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40 Random Bits of Trivia Whispered Into Our Ears From a Seashell

Yeah, baby

40 Random Bits of Trivia Whispered Into Our Ears From a Seashell

May 02, 2024

First, it sounded like the ocean. Then, a chorus of angels. Then eventually, one really loud guy just kind of spouting them off like he was reading from a script. Really annoying.

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40

Disney World has its own government. GRACKED.COM This allows the corporation control over sewage, roads, building permits, and many other facets of municipal control in the area. This includes issuing themselves liquor licenses. — Source

39

Introverts are more prone to assessing truths about humanssocial nature. GRACKED.COM A 2018 study by Yale psy- chologists found introverts who are prone to melan- choly seem to be more as- tute at understanding how people behave in groups than their sociable peers. — Source

38

Inhaled Insulin exists for both type 1 and 2 diabetes. aéroso 4270132 GlaxoWall CRACKED.COM It is faster acting and has lesser side effects like weight gain and hy- poglycemia because it emulates what the pan- creas does. — Source

37

Senator John Ashcroft is the only Senator to lose re-election to a dead person. CRACKED.COM His opponent, Mel Carnahan, died in a plane crash three weeks before the vote and his name was unable to be taken off the ballot. — Source

36

The first person to hear the Journey song Only The Young was a cystic fibrosis patient in Ohio. young CRACKED.COM The band flew out and played it for the young fan, Kenny Sykaluk. Не died the next day, with a walkman containing the single still in his hands. — Source

35

Egyptian pharaohs were often fat and had tooth decay. GRACKED COM They had high-sugar diets that were rich in bread, hon- ey, beer, and wine. Examina- tions of various royal mum- mies show that many suf- fered from obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. — Source

34

Austin Powers was created by Mike Myers as a persona for his faux 60s rock band, Ming Tea. CRACKED.COM Myers said that the movie and the character were inspired by the British films, music and comedy of the 1960s and 70s his father had introduced him to as a child. — Source

33

The first chimpanzee in space was only given the name Ham after successfully completing his mission. CRACKED.COM Не was known as Number 65 before that, as NASA believed that it would be bad publicity if a named chimp burned up in the at- mosphere or otherwise died as a result of mission failure. — Source

32

H.R. Giger was once stopped by Dutch customs because of his disturbing drawings. CRACKED.COM They thought they were photographs. Giger later said: Where on Earth did they think I could have photographed my sub- jects? In hell, perhaps? — Source

31

Rage Against The Machine was kicked off SNL before they got to play their second set. UNITE CRACKED.COM In 1996, Rage was the mu- sical guest while Steve Forbes hosted. In protest of billionaires like Forbes, they hung two up- side-down flags from their stage, against the wishes of the staff. — Source

30

Former mud wrestler Lisette St.Claire was the world's first 'laugher' wrangler in the television industry. CRACKED.COM Some of the current 'Pro- fessional Laughers' are so good at guffawing that they're secretly planted in audiences to get others to follow along. In 2012, laughers got $75 for a day's work. — Source

29

Brad Pitt was banned from Toyota ads in Malaysia for being too good looking. CRACKED.COM Toyota Altis ads featuring Pitt were banned after the country's deputy informa- tion minister ruled that Pitt's handsome appear- ance may make Malaysian countrymen feel inferior. — Source

28

Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant in Arizona is the only plant in the world that is not built next to a body of water. CRACKED COM The plant is spread over 4000 square acres, employs 2055 workers, and generates 35% of the electricity needed in Arizona. — Source

27

The oldest satellite still orbiting Earth is only 3.2 pounds and 6.5 inches in diameter. GRAGKED.COM Vanguard 1 was launched on March 17, 1958. Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, de- rided it as the grape- fruit satellite. — Source

26

Norway owns an uninhabited frozen island located halfway between Africa and Antarctica. CRACKED.COM Bouvet Island is a volcanic island that is the world's most remote, called the loneliest place on Earth. It is 1,404 miles from Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world. — Source

25

A Japanese chemical company polluted a bay so much, they mined the mercury from it. CRACKED COM The bay polluted by Chisso Corporation had sediment containing up to 2 kg of mercury per ton. This con- centration made mining economically viable, so the company set up a subsidi- ary to do just that. — Source

24

Sealab 2021 was made with stolen master tapes. CRACKED.COM When American animator Adam Reed quit Cartoon Network he stole the master tapes for Sealab 2020. Reed would later use these tapes to make his pilot, which was picked up by Adult Swim. — Source

23

The phrase balls to the wall comes from aviation and has nothing to do with testicles. Genter PAN AM CRACKED.COM Ball-shaped handles controlled the throt- tle and fuel and put- ting these handles closer to the wall re- sulted in the fastest possible speed. — Source

22

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II raised infants without any interaction. CRACKED COM Не wanted to determine if there was a natural language imparted by God. His experiments proved unsuccessful be- cause all the children raised this way died. — Source

21

Elderly Japanese people are committing small crimes so they can live in prison for free. GRACKED COM An increasing number of people aged more than 65 now make up more than a quarter of the prison popula- tion in Japan. — Source

