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33 Random Bits of Trivia Laid Out Neatly on a Train Track, Just Waiting for Your Brain Caboose to Crush Them One by One

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33 Random Bits of Trivia Laid Out Neatly on a Train Track, Just Waiting for Your Brain Caboose to Crush Them One by One

July 20, 2024

A list of facts is a lot like a trail of breadcrumbs. They’re tiny little morsels of knowledge that might lead to something amazing. And if not, they still add up to a big ol’ knowledge loaf.

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33

Three companies own almost all of the S&P 500. S&P 500 3,669.01 +6.56 2-DA 3681 3672 3663 3654 7 SSS Taken together, the financial firms Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street are the largest single shareholder for almost 90% of the companies that make up the S&P 500. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

32

When threatened or anxious, hagfish produce incredibly bizarre slime. They take less than half a second to release about a bucketful of slime that's 10,000 to 100,000 times softer than Jell-O - it's one of the softest materials science has identified. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

31

Marlon Brando introduced himself to Samuel L. Jackson by quoting the Pulp Fiction Ezekiel speech. Brando then gave him his number, and when Jackson called, he was told he got a Chinese restaurant. So he asked for Brando, and got him--it turned out that was Brando's way of filtering phone calls. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Disney uses a green paint to hide visually hide items in their park The paint is called Go Away Green. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Lions kill hyenas in the wild, just because. 27% They kill hyenas even if they're not hungry, and they're so prolific that they cause around 60% of all hyena deaths. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Vikings didn't wear horns. It was have been extremely impractical to battle in a horned helmet. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Tibbles the cat wiped out an entire species of bird The lighthouse keeper's cat hunted the rare Stephens Island Wren to extinction. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

In 2018, 50 Cent realized he had a bunch of Bitcoins (worth millions at that point). When his album Animal Ambition came out in 2014, he became the first artist to accept BTC and received 700 ВТС. 4 years later, that pile was worth $8 million. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

There is a basketball court above the Supreme Court known as the Highest Court in the Land. CRACKED.COM The building's architect, Cass Gilbert, designed the room for storage - at an unknown point in the 1940s, an unknown person transformed it into a gym. — Source

24

Shopping malls and casinos are both designed to disorient visitors. CRACKED.COM The Gruen Transfer is the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, lose track of their original intentions, making them more susceptible to making impulse buys. — Source

23

A secret level in Starfox has you battle a giant slot machine in space. STARFOX Nintend Revolutionary Super FX Micro Chip Creates Speci Effects Like Never Before! CRACKED.COM Here you fight paper planes to dizzying carnival music, before finally facing off against a slot machine - shoot the lever and get straight 7's to beat it. — Source

22

The first African American to win an Oscar was sat at a segregated table. CRACKED COM When Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar in 1940, for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind, she had to make her way to the stage from a segregated table at the back of the room. — Source

21

Steven Spielberg earned college credit for Jurassic Park. RASSIK CRACKED COM' When Spielberg re-enrolled at California State, Long Beach to earn his BA more than 30 years after dropping out, he was given three course credits in paleontology for making Jurassic Park. — Source

20

An inmate escaped a St. Louis prison with a pair of homemade nunchucks. CRACKED.COM Earning him the nickname Bruce Lee, Lorenzo Pollard battled his way through dozens of guards and multiple levels of the jail with the weapon he made from linen and the legs of a chair. — Source

19

Women used to take their husbands to court for being impotent. CRACKED.COM In 1500s France, it was very difficult for a woman to divorce her husband. They were allowed annulment if they could prove their husband was impotent, so the man would need to rise to the occasion in front of the jury in his defense. — Source

18

An Athenian legislator was killed by adulation. CRACKED COM Following an address to the citizens of Aegina during the 7th century ВС, Draco the Lawgiver was showered with adulation-and gifts. The crowd threw cloaks, hats, and other clothing until Draco was smothered under the pile. — Source

17

The third richest man in the world once vanished on his private airplane. GRACKED.COM In 1928, on a flight to Brussels, Alfred Loewenstein walked to the lavatory and never returned. Some suspect he walked through the wrong door and fell out of the aircraft to his death. — Source

