15 Facts That Set Our Brains On Fire
![15 Facts That Set Our Brains On Fire](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/9/883889_320x180.jpg)
Ah, the wonders of modern life! From the technological advances that have allowed us to explore the farthest reaches of the universe, to the humble beginnings of the Ashkenazi community, to the mysteries of Stephen King’s addiction and the iconic palm trees of Los Angeles, we have come to know and appreciate the world in a whole new light. But it’s not just the big stories that make life so fascinating – it’s the little things, too. From the pet food revolution that has put an end to white dog stuff, to the surprising origin of the AAA rating, to the lessons in Tex-Mex etiquette that even Gerald Ford had to learn, to the two Dennis the Menace strips released on the same day, to the nuclear chain reaction that Enrico Fermi predicted, to the real 747 crashed for the Tenet set-piece, to the dowry that Santa Claus gave, and so much more. This list is a testament to the beauty and complexity of our world, and all the amazing stories that come along with it.
Santa Claus: Not just a gift-giver, but a dowry-giver too.
![CRACKED THREE BAGS OF GOLD: THE UNTOLD STORY OF SANTA'S GENEROSITY. Saint Nicholas of Bari, better known to many of us as Santa Claus or Father Christmas, is symbolized by three golden balls representing a dowry of three bags of gold he gave to three girls. A painting attributed to Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, The Virgin and Child with Saints is an example of this.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/4/883904.jpg)
Los Angeles’ iconic symbol has a surprisingly practical history.
![CRACKED LA'S PALM TREES AREN'T NATIVE. Palm trees have become an iconic symbol of Los Angeles, having been imported to the region in the late 1700s and popularized during the Victorian era. In the 1930s, a large effort was made to plant 40,000 palms as part of an unemployment relief effort, cementing their place in the city's identity.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/3/883903.jpg)
Double Trouble: Two Dennis the Menace strips released on the same day.
![CRACKED DENNIS THE MENACE HAS A REAL-LIFE TWIN. Two comic strips titled Dennis the Menace were released on the same day in 1951, one in the UK and one in the US, both created by different people unaware of the other's work. The UK version was published in The Beano and was drawn by David Law, while the US version was created by Hank Ketcham and featured a five-year-old boy in Wichita, Kansas.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/9/883899.jpg)
Gerald Ford gets a lesson in Tex-Mex etiquette.
![CRACKED GERALD FORD'S GREAT ALAMO BEEF. Former President Gerald Ford committed a food faux pas during an April 1976 visit to the Alamo by picking up a plate of tamales still shuck-wrapped, but was quickly corrected by a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/1/883901.jpg)
80 years to orbit, 4.35 light-years away: Alpha Centauri.
![CRACKED THREE STARS, ONE SYSTEM, 4.25 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY: ALPHA CENTAURI. Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to Earth, consisting of three stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to Earth, located 4.25 light-years away, while Alpha Centauri A and В are a binary pair located 4.35 light-years away. They orbit a common center of gravity every 80 years.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/0/883900.jpg)
Michigan team hacks D.C. voting system – chaos ensues.
![CRACKED AN EVIL COMPUTER WAS ELECTED MAYOR. A team from the University of Michigan found a flaw in the code of a new online voting system in Washington D.C., and exploited it to elect a malevolent computer program mayor (and other fictional characters to other positions). It took two days for officials to realize they had been hacked. ULL 100110010000100000 01 00 1 001010111010001110 011001010111001001 010000001000001011 0 11 001000000111001101 2010101 00011011010000010110 0110110111101101110 11 0110011010 0011101 0 110100101101110011 111010001100101011110 10 01000016 0011 1111001000000110001 110011000010111001001 10010 111 0110010000100000011 110001101100101001000 011 1 0 11011000010010000 D COTTTOTTOOOOOOTOOTTC 10010 TTOOTTOOTTOTOOTOLT 11000110111010101101 103 LILLO TTTOTTOTTOOOOTOOTTO C](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/2/883902.jpg)
John von Neumann: Not your average human.
![CRACKED JOHN VON NEUMANN: MAN OR MACHINE? John von Neumann was a pioneering figure in modern computing, having developed the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) and its first program, a study of the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb. His incredible intellect and photographic memory stunned other mathematicians, with Nobel Laureate Hans Bethe wondering if he was a species superior to man.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/5/883895.jpg)
Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson: The only two remaining AAA-rated companies.
![CRACKED MICROSOFT AND JOHNSON & JOHNSON ARE THE ONLY MEMBERS OF AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB. AAA ratings are given to government debt and companies' corporate bonds, and the global credit crisis of 2008 resulted in a number of companies losing their AAA rating. Only Microsoft and J&J hold the rating outright as of September 2022. Microsoft](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/3/883893.jpg)
Family Intervenes: King’s Cujo Mystery.
![CRACKED STEPHEN KING: ADDICTED NOVELIST? Stephen King admitted he had a substance abuse problem and his friends and family staged an intervention to confront him with the evidence of his addiction. Не wrote his novel Cujo in 1981, but barely remembers the experience.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/7/883897.jpg)
Fermi’s Nuclear Chain Reaction: Unleashing Unimaginable Energy.
![CRACKED RADIOACTIVE SILVER MAY SAVE THE PLANET. Enrico Fermi and his team of scientists discovered that neutron bombardment of silver could increase its radioactivity, and Fermi went on to hypothesize that the splitting of a uranium atom with a neutron could result in a self-perpetuating chain reaction that would produce tremendous energy.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/4/883894.jpg)
Tiny Minority Drinks the Most.
![CRACKED ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE HEAVY DRINKERS. People consume alcohol in a skewed distribution, with a tiny minority responsible for almost all the nation's drinking, a pattern that has remained more or less a constant over many decades, and holds for other countries too.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/6/883896.jpg)
It’s Mike Tyson’s fault: Tattoo artist lawsuit sets industry standard.
![CRACKED TATTOOED ACTORS: GET A RELEASE OR HIDE IT. Actors with visible tattoos must provide a release from their tattoo artist(s) before they can appear on camera, or else their tattoos must be covered up. This is due to a lawsuit between Mike Tyson and his tattoo artist, which set a precedent for the entertainment industry's approach to actor's tattoos. DISE IRON](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/2/883892.jpg)
350 individuals, 700 years ago – the surprising origin of the Ashkenazi community.
![CRACKED 350 ANCESTORS, 700 YEARS AGO: THE SURPRISING HISTORY OF ASHKENAZI JEWS. The modern-day Ashkenazi community emerged from a population bottleneck of approximately 350 individuals in central Europe about 700 years ago, and their ancestry is a mixture of European and Middle Eastern descent.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/8/883898.jpg)
Say goodbye to white dog poop - it's a thing of the past.
![CRACKED PET FOOD REVOLUTION: NO MORE WHITE POOPS. In the 1970s and '80s, white dog poop was a common sight due to an overabundance of calcium in pet food. Today, pet food brands have changed their formulas to include more fiber and less calcium, resulting in healthier, more-naturally looking waste.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/0/883890.jpg)
Real 747 crashed for ‘Tenet’ set-piece – cheaper than CGI.
![CRACKED CGI: MORE EXPENSIVE THAN AN AIRLINER Christopher Nolan explained that they crashed a real 747 instead of using CG for the set-piece in spy-thriller Tenet, revealing that it was more efficient to buy a real plane than to use miniatures or CGI.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/1/883891.jpg)