300 WTF Facts

WTF Facts Infographics

There are more than 300 dead bodies on Mount Everest.

Since 1922, 305 people have died on Mt. Everest. Some even died while attempting to retrieve another dead body. Since few brave the perilous climb and come out alive, the casualties on Everest now serve as markers for other hikers.

A meteor as strong as 10 atomic bombs exploded over Earth and everyone missed it.

In 2018, a meteor 10 meters in diameter exploded over the Bering Sea. The massive space rock had a mass of 1400 tonnes and an impact energy of 173 kilotons of TNT – which was about 10 times the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Dogs like squeaking toys because it sounds like their prey.

Dogs are known to have a fixation on squeaky toys. Although dogs have been domesticated by man, they still retain some of their animal instincts – which is why squeaky toys stimulate them. Squeaky toys almost sound like small prey screaming for their life. Now that’s one of the WTF facts you could’ve lived without ever knowing.

If the sun exploded, you wouldn't know until eight minutes later.

Light from the Sun reaches the Earth at 8 minutes and 18 seconds. This is the same amount of time it’ll take for us to see any changes in the sun. 

Ferrets will die after a year of no sex.

No nut November, who? Female ferrets mature sexually at 4-6 months of age. When they go into heat, they stay that way until they breed. However, prolonged estrogen increase may lead to aplastic anemia which can lead to death.

The longest hiccups lasted nearly 69 years.

When Charles Osborne started hiccupping in 1922, he didn’t stop until 1990. Charles Osborne hiccupped non-stop for 68 years. He wasn’t even doing anything to trigger his decades’ long hiccup – it just started while he was weighing a hog before slaughter. 

Initially, he hiccupped 40 times a minute. However, in his later years, it slowed to 20 hiccups per minute. After his long hiccupping episode, he managed to live a hiccup-less life for only a year until his death in 1991. Definitely one of the more unfortunate WTF facts.

You swallow about 365 cups of mucus in a year.

That makes over 22 gallons of mucus a year.

You sweat an average of 26 gallons on your bed per year.

This means that an average person sweats 1 cup of perspiration on his bed per day. How’s that for WTF facts?

A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds.

If you’ve ever pictured yourself lying in the clouds, keep this in mind: the average weight of a cumulus cloud is 1.1 million pounds – or almost 500,000 kg! They don’t seem as light and fluffy now, do they? 

Shadows are darker on the Moon.

On Earth, our shadows aren’t too dark because of the sunlight in the atmosphere. However, this isn’t the case with the moon. The moon has no atmosphere, and thus, no place for sunlight to travel. It’s so dark on the moon that Neil Armstrong said he couldn’t see where he was going.

Human meat is rich in protein.

However, early cannibalism was not really practiced because of diet or starvation. Historical instances of human meat consumption were mainly symbolic or religious gestures.

A duel of three people is called a truel.

The truel originates from old ‘90s action movies and fiction. 

Beer was a soft drink in Russia.

Before 2011, any drink in Russia with less than 10% alcohol content was legally classified as a soft drink.

Blood donors in Sweden get texts when their blood is used.

In order to promote blood donation, the Swedish government implemented a text service for donors in 2015. The people who donate would initially receive a ‘thank you’ text after giving their blood. However, they would also get another message when their blood is transfused into someone else.

Before “bloopers” was coined, there were "boners".

Commonly shown at the end credits of any show or film, bloopers are the outtakes of scenes with errors or funny mistakes. However, it didn’t always have such a tame name. In the 1950s, people referred to outtakes as “boners” (boneheaded mistakes) or “breakdowns.”

The small holes under frozen pizzas prevent air bubbles from forming in the dough.

The holes prevent the dough from being soggy or limp.

“Bluetooth” was named after a king.

Bluetooth technology was named after King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson. The traditional explanation for his moniker is that Harald had a bad tooth that looked “blue.” In the 10th century, Bluetooth united Denmark and Norway – much like how wireless Bluetooth now joins different devices.

Viagra can make flowers stay erect, too.

If you dissolve Viagra in water, it can make flowers stay alive for a week longer than usual. 

Dogs are banned from Antarctica.

In 1994, Antarctica banned all non-native species (except humans) from the continent. This was in order to prevent diseases from spreading to seals. 

In Slovakia they have a Christmas Carp that lives in the family bathtub for a few days before they are eaten.

A traditional Slovakian Christmas dinner is a main dish of breaded carp with sides of cabbage and sausage soup, and potato salad. However, the WTF facts twist is that the carp has to live in the family bathtub before it is cooked.

Iguanas have three eyes.

Iguanas have two normal eyes and a third eye on their head that only detects brightness.

Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf in his cap to keep it cool.

Babe Ruth’s unusual way of keeping cool during games is definitely one for WTF facts: He would take leaves off a head of cabbage and put them in a cooler. From there, he would take one and put it under his cap every two innings. 

About 100 people choke on pens each year in the U.S.

Roughly 100 people choke on pen caps per year in America, which is why BIC adopted their iconic holed caps. The hole not only serves a design feature, but it makes sure that a person can breathe even if they ingest it. 

Nutmeg can be poisonous.

Who doesn’t love a little nutmeg in their hot choc? It may seem unlikely, but in certain amounts, nutmeg can be fatal to humans. Compared to other plants and herbs, nutmeg contains higher amounts of a narcotic substance called myristicin. Consuming more than 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg at once can cause side effects such as wild hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and a syncopated heartbeat. In large amounts, it can also lead to organ failure.

Our eyes remain the same size from birth.

However, our noses and ears never stop growing.

The least successful Harry Potter film made less than the most successful Twilight movie.

“Prisoner of Azkaban” is the lowest grossing Harry Potter film at $796,688,549 worldwide. As the third film in the Harry Potter film series, Prisoner of Azkaban was outsold by Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 by over US$30,000.

Singapore has a 15-story car vending machine.

Inspired by diecast toy cars, Autobahn Motors unveiled a building that “dispenses” luxury cars in 2017. The building is located in Bukit Merah, and can hold up to 60 luxury cars inside. 

The tallest LEGO tower of all time is 112 feet high.

On August 20th, 2013, a group of students from Delaware, USA built the tallest Lego tower in the world. The tower stood at 112 feet tall, and was built using over 500,000 pieces of Lego.

Oranges were originally green.

The first oranges imported to the West were from Southeast Asia. these oranges were tangerine-pomelo hybrids that were green.

Pigs can’t look up.

You can’t tell a pig that’s sad to look up – they physically can’t do that. Since their bodies evolved to prioritize finding food, pig necks can’t bend to let them look up at the sky.

The British Queen’s handbag is a communication device.

The Queen uses her bag to relay secret and silent messages to her staff.

You can see two sunsets from the Burj Khalifa in one day.

Standing at 2,731 feet tall, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. In fact, it is so tall that you can see two sunsets from it: one at the bottom, and one at the peak.

Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.

If you think desert, you’d probably think of the Sahara. By definition, a desert is any dry land with little vegetation and rain. However, the biggest desert is actually Antarctica. The Antarctic Polar Desert is a cold desert that covers the entire continent and covers roughly 5.5 million square miles.

Mammoths were still alive when the Egyptians were building the Great Pyramids.

Wooly mammoths were alive until 2550 to 2490 B.C.

Ants can’t die from falling.

Because of their body proportions and tough exoskeleton, an ant’s terminal velocity isn’t enough to kill or hurt it on impact. They can survive being dropped from the Empire State Building and walk away unharmed.

You’re 10 times more likely to get bitten by a person than a shark.

In New York City, the annual number of human bites is 10 times higher than the yearly number of shark bites worldwide.

Fried chicken came from Scotland.

In the Middle Ages, it was a Scottish tradition to deep fry chicken. While immigrating to the Southern United States, the Scots bought the dish over. From there, it became a staple for American cuisine.

10 gallons of carrot juice can kill a person.

The Vitamin A content of that much carrot juice is high enough to make your brain swell and cause other complications leading to death.

A house fire inspired The Sims.

