32 Out-Of-This-World Bits of Trivia That Somehow Found Their Way Back Into This World

Oh, the things they’ve seen
32 Out-Of-This-World Bits of Trivia That Somehow Found Their Way Back Into This World
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If these random facts knew how good they were, they wouldn’t be slumming around with brains like ours. Maybe it’s a self-esteem issue, but we’re not going to say anything. If they think our brains can hang with them, we’ll take all the face time we can get. Check them out for yourselves, and please don’t do anything crazy like beef up their self-worth. 

Actually, we see that we’ve dipped into some pretty toxic behavior here. Read them now, and then we’ll let them know how wonderful they are. It’s their call if they wanna stick around after that.

Michigan

There's no place in Michigan where you're more than six miles from water. Which is kind of amazing to think about, but there are 11,000 lakes in the state, so it's actually super hard to avoid them. CRACKED.COM

Boomers

BOOMERS ARE BIGGER SNOWFLAKES THAN MILLENNIALS OR ZOOMERS, ACCORDING TO SCIENCE. A study by the Michigan State University shows that, as a whole, generations have become progressively less self-centered and oversensitive since the 1930s. A proposed explanation is that boomers had great social security, so they've had less to struggle. CRACKED.COM

ADHD

MANY CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH ADHD ARE SIMPLY ACTING THEIR AGE. Overdiagnosis of ADHD has been found to be worse (by a whooping 30-34%) among the youngest children in a school grade. As it turns out, being unable to engage or concentrate is perfectly normal in kids just out of being toddlers, suddenly thrown into school due to arbitrary cutoff ages. CRACKED.COM

Planes

AN EARLY, STEAM- POWERED BAT- PLANE ACTUALLY MANAGED TO FLY. The Éole, designed in 1890 by Clément Ader, was the first heavier-than-air craft to fly under its own power (it remains the coolest). It managed to cruise 165 feet on its maiden flight. Sadly, bigger versions funded by the French government never got off the ground. CRACKED.COM

Cherries

CHERRIES ARE EXPENSIVE BECAUSE HELICOPTERS ARE USED TO GROW THEM. Cultivated cherries are easily damaged by water, so growers need a way to dry them whenever it rains. The solution: goddamn helicopters. The choppers act like huge overhead fans that knock all the droplets off the delicate fruit. The process is called cherry blowing. CRACKED.COM

Knitting

KNITTING WAS USED TO SEND SECRET MESSAGES. A purled stitch here, a dropped stitch there... A casual onlooker won't notice anything, but these stitches can conceal morse code. This was used during World War II to relay hidden messages. Some countries banned the practice of sending patterns across borders. CRACKED.COM

Minecraft

32 Out-Of-This-World Bits of Trivia That Somehow Found Their Way Back Into This World

Bobbing for Apples

BOBBING FOR APPLES USED TO BE A SEXY GAME. It's family-friendly entertainment today-but hundreds of years ago, you played it basically to flirt. The floating apples were given the names of the young people in attendance, and bobbers would try to literally take a bite of the one they fancied, in apple form. CRACKED.COM

Allergies

ALLERGIES KEEP GETTING WORSE BECAUSE OF TREE SEXISM. An old recommendation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture advises that only male trees be used for urban landscaping, to avoid the nuisance from the seed. This doesn't, however, avoid the nuisance from pollen. In fact, it makes it worse, as pollen is essentially plant sperm. CRACKED.COM

Fans

KOREANS ARE VERY AFRAID OF KILLER FANS. Every country has its own weird superstitions. In South Korea, many folks believe that sleeping with a fan running is a recipe for certain death. It's not exactly clear how a common household appliance is supposed to kill you, though. Apparently, however, cracking a door or window open removes all danger. CRACKED.COM

Cybernetically Enhanced Soldiers

eiro on 133983 THE ARMY HATES THAT KILLER CYBORGS HAVE A BAD NAME. The U.S. military really wants cybernetically enhanced soldiers, as shown by their report titled Cyborg Soldiers 2050, which went public in 2019. A hurdle they see is that movies like Terminator are a known stage for demonization of cyborgs. Don't you hate it when Hollywood gets in the way of your dreams? CRACKED.COM

Hair Dryers

Hair dryers used by hairdressers often contained asbestos through the late 1970s. Hair dryers containing as- bestos, including hand-held and hood vari- eties, which were used to insulate the appliances, made up 90% of annual U.S. hair dryer sales. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Patagonia

