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Even on a microscopic level, these facts pack a punch

30 Random Bits of Trivia Mined From Our Brains by Ms. Frizzle and Her Workforce of Fifth Grade Fact Finders

May 21, 2024

We didn’t think we had so many facts in our brains, but boy, did they add up. In fact, it took a magical bus ride through each lobe to see the extent of our fact-hoarding. Whether that’s a problem or not, who knows? We could either be geniuses or in serious denial. That said, we fully trust Ms. Frizzle’s judgment. So when she shoots back up to regular size, we’ll get her assessment.

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30

CRACKED.COM THE BIBLICAL PLAGUE OF FROGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN JUST ONE HUGE FROG. We imagine the plague as a whole lot of frogs getting everywhere-but according to some medieval rabbis, it was just one big-ass frog that covered the entire land of Egypt with its gigantic body (and spawned normal-sized frogs every time it was hit). — Source

29

THE V2 BOMB WAS A HORNY THING. Wernher von Braun was known as a ladies' man- and that carried over to the flying death contraptions he designed. The V2 bomb wasn't just inspired by the rocket in the film Woman on the Moon, but it had naked women painted on its tail. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

CRACKED.COM JAMES BOND MAY BE NAMED AFTER A CHURCH IN CANADA. Officially, lan Fleming named his spy after the author of a book on birds. But maybe it isn't a coincidence that Fleming spent a couple weeks in Toronto in 1942, just down the street from St. James Bond United Church (an amalgamation of two other churches, St. James and Bond Street). — Source

27

Doom

CRACKED.COM THE NEW DOOM WAS ALMOST A CALL OF DUTY CLONE. Before the DOOM reboot brought new life to the FPS genre in 2016, the developers spent years working on DOOM 4, which was essentially Call of Duty with demons. Luckily, the company saw the light on time and pulled a 180, bringing the game back to its roots. HR — Source

26

COINS WERE FIRST RIDGED TO STOP CRIME. Back when coins were made of precious metals, enterprising felons would file a bit of gold or silver off each coin-a practice known as clipping. It was the Romans who first carved ridges into coins, to know if someone had clipped them. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

CRACKED.COM SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER WAS BASED ON A BIG LIE. The New York Magazine article Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night made disco mainstream overnight, and the movie was based on it-too bad that it was all lies. Reporter Nik Cohn made up Tony Manero (and everything else) after he failed to get any good interviews. — Source

24

Choking

CRACKED.COM SLAPPING CHOKING PEOPLE IN THE BACK MIGHT KILL THEM. By all means, slap that choking person in the back, like you see in movies-if you really hate them. The slapping can dislodge the object and send it further down, making the person choke harder. You're supposed to lean the person forward beforehand. — Source

23

Archie

WELL. LET'S том, IF THE YOU US PAGANS PRAY, PRAY TO THE DOIT... REAL GOD! ARCHIE WAS RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA AT ONE POINT. Back in the '70s and '80s, long before Riverdale made Archie and Jughead cool again, Archie Comics licensed their characters to a Christian publisher. That's how we got plots like the Riverdale crew acting as missionaries to ethnic stereotypes around the world. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

21

CRACKED.COM THANOS' CREATOR GOT DIDDLY-SQUAT FROM THE AVENGERS MOVIES. Jim Starlin wasn't even invited to any showing-he had to pay for his ticket to see his own creation on a movie screen. All in all, he got more money from DC for an obscure character in Batman V Superman than for Thanos, Gamora, and Drax combined. — Source

20

The IRS

IF YOU'RE POOR, YOU'RE MORE LIKELYTO BE AUDITED BY THE IRS. The IRS's job is to make sure everyone complies with the convoluted American tax code-which is easier if you're broke. Yes, auditing the Jeff Bezoses of the world makes more sense-but it's also a lot more complicated, so poor communities are targeted more often. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

CRACKED.COM DOGE HAS A TRAGIC BACKSTORY. Kabosu, the Shiba Inu gone memetic as Doge, was abandoned when the puppy mill where she was born closed down. Luckily, she was adopted by a kindergarten teacher before she was put down in a shelter. Very story, such sad. — Source

18

KILLER PLAYLISTS HELP SAVE CORAL REEFS. One of many solutions tried to revive dying reefs is to bring fish back by playing sounds of a healthy reef through underwater speakers. Scientists from the UK and Australia have tried this acoustic enrichment approach, which does bring the fish to the reef party. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

CRACKED.COM EVERYONE ON THE GAME OF THRONES SET HATED THE CAT. Ser Pounce, King Tommen's cat, was popular with fans even though he only appeared once- but he only appeared once because he was hell to work with. Natalie Dormer called it a bit of a diva -and according to showrunner David Benioff, he was horribly killed (in-story, that is). — Source

