18 Facts To Keep Your Brain Up To Date

Your computer needs updates, and your phone needs them too -- and so does your brain. Ordinarily, you meet this need by reading books and journals (or Cracked articles) -- but occasionally you have no time for it, and just want the facts downloaded directly into your frontal cortex. That's why we have prepared these, so you can install the new data in the pauses of playing Tony Hawk: Shred.

(And if you still want Cracked articles, you can find the originals linked under each image.)

18

Margaret Abbott won an Olympic medal without even intending to. - Abbott, an amateur golfer, entered a golf competition while visiting Paris in 1900. More: 5 Amazing Firsts In Women's History (That Were Total Accidents)

17

Paul W. S. Anderson bluffed his way into directing Mortal Kombat. - Mortal Kombat's awful CGI is due, in part, to the fact that it was the '90s -- andMore: 7 Shockingly Awful Examples Of ’90s Visual Effects

14

Doctors used to prescribe speed to lose weight. - We know very well today that amphetamines aren't good for you — but back in the 1950s, doctors doledMore: 4 Old-Timey Diet Fads That Were Pure Insanity

13

Slice bread was banned during World War II. - Fearing that wartime regulations might lead to rising prices, the U.S. government banned pre-sliced breaMore: 5 Bizarre Dumb Things Countries Made Citizens Do During Wars