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We like Gen Z. They scream the word ‘facts’ a lot!

30 Bits of Trivia We Extracted From Our Skulls and Stuffed Into Ornate Canopic Jars

January 19, 2024

Anyone who is out spreading the good word about facts is okay in our books. Thank you, Gen-Z. By slangily dropping the word “facts” after everything you agree with, you’re keeping facts in the zeitgeist. You older generations can learn from these youngins.

30

Japan's most popular curry roux is called Vermont Curry. h House Foods SAUCE MIX - MILD VermontCurry ВО CURRY WITH A TOUCH OF APPLE AND HONEY APPLE&HONEY 4 12 Servings (e Sorvingsanz NET WT 8 $ HOLID 1 20% In the late '50s, a book called Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health sparked a U.S. health craze based on mixing honey and vinegar. It made its way to Japan and became known as the Vermont Health System. So, to capitalize on it, a new curry was named Vermont Curry. And that name stuck. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Newhart had a finale that rendered the entire series pointless. The llast two minutes of the finale had Bob Newhart waking up as his character from an earlier sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show, and announcing that the whole thing - - all eight seasons of Newhart, including all its characters - was just a weird dream. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

The week has seven days because seven was a special number to the Babylonians. Why? They saw seven objects in the sky -- the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. On the other hand, the Roman week had eight days and the Egyptian one had 10. But the Babylonians were so powerful for a while that other civilizations just adopted their week. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Professional Basketball

In the Philippines, basketball teams are corporate-owned. КА Tender Juicy HOTDOO Each team only serves as its corporation's marketing tool. Their names change often, depending on what the company wants to sell: for example, there used to be a team called Kia Sorento that became Kia Carnival. And the Purefoods Star Hotshots were Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs, then Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The U.S. tried to fight Japan with radioactive foxes. WWII's Operation Fantasia involved catching foxes, painting them with paint that had radium so they glowed in the dark, and releasing them in Japanese villages. They'd look like mythical kitsune, which was suposed to terrify the Japanese. Mercifully, at one meeting, an official spoke up and convinced everyone they should call off the whole thing. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Peter the Great punished state officials with vodka. If an official showed up late to one of his assemblies (AKA royal parties), he had to drink a whole Great Eagle Cup, or 50 oz. of vodka, all at once. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Mars Attacks is secretly Christmas-themed. PROP DAY The skeletons are bright green or bright red because the movie was scheduled to be released for Christmas. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Spock was originally supposed to have red skin. But TV sets at the time were still black-and-white, so Spock would have looked black on screen. So, thankfully, Gene Roddenberry dropped the idea. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

School baths were intended as a way to educate parents. Authorities in the early 20th century hoped that, if they taught kids to regularly bathe and clean themselves, they'd pass on those habits to their parents. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Air conditioning was invented as a way to keep printing plants going. In 1902, a printing company asked the Buffalo Forge Company to figure out a way to keep heat and humidity in the plant stable, so that the printing paper wouldn't keep getting warped. The result of that was the first air-conditioning system. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Every year, Halifax, Nova Scotia sends a Christmas tree to the city of Boston. It's to thank Boston for help when Halifax was devastated by a freighter blowing up in 1917 - - the largest man-made explosion at the time. Boston sent a 500-bed hospital unit, 30 doctors, 70 nurses, and tons of medical supplies, and raised $100,000 in just the first hour of fundraising. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

19

The U.S. Interstate system exists partly thanks to Eisenhower's WWII experiences. During and after WWII, Germany's four-lane highways were probably the best in the world, and Eisenhower used them to move troops and travel across the country. So he thought four-lane highways were a great transport system, and fought hard for the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Fish

All freshwater fish kind of come from duck poop. The first fish in a new pond or pool come from eggs eaten by ducks. 0.2% of the eggs come out of the duck's other end intact -- a really low percentage, but ducks are very abundant, so a swarm of ducks moving to a new pond will leave enough eggs to populate it with fish. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

