History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 1902, French colonial officials in Hanoi tried to solve a rat plague by paying a bounty per tail. Enterprising locals began breeding rats or simply cutting off tails and releasing the healthy rodents to breed more “cash.” The city ended up with more...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
Before the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the Havanese was the pampered lapdog of the Havana elite. Fearing for their lives and their pets, fleeing families smuggled the dogs out in silk-lined bags or under heavy coats. Only 11 survived the exodus to the U.S., becoming the...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 1942, Polish soldiers adopted an orphaned Syrian brown bear who grew to be a 500lb private. Wojtek drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and reportedly carried heavy ammo crates during the Battle of Monte Cassino. He retired to a Scottish zoo as a decorated war hero....
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 2016, Microsoft unleashed Tay, an AI chatbot designed to learn from “cool” Twitter slang. In under 24 hours, the internet’s collective chaos turned the innocent bot into a radicalized, PR-nightmare. She was lobotomized a day later, a victim of her own...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In the 1950s, the RAF launched “Operation Cat Drop” over Borneo. To stop a plague of rats (caused by DDT killing local cats), 14,000 felines were delivered via parachute. The sky was literally raining predators to restore the balance of a broken ecosystem....
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 1942, a dentist convinced the White House to turn bats into tiny bombers. Project X-Ray involved strapping timed incendiaries to thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats. The plan failed when the “soldiers” escaped and burned down an auxiliary Army Air...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 1948, Idaho solved a beaver overpopulation crisis with WWII surplus. 76 rodents were packed into “self-opening” wooden crates and parachuted into the wilderness. A test pilot named Geronimo did the jump dozens of times, eventually accepting his...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
If you ever needed proof that humanity’s hubris has a direct line to nature’s “prank” department, look no further than Las Vegas in July 2019. This was the week the city accidentally summoned a biblical plague using a giant flashlight. #TalesFromTheGrid is about not...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 1958, Mao declared war on sparrows for eating grain. Citizens banged pots until the birds died of exhaustion from flying. With the sparrows gone, locusts surged and ate everything else. It was an ecological “oops” that helped trigger a catastrophic...
History, Humans, Humor, MoreTrueFacts, Philosophy, TalesFromTheGrid
In 2015, a New Zealand aquarium trained Rambo, an octopus, to be a professional photographer. For $2, she’d press a shutter button whenever a tourist posed. It’s the ultimate career pivot: from elusive cephalopod to a commercial artist who works for snacks....
