving deep into the Top 10 Craziest Con Artists who looked reality square in the face, said "Nah," and proceeded to build empires out of pure, unadulterated fiction. From fake royalty dripping in fool's gold to shameless shamans peddling snake oil with a straight face, prepare to have your perception of human gullibility shattered like a cheap vase. 💸👑 This isn't your grandma's true crime podcast; we're celebrating the sheer chutzpah of these scam gods who, for a glorious moment, actually won. Whether they were fleecing governments, Wall Street wolves, or even the Vatican (yep, you read that right!), these legends of the long con prove that sometimes, the most unbelievable stories are the truest (well, almost). So buckle up, buttercups, because we’re about to drop a truth bomb bigger than that "Nigerian prince's" inheritance! 💣💰

Here's the lowdown on the Top 10 Con Artists Who Finessed the World — And Lived to Laugh About It (For a While):

* #10: Victor Lustig, the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower — Twice! 🗼💀 This Austro-Hungarian charmer with the Bond villain looks and five languages pulled off the ultimate real estate hustle, selling France's iconic landmark for scrap... not once, but twice! And if that wasn't enough, he also peddled a "money box" that hilariously "printed" $100 bills. He even swindled Al Capone and lived to tell the tale!. Talk about flipping the script! 🎬

* #9: Malachi Love-Robinson, the Teenager Who Became a Doctor! 👶🏽🏥 Forget playing doctor as a kid; this Florida teen walked into a hospital and started being a doctor, diagnosing patients and everything!. He even opened his own clinic, the "New Birth, New Life Holistic Center," complete with a gynecological exam room!. Caught in a sting operation, this "Dr. Babyface" proved that sometimes, all you need is a white coat and unwavering confidence! 🤷‍♂️

* #8: Misha Defonseca, the Woman Who Faked a War Crime Survival Story (with Wolves!) 📚🐺 Move over, Mowgli! Misha's memoir of surviving the Holocaust by walking across Europe and being adopted by wolves sold millions and was translated into 18 languages!. Oprah-approved levels of inspiration... until it was revealed to be total fiction. Her real name? Monique De Wael, a Belgian Catholic who spent the war safely in school. Talk about a plot twist! 🐺➡️👧

* #7: Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, the Man Who Pretended to Be a Rockefeller! 🧬👔 From Bavaria to Boston, this guy reinvented himself multiple times before landing on his most successful persona: "Clark Rockefeller" of that Rockefeller dynasty. He married into wealth, joined elite clubs, and even kidnapped his own daughter — all while being a complete fraud. He even convinced actual Rockefellers!. A real-life "Fake It Till You Make It" gone wild! 💸

* #6: Anthony Gignac, the Guy Who Pretended to Be a Saudi Prince (Until the Pork Incident)! 🛬💼 Claiming to be Prince Khalid bin al-Saud, this charlatan lived the royal life in Miami, racking up over $8 million in luxury perks, Ferraris, and private jets. Fake diplomatic plates, security team, and a royal Instagram to boot!. His downfall? Ordering pork, among other non-royal faux pas. Oops! 🐷👑

* #5: Kimberly Kitchen, the Woman Who Ran a Fake Law Firm for 10 Years! 📜👠 This Pennsylvanian churchgoer pulled off the ultimate legal loophole: running a successful law firm, winning cases, and even becoming president of the local Bar Association — all without ever going to law school or passing the bar. She forged licenses, degrees, and even taught continuing legal education seminars!. Legally blonde... but make it illegal! 👩‍⚖️🚫

* #4: Lazarus Long (Howard Turney), the Guy Who Faked an Entire Country! 🌍📉 In the 90s, this visionary con artist convinced investors to fund "New Utopia," a libertarian island paradise in the Caribbean. The catch? The island didn't actually exist. Yet, he raised over $100 million in "citizenship fees" and sold cabinet positions!. Prince Lazarus, Sovereign Ruler of a nation built on sand (or rather, not even sand)! 🏝️💸

* #3: Jean-Claude Romand, the French Waiter Who Became a Fake Banker for 18 Years (with a Deadly Secret)! 💶⏳ For nearly two decades, Romand convinced his family and friends he worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva — he didn't. He faked a daily commute, hung out in parking lots, and survived on borrowed money. When his lie began to unravel, he tragically killed his wife, children, and parents. From "haha" to "holy s***" real quick. 😬

* #2: Anna “Delvey” Sorokin, the Billion-Dollar Heiress Who Wasn’t! 👑💸 This Russian expat Instagrammed her way into New York high society, posing as a German heiress with a $60 million trust fund that didn't exist. Crashing at 5-star hotels, flying private, and scamming banks and friends out of thousands. She almost secured a $25 million loan for her fake art foundation while being overdrawn!. Iconic energy, questionable ethics! ✨

* #1: Victor Lustig (Again!), the Smoothest Criminal Who Ever Scammed France! 🗼💀 Because selling the Eiffel Tower once wasn't enough!. This con artist extraordinaire was fluent in five languages, a master of disguise, and charming enough to sell literal monuments. He ran the same con again after the first victim was too embarrassed to report it. And let's not forget the fake money-printing machine and the time he scammed Al Capone and lived. The OG for a reason! 😎

Tune in to GO FACT YOURSELF this week for a deep dive into these unbelievable tales of deception, audacity, and the art of the con! You won't believe your ears! 🎧🤯 #ConArtists #Scams #TrueCrime #Podcast #Top10 #Fraud #VictorLustig #AnnaDelvey #FakeItTillYouMakeIt #GOFACTYOURSELF #ComedyPodcast #MindBlowingFacts

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🎢🔥 A Thrill Ride Through Humanity's Most Unhinged Amusement Parks! From Soviet decay to poop-themed paradise, prepare for a fact-flinging frenzy where the fun is questionable and the lawsuits are probably pending.

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Welcome to GO FACT YOURSELF—the podcast that hits harder than a runaway log flume and leaves you questioning everything you thought you knew about "fun"! 🤯 Each week, we dive headfirst into the internet's most outrageous rabbit holes, serving up Top 10 lists so bizarre, you'll need a tetanus shot just from listening! 💉 Get ready for a truth bomb dropped with a side of sarcasm, where we rank the wildest corners of human creation with zero apologies and maximum "did they REALLY do that?!" energy. This isn’t your grandma’s fact podcast; it’s a knowledge nuke detonated in your earholes! 💥 Press play if you dare... regret nothing! (Maybe bring a lawyer.) 🏛️

This week, prepare for a journey into the demented minds behind the Top 10 Craziest Theme Parks That Ever Existed (And Yes, One Was Built By Dictators)! These aren't your cookie-cutter corporate playgrounds; we're talking cult-built carnivals, radioactive fun zones, and death-trap roller coasters designed by people who clearly mainlined chaos! Forget churros and motion sickness; here, you might just encounter radiation poisoning, a surprise sermon, or a ride operator jump-starting a deathtrap with a manual push!