17

The rain in Singin' in the Rain wasn't milk. It was just really good lighting and filming -- they lit it from behind, making sure you couldn't see all the lighting equipment in the shopfronts' windows. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Bobby Flay

Someone pranked Bobby Flay while he was getting his star on the Walk of Fame. BOBBY FLAY Della 3OBBY FLAY During the ceremony, a plane with a banner that said cheater flew overhead. His wife, who he was divorcing at the time, absolutely denied being behind that. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Keira Knightley had a small role in The Phantom Menace (that she mostly can't remember). She was 12, and played Padmé's body double / decoy. All she remembers from that is the headache she got from one of the headdresses they gave her, and falling asleep while sitting on a chair in the background. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Some of the wolves that show up in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping were direwolves in Game of Thrones. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

While swallowing, a frog's eyes retract down towards its esophagus. GRAGKED.COM Eye retraction may aid swallowing by helping to push food back to- ward the esophagus, but this hypothesis has never been tested. — Source

12

There were more 'immaculate innings' in 2017 than from 1929-1952. NEW YORK 34 CRACKED.COM An immaculate inning is when a baseball pitcher strikes out three batters with only nine pitches. 1929 to 1952 saw zero such innings, while there were 8 in 2017 alone. — Source

11

Pirates wore earrings because they thought it improved their eyesight. CRACKED.COM Some pirates were convinced that wearing an earring would improve or even cure bad eyesight, as they be- lieved that the precious met- als in an earring possessed magical healing powers. — Source

10

The official color of the Golden Gate Bridge is International Orange. CRACKED.COM Architect Irving F. Morrow undertook color studies, which resulted in the unique color because it blended well with the near- by hills and contrasted with the ocean and sky. — Source

9

Tea bricks were used as currency in some places until World War II. CRACKED.COM In Tibet, tea bricks were in such demand that swords, horses and other property were sometimes priced in a given num- ber of tea bricks. — Source

8

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter filed a report in 1973 for a UFO sighting four years prior. CRACKED.COM Carter, as well as 10 to 12 other people who wit- nessed the same event, described the object as 'very bright chang- ing colors and about the size of the moon.' — Source

7

The most humane way to anesthetize octopuses is by dunking them in ethanol. CRACKED.COM Because of their complex brains, cephalopods became the first invertebrates to be protected by laboratory ani- mal laws. Researchers have to get ethical approval for their studies, and must use anesthesia for procedures. — Source

6

Of over 8,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, only one has ever been destroyed by a meteorite. CRACKED.COM Satellites are programmed to avoid meteorites so they don't get destroyed. The European Space Agency's communications satellite, Olympus, is the only one to have been hit, in 1993. — Source

5

Manute Bol could only bench 45 pounds when he was first drafted into the NBA. 10 GRAGKED.COM Bol's ethnic group, the Din- ka, and the Nilotic people of which they are a part, are among the tallest pop- ulations in the world. His great-grandfather was even taller than him, at 7'10. — Source

4

All of New York City's water comes in through 2 large tunnels underground. CRACKED.COM A 3rd tunnel is being built under NYC. Construction on the 3rd tunnel began in 1970 and is one of the most complex and intri- cate engineering projects in the world. — Source

3

Big Brother

The contestants of Big Brother weren't told about the 9/11 attacks when they happened. BIG BROTHER DINNIN CRACKED.COM The show had a policy of keeping the contestants in total information isolation. They had to change the policy after one of the cast's family members was lost at Ground Zero. — Source

2

The current sea otter population in Washington was evacuated from Alaska. CRACKED.COM Sea otters were extinct in Washington State between 1910 and 1965, but a popula- tion from Alaska was evacuat- ed from areas where the US was testing nuclear bombs between 1965 and 1972. — Source

1

Feral chickens began terrorizing an island in the UK in 2019. CRACKED COM Escaped chickens multiplied exponentially due to lack of predators, and 100-bird gangs began attacking jog- gers, destroying yards, blocking traffic, and waking residents at 4 AM with deaf- ening crowing. — Source

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