16

Stones were placed in the mouths of corpses so they couldn't come back to life. CRACKED.COM These Vampire Burials involved placing a rock in the jaws of the dead before being lowered to the grave, so that the body couldn't resurrect and infect the living with what killed it - usually diseases the living couldn't understand. — Source

15

In 1864, the first spam message was sent through the telegraph. ro MARCONY THEORAPO 45.Type AMERICA NEW WITH CRACKED.COM The messages were simple, asking wealthy Americans to part with their hard-earned money with dubious investment offers that promised massive returns on large investments. — Source

14

Dolls were used in place of models for early fashion shows. CRACKED.COM Modeling and fashion were not the huge industries that they are today, so up until the 1800s fashion companies used inanimate dolls as opposed to actual human models to showcase the newest looks. — Source

13

A Pope was once put on trial, after his death. CRACKED.COM In 897, Pope Stephen VI had the corpse of a previous pope, Formosus, exhumed, perched on a throne, and questioned about his crimes. The event is known as the Cadaver Synod. — Source

12

Silly String was originally designed to be a spray on cast. CRACKED COM Inventor Leonard A. Fish worked with chemist Robert P. Cox to invent a spray-on cast that could harden in seconds to help broken bones set. When this did not work, they used it instead as a children's toy. — Source

11

There is about 2 to 9 pounds of bacteria in your body. CRACKED COM The human body contains trillions of microorganisms, outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1. These microorganisms make up about 1 to 3 percent of the body's mass, and play a vital role in human health. — Source

10

70% of the Hershey company is owned by a school trust fund. HEY'S HERSHEY'S HERSHEY'S HERS IEY'S HERSHEY'S HERSHEY'S HERS EY'S HERSHEY'S HERSHEY'S CRACKED UFDS GOM Since Milton Hershey didn't have any children, he and his wife opened an orphan- age school and left his en- tire fortune and the owner- ship of Hershey Chocolate Company in trust for the children in the school. — Source

9

A 1972 Vice President candidate had to drop out because he was treated for depression. GRACKED.COM The Democratic candi- date, whose name was perfect for office, Thom- as Eagleton was humili- ated by the revelation that he received electro- shock therapy. — Source

8

A Cold War intelligence operation included forcing the Soviets to use military paperwork as toilet paper. GRAGKED.COM Operation Tamarisk in- volved emptying sup- plies of Soviet Union toi- let paper, forcing them to use documents, and retrieving these docu- ments after use. — Source

7

Nintendo provided gamers special gloves if they injured their hands playing Mario Party 64. The biggest number goes first. 10 8 S 9 GRACKED.COM Complaints were received by New York's attorney general's office about inju- ries sustained while rotat- ing the N64 controller's analog stick, and Nintendo agreed to an $80 million settlement. — Source

6

Each US state manages a federally-allocated fund to support victims of crime. CRACKED.COM If you are the victim of a crime, you can apply for reimbursement for medical services, mental health counseling, lost wages, and other costs incurred as a result of the crime. — Source

5

Retail clothing sizes come from Civil War uniforms. CRACKED.COM Such a massive number of people had to be outfitted during the Civil War that uniforms needed to be mass produced. Soldiers were put into subtypes: large, medium, and small. — Source

4

California's largest body of water, the Salton Sea, was created by an engineering mistake. CRACKED.COM Irrigation canals were dug from the Colorado River to the Salton sink. When the river flooded, a dyke was breached and the entire Colorado River poured into the sink, making the sea. — Source

3

A Tennessee politician received 1,531 votes after assassinating his opponent. 70 60 GRAGKED.COM Byron Looper changed his middle name to Low Tax as a vote-winning stunt, which must have worked since he still got over 1,500 votes a month after killing his opponent. — Source

2

For Christmas, Catalan children feed a hollowed-out log with a painted face. CRACKED COM The children then later sing a song and beat the log with a stick until it def- ecates presents. The first lines of the song go; Shit, tió, hazelnuts and nougats, do not shit herrings, they are too salty. — Source

1

MasterCard started as a not-for-profit membership association in 1966. MasterCard CRACKED.COM By the mid 2000s Master- Card and Visa were han- dling trillions of dollars of transactions between con- sumers and merchants, so they turned into for-profit companies in 2006 and 2007, respectively. — Source

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