Will Wight was inspired to create The Sims after suffering a house fire in 1991, where he lost everything. When he had a vision of rebuilding his house, he thought of a game concept where one could create a “virtual dollhouse.” From there, The Sims was born. Talk about WTF facts with a plot twist.

Woodpeckers would eat brains if they get too hungry.

Definitely one of the darker WTF facts: If a woodpecker goes too long without food, they will pin down other birds and peck at their heads until they can eat their brains.

A volcanic eruption once killed 80% of the Earth’s sheep.

When the Laki volcanic fissure in Southern Iceland erupted for eight months in 1783, it killed off 80% of the sheep in the world. Additionally, roughly 25% of the world’s human population died.

A Coca-Cola employee offered to sell Coca-Cola’s secrets to Pepsi.

Snitches get stitches, yet it seems this Coca-Cola employee forgot when they tried to betray Coca-Cola. In 2006, a secretary at Coca-Cola HQ was arrested for stealing a sample of an unreleased product and attempting to sell it for $1.5m to Pepsi. However, the two soda companies instead got the FBI involved. In the end, the thief was arrested. 

Cats don’t meow at other cats.

Aside from kittens meowing at their mothers, cats only meow at people and other animals.

A fortune cookie once predicted the lottery, and 110 people won.

In 2005, a shocking 110 people won second-place for a Powerball drawing, with each one describing a fortune cookie for their lucky digits. Usually, only 4 or 5 people win second-place. However, upon investigation, no foul play was involved.

Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins.

Sloths can slow their heart rates. When they do, sloths can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes. On the other hand, dolphins need to come up to the surface to breathe after 10 minutes.

The Empire State Building has a ZIP code of its own.

The Empire State Building’s ZIP code is 10118.

The shortest war in history lasted less than an hour.

When the sultan of Zanzibar died and a new one took over without British approval in 1896, the Brits saw it as disrespect. When the unofficially appointed Sultan Khalid bin Barghash refused to step down, British warships spent 38 minutes bombing the palace before Khalid fled. This marked the end of the Anglo-Zanzibar War.

The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be in Barcelona.

The Eiffel Tower may be an iconic tourist spot for lovers and travelers alike, but it wasn’t so loved in its first years. When Gustave Eiffel pitched it to Barcelona, the officials thought the design looked too ugly, so Eiffel pitched it to Paris instead. 

PEZ candy was made to help smokers quit.

The Austrian creator of PEZ named the candy after the German word for peppermint (Pffefferminz). They were first introduced in 1927 to curb smokers’ cravings. 

The longest TV ad of all time is 14 hours long.

Created for a product that supposedly “lasts forever,” this Old Spice commercial features actor Terry Crews and is airing for “an eternity” online. Since TV airtime is particularly expensive, a 14-hour version was aired in Brazil, on December 8, 2018, and earned the Guinness World Record for the longest TV ad ever.

Bananas glow blue under UV light.

Bananas may be associated with yellow, but according to one study, the fruit actually glows an “intense” blue color under black light (or UV lights). Scientists later found that the degradation of chlorophyll as the fruit ripens causes the blue glow. 

Handshakes were originally a safety measure.

In 5th century Greece, handshakes were done to make sure that the other person wasn’t carrying a hidden weapon. The hand clasp proved that your hand was empty and shaking it was meant to “shake out” weapons hiding in the sleeve. One of the WTF facts you probably won’t stop thinking of. 

An actor’s brain activity is different when in character.

Some actors are so good, you forget that they’re acting. However, the actors themselves seem to forget that too. During a study, researchers scanned performers’ brains while the actors answered questions either as themselves or in character. According to the results, the brain activity of participants differed between answering as themselves or as a character – almost as if the character is possessing the actor.

The longest time between two twins being born is 87 days.

A mother in Ireland gave birth to twins Amy Ann and Kate Marie Elliot 87 days apart, the world record for the longest interval between twin births. Amy was born prematurely on June 1, 2012, and Kate only followed on August 27. The exact interval is 87 days, 1 hr and 45 mins.

There’s an apartment inside the Eiffel Tower.

When Gustave Eiffel designed the tower, he added a hidden apartment on the third level—but he never lived there, nor did anybody. Instead, Eiffel used this space to entertain guests such as Thomas Edison. Though it wasn’t big, the apartment was decorated with wallpaper, furnished with wooden cabinets, and even had a grand piano. Nowadays, you can get a peek at the unique space through a window if you ride up the tower.

Marsupials have three vaginas.

Marsupials such as koalas, wombats and tasmanian devils all have three vaginas. The vaginas on the sides carry sperm to the two uteruses, since male marsupials have two-pronged penises. Finally, the middle vagina births their offspring.

Tug of war, live pigeon shooting, and pistol dueling used to be in the Olympics.

In the early 1900s, tug of war, pigeon shooting, and pistol dueling were Olympics. However, by 1920, all of these events were excluded. Tug of war was no longer considered athletics, and the animal rights movement had live pigeon shooting banned. 

The largest margarine sculpture weighs more than 3,000 pounds.

The largest margarine sculpture depicting the Trimurti of Elephanta weighs a whopping 1506.800 kg. Devwrat Anand Jategaonkar finished the sculpture on February 23, 2017. It stood at 8 ft 2” long, 3 ft 8” wide, and 6 ft 1” tall.

The tallest dog ever was a 7-foot Great Dane.

Zeus holds the record for the tallest dog in the world at 7 ft tall. He was an unusually large Great Dane from Otsego, Michigan who took home the record in October 2011.

Spider webs were used as bandages in ancient times.

In ancient Greece and Rome, doctors used spider webs as bandages for their patients. Supposedly, spider webs have natural antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, which helps with cleaning and preventing infection. It was also said that spider webs are rich in vitamin K, which helps clot blood and close wounds.

There’s a cheese eaten with live maggots.

If you’re one for exotic eats, the Casu marzu is a Sardinian cheese that has a special ingredient: live maggots. These maggots can jump up to five inches out of the cheese while you’re eating it, so it’s advised to shield it with your hand so they won’t get on your face.

Silver cars are the least accident-prone.

Silver is the most visible on the road, so it’s less likely to get into an accident.

The first man to pee on the moon was Buzz Aldrin.

Shortly after stepping onto the moon’s surface, Buzz Aldrin had to take a leak. That’s one for WTF facts you never needed to know.

A woman who lost her wedding ring found it over a decade later on a carrot in her garden.

In 1995, a woman in Sweden lost her wedding ring while cooking for Christmas. One of the more feel-good WTF facts: 16 years later, the woman found the ring around a carrot in her garden. Turns out, the ring was lost in the vegetable peelings that were made into compost. 

¼ of all your bones are in your feet.

There are 26 bones and 33 joints in each foot. That makes 52 bones in both feet out of the 206 bones in our whole body – which makes foot bones more than 25% of the body’s total bone structure. 

A 155-year-old mouse trap successfully caught a mouse in 2016.

In the mid-1800s, inventor Colin Pullinger revealed his “perpetual mousetrap,” claiming that it would last a lifetime. Over a century later, his claim was proven true. In 2016, the 155-year-old device was on display at England’s Museum of English Rural Life when it caught a mouse that snuck into it. 

A human could swim through a blue whale's veins.

This is one of the WTF facts that’ll just make you feel small. 

The man who created Comic Sans used it once.

Universally known as the world’s most hated font, Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare in 1995. Turns out, even Vincent Connare can’t take it seriously and only used it once for a complaint about his broadband service. 

There is only one Blockbuster store left in the world.

Video rental services may be a thing of the past, but there’s still one Blockbuster store left standing. This Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon is now considered an American tourist site.

The Dutch village of Giethoorn doesn’t have roads.

Instead, its buildings are connected entirely by canals and footbridges.

There’s a high voltage ejector bed that launches you out of sleep.

In 2015, Colin Furze invented a creative alarm that would literally throw you out of bed as an alarm. 

There’s a family of people with blue skin in Kentucky.