Buckle up as we count down the crème de la unhinged:

#10: The North Korean “Joyful” Deathtrap — Mangyongdae Funfair This is the only theme park where smiling too hard might get you arrested! Built by Kim Jong-il in the late '80s, it's a dilapidated relic of propaganda where the rides are rusty, the staff is military, and the vibe is "Soviet decay meets haunted Chuck E. Cheese". Imagine roller coasters that need manual pushing and a horror house where the most terrifying part is just the bathroom! Sources include BBC Travel (2013), The Guardian (2010), HRNK Reports (2015), and declassified US military cultural assessments. Commentary: This is the only theme park where the screams aren’t from joy—they’re from existential despair. (Sound Effect Idea: Somber military march fading into eerie silence)

#9: Action Park, New Jersey — “Class-Action Park” Before Jackass, there was this 1980s hellscape run like a frat house on meth, where the ride of your life could literally be your last! With no safety regulations and teenage employees, rides like the “Loop-de-Loop” water slide (which allegedly decapitated crash-test dummies) and “Cannonball Falls” lived up to their terrifying potential. The “Tarzan Swing” saw multiple broken bones per week, and the Alpine Slide was a literal flesh-shredder. Six people died! Sources: Class Action Park (HBO), NY Post archives, Weird NJ Magazine. Commentary: Imagine Disneyland run by your drunk uncle with a crowbar and zero liability insurance. (Running Joke/Callback: That’s not a ride — that’s a lawsuit with a gift shop.)

#8: Gulliver’s Kingdom, Japan — Next Door to a Cult A charming, oversized Gulliver statue lies toppled near Mount Fuji, right beside the former HQ of the Aum Shinrikyo cult (yes, that doomsday cult that gassed the Tokyo subway)! Opened in 1997 to attract families to the literal shadow of one of Japan’s darkest tragedies, kids climbed the massive Gulliver while rumors spread of cult artifacts still buried under the park. Tourism tanked, unsurprisingly. Sources: Atlas Obscura, Japan Times (1998), regional tourism board minutes. Commentary: Nothing says fun like existential dread and chemical warfare flashbacks.

#7: Dadipark, Belgium — Where Childhood Dreams Go to Die Europe’s budget answer to Disneyland, minus the safety, maintenance, or basic human decency. Operating from the '50s to 2002, this park featured thrilling rope bridges and death slides, including one where a kid lost his arm! A visitor claimed the “water slide” was just a concrete ramp into a muddy pit, and the haunted house was “literally a shed with a lightbulb and spiders”. Sources: Urban Ghosts Media, Deredactie.be, Reddit /r/abandonedporn. Commentary: Come for the slides, stay because you’re impaled on them. (Sound Effect Idea: Creepy carnival music)

#6: The Holy Land Experience, Florida — Disney Meets the Book of Revelation An actual theme park where Jesus gets crucified every afternoon... right next to the gift shop! This Bible-themed park offered daily Passion plays, walkable Jerusalem replicas, and “Goliath Burgers”. A performer once forgot to tie down the cross properly, causing Jesus to crash mid-crucifixion! Sources: Orlando Weekly, The Christian Post, tourist TripAdvisor horror stories. Commentary: Nothing like reliving the trauma of Christ’s death while slurping an Icee. (Sound Effect Idea: Evangelical choir sound cue)

#5: Yongma Land, Korea — The Abandoned K-Pop Shoot Set Once a modest family park in Seoul, now a hotspot for creepy photo shoots and late-night thrill-seekers, apparently haunted by both spirits and influencers! A K-pop group filmed a music video on the crumbling carousel while ghost hunters claim EVPs whispered “Get out”! Sources: CNN Travel Asia, Soompi forums, local Seoul ghost tour reviews. Commentary: Honestly, the ghosts have better lighting than most TikTokers.

#4: Dreamland Margate, UK — The LSD-Inspired Revival Britain’s oldest theme park was reborn as a retro-carnival acid trip! Originally opened in the 1880s, it was reborn in the 2010s with neon nostalgia, vintage rides, and art installations that feel like Banksy on bath salts. One exhibit allowed people to walk inside a giant disembodied eyeball while listening to a brass band version of “Bohemian Rhapsody”! Sources: VICE UK, The Independent, Historic England archives. Commentary: It’s like your grandma’s funfair met your cousin’s Burning Man dealer.

#3: BonBon-Land, Denmark — Poop-Themed Paradise Yes, really. A theme park where toilets, boobs, and burps are the main attractions, with a mascot that’s a dog who farts on you! Featuring rides like the “Dog Fart Rollercoaster” and “Skid Mark Alley,” the urinal-themed water ride warns: “You will get wet. And maybe peed on.”. Surprisingly, this park built around crude candy mascots is beloved by Danish families! Sources: BonBon-Land official site, Danish Culture Journal, EU theme park blogs. Commentary: If Disney is about dreams, BonBon-Land is about farts, fearlessness, and fermented fish. (GO FACT YOURSELF Moment: A farting dog roller coaster is real and beloved.)

#2: Heritage USA — Jim Bakker’s Holy Roller Empire Built by televangelist Jim Bakker, this 1980s Christian Disneyland collapsed under a tsunami of fraud, sex scandals, and apocalypse merch! At its peak, it had a Main Street, 500-room hotel, Bible-themed rides, and puppet shows about Hell. Oh, and Jim Bakker installed a private “sex suite” in the prayer tower. Yes. That happened. Sources: Charlotte Observer archives, SEC fraud documents, evangelical memoirs. Commentary: Jesus wept — and probably filed a restraining order.

#1: Western City, Poland — Where Cowboys and Communists Collided A full-on American Wild West town, built in the heart of communist Poland! Featuring revolvers, saloons, and square-dancing in a land where denim was contraband, this bizarre cowboy haven offered shootouts and horse chases while Poland was under Soviet control. Visitors used forged ration cards to “buy” cowboy hats, and one KGB agent posed as a rodeo clown! Sources: Polish National Archives, Cold War Cultural Studies Journal, Warsaw University Oral History Project. Commentary: It’s like if Clint Eastwood invaded East Berlin with a mechanical bull. (Sound Effect Idea: Old-timey saloon piano) (GO FACT YOURSELF Moment: Poland’s cowboys resisted communism with lassos.)

And if that wasn't wild enough, the FACT BLAST ZONE reveals a briefly existing Nazi-themed park in Argentina where everyone involved disappeared, a “Midget Town” in China staffed entirely by little people, and the insane fact that Chernobyl almost got a theme park after the meltdown! Plus, an abandoned Flintstones park and Dubai’s Marvel park getting sued by Disney.

So, buckle up buttercups, because this episode proves that when it comes to theme parks, sometimes reality is stranger (and way more dangerous) than fiction! Ready to ride? GO FACT YOURSELF! (Running Joke/Callback: This episode is brought to you by tetanus shots. We now interrupt your regularly scheduled sanity…)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gofactyourself.substack.com

GO FACT YOURSELF dives headfirst into the unbelievable true stories of ten individuals who ditched the secret lairs for open declarations of chaos, proving that sometimes the most outlandish villains walk among us in broad daylight 🤯. Get ready for a fact-bombastic journey through ego, audacity, and the sheer, unadulterated gall of people who decided to live like comic book antagonists without even a flimsy disguise 💥! From tech titans building their own tax-free fiefdoms to scientists convinced dolphins held the key to psychic warfare, this episode will have you questioning everything you thought you knew about the blurry lines between fiction and reality 😵‍💫. Lock your doors, maybe invest in some anti-mind-control headgear, and prepare for the top ten real-life supervillains who were too extra for the shadows!

