40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia We Plucked From a Lion’s Paw

36 Random Bits of Trivia to Take Daily on A Full Stomach and An Empty Brain

40 Random Bits of Trivia That Other Random Bits of Trivia Look to for Guidance

44 Myths, Miconceptions and Counterintuitive Facts That Made Your Brain Zig While Reality Zagged

36 Ridiculous Lies People Believed for Far Too Long

38 Random Facts That Are Kind of a Cosmic Gumbo That Almost Moves to the Beat of Jazz

Do not mention Christmas, or that I do it, at all

38 Random Facts That Are Kind of a Cosmic Gumbo That Almost Moves to the Beat of Jazz

May 15, 2024

This list has it all, from shrimp to andouille to okra. Not literally, though. We’re talking, like, the fact version of all that stuff.

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38

Half of American adults are in a law enforcement face recognition network. GENDER: FEMALE © por AGE GROUP: YOUNG MOPEN ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN : HUMAN BODY PART: HUMAN FACE adidas - 100000000000000000 TIME: 331 S DETECTION: 25621 POINTS CRACKED COM Its use is almost com- pletely unregulated, as most agencies don't even require suspicion of crim- inal activity before using the database for identifi- cation. — Source

37

An extra disparaged 'Shaun of the Dead' to Edgar Wright while filming. CRACKED.COM One of the zombie extras walked up to Edgar Wright, and not knowing he was the director & co-writer, whis- pered in his ear and joked, Oof, straight-to-video for this one! — Source

36

There are facial hair restrictions in the Royal Navy for men with patchy beards. GRAGKED.COM A sailor in the British Royal Navy may only grow a beard if they can achieve a 'respect- able full enough beard' after two weeks' growth. — Source

35

Don't Let These Facts Out Of Your Sight!

Scandinavians are adamant about letting their children nap outside. GRACKED.COM Parents report that ba- bies take longer and deeper naps when they sleep comfortably bun- dled up outside, even in cold weather. — Source

34

The infamous Batman growl in The Dark Knight was not Christian Bale's fault. CRACKED.COM The real voice during film- ing was more toned down and then heightened to a rougher, grittier vibe during post-production un- der the decision of director Christopher Nolan. — Source

33

Three burglars snorted a man's ashes thinking it was cocaine. GRAGKED.COM In 2010, the burglars thought that they had found a stash of cocaine while breaking into a wom- an's house in Central Flori- da. They ended up snort- ing the ashes of a man and his two great Danes. — Source

32

Ed McMahon was a retired Marine Corps Colonel. CRACKED.COM Soon after the Japanese at- tacks on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and entered flight training. Не flew 85 combat missions in the Korean War and earned 6 air medals. — Source

31

The Pentagon has kinetic fireball incendiaries made of rubberized rocket fuel. CRACKED.COM When ignited, they pro- pel themselves random- ly at high speed, bounc- ing off walls, smashing through doors, turning an entire building into an inferno. — Source

30

The plagues of the middle ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. CRACKED.COM These individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system. Plagues played a part in cre- ating these mutations. — Source

29

Most of Steve Jobs' wealth was from his shares in Disney, not Apple. CRACKED.COM Most of the fortune that Jobs passed onto his wife when he died of cancer in 2011 came from a stake of roughly 8% in Disney, ac- quired when he sold the animation studio he co-founded, Pixar, in 2006. — Source

28

Three masked burglars broke into a house and tied up a woman they didn't realize was Dolph Lundgren's wife. LBE CRACKED.COM When the burglars saw a photo of Lundgren, a 4th dan black belt and the European champion in Kyokushin karate, they fled realizing whose house they were in. — Source

27

Collecting stamps was a nearly lifelong passion for Franklin D. Roosevelt. CRACKED.COM When FDR contracted ро- lio in 1921, he turned to his stamps as a distraction during his bedridden days. Не once said, I owe my life to my hobbies, espe- cially stamp collecting. — Source

26

Two rival churches in Vrontados, Greece shoot tens of thousands of fireworks at each other every Easter. CRACKED.COM Both churches then claim victory in the Rocket War, and agree to settle the score next year. The tradition dates back to the Ottoman era when real cannons were used instead. — Source

25

Ketchup is a non-newtonian fluid. CRACKED.COM Unlike other such fluids, its viscosity actually lowers when a force is applied to it. This is why ketchup will often pour out in such large unintended quanti- ties after a little shake. — Source

24

Breyers cannot be called ice cream in Canada because it no longer contains enough milk and cream. CRACKED.COM As a result of excessive amounts of additives in their ice cream to cut costs, Canada determined their product must be la- beled Frozen Dairy Des- sert or Frozen Dessert. — Source

23

Candy Crush is a rip off of another game. andy GRACKED.COM SAG After his mom died, Albert Ransom learned to code and built an indie game called CandySwipe. Two years later, the near-iden- tical game Candy Crush Saga was released. — Source

22

There was going to be a secret chamber carved into Mount Rushmore. GRACKED.COM The sculptor, Gutzon Bor- glum, planned to make a secret room behind the hairline of Abraham Lin- coln leading to a chamber originally intended to hold some of America's most treasured documents. — Source

