Some facts are pretty boring, like “Omaha is the capital of Nebraska.” Others are slightly more intriguing, but still pretty tame, like “The human body is 60% water.” Then there are the wild ones. The shocking facts that make your eyebrows pop up as you say “No f-ckin way!”
Redditor u/GreebSetter recently asked:
“What’s a f*cked up fact you just can’t believe is true?”
And these facts are indeed pretty out there. Also, as always, take these with a grain of salt. They were posted on the internet by strangers, after all.
1. Isn’t it ironic?
You’re statistically more likely to randomly die during a USA Powerball lottery drawing than win it. –Shawn_NYC
2. Flea bombs
During World War 2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the bubonic plague. –thisisprince
3. Slightly used
JFK’s convertible wasn’t scrapped after he got shot in 1963. A roof was welded on and it was used by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter — right through to 1977. –twowayrorrim
4. D-ck control
Elephants can control their d-ck like a second trunk. –leemurray98
5. Dolphins are… inventive
Dolphins will bite the heads off of smaller fish and use the corpses as a makeshift flesh light to get off. –GunslingerGonzo
6. Um?
One of the more famous politicians here in Hungary got a suspended jail sentence and a little financial penalty for the possession of more than 19,000 pedophilic photographs. –tropicalzhu
7. We can throw
Humans are pretty slow runners compared to other species, but we are the best throwers on the planet. No other species can throw stuff like we do. This is why in case of danger, throwing things in the direction of a hostile animal may scare the sh-t out of it. –bafulationPrematuree
8. Merry Christmas!
You’re statistically more likely to be murdered by a family member on Christmas Day than murdered by a stranger any other day. –_Frog_Enthusiast_
9. Terrifying
I grew up in Zambia. When we were 5 we were told not to swim in dirty water because of Bilharzia (schistosomiasis), microscopic worms that burrow into your skin or enter up your urinary tract and then lay eggs inside your body. –Halicarnassis
10. Seems young
The youngest person to ever give birth was 5 years old. –kibufox
11. Sorry vegans
Fungi are much closer related to animals than either one are to plants, and specifically to protostomes: bugs and worms of all sorts. Fungus cell walls are made of the same polymer that arthropods’ exoskeletons are made of, and are coded for by the same gene. There have been proposals to reclassify fungi in the animal kingdom. –hononononoh
12. Come again?
In the 1980s the Bayer corporation sold a hemophilia drug that was made from processed donated human blood. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic it was discovered that the product was contaminated with HIV. They were forced to take it off the shelves in America and Europe. Bayer decided there had been too much financial investment in the product and rather than destroy the inventory they sold it in Latin American and Asian countries instead. They even continued to produce it for a few months until their supplies ran out.
There’s no way to know how many people were infected with HIV as a result but at a bare minimum it had to have been in the thousands, plus however many those people may have unknowingly infected in turn and so on. In the 1980s when AIDS was pretty much a guaranteed death sentence.
Bayer knowingly killed probably tens of thousands of people and no one went to jail. $600 million settlement. –sharrrper
13. Sharks are old
Sharks have been around longer than trees.
Yes, Trees. –RedAllAboutIt7
14. Stick with cast iron
In the beginning, Dupont f-cked up their non-stick Teflon pans. They knew high exposure to the stuff was bad but they never did anything about it. As a result, traces of “forever chemicals” can be found in 98% of the American population (and probably beyond). –Delta4o
15. Nice save
Some random dude in Soviet Russia saved the entire world from nuclear annihilation on a hunch the incoming missile warning was wrong. His name was Stanislav Petrov. –SirTaxalot
16. No savings
Over 50 percent of Americans do not have access to $1,000 in case of emergency. –bueno_hombre
17. 1977 was wild
France executed their last person by guillotine the same year Star Wars: A New Hope came out. –themddoc
18. Bad deal
In some countries children inherit debts of their deceased parents. –justcamehere533
19. Which ones though?
Sexual intercourse with a horse is still legal in some American states. –shieldsy27
20. Get ready to feel old, Stegosauruses
The T-Rex is closer in time to the iPad than it is to the Stegosaurus. –Multiverse-Nic-Cage