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40 Random Bits of Trivia That Are Like an External Charger for Your Hippocampus

Just in case you run out in the middle of the day

40 Random Bits of Trivia That Are Like an External Charger for Your Hippocampus

May 29, 2024

Let’s face it, your hardware isn’t as efficient as it used to be. Use this list when you run out of juice in the middle of the day.

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

40

A radiological laboratory research worker committed suicide in 1960 by radiation poisoning. 3 The 19-year-old took a capsule containing cesi- um-137 and put it in his left pants pocket for 5 hours, then shifted it around his abdomen and back for 15 hours. Не died after 15 days. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

39

Dairy cows typically are born with horns and they are de-horned when young. Dairy farmers over- time use selective breeding to eliminate the recessive gene that causes horns in both male and female cattle. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

38

Meghan Markle's nephew is a marijuana farmer in Oregon. For the royal wedding, he developed a new marijua- na variety called Markle Sparkle. The strain is good for helping alleviate insomnia, pain and anxiety, and doesn't make users feel too hungry. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

37

Some of the European public was in favor of the war in 1914, being bored with peace. The impact of modern weapons was not well un- derstood and many peo- ple in the government, military and civilian pop- ulation imagined that the conflict would be short. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

36

Jim Carrey met with an expert who trained CIA operatives to deal with torture on The Grinch. The makeup process was so grueling that after the first 8 hour application process, Carrey nearly quit the mov- ie. The advice he was given was to punch himself in the leg, eat everything in sight, and smoke. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

35

Sony bought a hard drive with over a thousand unreleased Michael Jackson songs. Sony paid $250 million for the drive, which includes unreleased material Jack- son recorded as a solo art- ist featuring established artists such as Freddie Mercury and Barry Gibb. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

34

Carl Sagan defended having rock music on the Voyager Golden Record. There was some controver- sy over the inclusion of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny В. Goode,' with Sagan being told rock music was ado- lescent. Sagan responded, There are a lot of adoles- cents on the planet. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

33

Switzerland has enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate its entire population. It's a law that every in- habitant - ... have a protect- ed place that can be reached quickly from his place of residence. Most buildings constructed since the 1960s incorpo- rate a fallout shelter. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

32

The longest continuous minefield in the world is in the Sahara desert. The 1677 mile long Мо- roccan Wall was created in 1987 it is still manned 24/7/365 by thousands of soldiers, supported by ra- dar and surveillance equipment. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

31

There is enough salt in the oceans to cover the Earth in a layer 500 feet thick. If the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer about the height of a 40-story office building. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

30

The Iroquois Theater in Chicago was billed as Absolutely Fireproof in advertisements when it opened. EVERY MIGHT with BLUEBEARD It lasted 37 days be- fore being destroyed in what is still the deadliest single-build- ing fire in U.S. history, leaving 602 dead and 250 injured. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

29

An English plumber and businessman named Thomas Crapper held three toilet patents. Crapper's patents are still in use today, including the U-bend pipe that keeps the smell of sewage from ema- nating out of our toilets. Crapper was noted for the quality of his products and received several royal war- rants. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

28

In 1898, Congress passed a tax on long-distance calls to pay for the Spanish-American War. en The war ended 4 months later, but the tax remained in place for over 100 years. On Au- gust 1, 2006, the IRS an- nounced it would no longer collect the tax. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

27

A rooster was sentenced to be burned at the stake in 1474. The rooster was put on tri- al in the city of Basel for the heinous and unnatural crime of laying an egg, which the townspeople were concerned was spawned by Satan and contained a cockatrice. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

26

The diamond engagement ring was invented by an ad campaign in the 1930s. Before that few Americans proposed with the precious stone, and the price of dia- mond was falling. Now, 3/4ths of American brides wear a diamond engage- ment ring, which costs an average of $4,000. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

25

The South African province of Free State spent $4 million for a website that is hosted on Wordpress. The website is powered by the free blogging plat- form and according to developers is based on a theme called London Live Wordpress Theme, which costs only $40. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

24

If you fail your practical driving test three times in Switzerland, you have to visit a psychologist. An official psychologist in Berne will assess the rea- sons for your previous fail- ures. Once the psycholo- gist reports that you are once again ready to take the exam, you can try again. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

23

Music is common to all known human cultures worldwide. Other such 'Cultural Universal' phenomena include Personal Names, Sexual Jealou- sy, Proverbs, and In- cest Prevention or Avoidance. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

22

Air traffic controllers get a break every 2 hours. When controllers re- main on position for more than 2 hours without a break, per- formance can deterio- rate rapidly, even at low traffic levels. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

21

Matt LeBlanc dislocated his shoulder filming an episode of 'Friends' to an audience of contest winners. The set was shut down meaning War- ner Brothers had to fly the Pepsi contest win- ners home and then back out for another episode. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

20

A blind king fought and died in a battle during the Hundred Years War. CRACKED GOM Blind King John of Bohemia ordered his men to tie their horses to his and guide him into the battle. As the battle turned sour, he was advised to flee but he replied Far be it that the King of Bohemia should run away. — Source

