Random Facts So Interesting You will be amazed to know Part 2
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1. Our European ancestors were cannibals.
In 16th and 17th century Europe, cannibalism was actually a fairly common practice, and it was all for medical purposes. The practice seems to have started because Egyptian mummies were thought to have magical curative properties—so they were ground up and put in many remedies.
As the idea evolved, human bone, blood, and fat were all used in medical concoctions. Got a headache? Crush a skull and make it into tea! While medical cannibalism has fallen out of favor, modern medicine still sometimes uses one human body to heal another in the form of blood donations, organ transplants, and skin grafts.
2. Dogs actually understand some English.
Some owners of disobedient dogs may have trouble believing this, but dogs can learn to recognize a vocabulary of about 165 words. Unsurprisingly, dogs respond best to short words, as well as words with hard consonants like "t" or "r," which may explain why they can hear "treat" from three rooms away.
If you want to try to expand your dog's vocabulary, be consistent—for example, always call a meal "dinner" instead of breakfast, lunch, or supper. And don't believe the myth: Old dogs can learn words just as well as young dogs.
3. You have a nail in your body.
Or, at least, the components of one. Iron is an important nutrient that the human body needs. It helps your red blood cells carry oxygen, which is necessary for producing energy throughout the body. That's why an iron deficiency can present itself with feelings of exhaustion. Amazingly, a healthy adult has about three grams of iron, enough that, if it were pulled out and melted down, it could form a nail up to three inches long.
4. Redheads aren't actually going extinct.
Periodically, a rumor starts on the internet that says natural redheads will become extinct by the year 2060. Lucky for gingers everywhere, this is a myth. It's true that the gene that causes red hair is recessive, meaning that both parents must have it for their child to have red hair. However, even non-redheads can carry the red hair gene, and it can pop up unexpectedly in generations down the line.
5. Pro baseball once had women players.
While there are currently no female players in Major League Baseball, there have been plenty of women in professional men's leagues. The first was Lizzy Arlington, who pitched during the ninth inning for the Reading Coal Heavers in 1898 and won her team the game. A little over 30 years later, an African-American woman, Jackie Mitchell, pitched against the Yankees during an exhibition game, striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. What's more impressive: Mitchell was 17 years old at the time.
6. Koalas have fingerprints.
Chimpanzees and gorillas have human-like fingerprints and so do koalas. In fact, koala prints are very similar to human fingerprints, even to expert crime scene investigators. As of yet, no koalas have framed humans for their crimes, but now we know it's not impossible…
7. Humans are just one of the estimated 8.7 million species on Earth.
Human beings may dominate the planet with our sprawling cities and far-reaching technology, but we are, in fact, just one species among some 8.7 million that live together on planet Earth. One 2011 study published in the journal PLoS Biology estimated that "the various forms of life on the planet included 7.8 million species of animals, 298,000 species of plants, 611,000 species of mushrooms, mold and other fungi, 36,400 species of protozoa, and 27,500 species of algae or chromists." And it's worth noting that the researchers did not venture to put an estimate on the number of bacteria.
8. Riding a roller coaster could help you pass a kidney stone.
After multiple people reported they had passed a kidney stone while riding Walt Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, a research team from Michigan State University decided to investigate the phenomena in 2016. They conducted tests with a model kidney and found that there was a 64 percent kidney stone pass rate for those seated in the rear of the Thunder Mountain ride. That number was just 16 percent for those seated in the front.
9. Dinosaurs lived on every continent.
Back in their day, dinosaurs lived on every continent on Earth, including Antarctica. The reason we only find their bones in certain places, though, is that weather and soil conditions in those places were just right for the bones to be fossilized. Scientists also speculate that there may be many smaller-sized dinosaurs that we know nothing about because their bones were too small to fossilize well.
10. Bee hummingbirds are so small they get mistaken for insects.
Hummingbirds are known for being itty-bitty creatures, but Bee Hummingbirds are the teeniest versions of these shockingly tiny flyers. They're actually the smallest bird in the world. They are so minuscule that they are sometimes mistaken for insects (which explains their name), according to the National Audobon Society. The birds are just two and a quarter inches long and weigh less than a dime.
