12 Facts Your Brain Will Thank You For

It's funny to think about what we as people can do with the same information. For instance, it may provoke an ironic chuckle to learn that ethics books are among the most likely to be stolen from libraries. Yet somewhere out there, someone hearing that for the first time was just inspired to do something that we may never understand. 

Indeed, one of the most fascinating parts of life is hearing someone take an unpopular or unorthodox stance on something and defend it in a way that makes total sense. When you talk to enough people, you never know what you'll look at differently.

With any luck, these 12 facts will cause this exact conversation somewhere and the rest of our minds will totally be blown when all the pieces fit together.

COMMENT and tell us about the strangest thing you've learned today.

1. About 4% of the sand on Normandy's beaches is still shrapnel.

The shrapnel has since been ground down to sand-sized bits and will probably rust away in 150 years, but it speaks to the massive scale of what happened there.

2. Some police departments are setting up "internet purchase exchange locations" for safe bargain hunting.

If you've ever found a great deal on Craigslist or another site but were worried it could turn out sketchy, this spot can ensure you make your exchange safely. This is because they're always being watched by police cameras.

3. The average person spends about six years of their life in dreams.

Actually, it could even be more than that because this figure only takes into account the kind of dreaming that happens with the REM sleep we get deep into the night. Since this accounts for about 20% of our sleep, who knows how long we really dream for?

4. Honey Nut Cheerios may not actually have any nuts in them.

They contained ground almonds until 2006, but those have since been replaced with "natural almond flavor." While it's still possible that this could be extracted from real almonds, it's more likely that they're actually coming from peach pits since peaches are actually related to almonds.

If that didn't give a jolt to the way you look at the world, maybe this next one will do it.

5. Out of 4,360 species of frogs, only one actually says "ribbit."

This is the call of the Pacific tree frog, which is native to the North American west coast. So when Hollywood filmmakers needed frog sounds for a movie, they would just record their local frogs and add the sound to whatever environment they needed.

This is why we tend to associate all frogs with the "ribbit" sound. 

6. Eating a polar bear liver could put your life at risk.

Not that most of us would have the chance to do this anyway, but eating even 13 ounces of the liver will fill you with more vitamin A than the human body can handle. 

7. It's possible to catch a flight that only takes 47 seconds.

The flight spans between two neighboring islands in Orkney, Scotland and is considered the shortest scheduled flight in the world. Despite the short distance, the contract to offer this flight is valued at $4.9 million and was the subject of a bidding war involving three different airlines.  

8. Some of America's first astronauts had to fly wearing rectal thermometers.

This ensured that NASA could monitor their body temperature and watch for signs of distress but, as you might imagine, astronauts weren't thrilled about having to go into space with thermometers up their butts.

After four flights, they could finally relax because a reliable oral thermometer was finally developed instead.

This certainly made a tough job harder, but a government program on the other side of the world made things even more difficult for an unexpected profession.

9. Soviet Russia actually had a Department of Jokes to censor comedians.

Technically, this was handled by their Ministry of Culture but according to comedian Yakov Smirnoff, jokesters would have to send their material to the censor board once a year and stick precisely to approved jokes.

This meant they couldn't improvise so when Smirnoff was heckled, he would reply with "Come back in a year, and I’ll have a government-approved response for you."

10. For the last 16 years, Finland has made throwing your cell phone an actual competitive sport.

Stranger still, there's actually a disputed world record for who threw one the farthest. Organizers list the record holder as Ere Karjalainen of Finland for his 332.8-foot toss. A British man managed to throw one 336 feet, but he did it at a competition in Belgium so they see it as "unofficial."

If you think you can beat either of those, grab your least favorite phone, call someone you really can't stand and give it a shot.

11. A waterfall in upstate New York has a fire burning in it all year long.

It's called Eternal Flame Falls, and it's caused by a natural gas pocket that reacts with nearby shale rock. It's now popular enough that hikers have started lighting it when it sputters out, but it's a mystery how it survived long enough for that to happen.

12. "Wrong Way" Corrigan likely knew exactly where he was going.

He famously landed in Dublin, Ireland claiming that he intended to land in California, but the fact is that he had requested permission to make the flight to Ireland several times before his "mistake."

American authorities denied his flight because his plane was considered incredibly unsafe, so they suspended his pilot's license as soon as they learned he did it anyway. 

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