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Will your brain give these a happy home?

36 Bits of Trivia Sent to Our Planet From a Distant Civilization Several Light Years Away

April 14, 2024

Not that we’re huge comic book nerds or anything, but we seem to remember a story about a little alien boy sent to Earth before his home planet was destroyed. That lucky little boy was taken in by a nice little Kansan couple, so we’re really hoping you take their lead and take in these facts. Sure, they probably won’t grow up to be one of the greatest superheroes of all time, but they’re cold and hungry, and could use a nice brainfold blanket, so open up!

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36

Half of all sloths die while pooping. Sloths are permanently constipated - they only poop once a week, losing up to one-third of their body weight in each bowel movement. And for some reason they always do it on the ground, where predators can get to them. Up to half of all sloths are eaten while going to the bathroom. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

A rich NJ guy bought his former boss' house just so he could raze it to the ground. (illustration) Billionaire David Tepper bought it from his boss' ex-wife, then demolished it, and built a giant 11,268-square foot palace on the property. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

A cave in Botswana has a key role in the founding of Christianity there. (illustration) Kebokwe's cave was supposedly haunted, but missionary David Livingstone convinced a local ruler to sleep there - he did, and converted to Christianity. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

They came up with tomato-based ketchup in the 19th century (1812, to be exact). HEINZ un 1869 un TOMATO KETCHUP GROWN NOT MADE* Before that, ketchup (which comes from imperial China) was actually made with very different ingredients: soy beans, meat by-products, and fish entrails. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

A baseball player in 1919 got struck by lightning, then went back to playing. Ray Caldwell was hit by lightning on the pitcher's mound, then lay unconscious for five minutes. Then he got up and started pitching again. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

In 1963, the Bristol Bus Boycott was held to protest racist hiring practices. NO COLOUR BAR EVERY MAN BOYCOTT TRE FRIGHT BUSES COLOUR DOA At the time, the bus company in Bristol refused to hire Black drivers - but after an extended boycott, on 28 August 1963, they changed their policy. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

We now how know how much a Jurassic Park ticket cost: $550 (for 3 days). JURASSIC PARK That's the price listed on the three-day park ticket item in the Visitor Centre Limited Edition Legacy Kit (which has a bunch of merchandise along those lines). CRACKED.COM — Source

29

A British drama series had maybe the most surreal TV show finale of all time. Byker Grove was a serious, grounded teen drama - and it ended with the characters realizing they're in a TV show, then being attacked by a T-Rex. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Steve Harvey elaborately trolled a 6th grade teacher who told him he'd fail. The teacher told him that he couldn't be on TV, because he stuttered so much - so, as an adult, he sent her a TV for Christmas every year. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Real KHJ radio broadcasts were used for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. HAMPIO They went through 17 hours of broadcasts and took three hours of the best material, and picked material from the movie for that. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Aubrey Plaza and Michael Cera almost got married in Vegas. 2010 It wasn't a joke or anything - they were in a relationship for a year and a half (they started going out after filming Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

An ordinary 2x2 LEGO brick could practically survive having a car dropped on it. 27% LEGO LEGO Leso In an experiment, it got crushed only after a force equivalent to 950 pounds was applied to it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Daft Punk recorded orchestra parts for nearly every song on their last album. Random Access Memories They only used the parts in three or four songs, though, and threw away the rest. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Fishermen accidentally kill millions of fish a year. The fish's swim bladder suddenly balloons (because water pressure drops really quickly as they're pulled to the surface) and pushes out their organs - this is called barotrauma, or the bends. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

An 18th century Yorkshire man x predicted black holes. In the 1780s, John Michell, the rector of St. Michael's Church in Leeds, came up with a theory about dark stars -- stars whose gravitational pull was so strong that not even light could escape. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

The U.S. owns a one-acre cemetery in Mexico City. Congress established the cemetery in 1850, to bury those killed in the Mexican-American war - - it was the first time a U.S. cemetery was established on non-U.S. soil. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

GoldenEye's multiplayer mode was added at the last minute, without higher-ups knowing. Neither the publishing company, Nintendo, or management at the development company, Rare, knew that the programmers put in multiplayer mode before they saw it in action. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

