10 Facts You’ll Wish You Never Knew

Heer Khant

“Knowledge itself is power,” Sir Francis Bacon famously said. Since then, we have been chasing knowledge to feel empowered and have been compelled to know the happenings of the world around us. But have you ever felt that it would have been better and wiser if you had not known some facts?

Here are some facts from around the world and different periods that you’ll wish you had no idea about:

1. There are centipedes that are so giant and poisonous that they hunt bats in the caves:

Known as the Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede, the creature is found in parts of South America, especially in Venezuela, Trinidad, Aruba, and Colombia. Having the scientific name of Scolopendra gigantea, the centipede feasts on a variety of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. It is known to have preyed on birds, snakes, lizards, frogs, and bats.

To trap a bat, these carnivorous centipedes use a special technique. They climb up to the ceiling of the caves where bats are usually found and holds on to them with a few feet attached to the ceiling even if the bats are much larger in size. Then they would chew and poison the bats. The largest Scolopendragigantea centipede on record has been found to be 12 inches long.

In 2014, a centipede of the species bit a child in Venezuela. The centipede had coiled up inside an empty soda can and was hidden from plain sight. As a result of the bite, the child died.(1,2)

2. There are snakes that can swim up your toilet, especially green tree snakes, common tree snakes, and carpet pythons. They can crawl up the dry pipe in the toilet and end up in the restroom.

In several parts of the world, the stories of snakes climbing up the pipelines that lead to toilets have been told. It is possible for the reptiles to end up in your toilet. The snakes, usually common tree snakes, green tree snakes, and carpet pythons, chase rats. Wherever, the rats go, they go after them.

The reptiles can crawl up the dry pipe that leads to an S-bend in the toilets that have little water, first entering through the sewer pipe. Once they learn to navigate through it, they reach the toilet bowl. One of the oldest reported incidents of a person being bitten by a snake that entered through the toilet was in 1993. An 8-foot python had bitten a former shot-put champion in Singapore. The athlete survived as the python was not poisonous, but he had to be taken to the hospital to receive stitches as a result of the bite.(1,2)

3. Champagne corks can kill you. At least 24 people are killed every year in the United States due to flying champagne corks. That’s more than the number of people killed from spider bites each year.

Even though champagnes are associated with feelings of celebration, they can be deadly. Out of the 24 deaths that occur due to flying champagne corks in the United States, one-third are caused at weddings. This is one of the things listed which is more likely to kill than being bitten by a shark.

It is estimated that a cork can leave the bottle at an approximate speed of 55 mph. That speed is enough to smash the glass of the bottle or for that matter, smash the glass of your spectacles as well. If the cork is exposed to heat it can reach higher speeds. It is recommended to keep your hand over the cork and look away at the time of opening a champagne. It is likely that most servers and bartenders are victims of such champagne cork-related deaths. (1, 2)

4. If a human is bitten by a Lone Star tick, a lot of consequences follow. One of the consequences is that the person develops an allergy to red meat including beef, pork, and lamb.

On the verge of becoming an epidemic, Lone Star tick bites are causing people to become allergic to red meat even if they have been red-meat eaters all their life. Amblyommaamericanum is also causing an allergy to dairy products in some people in the United States. Over 5,000 such cases have been diagnosed in the United States alone. Sweden, Germany, and Austria have also reported cases of such tick bites followed by an allergic reaction.

When in 2007, the first cases of sudden allergic reactions to red meat began coming out, researchers thought that it was a parasite that was the cause. Eventually, the Lone Star tick was found to be the reason. It is speculated that the tick injects the humans with “alpha-gal,” a sugar that animals make in their bodies. Since we don’t make the sugar as humans, our body has an immune response to it. It is possible for the allergy to subside over a period of time if the human is not bitten again by the Lone Star tick.(source)

5. Myositis ossificans is a benign condition where our muscles turn into bone. It is a bone-and-cartilage-fusing pseudo-tumor that is caused after trauma, or it can be genetic.

Myositis ossificans is a condition where the ossification of the muscles occurs. In other words, the muscles turn into bones. There are two kinds of this condition, Myositisossificans circumscripta and Myositisossificans progressiva. In the case of the former, the scar tissue as a result of an injury turns into bone, and in the latter case, it is a rare, connective, genetic disorder also known as Münchmeyer disease.

When the condition is formed due to a result of a trauma to the tissues, in 80% of the cases it occurs in the thighs or the arms. The injury that causes the condition could be a fracture, a stab wound, or a surgical incision. It occurs typically in men between the ages of 15 and 30. When the condition is fully developed, little or no movement is possible in the affected region. In a majority of cases,Myositis ossificans heals on its own.(source)

6. A parasite termed as Naegleriafowleri ameba can infect a person when it enters through the nose by destroying brain tissue. It can be caused by swimming or diving in warm, freshwater bodies like lakes.