#10: The CEO Who Built a Private City With a Constitution He Wrote Himself — “Yes, He Wrote in a Clause About Guns and Strip Clubs”. Cryptocurrency mogul Jeffrey Berns bought 67,000 acres of Nevada desert to construct "Innovation Zones," a blockchain-powered utopia where he'd be the ultimate rule-maker, drafting a constitution that reportedly allowed "recreational explosives" and banned taxes. This wasn't just a company; it was a vision of a sovereign, self-governed smart city running on Ethereum, complete with the potential for its own schools, courts, and currency. Berns shrugged off lawmaker concerns, stating, “The old systems have failed. It’s time for a technocracy”. His plans included voluntary blockchain ID chips for residents and AI-based citizen scoring. Imagine Lex Luthor with a libertarian streak and a penchant for crypto – that’s the vibe. Sources include Nevada Independent (2021) and Wired Magazine (2020).

#9: The German Scientist Who Tried to Weaponize Dolphin Telepathy — “Flipper, But for WAR”. Dr. Carl Herzog, a marine biologist with some seriously wild ideas, allegedly spent decades of taxpayer money attempting to train dolphins for psychic espionage under NATO's "Project Aquanosis". His jaw-dropping claim to NATO in 1981 was that dolphins could psychically detect enemy submarines by "empathically aligning with sonar signatures". Herzog believed in "undiscovered cerebral harmonics" in dolphins, supposedly inspired by a single dolphin's reaction to Beethoven. His research involved 12 years of testing dolphin "dream-states," sometimes while he himself was taking LSD. One experiment involved playing Soviet submarine recordings to dolphins with EEG headsets, which he declared a "breakthrough" when they reacted. Despite costing millions and yielding zero results, Herzog penned a memoir titled “Whale of a Tale: Telepathy and Me”. Declassified CIA Files, the Journal of Para-Psychological Oceanography, and a BBC Radio 4 oral history document this bizarre endeavor.

#8: The Clown Who Held a Town Hostage with a Mime Cult — “Your Move, Pennywise”. In 1992, ex-mime Jacques LeClown (formerly Jacques Dubois) staged a non-verbal takeover of a small Quebec town’s tourism board, declaring it a “Mimocracy”. He bizarrely convinced 38 people to take a six-month vow of silence while painting their faces and adhering to “the Code of Theatrical Purity”. Kicked out of Marcel Marceau’s school for “excessive interpretive violence,” LeClown rebranded in Saint-Éphrem-de-Beauce and launched “Project Pantomime,” claiming mime was a revolutionary language. His followers, clad in mime garb, patrolled the streets, miming arrests for “verbal transgressions”. Local police were reportedly overwhelmed by the sheer weirdness of it all. He was finally ousted by a rival clown involving live geese and whipped cream. Sources include CBC Archives (1993) and LeClown’s manifesto, “The Silent Revolution”.

(Podcast Title: GO FACT YOURSELF Tagline: Top 10 Lists. Zero Apologies. Description: Welcome to GO FACT YOURSELF—the podcast that hits harder than your uncle's trivia night and cuts deeper than your ex’s last text. Each episode is a no-holds-barred countdown of the Top 10 Most Jaw-Dropping, Mind-Melting, Table-Flipping Facts in the universe. From the weirdest laws ever passed to history’s most savage comebacks, we rank it all—boldly, brilliantly, and with a twist of “did-they-just-say-that?!” This isn’t just a facts show. It’s a truth grenade. Press play. Regret nothing.)

(Please note: The full Top 10 list was not provided in the sources. This description includes the details available for entries #10, #9, and #8.)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gofactyourself.substack.com

Dust off your irony detectors and prepare for a historical roast session hotter than a Beatle bonfire 🔥! Welcome back to GO FACT YOURSELF—the podcast that’s more addictive than scrolling through historical fails and funnier than watching a politician backtrack 🤣!

This week, we're diving headfirst into the hall of fame of historical foot-in-mouth moments with “Top 10 Famous Last Words That Aged Like Milk” 🥛. Get ready for a countdown of the most spectacularly wrong final pronouncements that got a cosmic middle finger so epic, it's visible from space 🚀. From Titanic-sized marketing fails to military missteps worthy of a TikTok cringe compilation 😬, we're ranking the top ten times confidence went full-on Wile E. Coyote off a historical cliff 💥.

Buckle up buttercups, because this ain’t your grandma’s dusty history lesson — it’s a laugh riot through the wreckage of overzealous declarations! #FamousLastWords #HistoryFails #IronyAlert #CosmicKarma #EpicFails #GoFactYourself #Podcast #Comedy #Top10

Top 10 Lists. Zero Apologies. Description: Welcome to GO FACT YOURSELF—the podcast that hits harder than your uncle's trivia night and cuts deeper than your ex’s last text. Each episode is a no-holds-barred countdown of the Top 10 Most Jaw-Dropping, Mind-Melting, Table-Flipping Facts in the universe. From the weirdest laws ever passed to history’s most savage comebacks, we rank it all—boldly, brilliantly, and with a twist of “did-they-just-say-that?!” This isn’t just a facts show. It’s a truth grenade. Press play. Regret nothing.

This episode, “Top 10 Famous Last Words That Aged Like Milk,” is a deep dive into those iconic utterances that immediately faceplanted into the annals of historical irony. We're talking about the verbal equivalent of a plot twist you absolutely did NOT see coming! Here’s the full, unvarnished list of legendary lip-flops:

* #10: “This ship is unsinkable.” — Every Poor B*****d on the Titanic’s PR Team. Subheadline: #10: The Ice-Cold Reality Check Heard ‘Round the World. Turns out, calling the “floating hotel” that was supposedly safer than “God’s inbox” “unsinkable” was a PR move that aged like milk left out in the sun, especially after a slow-moving iceberg gave the Atlantic a mic drop moment. Even a White Star Line VP’s bold claim that “God Himself could not sink this ship” couldn't prevent a watery grave. They even used this exact quote again for a crypto startup in 2022 that collapsed in three weeks! Talk about history repeating itself with a side of schadenfreude.

* #9: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” — Union General John Sedgwick, seconds before getting shot in the face. Subheadline: #9: Famous Last Words AND a Live Demo of Why You Don’t Heckle Snipers. General Sedgwick’s battlefield bravado while mocking Confederate sharpshooters proved to be less “invincible commander” and more “instant karma delivery service”. His scoff that they couldn't hit anything was immediately followed by a bullet hitting him below his left eye, offering a real-time demonstration of why trash-talking snipers is generally bad for your health. It was the Civil War equivalent of a no-scope headshot.

* #8: “It’s just a little cold.” — George Washington, before being bled half to death by doctors. Subheadline: #8: The Father of a Nation Gets Bloodlet Like a Victorian Leech Addict. America's first president dismissed his sore throat and hoarseness with these nonchalant words, but his 18th-century medical team decided the appropriate response was to drain roughly 40% of his blood and give him mercury. Despite surviving bullets and frostbite, Washington was ultimately taken down by medical practices that were basically a game of “Will This Kill You?”, and in his case, the answer was a resounding yes. They even cut open his neck twice!

* #7: “What are the odds of anything coming from Mars?” — Astronomer Percy Lowell, champion of Martian canals. Subheadline: #7: The Guy Who Thought Aliens Built an Intergalactic Plumbing System. Percy Lowell was so convinced that Mars had an elaborate canal system built by intelligent life that dismissing the possibility of anything else coming from the red planet seemed reasonable to him. Then NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft dropped the ultimate truth bomb in 1965, revealing a desolate, canal-free landscape. Turns out, those “giant canals” were more like optical illusions, and Lowell’s Martian dreams evaporated faster than water on the actual Martian surface. He basically invented the “aliens built the pyramids” crowd, just with more canals.

