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Took us a while to get these stupid lids off, but we got there

38 Random Bits of Trivia We Found in Our Grandmother’s Medicine Cabinet

July 03, 2024

Our joints have never felt better, our cholesterol has never been lower. This is living.

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38

Hiroshima

A camera operator was meant to capture the bombing of Hiroshima, but messed up. CRACKED COM Bernard Waldman witnessed the bombing of Hiroshima, and had a special high-speed movie camera with 6 seconds of film to record the blast. Un- fortunately, he forgot to open the shutter at the critical mo- ment. — Source

37

The US Military still uses 8-inch floppy disks on outdated IBM computers to run the nuclear missile systems. HD CRACKED.COM It's because they are in- credibly hard to hack. The computers are essentially air-gapped and the old IBM computers are reliable. They could run for another 40 years with spare parts. — Source

36

Potholes around Mumbai are being filled in by a father who lost his son in a road accident. GRACKED COM Dadarao Bilhore took it upon himself to fill pot- holes to prevent more acci- dents, using sand, gravel, and cement gathered from building sites. Не has filled 600 potholes since 2015. — Source

35

Terry Bradshaw

Terry Bradshaw got his start in college football after the starter left his senior season. CRACKED.COM The incumbent starter, Phil Robertson, decided to forgo his senior season in order to pursue other interests. Rob- ertson would go on to cre- ate the Duck Commander Company and later star on 'Duck Dynasty.' — Source

34

A 2,200 year old mummy was preserved in a mystery liquid scientists can't replicate. CRACKED.COM Lady Dais of the Han Dynasty was found over 2,000 years after her death and remains one of the world's most well-preserved mummies. She still had soft skin, internal or- gans, and blood in her veins when she was discovered. — Source

33

Andrew Jackson refused to shine a British officer's shoes when he was a POW. CRACKED.COM Future U.S. President and then teenage-POW An- drew Jackson took a saber to the face from the British officer after his refusal. Не then grew fond of the scar, calling it his own badge of freedom. — Source

32

There is a free hotline for people with baking questions. GRACKED.COM King Arthur Flour has a Но- tline where you can speak to a Baker free of charge. Their hotline is (855) 371-2253. You can talk di- rectly to a Baker and get all your questions answered. — Source

31

The largest faceted gemstone in the world weighs 31,000 carats. CRACKED.COM The El-Dorado Topaz weighs 13.67 lbs, but was 81 pounds when it was originally discovered in 1984 in mineral-rich Minas Gerais, Brazil, be- fore it was cut. — Source

30

The Torah

A single mistake in a Torah scroll makes it unusable. CRACKED.COM When writing a Torah scroll, an error of a single letter, ornamentation, or symbol of the 304,805 stylized letters that make up the Hebrew Torah text renders it unfit to use. — Source

29

Apple argued that tapping a smartphone falls under their Slide-to-Unlock patent. CRACKED.COM In a case against Motoro- la, Apple argued that a tap is a zero-length swipe. The judge called these patent battles a ri- diculous abuse of intel- lectual property law. — Source

28

It is a crime to refuse a summon from the NJ Forest Fire Service. - A3 FOREST FIRE SERVICE CRACKED.COM The New Jersey Forest Fire Service can summon any person aged 18 to 50 in their jurisdiction to help fight a wildfire or for use of their property in assisting. — Source

27

In 2012, an Air Canada passenger flight took a detour to help find a stranded yacht. AIRCANADA CRACKED COM The plane dropped from 37,000 feet to 4,000 feet to search off the Australian coast. It took the passen- gers 25 minutes after the emergency beacon was ac- tivated to locate the yacht. — Source

26

A Nobel winning scientist was high on LSD when he first deduced the structure of DNA. CRACKED.COM Francis Crick told a fellow scientist that he often used small doses of LSD then an experimental drug used in psychother- apy to boost his powers of thought. — Source

25

The Sun Bear is the world's smallest bear species. CRACKED.COM Sun bears, who grow to only 28 inches tall, are shy and reclusive and may bark if startled. They pre- fer to spend their time away from people (and predators), sunbathing and sleeping in trees. — Source

24

There is a type of psychological torture that includes extreme sensory deprivation and isolation. GRAGKED.COM 'White torture' involves putting the prisoner in a completely white, sound- proof room. This torture makes the detainee lose personal identity and can cause hallucinations. — Source

23

Carl Weathers

Carl Weathers had only done minor acting roles when he auditioned for the part of Apollo Creed. CRACKED.COM Weathers, a retired NFL line- backer, got the role because during the audition, he said Sylvester Stallone wasn't a real actor and Stallone thought it was something Creed would say. — Source

22

The Cincinnati Reds changed their name to not be associated with communism. Reds CRACKED COM From 1953 to 1958 the Cin- cinnati Reds officially changed their name to the Cincinnati Redlegs, saying that the name of the club had been Red Stockings and then Redlegs. — Source

