39 Random Bits of Trivia We Pushed Off Into the Sea and Shot With a Flaming Arrow

It’s a proper Viking funeral for these facts — after you read them, of course
39 Random Bits of Trivia We Pushed Off Into the Sea and Shot With a Flaming Arrow

These random tidbits give a whole new meaning to the word “honor.” Sorry, “honour” for our Canadian, British and Irish pals out there. We’re guessing there are some other countries who throw the “u” in there too, but we don’t have time to go down a country list, now do we? We have an hono(u)rable list to get to. They’ll go the distance for your brain. They’ll even die for it. 

We just ask that, if they do die, you give them a proper send-off. Maybe even erect a statue in their hono(u)r.

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks almost starred in the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. The live action Super Mario movie was an unmitigated disaster, but it could have been way different. Tom Hanks was cast in the lead role, but coming off of a string of box office bombs, the role of Mario went instead to Bob Hoskins. Arnold Schwarzenegger was looked at for the corporate lizard-person Bowser, but he turned it down. CRACKED.COM

Toast

Toast really does land butter-side down more often than not. Toast always lands with the butter-side down isn't just a pessimistic worldview, it's a fact. A study by Robert Matthews confirmed that, when pushed from a table, toast will land butter-side down the majority of times, more than just the law of chance would predict. CRACKED.COM

Extinctions

A mass extinction 252 million years ago killed most of life on Earth, and we have no idea why. Over the course of a few million years (basically nothing in geological time), 96% of marine life and 70% of land-based species vanished in The Great Permian Extinction, otherwise known as The Great Dying. This is the only mass-extinction event to have affected insects, possibly caused by an asteroid, volcanoes, or a stagnant ocean spurred on by the supercontinent Pangea. CRACKED.COM

Trading Up

One man successfully traded a paperclip for progressively larger items, until he had a house. Kyle-Not S CIN Ricky Over the course of 14 up-trades, which included a fish pen, a snowmobile, and a recording contract, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald was able to trade one paid, credited, speaking role in a film by Public Media Works for a house. The Town of Kipling, Saskatchewan offered the final trade, and welcomed him by making him Honorary Mayor of Kipling for One Day. CRACKED.COM

Terminator

A fever dream of James Cameron's lead to iconic Terminator imagery. The image of the chrome skeleton of a Terminator rising from a fiery Hellscape came to Cameron in a dream when sick with a fever. When he woke up, he sketched a metal skeleton, torn in half, crawling towards a terrified woman, which would become the finale of The Terminator. CRACKED.COM

Asparagus

Less than half of all people, approximately, can in fact smell asparagus pee. Generally, asparagus is considered to make your pee smell really bad - but, it turns out, that's only the case for under half of the population of the planet. CRACKED.COM

California

Two Californian boys ran from home and lived in the woods for months. They went to Canada, and they got reunited with their parents after a TV station did a report on them. CRACKED.COM

Iceland

Ever since Iceland got settled by humans, at least 600 polar bears arrived on the island. They all either swam to it, or arrived on a floating block of ice. CRACKED.COM

Puritans

Puritans were really, really serious about not letting people fall asleep during a service. Anyone who did that would get poked with a long wooden pole to get them to wake up. CRACKED.COM

Animal Crackers

In 2018, after 116 years, Barnum Animal Crackers stopped locking up animals. Giraffe Tiger Camel Kangaroo Cougar Rhino Sheep Gorilla Monkey Elephant Bear ? Hippo Seal On their packaging, that is - all that time, they'd been using a design that showed animals in boxcars. CRACKED.COM

Stalin

Stalin was actually covered in scars - he'd had smallpox as a child. The reason his pictures don't show that is that he had all his photos heavily retouched. CRACKED.COM

Prisons

There's a long tradition of using Alcatraz as a prison, going back to Native Americans. People who violated tribal laws among the Ohlone would get banished to Alcatraz. CRACKED.COM

Goats

Dwarf goats are really, really smart - way more so than you might think at first. They have object permanence, which means they can remember where objects were placed without seeing or smelling them. CRACKED.COM

Cheese

US dairy farms produce incredible amounts of excess cheese, it turns out. The amount produced as of 2018 would be roughly the same size as the US Capitol if you placed it in one spot. CRACKED.COM

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola is known as a filmmaker, but he made more money with wine. All I know is that one year we did $9 million. Four years later, $60 million. I was making much more money in the wine business than I ever made in films, he said in an interview. CRACKED.COM

Clowns

In 1925, a one-legged clown escaped prison and was never found. Не was convicted in 1912 in Chicago, for the murder of an heiress, and was sentenced to life in prison. CRACKED.COM

Lions

Lionesses can actually get birth control implants that work. And they receive those implants in ZOOS sometimes - that way, all the lions can hang out without new cubs being born all the time. CRACKED.COM

Greece

The first heating system actually dates to 550 вс, and it's from Ancient Greece. It was constructed at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and it was powered by a wood-fired furnace. CRACKED.COM

Mexico

MEXICO'S PRESIDENT ASKED CITIZENS NOT TO ACCEPT GIFTS FROM DRUG GANGS. SHURE In Mexico, videos were posted online of drug gangs giving people gifts from pickup trucks - so president Andrés Manuel López Obrador had to formally ask people not to accept any presents from gangs. CRACKED

Boebert

LAUREN BOEBERT'S HYPER- PATRIOTIC RESTAURANT IS BEING REPLACED BY A MEXICAN PLACE. Rep. Boebert's closed restaurant, Shooters, is apparently going to be replaced by, of all things, a Mexican restaurant. Shooters had the exact theme you'd expect, with menu items like the M16 burrito. CRACKED

