Unbelievable facts you won’t believe are true

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A fact is a thing that has been known or proven to be true.

Below are some unbelievable but true facts that will wow you.

1. Spider webs were used as bandages in ancient times In ancient Greece and Rome, doctors used spider webs to make bandages for their patients. Spider webs supposedly have natural antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, which can help keep wounds clean and prevent infection.

It’s also said that spider webs are rich in vitamin K, which helps promote clotting. So, next time you’re out of Band-Aids, just head to your attic and grab some “webicillin.”

2. One-quarter of all your bones are located in your feet

There are 26 bones in each foot. That’s 52 bones in both feet, out of 206 total bones in your whole body, which is more than 25 per cent. It may sound crazy at first, but think about it: Your feet support your weight and allow you to jump, run, and climb. Those bones and joints also allow your feet to absorb and release energy efficiently. It’s one of the reasons humans can outrun any other animal in an endurance race.

3. Blood donors in Sweden receive a text when their blood is used

To encourage more young people to donate blood, Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, sends a text to donors when their blood has been dispensed to someone in need.

A common issue with blood donation—along with other types of charitable donations—is that if a donor doesn’t know the recipient, it’s harder to convince them that donating is beneficial. But with this system, which started in 2012, potential donors in Sweden have proof that their contribution is going to good use.

3. The inventor of the Pringles can is now buried in one

In 1966, Fredric Baur developed the ingenious idea for Procter & Gamble to uniformly stack chips inside a can instead of tossing them in a bag. Baur was so proud of his invention that he wanted to take it to the grave—literally.

He communicated his burial wishes to his family, and when he died at age 89, his children stopped at Walgreens on the way to the funeral home to buy his burial Pringles can. They did have one decision to make, though.

“My siblings and I briefly debated what flavour to use,” Baur’s eldest son, Larry, told Time. “But I said, ‘Look, we need to use the original.'”

The name for the shape of Pringles is actually called a “Hyperbolic Paraboloid.”

4. More than 1/5 of all the calories consumed by humans worldwide is provided by rice alone.

5. Your tonsils could grow back if there were tissue left behind during the removal process. Sometimes it’s accidental; other times, it’s left on purpose.

6. Sunglasses were originally designed for Chinese judges to hide their facial expressions in court

Today, sunglasses serve as protective eyewear, effectively preventing bright sunlight from causing discomfort or damage to our eyes. Of course, they’re also a fashion accessory. But sunglasses were originally made out of smoky quartz in 12th century China, where they were used by judges to mask their emotions when they were questioning witnesses.

7.  Shakespeare’s epitaph contains a curse for grave robbers

When William Shakespeare died at 52 years old on April 23, 1616, he was buried in a tomb that featured an epitaph meant to ward off grave robbers: “GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE / TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE / BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES / AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES.”

Or more clearly: “Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear / To dig the dust enclosed here / Blessed be the man that spares these stones / And cursed be he that moves my bones.

8. Children of identical twins are genetically siblings, not cousins

Cousins whose parents are identical twins share 25 per cent of their DNA, instead of the usual 12.5 per cent. While full-siblings share 50 per cent of their DNA, half-siblings share 25 per cent. That’s why, though children of identical twins are legally cousins, they are genetically the equivalent of half-siblings.

9. A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds

Clouds are not as light and fluffy as they appear. In fact, researchers have found that a single cloud weighs about 1.1 million pounds. How do they know? Well, that number is calculated by taking the water density of a cloud and multiplying it by its volume. Fortunately, the cloud can still “float” at that weight because the air below it is even heavier.

10. The Queen owns all the swans in England

According to British law, any unclaimed swan swimming in the open waters of England and Wales belongs to the Queen. The law originated in medieval times when swans were a delicacy for the wealthy, but it still stands today.

Queen Elizabeth II also upholds a centuries-old tradition with the swans: Every year during the third week of July, all the swans in the River Thames are counted for the Queen in a practice called “Swan Upping.”

11. A woman with two uteruses gave birth to twins less than a month after having a baby

A woman in Bangladesh unexpectedly gave birth to twins in March 2019, less than a month after having another newborn. The highly unusual circumstance happened because the woman has two uteruses and both were able to successfully carry the three healthy children to term. However, the mother’s doctor did admit, “We were very shocked and surprised. I have never observed anything like this before.”