11. Sea lions can dance to a beat.
There are only two mammals on Earth with the proven ability to move their bodies in time with an external beat: humans (though not all humans, to be fair) and sea lions. When researchers at the University of Santa Cruz rescued a stranded sea lion in 2013, they found that she was very smart, and she was even able to learn how to dance. Though parrots can also keep a rhythm, it was previously thought that only animals capable of complex vocal learning could do this.
12. Rolls-Royce makes the most expensive car in the world.
Currently, the most expensive car in the world is a Rolls-Royce Sweptail that sold for $13 million. However, even if you have that kind of dough lying around, you won't be able to buy it—only one was made, and it was custom-built from the ground up according to the buyer's specifications. But brand-new custom cars have nothing on used classics; the recent sale of a 1963 Ferrari GTO for $70 million is supposedly the highest price ever paid for a car.
13. The famed "Typhoid Mary" infected more than 50 people by cooking for them.
"Typhoid Mary" was a real historical person who became notorious in the early 1900s. She was an Irish woman named Mary Mallon who immigrated to the United States in the 1880s. Though she had no symptoms of typhoid fever, she carried the bacteria in her blood and could pass it on to other people. Because no doctor could convince her that this was true and she didn't feel sick, she insisted on working as a cook. During her career, she infected at least 51 people, three of whom died, before she was isolated in enforced quarantine for the last decades of her life.
14. The legend of the Loch Ness Monster goes back nearly 1,500 years.
There's a tale written in the year 565 A.D. that speaks of an Irish monk traveling through Scotland. While there, Saint Columba heard stories of a "water beast" that attacked and killed the local people when they went in the river. Wanting to help, the monk used his friend as bait to lure the beast into sight, at which point Columba commanded it to "go no further," and the creature stopped and swam back upstream. That river is now known in Scotland as the River Ness, which flows out from the famous Loch Ness.
15. Nutmeg can be fatally poisonous.
A little dash of nutmeg in a pumpkin pie or on your egg nog can give it some extra flavor and a lovely, spicy scent. Too much nutmeg, however, can be toxic. Two to three teaspoons of raw nutmeg can induce hallucinations, convulsions, pain, nausea, and paranoia that can last for several days. Actual fatalities are rare, but they have happened.
16. Chinese police use geese squads.
You've heard of police dogs, but police geese? As of 2013, 12 police stations in a rural area of China have begun to use geese as sentries. They are alert animals and, as you probably know, can create a lot of noise and commotion, which creative Chinese law enforcement officers are taking advantage of. While this trend has yet to spread throughout China, Dongwan police claim that the geese have already stopped at least one theft.
17. The first iPhone wasn't made by Apple.
The first mobile device to be called an "iPhone" was made by Cisco, not Apple. It allowed the user to use the voice functions of Skype without a computer. Apple announced its own product just 22 days later, and Cisco sued for trademark infringement. The lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court and both companies were allowed to keep using the name. However, you've probably never heard of the Cisco iPhone.
18. There's a country where twins are most likely to be born.
Benin, a country in central Africa, is notable for having the highest birth rate of twins in the world. While the world average is just 13 twins per 1,000 births, Benin more than doubles that rate, at nearly 30 twins per 1,000 births. There's no single factor that causes this, but genetics, diet, and even the mother's height are thought to play a role.
19. The Comic Sans font came from an actual comic book.
Most adults nowadays who know anything about graphic design steer away from using the Comic Sans font in formal documents. The font was designed by Vincent Connare, who drew direct inspiration from his favorite comic books, including Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' celebrated Watchmen series.
20. For 100 years, maps have shown an island that doesn't exist.
Almost nothing is known about Sandy Island, a land mass about the size of Manhattan in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia. Supposedly, explorer James Cook discovered it in 1774, and it began appearing on nautical maps in 1908. It wasn't until 2012, when a team of Australian scientists set out to survey the island, that they discovered there was no island there at all. The scientists guessed that Cook may have in fact spotted a "pumice raft" of floating volcanic stone and gas. The Sydney Morning Herald even published an obituary for Sandy Island.
