There are as many facts in the world as there are types of facts, but when you ask people to share their favorite “cool” fact, you’re bound to get a bunch of amazing responses.
Some you might have heard, others might be new to you, but no matter what, we think these 17 facts are going to be worth your time.
17. I have questions.
I got 2
1- Most spiders are too scared of you to climb into your mouth at night.
2-Whale shits are orange
16. That’s definitely…a choice.
When a person receives a kidney transplant they don’t take out the old kidneys, they just shove em to the side and leave em in there.
Basically the old one/s shrink down to the size of a Walnut (originally the size of a fist) because they’re not doing any of the work any more. The blood continues to flow through them, and that’s it. A bit like your appendix.
They don’t “die” though; the tissue is still alive. If they become necrotic (dying) then they need to be removed.
15. No one said they were smart.
Kangaroos will eat cat poop even though it is poisonous to them -learned this when a local zoo had a stray cat problem.
14. Into the ocean.
The first imaging satellites used to drop film from space which was either caught by aircraft or recovered in the ocean. Check out the Corona space program.
Ocean recovery was done, but they only had a window of like an hour or so to get the film.
The spies on both sides really did not want the other guys getting a film drop so the film capsule had a plug that would melt into the sea water fast and trash the film in case it got lost.
13. The three chimes.
The General Electric Company for many decades owned NBC. The three chimes of the NBC jingle are the notes G-E-C. During the radio era if that chime ever had a fourth note, that was a signal for NBC employees to go into work because a major news story (i.e. D-Day) was about to break.
12. Could have done without that.
The first person to write about tofu in the English language was Benjamin Franklin.
11. Cows. Who knew?
Cows can see almost 360 degrees.
But have zero depth perception which is why they can’t go down stairs.
10. Largely a mystery.
The Devil’s Hole Pupfish!!!
It’s a critically endangered fish, measuring about 1.2” (30mm) they live in an isolated body of water in the Devils Hole in Nevada. The water temperature is consistently 91 degrees (33*C), which is very warm for most fish.
Devil’s Hole is a water filled cavern stretching into a rocky hillside at an elevation of 2,400 ft, (730m) Devil’s hole is over 430 feet deep (130m) and connected to a massive underground aquifer below that- but the Devil’s Hole Pup Fish only occupy the upper 80ft of Devil’s Hole. It gets much much smaller than that!
They primarily eat, live and spawn on a small shelf measuring just 11×16 ft (3.5x5m) with a total area of 176sqft (17.5 m). They have been living in this shelf, as an isolated species for up to 60,000 years!?!
They were discovered in 1930, and since then have faced many trials, agriculture trying to drain the water, vandalism, and outright attacks. They are now surrounded by protective fences and surveillance.
Since 1972 (200 fish) the population spiked at 550 in 1995, but then saw a slow decline- at its lowest count in 2013 it was down to only 35 individuals. Thankfully it’s back up as of 2019 to 136 individuals. There have been multiple attempts at conversation even going so far as to build an exact replica of the Devils Hole 22ft deep! (6.7m) and have raised many fish there.
They have a very fascinating history, and remain largely a mystery. For such a tiny fish- millions have been spent on conversation efforts and protections, legal battles and defense. I think it’s all completely worth it, they are the single most endangered fish on the planet and are completely unique to the Devil’s Hole.
9. It was just his last name.
German chocolate cake was invented by an English-American baker named Samuel German and has nothing to do with the country of Germany.
8. Don’t be afraid!
Opossums generally cannot get rabies. Their body temperature is too low for the virus.
Also the stomach acid of a vulture is so highly acidic it kills rabies virus and most bacteria, which is why they can eat dead disgusting rotting things.
EDIT: To clarify, I mean vultures stomachs are crazy super powerful and destroy just about anything that gets in contact with the stomach acid, where we would get very sick from eating a rotting racoon.
Also so happy to see all the interest in opossums and vultures. They are very interesting creatures that are gravely misunderstood and get a pretty bad rep. Opossums are master tick destroyers that generally want nothing to do with humans or are pretty chill about us. Vultures are a critical clean up crew that prevent the spread of disease in the environment that rotting carcasses could spread, such as rabies. Further down there is a great post about how rabies can survive in a corpse for years and an animal that eats brain matter could become infected. Not vultures tho! I encourage anyone to read more about how amazing both these creatures are and how important they are to our, and all animals, continued survival.
7. Of myths and legends.
Corgi is a translation of the welsh for dwarf dog. Cor gi.
In the Mabinogion, the welsh book of myths and legends, corgis were the battle steeds of fairies
6. This is a picture book waiting to happen.
Big spiders adopt little frogs and they protect their little spider eggs from predators.
5. That’s even scary.
The figure in Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is not screaming but is, in fact, reacting to hearing the scream.
4. A good long life.
Emma Morano of Italy was the last (documented and verified) person to die that was born in the 1800s. 29th November 1899 – 15th April 2017
3. Those things are so weird.
A platypus makes venom. One of several interesting things about them.
They’re also the only animal that could theoretically make its own custard.
2. A coming collision.
As the result of a collision with another moon eons ago, Neptune’s moon “Triton” has a retrograde orbit; meaning an orbit in the direction opposite to its planet’s rotation. Triton is the only large moon our solar system to have such an orbit. Not impressed?
The collision eons ago also altered Triton’s orbit of Neptune in another, far more sinister way. Despite obviously emerging victorious from the collision, the impact ever so slightly threw Triton off course. Every year, Triton creeps a fraction of an inch closer to Neptune.
This means that one day billions of years in the future, Triton’s orbit will get too close to Neptune and Neptune’s superior gravitational pull will tear Triton apart.
1. Always sounds weird.
There was no “s” sound for the letter c in ancient Roman Latin. Thus Gaius Julius Caesar was pronounced “Gaius Julius Kaiser”.
His name is where the Germans and Russians got their name for king (Kaiser and Tzar respectively).
I’m pretty happy that these facts found their way to me, even if my head is just about full to bursting.
What’s your response when someone asks for your favorite cool fact? We’d love to hear more like these in the comments!