12. A human could swim through a blue whale’s veins

The blue whale is the largest living creature—it’s even larger than most dinosaurs. The biggest blue whales can be over 100 feet in length and weigh more than 100 tons. Their hearts alone can weigh 1,300 pounds and are the size of a small car. Unsurprisingly, blue whales have enormous arteries, which pump blood through their massive hearts and into their vital organs. These arteries are so big that a fully grown human could swim through them. But do not try this.

13. Crying makes you feel happier

They don’t call it a “good cry” for nothing. Studies suggest that crying stimulates the production of endorphins, our body’s natural painkiller, and feel-good hormones, like oxytocin. In short, crying more will ultimately lead to smiling more.

14. The teabag was an accidental invention

In 1908, New York tea merchant, Thomas Sullivan sent samples of tea leaves to some of his customers in small silken bags. Many of the recipients assumed that the bags were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers. So, they put the entire bag into the teapot, rather than emptying out its contents.

After such positive feedback from the happy accident, Sullivan designed intentional teabags for commercial production.

In the 1920s, his sachets made of gauze—and later, paper—included the string with the tag hanging over the side so the bag could be easily removed. Some things really do stay the same.

15. The Russians arrived 12 days late to the 1908 Olympics because they were using the wrong calendar

Over 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar promoted the use of the Julian calendar, a 365-day calendar that didn’t account for leap years. Eventually, the calendar fell out of sync with the seasonal equinoxes, and holidays—like Easter—didn’t appear where they should. Finally, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII mandated that Catholic nations switch to a new Gregorian calendar that solved the problem.

But for many countries, including Russia, the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian took centuries. As a result, in 1908, the Russians missed the first 12 days of the Olympics, which was hosted in London, because they were still using the Julian calendar.

The country finally changed over in 1918 after the Bolsheviks took control. Greece, the country where the Olympics were born, was the last nation to make the switch in 1923.

16. Goosebumps are caused by a muscle

Arrector pili muscles, fan-shaped muscles at the base of each hair follicles, are responsible for goosebumps: These muscles contract when the body is cold in an effort to generate heat and cause a person’s hair to “stand up straight” on their skin.

17. The Twitter bird has a name

The bluebird was named after former NBA player Larry Bird, who used to play for a Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone’s home-state team, the Boston Celtics.

18. There’s only one human organ that naturally regenerates

Of all the organs in the human body, the liver is the only one that can regenerate on its own. As researcher Richard Bowen explains, “The liver has a remarkable capacity to regenerate after injury and to adjust its size to match its host. Within a week after partial hepatectomy, which, in typical experimental settings entails surgical removal of two-thirds of the liver, hepatic mass is back essentially to what it was prior to surgery.”

19. Macaque monkeys can spot expensive items to steal from humans in ransom for food

Macaque monkeys frequently steal items from humans – such as bags, hats, sunglasses, tablets and phones – and hold them to ransom in exchange for offerings of food.

Research has shown that adult wild long-tailed macaque monkeys were intelligent enough to comprehend which items had the highest value to the visitors, such as an electronic item, and would only release it after receiving the food they perceived to be of corresponding value.

20. Henry Ford was the first to give his workers both Saturday and Sunday off

On May 1, 1926, Ford Motor Company becomes one of the first companies in America to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week for workers in its automotive factories in order to encourage more leisure use of automobiles and thus popularising the idea of weekends. The policy was extended to Ford’s office workers the following August.

Henry Ford’s Detroit-based automobile company had broken ground in its labour policies before. In early 1914, against a backdrop of widespread unemployment and increasing labour unrest, Ford announced that it would pay its male factory workers a minimum wage of $5 per eight-hour day, upped from a previous rate of $2.34 for nine hours (the policy was adopted for female workers in 1916).

The news shocked many in the industry—at the time, $5 per day was nearly double what the average auto worker made—but turned out to be a stroke of brilliance, immediately boosting productivity along the assembly line and building a sense of company loyalty and pride among Ford’s workers.

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