21. Babies are physical anomalies.
Babies, particularly newborns, are surprisingly different from the children they'll grow up to be. When they're born, their heads account for a quarter of their full body weight, and the size of their brains will double in the first year of life. Babies have 300 bones and around 10,000 tastebuds all over their mouth. Some of the bones will fuse as they age (into 206, as an adult), but the tastebuds not on the tongue will eventually vanish.
22. The Queen has some hidden hideaways.
Since the early 13th century, the city of London has officially paid rent to the Crown for two small pieces of property. Fortunately for the city, the price has stayed the same for more than 800 years: one knife, one ax, six horseshoes, and 61 nails, presented every autumn in the Ceremony of Quit Rents. Although one of these properties is located in the Moors in Shropshire and the other is near the Royal Courts of Justice in the city itself, no one knows the exact location of the Queen's land.
23. The man who wrote Dracula never visited Transylvania.
Bram Stoker was an Irish author who is now best remembered for his gothic horror novel Dracula. Partially set in Transylvania, a mountainous region in central Romania, the story cemented the legend of the vampire in mainstream European and American culture. Despite Stoker's many world travels, he never visited Eastern Europe—and, by virtue, Transylvania—at all.
24. The Australian government banned the word "mate" for a day.
There are probably slang or informal words that get on your nerves from time to time, particularly when you think something should be taken seriously. In 2005, Australian Parliament took a few citizen complaints a little too seriously and banned anyone on their staff from using the word "mate" while at work. Fortunately, Prime Minister John Howard objected, claiming that "mate" was an important part of Australian culture, and the ban was overturned within 24 hours.
25. Many languages have the same roots.
English, Portuguese, Latvian, Pashto, and Greek all sound very different today, but these languages all have a common ancestor called Proto-Indo-European. Though we don't have any written examples of it, linguists have worked backwards from a variety of modern languages to try to reconstruct it. Using their reconstruction, the sentence "The king wanted a son" would be written as "H3rḗḱs súhxnum u̯l̥nh1to."
26. A tick bite can make you allergic to red meat.
Plenty of people have food allergies, but few are the result of an insect bite. In a strange and growing trend, some people who get bitten by the Lone Star tick can develop a sudden allergy to red meat. Beef, lamb, and pork (which are technically classified as red meat) can make people with this allergy experience headaches, sneezing, a runny nose, and nausea. In severe cases, it can cause the person to be unable to breathe. For some sufferers, the allergy fades over time, but for others, it's permanent.
27. Harriet Tubman was even more heroic than you thought.
You probably know that Harriet Tubman was a former slave who became a political activist for the abolition movement. But in addition to smuggling escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad, during the Civil War she was the first woman to lead an armed assault. She planned and executed a number of raids and was known to carry a revolver for personal protection.
28. Tornadoes can cause "fish rain."
Tornadoes can develop over water just as well as they can over land. When they do, they're called "waterspouts," and they suck up large amounts of lake or sea water—as well as whatever's swimming in that water. If the waterspout travels on to the land and the winds decrease, there's nowhere for those fish to go but down. As far as we know, there's no tornado powerful enough to pick up sharks, but a fish-nado is entirely possible.
29. Napoleon was once attacked by thousands of rabbits.
Napoleon Bonaparte was once one of the most powerful men in Europe, but he suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands (or paws) of rabbits. After a military victory, Napoleon's chief of staff organized a rabbit hunt to celebrate. Thousands of rabbits were brought in to be set loose, but instead of hopping away when the cages were opened, they turned to attack, swarming the partygoers. After trying and failing to shoo them away, the great Emperor Napoleon ran for the safety of his carriage.
30. Star Trek's Scotty stormed the beach at Normandy.
Canadian actor James Doohan, best known for playing Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original Star Trek series, served in World War II with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. As a commissioned lieutenant, he led his troop up a mine-strewn Juno Beach as part of the Allied Forces' D-Day invasion. Later in the day, he was wounded by friendly fire that caused the amputation of the middle finger on his right hand. You might not have noticed it because, during his time on Star Trek, directors did the best they could to avoid showing the injury on screen.
31. You can sneeze faster than a cheetah can run.
Clocking in at 100 mph, we can sneeze faster than cheetahs run, four-and-a-half times faster than Usain Bolt's record, and 20 times faster than Michael Phelps. (Unfortunately, we also expel about 100,000 germs when we sneeze.)
