Facts So Weird You Won't Believe They're True Part 2
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1. A fortune cookie company once foretold the lottery, resulting in 110 winners.
In 2005, one Powerball drawing had a shocking 110 second-place winners who all attributed their luck to a fortune cookie. The folks at Powerball were suspicious (typically, there are just four or five second-place winners); however, no foul play was involved.
Wonton Food, a Chinese fortune cookie distribution factory in Long Island City, just so happened to correctly foretell five of the six winning numbers. "We are so excited," Ho Sing Lee, president of the cookie manufacturer, said at the time. "I knew people took our lucky numbers seriously. It shows that they really do tell fortunes, and we are happy so many people have benefited." Each winner took home between $100,000 and $500,000, depending on how much they bet.
2. A woman with two uteruses gave birth to twins less than a month after having a baby.
When most people have a baby, they typically wait a little while before even thinking about having another child. But that wasn't an option for one woman in Bangladesh, who unexpectedly gave birth to twins in March 2019, less than a month after having another newborn. The highly unusual circumstance came about because the woman has two uteruses and both were able to successfully carry the three healthy children to term. However, the mother's doctor did admit, "We were very shocked and surprised. I have never observed something like this before."
3. A meteor exploded over Earth with the force of 10 atomic bombs and everyone missed it.
You'd think if a spacial body met a phenomenally fiery fate right above our heads, we'd notice. But when a meteor hit our atmosphere on Dec. 18, 2018, and exploded with a force that was 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, it wasn't discovered by NASA scientists until after the fact. Turns out, it went largely undetected because it took place over the Bering Sea in an area that was close, but not directly on, the path of commercial planes flying between North America and Asia.
4. Louisiana is home to a rare pink dolphin.
It's hard to imagine dolphins being any more wonderful than they already are, but a Louisiana bottlenose dolphin named "Pinky" is almost too adorable to believe. First spotted in 2007, the unusual creature got its name from its surprising pink color, which is likely the result of a rare genetic condition.
Pinky was seen again in 2015 and in 2018 while mating. Despite the fact that fishermen have apparently seen her swimming with baby dolphins, they're not sure if she's their mother—especially since no news of any pink baby dolphins has surfaced.
5. A "moonbow" is a rainbow that happens at night.
If a storm is passing and the sun starts shining, you might be lucky enough to spot a rainbow. But did you know that you can see something just as amazing at night? While they're incredibly unusual, moonbows (or lunar rainbows) are caused by the reflection, refraction, and dispersion of light, and tend to happen most often in places with waterfalls and mist. There also needs to be a near full moon for there to be enough light for you to see it.
6. Bumblebees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
If you thought it was impressive that humans can make it to the top of Mount Everest, you'll be stunned to find out that bumblebees can make it to the summit, too. Researchers who tracked two bees that were able to fly at more than 29,525 feet (or 9,000 meters, which is higher than Everest) admitted that they were "shocked at how high they could fly."
7. The Terminator sold for $1.
The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, earned a worldwide total of $78.3 million at the box office in 1984. As it went on, the franchise took in over $1.4 billion—not bad for a movie whose rights sold for a dollar.
Before James Cameron became famous for directing blockbusters like Titanic and Avatar, he was just an unknown filmmaker with an ambitious idea. In order to get his movie made, he handed over the rights to the script for a token amount on the terms that he would be allowed to direct the movie. Despite the eventual success of the project, Cameron later admitted that he regrets the decision to sell such a valuable story for such a low amount, saying, "I wish I hadn't sold the rights for one dollar. If I had a little time machine and I could only send back something the length of a tweet, it'd be—'Don't sell.'"
8. Scientists discovered an organism with a disappearing butt.
The comb jelly—also known as the warty comb jelly, sea walnut, or Mnemiopsis leidyi—has a disappearing butt. Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, told New Scientist that "there is no documentation of a transient anus in any other animals that I know of. It is not visible when the animal is not pooping. There's no trace under the microscope. It's invisible to me."
9. Someone tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.
Some odd things have been sold on eBay, from a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary to Justin Timberlake's half-eaten French toast. But one of the strangest listings ever had to be for the country of New Zealand. That's right: A man from Brisbane, Australia tried to sell New Zealand on eBay in 2006.
The listing described the country as "the dodgiest American Cup win ever" and said it has "very ordinary weather." Despite those selling points, the ridiculous auction gained a ton of interest. The starting bid was 1 cent and after 6,000 hits and 22 bids, the selling price for New Zealand climbed all the way to $3,000. Eventually, eBay caught wind of the auction and pulled it from its site. "Clearly New Zealand is not for sale," a spokesperson for eBay Australia said at the time.
10. A London tomb is supposedly a time machine or teleportation chamber.
London's Brompton Cemetery inspires some strange beliefs. It's the final resting place of Hannah Courtoy, who had a well-known respect for ancient Egyptians' astrological (and perhaps mystical) knowledge. She's buried there, along with two of her daughters, in a massive 20-foot granite mausoleum that includes a pyramid peak and a bronze door decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The entryway also features a keyhole, but the key that unlocks it was lost, which—along with Courtoy's history—sparked the tomb's peculiar reputation. Because no one can get inside to confirm or deny superstitious suspicion, there's a local legend that says it isn't a tomb at all, but a time machine. However, historian Stephen Coates told Mental Floss, "It's not a time machine. It's a teleportation chamber."
11. Sumo wrestlers make babies cry for good luck.
While most parents do what they can to prevent or stop their babies from crying, that's not always the case in Japan. That's because it's a 400-year-old Japanese tradition that if a sumo wrestler can make your baby cry, it means he or she will live a healthy life. During a special ceremony, parents hand over their infants to sumo wrestlers who bounce their precious tots up and down and sometimes even roar in their little faces to get the tears flowing. "He's not a baby that cries much, but today he cried a lot for us and we are very happy about it," mother Mae Shige said at a 2014 event.