19

25% of all bee species vanished between 2006 and 2015. That's 25% of the species observed before 1990, and it's happened despite more regular people reporting bee sightings than before. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Nuclear workers get a lot less radiation than people who undergo CT scans. Getting an abdominal CT scan exposes you to roughly ten times more radiation than working in a nuclear power plant for a year. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

17

Mark Zuckerberg criticized his portrayal in The Social Network, except for the wardrobe. Не complained that the filmmakers couldn't get that someone likes building things for the sake of it, not to get girls or get into clubs, but he praised their clothing choices. Like every single shirt and fleece they had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own, he said. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Ernie Hudson auditioned to play Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters cartoon, but didn't get cast. When he started reading, the director told him it was all wrong because Ernie Hudson didn't do it that way in the movie -- so Hudson said Well, wait a minute: I am Ernie Hudson! Then they told him he got it, but they later cast Arsenio Hall instead. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Elf was supposed to feature Macy's, but Macy's wasn't into it. They thought seeing a fake Santa in Macy's would ruin the experience for kids, so they said no. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

The fetish club where Trinity meets Neo in The Matrix is exactly what it looks like. It's a real S&M club in Sydney, and the people in the scene are the regulars wearing their usual outfits. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Martin Scorsese hates it when actors emphasize something by moving their eyebrows. RI Не does not allow eyebrow movement, says his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

12

The solution to a 19th-century mystery was found in Sir David Attenborough's back garden. In 1879, Julia Martha Thomas was murdered by her maid, Kate Webster, but her head was never found - this was called the the Barnes mystery. They found a skull in Sir David's back garden in 2011 during building work, and it turned out to have belonged to Thomas. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Beauty YouTuber

A beauty YouTuber helped us learn more about how Roman women did their hair. She couldn't recreate a Roman hairstyle using hairpins, so she researched ancient texts and discovered that Romans actually used sewing needles and thread to keep their hair in place. Her findings were accepted as an article in The Journal of Roman Archaeology. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

We only have Spider-Man because Stan Lee wouldn't take no for an answer. His publisher didn't like the character (he thought people hated spiders, and Peter Parker was too young and troubled to be a superhero), so Lee snuck Spider-Man into the last issue of Amazing Fantasy comics. It sold so well, the publisher said they should do a series about Spider-Man. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Kathy Bates' grandfather paraded the (fake) mummy of John Wilkes Booth. According to Finis Bates, the Booth who died in a barn was an impostor. The real Booth ran away, and he, Bates, had his mummified body, which he exhibited at circus sideshows. Henry Ford was close to buying the mummy, until his subordinates exposed the hoax. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Early elevators were blamed for elevator sickness. When elevators were becoming common in the early 20th century, many users reported nausea and dizziness. This elevator sickness was caused by organs still moving when the elevator stopped - or so some dubiously reasoned. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

CRACKED.COM Joe Son from Austin Powers is in prison for life. Son (who played Random Task) was convicted in 2011 for kidnapping and torturing a woman back in 2000. Then he beat his cellmate to death, adding 27 years to his life sentence. — Source

6

U.S. farmers were encouraged (even required) to grow pot. Hemp used to be big in colonial times. In 1619, the Virginia legislature passed a law requiring every farmer to grow hemp. Everything was fine until the early 20th century, when the plant was demonized because poor, non-white people smoked it. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

CRACKED.COM You can fit every planet in the Solar system between the Earth and the Moon. While everyone knows the Moon revolves around the Earth, most people don't have the right idea of how far it is. Depending on where the Moon is in its orbit, there's enough room to fit every planet in the Solar System end to end in the intervening space. — Source

4

Great Britain tried out ice ships during World War II. Short of metal to build warships, Britain launched Project Habakkuk to build a bergship out of pykrete (a tough mixture of ice and sawdust that takes months to melt). But the idea turned out not to be very practical, and the good ship Popsicle was eventually scrapped. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

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.) et CRACKED.COM — Source

2

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

1

The Power Rangers

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

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