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40 Bits of Trivia for Your Grey Matter

It’s gonna be so much greyer when all is said and done

40 Bits of Trivia for Your Grey Matter

March 26, 2024

There’s a lot of weird stuff imprinted within the folds of your brain. So it’s time to do a little spring cleaning — scrub all that ugly knowledge out of there with these trivia tidbits.

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40

A Little Brain Donation For You

James Cameron originally wanted Billy Idol to play the T-1000 Terminator 2. CRACKED.COM Storyboards had the android resembling him, but Idol got into a serious motorcycle ac- cident before filming and Robert Patrick was cast instead. — Source

39

In 2009, Burger King offered a Windows 7 Promotional Whopper in Japan that had 7 patties. GRACKED.COM It cost 777 Yen and was only available for 7 days. After the first 30 customers of the day, the price rose to ¥1,450 ($17.10). — Source

38

Formula One driver Alan Stacey was killed when a bird flew into his face during a race in 1960. DGESTONE INTESTORE vodafone FIAT O dolorie vodafone CRACKED.COM After being struck during the 25th lap, he crashed going 120 mph, going over a waist-high em- bankment, through ten feet of thick hedges, and fell into a field. — Source

37

The majority of Amtrak's delays are due to freight railroads giving priority to their own trains over passenger trains. CRACKED.COM Even though this is ex- plicitly against the law, only 1 violator has ever been charged by the De- partment of Justice in the entire 47-year history of Amtrak. — Source

36

A woman threatened to sue MGM after viewing the 1932 movie Freaks, claiming it caused her to miscarry. CRACKED.COM The movie features ac- tually deformed circus freaks and has been banned in Ireland, Sweden, the UK, and several other areas over the years. — Source

35

Nordic mythology has a squirrel who traveled the World Tree. CRACKED.COM Ratatoskr was a squirrel whose sole job was to carry insulting messages between a great eagle and a dragon at opposite ends of Yggdrasil, the great World Tree. — Source

34

In 2001, drug kingpin El Chapo escaped from prison in a dirty laundry basket. CRACKED.COM After bribing multiple guards, he was wheeled out of prison hidden inside it. The escape allegedly cost him over $2.5million. Over 70 guards were impli- cated including the war- den, who's now in prison. — Source

33

The house used in Malcolm in the Middle was a private residence rented for $3,000 a day. CRACKED.COM The house was rebuilt in 2011, but the house directly to the left looks just as it did during filming and is a frequent stop for fans of the show. — Source

32

A cave goat that went extinct 5,000 years ago is the first known mammal to have become cold-blooded. CRACKED.COM Their bone growth rate is unlike any other mam- mal, and more similar to crocodiles in showing slow and adaptive rates to environmental tem- perature. — Source

31

Voting is mandatory in Belgium and citizens are automatically registered in the electoral polls. GRAGKED.COM More than 90% of the eligible population takes part in the vot- ing process since you risk a fine if you do not vote either in person or by proxy. — Source

30

A newt fell into a coffee pot in Oregon and killed three hunters. CRACKED.COM In 2011, the three hunters were discovered dead around their campsite. The dead newt in the coffee pot was later found to pro- duce Tetrodotoxin, a poi- son 10,000 times more po- tent than cyanide. — Source

29

There was a Ugandan doomsday cult whose followers surrendered all their wealth to the church. K ALCO CRACKED.COM After the prophesied date passed, many disgruntled followers demanded their money back. The cult lead- ers responded by massa- cring over 900 of them. The leaders were never caught. — Source

28

Candy Canes was initially created to get kids to shut up in church. CRACKED.COM In order to justify giving can- dy to children during wor- ship services, the sticks were made with a crook, which would help children remem- ber the shepherds who visit- ed the infant Jesus. — Source

27

WB executives suggested adding a third character to Pinky And The Brain, so the creators obliged. GRACKED.COM Writers responded with the episode Pinky & The Brain And...Larry which featured a third, superflu- ous mouse named Larry that added nothing to the plot but repeatedly saying I'm Larry. — Source

26

Cosmic rays can trigger Soft Errors in computers causing them to glitch in disastrous ways. Backtrace: 8x00000000 8x0009A39C 0x00099118 0x000627F0 0x000A875C 8x000ABC80 backtrace terminated - frane not mapped or invalid: 0xF0100CB0 C F11. http://www.jdate.com/Applications/Email/ViewMessa Proceeding back via exception chain: Except ion state (sv=0x3F099000) Comments Nerve Ex-Pats Best of Craigslist Flickrbl PC=0xFFFF9230; MSR=0x02000038; DAR=0x05382008; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=8xFF Anit Kernel version: JDate Events Elli Darwin Kernel Version 8.3.0: Mon Oct 3 20:04:04 PDT 2005: root : xnu-792.6.22.0 Memory access exception (1,8,0) ethernet MAC address: 00:11:24:71:8a:f2 box > Message 1 of 148 messages >> ip address: 66.130.136.28 pble Message 1 Waiting for remote debugger connection. Elli From: Agean — Source

25

In 1599, a Spanish governor in Ecuador was executed by having molten gold poured down his throat. GOLD 5005 sh = - GOLD 333.3 WAS GOLD SPORTS 222 are see © 1000 nsplase 331 PRO GOLD PPP.P GOLD GOLD PP2.P lesh PAR 1230 e) GDL CRACKED.COM Native Indians of the Jiva- ro tribe believed that they were unfairly taxed in their gold trade and as a result, attacked the settlement of Logrono and executed the governor. — Source

