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Sick and tired of dull facts that won’t inspire? Have we got the facts for you!

31 Random Bits of Trivia to Slap on Your Decaying Synapses Like a Slab of Flex Seal

May 25, 2024

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31

In Australia, there's a fire that started burning before the pyramids were built. A coal seam under the surface of Mount Wingen began smoldering 6,000 years ago, and hasn't stopped since. It's the world's oldest continuous coal fire. X NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

30

In 2020, a New Zealand town banded together to save a cat. Rodney had been a fixture at a local store in Marton, New Zealand, until a staff member apparently drove him about 9 miles out of town and left him there. Locals were outraged and spent a month looking for Rodney, eventually finding him on a nearby farm. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

A giant paperclip-like creature roamed the seas 68 million years ago. Diplomoceras maximum was about five feet long, similar to a squid, and had a shell shaped like a paperclip. D. maximum's lifespan might have been 200 years, and it grew a new rib on its shell each year. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

The user agreement for a Japanese robot specifically prohibits sex. Softbank's Pepper, which can hold conversations and perceive human emotions, can't be the object of lewd acts, according to the user agreement. Also, a Softbank spokesperson warned that giving your Pepper a sexier voice would be frowned upon by the company. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

In the early 19th century, West Point's 1st year curriculum was just math and French. The best math textbooks at the time were in French, so students had to learn the language first. And they needed math because they were all military engineers -- West Point was the first engineering school in the U.S. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

C.J. Jones, who played Baby's deaf foster father in Baby Driver, is himself deaf. A bunch of hearing actors auditioned for the part after Jones did, but watching their auditions was very difficult for Wright after he'd seen Jones. Не says he couldn't give the part to someone else when a deaf actor can do it, so he just gave it to Jones. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

A Nazi spy failed because he couldn't stop partying. In 1944, Germany sent Erich Gimpel and American-born William Colepaugh to the U.S. as spies. But Colepaugh wasted no time to start spending the funds for the mission on food, wine, and women. Не ended up leaving Gimpel behind and turning himself in to the FBI. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Sears

CRACKED COM SEARS Sears was ruined by Ayn Rand's ideas. In 2008, Sears' CEO (and Rand fan) Eddie Lampert split the company into divisions ordered to selfishly compete against each other. The result was a steady death spiral that eventually led the century-old company to bankruptcy. — Source

23

Captive octopuses need puzzles to keep their minds busy. Being the smartest invertebrates, octopuses need mental challenges in addition to food and a clean environment. Some aquariums keep their eight-legged guests happy and healthy by giving them puzzle boxes they have to solve to get to a treat. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

The HD remaster of Grim Fandango required stolen hard drives. The gaming industry already sucks at preserving old data, which was compounded by the fact that LucasArts was as dead as the game's characters. So remastering Grim Fandango required some underhanded methods, such as using old hard drives obtained through, ahem, unofficial channels. CRACKED COM — Source

21

Lord Byron drank wine from a skull. Byron's gardener unearthed an old, intact skull, which the British poet and proto-Goth had converted into a goblet. Then he founded the Order of the Skull, which was mostly about drinking claret from the thing with his friends while cracking dark jokes. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Maya The Bee was created to suck up to the Kaiser. Published in Germany in 1912, Waldemar Bonsels' book was pretty much a cautionary tale against unconformity and rebellion, which explicitly kissed up to Kaiser Wilhelm II. When the Nazis came goose-stepping years later, Bonsels started pandering to them in his writing. GRACKED.COM — Source

19

Eels have the weirdest sex life. European eels spend most of their lives without any reproductive organs - and when they finally develop them, their stomachs dissolve so they can no longer eat. Then they swim all the way to the Sargasso Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, to bone (no one is sure how) and die. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

A jazz prodigy was kidnapped to play for Al Capone. In 1926, Thomas Fats Waller was forced into a car at gunpoint, only to have him perform at Capone's birthday for three days straight while trying not to pass out from exhaustion. It's a story more Chicago than the musical Chicago. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

CRACKED.COM A Spider-Man musical was the most expensive Broadway production ever. Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark was hugely ambitious - and that was its downfall. With the convoluted story being rewritten all the time, and performers constantly getting injured from the elaborate stunts, it didn't last long before it had to be seriously scaled down. — Source

16

CRACKED.COM Sam Neill is a farmer. Everyone's favorite grumpy paleontogist runs Two Paddocks, a vineyard and farm where he doesn't raise dinosaurs, but the next best thing: animals named after his celebrity friends (so he won't be tempted to eat them). Appropriately, Jeff Goldblum is a horny ram. — Source

