Ever fallen down a rabbit hole on the internet and emerged an hour later knowing something you never thought you’d know? The world is packed with fascinating little surprises and strange discoveries. In fact, some facts are so unexpected that your first instinct is to question whoever came up with them.
We’ve rounded up a collection of seriously cool facts to satisfy your curiosity and give your brain some fresh material to obsess over. These tidbits might send you searching for even more answers. So, scroll on and prepare for a few “Wait, what?!” moments. Who knows? You might discover a new favorite fact to drop into your next conversation casually!
#41
Sophia Koetsier was a Dutch medical student who traveled to Uganda for an internship at a hospital in 2015. After finishing the program, she set out on a two-week trip around the country with two friends and a guide. Six days into the journey, the group arrived at Murchison Falls National Park. Koetsier headed out on a short walk to the bathroom just before nightfall — but she didn't return. Park rangers began searching for her within minutes, and although they located a few of her personal items scattered near a river, Koetsier was never found.
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7points
#42
In "The Exorcist," Pazuzu is a demon who possesses a young girl named Regan, transforming her into a foul-mouthed, blistered nightmare who expels green slime and twists her head a full 180 degrees — but the Mesopotamian demon he's based on is quite different from the Pazuzu in the film. In Assyrian and Babylonian religion, Pazuzu was said to be an evil spirit of the underworld who could control the wind, bringing famine during the dry seasons and storms and locusts during the rainy season — though ancient humans could offset his destructive nature by offering prayers to him, hoping that he would channel the winds to use for more benevolent purposes.
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7points
#43
A marine cryptid popular in Japan, the Ningen is often described as a large, ghostly-white monster that inhabits the frigid seas near Antarctica. The Ningen is said to be up to 100 feet long, with skin the same color and texture as the chunks of ice that surround it. This makes the Ningen especially difficult to spot — but those who have allegedly seen it largely describe it in the same way.
Perhaps most eerily, the Ningen is said to have human-like features, including arms, legs, and five-fingered hands. In fact, "Ningen" means "human" in Japanese. However, some claim that its hands are webbed, or that it has a mermaid-like tail, or perhaps fins and tentacles. But most agree about the Ningen's eyes, which are said to be large, black, unblinking, and prominently featured on its icy white face.
Perhaps most eerily, the Ningen is said to have human-like features, including arms, legs, and five-fingered hands. In fact, "Ningen" means "human" in Japanese. However, some claim that its hands are webbed, or that it has a mermaid-like tail, or perhaps fins and tentacles. But most agree about the Ningen's eyes, which are said to be large, black, unblinking, and prominently featured on its icy white face.
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5points
#44
Cynocephali, or men with the heads of dogs, were first mentioned in ancient Greek literature, but they've appeared in countless historical records over the centuries. Ibn Battuta, a medieval Maghrebi Muslim explorer, wrote of men whose "mouths are shaped like those of dogs" while traveling in Southeast Asia. Likewise, Marco Polo claimed to have seen dog-headed people "who are all just like big mastiffs" while sailing through the Bay of Bengal.
These encounters with cynocephali aren't limited to Asia, however. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. Christopher is sometimes depicted with the head of a dog, possibly because someone once misread the Latin word "Cananeus," meaning Canaanite, as "caninus," or canine. The Nowell Codex — the 10th-century manuscript that contains "Beowulf" — mentions "half-dogs." And the governor of Cuba reportedly asked Hernán Cortés to investigate claims of men with canine heads living in the New World during his explorations of Mesoamerica.
These encounters with cynocephali aren't limited to Asia, however. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. Christopher is sometimes depicted with the head of a dog, possibly because someone once misread the Latin word "Cananeus," meaning Canaanite, as "caninus," or canine. The Nowell Codex — the 10th-century manuscript that contains "Beowulf" — mentions "half-dogs." And the governor of Cuba reportedly asked Hernán Cortés to investigate claims of men with canine heads living in the New World during his explorations of Mesoamerica.
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5points
#45
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a LAN party was the ultimate place to be for any young gamer. A small gathering at a home or communal space with a local area network, a LAN party allowed a group of friends to enjoy multiplayer games together before high-speed internet became mainstream. As players battled for dominance in StarCraft and Counter-Strike while guzzling Mountain Dew and potato chips, these parties could last for hours on end, much to the disdain of parents.
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4points
#46
João Pimenta da Silva, a 71-year-old man from Brazil, spent over a year digging a 130-foot-deep hole in his kitchen floor after a "spirit" appeared to him in a dream and told him there was gold buried beneath his home. He sold many of his possessions and hired workers to help him find the treasure, but his search came to a grisly end last week when he lost his balance and fell into the hole. When emergency services arrived, they found him at the bottom with "open fractures on both legs, hip fracture, laceration of the abdomen and trunk, severe TBI, widespread abrasions, [and] no signs of life."
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3points
#47
In October 2000, a user named TimeTravel_0 posted in an internet forum claiming that "the basics for time travel start at CERN in about a year and end in 2034 with the first 'time machine' built by GE." Over the next few months, the mysterious user — who later went by John Titor — revealed that he was a member of the U.S. military from the year 2036 who had been sent on a time travel mission to 1975 to retrieve an IBM computer. Titor warned that a civil war would break out in 2004 and eventually escalate into World War III, ending in the nuclear annihilation of cities like Washington, D.C. Then, in March 2001, Titor disappeared. Many theories have spread about his true identity over the past 25 years, but to this day, nobody has publicly claimed authorship of these bizarre posts.
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2points
#48
"In the beginning you think: it must be a joke, a hoax. But when things start to go down a certain way, when you keep hearing about the story, you realize that it's not a joke."
During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, a group of Special Forces allegedly hunted a 13-foot-tall beast with six fingers on each hand, two sets of teeth, and flaming red hair in the mountains of Kandahar. The last they saw of it, it was being airlifted by a Chinook helicopter to an Army airfield to be flown out of the country on a massive transport plane. No one ever spoke of it again, and officially, the giant doesn't exist. But soldiers stationed in Kandahar for the next several years have reported that it was an open secret among the rank-and-file. And several veterans who served in the region have said that from that point on, they were instructed to point their weapons high by aiming for the head "and then a little higher."
During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, a group of Special Forces allegedly hunted a 13-foot-tall beast with six fingers on each hand, two sets of teeth, and flaming red hair in the mountains of Kandahar. The last they saw of it, it was being airlifted by a Chinook helicopter to an Army airfield to be flown out of the country on a massive transport plane. No one ever spoke of it again, and officially, the giant doesn't exist. But soldiers stationed in Kandahar for the next several years have reported that it was an open secret among the rank-and-file. And several veterans who served in the region have said that from that point on, they were instructed to point their weapons high by aiming for the head "and then a little higher."
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-6points