32. The fire hydrant patent was lost in a fire.
The fire hydrant patent is credited to Frederick Graff Sr., who was the chief engineer for Philadelphia Water Works during the early 1800s. Unfortunately for Graff Sr., the patent was destroyed when the patent office in Washington, D.C., burned down in 1836. After 100 years, retired firefighter George Sigelakis reinvented the hydrant after they had been failing to work in too many critical emergencies.
33. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia.
Saudi Arabia is known for its vast expanse of desert, so it may seem unbelievable that they rely on Australia to supply them with animals that dominate their landscape.
Australia originally had camels imported to be used for transporting heavy loads or for riding. They were let loose when their work was done, causing an unwanted spike in their population. Australians then sold the camels back to desert-based countries like Saudi Arabia, which use camels at a much higher volume.
34. One man once survived two atomic bombs.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived both nuclear attacks to Japan when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs during World War II. Yamaguchi, sent to Hiroshima on business on August 6th, 1945, saw the U.S. drop the first atomic bomb. Miraculously, he survived with burns across his face and arms, but made it home to Nagasaki. Three days later, the second atomic bomb hit, flattening Yamaguchi's home. Because his family was out finding ointments to treat his already existent burns, they were safe in a tunnel and miraculously survived as well.
35. The cast of Friends still earns around $20 million each year.
When the show came to an end, the cast of the popular TV show Friends negotiated syndication rights for themselves. That means they receive a percentage of the revenue (two percent) from reruns airing across all broadcasting companies. Since the much-loved TV show still pulls in around $1 billion of revenue, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry all make major dough each year for doing, well, nothing—$20 million is the estimate.
36. Pluto technically isn't even a year old.
Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930. It is the farthest (dwarf) planet from the Sun, requiring it to go a much farther distance than we are used to on Earth. It takes 248 Earth-years for Pluto to complete one rotation of its own around the sun. This places Pluto's first birthday since its discovery on Monday, March 23, 2178.
37. Cows kill more Americans each year than sharks do.
While sharks account for about 53 bites per year, only one of those ends up being fatal. Cows, on the other hand (or hoof), kill around 20 people per year.
38. Newborns don't have kneecaps.
This belief is only a half truth, as babies actually technically do have kneecaps when they are born. Those knees just aren't hardened yet, and remain soft cartilage throughout their childhood until they eventually turn into bone.
39. In Germany, people help toads cross the road.
You might not want to bring up the popular video game Frogger in Germany. There, they like to protect their frogs, toads, and other amphibians. In order to save them from harm when crossing the street, conservation organizations installed more than 800 fences along popular roadways. Along these fences are buckets, so when they try to cross, they eventually hop into one. At the end of the day, wildlife conservationists collect the buckets and release frogs across the road into a nearby forest with ponds and lakes.
40. Cheetahs don't roar.
Cheetahs can't roar, but they can purr, meow, hiss, bark, and growl instead. This type of behavior is much like the domestic cats we keep in our homes.
41. France has a dozen time zones.
The country with the widest stretch of land, Russia, spans 11 different time zones. France, though, technically has the most, clocking in at 12—but that's due to the fact that its territories are dispersed in various parts of the world. The U.S. ties with Russia in second, but not all time zones are inhabited.
So, Russia is the only place in the world where one citizen could be waking up at 8:00 a.m. and another could be going to bed at 11:00 p.m.
42. Humans aren't the only species to adopt.
We've seen the heartwarming videos of dogs nursing baby squirrels back to health—and that's actually much more common than we think. It becomes mutually beneficial to have more furry friends in the group to take on other roles in survival—whether that be hunting, gathering, or just simply cute companionship. Though the phenomenon isn't completely understood, it's clear that both humans and animals have an instinct to care for others.
43. Blue Ivy Carter is the youngest person ever to appear on a Billboard chart.
In January 2012, Jay-Z released his hit "Glory," a dedication to his firstborn child, Blue Ivy Carter. The rapper decided it would make sense to have her featured on the song, so he included a clip of her crying before the track ends. Because her dad officially credited her in the song's title, she became the youngest person ever to have a Billboard hit—at a mere two days old.
