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40 Random Bits of Trivia to Quell the Tempest of Ignorance Brewing Inside of You

May 09, 2024

The storm of idiocy has raged in your brain your entire life. Let us finally tame the squall for you, brother.

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40

No one knows why Saturn's moon lapetus has an 8 mile tall ridge around its equator. CRACKED.COM The equatorial ridge, dis- covered in 2007, is 810 miles long, 12 miles wide, and only exists in the dark region of the moon. There is no definitive explanation for how it formed. — Source

39

The longest recorded field goal in the NFL is shorter than those in college and high school games. CRACKED.COM The 66 yard kick by Balti- more Ravens' Justin Tucker was under a Nevada high school student's 68 yard goal in 1985. The longest ever recorded was 69 yards, by Ove Johansson at Abilene Christian University. — Source

38

The left side of the ship was originally called larboard or the loading side of the ship. CRACKED COM Because it sounded too similar to the opposite side, starboard, the left be- came port since the left side of the ship was the one that was against the dock for loading. — Source

37

Hitler granted his childhood doctor, Eduard Bloch, special protection by the Gestapo. CRACKED.COM When Hitler's mother couldn't afford cancer treat- ment, Bloch reduced his prices. Teenage Adolf de- clared undying gratitude, and when Austria was an- nexed, Hitler kept his word to the Jewish doctor. — Source

36

Anchorage, Alaska lies within 10 hours by air of nearly 90% of the industrialized world. CRACKED.COM. Anchorage is almost equi- distant from New York City, Tokyo, and Frankfurt, Germany (via the polar route), and holds a critical FedEx hub as part of its global network or services. — Source

35

Norway wanted to change their border with Finland to give them a mountain for their 100th birthday. CRACKED.COM Norwegian geophysicist Bjorn Geirr Harsson says he got the idea in 1972 when he saw that the highest point in Finland was on a hillside and for Norway on a mountain. — Source

34

Many elements of Harry Potter are very similar to a book written 3 years before. CRACKED.COM The Secret of Platform 13 features a boy of magi- cal lineage who lives in an abusive house with a spoiled other child, and you get to the magical world through a platform at King's Cross. — Source

33

Michael Nesmith from the Monkees is the son of the Liquid Paper inventor. CRACKED.COM Bette Graham became a typist to support herself and her son in 1951, where she invented a paint to cover her mistakes. She sold her business Liquid Paper Company 25 years later for $48 million. — Source

32

Banana Slugs

In 1986, students at University of California, Santa Cruz voted to make the school's official mascot the Banana Slug. CRACKED COM The chancellor refused to honor the result, instead polling just student-ath- letes on the question, who also voted over- whelmingly in favor of the Banana Slug. — Source

31

Balsa wood, one of the softest woods, is technically a hardwood. CRACKED.COM The difference be- tween hardwood and softwood has to do with how they repro- duce, not the actual hardness of the wood. — Source

30

The Dead Sea Scrolls

One portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls was determined to be a treasure map. W sriake island treasure smalt Day S lake of shadows dragon mountains black lake irate bay CRACKED.COM Found in 1952, the copper scroll was not a literary work like the others, in- stead it listed the locations of valuable treasure like silver and gold that have been buried or hidden. — Source

29

A war almost started in 1579 over the omission of a bear penis on a coat of arms. D CRACKED.COM The bear in the coat of arms of Appenzell, Swit- zerland, is represented with a visible penis, but a calendar printer in Saint Gallen left it out by acci- dent, enraging the North- east canton. — Source

28

Death Wish III was renamed when a survey revealed half the US couldn't read Roman numerals. CRACKED.COM The title was changed to simply Death Wish 3 after the Cannon Group did a marketing survey. This didn't help the film with critics, however, and it was mostly negatively reviewed. — Source

27

40 Random Bits of Trivia to Quell the Tempest of Ignorance Brewing Inside of You — Source

26

Women often lose 3 to 5% of their bone mass during breastfeeding. CRACKED.COM During pregnancy, the fe- tus needs plenty of calci- um to develop its skeleton. If the mother doesn't get enough calcium, her baby will draw what it needs from the mother's bones. — Source

25

Yakuza

A Japanese porn actor flew a plane into a Yakuza boss's home for betraying the samurai code. COM 28 .. A . AM to 42N ABR RGB AIR CRACKED.COM Mitsuyasu Maeno was a Japanese ultrana- tionalist and wanted to punish the Yakuza don for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from Lockheed. — Source

24

The town of Blowout, Texas, is named after a bat poop explosion. CRACKED.COM Ammonia and other gasses from decomposing guano built up in a cave that was home to thousands of bats, and when lightning struck at the cave mouth the gas- ses exploded. — Source

23

A 'liquid landmine' was invented during the Vietnam War that deactivates itself in 4 days. CRACKED COM Astrolite, developed from rocket fuel, is poured onto the ground with a detona- tor. Just 10 ounces is enough to incapacitate an enemy combatant, and it can't be detected by nor- mal detection equipment. — Source

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22

The soviets were able to steal US secrets with a keylogger on a typewriter. underwood FIVE CRACKED.COM Project Gunman discov- ered primitive keylogging technology installed by the KGB into the IBM Selectric typewriters used in the US Embassy in Moscow, which went unnoticed for 8 years. — Source

