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A sip from the chalice of trivial knowledge

29 Pieces of Trivia from the Knowledge Puzzle

September 05, 2023

We all love little tidbits of information that make our brains go, “Whistle!” Here are some assorted facts to wet your whistle and give you something fun to think about — things like why koalas sleep for up to 20 hours a day, and how a sneeze can travel up to 100 miles per hour…

29

Mission to Mars

CRACKED.COM The movie Mission to Mars was based on a Disneyland ride. Before Pirates of the Caribbean, Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars was loosely based on the Tomorrowland ride of the same name. The connection was downplayed in the marketing, though, and it's unclear whether De Palma himself was aware of it. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

28

Mindfulness can help with your depression- or make it worse. While meditation can be helpful, it's far from the safe, easy cure-all that it's often claimed to be. Researchers at Coventry University found that in one out of 12 people, meditation and mindfulness can worsen (or even outright cause) depression and anxiety. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

27

CRACKED.COM The first flying saucers weren't flying saucers. Pilot Kenneth Arnold, the first person who reported seeing UFOs, said they were flying like a saucer if you skip it across the water. Не was very annoyed when he was misreported as saying they were saucer-shaped - an image that was then cemented by hoaxes. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

26

Oneida flatware was created by a sex cult. The Oneida Community started as an agrarian utopia in the 1800s, before switching to metallurgic industrialism and creating the fancy silverware still sold today. Their success was their downfall, as the government started to look closely into their free-loving, commie ways. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

25

CRACKED.COM Six men survived 9/11 thanks to a squeegee. All six were stuck in an elevator after the plane struck - among them veteran window washer Jan Demczur. Demczur used his squeegee to jimmy the door open and then cut through the brittle plasterboard wall. They managed to get out of the building minutes before it collapsed. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

24

CRACKED.COM There's a collector's market for royal underwear. Queen undies are a hotter commodity than the underwear of living celebrities. Pairs of Queen Victoria's bloomers have sold for over $15,000, and Queen Elizabeth I's (dirty) panties fetched $18,000 on eBay in 2012. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

23

16th-century Belgians built porn snowmen. The Miracle of 1511 was a huge winter festival held in Brussels, when lots of elaborate snow figures were made - more than half of them of a sexual or scatological nature. People were mad (at the government and the harsh winter), and the snow things gave them an outlet to vent. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

22

CRACKED.COM CLUE HAD A FOURTH, LOST ENDING. The Clue movie was supposed to have four different endings, not three, but one was scrapped for unknown reasons. No footage has survived, but what little records exist show it was a very dark ending, with Wadsworth the butler killing everyone. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

21

FANS KEEP THROWING PIZZA ON THE BREAKING BAD HOUSE. Your home becoming famous on TV is less fun than you think. Just ask the real owners of Walter White's house in Albuquerque, who keep getting pizza thrown onto their roof. Things got so bad, they put up a six-foot fence around their property. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

20

ROBOTIC MONSTER WOLVES PROTECT CROPS IN JAPAN. With local wolves hunted to extinction 200 years ago, boars and deer have become a nuisance to farmers. A modern solution is Super Monster Wolf, an animatronic, solar-powered scareboar that keeps animals (and probably people) at bay. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

19

EAT PRAY LOVE AND COYOTE UGLY ARE ABOUT THE SAME PERSON. Author Elizabeth Gilbert was played by Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love - and Piper Perabo in Coyote Ugly is also Gilbert (kind of). The movie about table-dancing bartenders is based on an article by Gilbert about her time working in the Coyote Ugly Saloon. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

18

PALPATINE WAS A WOMAN WITH A CHIMP'S EYES. lan McDiarmid has become so iconic as Palpatine that it's easy to forget the part was originally played by someone else. In the theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back, the Emperor was actress Marjorie Eaton in heavy makeup, with chimpanzee eyes composited on top of her face. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

17

CRACKED.COM P 101 DALMATIANS HAS A SEQUEL ABOUT A DOG RAPTURE. In The Starlight Barking, written by the same author as the original book, all dogs gain the ability to levitate and telepathically talk, as Sirius the Dog Star tries to save them from nuclear war. Also, there's a subplot about a cat trying to murder Cruella de Vil. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

16

CRACKED.COM THE WATCHMEN TV SHOW DID TELL US WHO LUBE MAN IS. Like in the comic, a lot of the backstory is in written documents ' and in this case it's Peteypedia, a companion website kept in- universe by FBI agent/fan of vigilantes Dale Petey. The last entry very heavily implies that Petey himself was the mysterious Lube Man who puzzled viewers. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

