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Facts for what ails you!

45 Random Bits of Trivia to Help the Medicine Go Down

December 02, 2024

If you’re reading a particularly thick textbook, a few facts can help prime your brain before it’s bombarded with all that info. They’re like knowledge lube, if you will.

Okay, we definitely crossed a line with that one. Apologies. They’re like factual appetizers before wisdom’s main course.

There, that was a much safer comparison. Please enjoy these fact apps and try to forget everything you just read. Thank you!

45

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee's iconic on-screen fight with Chuck Norris was filmed illegally. They fought in The Way Of The Dragon at the Colosseum in Rome, and really filmed part of the scene there - filming there is against the law, but they bribed some officials and hid filming equipment in bags. CRACKED.COM — Source

44

Google

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said to not equate fun with money at an all-hands meeting. CRACKED.COM Pichai earned a salary of over $1 billion every year between 2015 and 2020, so he can probably just shut the hell up forever, we think. — CNBC

43

Neutron Stars

NEUTRON STARS ARE THE DENSEST OBJECTS IN THE UNIVERSE (OUTSIDE THE INFINITY DENSITY OF BLACK HOLES) A GRAIN OF SAND MADE FROM A NEUTRON STAR WOULD WEIGH AS MUCH AS 3 EIFFEL TOWERS GRAIN OF NEUTRON SAND CRACKED.COM — Source

42

Benjamin Franklin

In 1781, Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay about farting. CRACKED.COM Franklin wanted to make the odor of farts smell good so that farting in public will become socially acceptable. Не wanted flatulence to be as agree- able as perfumes. — Source

41

Scallions

Scallions and green onions are the same vegetable, with different names. But spring onions are different - their bulbs are much bigger than those of green onions, and those bulbs in fact kind of look like small onions. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Cool Conversation-Starting Facts We Never Knew

40

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

39

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was super obsessed with making stuff out of concrete. That didn't just mean making, say, houses --he also wanted to make concrete furniture, including filing cabinets, bedroom sets, and even pianos. — Source: Atlas Obscura

38

Labyrinth

Other rock stars were considered for Labyrinth. CRACKED.COM Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Sting and Prince were also considered to play the Goblin King for the 1986 film. Bowie took on the role after being impressed by Hensen's work on 1982's The Dark Crystal. — Smooth Radio

37

TV Firsts

19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)

36

Escape From New York

Snake's wardrobe in Escape From New York was pretty carefully planned. According to Kurt Russell, he wears a slightly different version of black and white fatigues to reflect the fact that the character had been in Siberia. CRACKED COM — Source

35

Theft

CRACKED ROBBERY DURING A ROBBERY A guy in Washington got caught on camera having his car stolen while he was in the middle of robbing a store across the street. The police department posted the surveillance video of the incident on their Facebook page. — NDTV / Bob Vila

34

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe unloaded on an airline because they didn't let him take hoverboards. When Virgin Australia didn't let him and his kids on the plane with the boards, he angrily tweeted, Kids and I offloaded. Goodbye Virgin. Never again. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

The Condor Louse

Conservation efforts to save the California condor resulted in the extinction of the condor louse. CRACKED.COM The California condor louse exclusively parasitiz- es the California condor. During efforts to save the condor from extinction, it became extinct itself due to all condors being de- loused. — San Diego Tribune

32

Star Fox

CRACKED.COM We almost had a Star Fox claymation show. Back in 2014, CollegeHumor was working on an official Star Fox project, made in the style of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Nintendo pulled the plug (along with all of their other adaptations) when rumors spread about a Legend of Zelda live-action show by Netflix. — Source

31

Jamie Lee Curtis

Children's books written by celebrities Today I Feel Silly &Other MOODS That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis illustrated by Laura Cornell Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis Curtis' book is written to help children recognize, celebrate, and manage their various feelings and moods that can shift throughout each day. CRACKED.COM — Tinseltown/Shutterstock, HarperCollins
HarperCollins

30

Woolly Mammoths

CRACKED.COM Mammoths were hopelessly inbred. Research has shown that in their final days, woolly mammoths got so desperate for sexual mates that they started inbreeding. The sad reality is that the last woolly mammoths basically cousin-banged their genetic code into oblivion. — Source

29

Yoo-hoo

CRACKED.COM IH/ yoetoo Slab Chocolate -DRINK- 12R Despite being regarded as chocolate milk, Yoo-hoo contains more water than milk or chocolate!

