One thing I love is filling my brain with fun, strange, and unique facts that I may or may not ever use. Honestly, learning these weird facts is more for me than anything, but I won't lie and say it doesn't help when you need to conjure up some small talk at a social function. Like, I cannot tell you how many times I've told a near-stranger that kangaroos are left-handed (just like me!) and that Harry Styles has four nipples.
That said, here are some interesting, weird, and genuinely interesting facts that might sound fake but are totally true:
1.Germany has more castles than there are McDonald's in the United States. Yep, you heard that right. Germany is estimated to have 25,000 castles, and there are around 13,000 McDonald's locations in America.
2.In Washington state, there's a real-life law stating it's illegal to kill bigfoot and other sasquatch-like creatures. And you know what? Good for them.
3.Dogs are one of the three deadliest animals in the UK. The other two are bees and cows.
4.Sloths are slow in everything they do — including digestion. Because they digest foods so slowly, they basically have to breathe out their farts because they can't *actually* fart.
5.There are caves in Missouri that store 1.4 billion pounds of government-owned cheese. Located deep in the Ozark Mountains in limestone-converted mines, the caves are kept at a perfect 36ºF. As someone who's lactose intolerant, my stomach is in knots just thinking about it.
6.This one actually made me do a double-take: Cornflakes were invented to suppress sexual impulses and desires.
7.Cockroach dust plays a part in why so many inner-city children have asthma.
8.A single cloud can weigh about 550 tons or more.
9.Believe it or not, Canadians eat more Kraft macaroni and cheese than Americans. Like, 55% more.
10.Giraffes in the wild only sleep for around five minutes at a time. Because of the dangers they face in the wild, not only do they sleep while standing, but they also sleep intermittently so that they're prepared to run at any given moment. If keeping watch for a giraffe as they slept was a job, I'd apply in a heartbeat.
11.Snoop Dogg's government name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.
12.Despite being four inches long, the mantis shrimp throws the fastest punch in the world. Look out, Jake Paul.
13.In Switzerland, owning only one guinea pig or parrot is illegal.
14.If you're drunk or violent in Japan, police will take a plastic sheet and roll you up like a burrito.
15.If they wanted to, Clownfish could change their sex, including reproductive organs, through an irreversible process.
16.No one commits to the bit better than Toni Collete. When she was a teen, she faked having appendicitis to get out of going to school so well that she actually got her appendix taken out.
17.There's a rare neurological disorder called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, which is a condition related to how you perceive your body, the world around you, or both.
18.A grizzly bear's bite is strong enough to crush a bowling ball, but that won't stop my first instinct from being, "Aww, look how cute!"
19.Twice a month, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport brings in miniature horses to help calm the nerves of people with flying anxiety.
21.Miss Piggy's original name was going to be Piggy Lee.
22.If you say you're not afraid of anything, I have some news for you: Humans are innately born with the fear of falling and loud noises. Whatever other fears one may have are shaped or learned with experience.
23.Considering gelatin is made up of animal skin and bones, gummy worms technically have more bones than actual worms (since worms don't have any).
24.Lady Gaga, bless her heart, once spent $50K on a ghost detector.
25.To protect themselves from their super-strong pecks, woodpeckers wrap their tongues around their brains. What a cool party trick.
27.Pound cake is called that because the original recipe used one pound of each ingredient.
28.In the Great Barrier Reef, there's a coral reef that's taller than the Empire State Building.
29.Male giraffes will taste a female giraffe's urine to see if she is ready to mate. Even in the animal kingdom, men cannot mind their business.
30.On average, lightning strikes Earth 100 times per second.
31.It saddens me to report that Winnie the Pooh was banned from a Polish playground because the honey-obsessed bear doesn't wear pants. As if it's his fault!
32.Attempting to get kids to eat more vegetables, McDonald's engineer bubblegum-flavored broccoli. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't a hit.
