Random Fun Facts That Will Amaze You - Part 15

Can you believe that a little penguin once was saluted by the Norwegian King’s Guard, and for good reason? While it’s true that you really shouldn’t believe everything you see on the internet, there are tons of mind-blowing facts out there you’d hardly believe. That’s where we come in. If you want to find out what makes this penguin so special and a whole lot more, let's delve into more fun facts that will amaze you!

Some Shooting Stars Are Astronaut Poop

Ever wish on a shooting star? Here's an information that will change the way you think about this so-called magical sighting: sometimes, you’re just wishing on astronaut poop.

As you know, there’s no gravity in space, so the bog-standard waste disposal system us Earthlings use is out of the question. That means taking a dump in space is a lot more complicated than just flushing it away, never to be seen again. Instead, solid waste is first exposed to the terrifying vacuum of space and freeze dried, which helps kill off all the nasty bacteria, and then stored in special containers.

When enough has been collected, the poop is jettisoned off away from the spacecraft, where it burns up in the atmosphere and can take the form of bright lights streaking across the sky. You might think this is an exaggeration, but in 2009, some stargazers in Wisconsin were disappointed to discover that an amazing sparkling glow in the sky was actually about 150lb of astronaut waste.

Sloths Fart Out Of Their Mouths

Here at Be Amazed we like to answer life’s biggest questions, like do sloths fart? It’s long been determined that pretty much all mammals fart, but sloths have a slightly different way of emitting nasty methane.

Scientists had quite a tricky time figuring out exactly how, or even, if, sloths toot, but all was revealed in the hard hitting exposé "Does it Fart? A Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence", published in 2018. In the book, co-author Dani Rabaiotti, a PhD zoology student, explained that, although they eat a lot of plants, sloths avoid releasing gas normally through the quirk of their slow digestion.

Being generally lazy creatures, sloths only poop about once every three weeks. Unfortunately for them, if gases accumulated in their intestines over that long a time, they’d get sick or, even worse, explode! Don’t worry, though, because the methane is simply reabsorbed through the intestines into the bloodstream and then respired out of the lungs, resulting in literal fart breath.

Jack Daniel Died From Kicking A Safe

A cold glass of Jack Daniels and coke is a classic beverage, but very few people know how the infamous whiskey distiller Mr. Jack Daniels himself met his untimely end. The story goes that Jack, born Jasper ‘Jack’ Newton, kept a safe in his office which was usually opened by his nephew, Lem Motlow.

One morning in 1911, however, Jack arrived to work early before anyone else and realised that he’d grown so accustomed to having his nephew open the safe that he couldn’t actually remember the combination anymore. The thing is, Jack wasn’t feeling particularly patient, and he got so frustrated with the locked safe that the kicked it with his left foot. In fact, he kicked it so hard that it broke his big toe.

Before long, a gangrene infection set in and Jack ended up losing his foot before dying from blood poisoning complications in Lynchburg on October 9th, 1911, aged 61. I guess the moral of the story could be one of two things: keep a note of all your passwords, or just don’t go in to work early.

A Penguin Was Knighted In Scotland

Receiving a knighthood is a pretty big deal, so you might be surprised to learn that one of the individuals to receive such an honor was a flightless bird: Sir Nils Olav, who currently resides in Scotland’s RZSS Edinburgh Zoo.

The reason why his name doesn’t sound traditionally Scottish is because Nils’ adoption was originally arranged back in 1972 by Norwegian Major Nils Egelien and the then-King of Norway, King Olav. Back in 1961, the retired major visited the zoo during a prestigious series of military parades known as the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. He became so interested in the penguins that Nils was specially selected to become the official mascot of the Norwegian Guard.

Since taking on this role, the penguin has quickly moved up the military ranks each year, making headlines in 2008 after the King Harald V of Norway visited Edinburgh to present Nils with his official knighthood. In 2016, Nils received his latest accolade when he was promoted to Brigadier during a special ceremony at Edinburgh Zoo on Monday 22nd August. The Norwegian Royal guard stood to attention as Nils waddled up and proudly received his new title.