44. The majority of Americans choose dogs over love.
Dogs have been known for the longest time as man's best friend, but Americans are increasingly taking that to a new level. A 2017 study from Rover.com conducted over three years found that 54 percent of dog owners are willing to end a relationship if their pup doesn't like their partner.
The study also found that 94 percent of dog owners consider their dogs to be a part of their family, and 78 percent include their pups in major family moments. Since one in four people said they bring their cuddly companions on first dates, maybe consider bringing dog treats instead of flowers next time.
45. The first Star Wars was expected to be a flop.
The original 1977 Star Wars had a budget of $8 million, which distributor 20th Century Fox was reluctant to give to director/writer George Lucas, so he accepted a lower salary in order to keep the budget. The movie went on to make $775 million around the world, and Disney picked up the entire franchise for $4 billion. For comparison, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in 2017, had a reported budget of $317 million.
46. Your liver can regrow itself in three weeks.
The Greeks had it right with Prometheus, it turns out. According to Greek mythology, the titan was punished by having an eagle eat his liver day after day. The liver would regrow at night, leaving Prometheus at the bird's mercy.
It turns out, the regenerative properties of this story are partially true: Doctors have found that the liver can regrow in three weeks, not one day.
47. Danes once bred a pig to look like the flag.
In the early 20th century, those who resided in North Frisia under Prussian rule were not allowed to raise the Danish flag. But some crafty North Frisians took action by breeding a pig, known as the Danish Protest Pig, to be red in color, with a large white stripe around its belly—thus creating an animal version of the flag. As they technically did not break the law, and because it wouldn't have been feasible to ban the breeding of pigs, the Danes successfully protested Prussia.
48. A 70-year-old woman once completed seven marathons in seven days, across all seven continents.
Chau Smith was always an avid runner, and, in 2017, she decided that for her 70th birthday, she would complete seven marathons in one week across all of the continents. Traveling made it challenging—for example, Smith made the race in Egypt just minutes before the start because her plane to Cairo was delayed. But despite the obstacles, she completed her goal.
49. Dogs like squeaky toys for a dark reason.
Ever wonder why your little puppy obsesses over those squeaky toys? Because dogs are descendants of wolves whose instincts include hunting smaller animals. The sound a squeaky toy makes is very similar to the sound a small animal makes when being hunted. When Ol' Lassie hears that, she gets excited because of these killer survival skills.
50. The man who founded Atari also started Chuck E. Cheese.
In 1972, Nolan Bushnell started the gaming company Atari, which gave us the classic arcade game Pong. Bushnell sold the company just four years later and the following year, he opened Chuck E. Cheese! In fact, there is one game in Chuck E. Cheese that actually is called Ping, a knockoff of his original arcade game, which he couldn't use since he no longer owned it.
51. One man was once constipated for nearly two months.
In 1965, 26-year-old Angus Barbieri, who weighed 456 pounds, was put on a fasting program. It wouldn't be ethical to conduct a study like this today, but at the time, things were different, allowing Barbieri's doctor, William Stewart, to experiment. On a strict regimen of multivitamins and minerals, Barbieri got his nutrients without eating a scrap of food, which resulted in nearly two months of constipation. By the end of the year, Barbieri was 180 pounds. (Note: Fasting to this degree is not recommended, as it can lead to serious health conditions.)
52. Most people break up on Mondays.
Searching through public Facebook data, Lee Byron and David McCandless found that relationships statuses changed for the worse two weeks before Christmas, around Easter, and on Mondays. Though this data may be somewhat misleading, as people might not be live-updating their breakups, it shows an obvious trend.
53. There may be 2,000 active serial killers in the U.S. right now.
Thomas Hargrove has been archiving homicides for years through his Murder Accountability Project. Through his experience, he came up with an algorithm that found patterns in recent unsolved murders linked to at least one other murder through DNA. This allowed him to estimate the number of unsolved cases in the U.S. at any given time. According to The New Yorker, he believes that the number of active serial killers in the U.S. is around 2,000.