* #6: “We are more popular than Jesus.” — John Lennon, 1966. Subheadline: #6: The Beatle Who Got Burned By Bible Belt Backlash. At the peak of Beatlemania, John Lennon’s comment about the Fab Four being “more popular than Jesus” sparked a religious and media firestorm, particularly in the southern United States. The backlash included record-burning bonfires, death threats, and tour turmoil, proving that sometimes, even rock gods should probably keep certain opinions to themselves. Lennon’s attempt to criticize the decline of religion in the UK was hilariously lost in translation across the pond, leading to some seriously heated vinyl disposal.

* #5: “I will be the last person in the world to die of smallpox.” — Ali Maow Maalin, 1977. Subheadline: #5: The Unvaccinated Guy Who Accidentally Became the Final Boss of Smallpox. Ali Maow Maalin, a Somali cook and health worker who refused the smallpox vaccine, then contracted the disease, becoming the last known natural case of smallpox in history. His confident declaration was spectacularly undermined by actually being the last case. The irony of refusing the vaccine because he disliked needles and then becoming a pivotal figure in its eradication is a cosmic joke with a genuinely positive outcome.

* #4: “Nothing will come of it.” — Neville Chamberlain, after appeasing Hitler. Subheadline: #4: The Prime Minister Who Tried “Ignore It and Hope It Goes Away” on Nazi Germany. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s pronouncement of “peace in our time” after the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler aged about as well as unrefrigerated fish. Within a year, Hitler invaded Poland, plunging the world into WWII. Chamberlain’s waving of that infamous piece of paper is now a symbol of diplomatic naivete, and “peace in our time” is used sarcastically to mock similar situations. He tried to vibe check Hitler with a handshake and got a Blitzkrieg in return.

* #3: “They’ll never accept a Black quarterback.” — Every NFL exec before Doug Williams torched the Super Bowl. Subheadline: #3: The Guy Who Lit the NFL’s Racism on Fire (With Touchdowns). For decades, NFL executives clung to the racist notion that Black players lacked the intellect to play quarterback. Then Doug Williams stepped onto the Super Bowl stage in 1988 and threw four touchdowns in a single quarter, obliterating those prejudiced claims with a record-breaking performance. His postgame quote, “Tonight, I’m just a quarterback”, was the ultimate clapback, proving that talent and ability transcend ignorant biases. Every Black QB who followed stands on his arm.

* #2: “They’ll never find me.” — Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Subheadline: #2: The Guy Who Hid From the FBI for 17 Years… Then Got Outed by His Brother. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, managed to evade the FBI for nearly two decades while living off-grid and mailing deadly bombs. His confidence in remaining undiscovered was shattered when the FBI published his manifesto, and his own brother recognized his writing style. Turns out, his meticulous efforts to leave no physical evidence were undone by his love of commas and a brother who paid attention. So much for “never find me”!

* #1: “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olsen, founder of DEC. Subheadline: #1: The Man Who Laughed at the Future While Holding a Slide Rule. In 1977, Ken Olsen, the founder of the then-massively successful Digital Equipment Corporation, confidently dismissed the idea of personal computers. While he was pooh-poohing home computing at a tech convention, companies like Apple and Microsoft were busy proving him spectacularly wrong. DEC’s failure to adapt to the PC revolution led to its eventual implosion, making Olsen’s quote the ultimate example of being brilliantly wrong about the future of technology. Your fridge probably has more processing power than his entire company did back then!

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GO FACT YOURSELF proudly presents a countdown of the Top 10 Live TV Fails That Made The Whole Planet Cringe in Real Time, a meticulously curated collection of chaos that proves Murphy’s Law is TV’s most reliable co-star. 🌎🔥

Get ready to relive the moments that made producers sweat, anchors stammer, and the internet collectively combust! We're not just talking about a dropped line or a technical glitch; we're diving deep into the full-blown implosions of live television, the pants-wetting, career-altering catastrophes that you simply cannot unsee. From accidental profanity bombs to rogue toddlers seizing the international stage, prepare for a rollercoaster of awkwardness and hilarity. This isn’t your grandma’s TV guide – this is the uncut, uncensored hall of shame of the small screen, moments so wild they feel stranger than fiction. You’ve been warned. ⚠️

Here’s the cringe-tastic countdown that will have you gasping, laughing, and forever side-eyeing the ‘LIVE’ banner:

#10: The Meteorologist Who Quit Live On Air Because She Was "Too Hot": Remember when KTLA’s Liberte Chan was handed a sweater live on-air by her co-anchor for wearing a "too sexy" dress? 🔥👗 The internet exploded in a feminist fury over this awkward "sweater shuffle". Forget the weather, the real inferno was online!

#9: BBC Dad’s Kids Crash His Live Interview... And the Internet Implodes: Professor Robert E. Kelly’s very serious BBC interview about South Korean politics was hilariously hijacked by his toddler swaggering in, followed by a baby in a walker and their mom’s frantic rescue attempt. Door handles beware! 🚪👶

#8: The Anchor Who Thought Her Mic Was Off (It Wasn't): Ici Quebec’s Catherine Dorion, known for her "rebellious style," accidentally let slip some juicy insults about fellow politicians on a hot mic, calling opposition members "imbeciles" and more. Mic drop… literally! 🎤🙊

#7: The Talent Show "Winner" Who Wasn’t (Awkward.): On Australia's Next Top Model 2010 finale, the host announced Kelsey Martinovich as the winner only to reverse it moments later due to a cue card catastrophe! 🏆➡️❌ Amanda Ware’s face said it all. Talk about a plot twist worthy of reality TV… oh wait.

#6: The News Team That Got Pranked with Dirty Names on a Crash Report: California’s KTVU solemnly reported the pilots of a plane crash as "Sum Ting Wong" and "Wi Tu Lo" after falling for a prank. Somewhere, a prankster is still living their best life. ✈️😂

#5: Tom Brokaw Announces Bob Hope's Death… Prematurely: In 1998, NBC’s legendary anchor Tom Brokaw mistakenly announced the death of comedy icon Bob Hope… who then lived for another five years! 👴🏻💀 Talk about a career-defining oops.

#4: The Olympics Opening Ceremony… and the Rogue Snowflake: At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics opening ceremony, one stubborn snowflake refused to unfurl into the iconic fifth Olympic ring. NBC’s awkward cut to rehearsal footage? Priceless. ❄️🏅

#3: Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s "Wardrobe Malfunction": Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 saw Justin Timberlake expose Janet Jackson’s breast live, birthing the term "wardrobe malfunction" and, get this, inspiring the creation of YouTube! 🤯🎶 A 9/16th of a second that shook the world.

#2: BBC News’ Guy Goma Interview Fail: The BBC accidentally interviewed job applicant Guy Goma, mistaking him for a tech expert – and he absolutely ran with it, delivering bewildered but brilliant answers. Accidental icon alert! 🧑🏾‍💼🎤

#1: The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: Live, Tragic, Unforgettable: In a moment etched in history, the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff in 1986, broadcast live to millions. A stark reminder of the fragility of life and the power of live television. 🇺🇸🚀

Plus, stick around for our Fact Blast Zone featuring even more live TV mayhem, including a reporter swallowing a fly, Elmo allegedly dropping an F-bomb, a rigged lottery conspiracy, a live proposal rejection, and a pantsless anchor caught on Zoom! Get ready to say "GO FACT YOURSELF!" to the wild world of live TV fails! 🔥🎤😂😱

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🧪⚛️💥 Serendipity just dropped the hottest beat in the history of humankind.

