13 Bits Of Trivia To Upgrade Our General Knowledgeableness
![13 Bits Of Trivia To Upgrade Our General Knowledgeableness](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/3/7/822737_320x180.jpg)
How's your general knowledgeabless? We're just looking for an overall self assessment. It's always hard to tell from the outside. If your like most people, it's probably pretty solid, but who couldn't use an upgrade? A reboot? A little bit of a…oh we don't know, just something to top off the old gray matter.
We thought we'd help you out with more than a dozen bits of trivia, random factoids, knowledge bombs and wisdom morsels for your noggin.
For example, NASA only uses the first fifteen digits of PI to aid in their inter planetary navigation. Frankly, it's no wonder we haven't made first contact with intelligent life yet. Did you know that in the 40's self heating cans of soup were all the rage? What the heck happened to those?
As they say -- the more you know ... Well, they don't say what happens, but presumably it's pretty good. In that spirit, here are more bits of knowledge to add to your pile:
![Apparently, 15 digits of pi are enough for NASA, it turns out. That's 3.141592653589793, and it's the number they use for interplanetary navigation. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/9/822749.jpg)
![Apocalypse Now was supposed to have a score played only on synthesizer. That was Francis Ford Coppola's original idea - a fully orchestrated score, but one that wouldn't be played on analog synthesizers rather than instruments. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/5/0/822750.jpg)
![In the '40s, you could get a self-heating can of soup, and they were popular. Campbell's CONDENSED PARIS INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION er 1900 . 90 ARES Tomato MADE NET SOUP NE 1 Ж He ж EST They were great for soldiers on the front lines, and in fact they were developed for soldiers by Heinz and ICI. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/7/822747.jpg)
![Drivers only sit on the left in cars because of Ford's Model т. Ford 22 FORD Before the Model т, the drivers' seat was usually on the right - but in the Model т, it was to the left, and the Model T was so popular that other manufacturers moved the seat to the left too. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/5/822745.jpg)
![Some of Earth's largest birds were about 10 feet tall and lived on New Zealand. HEINKICH HARD They were called moas, and they lived there for millions of years but went extinct about 600 years ago, when humans showed up (apparently, we hunted them to extinction). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/8/822748.jpg)
![The James Webb Space Telescope led to advances in ophthalmology. NASA Gradard The work that went into developing the telescope optics led to a company being spun off that focuses on mapping the eye and diagnosing eye conditions. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/6/822746.jpg)
![In 1961, they built a passenger/cargo ship powered by a nuclear reactor. It was called the NS Savannah, and it's still around, but non-functional - currently, it's in the Port of Baltimore, MD. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/4/822744.jpg)
![There's brain tissue that's nearly 2000 years old, preserved as glass. It's from a victim of a volcano eruption in 79 AD- apparently, the intense heat just converts your tissue into glass (and you become a scientifically valuable artifact millennia later). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/2/822742.jpg)
![In India, they cultivate approximately 6,000 varieties of rice. Which might not be all that surprising when you consider that about 50% of India's billion-plus people depend on it. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/3/822743.jpg)
![There was a sudden outbreak of testicle thefts in 1920s Chicago. The newspapers called it gland larceny, and it was linked to a craze for, well, testicles - at the time, people thought that grafting animal testicles could make you younger and more virile. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/1/822741.jpg)
![There's a Rocky action figure of The Meat - the slab of meat Rocky punched. It's literally just a plastic version of that bag of meat, plus a slaughterhouse coat (with blood stains), and it must have been a really exciting toy for kids who bought Rocky action figures. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/4/0/822740.jpg)
![The cache of emails that led to Enron's downfall became surprisingly useful. ENRON These emails became a dataset that was used to train tools like Siri and Gmail's Smart Compose. It was also used for research into gender bias, machine learning, and email filtering. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/3/9/822739.jpg)
![After WWII, a ship full of Dutch-Canadian babies headed to Canada. Many Canadian soldiers got Dutch girlfriends, and they'd ask them to come to Canada after the war - eventually, the Dutch and Canadian governments organized a ship for them (and their babies). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/3/8/822738.jpg)