20 Now-You-Know Facts That Go Down Smooth
![20 Now-You-Know Facts That Go Down Smooth](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/1/4/863214_320x180.jpg)
One of the most common and pernicious fallacies in human society is that people enjoy this list of interesting facts, this book of wondrous information, this collection of astounding nuggets. This is not so. As a matter of fact, no one enjoys this list. As a matter of fact, no one enjoys any part of this book or any other book like this one. As a matter of fact, no one enjoys any book at all. No one enjoys a book, because books are dull, stupid, tedious things, and there is nothing more boring than reading a book. Books are just written words on pages, and there is nothing more pointless than reading a page, which is just a flat piece of paper. And reading a flat piece of paper is no better than staring into space, and no one likes to do that either. In fact, it's really a mystery to me why people enjoy this list of interesting facts. I am baffled and mystified.
The landlocked Baikal Seal is the only freshwater seal on Earth.
![No one knows how seals originally came to Lake Baikal in Siberia. CRACKED.COM The Baikal Seal is the only true freshwater seal on Earth, and may have trav- eled hundreds of miles to Lake Baikal from another large body of water during the last ice age before be- ing stranded.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/9/863239.jpg)
Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash a day after dreaming about his funeral.
![Stevie Ray Vaughan had a dream about his own funeral a day before he died. CRACKED.COM On August 26, 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan described a disturbing dream to his bandmates in which he witnessed his own funeral. The next day, he tragically died in a helicopter crash.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/8/863238.jpg)
Large cruise ships get worse gas mileage than we thought.
![The cruise ship MS Oasis of the Seas gets the gas mileage of 12 feet per gallon. W MILIMON MSC CRACKED.COM Completed in 2010, it has a total length of 361.8 me- ters, a height of 72 meters above the sea line, and room for 6,296 passen- gers. It burns 11361 gallons of fuel each hour.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/0/863240.jpg)
Harry Melling was almost dropped from Harry Potter because he lost so much weight.
![The Dudley Dursley actor had to wear a fat suit after the third Harry Potter movie. CRACKED.COM Harry Melling had lost so much weight that his role was almost recast. Eventu- ally it was decided that Melling would continue to play Dudley and would wear a fat suit to make him look heavier.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/7/863237.jpg)
The NFL has only one female official.
![Sarah Thomas is the NFL's only female official. CRACKED.COM Thomas earned a basket- ball scholarship to the University of Mobile, ranking fifth in the school's history, and graduated with a degree in communications.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/5/863235.jpg)
Humans have genes stolen from other species.
![There are 45 genes which the human species has likely 'stolen' from worms and bacteria. SASTGCCGACGA TACGAGTTCTT TGTTGCEGCTGATACO AAAGA GCGCTCCG TGAGATGGTGCCGGTG GTATGTTGGACCGAGT CRACKED.COM They have not simply been passed on from our primitive ancestors. In- stead, they have jumped directly into the human genome in the last couple of million years.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/4/863234.jpg)
France has “color blind” population surveys.
![French law forbids official surveys accounting for racial or ethnic origin. CRACKED COM Nobody knows the exact number of people of African de- scent living in France because it officially declares itself 'color blind.'](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/3/863233.jpg)
Ants manage infrastructure without coordination.
![Ants manage large-scale infrastructure projects with no coordination at all. GRACKED.COM Each ant acts alone, solving problems such as removing obstructions as they are en- countered. Research points to the simple, evolutionary energy-saving principle of: If you do not need to com- municate, don't!](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/2/863232.jpg)
The loneliest man alive is the last of an Amazonian tribe.
![There is an indigenous Brazilian man believed to be the last member of his tribe. CRACKED.COM Officials call him The Man of the Hole, from the 6 feet deep holes that he digs in each home that he has abandoned. Не has sig- naled to government offi- cials before to warn them about his pitfalls.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/1/863231.jpg)
Nearly 1,000 people were hired to work on Avatar’s effects.
![Weta Digital hired 900 people to work on the visual effects for Avatar. CRACKED.COM To render the movie, Weta made use of 4,000 Hewlett-Packard servers with 35,000 processor cores with 104 TB of RAM and 3 PB of network area storage.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/0/863230.jpg)
Every MLB ball is covered in secret New Jersey mud.
![Every ball used in an MLB game is covered in mud that comes from a secret location in New Jersey. * CFFICIA MON LEAGUE B BOO - CRACKED COM A man skims through riv- erbanks to find the mud, then refines it before it's applied to balls. It is called the Lena Black- burne Original Baseball Rubbing Mud.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/9/863229.jpg)
Paper was made from the wrappings of mummies in the 1800s.
![Mummies were shipped to America in the 1800s to use their wrappings as paper. CRACKED.COM Several shiploads of Egyp- tian mummies were import- ed so that the linen rags could be used to make ра- per to accommodate news- paper printing - which was as much as England and France combined.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/8/863228.jpg)
The sole survivor of a plane crash was found in his seat in the middle of a road.
![A teenager survived a plane crash still strapped to his seat after being ejected from the plane. I TOP CRACKED.COM In 1985, a 17-year old named George Lamson Jr. was ejected from Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 upon the crash, and landed up- right in his seat in the mid- dle of a street. Не was the only survivor.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/6/863226.jpg)
Napping is better for memory than taking a study break.
![Napping after learning leads to a significantly better recall rate one week later. GRAGKED.COM When tested 30 minutes after learning, cramming and napping led to signifi- cantly better memory than taking a break. After a week, napping maintained this significant advantage, but cramming did not.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/5/863225.jpg)
A sequel to the original “Forrest Gump” novel was written.
![The original author of the Forrest Gump novel wrote a sequel to the book. The Rollicking Sequel to the #1 New York Times Bestseller Forrest Gump GRACKED.COM It was titled Gump and Co, and in it Gump crashes the Exx- on Valdez, helps de- stroy the Berlin Wall, and fights in Opera- tion Desert Storm.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/4/863224.jpg)
The Queen piece in chess used to not be so important.
![The rules of chess were changed in the 15th-century to reflect the accomplishments of Queen Isabella. CRACKED.COM The Queen's arrival at the siege of Baza, in 1489, boosted morale and led to the Crusader's victory. In response, the unofficial Queen chess piece was given a stronger standing and more mobility.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/7/863227.jpg)
The sun only shone on Moscow for a few minutes in December, 2017.
![Moscow only had six minutes of sunlight in December of 2017. CRACKED.COM They usually get a whop- ping 18 hours of sun for the month, but a wall of cloud that never moved sat over the city thanks to cyclone anomalies over the Atlantic and warmer tem- peratures.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/1/7/863217.jpg)
Bangers are named so because the high water content made them burst.
![A sausage being called a banger comes from WWI food shortages. GRACKED.COM Meat shortages forced sausages to be made with high water content, causing them to burst when being cooked, hence the name.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/1/9/863219.jpg)
Creating purple dye meant smelling like rotting snails.
![It became Jewish law that any woman could divoce her husband if he became a dyer. CRACKED.COM Making a purple pigment used to dye clothes for royal- ty in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome involved harvest- ing the pigment from rotting snails, which smelled so bad that the divorce law was spe- cifically written.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/0/863220.jpg)
Tater tots became popular when they became more expensive.
![Consumers did not buy tater tots at first because they were too cheap. CRACKED.COM When Tater Tots first hit store shelves in 1956, they were so inexpensive that there was no perceived value. When the price was raised by stores, people began buying the product.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/1/8/863218.jpg)