The GO FACT YOURSELF crew is back with an episode that proves humanity's greatest hits were often just epic fails with surprisingly awesome consequences! 🎧🔥🌍 Get ready to have your brain microwaved with the shocking stories behind the most game-changing goofs, from the moldy mishaps that saved millions to the sticky situations that glued the modern world together! 🤯 This ain't your grandma's science lecture; we're talking about the accidental inventions that fueled wars, launched fashion empires, and maybe even got your uncle high at Woodstock. Buckle up buttercups, because this countdown of the "Oops! I Saved the World: Top 10 Accidental Discoveries That Changed Everything" is about to blow your scientific socks off!

Welcome to GO FACT YOURSELF—the podcast that hits harder than your uncle's trivia night and cuts deeper than your ex’s last text. Each episode is a no-holds-barred countdown of the Top 10 Most Jaw-Dropping, Mind-Melting, Table-Flipping Facts in the universe. From the weirdest laws ever passed to history’s most savage comebacks, we rank it all—boldly, brilliantly, and with a twist of “did-they-just-say-that?!” This isn’t just a facts show. It’s a truth grenade. Press play. Regret nothing.

This week, GO FACT YOURSELF dives into the chaotic cosmos of accidental inventions with: 👇

* #10: The Navy Radar That Popped Corn Instead of Nazis 🍿💥: Witness the moment engineer Percy Spencer’s malfunctioning military radar turned a candy bar into molten goo and then, more importantly, gave birth to the microwave oven. Forget fighting fascism; let's make some popcorn! This accidental discovery at Raytheon, while trying to fry enemy signals, led to the first fridge-sized Radarange. Imagine a microwave that beeps "Mission Accomplished" after heating your leftovers!

* #9: The Dirty Desk That Gave Us Antibiotics 🧫🤒: Travel back to 1928 when Alexander Fleming's post-vacation laziness led to a moldy petri dish that murdered bacteria and accidentally gifted us penicillin. He wasn't trying to cure staph infections, but this forgotten lunch mold saved an estimated 200 million lives. This Penicillium notatum was the OG "wonder drug" during WWII. It's the equivalent of leaving old pizza in your room and accidentally discovering the cure for syphilis!

* #8: The Guy Who Got High and Invented the ‘60s 🌈💊: Meet Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, who, while trying to fix respiratory issues, accidentally synthesized LSD. One touch, a wild bike ride, and suddenly the world was a kaleidoscope of Grateful Dead tunes. His accidental absorption through his fingers and subsequent intentional bigger dose on "Bicycle Day" launched a psychedelic revolution. Even the CIA got in on the action with MKULTRA! What if chemistry... but vibes?

* #7: The Sweet Mistake That Made Diabetics Cry Tears of Joy 🍬🧪: In 1879, Constantin Fahlberg forgot to wash his hands after messing with coal tar derivatives (yes, coal tar!) and discovered the sweet taste of saccharin, the first artificial sweetener. He then secretly patented it, sparking the ultimate lab betrayal with his boss. From WWI sugar shortages to the 70s diet craze, saccharin stuck around, even surviving brief cancer scares. Imagine licking your fingers after handling toxic sludge and thinking, “Hey… that’s kinda tasty”.

* #6: The Goopy Mistake That Became NASA’s Best Friend 🚀🧼: During WWII, the quest for a rubber substitute led GE scientist James Wright to mix boric acid and silicone oil, resulting in Silly Putty. It failed as rubber but became a beloved bouncy goop that even NASA used in space. From failed war tech to space slime – and it came in Easter eggs! It's technically a "non-Newtonian viscoelastic polymer," but mostly, it's goop.

* #5: The Sticky Spill That Revolutionized Music, Porn, and Piracy 🧲📼: In the 1920s, a German engineer's accidental rust spill on celluloid film gave birth to magnetic tape. From Nazi propaganda to mixtapes, VHS, and illegal downloads, this dusty mess shaped modern media. You wouldn’t have Spotify, TikTok, or pirated anime DVDs without one guy accidentally dumping rust on a filmstrip.

* #4: The Purple Puke That Turned Into a Fashion Empire 👗🧪: Teenage chemist William Perkin's attempt to cure malaria in 1856 resulted in a vivid purple goo that stained everything and accidentally created mauve dye, the first synthetic dye. Queen Victoria rocking this accidental hue launched modern chemical dyes and the colorful world we know. Thank a Victorian teen covered in chemical goo if you've ever worn purple lipstick!

* #3: The Frenchman Who Invented Explosives… While Trying to Make Medicine 💣💊: In 1846, Christian Schönbein's kitchen mishap with nitric and sulfuric acid on his wife’s apron led to the explosive creation of nitrocellulose (gun cotton). He was aiming for non-explosive chemicals, but instead jumpstarted the arms industry and even early Hollywood's tendency for flammable film. This man literally did a “honey I blew up the kitchen” and jumpstarted both the arms industry and Hollywood.

* #2: The Chemist Who Gave Up and Created the Teflon Pan 🍳🧊: DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett's failed attempt to make a new refrigerant in 1938 resulted in a super slippery substance: Teflon. This accidental polymerization meant eggs would never stick again! From military seals to nonstick pans and even Gore-Tex, this mistake protects your omelet and your hiking boots. Nothing sticks to this stuff — not even your ex’s emotional baggage.

* #1: The Goo That Got Stuck and Spawned the Internet 💻📎: In 1942, Dr. Harry Coover's failed attempt to create clear plastic gun sights yielded a compound that stuck to everything: Super Glue. Shelved for years, it was rediscovered when it accidentally glued lab techs to a microscope. From battlefield wound sealant to MacGyver’s best friend, this accident fueled the stickiest moments in history. He failed to make gun sights, but succeeded in creating the world's strongest relationship test.

Hold up, there’s more! Our Fact Blast Zone reveals near-misses like Velcro (inspired by burrs on a dog!), Viagra (originally for angina!), X-rays (spooky!), Popsicles (thanks, 11-year-old!), Plastic (accidental shellac!), Slinky (a knocked-over spring!), and Matches (a scratching chemist!).

Ready to have your mind accidentally blown? Tune in to GO FACT YOURSELF!

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Buckle up, buttercups, for a wild ride through the gilded cages of the mega-rich gone mad, where fortunes fuel the fantastically foolish and bank accounts pave the path to bonkersville! 🚀👑💰 Prepare for the definitive deep dive into the decadently deranged, the spectacularly strange, and the unbelievably audacious exploits of the one-percent who decided the rules were for the rest of us! 🤪 This week on GO FACT YOURSELF, we're not just talking about bad investments; we're unearthing the top 10 billionaires who mainlined their own hype, from tech titans with messiah complexes to moguls who thought they could out-hustle, out-think, and outright out-weird the entire planet! 🌍💥 Get ready for a fact-flurry of epic proportions as we count down the crème de la crazy, featuring:

* #10: The Oil Baron Who Declared War on the Weather: Meet Charles Hatfield, the self-proclaimed "moisture accelerator" who was hired by Los Angeles in 1915 to end a drought — and who may have accidentally caused a biblical flood that destroyed the city. The jaw-dropping fact? Hatfield built a giant chemical tower, claimed it could manufacture weather, and then… it rained so hard for days that over 100 people died, and LA was like, “Okay cool thanks but we’re not paying you now”. This Gilded Age "weather-wealthy" individual cooked up secret chemical concoctions, convincing governments he could coax clouds. In 1915, desperate Los Angeles hired him, resulting in 17 days of torrential rain, collapsed bridges, and vanished farms. When the city refused his $10,000 fee, he sued. Was it a fluke or were his "rain bombs" real? Either way, he scammed a major metropolis into gambling with nature. Imagine Venmo-ing someone to fix your lawn, and they nuke your house from orbit.

