15 Facts About Dan Aykroyd, George Orwell, And Weaponized Cheese
![15 Facts About Dan Aykroyd, George Orwell, And Weaponized Cheese](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/5/877315_320x180.jpg)
Have you ever wondered what happened to the trees that went to the moon? Well, NASA wants to know too! Back in the day, they gave away hundreds of trees that journeyed to space and now they're trying to track them all down. One was even at the White House at one point. Talk about a homecoming! Speaking of comebacks, did you know Black Sabbath's final album ended exactly like their debut album began? Rain and all. Pretty crazy, right? 43 years later and they managed to circle back around. Full circle indeed. And finally, you probably didn't know that Uruguay takes cheese seriously… like really seriously. Or, at least one Uruguayan captain did in the 1800s – during a naval battle, a ship ran out of cannonballs so they started firing balls of cheese instead (yes…you read that correctly). And apparently it worked, because two people were killed by hurled fromage.
Dan Aykroyd was born with webbed toes and two different colored eyes.
![Dan Aykroyd has Tourette's and Asperger's and was born with webbed toes and two different colored eyes. CRACKED.COM His strange obsessions with law enforcement and ghosts later led to the idea for Ghostbusters and his unique line of vodka served in a crystal skull container.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/3/2/877332.jpg)
The indigenous people of South America’s southern cone have adapted to the cold.
![The Yahgan people adapted to their very cold climate by having significantly higher metabolisms than other humans. CRACKED.COM Their average body tem- perature is 1 degree warm- er than Europeans'. They routinely went bare naked in the frigid cold of the far southern region of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/3/1/877331.jpg)
A dog was awarded two bronze medals by the National Canine Defense League.
![In the 1930s, a dog named Swansea Jack from Wales saved a total of 27 people from drowning in the River Tawe. CRACKED.COM Не was awarded a silver cup by the Mayor of Lon- don and to this day is the only dog to have been awarded two bronze medals by the National Canine Defense League.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/3/0/877330.jpg)
The table knife is rounded to reduce violence.
![The table knife has a rounded tip thanks to Louis XIV of France. GRAGKED.COM In 1669, Louis XIV de- creed that all pointed knives be dulled down to reduce vio- lence in courts and the streets.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/9/877329.jpg)
The WB had a horrible “anti American Idol.”
![The Anti-American Idol was a terrible prank on contestants. CRACKED.COM In the WB's Superstar USA, the worst singers were ad- vanced to the next round, but they weren't told they were bad. At the end, the winner was let in on the joke that the whole thing was a prank.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/8/877328.jpg)
Cuba and Venezuela offered the US aid after Katrina.
![After Hurricane Katrina, Cuba & Venezuela were the first countries to offer assistance. GRACKED.COM They pledged over $1 mil- lion, several mobile hospi- tals, water treatment plants, canned food, bottled water, heating oil, 1,100 doctors and 26.4 metric tons of medicine - but were reject- ed by the US.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/7/877327.jpg)
School bathrooms were invented to teach children how to wash.
![School bathrooms were invented In the early 1900s. CRACKED.COM They helped teach children to bathe regularly and to promote the idea of regu- lar bathing to their par- ents. During this time peri- od, people usually only bathed once a week.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/6/877326.jpg)
George Orwell square in Barcelona is heavily surveilled.
![In 1937, English novelist George Orwell fought in the Spanish civil war and was shot in the throat. CRACKED.COM There is now a square in Barcelona named after him called 'Plaça de George Orwell'. Ironically, the square was once one of the heaviest surveilled places in Spain.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/3/877323.jpg)
Scam emails are intentionally written poorly to fool only the most gullible.
![scam 'Nigerian Prince' scam I 11040 e-mails are intentionally I filled with grammatical errors and typos. E E NATURE I / 20 5 | | 1 I / w GRACKED.COM I This strategy minimiz- es false positives and self-selects for the most gullible and those individuals most defrauded. susceptible to being](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/2/877322.jpg)
Rationing in the UK during WWII increased life expectancy in the country and decreased infant mortality.
![Rationing in the UK during WWII increased life expectancy in the country and decreased infant mortality. CADEAGE GALLAS CRACKED.COM This was because all people were required to consume a varied diet. The only nega- tive effect from it was the in- creased time needed for meals to consume the neces- sary calories from bread and potatoes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/4/877324.jpg)
Most of Norway’s electricity is powered by hydroelectric plants.
![In Norway, 99% of electricity production is from hydroelectric plants. CRACKED COM They plan to increase an- nual production by 15 ter- awatt-hours (12%) by 2020 and could double installed capacity if they build new cross-border links to ship the surplus electricity abroad.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/5/877325.jpg)
The world’s dirtiest man smokes poop.
![Amou Haji is considered the world's dirtiest man. CRACKED.COM Не hasn't bathed in over 60 years, eats the rotten meat of dead animals, lives in a hole, and uses animal poop to smoke from his pipe.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/1/877321.jpg)
Out of cannonballs, Uruguay battleships launched cheese.
![Uruguay fired cheese balls during a naval battle and managed to kill two people. CRACKED.COM The ship from Uruguay ran out of cannonballs in an 1841 battle with Argentina. The captain ordered his men to shove the hard balls of cheese they had onboard into the cannons and to fire those.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/2/0/877320.jpg)
Black Sabbath’s work came around full circle.
![Black Sabbath's final album ended the same way their debut album began. CRACKED.COM 1970's Black Sabbath be- gan with the sound of rain and a distant church bell. About 43 years later, in 2013, their final album ended with the sound of rain and a distant church bell.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/9/877319.jpg)
NASA is on the search for the missing Moon Trees.
![NASA gave away hundreds of trees that have been to the moon. CRACKED.COM They never kept track of who they gave them to. Now they are trying to find them. One was at the White House.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/8/877318.jpg)
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