Sir Nils Olav promoted to Brigadier by Norwegian King's Guard by Edinburgh Zoo

The Inventor Of The Frisbee Was Turned Into One

The humble Frisbee has entertained generations, and it has a rather curious history. Its earliest incarnation was actually a cake tin that a man named Walter Morrison and his wife decided to throw about on the beach one day. As people noticed their sheer enjoyment, Morrison received offers of about 25 cents to buy the improvised plaything. Morrison then sold his Pluto Platters on beaches and at markets until he was approached by the Wham-O toy company in 1957, who purchased the rights to rename it the frisbee.

The frisbee’s real big break came when a man named Steady Ed Headrick stepped in to help improve its wobbly flying stability, which left a lot to be desired. Headrick was so keen to get involved that he offered to work for Wham-O for three months without pay or any permanent job guarantees.

By the end of the period, the toy had been totally revolutionized, and within a decade Headrick was CEO of the entire company. Headrick was so proud of his achievements that he had one dying wish: to be turned into a Frisbee. Ironically, in 2002, Headrick died from a massive stroke while playing a game of frisbee, and sure enough he was cremated and turned into several of the toys that were given to friends and family.

You Can See An Owl’s Eyeball Through Its Ear

Owls are mysterious creatures, just when you think you’ve got them all figured out, they surprise you with something else, like the fact that they’re hiding long, slender pins under all those feathers, for example. Well, here’s something totally new for you to try and get your noggin around: you can see an owl’s eyeball through its ear hole.

Just peek through those pointed ears and you’ll have yourself a birds-eye view of a bird’s eye. These stomach-turning photos were captured in southern Ohio by naturalist James McCormac, who got a closer look at the large ear opening in a northern saw-whet owls head during a data-collection initiative by Project OwlNet.

Like all birds, owls lack the external ear structures that most mammals possess, meaning that their ears are just great big openings in their skulls. Maybe it’s the ears that are the window to the soul after all.

There’s A Dog Breed That Can’t Bark

Dogs come in all different shapes and sizes, but there’s a few things they generally all have in common: playing fetch, chasing their tails and barking at any given opportunity, to name a few, except from the Basenji, that is, the dog breed that categorically cannot bark.

The Basenji is one of the oldest breeds to be officially recognized by the American Kennel Club, and it was originally bred as a hunting dog on the African plains. Perhaps one of the reasons they were so successful at hunting is because they could sneak up on their prey like a silent predator.

Basenji’s aren’t totally mute though, when they open their mouths, they tend to make a sound which is something like a chortling or yodeling. If you don't believe it, check out Feenix the Basenji having a good old sing-along:

Yodeling Basenji Feenix Yodels to his own Yodel by Feenix the Funny Singing Dog

It all has to do with the anatomy of the breeds’ voice boxes. The Basenji has all the same parts of the vocal box as other breeds, but they’re ever so slightly different in their makeup. The laryngeal ventricle, a pocket-shaped slit which is situated between the vocal and vestibular folds, is shallower than in other domestic dog breeds.

It is this shallowness that doesn’t allow for the same type of movement as other dogs’ vocal cords, which prevents the Basenji from being able to get a good hearty bark out because the vocal cords cannot vibrate normally.

Crocodile Dung Was Once Used As Contraception

At this point you probably think this article is making up chapters of history just for the fun of it, but all of this really did happen. The thing is people, mostly women, have been willing to put up with just about anything to avoid unplanned pregnancies.

It sucks to this day that the weight of contraception has always been on the female partner, but it definitely sucked even more back in ancient Egypt. In order to create a barrier between their cervixes and ambitious little swimmers, women were encouraged to shove a special paste made of crocodile poop and honey into their hoo-ha’s.

