12 Farm-Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Friday, December 13, 2024
What does round taste like? How about sharp? We’ll tell you in a minute.
Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.
Anti-Intellectualism Is Working!
A study among 4,600 U.S. adults found that, between 2017 and 2023, the amount of people getting the lowest possible score on reading and math assessments increased markedly. The amount of people bottoming out on literacy tests rose from 19 to 28 percent, and the numeracy bottom dwellers increased from 29 to 34 percent.
Related: Republicans Have Suddenly Stopped Believing in Their Economic Boogeymen
A University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey found that, between November and December, the economic sentiment score among Republicans jumped from 53.6 to 81.6. All this despite Donald Trump admitting that tariffs may hurt the economy and he doesn’t believe he’ll be able to lower the cost of groceries.
Two Wild Tigers Pulled a ‘Homeward Bound’
Boris and Svetlaya, two Siberian tiger siblings who were born in captivity, were released into the wild 120 miles apart in an effort to expand the species’ population in Russia and China. Bizarrely, Boris walked a nearly straight line and reunited with Svetlaya. Disturbingly, “Six months later, Svetlaya gave birth to a litter of cubs.”
Thieves Accidentally Stole $32,000 Worth of Pies
British ne’er-do-wells stole a van that, unbeknownst to them, had 2,500 pies from a Michelin-star restaurant inside. Chef Tommy Banks made a public plea to the thieves to at least drop the pies off at a food bank, but they were discovered inside the discarded van and declared “rubbish.”
Scientists Discovered a Whole New Type of Magnetism
Researchers have finally imaged a previously hypothetical class of magnetism, known as altermagnetism, which could be utilized in magnetic memory devices to increase operation speeds a thousand times over. In case you were wondering, altermagnetism means that “tiny constituent magnetic building blocks align antiparallel to their neighbours but the structure hosting each one is rotated compared to its neighbours.”
Hope that clears things up.
The First Person to Circumnavigate the Globe in an EV
YouTuber Lexie Limitless completed her six-month, Ford-sponsored vlogging journey, “Charge Around the World,” driving through six continents and 27 countries in an electric Ford Explorer.
Hinge Is Desperately Trying to Reverse-Engineer Higher Time-on-Site
The dating app’s “Director of Relationship Science” is pushing the idea of “dating forward,” which means spending less time swiping absent-mindedly, more time really studying each profile you come across and meeting ASAP so you can move on to the next person. It sounds less like genuine relationship advice, and more like their KPIs have shifted as people have been abandoning dating apps.
What Happens to the Human Body at Light Speed?
If you’re ever able to travel at near-light speed, colors would change due to the doppler effect, you’d age more slowly due to time dilation and you also may pass out and die from the sheer g-force of the acceleration.
How Long Would It Take to Rev Up to Light Speed Without Dying?
The human body can generally withstand about 6 Gs, or six times the gravity of Earth, for a few seconds at a time. If you kept your acceleration to a safer 3 Gs, it would take a year to get up to light speed. But we don’t know if the human body can withstand a full year at 3 Gs, or any amount of time near light speed.
The Shape of Food Affects Our Perception of the Taste
One study found seemingly arbitrary associations, like “sweetness is associated with roundness while bitterness is associated with angularity.” Anecdotally, when Cadbury changed one of its chocolate bars from fully square edges to rounded edges, lots of longtime fans insisted the taste had changed (despite no change in formula).
There Are No Bridges Across the Amazon River
On one hand, the intense rainfall and relentless vegetation would eat a bridge alive without literal constant maintenance. On the other, they’ve got the transportation thing pretty well managed with boat travel.
Archaeologists May Have Found Santa Claus’ Corpse
Scientists have uncovered a limestone sarcophagus buried underneath an annex of Turkey’s St. Nicholas Church, believed to be the body of Saint Nick, the actual philanthropist who inspired Coca-Cola’s capitalist fever dream.
