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45 Random Bits of Trivia That’ll Stick to Your Brain Like Those Little Thistle Balls on Socks

It’s time for a little stroll through the field of facts

45 Random Bits of Trivia That’ll Stick to Your Brain Like Those Little Thistle Balls on Socks

November 26, 2024

These facts have been waiting for your brain to stroll by, and they’re ready to strike. They’re like train hoppers. Ooh, more like brain hoppers!

Well, that was a fun little play on words to just stumble upon, wasn’t it? Sometimes the stars align in the random fact blurb writing game.

Now, where were we? Oh yeah. These facts are waiting to latch onto your brain. For life, if you’ll have them!

45

SimCity

SimCity comes from a science fiction story. Creator Will Wright was inspired in part by Stanislaw Lem's The Seventh Sally, Where a deposed tyrant is given a miniaturized kingdom for him to rule and oppress via control knobs. — Sources: The New York Times (via archive.org), “The Seventh Sally” by Stanislaw Lem (via University of San Diego)

44

Morgan Robertson

Morgan Robertson wrote about the Titanic in 1898. That year, Robertson published The Wreck of the Titan: or, Futility, a novel about a huge ocean line

43

Yelling

It would take 8 years, 7 months and 6 days of yelling to produce enough energy to heat one cup of coffee. London-based architecture/design firm The Facility believe that the mechanical vibrations we create every day, from the rattling of city infrastructure to footsteps echoing throughout a stadium, could be harnessed. CRACKED.COM — Ravishly

42

Capricorns

Capricorns are most likely to cheat. According to the affair seeking site, Ashley Madison, Capricorns are the most represented sign on the site. CRACKED.COM — Source: Bustle

41

Bank Robberies

America's First Bank Robbery was nearly the perfect crime. DAY GRACKED COM $162,821 ($3.8 million to- day) had been taken from vaults of the Bank of Penn- sylvania in 1798. The cul- prit Isaac Davis was caught because he deposited the money back into the same bank. — Source

40

Russian Military

Russia's military makes. its arsenal look more imposing with inflatable weapons. It's literally a bunch of tanks, radar stations, and everything between that look real from a distance but are inflatable - they're very cheap and reasonably convincing. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Incredible Now-You-Know Facts About Russia

39

Jaws

CRACKEDcO THE SHARK FROM JAWS BECAME A JUNKYARD SIGN. After the animatronic shark used in the movie started to deteriorate in the 90s, Universal sold

38

The Mob

The mob controlled NYC's trash until the '90s. 20 After an undercover operation convicted the leaders, trash collection costs dropped by $600 million. CRACKED.COM — Source: This American Life

37

The Ramones

Johnny Ramone might have invented punk rock as we know it, but he wasn't into the rock 'n' roll lifestyle in the least. After concerts, when the rest

36

Lifelong Feuds

Robert De Niro 79 OF These guys have had beef since 1987, and it was brought back to life in 2022 when Rourke said De Niro stopped him from being in The Irishman. Mickey Rourke 70 CRACKED — Tinseltown/Shutterstock,
Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock
Far Out Magazine

35

Skyfall

Kincade in Skyfall was written for Sean Connery. But director Sam Mendes decided to get someone else, because seeing Connery would feel too jarring an — Source: 7 Characters Clearly Designed For (Different) Famous Actors

34

The Library of Congress

The largest comic book collection can be found at the Library of Congress. The library holds over 6,000 titles of comic books, with a total of 120,000 different issues. The library's collection slightly surpasses the largest personal comic book collection owned by Bob Bretall with 101,822 different issues. CRACKED COM — Source

33

The Green Frog Restaurant

The founder of Red Lobster first opened The Green Frog in 1938. Bill Darden opened the luncheonette in Way- ward, Georgia at the age of 19. Не refused to seg- regate customers by race, even though it was the law at the time. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — The Balance

