Random Fun Facts That Will Amaze You - Part 13

Did you know that a man already counted all the way to 1 million? But why did he do that? And more importantly, how long did it take him? Let's find out the answer to those questions, as well as a whole host of other mind-blowing facts you never knew you needed to learn.

Snakes Can Belch Fire

Plenty of people are afraid of snakes, and what I’m about to inform you now probably won’t ease that fear: they can burp fire. Let’s be clear, it's not being suggested that all snakes are secretly fire-breathing dragons, nor that this occurs under everyday conditions. In fact, you’ll probably never see this terrifying talent in action, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

To create fire, you need three things: a flammable material, a spark, and oxygen. As you may know, a naturally-occurring flammable gas known as hydrogen is produced at the tail-end of the human digestive system and is passed by flatulence. When most mammals die, a layer of mucus that protects the stomach lining disappears and the stomach acids begin to digest the stomach itself alongside other internal organs.

This results in a build-up of hydrogen inside the body, which can sometimes cause it to burst. Let’s say a decomposing deer body bursts inside a python; the gases would be released all at once into the snake’s stomach, causing it to belch out a burse of concentrated hydrogen. All you’d need is a lone spark from some nearby campfire to drift into the path of this burp and voila! You’ve got yourself a wingless, fire-breathing-dragon.

What Is Belly Button Fluff?

The average man is home to about 1.8-mg of belly button fluff at any time, but what exactly is it, and how does it get there? Dr. Georg Steinhauser spent three years of his life examining this strange phenomena, so that you don’t have to.

Steinhauser discovered that the main culprit for this build-up of fluff is a previously unknown type of hair which is unusually fine with little barbed hooks on it. As these barbs rub against clothing and dislodge bits of cotton and lint, the hairs’ concentric formation acts as a funnel which brings the bits of fluff inwards to collect in the naval. This lint is also joined by a delightful cocktail of house dust, flakes of dead skin, fat, proteins and sweat.

But what’s the point? That part’s a little less clear. Dr Steinhauser theorizes that these specialized fluff-catching hairs were a deliberate attempt by the body to clean itself. The little bits of cloth are accumulated to create an enticing object for us to manually remove and flick away, cleaning a possible breeding ground for bacteria in the process.

Too Many Carrots Will Actually Turn You Orange

This definitely sounds like one of those "old wives tales", but it’s totally true: if you eat too many carrots, you will eventually turn orange. However, this is not a transformation that will happen overnight, so don’t worry about waking up to find an Oompa-Loompa staring back at you from the bathroom mirror just yet.

Turning orange from carrots actually has a medical name, carotenemia, and besides the initial shock of your new brightly-colored skin tone, it’s totally harmless. It’s all thanks to a natural pigment called beta-carotene, which gives the root vegetable it’s distinct orange hue. When you eat too many carrots, or sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and any other food that’s high in beta-carotene, all that excess pigment will enter the bloodstream and be stored in the skin, giving it an orange tint.

Unfortunately, there’s no official measure of what “too many carrots” means, but an average, healthy dosage of beta-carotene is about 6-8 milligrams day. According to a Columbia University health blog, you’d have to consume as much as 20 milligrams per day, the equivalent of three large carrots, for carotenemia to set in. Unless you’re some carrot-guzzling fiend, you’re pretty safe for now.

Cows Can’t Walk Downstairs

Here’s something you’ve probably never pondered, unless you happen to live with a bunch of farmyard animals, you’d have great difficulty leading a cow, or a horse for that matter, down a set of stairs. You probably wouldn’t have much trouble guiding them up, but it would take more than a few kind words of encouragement to head back down.

This is a mystery that can be solved with a pretty unsurprising statement: stairs aren’t found in nature. These animals can’t easily see the ground right at their feet, and the design of their bodies prevents them from walking in a downward direction.