Borders

A BORDER FORCE OFFICER IN THE UK WAS ARRESTED FOR POSSIBLY BEING AN ILLEGAL PASPOL SUNINOM That was just the start, though- he later got arrested on two other (not quite as ironic) charges. CRACKED

Michigan

MICHIGAN DRIVERS MISTOOK A FLOCK OF DUCKS FOR AN OIL SLICK. Apparently, drivers crossing the Mackinac Bridge sometimes mistake large groups of migrating ducks for giant patches of oil, and that's what happened here. GRACKED

South Dakota

THE GOVERNOR OF SOUTH DAKOTA GOT A FLAMETHROWER FOR CHRISTMAS. Governor Kristi Noem got a flamethrower as a Christmas present from her staff (and, of course, posted a social media video of herself using it). At least no tax dollars were spent on it (apparently). CRACKED

Cops

A BRITISH MAN CALLED THE COPS ON HIS FRIDGE. In Leicestershire, England, one man called the emergency 999 number to complain about the amount of noise his fridge was making. It's not clear what help he was expecting from the law. Syntak - LIGHT CREAM TURUN an Almond Beine - CRACKED

Podcasts

PODCASTERS HELPED FREE TWO INNOCENT MEN AFTER 25 YEARS. Apparently, the importance of the podcasting industry is not to be underestimated. Podcasters brought to light evidence that helped free two innocent men in Georgia (the state) that had been in prison for 25 years. CRACKED

Jeff Ross

NI A TEXAS INMATE SAYS JEFF ROSS LANDED HIM ON DEATH ROW. Ross filmed a special while he was in the same prison as the inmate, and unused footage from it was allegedly shown to the jury on the man's case. CRACKED

Burglars

A BURGLAR ENTERED A HIGH SCHOOL (AND SPENT CHRISTMAS THERE). Apparently, a guy broke into a local high school in a NY town and was in there for two days. Не ate a burger and some chicken tenders, according to the local police. CRACKED

Microsoft

THE MICROSOFT TABLET A FAMILY GOT FOR CHRISTMAS WAS ACTUALLY ROOFING SHINGLES. A Boston family bought a Microsoft tablet, only to discover the box was full of shingles. When they asked for a replacement, it was also shingles. 2 pl CRACKED

Tesla

A TESLA DRIVER SLEPT THROUGH HIS OWN POLICE CHASE. In Germany, a Tesla driver fell asleep behind the wheel-and the car, on autopilot, led the Polizei on an Autobahn chase. Thankfully, it only lasted 15 minutes, at which point he woke up and pulled over. CRACKED

Road Trips

A MAN DROVE OFF WITHOUT HIS WIFE, WHO HAD TO WALK 12 MILES TO REACH HIM. On a road trip in Thailand, a man forgot his wife after she'd stepped out for a toilet break. She had to walk 12 miles to a nearby village to contact him. He'd driven over 100 miles before she got in touch. CRACKED

Railways

A RESIDENT NEAR A RAILWAY LINE IS UNHAPPY THAT TRAINS RUN PAST HIS HOME. An antiques dealer in the UK who moved next to a railway line is now complaining about the noise. I knew there was a railway line, but I thought that would close at 11:30 pm, he grumbled. CRACKED

Andrew Tate

THE TALIBAN: IS ANDREW TATE OK? Shockingly, but not too surprisingly, the Taliban are worried about how Andrew Tate is doing. They say westerners need Andrew Tate because we are oppressed by feminists, says a right-wing journalist. CRACKED

Video Games

Playing video games helps you make quick decisions. - C People who were given questions that required quick solutions could answer them faster if they had just played action video games prior. Not only did their reaction time increase, but they were as accurate as their slower peers. CRACKED.COM

Marches

Women marched in revealing clothing to test a claim that their immodesty caused earthquakes. Inspired by blogger Jey McCreight, the aptly named Boobquake rally took place on April 26, 2010 in protest of an Iranian cleric's controversial beliefs blaming women who dress immodestly for causing earthquakes. McCreight wrote, I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an CRACKED.COM earthquake.

Tabletop Roleplaying Games

There is a tabletop roleplaying game where you roll dice to determine the circumference of your character's butthole. F.A.T.A.L., which stands for Fantasy Adventure to Adult Lechery, was released in 2002 as a sexually graphic roleplaying game similar to Dungeons & Dragons. The widely panned game gives players several physical attributes for their characters that they can roll dice for, including genital and anus size. CRACKED.COM

Dead Squid

A woman's mouth was impregnated by a dead squid. The partially cooked squid that one 63 year old woman bit into in 2012 still had organs intact, and shot a pod of spermatophores into the soft membranes of her mouth. After she felt a pricking and foreign-body sensation, doctors removed the dozen small, white, bug-like organisms that the squid left behind. CRACKED.COM

Plagues

The Dancing Plague of 1518 affected 400 people in a month long groove-fest. In the summer of 1518, in what is now modern-day France, a woman began to dance in the street. Other women joined in, and eventually between 50 and 400 people were mysteriously affected with a mania that caused them to dance to exhaustion until that September. CRACKED.COM

Pangolins

Pangolins' tongues are longer than their bodies. When fully extended, the tongue of the pangolin reaches out more than a foot. This may not seem too impressive, until you realize the tongue connects not to the back of their mouth, but all the way down into their pelvis. The toothless pangolin uses this extremity to snag ants and termites to swallow whole. CRACKED.COM

Minecraft

The overworld in Minecraft is 9 million times larger than Earth. The procedurally generated world of Minecraft populates a little at a time, following the POV of your character. If you were to fly from one end of the overworld to as far as it can go, going as fast as the game allows, it would take you 25 years to reach the end. CRACKED.COM

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