15

CRACKED.COM 12:01 PM was Groundhog Day before Groundhog Day. The 1990 short film starring Kurtwood Smith doesn't just have the same premise as the Bill Murray movie, but a lot of the elements and plot beats are the same. The writer and the director reportedly tried to sue the makers of Groundhog Day, but ultimately gave up. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

14

A Springfield, IL officially honored Cobra Commander. As Springfield was hosting a big G.I. Joe convention in 2015, the event was celebrated by handing the keys to the city to the show's villain. It kinda checks out, Considering Illinois' long history of government corruption. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

13

CRACKED.COM Rick & Morty's Council of Ricks is based on The Fantastic Four. A body composed of versions from different realities of a genius scientist? Reed Richards did it first. The Interdimensional Council of Reeds was founded by three Fantastic Men who finagled themselves an Infinity Gauntlet. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

12

CRACKED.COM George Washington was actually the 15th U.S. president. Before Washington, 14 people held the office of President of the Continental Congress between 1774 and 1788, when the Constitution created a new executive branch. Those guys aren't officially counted, mostly because it was a largely ceremonial position with no real power. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

11

CRACKED.COM NEW cc Conservatism played a big part in the failure of New Coke. desmark The backlash against the new recipe was particularly strong amongst Southern conservatives, who saw it as a new aggression from those damn Yankees. A University of Mississippi professor called it an intrusion on tradition that Southerners won't like, regardless of how it tastes. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

10

CRACKED.COM British clowns use eggs as a makeup registry. Over 250 ceramic eggs are housed in the London's Clown Gallery-Museum, each painted with the signature look of a particular clown as a form of copyright protection. The gallery- museum is housed inside a church, because clowns are apparently trying to be creepy. — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

9

CRACKED.COM A treatment for alcoholism involves poisoning the patient. Disulfiram was the first drug approved by the FDA to treat alcohol dependence. It's never the first option, though, as its effect is as simple as it is devious: it makes alcohol poisonous. (Or rather, it interferes with the body's ability to make it not poisonous). — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

8

Someone calculated just how fast the Doom guy is. Redditor u/Phytor has done the math on this long-debated issue. Не concluded that Mr. Doom Man weighs 1,204 lbs, and still manages to walk at a speed of 49.5 miles per hour. That's faster than Usain Bolt (on a motorbike). CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Random Facts to Make Your Life More Factual and/or Random

7

CRACKED.COM SOME ANTS MAKE HONEY. Bees aren't the only honey-making bug. There are other insects on the list-including honeypot ants. These ants don't keep the sweet juice in hives, though-they store it within themselves, swelling up to the size of delicious, legged olives. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

6

CRACKED.COM OTTO LILIENTHAL FLEW BEFORE THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. Lillienthal, a German engineer, completed 2,000 flights with different gliders. His death (while flying) inspired the Wright Brothers to try it themselves, and Lillienthal's designs formed the basis of their research. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

5

GREEK WRESTLING WAS HARDCORE AS HELL. Pankration was a form of wrestling with pretty much no rules practiced in Ancient Greece. Arrhachion, a celebrity pankratiast, was choked to death during a bout - only to be declared the winner, as his opponent submitted at the last second. Greeks loved this brutally dramatic shit. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

4

CRACKED.COM A ROCK CARVING IN CHINA IS THE WORLD'S OLDEST PORN. The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs, carved into ancient volcanic rock in the second millennium ВСЕ, represent a huge orgy, er, fertility ritual. The scene depicts about 100 ithyphallic persons (ithyphallic being a technical term meaning sporting a boner). — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

3

CRACKED.COM SOME OF THE FIRST TAXIS WERE ELECTRIC. Electric cars aren't a modern innovation - they competed with fuel-powered cars in the early days of automobile production. The first taxi company in New York City used a fleet of electric cars when it was founded in the 1890s. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

2

THE QUESTION ABOUT A TREE MAKING SOUND WASN'T A PHILOSOPHICAL CONUNDRUM. In any case, it wasn't intended as one. When the question was first posed in 1883, it came with the answer, No. Sound is the sensation excited in the ear when the air or other medium is set in motion. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

1

CRACKED.COM EARTH WAS ONCE A RAINY PLANET. 235 million years ago, the supercontinent Pangaea was mostly dry and arid. Then volcanic activity changed the climate, and it started raining - for two million years. This was the Carnian Pluvial Episode, and the resulting fossil and rock deposits have blown geologists' minds for years. — Source: 14 Random Facts to Shovel into Knowledge-Hungry Skulls

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