One of the most bizarre WTF facts:  For generations, the Fugates of Kentucky had a condition called methemoglobinemia that turns skin blue. It was a rare genetic condition that was even more triggered by inbreeding.

The butterflies in your stomach are a distress call.

When you see someone you like and your stomach does weird flips, it is actually a stress response caused by adrenaline levels.

The katzenklavier was a piano made out of cats.

No, it wasn’t made out of their skin or bones, but it’s still one of the most disturbing WTF facts: Designed in the 17th-century by Athanasius Kircher, it was a piano that had a row of caged cats with different pitches. This cat piano would then be played with the traditional keyboard that drove nails into their tails instead of into strings. 

The Romans used to clean their teeth with urine.

How’s that for an organic toothpaste?

The largest pizza measured 13,580.28 square feet.

In 2012, a massive pie that had a surface area of 1,261.65 square meters was created in Rome, Italy. The pizza was named “Ottavia,” in honor of the Octavian Augustus – the first emperor of Rome. 

There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

If you took out all of your blood vessels and laid them end to end, they would stretch over 2 times around the entire world.

Cats can be manipulative.

When cats need food or affection, they’ve been shown to exhibit “solicitation purring,”or more baby-like meows. According to a study, humans perceive this solicitation purring as more urgent than their usual cries.

Archaeologists discovered an “elixir” in an ancient Chinese tomb.

In 2019, archaeologists found a 2,000-year-old bronze pot from a Western Han Dynasty. It contained 3.5 liters of a liquid referred to in Taoist literature as an “elixir of immortality.” Upon studying, the elixir was a mixture of potassium nitrate and alunite. 

Before alarm clocks, there were human alarms.

Knocker-Uppers originated in Britain during the Industrial Revolution. When people needed to wake up and get to work, a knocker-upper’s job was to take a wooden stick and knock on the door to wake them up.

Mice in Central America can sing almost 100 notes.

Scotinomys teguina, or Alston’s singing mouse are native to Central America. They are real-life musically inclined rats. 

There’s a McDonald’s with a turquoise arch.

The McDonald’s in Sedona, Arizona, is the only joint in the world with turquoise arches instead of the yellow, golden ones. The restaurant used turquoise arches after government officials said the yellow-gold ones contrasted too much with the area’s red rocks.

Wimbledon tennis balls must be stored at perfect room temperature.

Wimbledon tennis balls must be kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit because the temperature affects how it bounces. If it’s warmer gas molecules inside the ball expand, which makes it bounce higher. If it’s cooler, the molecules will shrink, making the ball bounce lower.

In Japan, napping at work is honorable.

In Japan, napping at your job is seen as a sign of diligence—you are working so much, you got exhausted. The Japanese call it inemuri, which translates to “present while sleeping.” 

Sleeping in public is totally cool in Japan.

Sleeping in public is a norm in Japan. You are extremely unlikely to get robbed if you fall asleep in public, since it’s already a part of everyone’s culture.

LEGO has an underground vault with all the LEGO sets ever made.

Yup, you read that right. One of the fun but still WTF facts: LEGO has an underground bunker that holds all the LEGO sets made since the company started in the mid-90s. The Memory Lane vault contains 4,720 sets.

The world record for most tosses of a pancake in a minute is 140 tosses.

In 2012, Brad Jolly of Australia set the Guinness World Record for the most tosses of a pancake with 140 flips a minute. 

The smell of freshly-cut grass is a distress signal.

The refreshing fragrance of fresh-cut grass is actually the plant’s release of enzymes as a result of stress—almost like the way we break a sweat when stressed. When grass is cut, the plant signals the environment that it is being eaten or damaged.

Bangladesh has six seasons.

In Bangladesh, there are six official seasons: summer (Grisma, in Bengali), monsoon (Barsa), autumn (Sharat), late autumn (Hemanta), winter (Shit), and spring (Basanta).

“Huh?” Is a universal word for humans.

Studies suggest that “Huh?” is the closest thing humans have to a universal word. This expression is understood and used in almost every language.

Platypuses don’t have stomachs.

So, platypuses have a duck-like bill, are mammals that lay eggs, and now they don’t have stomachs, either? Truly a WTF animal for WTF facts.

It would take over 20 years to eat at every NYC restaurant.

In order to eat at all restaurants in NYC, it would take 22.7 years of going to one restaurant a day.

Air pollution now kills more people than smoking.

A study found that air pollution kills almost nine million people every year.

Chip bags are full of nitrogen.

The excess air in chip bags isn’t there to fool buyers into thinking there are more chips inside. Instead, bags of chips are actually filled with nitrogen. Oxygen would spoil the chips fast, but nitrogen preserves freshness, prevents combustion, and creates cushioning during shipping.

Häagen-Dazs doesn’t mean anything.

When Häagen-Dazs was started in 1961, it was named for “old-world craftsmanship.” the resulting name of Häagen-Dazs was a combination of Danish and Hungarian language that does not translate to anything.

Harrod’s was the first place to sell toilet paper.

Toilet “wipes” were invented in London in 1857. During this time, toilet paper were only sold in the men’s department Harrod’s.

There is no word that rhymes with orange.

Orange is also the only color that we can taste.

It takes more muscles to smile than to frown.

It’s a common myth that frowning takes more work, but it’s actually not the case. On average, a smile uses 12 muscles, while a frown uses only 11.

Jupiter is made entirely of gases.

Yup, the biggest planet in the solar system is almost like a fart. 

97% of the earth’s water is undrinkable.

About 98% of all water on Earth is salt water. Fresh water is only 3% of all water on earth, and nearly 65% of this water is in glaciers. 

Donald Duck never wore pants.

However, he would always put a towel around his waist whenever he got out of a shower.

Vincent Van Gogh only sold 1 painting in his entire life.

And that painting was sold to his brother!

Tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables.

So are cucumbers, peppers, and olives.

Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

So much for those bird brains.

The only food that doesn’t spoil is honey.

The water content of honey is a key factor in why it doesn’t spoil. At 17% water content, it dehydrates bacteria which makes it resistant to spoiling.

A laughing epidemic made 14 schools close down in Tanzania.

In 1962, a laughing epidemic broke out in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). What initially started with a few school girls turned into almost a year-long mass hysteria across villages. Symptoms of the laughing epidemic included crying, fainting, rashes, and pain. Towards the end of the epidemic, 14 schools had already closed.

The man with the longest beard tripped and died because of it.

Hans Steininger once became famous for having the world’s longest beard at almost 5 ft long. However, he became even more famous for dying because of his beard. One of the morbidly funny yet unfortunate WTF facts: he tripped on his beard during a fire, which made him fall downstairs and break his neck.

The Vatican City drinks the most wine per person.

At 74 liters per citizen every year, this holy land has the record for the most wine drank per capita.

The Mona Lisa may have had eyebrows.

The famous portrait may look relatively facial hair-less, but in October 2007, Pascal Cotte claimed that Leonardo da Vinci did originally paint eyebrows and eyelashes on the Mona Lisa. using a high-definition camera, the French engineer and inventor zoomed in 24 times on Mona Lisa’s face and found a single brushstroke of a hair. However, whether or not this is true is one of the many mysteries of Mona Lisa.

The tongue isn’t the strongest muscle in the body.

The tongue is the only muscle not attached to skin or bone, but it’s not the strongest muscle.

One man’s sperm can impregnate every woman on earth.

In two weeks, a single human male produces enough sperm to impregnate every fertile woman on the planet.

The 7-fold paper is a myth.

Maybe with a small piece of square paper, it would be hard to make more than 7 folds. However, the myth that a piece of paper can’t be folded over 7 times has been disproved many times.

About 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

This includes babies and toddlers falling into the toilet, bruising or pinching due to faulty toilet seats, or toilets collapsing from a person’s weight.

When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

The Moon’s gravitational force acting directly above an object reduces the Earth’s gravitational force – less gravitational pull on you means less weight. 

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

At the very worst, voluntary breath-holding will only lead to unconsciousness. 

Over a dozen skeletons were found in Benjamin Franklin's basement.