28

Longest Flight Ever

The longest time an aircraft has remained in the air is 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds. Jet letstar.com. CRACKED.COM In 1958, two pilots named Robert Timm and John Cook flew an aircraft for more than two months without landing, refueling by matching speed with a truck driving down a road. Their record has not been broken. — Hackaday

27

Milwaukee

In Milwaukee, there are toilets buried in bunkers somewhere underneath boulevards. They were originally built for gardeners and seasonal workers - today, though, there's not much need for them. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Binghamton Heroics

In the middle of the wreckage of 10 vehicles, five people rushed toward a burning car to save a woman trapped behind the wheel. 0B/25/2016 16:24:35 Th

25

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jack the monkey PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN CRACKED.COM After shipping him down to Australia, they had to keep him quarantined for 30 days, after which time he went ahead and bit a makeup artist's ear. — NY Daily News

24

The U.S. Postal Service

CRACKED THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE STILL USES MULES. There are a few locales, mostly located in steep canyons and the like, that require mules to get to. — Sandra Foyt/Shutterstock
15 Whiskers of Trivia That Scraped Our Doorways This Week

23

Jägermeister

mm WITH + COUNTRY OX TEL Jägermeifter SELECTED 56 BOTANICALS COLD MACERATED ELICIO MAST JAGERMEISTER U Ha SINCE 1878 II ... SPECTED Jägermeister was created just before World War II, and was popular with German troops, nicknamed Goering-schnapps (Jägermeister, or huntmaster, was Goering's title). It didn't become a party drink until the 1970s, but without Nazis quaffing it, the booze mightn't have made it that far. CRACKED — Source / Drink Stack

22

Patient Zero

The term patient zero is actually built on a misunderstanding. It comes from Patient О, an early HIV patient, and the label meant Out of California - but it was misinterpreted as zero, and that stuck. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Larry David

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM WAY BACK BEFORE SEINFELD OR CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, LARRY DAVID WROTE FOR SNL. I was writing sketches. They weren't putting any of my sketches on the air. The sketches were funny at the readthrough but the producer, Dick Ebersol, he didn't care for them, he recalled. — Source

20

Sky of Ghosts

SKY FULL OF GHOSTS CRACKED.COM In 1802, William Herschel discovered that a telescope is like a time machine. The sun's light takes just over 8 mins to reach us, so when we look at the sun, we see it as it was 8 mins ago. Не stated, Some stars are so far away that by the time their light reaches Earth, they are already dead. We see their light, but their bodies perished long ago. — Source

19

Pompeii

CRACKED BRINGING THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE SINCE 1863. In 1863, One Giuseppe Fiorelli perfected the technique of making casts of the people who died in the eruption of Pompeii in 79 CE. Since then, more than 100 casts have been made. — Pompeii Sites
Pompeii Sites

18

Dick Van Dyke

Actor Dick Van Dyke didn't know his actual birthday until he was 18. CRACKED.COM His parents lied to him about his birth date to cover up the fact that he was conceived out of wedlock. — Today / Wikipedia

17

Bats

Bats eat enough insects to save the US over $1 Billion a year in crop damage and pesticide. CRACKED.COM While many bats eat in- sects, others feed on nectar and provide criti- cal pollination for a vari- ety of plants like peach- es, cloves, bananas and agaves. — Source

16

Caterpillars

There's a caterpillar that wears its old, molted heads as a very bizarre hat. It's the caterpillar of the Uraba lugens moth, and it doesn't discard the heads it molts out of after the fourth molt - it just stacks them on its head. CRACKED.COM — Source: ScienceFocus

