12 Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, August 29, 2024
A scientific ranking of papercuts, and the goofiest animal insurance claims.
Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.
The Largest Soccer Stadium in the World
Morocco’s Grand Stade Hassan II is set to be completed in time to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, and will seat 115,000 fans on a 100-hectare footprint.
Canned Foods Are Ribbed for Your Pleasure
The ribbing on cans of food are actually engineering marvels: They allow the can to flex slightly during the heating and canning process, and also add structural stability to the product when it’s shipped and stored.
Britain’s Oldest Known Skydiver
At age 102, Manette Baillie became the oldest person to ever hurl herself out of a plane over British soil.
When Were Cigars Invented?
Researchers believe cigars date back to around 2500 BC, when the Mayans began cultivating tobacco for medicinal purposes.
Nationwide’s Hambone Award
Named after a dog who got stuck in a fridge and ate an entire leg of ham, the Hambone Award is given to the pet who suffered the dumbest injury. This year’s finalists include a dog who bit into a bottle of adhesive and glued its mouth shut, and another who ate 250 jigsaw pieces.
The Kelce Brothers Just Got Paid About $1 Million Per Episode
Wondery just bought the 98-episode back catalogue of the Kelce brothers' podcast, New Heights, for $100 million.
South Africa’s Hell Island
Mice on Marion Island have been eating albatross eggs, and have even started chowing down on full-grown, live birds. Conservationists have decided their only option is to bomb the island with pesticides.
Are We on Martin Shkreli’s Side?
Shkreli famously purchased the Wu-Tang Clan’s literal one-of-a-kind album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for $2 million. In 2021, a group of NFT collectors bought it from him, but have alleged that he made some copies and intends to release them publicly. A judge ordered him to hand over any copies of the album to his lawyers.
The Decades-Long Process of Changing Highway Fonts
The font Highway Gothic was standardized across the country in the 1950s, but as we started making highway signs reflective, we realized this font becomes nearly unreadable. The Federal Highway Administration began a nationwide switch to a thiccer font called Clearview in 2004, and the transition is still ongoing.
The World’s Oldest Bottle of Cognac
Guinness has confirmed that a 1696 Jules Robin Cognac is the oldest in the world, beating the previous record holder by almost 60 years.
Tiny Crickets Use Leaves As Megaphones
When scream-scissoring in search of a mate, some smaller crickets will chew a pear-shaped hole in a leaf and position their body in such a way that the noise they’re making is amplified.
A Scientific Ranking of the Worst Papercuts
A team of Danish physicists created fake skin and tried to slice through it with a series of different types of paper. Thinner papers buckled, and thicker papers wouldn’t cut, but those in the Goldilocks zone can really mess your day up: think newspapers, Post-It Notes and office paper.