In 1998, an organization called Friends of Benjamin Franklin House decided to restore the four-story Georgian house where Franklin lived in London. However, they discovered a gruesome sight – one of the workers found a human thigh bone. The authorities were brought in, and a total of remains from 15 people were found – 6 of those belonging to children, and all with holes drilled into their skulls. The skeletons dated back to 200 years ago then, which was around the time Benjamin Franklin lived in the house. This is one of the most disturbing WTF facts. 

The Guinness Book of Records is the most stolen book at Public Libraries.

Yup, Guinness Records has a record in itself. It is closely followed by the Bible. Talk about the irony.

When you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

Ever let out a sneeze so hard, you feel like everything stopped for a moment? Well, your heart literally does stop when you sneeze, but only briefly. There’s another one of the WTF facts you could’ve gone without knowing.

The human heart can squirt blood 30 ft far.

When the heart pumps blood throughout our system, it creates pressure so strong that when our arteries face sudden trauma, blood would literally squirt out.

Wearing headphones for an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

Guess that’s what they mean when they call songs an earworm. 

At the equator, you would weigh less than if standing at one of the poles.

You would weigh less on the equator than at the North or South Pole, but the difference is subtle. Your body itself won’t change, but the force of gravity will, thus reducing your weight.

A pharaoh once bathed his slaves in honey to keep bugs away from him.

Whenever King Pepi II would get bothered by insects, he would command that one of his servants be covered in honey to lure the bugs away from him.

Less than 20% of laughter comes after jokes.

Sometimes, we may not be laughing at jokes at all.

A 17 year-old once struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

At 17 years old, Jackie Mitchell pitched against the Yankees during an exhibition game and struck out baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Definitely one of the more inspiring but still WTF facts.

A rollercoaster can make you pass kidney stones.

After many reports of passing a kidney stone on Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, a team from Michigan State University decided to investigate whether it was coincidental or not. They found that there was a 64% kidney stone pass rate for passengers in the rear of the Thunder Mountain ride. However, it was just 16% for passengers in the front.

Trees can grow in your lungs.

In 2009, doctors found a fir tree growing in the lungs of a 28-year-old patient named Artyom Sidorkin. What the doctors initially suspected was a tumor was actually the sprouting seed of a fir tree. Now isn’t that one of the WTF facts that’ll make you cringe?

Dancing mania killed 15 people a day in 1518.

Dancing mania isn’t an arcade game, but a mass psychogenic illness in the Middle Ages characterized by non-stop dancing. It may sound like a cartoon plot, but these people would literally dance until their feet bled and collapse from exhaustion. Until now, the phenomenon has no confirmed explanation. 

If you’re murdered in the U.S., there’s a 1-in-3 chance police will never identify your killer.

An estimated 2,000 serial killers have been at large in the U.S. since 2017. That’s one for chilling WTF facts. 

In 2005, Australia banned the word “mate.”

Due to complaints, the Australian Parliament once banned the use of “mate” at work. However, it didn’t last too long, and the ruling was withdrawn in 24 hours. 

The Pacu fish has human-like teeth.

Say cheese! The Pacu is a South American fish is known for its creepily human-like teeth.  See for yourself. WTF facts, am I right?

Some people have an extra bone in their knee.

The fabella is found at the back of the knee in some people. Also known as a sesamoid bone, it grows in the tendon of a muscle.

Playing the accordion used to be required for teachers in North Korea.

In the 1900s, it was required that all school teachers learn the accordion. It was often referred to as The People’s Instrument and was prized for its portability

Children's medicine used to have morphine.

Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup was a notorious remedy in the 1800s. It was marketed as a medicine that soothes pain in children. However, it actually contained morphine.

Water makes different pouring sounds depending on its temperature.

If you have a keen ear, you’d notice that hot water and cold water sound a bit different when being poured. Heat changes the thickness or viscosity of the water, which gives its pouring sound a different pitch. Cold water is more viscous, and makes a higher-pitched sound.

Dentures used to be made of dead peoples’ teeth.

In other dark WTF facts: the things we associate with old people used to be made of dead people or animal teeth. Can you still smile after this?

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland used to have real skeletons.

In the 1960s, the skeletons on the Pirates ride at Disneyland were real. Why? They thought the fake skeletons didn’t look spooky enough. How? They contacted the UCLA medical department and bought skeletons usually found in anatomy classrooms. However, they stopped when they realized that the fake skeletons were cooler (and probably cheaper.)

A 100-foot asteroid nearly hit the Earth once.

In January 2017, a 100-foot asteroid called AG13 passed by the Earth at less than ⅕ the distance between the Earth and the moon. Scientists only knew that it was coming two days before it could have made impact. 

Madame Tussaud used real heads for her first wax creations.

Madame Anna Maria Tussaud started her waxing during the French Revolution. She would grab heads from the guillotine pile, look for the most interesting faces, and create wax masks with their faces for the revolution.

Rome has a purgatory museum.

The Museo delle anime del Purgatorio is a small museum in Rome that displays documentation of hauntings from people stuck in Purgatory. Usually, their claimed hauntings manifest as burn marks on pages of the Bible and other objects.

At Harvard University, there is a book made with human skin.

One of the WTF facts that’ll make your skin crawl: Since the 1930s, Des destinees de l’ame (Destinies of the Soul) has been housed at Harvard’s Houghton Library. The author, Arsene Houssaye reportedly gave the book to his friend, Dr. Ludovic Bouland, in the mid-1880s. Dr. Bouland allegedly bound the book with skin from an unclaimed female patient who died of natural causes.

People used to take photos with their dead relatives.

The Victorian era was truly strange, but no other WTF facts can top this: People would take a recently deceased family member and take photos of them as if they were just sleeping. 

No one knows how Edgar Allan Poe died.

If his works were any indicator of who he was as a person, Edgar Allan Poe was a deeply disturbed man. Aside from his macabre writing, a lot of mystery surrounds Edgar Allan Poe. even his death is unclear. He was last seen in Baltimore’s streets in 1849. He was wearing someone else’s clothes and in bad shape. 4 days later, he died in a hospital. Allegedly, he kept shouting “Reynolds” before his death. 

Rome once had a horse senator.

Move aside, Bojack Horseman. This is one of the WTF facts that’ll make you think we’re pulling your leg, but actually happened in history: In 37 AD, the Roman emperor Caligula made Incitatus, his favorite horse, a Roman senator. 

Antonio López de Santa Anna held a state funeral for his leg after it was amputated.

After being injured in battle, Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna buried his amputated leg with full military honors. Before you go all WTF facts on us: It was a part of him, guys. 

People in New England though tuberculosis was vampirism.

The 19th century was the height of the “New England Vampire Panic.” during this time, people thought that “consumption” (what they called Tuberculosis) was spread by vampires. People would even would dig up Tuberculosis victims and stake them through the heart. Not a fan of Twilight, it seems. 

Anna Mae Dickinson cheated death 5 times.

Anna Mae Dickinson survived both the Titanic and Lusitania, the Hindenburg explosion, the Pearl Harbor bombing, and the destruction of her apartment during 9/11. She must be part-cat. 

Heroin used to be sold as cough medicine.

The Bayer pharmaceutical company distributed heroin as a cough medicine from 1898 to 1910. It was also marketed as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. Thank god for modern medicine.

Dracula was an actual person.

Vlad the Impaler was 15th century Romanian ruler who consumed his enemy’s blood with meals. Him being born in Transylvania, his disturbing habits, and his family name ‘Dracula,’ was the inspiration for the Bram Stoker novel.

Edgar Allan Poe may have predicted the future.

The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838) was a novel about 4 shipwreck survivors who killed and ate a cabin boy named Richard Parker. In 1884, a boat got stranded with only 4 survivors. 3 of the crew killed and ate the cabin boy, who was also named Richard Parker.

Honey can be used for torture.

Scaphism was an ancient torture method where the victim was covered all over with honey and then left at the mercy of large amounts of insects.

Pigs have free speech in Florida.

The 1838 Constitution of Florida guarantees the right to privacy, the freedom of speech, and the right of pregnant pigs to be free from cages. 

