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Facts that can be seen, heard, tasted, smelled and felt

31 Random Bits of Trivia to Huff Into Your Data Receptors

June 15, 2024

Need a little brain boost? Well, like a jolt of electricity, a fact is sure to get those receptors and/or synapses sparking. We’re not exactly sure how it works. It’s just the feeling we get after reading each one. Try it for yourself with all the facts below!

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31

Galileo mathematically mapped Hell. Long before The Lord of the Rings, nerds liked to argue about Dante's Inferno-and Galileo Galilei outnerded them all. In 1588, a young Galileo gave a series of lectures presenting his calculations about the physical and mathematical properties of Dante's Hell, and poking holes into other fans' theories. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

CRACKED.COM Max von Sydow had a secret role in Ghostbusters II. Von Sydow voiced Vigo the Carpathian in the 2009 Ghostbusters video game- and fans noticed that he sounded exactly like Vigo in Ghostbusters II. Eventually, producers spilled the truth- they had von Sydow overdub the original actor's voice in the movie, and never told anyone. — Source

29

Your earlobe wrinkles may predict future heart conditions. Like some sort of science-based palmistry, a crease on your earlobe (known as Frank's sign) may be correlated with a higher rate of coronary artery disease. No one knows how it works, with many assuming the sign results from smoking and other unhealthy habits. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

The Flash used to be a huge square. Love CONQUERS ALL! In most media incarnations nowadays, Barry Allen is a wisecracking, lighthearted rookie - but back in the day, he was the most stuck-up member of the Justice League. Не was a bowtie-wearing cop who regularly fought hippies and Satanic rockers. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Nukes helped US learn that whale sharks can live over 100 years. The vertebrae of whale sharks have a ring build- up, kind of like trees-but it wasn't known how long those rings take to grow. Cold War nuclear tests helped solve the puzzle-by locating a spike of radioactive isotopes in the vertebrae, we can more easily calculate the growth rate. So ... hooray for nukes? CRACKED.COM — Source

26

CRACKED.COM The creator of Peter Pan wrote Sherlock Holmes fanfic. Think fanfiction is a thing of the internet? People have been writing (and publishing) pastiches and imaginary sequels with their favorite characters since the 1800s. J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, wrote his own Sherlock Holmes adventure in 1893. — Source

25

A Soviet general got Coca-Cola into the USSR. Coke's imperialistic reputation bugged General Georgy Zhukov, who had taken a liking to the brown sugary beverage during World War II. So through his foreign contacts, he got crates of colorless Coke sent to him, which he could happily chug without anyone suspecting it wasn't vodka. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

He-Man villain Beast Man has a tragic backstory. The series bible states that Skeletor's furry minion used to be Biff Beastman, a regular Earth guy who crash-landed in Eternia along with He-Man's future mom. So while his travel mate ended up marrying a king, Biff was mutated by Skeletor into an animalistic henchman. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Ronald McDonald can't say that burgers come from cows. The dream gig as the corporate mascot of a multinational fast food company comes with some rules-the most bizarre of those being, you are never allowed to tell children where burgers come from if they ask. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

American Psycho 2 wasn't supposed to be American Psycho 2. When Mila Kunis signed up for a slasher movie, she had no idea it was an American Psycho sequel-because no one did. It wasn't until production kicked off that the producers decided to connect the two films. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Euro bills could have a unicorn on them. Among the many designs considered for the Euro banknotes in the '90s, some were quite unconventional - a particular entry depicting a majestic unicorn on the 100 Euro bill. The fact that it wasn't picked is reason enough to call BUROTOOEY European authorities ACE LCP EZ B B 1 cowards, forever. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

CRACKED.COM The cast and crew of Titanic did PCP by accident. A night of shooting was cut short when dozens of people got extremely high and had to be rushed to the hospital. As it turned out, the clam chowder the crew had for lunch had been spiked with PCP. It was never known who tried to turn the shooting into a wild rave. — Source

19

Coachella is owned by a right- wing billionaire. Like many of our hippest institutions, the Coachella Festival is owned by a rich old codger. In this case, it's 81-year- old oil mogul Philip Anschutz, who has thrown money at decidedly un-hippie causes like climate change denial and immigration panic, and has helped anti-LGBT politicians get elected. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Willy Wonka has a sequel partly set in outer space. In Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket, and Charlie's family ride a magic elevator to space, where they meet aliens-and that's the least bonkers thing that happens. It's an outrage that we never got a movie adaptation. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

CRACKED.COM Billionaires stifle innovation more often than they advance it. The much touted innovation is a lot harder and rarer than you've been led to think, and not how most billionaires make their fortunes. For big companies, it's just much easier and lucrative to keep churning out new versions of whatever has worked before. — Source