Most staircases slope at an average 35° angle, which would be a pretty steep hill for any cow to take on in the great outdoors, let alone one carved into tiny, human-sized steps. Cows’ hips and knees aren’t made to help shift their weight backward to avoid them tumbling headlong down the steps. Considering most cows weigh between 1,600-2,400lbs, their fear of stairs is pretty rational.

19th-Century Women Were Afraid of a Made-up Condition Called Bicycle Face

Let’s wind the clock back a moment to the late-19th-century: a time when the bicycle was a novel invention that had women quivering in their boots. Doctors had announced that this new-fangled contraption could actually cause a terrifying medical condition known as bicycle face.

The long-and-short was that any woman who dared to cycle risked getting stuck with an ugly expression on her face forever. Why it affected only women remains to be seen, but a quote from the Literary Digest in 1895 described those afflicted with ‘bicycle face’ as: “unusually flushed, but sometimes pale, often with lips more or less drawn, and with the beginning of dark shadows under the eyes, always with an expression of weariness”. Others said it was characterized by “a hard, clenched jaw and bulging eyes”.

Whatever it was, women didn’t want it, so they didn’t cycle. That is until 1897, when a female doctor named Sarah Hackett Stevenson confirmed what everyone knew all along: cycling cannot cause lasting facial damage. Turns out the whole thing was just a made up ploy by men who were afraid that bicycles were evil instruments of feminism.

There’s an American Town With a Population of One

It’s no secret that some people prefer to be alone, but one woman enjoys her own company so much that she is literally the only resident in her town of Monowi in Nebraska. 86-year-old Elsie Eiler is currently employed as the town’s mayor, librarian, bartender, secretary, clerk, and tavern owner.

At 9AM every morning, apart from Mondays, Eiler opens Monowi Tavern, where she serves burgers at $3.50 a pop’, hot dogs at $1.25 and beers, which are hilariously pegged as “the coldest beer in town”. You might think she’d have no customers, but Eiler has already welcomed visitors from 47 states and 41 countries, and the tavern acts as a hang-out for residents of the neighboring towns.

Back in the 1930s, Monowi was a bustling railroad town, but people gradually started moving away, and when Eiler’s husband Rudy died in 2004, she became the only remaining resident. Eiler jokes that one of the main perks of living in a one-person town is that she always wins the vote for mayor by a landslide victory, but there are a couple of drawbacks too: she collects $500 in taxes from herself to keep the town’s three lampposts lit and the water running.

Why Do Men Have Adam’s Apples?

For men, having an Adam’s apple, that weird, hard lump that bobs up and down the neck, is just a fact of life, but why don’t women have them too? It’s nickname refers to the part in the Bible where Adam eats the forbidden fruit and gets part of it stuck in his throat. However, the Adam’s apple is also known as the ‘thyroid cartilage’ because, well, it’s a piece of cartilage that sits atop the thyroid gland.

What you probably don’t know is that both boys and girls start out with similarly sized thyroid cartilage, but that all changes when puberty hits. As their testosterone levels increase and their voices get lower, boys’ larynx or voice-box becomes enlarged, causing the Adam’s apple to protrude.

But what does it do exactly? Much like the cartilage in your ears or nose, thyroid cartilage has no medical purpose, other than being a dead-ringer for when a guy is lying to his wife about his whereabouts the night before. That’s right: the Adam’s apple has a particular tendency to “jump” uncontrollably when you’re nervous!

Why Are Donut Boxes Always Pink in Movies?

Dunkin’ Donuts houses its sweet-treats in neon orange and pink, while Krispy Kreme favors the polka-dot pattern instead, but come to LA and the no-frills pink donut box is what you’ll find. In fact, it’s been said that any time you see a movie or sitcom set in New York and a pink donut box appears, you’ll know that filming actually took place in LA.

