7 Common Foods That Can Actually Get You High EDITORS' DISCLAIMER: Cracked does not endorse eating the below foodstuffs for the express purpose of getting high, as the side effects are usually horrible enough to make you forget you were high in the first place. Thus the information in this article should only be used for scintillating chitchat at cocktail parties and around the office. Rye grain is occasionally infected with the ergot fungus. The Downside Ergot outbreaks are rare so eating a Reuben will most likely not turn you into Hunter S. But most modern farmers clean their rye in a potassium chloride solution to guard against, something medieval farmers never did. Fun Fact Modern historians blame ergotism for a slew of old-timey panics and superstitions, ranging from werewolves to the Salem Witch Trials. Nutmeg, that piquant brown spice you sprinkle on egg nog, is chock full o' the organic compound myristicin. Some users compare the nutmeg "high" to a hellish case of the flu. Not an actual photo of incident
The 5 Greatest Things Ever Accomplished While High Cracked.com's new book is now on sale. What follows is one of the classic articles that appear in the book, along with 18 new articles that you can't read anywhere else. Any dreadlocked white guys finding this article after Googling "Drugs Rule" should know that we've given this list about drugs a rule. In fact, because we're masochists, we gave ourselves a strict no music policy, leaving us with ... well, not a whole lot actually. Francis Crick Discovers DNA Thanks to LSD The Accomplishment: For the few Cracked readers not versed in the history of human genetics, Francis Crick is the closest that field gets to a rock star, which is pretty fucking close as it turns out. Above: Science? Odile had no idea what they were celebrating. The Drug: LSD. Drugs? Why It Makes Sense: The double helix is essentially the Sgt. Now obviously scientists don't arrive at models by doodling on their trapper keeper and picking out the shape that looks the coolest. "It's so fucking beautiful." Cocaine. Acid.
7 Superpowered Animal Senses You Won't Believe Are Possible The human imagination is pretty limited when it comes to animal senses. We call people with good vision "eagle eye," and believe that toucan's can smell cereal because they have big noses. It turns out the animal kingdom has plenty of creatures whose senses go beyond what we can conceive without our head exploding. For instance ... Silvertip Grizzlies Can Smell You From 18 Miles Away (And Across Time) Humans use smell to get us excited about pie before we actually put it in our mouths, and not much else. His nose is a time-traveler. It knows who walked down the street last night at 11PM, what the soles of their shoes were made of, the brand of cigarette they were smoking. ... and tell you Ingrid had a secret admirer last spring when they fixed the sidewalk. Fortunately for the sake of this article, and unfortunately for the sake of everyone who's afraid of bears, the silvertip grizzly's sense of smell is seven times stronger than that of the bloodhound. "These are a curse ... Wrong.
7 Simple Questions You Won't Believe Science Just Answered One advantage of living in the information age is learning new things every day. Even more interesting is when we learn stuff that we thought we already knew but apparently didn't, like the fact that the sun is a sphere. Yep, science just found that out in February 2011. Next they're going to tell us that they just figured out whether the chicken or egg came first. Actually .... Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg? If you're anything like us, you probably spent a good part of your college years in a Denny's booth debating the universe's biggest mysteries, like how rad exactly is Dave Matthews Band live? What We Just Found Out It was the chicken. Via Wikimedia CommonsNot such a big man now, are you, Hawking? In the summer of 2010, British researchers cracked the eneggma when they discovered that the protein necessary to create the eggshell was fowlnd exclusively in the ovaries of the chicken. Via James GurneyBwok bwok ROAR! Via summeroflovecraft.com Actually, it's just the opposite.
