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40 Random Bits of Trivia We Flossed Out of Our Brainfolds

Gotta get in there real good

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Flossed Out of Our Brainfolds

May 03, 2024

We’re gonna level with you. We only floss our brain twice a year, before we meet with our neurologist. So we had a whole mess of random facts built up in there.

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Men's and women's clothes buttons are on opposite sides due to historical tradition. CRACKED.COM Men needed quick access to their weapon using their right hand, while wealthy women were dressed by servants with the button configuration being flipped for easier access by the servants. — Source

38

Tibetan mythology has zombie-like creatures called Ro-Lang, which are created by sorcerers. GRACKED.COM People inhabiting Tibet construct low doorways to keep the ro-langs out, since the zombies can- not bend their joints and walk with a stiff-armed lurch. — Source

37

One of the first supermodels was a mechanical engineer who designed airplane wings during WWII. CRACKED.COM Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker quit her engineering job after being passed over for a promotion and began writing copy for в movies, where she was encouraged to go into modeling. — Source

36

The first person to theorize dark matter proposed traveling space by moving our Sun with an engine. GRACKED.COM Fritz Zwicky wanted the US to pursue a nuclear fusion powered stellar engine that would propel our Sun, drag- ging the planets with it. Не warned that if we didn't, the Russians would. — Source

35

The original Goldilocks was an old woman who broke into the home of three bachelor bears. CRACKED.COM The obscene old wom- an ate their porridge, slept in their beds, but when she awoke and was discovered, she jumped out a window never to be seen again. — Source

34

Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts bowled a 300 at the World Series of Bowling. B BOS TO CRACKED.COM The 25-year-old base- ball player bowled a perfect game in 2017, just days before he was awarded an MLB Gold Glove. — Source

33

The CIA

The American passenger and cargo airline 'Air America' was secretly operated by the CIA. AIR AMERICA AIR AMERICA WHOLE CRACKED.COM It supplied and sup- ported covert opera- tions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, including provid- ing support for drug smuggling in Laos.

32

It's illegal to whisper in another person's ear if they are hunting moose in Alaska. CRACKED.COM Concentration is key, so it is best to wait until after you are done hunting to have a conversation. It's also illegal to feed an alco- holic beverage to one of them-a moose, that is, not the hunter. — Source

31

Dogs have a second nose, called Jacobson's Organ, located at the back of the nose. CRACKED.COM This double smelling system allows some trained dogs to sniff out bladder, kidney and prostate cancer with a 95% accuracy. — Source

30

The Aztecs used obsidian weapons which were capable of decapitating horses with just one swing. CRACKED.COM The macuahuitl was a wooden club embedded with a ring of obsidian blades. The weapon was so effective and fearsome that Spanish conquista- dors would faint from what they saw on the battlefield. — Source

29

The opening day of Disneyland was referred to by Walt as Black Sunday. CRACKED COM Rides broke down, the fresh- ly paved asphalt had wom- en's shoes sticking to it, a plumber's strike made Walt choose between bathrooms and drinking water, and restaurants ran out of food. — Source

28

Game of Thrones

Charles Dance has a lot in common with his Game of Thrones character. CRACKED.COM Tywin Lannister was married to and had three children with a woman named Joan- na, before her death. Dance was also married to a wom- an named Joanna, with whom he had three children before their divorce. — Source

27

In 2019, Pope Francis approved changing the Lord's Prayer. KAI MH EIEBNETKHE HMAE EIE АЛЛА PT- EAI HMAE АПО TOT ПОNН- AMHN. POT. GRAGKED.COM The phrase lead us not into temptation changed to do not let us fall into tempta- tion. Не said the original was a bad translation be- cause it suggested God caused the temptation. — Source

26

Catholics started a secret society in 1738 where they acted like dogs. GRACKED.COM When the Pope banned joining the Freemasons, a group of Catholics started 'The Order of the Pug' in which initiation involved wearing a collar, walking on all fours, and kissing a pug statue's butt. — Source

25

The band The Postal Service was sent a cease and desist letter by the United States Postal Service. CRACKED.COM After negotiations, the USPS allowed the band to use their name in exchange for playing a free show at their national confer- ence. — Source

24

Family Video outlasted chains like Blockbuster, only shutting down because of the Covid pandemic. CRACKED COM They own the real estate where their stores are lo- cated and they own all of the media they rent out so they keep all of the profits. In early 2021, Family Video closed all their 248 remain- ing stores. — Source

23

Greek placenta cake is made with cheese and honey, and not what you're thinking of. CRACKED.COM Placenta is a flat cake con- sisting of many dough lay- ers interspersed with a mixture of cheese and hon- ey. The placenta of mam- malian pregnancy is named after the dish due to the similarity in shape. — Source

22

A cat was named co-author in a physicist's paper in 1975 because of a grammar typo. CRACKED.COM Jack H. Hetherington made his cat named F.D.C. Wil- lard the co-author of a ра- per because he'd acciden- tally written We instead of I throughout the ра- per and didn't feel like changing it. — Source

