32 Bits of Trivia to Share With Your Friends Like an Encyclopedic Ponzi Scheme
Honesty. Integrity. Sincerity. These are the virtues of the facts
![32 Bits of Trivia to Share With Your Friends Like an Encyclopedic Ponzi Scheme](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/3/3/1036533_320x180.jpg)
There are a ton of “get rich quick," but not many “get smart quick” schemes. Because what is a list of facts if it isn’t a “get smart quick" scheme? They’re little shots of knowledge that quickly add up to expertise. If you want in on the action, take in these facts, then take in our simple method of spreading the word. You wanna be at the top of this fact pyramid, don’t you?
Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.
![Two students planned to poison Chicago's water supply with typhoid, anthrax, and other pathogens. CRACKED.COM Steven Pera and Allan Schwander were arrested in 1972 for the plan. They hi- jacked a plane once out on bond and flew to Cuba. One died in prison while the other made it back home and was given 5 years probation.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/5/5/1034155.jpg)
![An NBA player had to retire because he fell asleep with a pack of ice on his ankle. CRACKED COM B.J. Tyler accidentally fell asleep with a pack of ice on his ankle, causing severe nerve damage. Robbed of the speed that his game was based on, he was subse- quently forced to retire.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/5/4/1034154.jpg)
!['Umarells' is a term used in Italy used to describe old men that watch construction sites. G10 GRAGKED.COM The elderly men gather to observe, comment and criti- cize, often with their hands clasped be- hind their backs.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/5/3/1034153.jpg)
![Hoia baciu forest is referred to as the Bermuda Triangle of Romania. CRACKED.COM It's known for paranormal activity and unexplained events, including intense feelings of being watched, ghost sightings, bi- zarre-looking vegetation, UFO sightings, and hun- dreds of missing persons.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/5/2/1034152.jpg)
![Jakarta is sinking 10 inches per year. CRACKED COM This is in part due to ex- cessive use of groundwa- ter and lack of piped wa- ter. It is expected that the city will be completely submerged in the next 30 years.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/5/1/1034151.jpg)
![Like birdshot and buckshot, there is a shotgun round called a Rat Shot. CRACKED COM It's a small caliber bullet cartridge that can be load- ed into handguns and rifles to be used as a low power shotgun round effective for killing small pests and birds without damaging buildings.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/5/0/1034150.jpg)
![Michelangelo wrote poems to another man, Tommaso dei Cavalieri. CRACKED COM After his death, his grand-nephew pub- lished his poems and changed the pronouns of the person ad- dressed from mascu- line to feminine.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/8/1034148.jpg)
![A test used to determine brain damage involves pouring water into the ear. CRACKED.COM If you pour cold water into a per- son's ear, their eyes will move in the direction of the opposite ear. If you pour warm water into their ear, their eyes will move towards that ear. This is used to test for brain damage and is called 'ca- loric stimulation.'](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/9/1034149.jpg)
![The British planned to seal 6 men in a cave if the Axis ever captured Gibraltar during WWII. CRACKED COM The men would be situated in a secret cave overlook- ing the harbor to secretly monitor and radio back en- emy movements. The cave had enough provisions for the men to stay for up to 7 years.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/5/1034145.jpg)
![Tony Hawk published a book called Tony Hawk's The A to Z of Skateboarding. HIGHPOINT CRACKED.COM The book was written by British comedian Tony Hawk, who was frustrated with being mistaken for the pro-skateboarder, and contains nothing about skateboarding.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/7/1034147.jpg)
![Stan Lee was initially worried that blind people would take offense to the character Daredevil. CRACKED.COM Lee was worried about how far he exaggerated the way a blind person's other senses are enhanced, until he received letters telling him that blind peo- ple greatly enjoyed having the comics read to them.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/6/1034146.jpg)
![WEIRD WORLD In El Paso, a guy somehow got stuck between a pair of, buildings. Firefighters had to get him out - they got a call around 2:30 AM, and freed him over 3 hours later (they had to break down part of a wall to pull it off). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/4/1034144.jpg)
![WEIRD WORLD To get around mask restrictions, a Texas school changed its dress code. The governor banned mask mandates, so the Paris Independent School District just made face coverings part of its dress code. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/3/1034143.jpg)
![WEIRD WORLD One of the first things the Taliban did in Kabul was, uh ... ride bumper cars. (illustration) Soon after the Taliban took Kabul, videos appeared of them riding around in electric bumper cars (and play horses) in an amusement park. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/1/1034141.jpg)
![WEIRD WORLD Larry David and Alan Dershowitz fought in a Martha's Vineyard grocery store. It was about Dershowitz' work with the Trump admin, and he said We can still talk, Larry, but David said No. No. We really can't. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/2/1034142.jpg)