15

Fortunate Son is in way fewer Vietnam movies than you think. Movies about 'Nam are so unoriginal - they all play Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son, right fellas? Except that no, they don't. The only major movie to use the song in a Vietnam setting is Forrest Gump, which came long after Apocalypse Now, Platoon, or Full Metal Jacket. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

There are dolphins aboard the Enterprise. According to The Next Generation Technical Manual, the crew of Captain Picard's ship includes twelve bottlenose dolphins and two orcas in a section called Cetacean Ops. These wet crewmembers were too expensive for TV, but they were mentioned in passing on a couple episodes. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Lady Gaga slipped swear words past radio censors. Eight times in the recorded version of Poker Face, Gaga sneakily changes the line poker face to f- her face, just to mess with us all - meaning that radio stations everywhere broadcast the uncensored f-word thousands of times without ever realizing it. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

CRACKED.COM Steven Spielberg refused for years to release E.T. on home video. In the mid '80s, home video was booming - but the decade's highest-grossing movie wasn't available. It took the industry six years to convince Spielberg to release his ugly alien on cassette. His more recent beef with streaming platforms isn't exactly unprecedented. — Source

11

The more Brad Pitt eats on screen, the better the movie does. Mark Hofmeyer, notorious movie math guy on the internet, has calculated that movies where Pitt eats more than 200 calories have a better box office and a higher Rotten Tomatoes score. Has Hofmeyer cracked the code to Pitt success? Further nourishing research is needed. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

The Chinese Army has 10,000 trained pigeons in the event that war renders its modern technology unusable. CRACKED.COM The pigeons, flying at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour, are being trained to car- ry loads of up to 3.5 oz. — Source

9

In 1992, Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori initiated a self-coup. CRACKED.COM Despite already being the democratic ruler of the country, he overthrew the Congress and Judiciary with military force and assumed full autocratic power. — Source

8

Starsky & Hutch was based on two real-life NYC cops. CRACKED.COM Lou Telano and John Sepe went undercov- er as Hasidic Jews, gay lovers, and fe- male nurses in the 1960s and 1970s. — Source

7

Microsoft Excel can reach down to 1,048,576 rows. Knjigat - Microsoft Excel Datoteka Polazno Umetanje tagled stranice Formula Podaci Pregled Prikaz Dodaci Optenito Uvjetno oblikovanje Umetni E Calibri 11 A N Z % 000 Oblikuj kao tablicu Izbriti Zaljjepi в I U Sortira of Stilovi celija Oblikuj 2. filtriral Meduspremnik Font Stilovi Celije Poravnanje Bro Uredit & A1 A в с D E F G H 1 J K L M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 GRACKED.COM YouTuber Hunter Hobbs spent nine and a half hours straight holding the down arrow down to scroll all the — Source

6

A flying pig caused Heathrow Airport to cancel all their flights. CRACKED COM When Pink Floyd was de- signing the iconic 'Animals' album cover, the inflatable pig tied to Battersea Pow- er Station broke free. It fi- nally landed on a farm in Kent, where it frightened a herd of cows. — Source

5

Wendy's chocolate Frosty is actually half chocolate and half vanilla. CRACKED.COM Owner Dave Thomas thought full chocolate would be too over- powering a flavor paired with their burger and fries meal. — Source

4

The Opium Trade

A Triad boss named Du Yuesheng was granted the rank of general in the Nationalist Chinese army. CRACKED.COM Не became head of the Opium Suppres- sion Bureau, which he used to seize opium to be sold by his own criminal organization. — Source

3

In 1861, Japan had an illustrated history of America. CRACKED.COM It depicted, among other things, John Adams stabbing a giant snake, and George Washington punching a Ti- ger. It's no more fantastical than what they teach us in school, to be fair. — Source

2

As many as 20 networks rejected the Duffer Brothers' Stranger Things series. CRACKED.COM One executive said they need to make it a kids show or have an adult character (Jim Hopper) be the main protagonist instead. — Source

1

Japanese high school curriculum usually leaves out the early 1900s to WWII. CRACKED.COM Only 19 of the book's 357 pages dealt with events be- tween 1931 and 1945, said Mariko Oi, who attended high school in Tokyo. There was also just one sentence on the atomic bombings of Hiroshi- ma and Nagasaki. — Source

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