20

The T-1000 transforming noise from 'Terminator 2' was made with a condom on a microphone. CRACKED.COM The mic was stuck into a goop made from flour, water and Dust-Off spray, which would make bubbles and sounds similar to a cappuccino maker. — Source

19

Alaska used to belong to Russia. GRACKED COM It was sold to the United States in 1867. Russia governed Alaska as a col- ony for almost as long as the U.S. has now gov- erned Alaska as a territo- ry and state. — Source

18

Scientists tested the sleepiness of penguins by poking them with sticks. GRAGKED.COM In order to discover that penguins sleep more deep- ly in the afternoon, scien- tists crept up on sleeping king penguins at different times of the day and poked them with a stick until they woke up. — Source

17

Vanessa O'Brien is the first woman to reach Earth's highest and lowest points. CRACKED.COM She received a Guin- ness World Record for her accomplish- ments in reaching Mt. Everest and the Mari- anas Trench. — Source

16

Marilyn Monroe's hygiene and bedroom habits were pretty gross. CRACKED.COM Monroe rarely bathed, slept in the nude and ate a lot in bed, and shoved what was left on her plate under the sheets before going to sleep. — Source

15

McDonald's most costly promotion ever was for the 1984 Olympics. M CRACKED.COM The restaurant offered free products every time a US athlete won a medal. When the Soviet Union, the pow- erhouse team of the time, boycotted the event, it let the USA win big. — Source

14

Corn needs to be cooked in lime water before its nutrients can be absorbed into the human body. CRACKED.COM While Native Americans knew this, early New World colonial settlers did not, which resulted in many deaths from malnutrition for those who were using it as a staple food. — Source

13

An Illinois inmate sells soap carvings for hundreds of dollars at art shows. CRACKED COM Michael Harms carves tiny, intricately-detailed chairs from soap, dis- played in cases cut from popsicle sticks with nail clippers and dyed with rust from steel wool. — Source

12

Billy Joel received his high school diploma at age 43. CRACKED.COM In 1967, he was playing at a piano bar to help his moth- er make ends meet which interfered with his atten- dance, causing him to miss a crucial English exam. De- cades later he completed his diploma. — Source

11

The Minnesota Vikings' U.S. Bank Stadium cost more than NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. usbank stadium CRACKED.COM Stadium: $1.129 billion - New Horizons mission: $720 million. To be fair, the stadium brings in revenue, and all the NASA mission did was deepen our under- standing of our galaxy. Snore! — Source

10

Pizza Hut in China had to stop people from constructing salad towers on their plates. CRACKED.COM The restaurants offered a one-trip salad bar to cus- tomers, but had to take them away because peo- ple were piling on ingre- dients in elaborately en- gineered constructs. — Source

9

The term Peanut Gallery came from Vaudeville days. CRACKED.COM The audience in the cheapest and rowdiest seats in the theater of- ten ate peanuts and sometimes threw them at the performers. — Source

8

Chlorine-trifluoride can set seemingly inflammable objects like concrete on fire. CRACKED.COM In the 1950s, some of it was accidentally spilled in a warehouse and it burned through a foot of concrete while simultaneously re- leasing a deadly cloud of gas that corroded anything it touched. — Source

7

A Roman goldsmith may have discovered aluminum 1800 years before modern chemists. CRACKED.COM Emperor Tiberius had the discoverer killed in order to ensure the metal would not di- minish the value of his own gold and silver as- sets. — Source

6

Two French and British nuclear ballistic missile submarines collided in the Atlantic ocean by pure chance. 59 CRACKED.COM Modern nuclear sub- marines are so well cloaked that the slow moving subs couldn't detect each other just feet apart. — Source

5

A faulty pool heater caused a tennis pro to die in his sleep. oniers caba AB CRACKED.COM A tennis pro was killed by carbon monoxide poison- ing in his friend's guest house. — Source

4

The lead role in Edward Scissorhands was originally offered to Tom Cruise. CRACKED.COM Cruise declined because he wanted a happier ending. Tom Hanks, Gary Oldman, Jim Carrey, John Cusack, William Hurt, Robert Downy Jr., and Michael Jackson had all been considered. — Source

3

Researchers at Harvard and Columbia concluded that sarcasm promotes creative thinking. GRAGKED.COM Both the expressers and recipients of sarcasm need to overcome the contradiction between the literal and actual meanings of the sarcas- tic expressions. — Source

2

In 2017, Canadian scientists recreated an extinct horse pox virus. GRAGKED.COM This was to demonstrate that the smallpox virus can be recreated in a small lab at a cost of about $100,000, by a team of scientists with- out specialist knowledge. — Source

1

The ancient Roman civilization technically lasted for 2,200 years. CRACKED.COM It was founded as a monar- chy in 753 ВС, became a republic in 509 вс, turned into an empire in 27 ВС, shifted capital to Constan- tinople in 330 AD, and fi- nally fell only in 1453 AD. — Source

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