54. Beethoven could still hear after going deaf.
Upon going deaf, Beethoven discovered that if he bit onto a metal pole that connected to the piano he was playing, he could hear almost perfectly well. This process is called bone conduction, and while technology has evolved, the science is the same: Vibrations are transferred from the conductive metal into our bones. When this happens, our ears pick up the signal with no sound distortion.
55. Ants have a built-in FitBit.
While previous research found that ants use visual cues, a 2007 study discovered that desert ants have an internal pedometer that helps them keep track of their travels and find their way back home.
56. Stressed men have altered proclivities.
A 2012 study published in the journal PLoS ONE found that men who are feeling stressed out prefer women with curvier figures. The study had one experimental group perform a stressful activity, while the other control group did not. Afterward, they were shown pictures of women with various body types. When the men in the control group were asked to rate the women on a scale of one to nine, they rated pictures of women with higher BMIs as the most attractive.
57. Crows holds grudges.
In 2010, researchers in Seattle found that formerly captured crows were able to remember the face of their abductor even years after the incident. Once they identified the suspect in question, they would threaten them by diving down and swarming the person that they had felt threatened by years before.
58. Canada once heavily targeted LGBTQ individuals.
Our Canadian neighbors may not have been as friendly as we thought. During the Cold War era, Canada spent thousands on its historic "Fruit Machine." This device was supposedly able to identify gay men and lesbian women by monitoring subjects as they were shown pornographic images with homosexual content.
This, unfortunately, led to the wrongful persecution of many of Canada's fine citizens. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for the mistreatment of these people.
59. Bill Gates has donated nearly half his fortune.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates encourages the Giving Pledge, a notion that, if you are fortunate enough, you should be giving 50 percent of your wealth to those who need it most. As of 2013, he has donated $28 billion and has saved around 6 million lives by bringing vaccines and better healthcare to people worldwide.
60. You can always "see" your nose.
The human brain is capable of amazing things, but in order to do those things, it needs to block out distractions through a process called unconscious selective attention. The nose is one of those distractions. In his landmark 1960s study, Ulric Neisser discovered this phenomenon after he asked participants to count the number of times basketball players passed a ball in a video. What the large majority failed to notice in the video was a girl walking through the middle of the court with an umbrella, because they were so focused on counting.
61. A restaurant in New York employs grandmas as chefs.
It is true that everybody thinks their Italian grandma—or nonna—is best cook around. So it was a genius idea when Joe Scaravella decided to gather up as many nonnas as he could to work in his restaurant in Staten Island. Enoteca Maria combines the skill of these delightful, talented grandmothers and has them create and cook recipes from their own family cookbooks.
62. Shaq only ever made one three-pointer.
Shaquille O'Neal made the only three-point shot he would ever make in his entire career on Feb. 16, 1996. When the Orlando Magic played the Milwaukee Bucks, O'Neal received an almost full-court pass before he shot the three-pointer. Despite being the only official three-point shot in his career, he went down in NBA history as one of the greatest of all time.
63. America's first bank robber deposited the money back into the same bank.
At the Bank of Philadelphia on Aug. 1, 1798, a sum of $162,821 was stolen from the vault. There was no sign of forced entry so it was thought to be an inside job. Patrick Lyon was imprisoned as the prime suspect, as he had been the carpenter that worked on the vault doors.
But then, they realized a man named Isaac Davis had been depositing large sums of money into the Bank of Philadelphia. It turned out, he was one of the robbers involved. In 1799, Lyon was freed, and Davis only ended up repaying the money without serving a day in jail.
64. Germany uncovers 2,000 tons of unexploded bombs every year.
During World War II, the Allied forces dropped over a total of 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany. Due to certain defects in their delay timers, a large number of bombs never exploded—around 10 percent, or 200,000 tons. As they've been discovered in years since, it's routine for German citizens to be evacuated from buildings or sectioned off on streets, while bomb experts handle the devices.
65. Sharks existed before trees.
Trees are young'ns compared to the geezer sharks that rule the sea. Sharks have existed for around 400 million years, while trees became their own official species only 350 million years ago. Other notable animals that outlive our leafy ancestors are the horseshoe crab as well as the jellyfish.
