15 Gotta-Know Facts That Are Worth A Look
![15 Gotta-Know Facts That Are Worth A Look](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/4/840614_320x180.jpg)
A man named Dyson, the last of his species in the universe, is wandering aimlessly through a desert. He is looking for something that he thinks can help him make sense of all this—the meaning behind life and everything that's been happening.
"The only way to explain why I'm still walking is that maybe there's a plan to this madness." He murmurs, "If I had any clue as to what it all meant, maybe then I'd know what I was supposed to do next. Maybe then I could figure out how to get home... or at least where home was."
And perhaps ... yes. There, in the distance, Dyson spots something. A white glint in the desert sand. Walking towards it, he picks it up, possibilities racing through his mind as his heart beats furiously. It turns out to be a piece of paper and, flipping it over, it turns out to have fifteen strange facts scrawled on it. They are:
Johnny Cash’s given name was J.R., which didn’t stand for anything.
![Johnny Cash was born with the name J.R. Cash because his parents couldn't think of a name. CRACKED.COM When he enlisted in the Air Force, they wouldn't let him use his initials, so he began to call himself John.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/9/840629.jpg)
Ozone is what we smell when there’s a storm coming.
![The smell of an incoming storm is the smell of ozone. CRACKED.COM When people say they can smell a storm coming, they are smelling ozone which is pulled from higher altitudes by the coming storm's downdrafts.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/8/840628.jpg)
The Avengers was a last minute idea.
![The Avengers comic book series was a last-minute idea after a delayed issue of Daredevil. CRACKED.COM With no time to devise new characters who had complicated origin stories, it was decided to instead use Marvel's roster of existing characters in a team-up comic.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/5/840625.jpg)
Boston got rid of Santa for 22 years.
![Christmas was banned in Boston between 1659 and 1681. CRACKED.COM Many of the English settlers who left the British Isles to found the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies questioned the date decreed as the day to celebrate the birth of their Savior.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/7/840627.jpg)
More PCs had “Doom” than Windows in 99
![Doom was so popular in 1995 that it was installed on more PCs than Windows 95. 93 45% 2 3 4 82% BULL 214 400 BD 100 5 Б 7 CRACKED COM Bill Gates briefly considered buying its creator, ID software, but settled for getting a team at Microsoft to port the game to Win95. The team was led by Gabe Newell.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/3/840623.jpg)
Low-cost housing in Mexico was made with sets from “The Matrix: Reloaded.”
![Sets from The Matrix: Reloaded were turned into low-cost housing. CRACKED.COM After filming the freeway scenes for The Matrix: Reloaded, the filmmakers instead of disposing of the set, chose to donate it, in pieces, to charity in Mexico to be turned into low-cost housing.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/2/840622.jpg)
Millions of birds are saved every year by making radio antennas blink differently.
![Changing the way lights blink on radio antennas saves millions of birds a year. CRACKED.COM Millions of birds are killed each year by radio antennas. Changing the static red light to a blinking light can cut the death toll by up to 70%.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/4/840624.jpg)
A “Platoon” actor opened a restaurant run by several sets of twins.
![There was a restaurant in NYC in the '90s that was run entirely by sets of twins. CRACKED.COM Tom Berenger (best known for his role in Platoon) once owned a restaurant called Twins on the Upper East Side, where the wait staff consisted of 29 sets of identical twins.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/6/840626.jpg)
There is a gambling loophole in Japan.
![Gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, so balls are issued as a prize which can be traded for tokens. 21 GL 15 32 - OZ 26 3 71 IE C. 195 ZI BZ 97 ezio as SER CRACKED.COM These tokens are then exchanged for cash at a place nominally separate from the parlor. This is just gambling with extra steps.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/0/840620.jpg)
Ravens call over larger predators to open up dead animals for them.
![Ravens will use large predators to open up the dead animals they find for easier eating. CRACKED.COM Ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals so that they will open the carcass and leave the scraps more accessible to them.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/1/840621.jpg)
The pebble toad flings itself off of cliffs to evade predators.
![A species of toad evades predators by yeeting itself off of cliffs. CRACKED.COM The Pebble Toad will throw itself down a cliff to avoid predators and will survive it by tucking in its legs and being light enough to bounce without being injured.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/8/840618.jpg)
Teen birth rates dropped after “6 and Pregnant."
![MTV's 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom contributed to a drop in teen birth rate. 16 and GRAGKED.COM Economists theorized that the timing of the introduction of MTV's 16 and Pregnant is such that it could have contributed to the staggering drop of teen pregnancies between 2008 and 2012.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/9/840619.jpg)
Wasps can be used as pest control.
![Wasps can be used as a natural form of pest control. CRACKED.COM Wasps are extremely valuable in horticulture since they prey upon almost every pest insect. They carry caterpillars back to the nest and feed them to the developing larvae.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/7/840617.jpg)
Hummingbirds use hawks as protection.
![Hummingbirds will nest near hawks and use them as protection. CRACKED.COM Hummingbirds which breed closer to Hawks' nests have a higher survival rate than those who don't because the Hawks protect the Hummingbirds from animals which prey on their eggs.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/6/840616.jpg)
The first iPad wasn’t released by Apple.
![Fujitsu made a device called the iPad in 2002 that ran on Microsoft's CE.NET system. 22 likes GRACKED.COM In January 2010, when Apple announced the Apple iPad, there was a naming controversy between the two devices. Apple had to pay $4 million to Fujitsu to buy the trademark.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/5/840615.jpg)