![WEIRD WORLD A guy in Yakima, Wahington drove his SUV into a river on purpose. HQH-977 (illustration) Emergency crews showed up at the scene, but the driver told them he'd replaced the thermostat in the car and he needed to fill his radiator with water. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/4/0/1034140.jpg)
![A Nazi spy failed because he couldn't stop partying. In 1944, Germany sent Erich Gimpel and American-born William Colepaugh to the U.S. as spies. But Colepaugh wasted no time to start spending the funds for the mission on food, wine, and women. Не ended up leaving Gimpel behind and turning himself in to the FBI. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/9/1034139.jpg)
![CRACKED COM SEARS Sears was ruined by Ayn Rand's ideas. In 2008, Sears' CEO (and Rand fan) Eddie Lampert split the company into divisions ordered to selfishly compete against each other. The result was a steady death spiral that eventually led the century-old company to bankruptcy.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/8/1034138.jpg)
![Captive octopuses need puzzles to keep their minds busy. Being the smartest invertebrates, octopuses need mental challenges in addition to food and a clean environment. Some aquariums keep their eight-legged guests happy and healthy by giving them puzzle boxes they have to solve to get to a treat. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/7/1034137.jpg)
![Lord Byron drank wine from a skull. Byron's gardener unearthed an old, intact skull, which the British poet and proto-Goth had converted into a goblet. Then he founded the Order of the Skull, which was mostly about drinking claret from the thing with his friends while cracking dark jokes. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/6/1034136.jpg)
![Maya The Bee was created to suck up to the Kaiser. Published in Germany in 1912, Waldemar Bonsels' book was pretty much a cautionary tale against unconformity and rebellion, which explicitly kissed up to Kaiser Wilhelm II. When the Nazis came goose-stepping years later, Bonsels started pandering to them in his writing. GRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/5/1034135.jpg)
![Eels have the weirdest sex life. European eels spend most of their lives without any reproductive organs - and when they finally develop them, their stomachs dissolve so they can no longer eat. Then they swim all the way to the Sargasso Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, to bone (no one is sure how) and die. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/4/1034134.jpg)
![Dogs are cutest between six and eight weeks old. CRACKED.COM A 2018 study from Arizona State University compar- ing how people viewed the cuteness of dogs found that the highest ratings were between these ages, depending on the breed.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/2/1034132.jpg)
![Jogging becomes running after 6 mph. CRACKED.COM According to condition- ing coach Mike Antonia- des, jogging means moving at speeds less than 6 mph. Any faster than that, and it's tech- nically running.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/1/1034131.jpg)
![The time machine in Back To The Future was going to be a fridge. CRACKED.COM The time machine/refriger- ator was taken to the Ne- vada desert test site for the atomic bomb...and driven into the atomic ex- plosion in order to harness the power from the nuclear explosion.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/3/1034133.jpg)
![The first melody dates back to the 14th century В.С. GRACKED.COM Hurrian Hymn No. 6 was inscribed in cunei- form on clay tablets, which were excavated from the ancient city of Ugarit (in today's Syria).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/3/0/1034130.jpg)
![There is a museum just for failed inventions. CRACKED.COM The touring Museum of Failure features an interna- tional collection of more than 100 innovation fail- ures, such as Harley-David- son perfume, Colgate beef lasagna, and Google Glass.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/2/6/1034126.jpg)
![Only 18 out of 1 million Lego pieces are defective. CRACKED.COM Out of the 20 billion pieces that are manufactured ev- ery year, just 18 per 1 mil- lion are found to be defec- tive. That's 360,000 defec- tive pieces a year, or 39.6 LEGO Titanic sets.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/2/9/1034129.jpg)
![The youngest Olympian was 10 years old. CRACKED.COM According to Olympic records, Greek gym- nast Dimitrios Loun- dras finished third at the 1896 Olympic Games when he was 10 years old.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/2/7/1034127.jpg)
![Imperfect Kit Kat bars are made into Kit Kat filling. CRACKED.COM The defective candy bars, that don't meet standards thanks to air bubbles or weirdly shaped wafers, are ground up and turned into a paste that is incorporat- ed back into the produc- tion process.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/2/4/1034124.jpg)
![Liechtenstein only has 10-20 prisoners. CRACKED COM Wedged in between Austria and Switzerland, Liechten- stein only has one jail, which holds less than two dozen in- mates. Any prisoner required to carry out a sentence greater than two years is sent to Austria or Switzerland.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/2/5/1034125.jpg)
![The human liver can regenerate. GRACKED.COM Within a week after par- tial hepatectomy (the surgical removal of two-thirds of the liver), hepatic mass is back es- sentially to what it was prior to surgery.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/2/8/1034128.jpg)