16

Dangerous neighborhoods aren't particularly dangerous. Yes, some neighborhoods have a high crime rate, but statistics alone don't make them less safe than other places. Crime is pretty much concentrated in highly specific areas, among highly specific people. You're not more likely to be robbed in a bad neighborhood than anywhere else. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

CRACKED COM Romans had porn coins. Coins with sexy imagery have been found for centuries, going back to the early times of the Roman Empire. Regular money, however, wasn't X-rated- so it isn't clear what the deal with these was. It's been theorized they were tokens to be used at brothels. — Source

14

OF JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NO FEDERAL The FBI spent two PIDELITY ER years investigating a BUREAU fake anti-Goth group. Among the many online groups the FBI keeps tabs on was an Е.Д.Л. x extremist church which ran a website called God Hates - of do my membership et - Goths. The group wasn't real, though-as the agents found out when they thought of checking the site's About Us page, after over two years of investigating them. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

The original settlers of Madagascar really went out of their way to get there. You'd think that Madagascar was first settled by people coming from Africa - and you'd be wrong. Madagascar's indigeous population are descended from people who canoed all the way from Indonesia, 3,000 miles away. The motivation for that long trip is still a mystery. GRACKED COM — Source

12

Insert Home Page Cut Ca Copy Using Excel cost JPMorgan billions. You'd think that a huge financial company would use something fancier than Excel. JPMorgan didn't - to assess risky investments, they relied on a complex series of spreadsheets. Predictably, small errors snowballed, eventually costing the company over $6 billion in 2012. В A CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Boneless wings aren't wings at all. We're sorry to break it to you, but those boneless wings you just had were never used by any chicken to pathetically flap around. The nuggets are actually made with chicken tenders (from the breast of the bird). Calling them wings is just a marketing ploy. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Paper airplanes have existed for thousands of years. The Chinese have been folding paper into flying shapes for the last 2,000 years. Of course, they didn't call them airplanes- those were more like simple origami birds. Paper planes as we know them today date back to the Civil War, when they were called paper darts. GRAGKED.COM — Source

9

CRACKED.COM Riverdale's Marisol Nichols fights sex criminals in real life. In the lulls of her acting job, Nichols moonlights as an undercover agent, helping the FBI hunt down sex predators. It sounds like the premise for a TV show - so of course, it's been turned into a TV show by Sony Pictures Television. — Source

8

GRACKED.COM People used to get poisoning from potatoes. Before modern screening processes, it wasn't uncommon for people to get solanine poisoning from potatoes. Solanine is one of the same ingredients that make deadly nightshade, well, deadly. Green potatoes tend to be chock-full of the nasty stuff. — Source

7

Bugs Bunny was a reskinned Daffy Duck. The first cartoon featuring Daffy Duck was very well received-so people over at Warner Bros. just went and ripped off their own hit, changing the loony duck for a loony rabbit. Then Bugs was further developed with the years, becoming the trickster we know today. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

The Professional could have been much creepier. The gross Lolita angle is mostly subtext, and easily overlooked - but it was intended to be right there in your face. Luc Besson's original screenplay includes a scene where Mathilda seduces Léon, and he is unable to oppose her. Yikes. CRACKED COM — Source

5

Clark Kent exists in the Marvel Universe. In 1976, Clark Kent and Lois Lane were included in an X-Men comic as a sight gag - and that became a running joke. Не has had over 20 copyright-bending cameos between the '70s and the 2000s. Не isn't Superman here, though-he's just a particularly buff reporter. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Doctor Manhattan's body model died trying to outrun a train. Greg Plitt was an actor, fitness model, and all-around badass. Dr. Manhattan's CGI body for 2009's Watchmen was modeled after his ripped physique. And it looks like he thought he had real superpowers: In 2015, he was mowed down by a train, apparently while trying to prove he was faster. (Не wasn't.) CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Teddy Roosevelt loved boxing with random people. Roosevelt liked fisticuffs so much that he had a boxing gym installed in the White House's basement, and would invite pretty much everyone to a bout. Не had to quit the sport after a military aide nearly blinded him in his left eye. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

GRACKED.COM Wonder Woman had two secret identities in an unproduced series. In a pilot made in 2011, Wonder Woman was Diana Themyscira, CEO of a company that managed her own superhero image. And she was also Diana Prince, an employee at her own company. Apparently, just being two people didn't keep her busy enough. — Source

1

CRACKED.COM Kodak learned about secret nuclear tests by accident. In July 1945, Kodak started noticing that a sensitive film they made was fogged (covered with dark spots). As this was caused by radioactive contamination, they eventually figured out that the likely cause was that holy s#!t someone was setting off nuclear bombs. — Source

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