Naegleria fowleri is an ameba that enters a person’s body through the nose and travels up to the person’s brain causing severe damage to the brain tissue and eventually death. The ameba is found in warm, freshwater bodies, geothermal sources of water, poorly maintained swimming pools, and geothermal industrial waste. When a person dives, swims, or comes in contact with such water bodies, they are likely to get infected. An infection does not occur by drinking contaminated water but only when the parasite enters a person’s body through the nose. It is not found in salt water bodies like seas and oceans.

The ameba grows best in water bodies that have a temperature higher than 46°C.Naegleria fowleri infections are rare. In the United States, 34 infections were reported from 2008 to 2017 out of which 30 people were infected by recreational bodies of water. Most infections by the parasite have proved to be fatal. These infections are non-communicable from one person to another.(source)

7. Since 1950, there have been several incidents when nuclear weapons have been stolen, lost, or accidentally fired. These weapons are termed “Broken Arrows.” At least six such weapons continue to remain untraceable even today.

A “Broken Arrow” incident is defined as one where nuclear weapons have been accidentally launched or fired, detonated, lost or stolen. Since 1950, there have been 32 such known incidents across the world. Six nuclear weapons continue to remain untraceable until today. Nobody knows what happened to them.

The very first incident happened on November 10, 1950. A B-50 aircraft dropped a Mark 4 bomb over the St. Lawrence River about 300 miles northeast of Montreal. Nearly 100 pounds of uranium was scattered in the area. The bomb lacked a plutonium core which minimized the radiation damage. Recently, in November 2016, a commercial diver who was looking for sea cucumbers found an American Mark 4 bomb that is said to be from the 1950s. In fact, no one might really know the actual number of Broken Arrows currently in the world.(1,2)

8. The crew of the famous Challengerspace shuttle was alive after it exploded in 1986. The seven people on board died after falling 12 miles into the ocean, and it is alleged that NASA attempted to hide this fact.

On January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle burst into flames only 73 seconds after liftoff. This caused a worldwide buzz. One of Challenger’s rocket boosters had failed during the liftoff and caused an explosion which was witnessed by onlookers on the ground. The last thing that the in-flight recorder captured was astronaut Mike Smith’s “Uh, oh.”

The shuttle lost both its wings, but the crew was still alive inside as the cabin was not destroyed. It continued three miles upwards and then plummeted 12 miles into the ocean below for two and a half minutes. NASA had failed to foresee such a disaster and had it prepared the crew for this, there were chances that they would have survived. NASA covered up the story and for a long time, and the world believed that the explosion had killed those on board.(source)

9. A substantial amount of pre-ground coffee has ground cockroaches in it. FDA admitted that at least 10% of the green coffee beans that are sold are insect-infested, but Dr. Douglas Emlen says, “most” of it is.

Entomologist Dr. Douglas Emlen told NPR that most pre-ground coffee has ground-up cockroaches in it. Pre-ground coffee that is sold in the market is processed from huge piles of coffee. These huge piles are infested by cockroaches, and since there is nothing that can be done to filter them out, they are ground up with the beans.

It has been found that cockroaches are attracted to coffee because of its strong aroma. This is why most coffee factories around the globe get infested by cockroaches. The FDA allows bug parts in coffee as long as it stays inside the permitted percentage. Cockroaches have been the cause of allergies and asthma in many people, thus it is found to be dangerous for cockroach parts to be found in a much sought-after beverage such as coffee. It has been suggested that switching to whole bean coffee and grinding it at home is the way to avoid this from happening.(source)

10. People who lived in ancient Rome placed a lot of value for urine. They used it to wash clothes and even whiten teeth with it. There was a urine tax in place as well.

Ancient Rome’s Emperor Vespasian placed a tax on urine that was gathered in public restrooms in Rome’s Cloaca Maxima. From the urinals, the public urine was gathered in cesspools. From there, it was sold for its chemical properties. Vespasian imposed a tax on the distribution of urine from these cesspools.

The Romans valued the ammonia content in urine enough to wash their dirty laundry with it, as they thought that it cleaned the grease away. They also used it as a teeth-whitener and for tanning.

Once, the Emperor’s son Titus complained to his father about the urine tax stating that it was disgusting. Answering the complaint, Vespasian held up money to his nose and asked his son whether he felt offended by its smell. This incident gave rise to the Latin phrase that is widely used even today,pecunia non olet, which means that money does not stink, no matter where it comes from.(source)

The world and its history are full of strange and surprising facts that can shock even the most sturdy souls.