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27 Ancient and Mysterious Bits of Trivia Retrieved From the Darkest Depths of the Ocean

Some partners bring home the bacon. We bring home the facts!

27 Ancient and Mysterious Bits of Trivia Retrieved From the Darkest Depths of the Ocean

March 23, 2024 Add Cracked to Google

Before our first deep-sea fact-finding mission, our scuba instructor warned us that if we didn’t come back up slowly, we’d get the bends. If you don’t know about the bends, check it out, it’s pretty gnarly. It seemed like an easy enough concept to grasp before our dive, but these facts were so juicy that we couldn’t wait to get back up here and show them off.

While we recover, please peruse this bioluminescent bounty recovered from the ocean floor…

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27

Bitcoin

The first thing ever bought with Bitcoin was Papa John's pizza. Every May 22, cryptophiles celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day, the anniversary of the first ever crypto transaction. On that date in 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz plunked down 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas from Papa John's. Не could get a lot more pizza with that today, but Hanyecz has no regrets. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The Martian

ARES The Martian cut a reference to cannibalism. In Andy Weir's novel, astronaut Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara in the movie) explains that if the ship fails to get supplies for the trip back to Mars, the rest of the crew will commit suicide - and she will eat them. The supplies wouldn't be the only source of food, she exposits. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

The last mammoths are more recent than the Egyptian pyramids. Wooly mammoths died out about 4,000 years ago. By then, the furry mega-phants could only be found on Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean. It wasn't a dignified ending for the giants - their population got so small that it was extreme inbreeding that finally did them in. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

OOH Taking an at-home DNA test can destroy your military career. If you're a member of the armed forces, a 23andMe test can cause worse than awkward family conversations. The tests can find genetic markers for medical conditions that'd get you booted out of the military, where you are not protected by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Brett Favre's first completed pass ever thrown was caught by himself. CRACKED.COM In his first official play in the NFL during the second game of the 1992 season, Favre threw the ball only to have a defender deflect it back. Favre caught the ball and was tackled for a loss of 7 yards. — Source

22

The record for the longest filibuster is 24 hours. CRACKED.COM Senator Strom Thurmond spoke for an amazing 24 hours, 18 minutes straight in 1957 in opposition of the Civil Rights Act. Не read the Bill of Rights and other doc- uments, even his grand- mother's biscuit recipe. — Source

21

Alligators

The sex of an alligator is based on temperature of the egg. CRACKED COM In the extreme, tem- peratures over 93 de- grees F during incuba- tion will produce only males, and below 86 degrees F only females. — Source

20

CRACKED.COM Henry Ford was a certified moron (as proven in court). Ford was good with machines, but not much more. When a newspaper called him ignorant, he took them to court for libel - and then proceeded to make a complete fool out of himself on the stand. Не said, among other howlers, that Benedict Arnold was a writer. — Source

19

Thor

Hela in Thor: Ragnarok is a makeover of a different character. In the comics, Hela was never Thor's sister who escaped imprisonment in another realm - that actually describes Angela. Created by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane for Spawn, Angela was later bought by Marvel and turned into Odin's first-born daughter. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

The Pinkerton agency tried to sue the makers of Red Dead Redemption 2. Shortly after RDR2 came out, the historical detective agency sent Take-Two Interactive a cease-and-desist letter, demanding a slice of the profits for their appearance in the game (while complaining about being made out to be baddies). The suit was eventually dropped. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

Diet Coke

Friends was almost destroyed by Coca-Cola. For Friends second season, Соса-Соӏа spent $30 million to promote Diet Coke with the help of the hip twenty-somethings. The campaign was huge - so huge, in fact, that people got sick of seeing the characters everywhere, and rankings plummeted. (They got better, though.) let CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Jazz was considered a health hazard. In the 1920s and '30s, many communities banned jazz on the grounds that it was allegedly a threat to public health. Rulings were enacted blaming the music for all kinds of calamities, ranging from mental breakdowns to spontaneous miscarriages. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Rainforests aren't the Earth's lungs. There are many good reasons to protect rainforests, but oxygen just isn't one of them. When you tally up the entire ecosystem (animals included), forests actually consume more oxygen than they produce. Most of the oxygen you breathe comes from algae in the ocean, not trees. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Star Wars

Star Wars rips off French comics. If you're familiar with Moebius, or with Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières' Valérian and Laureline, you might have noticed that Star Wars borrows heavily from them. Mézières in particular claimed to be dazzled, jealous and angry about the whole thing. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

CRACKED.COM Keanu Reeves was in an awful movie because someone forged his signature. Keanu never signed up to play a serial killer in 2000's The Watcher - but some friend signed up for him. Keanu couldn't prove that wasn't his signature on the contract, so he was forced to make a movie he wanted nothing to do with. — Source

12

Spider-Man

CRACKED.COM Spider-Man basically invented the Power Rangers. As you probably know, Spider-Man has a giant robot in the Japanese series from the 1970s. As it turns out, giant transforming robots were a new thing back then, and Spider-Man's success convinced Japan to try it in other shows - eventually leading to Power Rangers. — Source

11

Roald Dahl

You Only Live Twice was written by Roald Dahl. That's right - one of Bond's campiest, horniest outings was penned by the author of Matilda. The regular Bond screenwriter was unavailable, so the producers gave Dahl (an old pal of lan Fleming) the task of adapting the novel. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

GRACKED.COM BRITISH AIRWAYS A man sued British Airways over a (costly) misspelling. Edward Gamson booked a flight to Granada, Spain - only to realize mid-flight that his plane was headed to Grenada, in the Caribbean. Gamson sued the airline over this typo that cost him a ton of time and money. Unluckily for him, the lawsuit was dismissed. — Source

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9

Blade Runner

CRACKED.COM The title of Blade Runner came from an unrelated novel. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was certainly an ungainly title for a movie. After considering Android and Mechanismo, the filmmakers took the title of Alan Е. Nourse's The Bladerunner, a novel about smugglers of surgical equipment (people who run blades). — Source

8

Myanmar

To get a waiter's attention in Myanmar, you have to make a kissing sound. It's kind of like the sound you'd make to call a cat, and it consists of two or three kisses. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

In China, kids' video game time is strictly limited. On week days, minors can play online games up to 90 minutes per day, but they can't play at all between 10 PM and 8 AM. On weekends, they can play for up to three hours a day. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Singapore

In Singapore, you automatically become an organ donor when you turn 21. - You can opt out, but if you do, you're lower priority for organ transplants. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

In Argentina, there's a literal Welsh village. It was founded in the 19th century by a group of 150 emigrants who wanted a place where they could preserve Welsh identity - and today, Welsh is still spoken there, and traditional Welsh rituals are practiced. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Sega Master System

About 150,000 Sega Master System consoles are sold per year in Brazil. SEGA® Master System TM SEGA MASTER RISTEN Photo - «CHORCE PERA That's a console from the '90s, and it's so popular because modern consoles are hugely expensive thanks to high import fees - but Sega consoles are produced locally and are much cheaper. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Firefighters in Chile

All 40,000 of Chile's firefighters are volunteers. BOMBEROS MUÑOA They even have to pay monthly contributions to their stations, and they largely don't want to be paid - this is a tradition that dates to the founding of the service over 150 years ago. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

South Africa has three capitals. Cape Town Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria is the administrative capital, and Bloemfontein is the judiciary capital. South Africa was born from the unification of four British colonies, and they couldn't agree on a city that would be the single capital. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

The country with the most pyramids is Sudan, not Egypt. Ancient Egypt used to rule over much of what's now Sudan, and Sudan now has over twice as many pyramids as Egypt itself. CRACKED.COM — Source

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