20 Facts That Are Better to Learn Late Than Never

A delayed game will eventually be good, unless it's ‘Duke Nukem Forever.’
20 Facts That Are Better to Learn Late Than Never

As children enjoy this list of interesting facts, so do I. I used to make a point of learning many new things every day, and I'm not sure why that has stopped. As a matter of fact, I have learned so many interesting things in my lifetime that the whole subject is simply too vast to mention them all. Instead, I will confine myself to mentioning only those facts I find most fascinating, most wonderful, most amusing or most interesting. The other facts can be found by doing an internet search with the words “interesting facts” followed by the name of some topic you are interested in. You will be amazed at how many interesting facts there are about everything. I'm sure you will find one or two interesting facts that have been omitted here, but they are just that - interesting facts. The title of this piece is a joke. It is meant to entertain our brains. It is not meant to educate our brains, which would take too much effort.

Joe Pesci has released a few albums since 1968.

Joe Pesci is a musician with his first album released in 1968. CRACKED COM In 1998, he released his second album and his first in 30 years, 'Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You,' which was named after his character from 'My Cousin Vinny.'

AV Club

Two 747s collided on the runway, killing everyone on board.

The deadliest accident in aviation history happened when two 747s collided. GRACKED.COM During the Tenerife Airport Disaster, over 580 people died when two passenger jets collided on the runway. Factors leading up to the di- saster include unpredictable weather, a hoax call, and ter- rorist activity.

Mentour Pilot

Steve Irwin named his daughter after two animals he liked.

Steve Irwin's daughter is named after a crocodile and a dog he really liked. GRACKED.COM Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve's favorite ani- mals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Ter- rier.

Tulsa World

Some households always seem to purchase products destined to fail.

Harbinger households predict market failures by always choosing the wrong products. CRACKED.COM The research paper 'The Surprising Breadth of Har- bingers of Failure' claimed that households in certain zip codes could predict the market by usually choos- ing products destined to fail.

BoingBoing

Otis Redding died before he could finish one of his biggest hits.

Otis Redding never heard the completed version of Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay. CRACKED.COM The whistled verse was thrown in as a placeholder, but Redding died in a plane crash before he could add lyrics. The song was re- leased several weeks later and was his biggest hit.

History

Thousands of Bulgarian war prisoners were blinded and returned home by a Byzantine Emperor.

A Byzantine Emperor blinded prisoners of war before returning them to Bulgaria. GRACKED COM Basil II clustered thousands of Bulgarian prisoners into groups of 100, blinding all but one in each group, who would then lead the other 99 back home. Tsar Samuel died of a heart attack upon seeing the returning soldiers.

Oxford

The original Peter Pan didn’t use fairy dust.

The use of 'fairy dust' was added to Peter Pan because kids kept getting hurt. CRACKED.COM The playwright added the use of fairy dust as a ne- cessity to fly because kids kept trying it themselves, jumping from their beds and eventually needing medical attention.

Curionic

It took over 14 years to develop ‘Duke Nukem Forever.’

'Duke Nukem Forever' had the longest development period for any video game. CRACKED.COM Officially announced on April 28th, 1997 by devel- oper 3D Realms, it took 14 years and 43 days for the game to be released (on June 10th, 2011). It has a 5.5/10 rating on IGN.

Guinness

The invasive Spotted Lanternfly is causing millions of dollars worth of damage in the US.

The Spotted Lanternfly causes $336 million in damages to Pennsylvania every year. CRACKED.COM Models of the spotted lan- ternfly's spread have pro- jected an annual loss of $554 million, with an addi- tional loss of 4,987 jobs, should it continue to spread to the entirety of Pennsylvania.

Invasive Species Center

The oldest European building in the West was brought over brick by brick.

A European monastery from 1141 AD stands in Miami, Florida. CRACKED.COM The Ancient Spanish Mon- astery was imported piece-by-piece into the U.S. in 1925 by media ty- coon William Randolph Hearst, making it the old- est European building in the Western Hemisphere.

Miami and Beaches

Water levels have receded enough that you can explore the flooded town St. Thomas.

Parts of the town that was flooded during the building of the Hoover Dam can be explored. CRACKED.COM St. Thomas was bought by the Federal govern- ment and abandoned when the dam was be- ing built, eventually be- coming Lake Mead.

NPS

Wowowee

73 people died trying to get on a game show in the Philippines. wowowee CRACKED.COM The popular Filipino game show Wowowee an- nounced that only the first 300 people out of the 30,000 that showed up would get tickets, resulting in a stampede that killed 73 and injured 400.

BBC

111 year old expedition equipment is still on the South Pole.

Equipment from the 1911 expedition to the South Pole is still there. CRACKED.COM The tent and some equip- ment used at the South Pole by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen on 14 December 1911 is there, al- though buried beneath 55 feet of snow.

Nettarkiv

Mongolian beef is actually Taiwanese beef.

Mongolian beef in Chinese restaurants doesn't originate from Mongolia. CRACKED.COM It actually comes from Mongolian BBQ shops in Taiwan. Mongolian BBQ style restaurants were created by a Tai- wanese entrepreneur in the 1950s.

Mashed

‘Dennis the Menace’ was two characters created independently in the US and Britain.

The British and US 'Dennis the Menace' were created at the same time, independent of each other. CRACKED.COM The British 'Dennis' lived up the 'Menace' name much more than his Ameri- can counterpart, whose misadventures were brought on by childhood naivete rather than malev- olent mischievousness.

ScreenRant

It only took 20 seconds for a WWII Spitfire to burn through all of its ammo.

WWII Spitfires had 20 seconds worth of ammunition on board. ZX M MT928 CRACKED.COM Each gun had 300 rounds, which didn't last long. Far less than 10 per- cent of all rounds fired connected with a target, which is why so few pilots became aces.

Flight Journal

Warfare manuals were balloon-dropped by the CIA to Nicaragua rebels.

The CIA sent rebels in Nicaragua a guerilla warfare manual by balloon. GRACKED.COM The manuals, titled Psy- chological Operations in Guerrilla War, were dropped during the Nica- raguan Revolution in 1984 to scare Nicaragua's San- dinista Government.

NY Times

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