* #9: The Guy Who Tried to Build His Own Space Nation… and Crowned Himself King: Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov launched the “2045 Initiative” — a plan to become immortal and rule humanity from space via AI avatars. Step 1: Ditch Earth. His jaw-dropping manifesto called for uploading rich people's souls into robot bodies, colonizing Mars, and eliminating “biological death” by the year 2045. He pitched this in front of the UN. This TV mogul thought "TV mogul" was too dull, creating a transhumanist cult movement (the 2045 Initiative) to upload consciousness, achieve digital immortality, and build a techno-god space civilization. Itskov even sent letters to world leaders to join his “immortality race” and hosted lavish conferences showcasing supposed AI avatars. By 2015, his dream was an orbital “mind colony” called Neo Earth. Think: Tony Stark meets Heaven's Gate, with a PowerPoint. This guy wanted to become Zordon from Power Rangers in real life. Uploading your soul sounds like a Facebook phishing scam.

* #8: The Shipping Magnate Who Bought a Greek Island Just to Yell at It: Aristotle Onassis didn’t just own yachts — he owned countries. Literally. He bought the island of Skorpios, kicked everyone off, and declared it a “peace zone” where only he and his famous guests could start drama. The jaw-dropping fact? He banned pregnant women, built mirrored sex rooms, and once forced Winston Churchill to dress like a Greek fisherman “for the aesthetic”. The archetype of the eccentric 20th-century billionaire, Onassis made a fortune and decided he needed his own reality show backdrop: Skorpios Island. He evicted locals, imported sand for a fake beach, and built secret tunnels to eavesdrop. Guests like Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas followed "island etiquette": wear linen, don’t be sober, never question Ari. His parties were infamous, sometimes featuring dueling pianists, a pet cheetah, and diamond briefcases. He invented the luxury influencer retreat pre-Instagram. Banning pregnant women? Was he afraid of spontaneous human cloning?

* #7: The Casino Tycoon Who Built His Own Vatican in the Desert: Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas casino baron, used his billions to build a casino empire based on his personal taste in architecture, morality, and surveillance. In Macao, he literally constructed a replica Vatican... then charged for access to the fake holy sites. Jaw-droppingly, Adelson had an AI surveillance system installed across his casino empire that tracked facial expressions, betting behavior, and “moral deviance”. Vegas, but for Big Brother. Adelson’s story is what happens when Mr. Burns gets into real estate, scaling from trade show floors to The Venetian, a louder, tackier Italy. He took this to Macao, building The Venetian Macao with a Vatican-themed "Holy Suites" wing. Former staff say he saw himself as a “moral architect” of leisure with massive surveillance and “loyalty correction” systems. He also meddled in geopolitics, influencing elections in the U.S. and Israel. He put Vatican cosplay next to roulette wheels and thought he was the moral compass. He even bought a newspaper to look better – a dictator move turned business model.

* #6: The Prince Who Bought a Yacht with a Shark Tank… and a Missile Defense System: Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s megayacht Kingdom 5KR came with a heliport, an aquarium full of sharks, and a missile detection system allegedly purchased on the black market. The jaw-dropping fact? He once turned down an offer to buy Monaco, claiming he preferred his yacht because “it floats above taxes”. Called “the Arabian Warren Buffett,” Prince Alwaleed invested in major companies but obsessed over being a real-life Bond villain. His yacht reportedly had shark tanks, bulletproof windows, and rumored Stinger missile countermeasures. He once bailed out Citigroup and then threw a desert party with Katy Perry as a flying genie. He lived like Scrooge McDuck in a Call of Duty map. Famously petty, he sued Forbes for undervaluing his net worth – the most billionaire move imaginable. If Bruce Wayne and Jabba the Hutt merged with oil money, it’d be this guy. Suing Forbes over his net worth? Bro, therapy is cheaper.

* #5: The Billionaire Who Built a Secret Arctic Vault… to Outlive Everyone Else: Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and vampire-curious tech overlord, funded a “doomsday vault” in the Arctic to preserve elite genetic data, cryptocurrency keys, and (reportedly) his own frozen blood. The jaw-dropping fact? Thiel has publicly stated he plans to live to be 200 years old by injecting young people's blood and sleeping in a temperature-controlled “neuropod”. Thiel, a libertarian tech futurist who once sued Gawker, is passionate about cheating death. He's invested in parabiosis, cryogenics, and offshore biohacking. His bizarre flex: a private cryo-vault in Svalbard stocked with “DNA from chosen individuals,” crypto backups, and his own modified tissue. This paired with a secret plan to colonize New Zealand as a post-apocalyptic tech utopia. He’s like if Dracula and Jeff Bezos started a Silicon Valley startup and buried it under a glacier. Thiel isn’t preparing for the apocalypse; he’s rooting for it, as long as he respawns first. Can we normalize billionaires not owning secret Arctic bunkers?

* #4: The Fashion Mogul Who Turned a Caribbean Island Into a Cultish Sex Commune: Louis Vuitton heir Jean-Baptiste Grenouille bought a private island, hired a “vibes-only” architecture team, and converted it into a luxury nudist colony for the ultra-wealthy — complete with LSD rituals and a gold-plated confession booth. Jaw-droppingly, his house staff were required to wear matching designer robes and refer to him only as “Mon Divin”. Raised with obscene wealth and no rules, Grenouille had a taste for sensory overload. After a spiritual bender at Burning Man, he bought Little Saint Giraud and declared it “a utopia of fashion and freedom” – think Eyes Wide Shut meets Project Runway. Visitors (Euro royalty, crypto freaks, washed-up pop stars) signed NDAs and participated in “ceremonial creativity sessions” with MDMA, silk blindfolds, and “aesthetic rebirth”. No phones, judgment, or clothing past sundown. The island had its own currency (“Velvet Bucks”), legal system (run by Grenouille), and a full-time hair stylist for “emergency enlightenment”. This dude made Coachella look like jury duty. Imagine a golden confession booth for apologizing for being too sexy.

* #3: The Tech CEO Who Tried to Create a Real-Life “Black Mirror”: Ramesh Balwani, infamous Theranos exec, secretly funded a start-up trying to replace the legal system with a blockchain-based “morality algorithm.” He called it: KARMA.AI. The jaw-dropping fact? It assigned “morality scores” to users based on biometric data and online behavior — and suggested punishments, including social exile and fines payable in crypto. While Theranos burned, Balwani’s side hustle was darker: KARMA.AI, a “decentralized ethics engine”. The app scraped private data, heart rates, and voice stress to rank “ethical” behaviour, flagging, banning, or “correcting” low scorers. A leaked 2017 pilot program penalized employees for “passive aggression,” “inadequate excitement,” and “dishonest hydration reporting”. Balwani wanted to gamify morality and be the app store deity. After Theranos, KARMA.AI went underground, but code still circulates. We all watched Black Mirror and were horrified; Ramesh Balwani wanted to scale it.