15

Sea Slugs

The penis on a Goniobranchus reticulata sea slug is covered with backward-facing spines that would take competitor's sperm out of their sexual partner to increase the chance of their own sperm fertilizing the eggs. Like other sea slugs, they chop off their own penis after sex. Unlike many of their cousins, however, they can regrow a new boner in 24 hours! CRACKED.COM — 28 Animals With Superhero Level Abilities

14

The World’s Tallest Man

CRACKED THE TALLEST PERSON IN RECORDED HISTORY WAS OVER 8 FEET TALL. Robert Wadlow was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1918, and grew to a height of 8 feet 11.1 inches before his death at age 22. — Source

13

South Korean Department Store Collapse

A department store in Seoul, Korea collapsed, killing 500 people in 1995. CRACKED.COM During construction, the owner insisted on adding an unauthorized 6th floor with a swimming pool. When his engineers protested, they were fired. — History / Wikipedia

12

Ancient Egypt

Apparently, noble women in Ancient Egypt weren't given to embalmers right away. Their families waited a few days, so that embalmers wouldn't get horny and try anything - all according to the ancient historian Herodotus. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Comcast

Comcast charged customers a $5/month service protection plan that did nothing. CRACKED.COM They were ordered to re- fund nearly 50,000 cus- tomers and pay a $9.1 mil- lion fine when a judge ruled that it violated Washington state consum- er protection law hundreds of thousands of times. — Source

10

Sandra Bernhard

Sandra Bernhard LETTERMAN CRACKED.COM At one point, Bernhard and Letterman were good friends and she made regular appearances. However, Letterman got word Bernhard was poo-pooing him among industry pals. Bernhard denied it, but Letterman denied her any future appearences. — Source: 19 Celebs Who Got Themselves Banned From TV Shows

9

The Princess Bride

They came up with the Pit of Despair in The Princess Bride to save money. The book had the Zoo of Death in that scene, but that would have been too expensive, so they needed to figure out a new idea. CRACKED.COM — Source: FilmSchoolRejects

8

Star Wars

The Millennium Falcon's interior is made of scrap metal from jet airplanes. Airplane scrap was really cheap, so they bought lots of it, broke it down, and stuck the parts onto the set in ways that would make sense. CRACKED.COM — Source: Esquire

7

The Door to Hell

A fire in the middle of a Turkmenistan desert has been burning for 40 years. CRACKED.COM The pit of natural gas was lit on fire by Soviet geolo- gists in 1971, after the ground beneath the rig collapsed, thinking it would burn off in a few days. Locals call it The Door to Hell. — Source

6

Freddy Got Fingered

FREDDY GOT FINGERED ALMOST EVERYTHING CRACKED.COM We know Freddy's an R. It's always been an R, but producers edited the entire movie down to a 3-minute PG version as a joke, and included it as a bonus on the DVD. — Rating-system

5

Eleanor Roosevelt

CRACKED ELEANOR ROOSEVELT Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, said she could sense Abraham Lincoln's spirit when she stayed up late working in his bedroom, which she had turned into her office. — Source

4

Interpol

Interpol began after a meeting of 24 countries in 1914. CRACKED.COM The International Criminal Police Congress, held in Мо- naco, saw police and judicial representatives from 24 countries get together with the goal of improving the ef- fectiveness of international investigations. — Source

3

Diablo

45 Random Bits of Trivia to Help the Medicine Go Down — Source

2

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

CRACKED THE TURTLES TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES The costumes were basically robotic torture devices. They weighed 60 lbs with complicated machinery in the shell to control facial expressions, and the actors weren't able to remove the heads for a breather because it delayed filming. — Collider / BTL News

1

Calvin & Hobbes

Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson has never approved a Hobbes plush toy. Не says it's ambiguous whether Hobbes is real or a stuffed animal & he won't mess with that. It's estimated he's left $300 million on the table as a result. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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