What do we really know about the world we live in? There are facts that we take for granted because someone said they were true. But none of us has actually checked them using our own eyes, hands and ears. We think it’s just common sense, but is it really so? Or maybe we’re being constantly deceived by a bunch of people? There are ‘facts’ so incredible that it’s hard to tells if they’re false or not. Here’s a bunch of crazy statements that will make your jaw drop.
The ultimate killing machine
We’ve been afraid of the mighty and scary-looking shark for so long that we’ve totally forgotten about the more ancient and menacing enemy that dreams to annihilate humankind. Maybe it’s an act of revenge for millions of coconuts we’ve slayed and drank over the course of human history? Who knows. But the fact is: coconuts kill 150 people annually, whereas sharks can manage to get only about 5 of us.
Dinosaur water
We know that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and there were plenty of them. But do you know that the probability of drinking water that has passed through a dinosaur is around 100%? It’ll be just a molecule or two, but still, that’s dinosaur piss you’re drinking. Think about that next time you buy an overpriced bottle of Evian.
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
According to statistics Texas has more tigers than the rest of the world. Most of them are kept as backyard pets due to poor state regulations concerning wild animals, but still! America in general has the biggest (although captive) tiger population in the world – around 5,000 tigers.
Pika Pika
Long before the modern Pokemon Go craze, Pokemons have already won over one country and even became the official currency! Niue, an island country near New Zealand, issued a set of Pokemon coins in 2001. The one with Pikachu on it has become a rare collection item that’s been hunted by Pokemon fans all over the world.
Sing along
It’s not too surprising to find out that some tunes sound exactly alike. After all, guitar has only 6 strings. Yet most of us never notice that these two melodies are virtually the same. How on Earth did that happen? And to make matters even worse, the famous Baa-Baa Black Sheep also uses the same tune!
Special words
People come up with special terminology and all kinds of words to describe the most bizarre things all the time. For example, did you know that the fairly unpleasant lint that collects at the bottom of your pockets also has a name? It’s called gnurr. Now you know.
Crazy time
You might think 1 second is not that much, but what about 1 million seconds? That would be 11 days. Not much at all if you come to think about it. But 1 billion seconds? That’s 33 years!
A human nail
We are all aware that our bodies are made of various stuff (mostly stardust). And we also know that human bodies contain iron. But do you know how much exactly? You could make a 3-inch nail with all the iron from a human body!
Ice cream…potatoes
It’s not a secret that advertisers are a lying bunch and they will stop at nothing to sell what they want to sell. Even if it means taking pictures of mashed potatoes to sell ice cream! It’s hard to blame them, really, ice cream melts too fast to take good pictures, but still, the fact is downright crazy. Most of the yummy-looking ice cream you see in ads is actually mashed potatoes.
Lovely
The world famous ‘heart’ symbol that’s exploited by millions of companies and is used by billions of couples all over the world has a very dark secret. Whoever came up with the symbol had something more gruesome on his mind. Originally it was two actual human hearts fused together to look like one. Not so cute after all, huh?
Words, words, words
We are living in the world of peculiar linguistics and it seems that you can say the weirdest things nowadays and they will actually make sense. For example, “Will Smith will smith” and “Will Will Smith smith?” are perfectly understandable sentences to most people.
The messed-up timeline
When we think of history, it’s all in bits and pieces. Can you somehow correlate the Aztec Empire and the ancient Oxford University? It appears that they existed around the same time! Oxford might not be the oldest university of them all (Nalanda University in India is a few hundred years older), but it is definitely one of the longest running unies in the world. It feels quite modern because it’s still active and you can study there, but the truth is, it’s been around since 1096, while the ‘ancient’ Aztec civilization is at least 300 years younger! The famous city of Tenochtitlan, which occupied the space of modern day Mexico City, was founded only in 1325.
Taking pictures
Photography is a relatively fresh gig. It’s captivated the minds of artists for decades and has become especially popular over the last years when even the laziest guy or gal can make a few dozen shots with his or her smartphone every hour or so. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we take more pictures than people of the 19th century, but did you know just how much more? It turns out that every two minutes modern humanity takes more photos than it did in the 19th century in general. Two minutes, Carl!
You’ll need more than just an umbrella for this rain
Space is not just a cool and beautiful place, but it is also filled with wonders that are hard to imagine. Earth’s gold and precious stones mean nothing in a place where there are whole planets made of diamonds and nebulas that are made of pure alcohol (and no, that’s not an exaggeration). Our neighbors, Saturn and Jupiter, also like to show off some bling from time to time – that’s where the diamond rains come in. Scientists say this is simple chemistry. For example, storms on Saturn create soot that hardens into graphite and, eventually, diamond stones as it falls to the surface of the planet. Those stones are uncut, but they are large enough to put on a celeb’s ring!
DNA sucks
Scientists are doing their best to get to the bottom of things, but more often than not they come up with really weird discoveries. It’s no secret that we, human beings, share our genes with lots of other animals and, well, all kinds of things. It appears that we also share about 50% genes with bananas! Each of us has about 3 billion of special genetic building blocks, but most of them aren’t so special after all. We’re 99.9% just like everybody else!