33.Blue whales are the baddies of the ocean (sorry, orcas), and if I were a sea creature, I would never, ever tussle with one, especially considering a blue whale's tongue alone can weigh more than an elephant.
34.Due to their genes, redheads need about 20% more anesthesia than non-redheads.
35.I literally never thought about Barbie being called anything other than Barbie, but her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
37.The warty comb jellyfish doesn't have an anus, so when it needs to poop, its gut fuses with an outer layer of its "skin" to create a hole in its body. After the deed is done, the hole closes right back up.
38.In Thailand, there's an annual Monkey Buffet Festival where residents of Lopburi leave 4.5 tons of fruit, veggies, and other treats to honor the approximately 3,000 monkeys that live near the Phra Prang Sam Yot temple. Way better than Coachella, IMO.
39.I was pleased to find out that a buttload is an actual unit of measurement! One buttload is equivalent to 126 gallons of wine.
40.Back in the day, Victorians ate arsenic to get a paler complexion.
46.If you're afraid to go into the ocean because of sharks, you might want to avoid hotel hallways and break rooms, because vending machines are twice as likely to kill you.
47.Though dead bones are dry and brittle, living bones are wet and a bit soft. In order to absorb pressure, bones are also slightly flexible. Up to one-third of a living bone's weight is water.
48."Gnurr" is the term used to describe the lint that collects at the bottom of your pockets.
51.If you sneeze uncontrollably after being suddenly exposed to bright light or intense sunlight, you might have inherited a genetic trait called Achoo Syndrome.
53.As long as you legally obtain human flesh or limbs, cannibalism is allowed in the Netherlands.
54.The short-horned lizard squirts blood out of its eyes — at a distance of up to three feet — to confuse predators. However, the blood contains a chemical that makes dogs, wolves, and coyotes noxious. Love that.
56.Frogs use their eyes to help them swallow their meals. When a frog swallows food, its eyes pull down to the roof of their mouth to help push the food down its throat.
57.Human brains are constantly eating themselves. To "cleanse" the system, cells will smother and consume smaller cells or molecules in a process called phagocytosis.
59.Ants don't have lungs. Instead, they breathe through tiny holes on the sides of their bodies called spiracles.
60.When lightning strikes, the air it passes through can reach up to 50,000ºF — five times hotter than the sun's surface.
61.Due to thermal expansion, the Eiffel Tower can "grow" up to six inches in the summer.
62.Tigers don't just have striped fur but skin, too! If you were to shave a tiger, you'd find identical striped markings as if they were tattoos.
63.If you go to the sky deck of the Willis Tower in Chicago on a clear day, you can see four other US states: Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
65.Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins. Dolphins must come to the surface almost every 10 minutes, but sloths can hold their breath for 20 minutes or more by slowing down their heart rates.
66.Before toiler paper, corn cobs were used as a method of wiping.
67.While she was a teenager during World War II, Queen Elizabeth II became a junior officer in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and became a trained mechanic.
68.The real name of a hashtag is actually octothorpe.
69.Due to the anatomy of their neck muscles and spine, pigs cannot look up to the sky. Imagine being a pig and never knowing that there is a whole world above you. BRB, gonna cry for a sec.
70.A French general gave John Quincy Adams an alligator as a gift. The gator was kept in one of the White House's bathtubs.
72.A dentist invented the electric chair as a method for execution. Simply put, I'm glad I wasn't his patient.
73.Like fingerprints, human tongues also have unique tongueprints.
74.If you've ever wondered what to call that blob of toothpaste you squeeze onto your toothbrush, it's called a nurdle.
75.Lastly: Competitive art was considered a sport for the first four decades of the modern Olympics. Artists could earn medals for painting, architecture, sculpting, and music.
Wow, my brain is sweating from absorbing all that info. Instead of sending a "good morning" text, I'm just going to send one of these facts every day without any context. Do you know any interesting and fascinating facts? Let me know in the comments!
