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36 Razor-Sharp Bits of Trivia That Will Carve Up Your Brain Like a Sushi Chef

Time to surgically implant some knowledge

36 Razor-Sharp Bits of Trivia That Will Carve Up Your Brain Like a Sushi Chef

August 10, 2024

Reading and comprehending facts just isn’t enough. That’s why we sharpened these to make sure they truly penetrate your brain. It might hurt a little, but how else are they supposed to get in there?

Ooh, maybe fact arrows. They penetrate and get driven deeper in there. Perfect!

Okay, now hold still. Here they come!

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

36

Until 2011, beer was officially considered a soft drink in the Russian Federation. Before that, anything with less than 10% alcohol was classified as foodstuff, and classifying beer as alcoholic gave the government more control over it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

35

Moscow's metro dogs actually use the subway system to travel through the city. Some of them just live in the subway, but some use it to take short trips through city, and some take long trips and work the subway crowds for treats. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

34

Deep beneath a Siberian impact crater, there are trillions of carats of diamonds. The Popigai crater, about 100 kilometers wide, lies above enough diamonds to supply all the world's diamond needs for the next three millennia. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

33

Beyoncé's lyric mentioning Red Lobster caused their sales to increase by 33% NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

32

С. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien both went to a party dressed as polar bears. It wasn't a costume party. They were just eccentric. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

31

Vidal Sassoon (yes, the hairstylist) was the youngest member of an anti-fascist group. Sassoon was only 17 when he joined Group 43, which physically broke up fascist meetings. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

30

George Cowan was shot three times (once in the head), crawled to make coffee, crawled across Yellowstone, crossed a river... ...was burnt in a forest fire, thrown from a carriage, and his bed broke while receiving care. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Florence Nightingale was a pioneering medical statistician. Her work in statistics saved lives, and her data visualization was ground-breaking. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

After being refused by the War Office, Mary Seacole used her own money to serve as a nurse during the Crimean War. Due to racism, she almost forgotten to history, compared to her contemporary Nightingale. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Hans Münch was known as the humane Nazi. Не secretly helped inmates escape from Auschwitz and was acquitted of war crimes. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Shaq only made one three-pointer in his entire career. An important lesson in playing to your strengths. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

CRACKED BABIES CAN CRAWL ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER BIRTH. Newborn babies have a reflex called the stepping reflex, which causes them to move their legs as if they are taking steps. Although they cannot walk yet, they can crawl and even walk with some assistance. — Source

24

CRACKED THE FIRST PERSON TO WIN TWO NOBEL PRIZES WAS A WOMAN. Marie Curie, born in Poland in 1867, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for her work on radioactivity, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. — Source

23

CRACKED WOMEN HAVE A BETTER SENSE OF SMELL THAN MEN. Research has shown that women have a more sensitive olfactory system, which allows them to detect fainter odors and distinguish between similar scents more easily than men. — Source

22

CRACKED CHILDREN HAVE MORE TASTE BUDS THAN ADULTS. On average, adults have about 10,000 taste buds, but children have around 30,000. This is why children can be more sensitive to strong flavors and spices than adults. — Source

21

CRACKED THE FIRST COMPUTER PROGRAMMER WAS A WOMAN. Ada Lovelace, born in 1815, is credited with writing the first algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine, making her the world's first computer programmer. — Source

20

Benjamin Franklin tried to do away with the letter С. No, he didn't have a grudge against that particular letter - he wanted to introduce a more phonetic alphabet, dropping unnecessary letters like С, which could be replaced with К or S, depending on the sirkumstanses. No one was interested. CRACKED COM — Source

19

DAVID BRODERICK IS THE ONLY SITTING SENATOR TO DIE IN A DUEL. In-party fighting led Broderick being challenged on his antislavery values. Не fired prematurely, and his opponent shot him the chest. Не died three days later. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, HAD A MAYOR NAMED HARRY BAALS. The man with snicker-worthy name was a four-term mayor. (Yes, it was pronounced like that.) City leaders unfortunately turned down the popular idea to name a government center after him. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

ULYSSES S. GRANT WAS A NEVER NUDE. When he was in his 60s, the former President of the United States bragged that no one had seen him naked since he was a child. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

