29 Scheming Bits of Trivia That’ll Get Into Your Brain One Way or Another

Their knowledge will not go unread!
29 Scheming Bits of Trivia That’ll Get Into Your Brain One Way or Another

You better read these now, because if you don’t, they’ll be coming in through your ears, nose or mouth. There are so many ways to get into a brain, and since reading is by far the easiest and least painful, we highly recommend it. 

Heck, some of these are so small, they could slide down your hair into your follicles like firemen at the fire station. So get to reading before your brain gets completely ambushed.

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29 Scheming Bits of Trivia That’ll Get Into Your Brain One Way or Another

Inmates

CRACKED INMATES INFECTED WITH MALARIA, SUBJECTED TO EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS. In the Stateville Penitentiary research project, inmates were infected with malaria and treated with experimental drugs. Research and punishment were completely interpenetrating, and mutually reinforcing.

Obedience

CRACKED SHOCKINGLY OBEDIENT: 65% SUBMIT TO AUTHORITY Stanley Milgram's experiment demonstrated the power of authority, with 65% of participants willing to administer high-voltage electric shocks, despite feeling negative emotions. Participants who challenged the authority were in the minority, showing that obedience can override personal codes of conduct.

Nick Offerman

Celebrity-Owned Booze and Weed - adidas JSUR LAGAVULIN OFFERMAN ULIN ETION EDITION SINGLE MALT by Nick Offerman As Ron Swanson loves this brand of whisky, Offerman appeared in ads for Lagavulin distillery before the two teamed up to develop a line of Scotch. CRACKED.COM

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Celebrity-Owned Booze and Weed Eldegura STEVE AUSTIN'S BROKEN SKULL ElSegundo BREWING OMI STONE COLD IPA AND BROKEN SKULL LAGER by Stone Cold Steve Austin El Segundo Brewing Company and the beer swilling-pro wrestler debuted an IPA back in 2015, and it sold so well that they developed a lager in 2022. CRACKED.COM

Dashboards

A dashboard originated from horse-drawn carriages. A dashboard was a barrier of wood or leather fixed at the front of a horse-drawn carriage or sleigh to pro- tect the driver from mud or other debris dashed up by the horses' hooves. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Balsa Wood

Balsa wood, one of the softest woods, is technically a hardwood. CRACKED.COM The difference be- tween hardwood and softwood has to do with how they repro- duce, not the actual hardness of the wood.

Dead Sea Scrolls

One portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls was determined to be a treasure map. W snake island treasure smalt pay S lake of shadows dragon mountains black lake irate bay GRACKED.COM Found in 1952, the copper scroll was not a literary work like the others, in- stead it listed the locations of valuable treasure like silver and gold that have been buried or hidden.

Kill Shots

The longest kill shot in military history is claimed by an unnamed Canadian soldier. The soldier, from Joint Task Force 2 (JFT2), hit the target from 3,450 meters. His heart- beat could have made him miss his target. Canadian sol- diers currently claim three of the top five longest con- firmed shots recorded. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Crime

A crime lab chemist in MA intentionally mishandled thousands of samples. Annie Dookhan was driven by a compulsion to over- achieve, even if it meant making things up or cut- ting corners. As a result, only 320 convictions from a total of 21,907 were not thrown out. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Camels

Camels living in an old nuclear test site near the Great Gobi Desert drink saltwater. The wild camel survived the effects of radiation from 43 atmospheric nu- clear tests. In the absence of fresh water, they adapt- ed to drinking salt water with a higher salt content than sea water. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptians were notorious for their subversive political humor. the The Romans banned Egyptian advocates from the law because all of their jokes dis- rupted the sanctity of the courts. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Earthworms

Earthworms have even been ranked the number one most influential species in the history of the planet. Ecologists consider earthworms keystone species because of how much they influence the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Whales

A common cure for rheumatism in 19th century Australia was to sit inside a dead whale for 30 hours. The whale cure was popu- larized after a drunk rheu- matism-sufferer saw a whale carcass on the beach and jumped inside. When he emerged 30 hours later, the rheumatism had en- tirely disappeared. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Lost Ships

An Inuit island is named after a lost ship that ended up crashing there. The HMS Erebus, part of the mid-19th-century Franklin Expedition which was lost for nearly 170 years, was found in 2014 near an island which in the Inuit language means The big boat sank here. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

World War II

300 men died at their stations when the battleship Yamato was intentionally flooded by their captain. CRACKED.COM The Japanese ship was list- ing severely in the water during a suicide mission, being bombarded by Al- lied bombers, and the cap- tain made the difficult de- cision to flood the engine room to try and correct it.