* #2: The Eccentric Who Tried to Become the Real-Life Dr. Doom: Swiss financier Wilhelm Reich III spent a decade and $600 million building a metallic fortress in the Alps to “control the energy of Earth’s aura” using a cosmic weapon he called The Orgone Cannon. Jaw-droppingly, he once fired it at a NATO satellite, claiming it was “polluting the frequencies of human thought”. Heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, Reich got into debunked orgone energy, believing a life-force could be focused through metal and sex. He built a fortress-lab in the Alps for “orgone resonance experiments,” wearing tinfoil robes and serving “charged water”. The Orgone Cannon, his masterpiece, was a 30-foot device from tank barrels and Tesla coils, supposedly controlling weather, breaking up chemtrails, and cleansing “toxic psychic fields”. When NATO satellites hovered (likely due to his EM signals), he fired the cannon twice. Swiss authorities shut it down after he published The Final Energy War, ending with: “Let the frequency cleanse the liars”. Imagine Tony Stark mainlining moon crystals and declaring war on "bad vibes". And he missed the satellite. Twice.

* #1: The Billionaire Who Declared Himself a Living God… and Tried to Rewrite History: Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator, believed he was literally divine, claimed to control weather with his emotions, and once kidnapped two South Korean filmmakers to make a monster movie glorifying him. The jaw-dropping fact? He rewrote history textbooks to claim he invented the hamburger, walked at three weeks old, and never needed to poop. While he inherited his kingdom, Kim Jong-il treated it like a billionaire cult leader's playpen. His private art collection was over $1 billion, spent on Hennessy and Bond films, but his obsession was narrative control. His propaganda rewrote reality: born on a sacred mountain (nope), tamed wild bears (uh huh), scored 11 holes-in-one his first golf game (sure, Jan). His boldest move: kidnapping South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee, imprisoning them for eight years to make Pulgasari, a Godzilla-style flick symbolizing North Korean communism. He had a billionaire's mindset, a god's power, and a Reddit troll's editing skills. Some billionaires buy movie studios; Kim abducted them. And yes, he claimed he never had to use the bathroom – peak billionaire energy.

Don't forget to subscribe to GO FACT YOURSELF for more mind-blowing top 10 lists! 🎧🤯

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GO FACT YOURSELF presents: Brace yourselves, history buffs and animal lovers with a dark sense of humour! This week, we unleash a truth bomb wilder than a honey badger in a hornet’s nest as we dive deep into the unbelievable, often hilarious, and sometimes terrifying world of ANIMAL WAR CRIMES! 🤯 From rogue dolphins with a license to krill to pigeons dropping more than just messages, prepare for a fact-flurry that'll leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about battlefield baddies! 💣 We're not kitten around – this episode is packed with jaw-dropping tales of creatures who accidentally (and sometimes intentionally!) crossed the line in the sand... or should we say, the mud? Get ready to have your mind blown by our TOP 10 TIMES AN ANIMAL COMMITTED A WAR CRIME:

* #10: The Kamikaze Pigeon Who Bombed the Wrong Country: 🕊️💥 In WWII, Britain’s feathered secret agent, Percival, a pigeon carrying explosives, took a wrong turn and tragically blew up an Allied convoy! The jaw-dropping fact? This bird received a posthumous “dishonourable discharge” in a confidential Ministry of Defence memo. Turns out, GPS failure and bird brains don't mix. This avian airdrop initiative was deemed "too easily distracted. Too damn bird-brained".

* #9: The Dolphin Assassin Program That Absolutely Got Out of Hand: 🐬🔪 During the Cold War, both the U.S. and USSR trained dolphins for military ops, including assassination! The U.S. Navy’s Project Cetus allegedly armed these marine mammals with harpoons to neutralize enemy divers. One dolphin, Tuffy, may have “accidentally” taken out two Navy SEALs during a 1967 war games exercise and was then reassigned. An internal memo referred to Tuffy as having “terminated targets with extreme prejudice”. Flipper went full Black Ops – you love to sea it! 🌊

* #8: The Goose That Caused the Chernobyl of Napoleonic Artillery: 🦢💣 Gérard, a French artillery unit's alarm goose in 1806 Belgium, panicked during a drill due to a thunderclap and triggered a live artillery barrage on their own camp! 💥 Fourteen men were injured, and Gérard? He survived, only to be eaten in disgrace. Official logs called it “an unexpected act of poultry treachery”. Honk if you’ve caused mass destruction! 📢

* #7: The Elephant That Defected to the Enemy Mid-Battle: 🐘➡️ In the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), Borzad, a Persian war elephant spooked by Macedonian fireworks, did a battlefield 180 and charged its own lines! 🔥 This caused more Persian casualties than Alexander the Great's army. The Persians called Borzad a “defector,” and his handler was executed. Talk about an unforgettable #SwitchingTeams moment! 🔄

* #6: The CIA’s Spy Cat That Immediately Betrayed America: 🐈‍⬛📡 In the 1960s, the CIA dropped $20 million on “Operation Acoustic Kitty” – a surgically enhanced spy cat to eavesdrop on Soviet agents. Its first mission? Squashed by a taxi seconds after deployment! 🚕💥 The CIA declared it a “total loss,” noting “Insufficient training in vehicular awareness” in the autopsy. Me-owch! 💔

* #5: The Monkey That Stole a Grenade and Declared Independence: 🐒💣 Kito, a clever baboon at a South African military outpost in 1979, grabbed a live grenade from an armory and bolted into the command tent! He pulled the pin and yeeted it out the window where it exploded harmlessly. Initially covered up, Kito was later "promoted" to “Mascot First Class”. This primate pulled off the ultimate monkey business! 💥

* #4: The Camel Who Sabotaged a WWII Train with Its Own Body: 🐫🚂 In North Africa during WWII, an unidentified rogue camel wandered onto the tracks and derailed a British munitions train, leading to a massive explosion! 🔥 Twelve cars were destroyed. The camel? Vanished, listed as “an unidentified rogue asset of unknown allegiance”. Some suspected Axis sabotage, even "weaponizing livestock". This hump-backed saboteur caused more chaos than a sandstorm! 💨

* #3: The Parrot Who Gave Away Troop Positions by Screaming “HERE THEY COME!”: 🦜🗣️ Lt. Alfred Crooke’s parrot, Reginald, in 1916, memorized British attack commands. During a stealth operation, Reginald squawked them loudly, blowing their cover. He was reassigned to a POW camp where he learned to scream “HELP ME” in German. This feathery friend turned foe was a real chatterbox of disaster! 🗣️

* #2: The Bear That Got High on Ammunition and Mauled an Officer: 🐻💥 Unlike the heroic Wojtek, Mikhail, a Soviet bear near Kursk in 1943, developed a taste for shell casings laced with cordite. He went full berserker, attacking officers and destroying a bunker until tranquilized and later taxidermied. His museum label: “Patriot or Problem?” 🤔 Don’t feed the bears… gunpowder! 🐻

* #1: The Dog That Switched Sides and Became a Nazi Hero: 🐕🏅 Maximka, a Soviet-trained mine-detection dog, escaped and was captured by Germans in 1941. They retrained him as a Nazi mascot, and he even helped expose two Soviet saboteurs, earning him the Iron Cross – the only dog in history to receive it! Soviet files labeled him “a traitor of the Motherland”. Talk about going from comrade to canine collaborator! 🐾➡️卐