21

A person with damage to the right brain hemisphere can develop a joke addiction. CRACKED.COM This a compulsive need to constantly make jokes. That's not what we have, though, we are just terri- fied of a single second of unoccupied silence that may force us to be intro- spective. Fart! — Source

20

A women's magazine led a crowdfunding campaign in 1921 to buy Marie Curie more radium. CRACKED.COM After a fundraising cam- paign led by American wom- en, Curie traveled to the United States to be present- ed with one gram of radium by President Warren Hard- ing on May 20, 1921. — Source

19

Bill O'Reilly wrote a book in 1998 that eerily mirrors his Fox News firing amid sexual harassment lawsuits. CRACKED.COM O'Reilly wrote a novel named 'Those Who Tres- pass' about a tall, bitter, sexually predatory newsman who gets forced out of his job and starts murdering former colleagues who helped ruin his career. — Source

18

A Cannibal sandwich consisting of raw beef and onion on rye bread is a Milwaukee Christmas tradition. The tradition likely goes back to the northern Euro- peans who settled in the state, but has been waning in popularity, and the USDA has come out to say it is unsafe to eat the raw delicacy. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

John F. Kennedy's dog had puppies with the offspring of a Soviet space dog. Strelka, who had spent a day aboard Sputnik 2, had a puppy that was present- ed to JFK in 1961. The dog, Pushinka, and Charlie, the White House dog, had four puppies that JFK referred to as pupniks. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

A job can be so boring that it makes you sick. There is a psychological disorder called Boreout (Boredom burnout syn- drome), which can lead to psychological illnesses such as depression as well as physical illnesses. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Hugh Jackman changed it so, as Wolverine, he would be naked in X-Men: Days of Future Past. It was written that Wolver- ine was to wake up in 1973 in his underwear, but Hugh Jackman claimed that if he were to wake up next to a really good looking girl, he wouldn't be wearing anything. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

Denzel Washington volunteered to actually be waterboarded for the movie Safe House. For the interrogation scene, Washington was re- ally put through the tor- ture, albeit for a few sec- onds at a time. Co-star Ryan Reynolds called it one of the most disturb- ing things I've ever seen. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

In 2010, a Florida jail forced some inmates to watch The Polar Express on repeat. One inmate said, I hear those little kids screaming through my brain. All night long I can hear them, he told CNN. I can close my eyes, but I'm still going to hear them over and over and over. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

12

New Coke was never confirmed to be a conspiracy to promote the relaunch of the original recipe. NEW! The return of the original formula as Coca-Cola Clas- sic was very successful. When asked if New Coke was a the soda, an execu- tive replied: We're not that dumb, and we're not that smart. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

11

Richard the Lionheart knighted his cook after one particularly memorable feast. Richard made him 'lord of the fief of the kitchen of the counts of Poitou'. The cook was an important member of a noble house- hold because his mistakes could kill his employer. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

10

The Archives of Terror were found by accident by a lawyer and a judge in 1992. They were looking for files on a former prisoner in a police station near Paraguay and stumbled upon archives doc- umenting an international conspiracy involving the tor- ture, murder, and imprison- ment of 480,000 people. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

9

Sean Connery defended himself against a gunman on the set of Another Time, Another Place. While filming a love scene for the movie, his co-star's gangster boyfriend got jealous and pulled a gun on him. Connery grabbed the gun from his hand and twisted the guy's wrist un- til he ran off the set. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

8

King William II of England was shot through the lung with an arrow and left to die. After the accident, his body was aban- doned by the nobles, found by a peasant and returned to Win- chester Cathedral by farmers. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

7

Bees

Bees can't see red, and what we perceive as the color red is seen as black. However, they can see ultraviolet light. UV al- lows them to see vein-like patterns in a flower, like a map that allows them to locate the nectar source. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

Agatha Christie was investigated by MI5 over a book about code breaking. She wrote a novel in 1941 about WWII code breaking featuring a character named Major Bletchley, un- aware that there was a then-secret code-breaking facility in Bletchley Park. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

5

Rufus the Hawk has been employed by Wimbledon for 15 years to scare about pigeons. The All England Club em- ploys Rufus to patrol their 42-acre grounds through- out the year, with daily vis- its during the two weeks of The Championships and the 2012 Summer Olym- pics. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

The South Park pilot was accidentally included on the Tiger Woods PGA Tour '99 game. Media Ition The game had to be re- called because the entire South Park pilot was used as dummy data on the disc and players could watch the episode by simply put- ting the game disc into a PC. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

3

The father of modern taxonomy fled Hamburg after debunking the mayor's taxidermied hydra. Carl Linnaeus stopped in the German town and was presented the supposed remains of a seven-headed hydra, which Linnaeus identified as being cob- bled together with weasel and snake parts. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

There is a meme for German internet users to pretend the town of Bielefeld does not exist. The town in fact decid- ed to put out a press re- lease in 1999 confirming their existence, but they did so on April 1st, only further perpetuating the meme. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

Marine snails' teeth are the strongest natural material on the Earth. Using a tooth-studded tongue called a radula, limpets grind down rock as they feed. They can withstand pressures high enough to turn carbon into diamond. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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