21

Chris Hansen was caught cheating on his wife by a hidden-camera sting operation. CRACKED.COM After he was caught, Han- sen was fired from NBC's Dateline: To Catch a Preda- tor, a show that featured him conducting a sting ор- eration on online sex pred- ators by catching them on hidden cameras. — Source

20

The Maui of Maori mythology was crushed inside a vagina with obsidian teeth. Maui was attempting to win immorality for mankind by turning into a worm and en- tering the sleeping Great Goddess of the Underworld, Hine-nui-te-po, but the birds he brought with him started to laugh and woke her up. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

19

A writer and producer for The Simpsons wants the show to end the same as it began. Al Jean said he would like the final episode to end with the arrival of the Christmas pag- eant from the first scene of the pilot episode Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, making the whole series a continuous loop. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

18

A secret, functional restaurant was uncovered in the Paris Catacombs. The restaurant had tables and chairs, a fully-stocked bar, with electricity and three phone lines. When police ar- rived three days later to trace the power lines, they saw they had been cut, and a note was left saying, Do not try and find us. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

A dashboard originated from horse-drawn carriages. e A dashboard was a barrier of wood or leather fixed at the front of a horse-drawn carriage or sleigh to pro- tect the driver from mud or other debris dashed up by the horses' hooves. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

A Louisiana senator wanted to bring hippos to the US as meat and deal with invasive water plants. Robert F. Broussard pro- posed the American Hip- po Bill in 1910, which would have brought the animals from Africa to solve a meat shortage in the United States. The bill nearly passed. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Lord of the Rings

According to Hollywood accounting, the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy was a financial loss. Despite earning $3 billion on a budget of $100 mil- lion, the Peter Jackson movies made horren- dous losses and no prof- it at all, according to New Line Cinema. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

NASA only uses 15 digits of pi for calculating interplanetary travel. At 40 digits, you could calculate the circumfer- ence of a circle the size of the visible universe to an accuracy equal to the di- ameter of a hydrogen atom. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

The villain in Disney's 'Pocahontas' was inspired by a real person that met a gruesome end. Governor John Rat- cliffe was flayed and burned alive by Native Americans after they lured him to their vil- lage by promising to trade with him. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

12

We might be addressing US Presidents as your Majesty, if not for Washington. The official manner of ad- dress for the President of the United States could have been Highness or Majesty, if not for George Washington con- senting that the final title be simply Mr. President. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

11

Male orangutans can be attracted to women with red hair. One male, Hsing-Hs- ing, has even ripped pictures of Nicole Kid- man out of magazines and placed them in his enclosure at the Perth Zoo. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

10

Mao Zedong never brushed his teeth. Once, when his pri- vate physician sug- gested to him that he should use a tooth- brush, he replied, A tiger never brushes his teeth. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

9

Mormon prophet Joseph Smith thought six foot Quakers lived one the moon. Around the mid 19th cen- tury, Smith said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth that live to 1,000 years old and averaging near six feet in height. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

8

People in polyamorous relationships made their own word for what they feel when their partner is with someone else. The word 'compersion' was popularized by people in on- line communities devoted to polyamory and open rela- tionships, in order to de- scribe the opposite of feel- ing jealous when your part- ner dates somebody else. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

7

Frédéric Chopin's heart was pickled and smuggled out of France after his death. The legendary composer and pianist asked on his death- bed that his heart be re- moved because he was afraid of being buried alive. His sis- ter pickled it in cognac and delivered it to the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

Only the highest-ranking rooster gets to crow first at dawn. Lower-ranking birds must wait their turn to crow, and to eat. They also sound off in order of their rank, from high to low. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

5

In the early days of Home Depot, they would stock shelves with empty boxes. 20 Doors & Lumber Windows Dougles Fin Studs 2xd's 19 He 2xB's the Plumbing - منامج Anderson finished moulding crem ELL Home Depot persuaded the vendors to give them empty boxes after the vendors were afraid that Home Depot could not pay them for all the merchandise. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

The Netherlands

Much of the land in the Netherlands lies below sea level, and is very susceptible to flooding. Authorities, farmers, and citi- zens decided to join forces and team up in organizations called district water boards. Nearly a thousand years lat- er, about 26% of the Nether- lands would be flooded with- in weeks if water boards would stop working. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

3

Humans were an endangered species twice in our history. About 1.2 million years ago, there were probably only around 18,500 individuals ca- pable of breeding. Human- kind was reduced to 1,000 in- dividuals after a supervolca- no explosion triggered a nu- clear winter 70,000 years ago. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

The appendix keeps coming back after humans evolve without it. Cenal Brunchre Flood brusches AS The human appendix has evolved at least 29 times and been lost a maximum of 12 times, but evolution keeps bringing it back in mammals, possibly due to it having an important role in immune function. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

British new wave pop group Thompson Twins released a video game on a vinyl record in 1984. Players had to copy the game from the vi- nyl disc to a cassette tape, which could then be played on a ZX Spectrum or Commo- dore 64 computer. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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