45 Hard-To-Believe Facts That Make People Reevaluate Their View Of The World

Wearing white wedding dresses only came into fashion after Queen Victoria started the trend. White isn’t meant to have any other meaning or represent purity as many people think. Before this trend most brides just wore their best dress of any colour as it was expensive to buy a dress just for the occasion.

Pink used to be a masculine color.

During the height of the British Empire, the soldiers in the far reaches of the world donned their red coats in battle and patrol. The newer recruits would look especially sharp with a bold red color. The rugged war-heroes though? Their coats were faded and worn into more of a pink color. If you saw a guy wearing a pink coat, odds are they have stories to tell with a thousand yard stare. This became a desirable thing to show off your experience and grit.

Hence pink was associated with combat prowess and ruggedness, and became a masculine color during that time.

The tongue of a blue whale weighs the same as a fully grown African Elephant

I have recently learned that Lobsters don't display senescence which is the deterioration of the body as it ages. Their bodies are continuously growing and their exoskeletons get heavier and heavier, hence when they molt into a new exoskeleton it takes more and more energy to take off the old one. Eventually they die because one day they just go, "Yeeeeeaaaah sooo like this exoskeleton is too heavy so imma just go meet Lobster God and head out from the mortal world."

Now a thought... If a group of people helped a lobster shed it's exo- skeleton... And if said lobster kept growing... Technically, a giant lobster could be brought into existence should the lobster not die from old age.

Each time I read a question like this I am reminded of this,

If you made 10,000 dollars everyday since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in August 2, 1776, you still wouldn’t wouldn’t have 1 billion dollars.

And it is just mind boggling!!

The Korean people have an enzyme that makes us have dry ear wax and a propensity to lack body odor.
For the first 20 years of my life I had no idea why my earwax was flaky when everyone else's was more like a jam or paste and why I didn't have to wear deodorant.

I'm not saying that Koreans are immune from body odor but it is much less prevalent and requires much more disregard for hygiene.

Bald eagles are not actually bald. Balde is old english for white

When basketball was first invented, at every game, they would have a man who would go up a ladder to retrieve the ball after every basket. It took them around 20 years to figure out maybe it would be a good idea to cut the bottom of the basket out to make retrieving the ball a lot easier. 20 years!!!

Playing Tetris up to 6 hours after a trauma can help against PTSD

I love when this question comes up because I get to talk about the thunder clappers.

When the Lewis and Clark expedition were exploring the west of North America, their diet of dried meat left them constipated. They were all taking these pills called thunder clappers to make themselves s**t. The active ingredient in thunder clappers is mercury, and historians can track the expedition because they left increased deposits of mercury in the soil.

The male giraffe will continuously headbutt the female in the bladder until she urinates. The male then tastes the pee and that helps it determine whether the female is ovulating. If she is, it’s business time.

For every single human being on Earth, there are 2.5 MILLION ants.

Yes, this means that there are about 20 QUADRILLION ants on this planet.

If the ants decide to take over, are you strong enough to handle the 2.5 million that you'll be responsible for killing? If you've got kids, you might have to kill more because a 2 year old isn't going to accomplish a god damn thing if millions of ants are marching towards them

The fruit was called orange waaaaay before the colour was

There are more tigers kept as pets in the USA than there are in the wild

We are always seeing our own nose but the brain ignores it

A day on Venus (one complete rotation around its axis) is longer than a year (a complete revolution around the sun) on Venus.

LEGO manufactures more tyres than any other company on the planet.

Iron is the most stable atom in the universe. When fusion in the sun's core 'burns', it fuses *up* the period table until it reaches iron. From that point, fusion really isn't generating any more energy and the core collapses.

From the other side of things, all elements heavier than iron eventually fission down to iron (though i grant you, it may take a *very* long time, even at cosmological timescales).

Atoms are perceived to be everlasting and timeless. That's technically not *really* the case over the very long term except for iron. This is why, if I ever get married I'm going to request an iron wedding band. If I want a timeless representation of my love I can think of nothing better, than something that will last, (even if only elementally) to the heat death of the universe.

It’s possible to lactate without being pregnant

A man named Wilmer McLean owned a farm in Manassas, Virginia USA where the very first battle of the US Civil War was fought. After the battle he's like "I'm outta here" and bought a farm way out in the country at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia...where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant in McLeans living room four years later