19

An asteroid will fly by Earth closer than the moon on Friday the 13th. Moon CRACKED.COM Earth In April of 2029, the more than 1,000 foot wide rock, 99942 Apophis, will shoot across the sky, eas- ily observed with the na- ked eye from Asia and North Africa. — Source

18

Sinatra couldn't get tickets to Ali vs Frazier, so he went as a photographer. CRACKED.COM Frank Sinatra man- aged to get a press pass to shoot photos for the LIFE magazine during the 1971 Fight of the Century. — Source

17

Marlon Brando refused to learn his lines for Superman (1978). CRACKED.COM Instead, he read them off baby Superman's diaper. Brando was paid $3.7 mil- lion and 11.75% of the back- end for just 13 days of work, with less than 20 minutes of total screen time. — Source

16

Spain has been in the wrong time zone for 70 years. GRAGKED.COM Spain's dictator Francisco Franco set the country's clocks an hour ahead in World War 2 in order to be aligned with Nazi Ger- many, and the change was never reverted. — Source

15

Conspiracy theorists think a thermal blanket lost during a space mission is an alien satellite. CRACKED.COM The Black Knight satellite theory combines several un- related stories into one nar- rative, most notably that a piece of space debris is alien technology that has been locked in polar orbit for 13,000 years. — Source

14

A promotion by Paul McCartney was mistaken for an antisemitic slur. HeyJude Hey Bing! HEY JUDE AMOS THOSE WERE THE DAYS BAS 200 LITTLE GREEN APPLES CRACKED.COM THE STRAIGHT LIFE McCartney painted Hey Jude on the window of a closed boutique to pro- mote his newest single. A Jewish passerby mistook this for Jude meaning Jew in German, and smashed the window. — Source

13

Oxygen masks in airplanes are not connected to oxygen tanks. CRACKED.COM The masks use a chemical reaction from sodium chlorate and barium per- oxide, with less than 1 percent potassium per- chlorate, to produce оху- gen for 12 to 22 minutes. — Source

12

Almost 1 of every 4 beds sold in the late '80s was a Waterbed. GRACKED.COM Waterbeds date all the way back to 3600 ВСЕ, when- Persians filled goat-skin mattresses with water warmed by the sun. Mod- ern waterbeds were de- signed for hospital ра- tients with bed sores. — Source

11

An Austrian man was taken into custody and forgotten about for nearly three weeks. CRACKED COM Andreas Mihavecz was left in his cell for 18 days by policemen. Не lost 53 pounds and holds the re- cord of surviving the lon- gest without any food or liquids. — Source

10

A gang of grandpas stole $200 million in cash and jewels from an English bank. fi CRACKED.COM The Grandpa Gang, a group of men the oldest be- ing 76, committed the big- gest bank robbery in English history by climbing down an elevator shaft and drilling through a concrete wall. — Source

9

A Tour de France winner during WWII used his fame to smuggle documents through Nazi checkpoints. CRACKED.COM Under the guise of train- ing, Gino Bartali smug- gled counterfeit docu- ments hidden inside his bi- cycle in Italy. These docu- ments allowed as many as 800 Jews escape persecu- tion by the Nazis. — Source

8

George Washington didn't want a Washington Monument. CRACKED COM Не didn't want to use pub- lic money for a personal memorial monument. In 1833, a small group of Washingtonians estab- lished a society to raise private funds for the proj- ect and got it built. — Source

7

The last woolly mammoths died out on Wrangel Island in Northern Russia 4000 years ago. CRACKED.COM French explorers in 1872 found so many preserved mammoth bodies on an expedition to the North Pole that for a time they were a reliable food source for them. — Source

6

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine had to re-teach himself guitar after damaging his left hand. CRACKED GOM While at rehab, Mustaine suffered an injury by fall- ing asleep with his left arm over the back of a chair, causing compression of the radial nerve. It took him four months to relearn to play. — Source

5

Giraffes eat from trees downwind of other trees so they don't get poisoned. CRACKED.COM Acacias trees release an airborne chemical called 'Ethylene,' alerting nearby acacia trees to produce tannin, a toxin that makes the leaves poisonous and lethal if over-consumed. — Source

4

More yellowy white chocolate is actually of better quality than fully white chocolate. CRACKED.COM White chocolate is white because it doesn't contain cocoa solids. Instead, it is made from cocoa but- ter (the fatty part). — Source

3

More high-ranking Nazi officers died in the Czech car Tatra 77а and 87 than in active combat. CRACKED COM The officers would drive the car fast, but the handling was so bad that at a sharp turn they would wind up los- ing control. This prompted Hitler to ban his officers from driving them. — Source

2

An opera singer helped fake the death of her woman lover. CRACKED.COM The woman that swords- woman and opera singer Julie d'Aubigny seduced was placed in a convent by her parents. Julie joined her, placed a dead nun in her bed, and set the place on fire to escape. — Source

1

Musicians working with Ella Fitzgerald would use her voice to tune their instruments. GRACKED.COM The vocal jazz legend had such impeccable timing and perfect pitch that it was the best mid-20th century way to keep your in- struments in tune. — Source

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