21

Bits of random debris were used as currency during the Great Depression. THIS SCRIP IS REDEEMABLE BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE Tenino Chamber of Commerce, Inc. FROM THURSTON COUNTY WARRANTS -AND THE ASSIGNED DIVIDENDS FROM THE LIQUIDATION OF THE CITIZENS BANK OF TENINO, WASH FOR THE AMOUNT OF 1 1 ONE DOLLAR IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY Redeemable during the Hwurchmann Month of December, 1933 N° 40 Third Series Issue of January, 1933. Depression Scrip was made of things like shells, wood, and paper, which was used as local currency instead of US dollars due to banks be- ing closed. — Source

20

Scotland Yard has a team of super-recognizers. CRACKED.COM These people are so good at remember- ing faces, even after a fleeting glance, that law enforcement employs them. — Source

19

Pregnancy physically changes a woman's brain structure. GRAGKED.COM Gray matter volume is decreased in certain areas, giving mothers a higher capacity for empathy to help bet- ter understand their baby. — Source

18

The shotguns that Mouse uses in 'The Matrix' were working models made just for the movie. CRACKED.COM The guns used a unique cam-driven design in- vented by the movie's armorer, John Bowring, and fired 900 rounds per minute. — Source

17

John D. Rockefeller's dream as a kid was to make $100,000. CRACKED.COM Rockefeller had an appren- ticeship making $16 per month as a kid. Не ended his life as one of the wealthiest men in recent history, with $1.4 billion by 1937 ($28.8 billion with in- flation). — Source

16

The Cashew tree is in the same family of plants as Poison Ivy. CRACKED.COM The reason why Cashews are sold without shells is that the shells are poison- ous. Eating the shell would cause a similar re- action to eating a Poison Ivy plant. — Source

15

Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig had to finish the Quantum of Solace script because of the 2008 Writers Strike. CRACKED.COM On 'Quantum,' we were fucked, he said. We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers' strike and there was nothing we could do. — Source

14

The Sand Octopus quickly builds a bunker in the ocean floor to escape predators. CRACKED.COM Since they lack the ability to change color, they shoot jets of water into the sand to bury themselves. They then secrete mucus to rein- force the walls, and leave one arm out as a ventila- tion chimney. — Source

13

Legal poppy fields in Australia have a problem with wallabies eating the plants and getting high. CRACKED.COM The marsupials get high as a kite and hop around in a loop. When they crash, they leave behind crop circles. — Source

12

Huichol Indian men tie ropes around their testicles when their wives are giving birth. CRACKED.COM When she feels a painful contraction, she tugs on the rope so her husband will share some of the pain as part of their child's entrance into the world. — Source

11

Until 1987, there was no TV broadcast in Iceland on Thursdays. CRACKED.COM The idea behind the decision was to reserve Thursdays as a day for socializing. As a re- sult, many Icelanders born before 1987 joke that they were most likely conceived on a Thursday. — Source

10

Seawater may be a potential fuel for a fusion reactor. CRACKED.COM Deuterium, one of the in- gredients for nuclear fu- sion, is readily found in seawater. A gallon of sea- water can produce as much energy as 300 gal- lons of gasoline. — Source

9

A ghost town in China was built to be an exact replica of Paris. CRACKED COM Tianducheng has a mock-up of Versailles and a copy of The Eif- fel Tower. It is however now a giant ghost town with only 2,000 people living there. — Source

8

A German politician had been married to a Stasi informant that was spying on her. CRACKED.COM Vera Lengsfeld divorced her second husband in 1992 after finding out that, for most of their marriage, the mathema- tician and poet Knud Wollen- berger had been an infor- mant since 1972. — Source

7

P.T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum out-hucked a huckster who buried a giant statue. CRACKED COM George Hull commissioned a giant statue in 1869 to bury and later dig up, pre- tending it was an artifact. When Hull declined Bar- num's offer of $50k for it, Barnum made his own and claimed Hull had a fake. — Source

6

Back in Black

'Back in Black' by AC/DC is used to get a baseline of sound quality. HC/DC BACK IN BLACK CRACKED.COM The sound quality of the album is so good that after its release studios in Nash- ville would use it to check the acoustics of a room, while Motörhead would use it to tune their sound system. — Source

5

4.2 million units of a kid's arts and crafts toy were recalled in the US for containing sedatives. CRACKED GOM Aqua Beads were found to have been made with cheap chemicals in China that was a pharmacologically active sedative drug which left kids comatose after they in- gested the beads. — Source

4

Calling Collect

1-800-COLLECT owned the misspelling of AT&T's competing service. 5 jkl 4 ghi 6 mno 8 tuv 7 pqrs 9 wxyz CRACKED.COM AT&T launched 1-800-Opera- tor, but found that many peo- ple misspelled Operator with 'er' at the end. 1-800-COL- LECT owned 1-800-OPERAT- ER and had been taking their customers. — Source

3

Genghis Khan would marry off a daughter to the king of an allied nation, dismissing his other wives. GRACKED.COM Then he would assign his new son-in-law to military duty in the Mongol wars, while the daughter took over the rule. Most sons-in-law died in com- bat, giving him shields around the Mongol lands. — Source

2

Germany

There is a sausage restaurant in Germany which has been in business for 900 years. Burstküche HISTORISCHE IS CRACKED.COM Regensburg Sausage Kitchen has been sell- ing sausages well be- fore the Inca Empire existed and is still serving 6,000 sausag- es a day. — Source

1

A supernova in 1006 AD was visible in the daytime. CRACKED.COM SN 1006 is the brightest ob- served stellar event in re- corded history, 16 times brighter than Venus. It did not significantly affect Earth, but a signal of its outburst can be found in nitrate de- posits in Antarctic ice. — Source

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