There is a Magic Mountain Hotel in Patagonia only accessible via suspensión bridge. The hotel, surrounded by a dense forest area in Chile, is built up like a mountain, covered in overgrowth with a wa- terfall spilling out the top. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The chocolate chip cookie was invented accidentally by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1930. Ruth decided to prepare a batch of Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, but after realizing that she was out of baker's chocolate she instead added broken pieces of a Nestlé choco- late bar. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Models

A model sold her virginity for $3 million to an Abu Dhabi businessman. 19-year-old Giselle says she'll use money to pay for college fees and traveling, and a new house. She de- scribed being able to sell her virginity as a 'form of emancipation.' CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Mars

It snows carbon dioxide on Mars-the flakes don't fall, but create a fog-like effect. Snow has not yet been observed in the pro- cess of actually reach- ing the ground on Mars, but it has been seen falling through the sky. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Popped Collars

The popped collar originated as a way to keep tennis players' necks from getting sunburnt. Prolific French tennis player René Lacoste came up with a softer, starch-free polo shirt in 1929, breaking with the stiff tennis gear tradi- tions of the day. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Spleens

Some people have a tiny, extra spleen. CRACKED COM Not only do 1 in every 10 people have a tiny second spleen called an accessory spleen, but also that if the main spleen is removed, the tiny second spleen can grow to function as a new spleen.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci's full name is Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. CRACKED.COM Leonardo's last name isn't da Vinci. It just means from Vinci as in Vinci, Florence in Italy (where he's from).

The CIA

During the Cold War, CIA agents communicated based on how their shoelaces were tied. GRAGKED.COM During the Cold War, the CIA hired stage magician John Mulholland to teach their covert operatives sleight-of-hand tricks and secret signals they could use in the field.

The 442nd Regiment

The most decorated American unit in WWII was almost exclusively a Japanese-American infantry regiment. CRACKED.COM The 442nd Regiment re- ceived more than 18,000 awards, including 9,500 Pur- ple Hearts, 5,200 Bronze Star Medals, 588 Silver Stars, 52 Distinguished Service Cross- es, and 7 Distinguished Unit Citations.

Phil Collins

Phil Collins was the only artist to perform at both Live Aid 1985 benefit concerts. CRACKED.COM Не played at Live Aid Wembley, went by heli- copter to Heathrow, flew to New York on the Con- corde, then another heli- copter to Live Aid Phila- delphia.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee was initially worried that blind people would take offense to the character Daredevil. CRACKED.COM Lee was worried about how far he exaggerated the way a blind person's other senses are enhanced, until he received letters telling him that blind peo- ple greatly enjoyed having the comics read to them.

World War II

The British planned to seal 6 men in a cave if the Axis ever captured Gibraltar during WWII. CRACKED.COM The men would be situated in a secret cave overlook- ing the harbor to secretly monitor and radio back en- emy movements. The cave had enough provisions for the men to stay for up to 7 years.

Richard Thaler

Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler promised to spend the prize money as irrationally as possible. He's an economist who studies how rational decision-making often takes a backseat to gut feelings, and they gave him the prize for creating a more realistic analysis of how people think and behave when making economic decisions. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Picasso

Picasso was once suspected of stealing the Mona Lisa in 1911. One of Picasso's friends had sold him art stolen from the Louvre before and reported him to the police. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan let his daughters rule allied kingdoms. He'd marry off his daughters to the kings of allied kingdoms, have all their other wives dismissed, and put the daughters in charge while he called their husbands to fight in his wars (where they usually got killed). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Rattlesnakes

In 1925, Kate McHale Slaughterback killed 140 rattlesnakes. She was out with her adopted son Ernie in Colorado and became surrounded by over a hundred rattlesnakes. She shot them with her rifle until she ran out of ammo, then took a nearby sign (it's believed to have said No Hunting) and killed every last rattlesnake. She had to club them non-stop for two hours. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Tater Tots

Tater tots were invented to use up leftover potato chunks in the Ore-Ida factory. They get their shape by being extruded Play-Doh- style and sliced. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

U.S. Navy Underwater Living Experiment

A U.S. Navy underwater living experiment relied on a trained dolphin. SEALAB II, a 45-day mission that investigated how humans would react to living underwater, involved Tuffy the bottlenose dolphin. Tuffy was trained to take mail to people living in the underwater station, and to carry tools from the station to the divers working outside. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

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