66. And trees weren't always biodegradable.
Today, bacteria and fungi eat away at fallen trees, but that wasn't always the case. Bacteria had to evolve to eat wood, so hundreds of millions of years go, trees would fall at death, leaving large piles of dead wood. Forest fires of unimaginable proportions would burn the massive mounds of dead wood. And that's where most of the coal today on Earth came from, according to National Geographic.
67. Detroit undercover cops in a drug ring once fought another group of undercover cops.
"Put your hands up!" … "No, you put your hands up!" That's likely what went down in November 2017 when two groups of undercover cops in Detroit accidentally mistook each other for the drug dealers and buyers they were respectively trying to bust. What ensued during the raid was a stand-off, resulting in fists being thrown while guns were pointed at each other. Internal affairs had to be contacted to put the officers under investigation in an attempt to figure out the unfortunate miscommunication.
68. You're pronouncing Dr. Seuss' name wrong.
Dr. Seuss, the popular children's book author who is known for his rhyming skills, was born with the name Theodor Seuss Geisel. Seuss is his mother's maiden name, and their family pronounces it as "soice" (rhyming with voice). Seuss' college friend Alexander Liang even wrote a poem about the common misconception.
69. Nearly all species to have ever existed on Earth are extinct.
We walk an Earth that has seen the extinction of 99.9 percent of all of the species who've ever lived on it, according to PBS. Congratulations—that means you are technically in the .1 percent… at least for now!
70. The Silverback gorilla can lift almost a literal ton.
The Silverback gorilla can lift up to 10 times its body weight on average: a total of about 1,800 pounds, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This makes them one of the strongest living animal species on Earth. Though they are feared, the Silverback gorillas will only use their strength when they feel threatened.
71. The Iowa State Fair holds quirky competitions like a beard-growing contest and a husband-calling contest.
If you've ever been to the Iowa State Fair, you've experienced the sort of carnival-based fun that it's been providing since 1886. And if you've never been to the annual event, then you should know that you're missing out on quite a few quirky competitions, including cow-chip and rubber-chicken throwing contests, a husband-calling contest, and a beard-growing contest.
72. There's a textbook written entirely by an AI author.
Publishers are always eager to release something unique—and Springer Nature did just that when they published a textbook by an author named Beta Writer in 2019. No, that's not a cheeky pseudonym; it's the name of a machine-learning algorithm designed by researchers from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. The book is called Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Machine-Generated Summary of Current Research. And while it doesn't sound like the most interesting material, it is "the first machine-generated research book," according to the academic publishing company.
73. Earth won't always have the same North Star.
The North Star might seem like a fixed marker in the sky. However, what we now recognize as the North Star, Polaris, hasn't always been our guiding light—and it won't always be in the future. By the year 13,000 A.D., the star Vega will take its place, according to NASA. And by the year 26,000, Polaris will be right back where it was and return to its status as the North Star.
74. There's an entire family in Italy that feels almost no pain.
Members of the Marsili family handle injuries remarkably well and that's because they only experience pain for a moment before it fades away. Letizia Marsili told Smithsonian Magazine, "I just thought of it as part of who I was. I was strong, I was resilient. I bounced back."
However, when a researcher at the University of Siena, where Letizia works, noticed her unusual tolerance for pain—which is something her mother, sister, and son all share—the two decided to collaborate to see what was going on. They discovered that Letizia experiences "the good pain, the pain that alerts us to danger. Then it disappear[s]. The bad kind of pain, the chronic pain, the ongoing pain that we take painkillers for—she simply [doesn't] feel that."
75. The word "hipster" goes all the way back to the 1930s.
While "hipster" is used these days to describe someone who tries (perhaps too hard) to be stylish and trendy, the term is actually much older. According to Dictionary.com, the word was originally used (along with the similar "hepster") in the 1930s to refer to someone in the jazz scene.
76. Guinea pigs were once sacrificed wearing earrings and necklaces and wrapped like sushi.
Lidio Valdez, an archaeologist from the Institute of Andean Studies, made a surprising discovery in Peru when he came across 100 dead guinea pigs that had been sacrificed by the Incan people during the 16th century. The rodents, which had clearly been a part of some sort of ritual, were adorned with earrings and necklaces made from colorful string. "Some were even wrapped in cotton rugs like a sushi roll," wrote Gizmodo of the findings, which were published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology in 2019.