Sweat doesn't actually stink.

Sweat in itself is not stinky, but the bacteria in our skin breaks the sweat down and causes the odor.

It is illegal to sell a "bounceless" pickle in Connecticut.

The 1945 Hartford Courant states that it is illegal to sell bounceless pickles – because if it doesn’t bounce, it is not edible. 

The fire hydrant patent was lost in a fire.

Oh, the irony. Frederick Graff Sr. patented the fire hydrant in the early 1800s. However, the patent was destroyed when Washington, D.C. patent office burned down in 1836.

France has 12 timezones.

Technically, Russia has the most extreme time zones – one person could be waking up at 8:00AM while another person in some other part of the country is going to bed at 11:00PM. However, France has the most timezones. 

Blue Ivy Carter is the youngest person ever to appear on a Billboard chart.

When Jay-Z released “Glory” in 2012, he put his daughter Blue Ivy Carter as a feature. Her crying sample made her the youngest person to hit the Billboard charts at two days old.

Your liver can regenerate in three weeks.

We’re carrying a little Wolverine inside us, after all.

A 70-year-old woman once completed one marathon for each continent in a week.

For Chau Smith’s 70th birthday, she celebrated by completing one marathon for each continent in just a week.  

A woman was once constipated for nearly two months.

After 45 days without a bowel movement, a 28-year-old woman from India had to have surgery to remove a “football-sized” mass of feces.  

Beethoven could still hear after going deaf.

If you’re wondering how Beethoven still managed to be a great composer even when he was deaf, it was because of this method: He bit onto a metal pole connected to his piano. He then felt or heard his music through the vibration in his bones. 

You can always "see" your nose.

One of the WTF facts you’ll struggle to unsee: Our eyes always see our nose, but blocks it out through unconscious selective attention. Think of it as how the rims of glasses don’t bother you. 

Shaq only made one three-pointer in his whole career.

Shaquille O’Neal may be one of the most iconic NBA players in the game, but you’d be surprised that he only made one three-point shot in his entire career. 

Detroit undercover cops once fought another group of undercover cops.

In an undercover drug ring bust, a group of undercover cops posing as members had a fight with another group of undercover cops posing as members in 2017. In the end, internal affairs had to be contacted to investigate both groups.

America accidentally dropped an atom bomb on South Carolina in 1958.

Talk about clumsy. Here’s one of the scary WTF facts: In 1958, a B-47 plane was headed to the United Kingdom with an atomic bomb even bigger than the Nagasaki bomb. During the flight, one of the pilots accidentally released the emergency pin. However, the critical part of the bomb needed to activate it was still on the plane. If it were already equipped to the bomb, it would have obliterated the entire state and even more. 

Blue Whale calves grow 200 pounds per day.

This takes “They grow up so fast!” to a whole other level. 

Medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.

Each year, medical error causes 250,000 casualties in the United States, making it the third-leading cause of deaths in the country.

Praying mantis mating is deadly… literally.

Then, the female mantis will proceed to devour the male’s corpse for nourishment.

Paint used to be kept in pig bladders.

In the 19th century, pig bladders were used to store an artist’s paint. The organ would be sealed with a string and pricked to get the paint out. Because it would often break open, the American painter John G. Rand eventually made paint tubes from tin and screw cap.

Toy Story 2 was almost deleted.

A year before Toy Story 2 was released, someone entered the command, ‘/bin/rm -r -f *’ on the drive which started deleting the files for the movie. Thankfully, an employee had the entire film backed up on her laptop. If not, the deleted material would have taken a year to recreate.

When giraffes fight, they neck it out.

Giraffes are a funny-looking bunch. When a viral video broke out of two giraffes fighting, the internet found it hard to take them seriously. However, neck fights are natural aggressive behavior of giraffes. Usually, they get into these fights when competing for a mate. 

The most blueberries eaten in a minute is 86 blueberries.

On January 16, 2018, Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyaya of India crammed 86 blueberries in his mouth in one minute. That’s not where the WTF facts end: this was his 4th time breaking the record! 

The most sausages made in one minute is 78 sausages.

On April 3, 2017 Barry John Crowe of Ireland made 78 sausages in a minute. Each sausage was at least 4 in long. 

The world record for the fastest drinking of a bottle of ketchup is less than half a minute long.

On September 7, 2017, Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyaya (IND) finished a 500-g bottle of ketchup in 25.37 seconds.

The fastest pizza eater finished a 12-inch in less than half a minute.

Kelvin Medina of the Philippines finished a whole pizza in 23.62 sec on April 12, 2015.

The biggest chocolate rabbit in the world is over 4,000 kg heavy.

The largest chocolate rabbit was sculpted by Equipe da Casa do Chocolate in 2017. It was 4,000 times the size of an average chocolate bunny and had an estimated 21.2 million calories.

The most expensive hotdog is priced at almost US$200.

Tokyo Dog in Seattle, Washington, USA, sells the “Juuni Ban” hot dog for $169. It is the most expensive hot dog in the world to date. The hotdog comes with smoked-cheese bratwurst, butter-teriyaki-grilled onions, maitake mushrooms, wagyu beef, foie gras, black truffle, and caviar.

Adult wolves feed wolf pups regurgitated meat from their hunts.

Because wolf pups can’t fend and hunt for themselves, adult wolves would eat meat and regurgitate them for their offspring. 

The biggest tooth ever recovered from a human is 1.4” long.

The Guinness World Record for the biggest human tooth goes to Indian cricketer, Urvil Patel. He had his large canine extracted and came home from the procedure to find that his 3.67cm long tooth was a record breaker. His tooth was nearly double the size of an average human tooth. 

Super Mario Land is darker than you thought.

Remember all those squares you need to hop on while playing the OG Mario? Well, those are actually the people of the Mushroom Kingdom turned into blocks by the Koopas.

The most teeth extracted from a person is 526.

A 7 year-old boy in Chennai, India had 526 teeth removed from his mouth after complaining of severe jaw pain and swelling. When doctors examined his mouth, they found a sac in his lower jaw filled with abnormal teeth, which they had to surgically remove. The entire procedure took 4-5 hours, and it took 3 days for the boy to be discharged from the hospital.

Minecraft's overworld has a surface area 9,258,235 times larger than the earth.

Minecraft is a game geared towards creatives and survivalists alike. For a game with infinite possibilities, it’s only fitting that the game seems to outdo our own planet. For the PC version, the Minecraft world is over 9 million times bigger than the Earth.

The “knees” you see on a flamingo is actually their ankle joints.

Their actual knee joint is further up their body and hidden by its feathers.

After you cut off its head, a chicken can run the length of an entire football field before it drops dead.

That’s where the expression, “Running like a chicken with its head come off” comes from.

A headless chicken survived for 18 months.

Mike The Headless Chicken, also known as Miracle Mike survived for 18 months without his head. According to scientists, his brain stem and jugular remained intact, and a clot prevented him from bleeding to death. His owner would feed him through a dropper and his trachea. Eventually, though, he choked to death.

“Chicken guns” launch chicken carcasses at aircraft windows.

Aircraft engineers use this peculiar if not morbid mechanism to test the resistance of airplane windows and engines by blasting dead chickens at the planes.

Chickens outnumber humans.

As of 2011, there has been a recorded number of 19 billion chickens – which is over twice the latest population count for humans (7.7 billion).

The world record for the most egg yolks in one egg is 9 yolks.

Certain conditions can cause abnormalities in chicken eggs, such as multi-yolks, no yolks, or even no shells. 

Lefties are kinky, supposedly.

A 2008 study found that paraphilias (atypical sexual interests) have been linked to higher rates of left-handedness. 

In a 2007 study in Taiwan, about 59.3% of children studied had been forced to convert from left-handedness.

Asia is notorious for collectivist societies, and this shows in how some parents might force their children to change handedness to be more “normal”.

Flamingos produce milk - kind of.

No, they don’t have mammary glands – but flamingos can produce a certain “milk” from their upper digestive tracts. Both male and female flamingos produce crop milk to feed their chicks. This concoction contains protein, fat, and red and white blood cells. 

