10 Bullshit Sounding Facts That Are Totally True (Vol. 2)
Photo cred - Stp
Sometimes, people bust out these random factoids that are so super ridiculous you can't help but think "yeah right buddy, you're shitting me." That may be true when that bro at the party says his body has an abnormally high sperm count, but sometimes, the strangest of information is entirely true.
Case in point, the 10 bullshit sounding but totally factual factoids listed below. Read 'em, use 'em at parties, and feel smug shutting someone down if they try to dispute their veracity.
1. Russia Is Bigger Than Pluto
No wonder the one-time planet got the demotion to dwarf planet status. According to UniverseToday, Pluto has a surface area of 16.6 16.6 million km2, which is just under Russia's impressive 17,098,242 km². You lose again Pluto.
2. Babies Can Be Born With 2 Dicks
Double dick syndrome, known as diphalia to the academic community, is an incredibly rare physical condition that only affects about one male in every 5-6 million. Here are some recorded cases, for any skeptics. For anyone, like myself, who wants to know more amazing penis facts, and learn about the most famous man to ever have 2 dongs, head over to queerty.
3. Ketchup Shouldn't Have Tomatoes In It
At least if you're being truly traditional about it, as what we now know as ketchup was originally an Asian fish sauce (made from fermented anchovies) that evolved into a walnut-based sauce, with tomatoes only added in at the dawn of the 19th century. That's actually why ketchup is still labelled "tomato ketchup." Read the (not so) sordid history of ketchup here.
4. Cows Have Forestomachs
Let's be clear here, cows have "forestomachs" and not "four stomachs" as many believe. The linguistic difference is quite large, as the latter makes it so that cows have 4 separate stomachs (false) whereas the former states the truth, that cows have four different compartments to the stomach: the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. Get all the juicy digestive details here.
5. Drinking Coffee Reduces Women's Breast Size
Awful, but true, according to findings from Helena Jernstroem of Lund University in Sweden. In Jernstroem's study, three cups of coffee a day made boobs get smaller, as caffeine messes with a women's estrogen levels. Sorry female coffee addicts.
6. Guinness Beer Contains Fish
Fish bladder, to be precise. Isinglass, from the bladder of fish, is used in beer brewing processes to make the process of taking out solid bits and yeast easier, as the isinglass makes them all form up at the bottom of the liquid rather than free-floating everywhere. Guiness isn't listing isinglass as an ingredient, so you won't see it listed, though they've gone on the record saying they use it in their brewing procedure, with minute traces left in the beer.
7. Bats Are Not Blind
Maybe this one is only bullshit sounding to me, as I bought into the whole "blind as a bat" since childhood, and thought that bats solely flew around through echolocation. Not the case. Bats can totally see, most just hunt at night, when vision is impaired, so a lot of bats do use their ears as their primary "seeing" tool.
8. Black Boxes Are Not Black
A total misnomer, as the flight recording part of every aircraft aren't black at all, and are actually coloured brightly in order to be found more easily among wreckage or in the water. The exact origin of "black box" isn't known for sure, but either way, these boxes ain't black.
9. The US Military Had A Camel Corps
No, that isn't a codeword for anything, there actually was a regiment of the American military that exclusively used camels to get around. Founded in the mid-1800s, the Camel Corps were used to trek around the desert-areas of America, mostly from San Antonio to El Paso. Apparently camels aren't specific to the US miliary, as several countries have used the four-legged desert walkers.
10. A Female Platypus Has No Nipples
Impossible you say? How is a momma platypus supposed to give milk to her kids you ask? Well the answer is simple: instead of giving milk through traditional nips, female platypus lactate through their skin. For real. The milk comes out of the platypus' pores, and then collects in the abdomen to make a natural milk bowl for the young. Read some more weird platypus facts here.
