[Amazing] 25 Facts That Sound Made Up But Are Totally True
There are some things in life that are just obvious. Like painfully obvious. The sky is blue. Okay…duh? Then there are things that aren’t necessarily obvious but still sort of make sense. Like the fact that Canada is the second largest country in the world, but 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. It sounds a little crazy, but if you stop and think about what most of Canada actually looks like (ice? moose? polar bears?), you can see why it would be true.
Then there are things that are just plain crazy. Like mind-bogglingly crazy. For example, cucumbers being berries or Cleopatra living closer to the moon landing than to the building of the pyramids. How about the fact that Saudi Arabia imports both camels and sand from Australia? Allow us to repeat that…Saudi Arabia imports both camels and sand from Australia. We aren’t even lying. But that’s the kind of world we live in. As usual though, while some of these facts are straight up mind-benders, others are just there for the fun of it. Well, you”ll just have to see for yourself. These are 25 facts that sound made up but are totally true!
Featured Image: pixabay
Wyoming only has 2 escalators. According to the New York Post, the "citizens of America’s least populated state, are unfortunately being forced to use their legs to move between the floors of buildings."
Source: nypost, Image: pixabay
Note: this mostly has to do with a lack of population, older buildings, and a preference for elevators.
The CEO of Food for the Poor, one of the largest NGOs in the world, is name Robin Mahfood. Or to put it another way...the CEO is robbin' mah food.
Source: wikipedia; Image: http://ift.tt/2iQ6V0b
During World War II, the United States tested "bat bombs". Bats carrying individual bombs would be released from the the bigger bomb in mid-air. Just imagine, instead of the Arms Race we almost had the Wings Race.
Image: wikipedia, Source: wikipedia
There are about 200,000 stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. In the brain of 3-year-old child, there are about 1 quadrillion synapses, and in an adult there are about half that many. The bottom line is that even with a measly 500,000 trillion synapses, there are more synapses in your brain than stars in our galaxy.
Source: businessinsider.com, Image: http://ift.tt/2iLTpbn
There were people alive during the World War II bombing of Japan who were born during the Samurai period. How is that possible? Because Japan basically went from swords and spears to tanks and planes in just a couple generations. Who says Civilization isn't realistic?
Image: pixabay, Source: wikipedia
Note: the Satsuma Rebellion is said to be the last battle fought by samurai in Japan. It happened in 1877. The bombs were dropped on Japan only 68 years later in 1945. In the meantime, the government had instituted massive “westernization” measures which led to extremely rapid changes in Japan as it modernized at blistering speed.
To make a long story short, Japan’s Samurai period ended much more recently than most people think.
Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than to plants.
Source: www.scienceabc.com, Image: pixabay
There are several reasons why. Mainly and in simplistic terms, this is due to a common evolutionary link and physiology that makes fungi look more like animals than plants (i.e. fungal protein).
There is a tree near Kolkata, India that is bigger than the average (non-super) Walmart. The average size of a Walmart is around 105,000 square feet; The Great Banyan Tree is 156,000 square feet.
Source: businessinsider.com, Image: http://ift.tt/1gNID1E
The Japanese embassy in Paris has a 24 hour hotline that tourists can call when they start having panic attacks. Why? Because Paris isn't as nice as they thought it would be. The phenomenon even has a name - Paris Syndrome.
Source: wikipedia, Image: pixabay
Note: in Japan, Paris is highly romanticized. So when tourists show up at Charles du Gaulle airport and see that it’s just as messy and chaotic as any other city, they start experiencing actual physical symptoms (anxiety attacks and fainting). About 20 tourists are flown back to Japan every year.
Since the Cubs last won the World Series (1908), Arizona became a state, got a baseball team, and that baseball team proceeded to win the World Series. Also, there were two world wars, and we landed on the moon.
Image: http://ift.tt/2iPXwFO
Poop transplants are an actual thing. And just in case you were wondering how it works...you receive a special enema or swallow the poop in pill form. In other words, yes, you ingest somebody else's fecal matter.
