22 Random Bits of Trivia That Have Roosted on Our Front Porch and We’re Legally Not Allowed to Relocate Them

Get these in before they fly away
22 Random Bits of Trivia That Have Roosted on Our Front Porch and We’re Legally Not Allowed to Relocate Them

Facts grow up too fast these days. We thought we’d have more time with them here in the office, but they seem ready to get out there on their own. And who are we to stifle their growth?

All we can do is enjoy this one last read to the fullest and give them a warm, loving send-off. Hope they come home for Christmas!

Parks

A two foot wide concrete basin with a single shrub is the world's smallest park. CRACKED.COM Mills Ends Park in Portland sits in the middle of an intersection like any concrete barrier, but with a small parcel of soil that supports the occasional flower or perennial. With a total area of 452 square inches, it was recognized as the world's smallest park in 1971.

Purple

There are only two countries in the world that use the color purple in their flag. CRACKED.COM The flags of Dominica and Nicaragua are the only flags to sport purple, and are only 41 and 114 years old, respectively. One reason why purple is so rare in flags is that the color dye was too expensive and thus very rare.

Drinking Too Much Water

Drinking too much water can be fatal. CRACKED.COM Water intoxication is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe limits by excessive water intake.

Nintendo

The Nintendo company has existed since 1889. Nintendo SELECT START CRACKED.COM Nintendo began as a Japanese playing card manufacturer in Kyoto. In 1951, Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. had a name change to Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd., finally dropping the playing card in 1963 when they began producing games.

Disneyland

The worst civilian helicopter crash in U.S. history ended the Disneyland Skyway. OILMS - - AM RESCUE + AMS = GRAGKED.COM When Disneyland opened, visitors had the option of arriving by highway or skyway (helicopter). However in 1968, 12 years after Disneyland opened, the skyway ended after a crash took the lives of 23 people.

Mount Everest

Climbers use the frozen corpses on Mt. Everest as markers. CRACKED.COM There are at least 200 dead bodies on Mt Everest, some of which are used as climbing markers. Removing the bodies is difficult as well as controversial, because it touches on different traditions and beliefs that are often at odds with each other.

Propellers

Bubbles are the number one cause of damage to ship propellers. CRACKED COM Collapsing cavitation bubbles release tiny bolts of extremely violent energy, which damage propellers. Cavitation occurs when small air bubbles form against a propeller blade, because the water actually boils.

Nuclear Weapons

A nuclear weapon was designed to cause maximum nuclear fallout damage possible. CRACKED.COM The concept of a cobalt bomb was originally described by physicist Leó Szilárd in 1950. His intent was not to propose such a weapon be built, but to show that nuclear weapon technology would soon reach the point where it could end human life.

Kuwait

Kuwait is banned from the Olympics, so their athletes compete as independents. CRACKED.COM The state of Kuwait is banned from the Olympics due to government legislation that permits the state to interfere in elections of sporting organizations. As a result, Kuwaiti athletes compete as independent athletes under the Olympic Flag instead of their own flag.

Dancing Horses

An ancient city taught their horses to dance, which was exploited by another army. CRACKED.COM The citizens of the ancient Greek city of Sybaris lived extremely luxurious lifestyles, with wine canals that transported wine directly to their cellars. Their cavalry trained their horses to dance to pipe music and then were defeated by an army attacking them with music.

Serial Spanker

Whipping Tom was London's serial spanker. 200 years before Jack the Ripper, London's Fleet Street was stalked by Whipping Tom-not a serial killer, but a serial spanker. Tom would lift women's dresses and spank them on the buttocks, yelling Spanko! Another, more violent Whipping Tom started assaulting women years later. CRACKED.COM

Alcoholism

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).

New Coke

CRACKED.COM NEW CC Conservatism played a big part in the failure of New Coke. de-mark 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.

Women’s Restrooms

CRACKED.COM Women's restrooms weren't always bathrooms. In Victorian England, women were thought of as delicate creatures that would crumble at the drop of a hat-so public rooms were set up, with chairs and couches, for the ladies to seek shelter from the scary outside. Once toilets became a thing, those were just added OMEN to existing restrooms.

Nazi Hunters

The Oversteegen sisters were teenage Nazi hunters. Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were only 14 and 17, but did their part in helping the Dutch resistance take care of Nazi occupiers. They would seduce Nazis in bars and then lead into the woods- where a resistance fighter would shoot the Nazi creeping on underage girls. CRACKED.COM

Pineapples

CRACKED.COM Pineapples used to be a status symbol. For centuries, pineapples in Europe were rare, exotic, and above all expensive, as they were imported from across the ocean. The rich would often get one-not to eat it, but to show off their wealth by parading the fruit in front of other people.

Death Row

A death row prisoner tried to get too fat for the electric chair. In 1952, Donald Snyder was sentenced to death for killing a 9-year- old girl. Resolved to grow too big to be executed, he put on 150 pounds in less than one year. It didn't work- when the time came, he fit the chair just fine. CRACKED.COM

Royal Underwear

There's a market for royal underwear. People exist willing to pay top dollar for underwear worn by famous people - not just celebrities, but also queens. Pairs of Queen Victoria's bloomers have sold for over $15,000, and a pair of Elizabeth Il's (dirty) undies fetched $18,000 on eBay. CRACKED.COM

NSFW Snowmen

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

9/11

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.

Oneida Flatware

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

UFOs

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.

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