The tradition can be traced right back to the mid-1970s when a regime known as the Khmer-Rouge was responsible for orchestrating the Cambodian genocide. I know moving from donut boxes to mass-genocide seems like quite a jump; but stay with me. As many Cambodians fled to LA, they found an unexpected lifeline in the humble donut-shop business, but one particular unsung culinary hero responsible for the pinking of the box: Ted Ngoy.

Ngoy set up a donut-selling empire across LA, staffed by hundreds of countrymen whose visas he sponsored. Up until this point, donuts were housed in clean, white boxes, until Ngoy, being the business-savvy guy he was, asked his supplier, Westco, if there were any cheaper alternatives. It just so happened Westco had a load of pink cardboard stock laying around, and the rest is history! As LA became synonymous with cinema, so too did the pink donut box – so there you have it: not just a run-of-the-mill movie prop.

Iceland Has a Designated Elf Whisperer

You probably believed in all sorts of magical creatures as a kid, but in Iceland the existence of little Elves is pretty much an undisputed fact of life. In fact, they take Elf rights so seriously that one woman, Ragnhildur ‘Ragga’ Jónsdóttir, has taken on a role as an unofficial "elf whisperer".

It may sound crazy, but ever since she was a little girl Ragga has had the ability to see and speak with elves or "huldufólk" which live in invisible communities throughout Iceland. She’s not alone in her beliefs, though, in a survey in 1998 conducted by the Dagblaðið Vísir, 54.4% of all Icelanders interviewed said they believed in Elves. As the official spokesperson for these invisible people, Ragga has been entrusted to survey potential building sites in case they destroy Elf communities.

Back in 2016, the development of a planned road was halted after Ragga claimed that it was a threat to an Elven church named Ófeigskirkja, which, to most of us, looked like a giant boulder. Thankfully, the government later agreed to use a crane to move the 70-ton rock out of the path of the road, sparing the worship-place of Iceland’s invisible population.

What Is the Highest Anyone Has Ever Counted to?

Believe it or not, there is actually a verified record for the highest number anyone has counted to in one sitting. Back in 2007 on June 18th, 31-year-old Jeremy Harper from Birmingham, Alabama locked himself in his home and proceeding to count aloud to one million, a landmark which eventually achieved 89 days later on September 14th.

Jeremy Harper hits 1 million by Bereadytocry

To achieve this feat, Harper counted for 16 hours a day, even growing a beard in the process. You’re probably thinking: “who has the time to hang about counting to 1 million anyway?” Harper didn’t just do this for fun, he live broadcast his entire count to raise money for Push America, a charity for the disabled, and he raised an impressive $10,000 for the cause.

According to some estimates, if you were to attempt a similar feat without any breaks, it’d take you just over 11 ½ straight days. Assuming you counted at about one number per second, that is, which would be tricky once you reach 5-figures. To count to one billion, though, it’d take over 31 years.

Lobsters Communicate By Peeing In Each-Other’s Faces

If case you need reminding that lobsters are some of the most bizarre creatures on Earth, get this: they pee out of their faces into each other’s faces, as their own unique way of communicating.

A Lobsters bladder is located underneath its brain, which is connected by the urinary tract to two urine-release nozzles that are located at the base of their large antenna. When Lobsters pee, they also produce pheromones through the urinary system which allow them to communicate.

Basically, pee is released from the face and injected into the current produced by the lobster, which projects it forwards. It’s even been measured that these urine signals can be ejected up to seven entire body lengths ahead of them, which is some pretty powerful peeing.

Generally, lobsters don’t get along. If two males bump into one another, you can almost guarantee a brawl is gonna break out. So where does peeing come in? To prove to the ladies that he’s the strongest, the winning lobster will pee in her direction because he’s happy with his victory, the urine will contain serotonin which makes it smell nicer. This is one dating technique you definitely shouldn’t try at home.

I hope you were amazed at these weird and wonderful trivia facts. If you want to find out more interesting facts, you might want to take a look at our whole fun facts series. Thanks for reading.