77. Hitler had a flatulence problem.
In 2012, Adolf Hitler's medical documents were being auctioned to the public by Alexander Historical Auctions. According to the files, The Telegraph reported, flatulence had become such a pervasive issue for Hitler that he had to regularly ingest 28 different drugs to keep it under control. But some of the anti-gas pills he used contained a base of strychnine, a poison that caused further stomach and liver issues.
78. Scientists were able to take a picture of an atom's shadow.
Whether you're a professional photographer or not, you'll probably be impressed by the photo-related feat accomplished by a team at Australia's Griffith University in 2012. Using an electrical field to suspend a charged atom in a vacuum chamber, the team shot a laser beam at the atom and took a photo of the shadow it produced. While atoms have been photographed before, their shadows have not, making this accomplishment unprecedented.
79. Maine is the only state that borders just one other state.
If you're in Maine, you'll find the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Canada to the north. But if you want to stay in the U.S., you'll have to head west to New Hampshire, because Maine is the only state in the country that borders just one other state.
80. The Twitter bird's official name Is Larry.
If you truly want to be among the savviest social media users out there, you should know that the Twitter bird has an official name: Larry the Bird (yes, like Larry Bird, the former pro basketball player who played for Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's home team, the Boston Celtics).
81. The longest book title contains 1,809 words.
The title of Srijan Timilsina's 2014 Guinness World Record-setting book is practically a full text in itself. Including 1,809 words (or 11,284 characters) it begins, The historical development of the Brain i.e. from its formation from Annelida: Earthworm, Lugworm, Rag worm, Amphitrite, Freshwater worm, Marine worm, Tubifex, Leech. etc, Arthropoda: Housefly, Butterfly, Honey bee, Fairy shrimp, Horseshoe crab, Tick, Bluebottle, Froghopper, Yellow crazy ant…," and continues to list pretty much every insect, fish, and mammal you can think of, including humans.
It then goes on to ask questions like, "What did they find and what did they eat? How did they defend from their enemies and attack them? Which is the oldest stone ever discovered? Which ancestor of human being first started to walk with the help of two limbs?" It finally ends with, "Solutions of above inquisitiveness are included in this book," which you think would go without saying, but perhaps not if you want your title to set a world record.
82. Allergy season is getting longer and more intense each year.
If you're one of the millions of Americans who suffer from allergies, we've got bad news for you: Allergy season is getting longer and more intense each year, according to a 2019 study published in The Lancet Planetary Health. Likely another unfortunate result of climate change, scientists have found that pollen counts across the Northern Hemisphere have increased over the last 20 years and that pollen season is increasing 0.9 days a year worldwide.
83. There's a reason there's a hole in your pen caps.
And that's because they're a choking hazard without them. "In addition to help prevent the pen from leaking, all of our BIC caps comply with international safety standards that attempt to minimize the risk of children accidentally inhaling pen caps. Some of these vented caps … have a little hole in the top to comply with the existing safety standards," the BIC pen company explains on its website.
84. You can learn the High Valyrian language from Game of Thrones with an online course.
Fans of George R.R. Martin's best-selling books and HBO's hit series Game of Thrones will be able to tell you that High Valyrian is the Latin-like language used in formal circumstances by the fictional nobility of Essos and Westeros. And while the stories may be make-believe, the language is a fully developed form of communication that you can learn yourself thanks to an online course from Duolingo. By the end, you'll be able to say phrases in High Valyrian like "kirimvose" (thank you) and "avy jorrāelan" (I love you), as well as "bantis zōbrie issa se ossȳngnoti lēdys" (the night is dark and full of terrors).
85. Some Maryland residents are taxed for the rain.
As they say, "nothing is certain but death and taxes." Depending on where in the world you live, rain may be just as much of an inevitability. And for some Maryland residents, rain and taxes are both inescapable and tied together thanks to the "rain tax," which was passed by the state legislature and signed into law in 2012.
Nine counties, as well as the city of Baltimore, pay the annual fee that the Center for Watershed Protection describes as a "user fee charged to property owners for the service of managing the polluted runoff coming from their property."