20 Now-You-Know Facts That Go Down Smooth

People didn’t trust how cheap Tater Tots were at first.
20 Now-You-Know Facts That Go Down Smooth

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.

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.

Guitar World

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.

Dailymail

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.

ESPN

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.

Economist

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.'

Brookings

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!

Phys

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.

Listener

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.

Gizmodo

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.

Time

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.

NCBI

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.

Nobility

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.

Britannica

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.

Eater

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