16

Radiators

YOUR CLUNKY HEATING RADIATOR IS THE RESULT OF A PANDEMIC. During the 1918 flu pandemic, cities ordered people to keep their windows open, even on frigid days. That meant that big radiators were needed to keep the cold at bay. And now you know why your old, ugly radiator overheats your apartment. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Saturday Night Live

CRACKED.COM SNL is a traumatizing gig. Sabotage, backstabbings, degradation, performers refusing scripts written by women/younger members, drug-fueled BS, even fistfights - those are the kinds of horror stories former SNL cast members often recount. Toxic working environment? Hell, this is the Chernobyl of comedy. — Source

14

MY SOCIAL SECURITY # FS 457-55-5462 Here's what LifeLock offers you: I'm Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, and eis really ٠ my social security number. give jost DE Proactive Identity Theft Protection brove how safe your identity can te with LifeLode All of in no $1 Million Protection Guarantee matter how careful can become viding of identity net in fact Fut details avoiable on our website avery three seconds another identity . siden Reduction of Unsolicited Mail De you ever worry about identity that! ٢٠٥٠ in time you gor lb Reduction of Credit Card Offers know LifeLook We work to stop — Source

13

Lice

Lice helped study the origin of clothing. Clothes don't preserve well, but we do know that body lice evolved from head lice when we started using clothes. So by studying the nasty bugs' genetic history, researchers have concluded that we stopped walking around naked about 170,000 years ago. GRACKED.COM — Source

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12

In the American South, dirt is edible (and actually eaten). Kaolin, a kind of white clay, is very common in Central Georgia - and one of its many uses is stuffing your face with it. There's a long, semi-illegal tradition of eating the stuff, which is a lot easier to digest than most other mineral deposits. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

CRACKED.COM Europeans ended slavery in Japan (by liking slaves too much). In the 16th century, Japanese slaves became the must-have items for the Portuguese. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan's ruler at the time, was disgusted by those Christian foreigners buying so many slaves that should be enslaved in Japan, not abroad. So he banned the institution altogether (also, Christianity). — Source

10

A fungus could protect astronauts from radiation. Cladosporium sphaerospermum lives (thrives, in fact) inside the destroyed Chernobyl reactors. It's thought to achieve this through radiosyntesis, a form of photosynthesis that uses radiation instead of light. Researchers believe that a relatively thin layer of it could effectively shield astronauts in space. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

- Rom-com director Nora Ephron kept telling everyone who Deep Throat was. Journalist Carl Bernstein never told Ephron, his wife at the time, that Deep Throat was FBI agent Mark Felt - but still, she quickly figured out who the anonymous Watergate source was. Then she spent years telling the secret to anyone who listened - but no one believed her. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Star Wars

CRACKED.COM Lightsaber combat is based on all forms of swordplay. Stunt coordinator Nick Gillard created the amazing lightsaber fights in the Star Wars prequels. Не basically came up with a new martial art by combining a ton of forms of sword fighting - and even things unrelated to swords, like tennis or tree-chopping. — Source

7

America had a (self-proclaimed) emperor. In 1859, San Francisco resident Joshua Abraham Norton decided the government was a sham and crowned himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States. No one ever obeyed his mandates, but he managed to get his profession listed as Emperor in the city directory (and became a tourist attraction). CRACKED.COM — Source

6

CRACKED.COM Most of those gross cooking videos trace back to one guy. The revolting viral videos of people making food come from Rick Lax, a street magician who realized those did better on social media than card tricks. We're just trying to put smiles on your faces, he says (probably very aware that the reaction is quite the opposite). — Source

5

Kevin Costner

CRACKED.COM Kevin Costner got mad because people didn't get to see his penis. Derro 1999's For Love of the Game included a shot of Costner's untouchables, even though it was supposed to be a PG-13 film. After test audiences giggled at the scene, it was just cut - which pissed Costner off. It just flies in the face of who I am, he said. That's easy for him to say - that was the only thing flying in his face. — Source

4

Leslie Coffelt saved President Truman's life e-after being shot to death. Puerto Rican nationalists shot Officer Leslie W. Coffelt, in an attempt to assassinate Truman. Coffelt died-but not before crawling out of his guard booth and killing the guy who shot him. (The guy's partner had already been stopped by the Secret Service.) CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had to use fake Walkmans. The first GotG movie turned the vintage players into hot items, raising their price into the thousands. This became a problem when a few were needed for the sequel. So instead of using the genuine things, the prop team built non-functioning replicas. SONY ALAMAN CRACKED.COM — Source

2

The Founding Fathers thought that independence was a mistake. The aristocratic Founding Fathers saw regular Americans as vile ignoramuses, and had zero faith in the people's ability to govern themselves. Independence, however, was left as the only option when attempts to patch things up with King George III fell through. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Circus Music

CRACKED.COM The classic circus music was written as a heroic theme. The goofy tune was created by respected Czech composer Julius Fučík as an epic military march (titled Entrance of the Gladiators). Then a reworking by a Canadian arranger started being used for clowns, and no one took it seriously ever again. — Source

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