10 Famous Unsolved Mysteries Easily Explained by Science The Mystery Ghosts have been spotted all over the world since time immemorial, typically in dark, spooky places, where anyone or anything could jump out at you. Something like one-third of people believe in ghosts. Could all those people really be wrong? Yes. GettyDrumroll ... Yes again. The Solution We've talked a bit about ghostly origins before, specifically how infrasound can cause hallucinations and feelings of dread. GettyReally, she was torturing her imaginary childhood friend. As they attempted further experiments, the patient complained of feeling the other person behind her even while she was lying down. Via lnco.epfl.chThanks, Switzerland. GettyUsually their boss. Well, either that, or scientists have just concretely proved that ghosts hate literacy. What do Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid of Giza and Ayers Rock have in common? GettyApart from hippie flash mobs? All have a reputation as mystical, even magical places with strange histories and events surrounding them. *Gasp* No! Huh.
7 Man-Made Architectural Wonders of the Ancient World 7 Man-Made Architectural Wonders of the Ancient World Article by Steph, filed under 7 Wonders Series in the Travel category. The Colosseum, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Great Wall of China and Machu Picchu are world-famous ancient architectural wonders, but they’re hardly the only man-made structures worthy of effusive praise, enthusiastic photography and economy-stimulating tourism. These 7 historical sites, ranging from an incredibly deep well in India to the cradle of Mayan civilization – complete with the world’s first highway system – are often overlooked, but represent some of the most jaw-dropping and mysterious engineering feats from ancient times to the medieval period. Chand Baori, India (images via: moolf) Perhaps one of the most beautiful examples of patterns in architecture, the 10th century Chand Baori well in the Indian state of Rajasthan is the world’s deepest, extending 100 feet below the surface of the earth. Sacsayhuaman, Peru (images via: world-mysteries)
The 7 Most Ridiculous Ghost Stories from Around the World As we've pointed out before, you can tell a lot about a people from their folklore. Even their ghost stories speak volumes about all of the underlying neuroses that create our nightmares. But then there are some ghost stories that just leave you absolutely freaking baffled. We're talking about spooks like ... Approximately 100 percent of the people reading this are about to get their Halloween costume idea for next year. Watch out, whatever-the-hell-costume-this-is! The thing is, considering how consistently insane they are, Japanese ghost stories are about as formulaic as an episode of House. "Something." Which brings us to the story of the Shirime. Before the samurai can draw steel and carve this guy up, however, the perv bends over and ... ... wait for it ... ... reveals he has a huge eyeball peering out of his ass. That's about where the story ends. Yeah, Japanese folklore takes the "keep it simple, stupid" approach to spooky bullshit. Censored due to paranormal activity. Sorry, kids.
7 Basic Things You Won't Believe You're All Doing Wrong If you're like us, you might sometimes have a problem with complex tasks, like trying to drive an ambulance and send a text message at the same time. But hey, at least most of us have figured out the simplest things that get us through the day, right? Except, you know, some of the simple things we've done every day of our lives, like ... What could be simpler than taking a good crap? Even babies are good at it. You might be surprised, then, to find out that even those of us who can burp without throwing up get this wrong every single day. The one who just threw up on the other one's shoulder is better at pooping. Chances are the pooping facility nearest you is a sitting toilet, a relatively recent invention that flushed its way into mankind's heart with the advent of indoor plumbing in the 19th century. GettyFuture toilets will exist just to kill us. So how the hell are we meant to do it? Luckily, there's a relatively simple way to end this poop dilemma. GettyDemonstrated here.
The 6 Most Unlikely Partners in the Animal Kingdom If you thought interspecies friendships were limited to Disney movies and the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater, you'd be wrong. Because the animal kingdom is simply fraught with animals crossing species lines to help a brother out. Here are a few of the most seemingly incompatible animals who are actually homeys for life. Coyotes and Badgers Form Tag Teams If there's one animal the ghost of Chuck Jones owes a serious apology to, it's the coyote. When you should really think of this: It's fast, it's strong and it looks like it should be singing backup vocals for Danzig. Taxadea taxus: Tell him he looks like a skunk to his face. What the Huh? Coyotes and badgers essentially want the same thing in life: Small mammals to eat. ...and decided get their peanut butter all up in each other's chocolate. When a coyote and a badger work together, the coyote chases the prey until it tires out and hides in its burrow. Teamwork's only awesome when it's not killing you. Ants Raise Aphids Like Farm Animals