There’s a cannibal galaxy next door.

Speaking of eating, our galaxy is also set to collide with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, which has a history of devouring other galaxies.  

The sun contains over 99% of the mass in our galaxy.

Over a million Earths could fit inside the sun.

Scientists detected a radio signal in space from 5 billion light-years away.

5 billion light-years means the Earth did not exist at the time the source transmitted it! How strange.

A Japanese man married a video game character in 2009.

This guy took cuffing season to a whole other level: Sal 9000 lived the gamer’s dream when he “married” Nene Anegasaki over livestream.

Studies have shown that playing Tetris can curb sex, drug, and food cravings.

Maybe it’s because the physical and visual representation of “fixing” things to fit just right gives us the illusion of having our sh*t together, or maybe it’s something else. Nonetheless, it’s proven that Tetris helps lessen impulsive behavior. Carnal desires, no more. 

We always see the same side of the moon.

Although the moon has phases, we will only ever see one side of it. It rotates on its axis at the same time it orbits the Earth. 

Chickens can recognize up to 100 faces.

Chickens can easily tell who their owner is from other people that they see regularly. They recognize other animals, too.

Neil Armstrong's astronaut application arrived past the deadline.

One of his friends just slipped the tardy form in with the others.

Waffle House is used to measure storms.

Because the restaurant stays open in extreme weather, the “Waffle House Index” is informally used by FEMA to measure storm severity.

The first tagline for the Nerf ball was “Nerf: You can’t hurt babies or old people!”

I mean, that is somewhat true. It makes sense.

Tootsie Rolls used to be part of WWII rations.

Tootsie Rolls were put in soldiers’ rations in World War II because of their durability in different weather conditions.

A solar eclipse once ended a six-year war.

In 585 BCE, the sky suddenly darkened during a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. The soldiers saw it as a sign to stop fighting.

Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on Independence Day.

These titular figures for American independence both died exactly 50 years after the Declaration on July 4, 1826. WTF facts, or coincidence?

Dogs can understand up to 250 words and gestures.

The average dog is as smart as a two-year-old kid.

Trained dolphins protect nuclear weapons.

One of the world’s biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons (a U.S. Navy base near Seattle) is defended by trained dolphins.

Topeka used to be called ToPikachu.

To celebrate Pokemon’s U.S. Debut in 1998, Topeka, Kansas, renamed itself “ToPikachu.”

Dr. Seuss said he expected to spend about a week writing The Cat in the Hat.

However, it actually took him a year and a half.

The plural form of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac.

Now that’s for WTF facts you didn’t need to know.

An episode of Peppa Pig was banned from Australian television.

Their offense? The episode taught children not to fear spiders. Given how many venomous spiders live in Australia, it’s only natural to ban it for the safety of the kids watching.

A gamer completed Dark Souls using a Rock Band guitar.

Another game notorious for its gameplay, only a few souls (nudge, nudge) brave this action RPG. However, Benjamin “Bearzly” Gwin took bravery to the next level: He beat the game with nothing but a Rock Band guitar. It doesn’t end there – he’s also done runs with the Rock Band drum kit, Rock Band piano, Donkey Kong bongo drum, microphone (voice control only), Wiimote, dance mat, steering wheel, and an Xbox 360 pad. He programmed these alternative controls himself, too. Wow. 

Coca-Cola was the first soft drink consumed in space.

Applesauce was the first food eaten in space by John Glenn during the Friendship 7 mission of 1962.

The biggest video game collection has a library of over 20,000 games.

Antonio Monteiro of Texas holds the Guinness World Record for the largest video game collection at 20,139 video games. The collection features games from the 2nd to 8th generation consoles and over 100 devices to play them on. One of the most hardcore video game facts: It took Guinness 8 days to finish counting them all! 

Burger King made a left handed burger.

In a 1998 full-page ad on USA Today, Burger King claimed it developed the “left-handed whopper.” AKA, a burger with the same fixings, but turned 180 degrees to not drip on left-handed customers. What a strange April Fools prank.   

People used to eat flamingo tongue.

The people of Ancient Rome were known to eat their tongues as a delicacy.

Mars’ sunset is blue.

Mars has less than 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Sunsets on Mars look blue because its atmosphere captures mostly blue light from the sun.

Chickens dream.

Chickens are shown to experience rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Flamingo chicks are born gray.

Their diet of shrimp makes them pink later on.

A man reached level 90 in World of Warcraft without leaving the starting zone, ever.

The player Doubleagent spent 173.5 days mining and picking herbs for XP. Technically, he was stuck in the Wandering Isles for life – he couldn’t even play PvP since you’d need to have a faction for that. 

After Ratatouille, more people started buying pet rats.

At least one pet chain claimed that pet rat sales jumped 50 percent after the movie’s release. 

The snow in Wizard of Oz is actually asbestos.

The famous poppy-field scene in Wizard of Oz is blanketed by calming snow. However, it wasn’t so calming behind the scenes. The material they used for the fake snow was poisonous asbestos.

There were 10,297 balloons in Up.

The balloons in Up aren’t computer-simulated, each one you see on the screen was actually inflated and tied to the structure.

Jurassic Park raptor cries are actually tortoise sex noises.

The screeching noises made by the raptors in Jurassic Park were taken from recordings of mating tortoises. 

The Matrix Code means sushi.

The intricate green digits scrolling down the screen in The Matrix may look cryptic, but they were actually symbols from a scanned sushi cookbook.

The first ever winner of Survivor got jail time for tax evasion.

Richard Hatch won US$1 million after the first ever season of Survivor. However, he failed to declare his winnings on his taxes. As such, he served four years in prison.

LEGO is the world's largest tire manufacturer.

Pretty ironic considering how small LEGO tires are, but LEGO is the biggest tire manufacturer in the world. Lego manufactures over 318 million toy tires per year, with 870,000 tires per day.

The "wasabi" you get with your sushi isn't actually wasabi.

In the U.S., 99 percent of sushi restaurants serve horse-radish with green food coloring instead of real wasabi. 

Corn Flakes were invented to prevent masturbation.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg believed that sex was a sin (he didn’t even sleep with his own wife). He invented corn flakes because he believed that foods such as meat increased sexual desire, while cereal and nuts fight against it.

Human beings share 99.9 percent of the same genes.

You’re just 0.1% different from the person you hate the most. However, you’re just 0.1% away from being Beyonce.

Hitler was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. He received the nomination the same year that WWII began. A member of Swedish parliament only nominated Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize as a satiric criticism against another historic figure who was nominated. The nomination was promptly withdrawn.

The U.S. flag was designed by a 17-year-old for school.

In junior high school, Bob Heft designed the U.S. flag. He made a 50-star flag for the class project. However, the U.S. only had 48 states at the time, so Heft got a B minus for his work. However, his prediction that two more states would be added ended up true. Heft wrote 21 letters and called the White House 18 times. Eventually, President Eisenhower called to tell him his design would be used. The design for the current U.S. flag was made official on July 4, 1960.

Bald eagles don't sound like in the movies.

If you’ve seen a Western film, the iconic bird screech comes to mind. However, you’d be surprised that it’s not actually the sound of a bald eagle. The piercing call that most people associate with the bird is actually a sound made by another bird of prey: the red-tailed hawk. Hollywood uses the red-tailed hawk’s cry because it has a more dramatic effect. Real bald eagles would actually chirp rather than screeching. 

Bearcat urine smells like buttered popcorn.

The smell of buttered popcorn is mouthwatering and even nostalgic to some – so much so that there’s even a jellybean flavor and candle scents for it. However, make sure you’re not getting duped – because that’s exactly what the Southeast Asian bearcat’s pee smells like. Bearcat urine contains the same compound found in buttered popcorn (2-AP). The Southeast Asian bearcat covers its feet and tail in their buttered popcorn-scented urine for other bearcats to smell. 

Abraham Lincoln's dog was also killed.