Board Games

A board game released called Blacks & Whites was basically a racist Monopoly. EHALL 04 COMPANY ELECTRIC £150 ٢٩٨٨ MALL PALL CRACKED.COM The game explores issues of racial inequality by treating players differently based on the race in which they play, demonstrating how the odds were stacked against some races in com- parison to others.

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss and his editor had a closet full of hats to use when struck with writer's block. CRACKED.COM Seuss and his editor would go into this closet, filled with hundreds of hats, and wear them until the words came. We're sure that's what Seuss told his wife, anyway.

Kodak

Kodak developed a digital camera in 1975 that recorded a photograph onto a cassette. LUMIX GRACKED.COM To view the filmless photo you had to remove the cas- sette from the camera and place it in a customized reader that could display the image on an old black and white television.

Binge-Watching

BINGE-WATCHING IS SCIENTIFICALLY A BAD IDEA. Binge-watching may be the way we consume entertainment now, but that doesn't make it a good way. According to a University of Melbourne study, bingeing decreases your enjoyment and reduces your ability to remember what you just watched. The practice has also been linked to poor diet, obesity, and sleep deprivation. CRACKED.COM

Congress

CRACKED.COM CONGRESS HAD ITS OWN IN-HOUSE BOOTLEGGER. In 1920, George Cassiday set up shop in the House of Representatives. Every morning he arrived in his basement office carrying two large suitcases full of moonshine which he peddled to representatives, many of whom had voted for Prohibition. Capitol Police closed down his operation in 1925, but he quickly found a new venue: the Senate.

The Thing

HOWARD HAWKS' PRODUCTION THE THING from another world! STARBING JAMES ARNESS as THE THING The Thing is John Carpenter's take on 1951's The Thing From Another World. Carpenter's movie isn't just gorier - it's also closer to the original novella by John W. Campbell. CRACKED.COM

Chess

CHESS WAS ONCE THOUGHT TO MAKE PEOPLE DUMBER. When chess started getting popular in the 19th century, some denounced it as a pointless waste of time that distracted people from higher intellectual pursuits. It was essentially the video games of the time. CRACKED.COM

Shakespeare

CRACKED.COM SHAKESPEARE MAY HAVE HAD SYPHILIS. The Bard's later work is peppered with endless references to syphilis, and it's a pretty good bet that that's because he had it. Syphilis was commonly treated with mercury back then, and Shakespeare had several signs of mercury poisoning, such as tremors (as evidenced by his wonky signature) and alopecia.

Moths

MOTHS ARE EVOLVING TO STAY AWAY FROM LAMPS. Moths' attraction to lamps is famously unhealthy for them. But evolution seems to be changing that. Swiss zoologists found that moths collected in brightly lit cities are much less likely than their country cousins to fly towards artificial light sources. CRACKED.COM

Belly Buttons

YOUR BELLY BUTTON HOUSES BACTERIA UNKNOWN TO SCIENCE. Researchers at North Carolina University had the idea to sample volunteers' navels. They found 2,368 species of bacteria, 1,458 of which were previously undocumented. A particularly gross belly button had bacteria that are usually found in ice caps and hydrothermal vents in the ocean. GRACKED.COM

Slavery

CRACKED.COM 12 FORMER SLAVES BECAME MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. After the 15th Amendment gave black men the right to vote in 1870, a total of 12 former slaves made it to Congress in the 19th century, all of them Republicans representing Southern States. Only one of them, Blanche Kelso Bruce (pictured), was elected to the Senate-which he ended up presiding over for a bit.

Scarlet Pimpernel

CRACKED.COM SUPERHEROES WERE INVENTED BY A BARONESS. In 1903, Hungarian-born Emma Orczy created the Scarlet Pimpernel, the first hero to have a secret identity. Sir Percy Blakeney was a dull fop who donned a mask and rescued aristocrats from the French Revolution.

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