21

World War II

A German Panzer unit surrendered to a single US Army Captain during WWII. CRACKED.COM US Army Captain Moffatt Burriss, along with just two others, came across a Pan- zer Corps of 15,000 men. Burriss went straight to the unit's leader and informed him that they were there to accept his surrender. — Source

20

VeggieTales tells Old Testament Bible stories because the creator's mom didn't want to see Jesus as a vegetable. Vegetables were cho- sen in the first place because they were easier to animate than humans or animals with limbs and hair. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

19

A woman maintains and uses a sourdough starter that is older than the state she lives in. Wyoming resident Lu- cille Clarke Dumbrill uses the 122-year-old starter to make pan- cakes, which predates Wyoming itself by a year. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

18

Ethiopians do not get the highest quality coffee produced in their own country. The government only al- lows lower-quality beans to be sold on the domestic market, in or- der to promote exports and obtain a harder for- eign currency. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

The Pyrenean ibex is the only species ever to become 'un-extinct' after being cloned in 2009. The last ibex was captured and skin biopsies were tak- en and cryopreserved in ni- trogen. Unfortunately, the clone lived only for seven minutes and was extinct once again. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

Japanese Yakuza have a unique form of extortion known as sōkaiya. Instead of harassing small businesses for protection money, the yakuza harasses the stockholder meetings of large corporations. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Jenga blocks aren't all the same size. Some are almost im- perceptibly smaller than others, and if you've ever played you know that some blocks slide out of the stack easier than others. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

James Franco launched a college course called Master Class: Editing James Franco...with James Franco. In it, student editors com- piled a 30 minute docu- mentary on Franco, using behind the scenes footage of Franco supplied by Franco, to create a cine- matic image of James Franco. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

Jaywalking was invented by car companies in the early 1900s to shift blame for accidents to pedestrians. The auto industry scram- bled to blame casualties on pedestrians after a failed petition in 1923, signed by 42,000 people, tried to limit the mechani- cal speed of cars to 25 mph. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

12

In 1978, Charlie Chaplin's body was stolen and held for ransom. His widow refused to pay ransom demands of £400,000 ($2 million USD with inflation) because Charlie would have thought it ridiculous. His body was found 11 weeks later. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

11

A German sailor stole back his boat from Somalian pirates in 2008. After 52 days of captivity by militant group Al Shabab, Jürgen Kantner and his wife were freed after a large ransom was paid, and Kantner later returned for his boat. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

10

A 5 second film of Edison's assistant sneezing was the first to be copyrighted in the US. Fred Ott's Sneeze was released in 1894, distrib- uted by Edison Manufac- turing Company. It was displayed, at the time, through the means of a Kinetoscope. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

9

Eleanor Roosevelt held weekly press conferences that allowed only female journalists to attend. This forced many news organizations to hire their first female report- ers, and saved the jobs that women already held, ensuring their ac- cess to news. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

8

Nachos are named after their inventor, Ignacio Nacho Anaya. The dish was originally called Nacho's espe- ciales, and eventually the apostrophe disap- peared and it was shortened to just na- chos. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

7

Michelin goes to huge lengths to keep the restaurant Inspectors anonymous. MICHELIN Many of the top people have never met an inspec- tor; inspectors themselves are advised not to tell what they do. They have even refused to allow its inspectors to speak to journalists. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

The 1968 Hong Kong Flu left more than one million dead worldwide. Doctors recommend- ed those ill to stay at home and take aspi- rin, tea, lemon drinks, whiskey or brandy ac- cording to taste. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

5

Chairman Mao held meetings in his swimming pool to embarrass Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev, the First Sec- retary of the Communist Party, had to wear a floaty as he couldn't swim. Не felt insulted and relations between the Soviet Union and China deteriorated fur- ther. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

There was a giant, venomous, 23-foot-long monitor lizard living alongside humans in Australia. The Megalania was hunt- ed to extinction by early human inhabitants of Ice Age Australia, proving there is nothing we as a people cannot and will not kill. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

3

Alcohol is prohibited in the British Parliament with one exception. BOLLANCE UNT - a body Regel HIBIKI - 12 - - / The chancellor can drink while delivering the an- nual budget statement, called the Budget Tip- ple. Past chancellors have drunk whisky, gin and tonic, and brandy. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

During the Normandy Allied Invasion, Bill Millin played his bagpipes as he walked the beach. Не later asked cap- tured German prison- ers why they hadn't shot at him. They said they thought he was on a suicide mission and was clearly mad. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

There is a functioning mailbox located 10 meters underwater off the coast of Japan. va.so Y KOM 55 Postmaster Toshihiko Matsumoto hoped that the submerged mailbox would attract people to the Kii Peninsula, and now it receives hundreds of letters every day. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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