32

Mt. Rushmore

MOUNT RUSHMORE WASN'T ORIGINALLY INTENDED TO BE A NATIONAL MONUMENT. THE INITIAL IDEA WAS JUST TO HAVE GIANT SCULPTURES THAT WOULD ATTRACT THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS TO SOUTH DAKOTA. CRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

31

Dog Day Afternoon

JOHN CAZALE AND HIS FIVE MOVIES НЕ WAS CAST IN DOG DAY AFTERNOON DESPITE BEING TOO OLD FOR THE ROLE. Pacino asked director Sidney Lumet to cast Cazale as Salvatore Naturile. Lumet wasn't convinced, as Cazale was 21 years older than the real Naturile was. Still, it only took meeting Cazale for him to get the part. CRACKED.COM — Wikipedia

30

Fingernails

Your middle finger has the fastest growing nail. You just looked at your fin- gers, didn't you? While nails usually grow about 3.47 millimeters a month, those on your dominant hand grow faster, as do the nails on your longer fin- gers. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Healthline

29

The Bootlace Worm

The bootlace worm is the longest animal on the planet. CRACKED.COM They have been found at lengths of over 98 feet and are believed to even grow as long as 197 feet-longer than the blue whale. — Source

28

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan won't carry this franchise. CHICAGO BULLS GM LLS CRACKED.COM General Manager Rod Thorn was almost apologetic that there was no one taller he could have drafted: What can you do? Jordan isn't going to turn this franchise around. — Source

27

Raised by Wolves

A boy raised by wolves lived among other humans in the 19th century. CRACKED COM Dina Sanichar was a feral child, born in 1861, and dis- covered by a group of hunt- ers among wolves in a cave in India. Не went on to live among other humans for over twenty years, but never learned to speak. — Source

26

Friends

Invest in relationships with low tension As humans age, we're more likely to prefer smaller groups of already-established, low-conflict friendships. This same pattern is even seen in chimpanzees. CRACKED.COM — Source: Science

25

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is a leader when it comes to food production due to innovations in agricultural techniques. Growing a kg of tomatoes in the Netherlands uses 9.1 liters of water (1.1 gal- lons/lb). The global aver- age is over 210 liters of water per kg (25.6 gal- lons/lb). CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

24

Same-sex Couples

Same-sex couples don't influence their child's gender identity There is no major difference in the gender identity development of children raised by same-sex parents compared to those adopted by different-sex couples. CRACKED.COM — ScienceDaily

23

The Dark Knight

45 Random Bits of Trivia That’ll Stick to Your Brain Like Those Little Thistle Balls on Socks — Source: YouTube

22

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation was a surprisingly personal project for Sofia Coppola. She had spent a lot of time in Tokyo when she was younger - she ran a clothing company with her friend called Milk Fed that often took her there. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

King Salman

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has a golden escalator that he uses to descend from his private plane. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Microsoft

CRACKED NOKIA 3 def g 1 2 abc 4 b ghi mno 5 jkl 7 pqrs wx 8 tuv * ب 0 MICROSOFT Microsoft has wasted at least $8 billion on its failed Nokia experiment, and CEO Satya Nadella's vision for the company has shifted away from a devices and services focus, resulting in the end of Microsoft's mobile subsidiary. — Source

19

12 Monkeys

CRACKED COM Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys was inspired by a bizarre 1962 French film, La Jetée. La Jetée tells the story of a prisoner LA JETÉE forced to travel through time to try - and save the human race after a White CRATELAIN Essay HANILA devastating war, told through a series of still images, narration, music, and sound effects. — Source

18

Blackcurrant

You can get blackcurrant in grocery stores just about anywhere, except the U.S. Blackcurrant cheesecake Its shrubs in the U.S. were spreading a fungus

17

The Alaskan Pipeline

A drunk person shot a hole in the Alaskan oil pipeline. 562 CRACKED.COM Clean up involved digging ditches and holes to cap- ture the oil, which was be- ing vacuumed into trucks. Daniel Carson Lewis had to pay for the $17 million cleanups and received 16 years in jail. — Source