24

Scientists discovered fossils of рудту tyrannosaurus rex that would have roamed the Arctic. CRACKED.COM Roaming the Earth during the Late Cretaceous, the рудту tyrannosaur was half the size of a т. Rex at seven meters from snout to tail and two meters up to its hip. — Source

23

Agent Coulson was not intended to reappear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe past Iron Man 1. CRACKED.COM It wasn't until a contract dispute with Samuel L. Jackson caused Nick Fu- ry's role in Thor to be dropped, and Clark Gregg was asked to reappear in a larger role. — Source

22

Even though it's set in Detroit, the Robocop movie was actually filmed in Dallas. CRACKED.COM The only real shot of Detroit in the entire movie is the aerial shot in the opening, and that was stock footage. — Source

21

The non-profit organization B612 is dedicated to defending the Earth against asteroids. CRACKED.COM It is led mainly by scien- tists, former astronauts and engineers from the Institute for Advanced Study, South- west Research Institute, Stanford University, NASA and the space industry. — Source

20

NYC's first public WiFi kiosks had to shut off browser access because people were using them for porn. heady for Super Fast Free Wi-Fi! JOB RESTA JUNIOR - 400 LinkNYC kiosks across the city removed web browsing from the kiosks because critics complained that homeless people were monopolizing them and using them to watch porn. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

19

Hitman Richard The Iceman. Kuklinski froze the bodies of his victims to obfuscate the time of death. Не learned this tech- nique from fellow hit- man Robert Pronge also known as Mister Softee because he drove an ice cream truck as his cover. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

18

The US Mint used to produce a silver three cent coin between 1851 to 1872. STA III TOTHERN Known as a trime, it was the first Amer- ican coin to contain metal valued signifi- cantly less than its face value. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

Arcade games imported into North America used to have a screen from the FBI that said Winners don't do drugs. AL BUREAU OF INVESTIG WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS William S. Sessions, Director, FBI Games from 1989 to 2000 included the slogan during the attract mode, or a pre-recorded demonstra- tion of a video game that is displayed when the game is not being played. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

The female Lesser mouse-deer can conceive 85-155 minutes after giving birth. This means that if the mouse-deer (which is nei- ther mouse, nor deer) gives birth at the begin- ning of Avengers: End Game, she'd be with child again before Thanos is de- feated. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Lighting three matches is a purported superstition among soldiers. When the first soldier lights his cigarette, the en- emy will see the light. When the second soldier lights his cigarette, the en- emy would take aim and when the third soldier lights his, the enemy fires. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

Eating less than an hour before swimming does not increase the risk of muscle cramps or drowning. One study shows a cor- relation between alcohol consumption and drown- ing, but there is no evi- dence cited regarding stomach cramps or the consumption of food. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

A child once turned orange from drinking too much Sunny Delight. The girl was drinking 1.5 liters a day. The company used Beta-Carotene (found in carrots) to color the drink which can make you orange at extremely high doses. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

12

Apollo

The Apollo program involved 420,000 people. The Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

11

Microsoft didn't pay the intern responsible for Solitaire. Wes Cherry developed the game out of bore- dom, mostly in his free time.The original version also included a fake Excel spreadsheet to hide the game from your boss. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

10

Drinking only salt water will kill you because of how the kidneys make urine. Human kidneys can only make urine that is less salty than salt water. So to get rid of all the excess salt taken in by drinking sea- water, you have to urinate more water than you drank. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

9

Chili peppers evolved to be spicy because heat repels most animals except for birds, who spread the seeds. Since birds lack the taste receptors for capsaicin, they don't feel pain from eating even the spiciest chilies. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

8

In 1855, Queen Victoria said ex-U.S. President Millard Fillmore was the most handsome man she'd ever seen. This was two years after Fillmore's presidency, which lasted from 1850-1853. Не would have looked sort of like pres- ent-day Alec Baldwin at that point. Seriously, look it up. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

7

The guy who created Alcoholics Anonymous was denied whiskey on his deathbed. At the time, William Grif- fith Wilson was losing his battle against chronic em- physema and only had days to live. Не asked for whisky on four separate occasions, but the nurse never gave it to him. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

The last person to be executed in Great Britain on a charge of blasphemy was a 20-year-old. In 1697, a Scottish student named Thomas Aikenhead was accused of referring to theology as ill-invented nonsense while convers- ing with friends at the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

5

Acne is the 8th-most common disease in the world. It was described in Pha- raohs over 2,000 years ago and affects 80-90% of teenagers in the Western world. It does not affect other primates, but some cats and dogs and horses can be affected. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

Newspapers are so big because they were taxed based on the number of their pages. Trouw Verstleping 11 I - - - - - - محمد Trouw Made - Metail - - 1 magness - (Motjregre Sing - NE SPOR - up groot - format which - - - Now - - / - - - - - - - I - - I - - - - - / ! - - - = - with - The British govern- ment began taxing newspapers in 1712 based on the page count, so the 33.1-inch by 23.4-inch page size became — Source

3

The set of the 1980 Popeye film was abandoned. After the film flopped, the set was left aban- doned, so the locals of Mellieha, Malta re- claimed it as a Popeye theme park. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

There is a term for when technical equipment encounters critical failure in the presence of certain people. The Pauli effect was coined after Austrian theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, describing instances in which equipment suffered technical problems only when he was present. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

Coca-Cola's unique glass bottle design came from a flood of look-alikes in 1914. RU ORIGINAL TASTE a Coca-Cola They requested design proposals for their prod- uct: a bottle so distinct that you would recognize it by feel in the dark or ly- ing broken on the ground. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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