Amazingly, historical records show that this method was actually fairly effective because the poop’s acidic properties may have made it an effective spermicide. The success of this method is a double-edged sword though, mostly because it meant a woman’s only choice for a good few centuries was to have a baby or stick poop where the sun don’t shine. There’s a predicament you’ll probably never find yourself in.

Flossing Can Improve Your Memory

You’ve probably been told a thousand times by dentists and nagging parents to always remember to floss but get this: flossing might be the thing that actually helps you to remember. That’s right, it seems like flossing not only helps protect your teeth but your memory, too.

In 2010, researchers looked at a group of men and women over 60 and found that those who scored lowest on tests of math and memory had been exposed to greater amounts of bacteria that are known to cause gum disease. Gum disease triggers inflammation in the body, which is linked to stiffening of the blood vessels.

Scientists have also discovered that stiffened blood vessels are related to a risk of greater memory problems, which means flossing could be a crucial step in keeping your mind sharp. In fact, some experts have claimed that flossing may be as important as taking your blood pressure medication as you age, so just maybe you’ll listen to the dentist next time.

The Longest Time Between Twins Being Born Is 87 Days

Isn’t the whole idea of twins that you’re born together, you ask? Generally speaking, yes, but there are a couple of cases that break the mold. In 2012, Maria Jones-Elliot was thrilled to discover that she’d be having twins, although they ran in her family, so she was kind of expecting it. What she wasn’t expecting, though, was to go into labor three months before her due date of September 21st.

Maria was rushed to hospital On June 1st, where she first gave birth to baby Amy, who was dangerously small at just 1lb 3oz. Then, something totally unexpected happened: Maria’s contractions stopped altogether. After repeated efforts to induce her into giving birth to Amy’s twin, doctors informed Maria and her husband Chris that all they could do was wait.

After an agonizing 87 days, Amy’s twin sister Katie was finally born on August 27th and the two were reunited at last. Not long after Katies birth, the sisters were officially recognized by the Guinness World Records as the ‘longest interval between the birth of twins’, while hospital staff described them as the ‘medical equivalent of winning the lottery.’

Chastity Belts Are A Medieval Joke

The medieval times are characterized by all sorts of wacky customs, and one of the strangest has got to be the infamous chastity belt. It was basically a bulky iron belt that would literally lock up a woman’s nether-regions to prevent temptation, until she gave her husband had the key.

However, in his book The Medieval Chastity Belt: a Myth-Making Process, medievalist Albrecht Classen has revealed that this barbaric, ridiculous and extremely unhygienic device probably never even existed in the first place. Classen discovered that most of the depictions that exist in literature and art, like this drawing from 1590, are merely satirical.

While the doting husband appears in the foreground, there’s usually another lover in the shadows with a duplicate key, proving that the chastity belt wasn’t really taken seriously as an effective anti-sex device. In other words, the idea of a metal belt that would protect a woman’s fidelity was probably made up for a laugh.

There are plenty of real-life examples of chastity belts held in museums, but these were counterfeits mostly made in the 1800s. In fact, one displayed in The British Museum now includes a label that indicates it was merely a “joke for the tasteless.”

In Turkey, Women Could Divorce For Lack Of Coffee

If you’re a coffee lover, a fresh brew is probably the first thing you think of in the morning. You might feel totally cheated if you don’t get your caffeine fix ASAP but if you were a woman in Turkey hundreds of years ago not receiving your morning coffee might actually be grounds for a divorce. That’s right, there was once a law that permitted a woman to file for legal separation if her husband failed to supply her with enough coffee.

Coffee had first been introduced to the region of Constantinople, or modern-day Istanbul, in 1555, and quickly became a staple of Turkish culture as it spread far-and-wide. The divorce law came about because any man who deprived his wife of coffee was also seen to deprive her of a fundamental cultural necessity. Very few cases of actual coffee-related divorces exist, considering how numbered a single woman’s days in a male-dominated world were. But, at least, they had the option!

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.