Source: Wikipedia, Image: http://ift.tt/1N89OzZ
Note: these are typically used to re-introduce necessary bacteria into the digestive tract.
Recent research at the University of Austin found that dinosaurs probably didn't roar, but some definitely quacked like ducks. The next big hurdle for the scientists is to figure out how this information is relevant to our lives today.
Source: popularmechanics.com, Image: http://ift.tt/2iQ4TgM
In 1919, twenty one people were killed by a flood of molasses in Boston. On a side note, although it was officially called the Boston Molasses Disaster, some have labeled it the "Boston Mollasacre".
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia
Wells Fargo has an ATM machine in Antarctica. And oh yea, there are ice cream machines there too. In unrelated news, Antarctica has the highest average IQ of all the continents.
Image: http://ift.tt/1bfEMTB, Source: weather.com
Note: the IQ thing is because the only people to live in Antarctica are scientists
When you get a kidney transplant, they usually leave your kidneys where they are and put the third one in your pelvis. The question now is, does more organs mean...more human?
Source: http://ift.tt/18cCnr9, Image: pixabay
T-Rex is more closely related to modern chickens that it was to the stegosaurus. That means that we eat the T-Rex's closest living ancestor on a daily basis. It also means that dinosaurs didn't actually go extinct. They just learned to fly.
Source: http://ift.tt/iJhWCx, http://ift.tt/msD4BH Image: pixabay
Malaria has killed half the people to ever live. Apparently death has killed the other half.
Source: nationalgeographic, Image: http://ift.tt/1lGWc5W
If you have 2 arms, you have more arms than the global average. Be happy?
Image: pixabay
Note: for those of you who are having trouble with this concept, if you have 100 people in a room and just one of them is missing an arm, the average number of arms per person would be less than 2 (it would be .995)
In other words, because there are people in the world who have less than two arms, the average number of arms that any given human would have is actually less than 2 (albeit very slightly).
Oxford University was founded before the rise of the Aztec Empire. That also explains the sacrifices so many people make to pay tuition. Wait...was it too soon?
Source: Factmyth.com, livescience.com, Image: pixabay
Teaching at Oxford University began in 1096 while the founding of Tenochtitlan was in 1325.
Sharks have actually been around longer than trees. Sharks showed up about 400 million years ago while trees came into the picture about 350 million years ago.
Source: smithsonianmag.com, Image: pixabay
Australia actually fought a war against emus (two of them). The emus won.
Source: wikipedia.org Image: pixabay
Note: we’re not joking when we say it was a war. It was actually called the Great Emu War and was fought by soldiers with machine guns in an attempt to control the emu population.
The founder of Match.com (Gary Kremen) lost his girlfriend to a guy that she met on Match.com. And apparently he lost a couple of loyal clients in the process...
Source: wikipedia, Image: silicon valley bank via youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HOuKrxVKB8)
Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia. And sand. No seriously...it really imports sand.
Source: wikipedia, Image: pixabay
Note: In spite of basically being a sandbox, Saudi Arabia imports sand because Saudi sand is of bad quality for construction. Also, their camels don’t taste very good. Australian camels are yummier. (We’re serious, they like the taste of Australian camels better.)
The London Underground opened during the American Civil War. Also, people were able to take the tube to watch the last public execution in the UK.
Image: pixabay, Source: wikipedia
Note: The American Civil was from 1861-1865. The London Underground opened its first section (the Metropolitan Railway) in 1863. The last public hanging in London was outside the walls of Newgate Prison in 1968, making it possible for people to take the Underground at the time.
It's true, cucumbers are actually berries. But, as a wise man once said, "knowledge is knowing that cucumbers are berries, wisdom is knowing not to put cucumbers in your smoothie."
Image: pixabay, Source: wikipedia
We all know that Russia is a huge country, but did you know that it's bigger than one of our dwarf planets? Pluto is just over 16 million square miles, whereas Russia is just over 17 million square miles.
Source: http://statastic.com/, geography.about.com Image: http://ift.tt/ZWw8mn