AMY KLOBUCHAR RAISED $17,000 FROM EX-BOYFRIENDS. During a 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate, the Minnesota Senator claimed to have raised significant money from exes during her first Senate run. I'd like to point out it is not an expanding base, she joked. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

A molasses flood killed 21 people. The Great Molasses Flood wasn't some medieval, pseudo-mythical event - it happened in Boston in 1919. 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst from a tank, and the almost- biblical flood swallowed everything in its path. 21 people died and 150 were injured. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

CRACKED.COM Blue-eyed people are likelier to become alcoholics. Genetics is a mess. If you have genes for blue eyes, it's likely that you also have genes for a higher alcohol tolerance, which can lead to drinking too much. The effect is small, but study after study keeps showing the same thing. — Source

13

The poop emoji comes from comics. Everyone's favorite emoji was already big in Japan before emoji were even a thing. A popular 1980s manga called Dr. Slump (later adapted to anime) regularly featured sentient piles of poo. Its author eventually left friendly feces behind and went on to create Dragon Ball. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

CRACKED.COM Cruise ships keep finding ways to get away with polluting. Given a deadline to get their act together re: pollution, the cruise industry got to work-to find loopholes. Rather than switch to cleaner fuels, now they use scrubbers to remove pollutants from the exhaust gases (and then dump those pollutants into the ocean.) — Source

11

CRACKED.COM Pixelon was the (fake) Netflix of the '90s. Pixelon was the hottest startup in Silicon Valley. There were just a couple wrinkles: The whole show was run like a cult by a fugitive con man, and their video streaming tech was fake. Their only accomplishment was to reunite The Who for the site's stupidly lavish launch party. — Source

10

Batman has a second secret identity. In the comics, Matches Malone was a gangster who died while trying to kill Batman-and who happened to look exactly like Bruce Wayne. So sometimes Wayne glues on a fake mustache and passes himself off as Malone to infiltrate the criminal underworld. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Charles Darwin was on a quest to eat every animal species. Darwin's interest in animals was twofold- both scientific and gastronomical. Не sampled pumas, iguanas, birds, and tortoises during his five-year trip around the world. Не discovered that all living creatures shared common ancestors and also tasted delicious. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

The sinking of the Sultana was horrific, but no one paid attention to it. The steamboat Sultana was carrying over 2,000 recently-released POWs of the Civil War-most of whom died when the boilers exploded. It was a tragedy worse than the Titanic-and it was totally upstaged by the Lincoln assassination, which happened around those same days. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Drugged livestock is causing rabid dogs. One day, vultures started dying in India and Pakistan. The culprit was found to be diclofenac, an anti-inflamatory drug given to livestock that was lethal to vultures that ate the carcasses. With vultures gone, feral dogs took their place as scavengers-and with more dogs, rabies skyrocketed. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Bernie Sanders and Larry David are cousins. Is David's killer impression of Sanders related to the fact that the two share DNA? In 2017, a PBS show about ancestry found that they have three identical chromosomes, making them third or fourth cousins. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Instagram posts were already a thing in the 1700s. Social media didn't exist back then-but braggy vacation pictures did. Wealthy young men would visit far-away cities and commission vedute, which were highly detailed paintings of the place (sometimes including the visitor himself) to show his friends at home. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Back in the day, Pamela Anderson got Hepatitis С by sharing tattoo needles. EX She shared them with Tommy Lee, her husband at the time, and they told her she had 10 years to live - which ended up being completely wrong, and she announced in 2015 that she was officially cured. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Jonah Hill only got paid $60,000 to star in The Wolf of Wall Street. He'd really wanted to work with Martin Scorsese, so he accepted the ridiculously low pay. On the other hand, Leonardo DiCaprio, who was also a producer, was paid about $10 million. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

The oldest known Elvis autograph is in an old book, from 1948. Elvis, then 13, signed his name on a library card in that book in 1948 (it's English Fairy Tales). CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Kurt Cobain, really really was not a fan of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Не said, I can barely, especially on a bad night, get through 'Teen Spirit.' I literally want to throw my guitar down and walk away. CRACKED.COM — Source

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