Bonus Facts Worth Repeating
The book may stop at 240, but curiosity rarely does. Explore more weird, true, and surprisingly memorable facts selected in the same quick, entertaining style as Two Facts Before You Flush.
New facts, unexpected discoveries, and occasional updates will be added here.
Latest Bonus Facts
Six more strange truths to surprise your brain, improve your small talk, or make somebody question why you know this.
BONUS FACT 1
Ancient Egyptian Attendance Records Listed Scorpion Stings
A limestone attendance register from Deir el-Medina covered 280 days of work during the reign of Ramesses II. Reasons for missing work were written in red and included illness, eye trouble, caring for a sick colleague, performing private work for a superior—and being stung by a scorpion.
Human resources already existed. It just used limestone instead of spreadsheets.
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BONUS FACT 2
Frigatebirds Can Sleep While Flying
Scientists recorded the brain activity of great frigatebirds during long flights over the ocean and discovered that the birds could sleep in midair. They sometimes rested one brain hemisphere at a time and occasionally both, although they slept far less while flying than they did on land.
The bird can sleep on the job because the job is staying in the sky.
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BONUS FACT 3
Medieval Knights Fought Giant Snails in Book Margins
Many medieval manuscripts contain strange marginal illustrations of armed knights confronting enormous snails. The motif appears repeatedly in books from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but scholars still disagree about what the snails represented—or why the knights often seemed to be losing.
The dragon received the main illustration. The snail handled the margins.
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BONUS FACT 4
Bumblebees May Play With Wooden Balls
Researchers observed bumblebees repeatedly rolling small wooden balls even though the activity provided no food or obvious practical reward. The behavior met established scientific criteria for animal play, suggesting that play may not be limited to animals with large brains.
The bees discovered toys without requiring batteries, instructions, or a monthly subscription.
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BONUS FACT 5
Ancient Egyptians Wrote Letters to Dead Relatives
Some ancient Egyptians wrote letters to recently deceased family members and placed them in or near their tombs. The messages were not simple greetings: writers asked the dead to intervene in illnesses, family conflicts, property disputes, and other problems that the living had been unable to solve.
When the family group chat failed, they escalated the problem to the afterlife.
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BONUS FACT 6
The Eiffel Tower Changes Height With the Weather
Heat causes the tower’s iron structure to expand, adding a few millimeters during warmer weather. When temperatures fall, it contracts again.
Paris’s most famous landmark has a summer size.
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Two Facts Before You Flush delivers 240 strange, true, and carefully checked facts in quick two-fact pages made for short breaks and long conversations.