12. A 155-year-old mousetrap successfully caught a mouse in 2016.
They say if it ain't broke, don't fix it—and that turned out to be the case for a very early design of the mousetrap. In the mid-1800s, inventor Colin Pullinger unveiled his Perpetual Mousetrap and claimed that it would last a lifetime. More than a century later, Pullinger could still make that claim.
The 155-year-old device, on display at England's Museum of English Rural Life, managed to catch a mouse that snuck into it in 2016—even without bait! The mouse entered the trap attempting to build a nest and ended up activating its see-saw mechanism. Sadly, the rodent didn't survive. But clearly, the perpetual mousetrap does!
13. A human could swim through a blue whale's veins.
The blue whale is the largest living creature—it's even larger than most dinosaurs. The biggest blue whales can be over 100 feet in length and weigh more than 100 tons. Their hearts alone can weigh 1,300 pounds, and are the size of a small car. Unsurprisingly, blue whales have enormous arteries, which pump blood through their massive hearts and into their vital organs. These arteries are so big that a fully grown human could swim through them, not that you should try it.
14. Crying makes you feel happier.
They don't call it a "good cry" for nothing. Studies suggest that crying stimulates the production of endorphins, our body's natural painkiller, and feel-good hormones, like oxytocin. In short, crying more will ultimately lead to smiling more.
15. International astronauts must be able to speak Russian.
As the International Space Station (ISS) has modules and operations in Russian, all astronauts going to the ISS must know how to speak Russian. Some astronauts have claimed that learning this new language was the biggest challenge of their training. According to the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Institute, English-speaking astronauts can expect to spend 1,100 class hours to reach a reasonable level of fluency in Russian. That's twice as many hours as it typically takes to learn other languages like French, Spanish, and Dutch.
16. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
In 1881, dentist Alfred P. Southwick witnessed a drunk man die quickly after touching a live electric generator. Southwick soon realized that electricity could be a quick and more humane alternative to hanging for executions. And thusly, the electric chair was born, and was first used in 1890. Though it wasn't an initial success—a second jolt needed to be used—Southwick eventually worked out the kinks. Cotton candy and electric chairs: What will dentists think of next?
17. Even the man who created Comic Sans has only used it once.
Comic Sans is the classic cute, lighthearted, informal, good-for-a-child's-birthday-party-invitation font. But it also comes across as immature and unprofessional, and has been called the world's most hated font. Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare in 1995, and even he isn't a fan. "I've only ever used Comic Sans once. I was having trouble changing my broadband to Sky so wrote them a letter in Comic Sans, saying how disappointed I was," he told The Guardian. "I got a £10 refund." Worth it, we guess.
18. At least one of the colors of the Olympic flag appears on all the national flags.
Fresh aristocrat Baron de Coubertin designed the Olympic flag in the early 1900s, and he was very intentional with his creation. At least one of the colors on the Olympic flag appears on the flags of every nation that competed in the games at the time (but only if you count the white background of the flag itself). "A white background, with five interlaced rings in the center: blue, yellow, black, green, and red … is symbolic," Coubertin said in 1931. "It represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time."
19. Australia has pink and purple lakes.
Lake Hillier sits on the edge of Middle Island, which is off the coast of Western Australia. It's known for its vibrant pink color, which is due to the presence of the algae Dunaliella salina. It causes the lake's salt content to create a red dye, which helps produce its bubble gum color. And despite the high salt levels, Lake Hillier is safe to swim in.
Hillier also has a purple-ish lake sibling. Hutt Lagoon, in Port Gregory on Western Australia's Coral Coast, has a large amount of Dunaliella salina, too. Depending on the season and the amount of cloud coverage, Hutt Lagoon can be different colors, ranging from red to pink to lilac.
20. The tea bag was an accidental invention.
In 1908, New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan sent samples of tea leaves to some of his customers in small silken bags. Many of the recipients assumed that the bags were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers. So, they put the entire bag into the teapot, rather than emptying out its contents.
After such positive feedback from the happy accident, Sullivan designed intentional teabags for commercial production. In the 1920s, his sachets made of gauze—and later, paper—included the string with the tag hanging over the side so the bag could be easily removed. Some things really do stay the same.
21. Almost 163,000 pints of Guinness are wasted in facial hair each year.
An actual research study commissioned by Guinness found that an estimated 162,719 pints of Irish stout go to waste every year… via mustaches. The study found that 0.56 milliliters of Guinness get trapped in the average beard or mustache with each sip. And it takes about 10 sips to finish a pint.
An estimated 92,370 Guinness consumers every year in the UK have facial hair. Assuming they consume on average 180 pints each a year, the total cost of wasted Guinness annually is about $536,000. The moral of this story? Shave and save!
22. The Russians arrived 12 days late to the 1908 Olympics because they were using the wrong calendar.
Over 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar promoted the use of the Julian calendar, a 365-day calendar that didn't account for leap years. Eventually, the calendar fell out of sync with the seasonal equinoxes, and holidays—like Easter—didn't land where they should. Finally, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII mandated that Catholic nations switch to a new Gregorian calendar that solved the problem.
But for many countries, including Russia, the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian took centuries. As a result, in 1908, the Russians missed the first 12 days of the Olympics, which was hosted in London, because they were still using the Julian calendar. The country finally changed over in 1918 after the Bolsheviks took control. Fun bonus fact: Greece, the country where the Olympics were born, was the last nation to make the switch in 1923.