16

Breaking Bad

15

Feral Cats at Disneyland

Feral cats hunting mice It's estimated that around 200 cats live in Disneyland and California Adventure Park. They're all spayed and neutered, and they're kept around because they, ironically, keep the number of rodents down. CRACKED — Maximillian cabinet/Shutterstock
Los Angeles Times

14

Golf

CRACKED Trees interrupting the Masters golf tournament The tournament was paused when two big pine trees fell, barely missing spectators, like a bad Happy Gilmore sequel. — Mark Baker/AP (via CBS News)
CBS News

13

Lady Death

45 Random Bits of Trivia That’ll Stick to Your Brain Like Those Little Thistle Balls on Socks — Source: BBC

12

Elon Musk

ELON MUSK IS REPORTEDLY STIFFING A CONSULTING COMPANY. Charles River Associates, which was brought in to help prevent the Twitter acquisition, sued Twitter for not paying $2.19 million, and wants double or triple damages. Musk is apparently refusing to pay the bill. AMEXICO twitter 0% ONE CRACKED — Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock
Ars Technica

11

Yale

Yale students pranked Harvard by handing out 1,800 placards at a football game. Instead of spelling Go Harvard they said We Suck. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: 12 Movie & General Knowledge 'Now You Know' Facts

10

Charles Dickens

Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol just to quickly make some cash. £ £ £ In the fall of 1843, Dickens was in debt, his wife had just given birth to their fifth child, and the family had moved into an expensive new house. To get a quick injection of cash, Dickens decided to whip up a Christmas book in six weeks. The result was probably the most famous Christmas story ever written. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

McDonald’s

McDonald's once made bubblegum-flavored broccoli. McDonald's RESTAURANT LOVIN IS GREATER THAN MATIN McDonald's CRACKED COM The kid-friendly, gum inspired veggies were crafted to get kids to eat healthier. The McDonald's CEO said kids were confused by the taste. — Source

8

The Olympics

CRACKED IN 2006, A NORWEGIAN COACH GAVE A SKI POLE TO A CANADIAN SKIER, WHO WENT ON TO WIN A SILVER MEDAL. GANAIN 29 OMIC CANADA Canada was so grateful that they collectively gave him 5.2 tons of Maple Syrup. — CBC / Olympic

7

Donnie Darko

EASTER EGGSTRA REFERENCES AND MEANINGS DOnnie Darko Stanley Kubrick's Lolita Elizabeth Darko's costume at the party is modeled after the character Vivian Darkbloom in the 1962 movie. CRACKED.COM — Source: Cinema Garmonbozia

6

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson Tim Burton's Batman almost had Mel Gibson as Bruce Wayne, but he was already under contract for Lethal Weapon 2. CRACKED.COM — Source: MovieHole

5

Friends

Friends star Matthew Perry stated in an interview that due to his substance addictions, he doesn't even remember 3 years offilming the show. He said i

4

The Gulf War

The longest distance at which one tank destroyed another is about 3 miles. The record was made by a British Challenger tank in the Gulf War, in 1991 - kind of amazingly, it hasn't been beaten since. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Funeral Homes

WEIRD WORLD A funeral home is being sued for cremating a man who had hoped to be raptured. An attorney has filed a lawsuit against a Little Rock funeral home after his clients said the funeral home cremated their loved one against their wishes, preventing the deceased from being raptured following the second coming. A bit presumptuous, we think. CRACKED.COM — KNOE

2

Medical Fraud

FAKE MEDICAL RESEARCH John Darsee, who worked at Harvard Medical School, simply faked the majority of his 100 published works. At one point, he even claimed to have gotten at least twelve human hearts for testing, hours after they died-which would be impossible. CRACKED — Explode/Shutterstock
The New York Times

1

Ancient Rome

A Roman goldsmith may have discovered aluminum 1800 years before modern chemists. CRACKED.COM Emperor Tiberius had the discoverer killed in order to ensure the metal would not di- minish the value of his own gold and silver as- sets. — Source

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