Another one for unfortunate WTF facts: President Abraham Lincoln’s dog suffered the same fate as his owner. For 14 years, Abraham Lincoln had a yellow mongrel named Fido. A year after the president was assassinated, Fido was stabbed by a drunkard and later found dead. 

The Wombat poops in cubes.

Before you ask, no – their buttholes aren’t square. You’ve heard of cubed watermelons. Now, nature brings us cubed poop! Wombat poop is cubical in shape because of their long, slow digestive process.

The heart symbol was inspired by ancient birth control.

Do you remember how shocked you were when you discovered in biology class that our hearts weren’t shaped like the cute symmetrical shape we see everywhere? Your next question probably would’ve been, “Well, how did they come up with that butt shape?” A theory suggests that the shape came from the silphium, a type of now-extinct plant that the ancient Greeks and Romans consumed for medicine, food, and birth control. Silphium seeds were shaped like our modern heart icon.

A cockroach can live for weeks after its head has been cut off.

If you’ve ever been assaulted by a cockroach, your instincts would be fight or flight – and the brave few who would fight can probably agree that cockroaches can be ridiculously hard to squish and kill. Even with its head cut off, a roach would survive because of its open circulatory system or using tiny holes on their body called spiracles to breathe. Additionally, cockroaches don’t need food like we do, so they’d be able to go for weeks without it.

All cereal box characters look down, and it’s because of psychology.

You may have a lot of fond memories with your favorite childhood cereal, but we bet you missed this detail: all the characters’ eyes on the boxes look downwards. It’s not really decreed in the cereal code, but they are illustrated like that in order to make eye contact with children from the grocery shelf. Doing this would grab kids’ attention and make it more likely for them to ask their parents to buy cereal. 

Jelly beans are coated with insect juice.

Jelly beans and candy corn are usually coated with shellac, a substance made from the secretions of a Thai species called kerria lacca. However, you probably won’t see this ingredient in the list: the industrial term for it is “confectioner’s glaze.” This secret ingredient gives your favorite confectionery that delicious sheen.

Humans have farted 17 quadrillion times since the beginning of time.

If you want a picture of how far the human race has come, you can measure it in farts. The average person farts 14 times a day. The next time you’re questioning your contributions to society, hold on to these kinds of WTF facts. 

One kiss transfers more than 80 million germs.

When Dua Lipa said, “One kiss is all it takes,” she meant more than just falling in love. In one 10-second French kiss, over 80 million microbes are transferred between partners. Sounds pretty icky, but scientists actually think kissing may boost the immune system through shared bacteria. Similarly, people in long term relationships were found to have the same bacteria in their mouths. How sweet!

Scientists used to believe there were little people inside sperm.

In the 1600s, “preformationism” was a widely believed theory: People believed that tiny, fully-formed humans were curled up in sperm cells or egg cells. Sounds like a surrealist horror concept, if you ask me. 

Starfish eat with their stomachs outside their body.

Starfish may not have brains, but they’ve got a hell of a stomach. Mostly feeding on clams and mussels, the starfish wraps its arms around its prey’s shell and squeezes it open. The starfish then pushes its stomach out of its mouth and into the prey’s shell. Once it digests the animal inside the shell, the starfish will retract its stomach back into its body. Who knew these innocent-looking sea creatures were so hardcore?

The universe is officially colored "Cosmic Latte."

In 2002, scientists determined that all light in the universe has the average shade of beige color coined the “Cosmic Latte.” The astronomer Peter Drum came up with the name while he read an article about the experiment in a Starbucks and realized that the color was similar to his latte.

Turtles breathe out of their butts.

Some freshwater species of turtles breathe out of their butts to conserve energy while hibernating in the winter. 

A head of human hair is strong enough to support 12 tons.

If you’ve treated your hair with anything than your natural hair color, you’d know that it is stronger than you think. Science has proof to back it up. According to a study, strand of hair can hold up to 30 ounces, and an entire head of hair can withstand up to 12 tons (or, the size of two elephants).

Abercrombie & Fitch paid MTV to make sure the cast of Jersey Shore doesn’t wear their clothes.

You’ve heard of sponsorship deals, but how about getting paid not to use a certain brand or product? Reality TV is almost like the epitome of all the evils of humanity. Simply put, it’s a very messy place. So, to protect its brand image, Abercrombie & Fitch offered a hefty sum just to ensure that The Situation and other cast members would switch to other brands. Yikes.

The top six earners in reality TV are all Kardashians.

Whether or not that’s an honorable title is up to debate. However, the Kardashians is basically a reality TV dynasty at this point – all having used their profit to launch their respective side businesses and projects. 

No one knows why flamingos stand on one foot.

Flamingos usually pose with one foot tucked under their bodies. A theory suggests that they do it to conserve body heat in the cold water of their feeding areas, but it has not been confirmed. Astonishingly, a study showed that this behavior does not cause muscle strain in their legs, meaning they can do it without physical effort.

Women blink more often than men.

In a study, women blinked an average of 19 times, while for men, it was only 11 times. 

The lint that collects in your pockets is called gnurr.

Who knew it was called that all along? 

The founders of Hewlett-Packard flipped a coin to determine whose name would come first.

Before HP was a well-known name in the computer industry, the owners flipped a coin to decide whose name goes first. No hard feelings. 

Some animals can delay their pregnancies.

Most carnivores can pause their pregnancies for up to months. Delayed gestation is observed in all bears, most seals, and many rodents, deer, armadillos, and anteaters. Imagine if humans can do that, too?

Sigmund Freud once believed that cocaine could help treat morphine addiction.

Freud has long been outed as a fraud, but he had some interesting things to say about a lot of things. Namely, using cocaine to treat an addiction to morphine. Which – y’know – is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. 

NASA had to rename the sizes of male astronaut peeing apparatus.

Everyone knows you can’t just pee in a toilet in space, so imagine the headache when NASA had to issue peeing apparatuses. They had to change the sizing names from small-medium-large, to large-gigantic-humongous because no one wanted to pick their true size. 

The line between the numbers in a fraction has a name.

The line between fractions is called the vinculum.

You can estimate the temperature through cricket chirps.

If you count how many chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds and then add 37, you’ll get a rough estimate of the temperature.

The U.S. pizza industry serves 100 acres of pizza each day.

That’s as big as Winnie The Pooh’s hometown – if the name is mathematically accurate.

Scientists accidentally killed the world's oldest animal while trying to learn its age.

Everybody makes mistakes. When scientists found an ancient ocean quahog, they decided to examine it from the inside to determine its true age. However, in doing so, they accidentally killed the ancient clam. And all for nothing, too – they ended up using the outside of its shell to determine its age. Ming, named after the dynasty it was born, had actually been 507 years old at the time of its discovery. 

The metal studs on jeans are called “rivets.”

Ah, such riveting WTF facts. In the late 1800s, rivets were introduced to reinforce clothing. Initially, riveted jeans were manufactured specifically for miners and other manual laborers. 

The verb form of the word "run" has almost 650 different meanings.

It’s only followed by the word “set” with 430 meanings.

A cubic inch of bone is four times as strong as concrete.

Ounce for ounce, bone is even stronger than steel. 

Camels have three eyelids.

If a camel winks at you, you’re getting three times the wink of the average person. Camels have three eyelids to protect their eyes from the harsh sands of their environments. 

An ostrich's brain size is smaller than its eyeball.

Talk about a bird brain. The average size of an ostrich brain is 59.26 x 42.30 mm, meaning the ostrich’s brain is smaller than either of its eyes that are the size of billiard balls. 

Dead women can still give birth.

In a phenomenon called “Coffin Birth,” a pregnant woman may deliver a child spontaneously after her death. Post-mortem birth occurs due to the gases that build up in the abdominal area forcing the baby out of the womb.

A jellyfish's mouth is also its anus.

There might be a saying that goes, “Don’t eat where you sh*t,” but that would be physically impossible for jellyfish. All species of jellyfish eat and excrete from the same hole. 

You can't breathe and swallow at the same time.