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Imagine a blooper reel for the ages, where each "oops!" rewrites reality as we know it—from a forgotten measuring system launching a spacecraft into oblivion to a misplaced comma unleashing the fury of a falling wall! 🤯 Get ready for GO FACT YOURSELF's most explosive episode yet, a rollercoaster of human hubris and unintended consequences so epic, they’re practically Shakespearean tragedies played out by the Three Stooges! 🤣 We’re counting down the ten most monumental facepalms in history that somehow, against all odds (and probably a few drunk Croc-wearing inventors), reshaped the entire damn planet! Buckle up buttercups, because this ain't your grandma's dusty history lesson—this is the atomic wedgie the timeline never saw coming! 🔥📉

Here’s the catastrophic countdown of epic fails that accidentally changed the freakin’ world:

#10: The Time NASA Lost a $125 Million Spacecraft… Because of Inches — Talk about a costly typo! 🚀💰 We're blasting off with the ultimate example of why you should ALWAYS double-check your units, as NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter took an unscheduled fiery Martian bath thanks to a classic imperial vs. metric system SNAFU. One team thought in pounds, the other in newtons, and BAM! $125 million went up in smoke (literally!). Consider this your cosmic cautionary tale: the universe may be infinite, but apparently not big enough for Americans to use the metric system like the rest of the species. Fact bomb: The error wasn’t caught until after the spacecraft had already vanished!

#9: The East German Border Guard Who Triggered the Fall of the Berlin Wall — One press conference, one mumbled sentence, one unified Germany! 🇩🇪🍻 Witness the glorious bureaucratic brain fart of Günter Schabowski, the East German official who accidentally announced that East Germans could cross into West Berlin “immediately” in 1989. Spoiler alert: it wasn't supposed to be "immediately". Thousands stormed the wall, the guards were like, "uhhh, okay?", and the Cold War did a dramatic mic drop! Fact bomb: The official policy was not supposed to start “immediately”—but Schabowski misread his notes! Another episode of Unqualified People in Positions of Enormous Power, am I right?!

#8: The Chicago Fire Started by... a Cow? — Moo-ve over, disaster movies, because this one’s udderly unbelievable! 🐄🔥 In 1871, the legend goes that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern, leading to the Great Chicago Fire that razed the city. Modern historians smell something fishy (or should we say, bovine?), but the myth persists because, well, it’s hilarious. But hey, every cloud has a silver lining (or in this case, a skyscraper!): the rebuilding frenzy gave rise to modern architecture! Fact bomb: The rebuilding frenzy gave rise to skyscrapers and modern architecture. Imagine being a cow blamed for an entire urban redesign.

#7: Kodak Invented the Digital Camera… Then Killed It — Talk about an epic plot twist worthy of a Netflix docuseries! 📸💀 In 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson created the world's first digital camera. Kodak, fearing for its film empire, said "nah" and shelved it. Fast forward 30 years, and guess what? Digital killed film anyway, and Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012! Fact bomb: Kodak held the patents that now power the tech in your smartphone! Kodak invented the selfie… then died watching it rise. Poetic justice with a pixel count indeed!

#6: The Guy Who Sold Alaska for Pennies — The real estate fail of the millennium award goes to… Russia! 🇷🇺➡️🇺🇸 In 1867, Russian diplomat Eduard de Stoeckl thought Alaska was a useless icebox and sold it to the U.S. for a measly $7.2 million (about two cents an acre!). Oops! Turns out, that "icebox" was brimming with gold, oil, and major geopolitical awesomeness! Fact bomb: The deal was mocked in the press as “Seward’s Folly”! Maybe they did win that one, considering it gave Sarah Palin her political start. Just saying!

#5: The “Fake” Tank Army That Fooled Hitler — Lights, camera, deception! 🎬坦克 The Allies pulled off the ultimate catfish before D-Day, creating a completely fake army with rubber tanks, wooden planes, and phony radio chatter to convince the Nazis the invasion would be at Calais, not Normandy. Hitler totally bought it, and D-Day was a go! Fact bomb: The operation was led by magician Jasper Maskelyne and artist Bill Blass! The world’s most successful military campaign… sponsored by arts & crafts. We now interrupt your regularly scheduled sanity…!

#4: Nokia Laughed at the iPhone — Snake vs. Touchscreen: the tech battle for the ages that Nokia spectacularly lost! 📱🐍 In 2007, Nokia execs scoffed at the iPhone, declaring that “consumers don’t want touchscreens”. They doubled down on keypads, their market share tanked faster than a dropped call, and they eventually sold to Microsoft for peanuts! Fact bomb: Nokia once owned 49% of the global mobile phone market! The ghost of T9 haunts us still.

#3: The World’s Worst Tweet — When PR goes full faceplant! 🐦🤕 In 2017, United Airlines forcibly removed a paying passenger from a flight, a video went viral, and their genius Twitter response? “We apologize for having to re-accommodate customers”. Cue the internet exploding and their stock dropping $1.4 billion in 24 hours! Fact bomb: The CEO later said he “didn’t watch the video” before tweeting! This is what happens when corporate PR runs on autopilot and decaf. Ouch!

#2: Napoleon’s Hemorrhoids Changed History — Sometimes, the greatest empires fall due to the most… personal of issues. 🍑👑 At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon allegedly couldn't even mount his horse because of excruciating hemorrhoids. This delay supposedly hampered his strategic command and contributed to his epic defeat! Fact bomb: The anecdote is backed by multiple contemporaries, including his personal physician! A literal pain in the ass changed the fate of Europe. We’ve all been there, right? (Maybe not with the whole conquering Europe thing, though!)

#1: The Guy Who Forgot to Renew a Domain Name… And Crashed the Internet — One click away from digital doomsday! 🌐💀 In 2015, a Google engineer accidentally let google.com expire. A former employee snagged it for a cool $12! He reported it to Google, got a reward (smart move!), and the internet narrowly averted total collapse! Fact bomb: The domain was technically his for one minute before Google snatched it back! Forgetting to auto-renew your domain is the new “oops, I left the stove on”... but for civilization. Inches! The cause of wars, divorces, and lost satellites (and apparently the internet!).

💥 FACT BLAST ZONE (BONUS MINI-FAILS)

* The Man Who Accidentally Invented Dynamite While Trying to Make Safer Explosives – Nobel’s guilt eventually led to the Peace Prize.

* The Painting That Toppled a Government – “The Raft of the Medusa” exposed corruption and led to French naval reform.

* The CIA’s LSD Experiments That Created the Psychedelic Movement – Thanks, MKUltra.

* Yahoo Passed on Buying Google for $1 Million – Worth over $1 trillion now. Nice one.

* The Scottish Meteorologist Who ‘Disproved’ Plate Tectonics – His arrogance delayed modern geology by decades.

* The Guy Who Blew Up the World’s Only Supply of Smallpox – On purpose. Still not sure why.

Join us next time on GO FACT YOURSELF for more mind-blowing lists and historical hilarity! Maybe we'll tackle “Top 10 Famous Last Words That Aged Like Milk” or perhaps “Top 10 Real-Life Supervillains (That History Weirdly Forgot)”!

Say it loud. Say it proud. GO FACT YOURSELF.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gofactyourself.substack.com