20 Facts Pulled From The Depths Of The Earth

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20 Facts Pulled From The Depths Of The Earth

I enjoy this list of interesting facts quite a bit more than the usual list of facts, because this one is more fun. And it's true, in my personal opinion, that fun facts are superior to mere facts. Fun facts make people feel smarter and wiser than they actually are, which is always nice. I mean, I'm not stupid or anything, but I do like feeling smart, so I'm not going to argue with a fun fact. I will however, attempt to entertain you with an anecdote about why I have so many fun facts to begin with, since I suspect you've come here looking for some. I grew up in a fairly large family, but my mother was an only child. I, however, have two brothers, as well as a sister who is about ten years younger than me. My parents enjoy this list of interesting facts, and my mom likes to share these particular ones with me and my siblings when she visits us in Florida. I think she likes them because they make her seem so clever and witty.

George Cowan survived a Monty Python-esque trial of injuries.

In 1877, a 35-year-old attorney from Montana named George Cowan had the worst luck ever. GRAGKED.COM Не was shot 3 times in the head, crawled through Yel- lowstone, got burned in a forest fire, had surgery to remove the bullets, got thrown from a carriage, and his bed broke while re- ceiving care afterwards.

Billings Gazette

Ice cream made with pudding mix will gel rather than melt.

Cold Stone's No Drip ice cream doesn't melt because it contains Instant Pudding Mix. CRACKED.COM Someone at Cold Stone came up with an idea for an ice cream that would have the texture of Jell-O pudding. The modified food starch that sets instant pudding caused the resulting blend to gel rather than liquefy.

NY Magazine

A black hole has been discovered with more mass than all the stars in our galaxy.

The largest black hole ever found shines with the brightness of a hundred trillion stars. CRACKED.COM TON 618 is a hyperlumi- nous quasar that possesses an ultramassive black hole that consumes galaxies' worth of matter. It is great- er than the mass of all the stars in the Milky Way gal- аху combined.

NASA

Coke sales teams can’t give anyone a better deal than McDonald’s.

McDonald's has a deal with Coca-Cola to get the best deal. M CRACKED.COM As a matter of company policy, Coke sales teams are prohibited from selling syrup to other restaurants for less than what McDon- ald's pays, even if that means losing business to Pepsi-Cola.

NY Times

The oldest photo of a US President was discovered in an antiques shop in 1970.

The oldest existing photograph of a US President was bought at an antique shop for 50 cents. CRACKED COM The image is from August 1843, of a then 76-year-old John Quincy Adams who did not ар- prove any of the photos taken that day- but a daguerreo- type from that sitting surfaced at an antiques shop in 1970, priced at 50 cents.

NY Times

“Willow” special FX were used in “Terminator 2.”

The visual effects for the 1988 film Willow were later used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. CRACKED.COM Industrial Light & Magic creat- ed visuals for Willow which led to a breakthrough in digi- tal morphing technology. The techniques developed for se- quences where characters morph into different animals were later used in T2.

Mythmaker 

There is a time capsule under an obelisk in Central Park.

In 1881, an Egyptian obelisk named Cleopatra's Needle was erected in NYC's Central Park. CRACKED COM A capsule buried beneath holds the 1870 census, a Bi- ble, a Webster's Dictionary, the complete works of Shakespeare, a guide to Egypt, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Central Park NYC

When the Queen dies, Operation London Bridge goes into effect.

Operation London Bridge is a detailed procedure that outlines what happens when the Queen dies. CRACKED.COM Immediately after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her secretary will inform the Prime Minister via a se- cure phone line by saying London Bridge is down, thus initiating Operation London Bridge.

The Guardian

The Florida fairy shrimp was made extinct thanks to land development.

A type of shrimp only found in one pond was obliterated by land development. PERIAD UNTER STARBUCKS COFFEE ON CRACKED.COM The Florida fairy shrimp was discovered in 1952 to be a unique species of fairy shrimp specific to a single pond in Gainesville, Florida. When re- searchers returned to that pond in 2011, they realized it had been filled in for development.

Biological Diversity

Herbs are from the leaves of a plant and spices come from other parts.

Herbs and spices can be different parts of the same plant. CRACKED GOM Herbs come from the leaf of a plant, while spices come from other parts such as roots, bark, and seeds. So cilantro is an herb (coriander leaf) while coriander is a spice (cori- ander seed).

PlantNET

A dam collapsed in the middle of the night in California and killed 400 people.

Human error led to one of the worst engineering disasters in US history. GRACKED COM The chief engineer took sole re- sponsibility for the St. Francis Dam collapse in 1928, testify- ing, If there was an error in hu- man judgment, I was the hu- man. Over 400 people were killed when the dam failed in the middle of the night.

Acedemia 

Hong Kong’s subway is managed with artificial intelligence.

An AI controls Hong Kong's subway system. CRACKED.COM Hong Kong has one of the world's most effi- cient subway systems with a 99.9% on-time rate and the entire sys- tem is managed via Arti- ficial Intelligence.

New Scientist

The Nazis tried to flood the market with counterfeit British pounds.

Nazis partially succeeded in counterfeiting the British pound to cause hyperinflation. CRACKED.COM Using a German concen- tration camp, they man- ufactured 132 million GBP, which is the equiv- alent of 6-7 billion mod- ern-day pounds.

Lawrence Malkin

Apple had an iPhone prototype in the 1980s.

Apple wanted to make the iPhone back in the '80s. CRACKED.COM The first design of the iPhone was made back as far as 1983, which looks more like the iPad, but with an actual phone attached.

InfoJunkie

A teenager snuck into Ivy League schools for an education.

A teen managed to get an Ivy League education, in multiple universities, for free. CRACKED.COM A teenager named Guil- laume Dumas snuck into Ivy League schools over 4 years, gaining free education from Yale, Brown, Stanford and many others.

The Atlantic

Robert Redford wanted to be in “The Graduate,” but wasn’t a believable loser.

Robert Redford was too hot for the lead role in 1967's The Graduate. CRACKED.COM Redford badly wanted the role but was rejected by di- rector Mike Nicholls because he didn't think Redford could play a loser. 'Let's put it this way, Nicholls reportedly said, Have you ever struck out with a girl?

Vanity Fair

A sinkhole swallowed an entire bedroom in Florida.

A Florida man disappeared into a sinkhole that formed under his house. CRACKED COM In 2013, a man in Florida ran to his brother's bedroom af- ter hearing him scream only to find the entire room and his brother being swallowed by a sinkhole. They were never able to find the body of his brother.

CNN

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