Speaking of the physically impossible, one thing the human body can’t do is to breathe and swallow at the same time. The food and fluid that we swallow travels down the same part of our throat as the air we breathe in. It can only do one thing at a time. 

In Welsh folklore, corgis carried fairies.

According to a Welsh legend, a pair of corgis tow the carts and carriages of fairies and help them ride into battle. Epic corgis = WTF facts. 

People used to answer the phone by saying "Ahoy!"

What would you do if you called someone and they answered with, “Ahoy!” I, for one, would throw hands at how unnecessary that would be. However, when the public started using the phone in the 1800s, inventor Alexander Graham Bell decided that phone calls should be answered with “ahoy” instead of “hello.” However, Thomas Edison wanted users to answer the phone with “hello.” By 1880, “ahoy” was just something a pirate would say.

Chopsticks were initially created for cooking, not as an eating utensil.

In Ancient China, chopsticks were invented and used for cooking. Because of their length, they were perfect for reaching into pots of hot water or oil. 

In 16th Century England, pies were filled with surprises.

Celebratory pies served in 16th century England contained live animals that were released when the pie was cut. Such animals were frogs, squirrels, and blackbirds.

Saffron is more expensive than gold.

Iran is the world’s main producer of saffron, supplying 95% of the saffron market. Each flower produces about three red stamens which must be hand-picked. For every 150 flowers, only 1 gram of saffron is produced. The lengthy process plus its rarity makes this precious spice cost $3,000 per kg.

Bird’s nest soup is made of bird saliva.

One of the tasty WTF facts: The white-nest swiftlet’s nests can sell for as much as $4,500 for 450g. The soup is made by first steeping the nests in water to clean out feces and debris. The nests made of moss, feathers, and solidified bird saliva are then added to a broth mixture. 

You can’t mess up mushrooms.

The special polymer chitin in mushrooms’ cell walls ensure a tender texture. 

Craving ice is a symptom of iron deficiency.

If you like munching on ice, you might have anemia. The compulsive eating of ice is also known as pagophagia, and could possibly be a subconscious way of cooling mouth inflammation caused by iron deficiency.

Vampire bats drink half their body weight in blood.

For each meal, bats consume an ounce of blood. By the end of the 20-30-minute process, a bat will have consumed almost its entire weight in blood. However, bats can still fly after a meal because their stomach lining absorbs the liquid as quickly as possible. 

High heels were invented for men.

Though heels are seen as symbols of femininity nowadays, high heels were initially designed for men’s use in the late 16th century. During this time, heels were seen as masculine and a great height-booster.

There's a brewery in Japan that makes beer from elephant poop.

The brewery, Sankt Gallen, produces a beer called Un Kono Kuro, made with coffee beans that have passed through an elephant.

You are 13.8 percent more likely to die on your birthday.

According to studies, a person is 13.8% more likely to pass on their birthday than on any other day.

The world's longest fart lasted over a minute long.

Bernard Clemmens broke the world record for the longest fart when he farted for 2 minutes and 42 seconds straight.

There’s a world record for the largest number of people dressed up as penguins.

In London, 373 people wearing penguin costumes gathered and ended up creating a world record. WTF facts? More like legacy, y’all. 

The longest ear hair in the world may be longer than your actual hair.

At 25 cm, the world record for the longest ear hair in the world belongs to Radhakant Bajpai of India. His wife highly disapproves of the hair, but he believes it brings him good luck and refuses to get rid of it. 

The loudest burp in the world is louder than a chainsaw.

Have you ever woken up annoyed at the construction ongoing near your flat, or your neighbor blasting music? If yes, then you’d better stay away from Paul Hunn – or at least be out of earshot. Hunn made the world record for the world’s loudest burp which clocked in at 109.9 decibels. If you have no idea how loud that is, an average chainsaw is 106 decibels loud, while a jackhammer is at 130 decibels. That’s probably the loudest of these WTF facts.

The most Big Macs ever eaten by a person is 26,000 burgers.

The most Big Macs eaten in one lifetime is a whopping 26,000 Big Macs eaten by Donald A. Gorske of the U.S. He hit is big milestone on October 11, 2012 after eating Big Macs on a daily basis for 40 years.

The stretchiest skin in the world can stretch over 6 inches.

Garry Turner of the U.K. can stretch the skin on his stomach up to 6.25” due to a rare medical condition called the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. The collagen in his skin and muscles become defective and loosens his skin and joints. 

The most piercings on a person is over 4,000.

Elaine Davidson of Brazil got her first skin piercing in January 1997. Since then, the Brazilian former restaurant owner has gotten over 4,225 piercings as of June 8, 2006.

The longest distance covered while lifting a table with teeth is 38 feet.

Georges Christen of Luxembourg ran 38 feet and 8 inches while carrying a 11.79 kg table (with a 50 kg woman sitting on it) using in his mouth in Spain, on February 9, 2008.

The longest metal coil inserted through the nose and mouth is 11 feet long.

In March 2012, Andrew Stanton of the U.S. inserted an 11 ft 10 in. coil of metal into his mouth and out of his mouth. 

The longest fingernails ever grown on a woman reached over 28 ft.

Lee Redmond of the U.S. took nearly 30 years to grow her nails out to the 28 feet and 4.5 inches in February 2008. The longest nail was her right thumb, which reached lengths of 2 feet and 11 inches. However, her nails snapped off in a car accident in 2009.

There’s a sport for making weird faces.

A gurn or chuck is a particular funny facial expression. The typical “gurn” involves protruding the lower jaw as forward as possible, completely covering the upper lip with the lower lip. Anne Woods of the U.K. has won 27 gurning championships from 1977-2010, which makes her the record-holder for the most gurning world championships won.

The oldest stripper started at 60 years old.

Age is just a number, and  Bernie Barker proved it to a tee. The former real estate agent) got into stripping in 2000 when he was 60. To him, stripping was a way to get in shape after beating prostate cancer. Throughout his career, he won over 40 contests. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 66 in 2007. 

The longest tongue on a dog was over a foot long.

The longest tongue on a dog ever recorded belonged to a boxer named Brandy. The tongue measured an astounding 1 ft 5 in. 

The most soda cans opened by a bird is 35.

On January 12, 2012, Zac the Macaw opened 35 soda cans in one minute in San Jose, California.

The world’s longest legs measure 4 ft long.

Svetlana Pankratova of Russia officially has the world’s longest legs, measuring a little over 4 feet on July 8, 2003.

The longest kiss in the world lasted almost 60 hours.

Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat of Thailand hold the world record for the longest kiss — clocking in at at 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds.

A man once ate an entire plane.

You read that right. Michel Lotito was a famous French entertainer known for eating inedible things. Lotito ate metal, glass, rubber and other industrial materials. He disassembled, cut, and ate items such as bicycles, shopping carts, televisions, and – most notably – a Cessna 150. The 680kg plane took roughly two years to be “eaten” by Lotito from 1978 to 1980.

The heaviest carrot in the world weighs over 10 kg.

Verified on September 9, 2017, Christopher Qualley of the U.S. officially grew the world’s heaviest carrot at 10.17 kg.

The longest noodle in the world is over 10,000 feet long.

The longest noodle in the world measures 10,119 ft 1.92 in. It was created by Xiangnian Food Co., Ltd. in Nanyang, China, on October 28, 2017.

The most layers on a sandwich is 60.

The world record for the most layers in a sandwich is 60. It was achieved by the DiLusso Deli Company at Madison Square Park in New York, USA on October 22, 2016.

The most M&Ms eaten with chopsticks while blindfolded is 20 pieces.

The most M&Ms eaten in a minute (while blindfolded and with chopsticks) is 20 M&Ms. it was achieved by Ashrita Furman of the U.S. on December 8, 2011.

The largest scoop of ice-cream weighed over 1000 kg.

The world’s biggest ice cream scoop weighed 1365kg 312.93g. The scoop was created by Kemps LLC (USA), in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on June 28, 2014. The strawberry-flavored scoop measured 5’ 6” tall and 6’ 2” wide and contained approximately 733 containers of ice-cream.