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Facts! Little slices of the knowledge pie

31 Sentient Bits of Trivia That Sprang to Life When We Put Tiny Little Top Hats on Them

January 09, 2024

After we graduated with our fact degree, we had a choice to make: Do we take our knowledge of the obscure out into the job market, or do we go right into teaching these facts to the next batch of fact-seekers? We chose the latter, since we feel right at home in this campus of fact-sharing. Delta Beta Factma for life!

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Facts to Guide You

CRACKED TINA FEY'S ANCESTOR HAS ART IN THE MET. Her 5th great-grandfather John Hewson was a master quilt-maker whose work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. To this day, textile historians study his work. au ESTD H 19 ork stage IW Ш — Source

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CRACKED ТОМ HANKS IS RELATED TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Through Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Tom is Abe's third cousin, four times removed. — Source

29

CRACKED EDWARD NORTON IS A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF POCAHONTAS. Pocahontas and John Rolfe were his 12th great-grandparents. The ancestry was traced via the couple's 1614 marriage certificate. Norton said, It just makes you realize what a small piece of the whole human story you are. — Source

28

CRACKED THE U.S. ECONOMY IS SLIPPING (IN A WAY). The U.S. has been steadily losing its grip on the global economy since 1960, when it made up 40% of the world's total. Even though the U.S. economy has grown since then, its share of the global economy has dropped to 24%. — Source

27

CRACKED FLORIDA: WHERE THE WATER IS MORE DEADLY THAN THE WEATHER. Rip currents are really dangerous and are responsible for more deaths in Florida than lightning, hurricanes and tornadoes put together. Overall, they're the United States' third most lethal natural hazard. NO SWIMMING DANGEROUS CURRENTS — Source

26

CRACKED JANE GOODALL'S HUSBAND LEFT WHEN THE MONEY RAN OUT. Dr. Goodall has been married twice in her life. Her first husband was Dutch photographer and filmmaker Baron Hugo van Lawick, and he met her when he came to photograph her for NatGeo. Не left her when funding vanished. — Source

25

CRACKED GUILLOTINE: NOT AS HUMANE AS PROMISED. At a certain point, people began thinking that the guillotine wasn't as humane as the French Revolution government said it was. It turns out that those killed by it didn't die right away, and still briefly showed signs of life after they were beheaded. — Source

24

CRACKED 41 YEARS IN THE JUNGLE BECAUSE OF ONE U.S. BOMB. Vietnamese Но Van Lang and his dad escaped to the jungle in Vietnam after a U.S. bomb destroyed half their family during the Vietnam War. They stayed there for 41 years. — Source

23

CRACKED 86 BILLION NEURONS? WOW, TALK ABOUT OVERKILL. The human brain has an incredible 86 billion neurons, which makes it the most neuron- dense primate brain around. — Source

22

CRACKED LACTIC ACID: NOT THE VILLAIN WE THOUGHT IT WAS. It's been believed for a long time that lactic acid is responsible for making our muscles tired and sore, but it turns out that it's actually a great energy source for our muscles, and doesn't stop them from working properly. — Source

21

Gulag is actually an acronym. It means Glavnoye Upra- vleniye LAGerej, which translates to Main Ad- ministration of Corrective Labor Camps and Settle- ments. Gulag sounds a lot more menacing. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

20

Gulag is actually an acronym. It means Glavnoye Upra- vleniye LAGerej, which translates to Main Ad- ministration of Corrective Labor Camps and Settle- ments. Gulag sounds a lot more menacing. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

19

The first recorded battle in history was the Battle of Megiddo in 1457 В.С. It left such an impression on the Levantine people there that they believed the final battle of humani- ty would take place there as well. That's where the word Armageddon comes from. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

18

Actress Carole Lombard lost her life after a coin flip. The highest paid actress of the 30s and Clark Gable's wife, Carole flipped a coin on whether to return home by plane or train. Her flight crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

During the Battle of Stalingrad, factories in the city continued to produce tanks. These tanks, unpainted and lacking gunsights, were driven directly from the factory floor to the front line and were often crewed by factory workers. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

While shooting 'Deliverance' Burt Reynolds insisted on doing a stunt himself instead of a dummy. During the stunt, he got injured and his clothes came off. Waking up in hospital, he asked the di- rector what it looked like, who said, It looked like a dummy falling over a waterfall. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd, almost won the first Oscar for best actor. The Academy be- lieved that this new idea of handing out these Oscars could possibly be damaged by the first Best Actor being a dog. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

A snail's mouth is no larger than the head of a pin, but it can have over 25,000 teeth. But their teeth aren't located on the jaws - they're actually locat- ed on the radula, the snail's version of a tongue. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

Jaws PETER BENCHLEY JAWS A Novel The book's author has a cameo. The reporter who utters the amazing line a cloud in the shape of a killer shark is Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel the movie is based on. CRACKED COM — Source

12

The mosquito in Jurassic Park actually doesn't suck blood. That species, Toxorhynchites rutilus, is the only species that doesn't. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Minority Report PRE - eather CITY F PM Cameron Diaz is riding the train. Not only that, but director Cameron Crowe is sitting right next to her. Was it Cameron day on that train, or what? CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Sound designer Gary Rydstrom asked a friend to contribute to the raptor's voice in Jurassic Park. His friend showed up at the studio, and Rydstrom asked You make any weird sounds? The friend did make a sound with his throat, and Rydstrom spliced it with the sounds of African cranes, tortoises, horses to make the velociraptor's call. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Poltergeist The ghost roars like a certain ARS DE famous lion. This movie replaced the decades-old roar of the MGM lion with a higher-fidelity recording- and the same effect was used for the door ghost. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Indy's pilot in Raiders of the Lost Ark was a real-life pilot. Не was hired to fly the filmmakers around while they were shooting in Hawaii and to scout out possible new shooting locations, and eventually they asked him if he wanted to be in the movie. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

A fan artist scored a staff job. HAD SOME THING FOR THIS BURGER y CRACKED COM Artist Simon Chong tweeted a 4-minute Bob's Burgers / Archer mashup that he illustrated by hand. The cast and producers loved it so much, they gave him a job as a retake editor and storyboard artist. — Source

6

BENDER STAYS ALIVE AND IN HIS PRIME. STUDIO 123' Rebirth Bender dances in a place called Studio 12233-the prime factorization of Studio 54. 122133 = 1 x 2 x 27 = 54 CRACKED.COM — Source

5

BEHIND-THE-SCENES SFACTS An unlikely band inspired outfits for POWERLINE GRACKED.COM While Powerline's music sounded a lot like 90s pop and hip-hop stars, his haz-mat look was based on the wardrobe of a completely different group of musicians: surrealist rockers Devo. — Source

4

The theme song was some band's sound check. CRACKED.COM The Refreshments, out of Arizona, were asked to submit a demo to Mike Judge. They recorded a live set, and encouraged the crowd to really hoot and holler during their sound check jam, which they named Yahoos and Triangles. — Source

3

EASTER EGGSTRA SPACE There are pro-union CRM messages scattered throughout the film. The 1940s was considered the golden era in animation. It was also the era of labor strikes and picketing animators who, in 1945, famously clashed with Burbank police outside Warner Bros. studios. CRACKED.COM — Source

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Woody was originally going to be a ventriloquist dummy... ...but executives didn't like the idea because of dummies' association with horror films. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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