15 Crazy And Ridiculous Facts That Sound Completely Fake But Are Actually True

Some of the facts in history and science can sound crazy to us. In fact, they may be so absurd that we just cannot believe them to be true. Below you will find some of the most mind-blowing facts, which may sound unreal, but are true and verified with sources.

1. New Yorkers bite more people than sharks do worldwide.

If you ever plan to visit New York, just remember this simple fact: you are more vulnerable to a bite from a New Yorker than a shark. As intimidating as sharks are, statistics show that they are not a major threat to human beings. You actually have a greater chance of winning the lottery than being bitten by a shark. They may be one of the deadliest animals on the planet but the chance of being bitten by one in the United States is 1 in 11.5 million. Humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks per year, while only three people died from shark attacks in 2014.

2. The United States has more libraries than McDonald’s.

As of 2015, there was an estimated 119,487 libraries in the United States. The total number includes Public libraries (9,082), Academic libraries (3,793), School libraries (98,460), Special libraries (6,966), Armed Forces libraries (252) and Government libraries (934). Surprisingly, 96.4% of the population have easy access to libraries and 58% of the adults in the country have public library cards. What’s even more astonishing is the fact that the U.S. also has more museums than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. According to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, there are a total of 35,000 museums, while there are only 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants and 11,000 Starbucks locations.

3. There was a headless chicken that lived for 18 months.

As crazy as it sounds, a chicken named Mike refused to die and managed to live without a head for 18 months. Lloyd Olsen and his wife Clara owned a farm in Fruita, Colorado. The couple supported themselves by farming chicken. Olsen would kill the chickens and Clara would clean them, then sell them in town. On September 10, 1945, after Olsen decapitated all of their chickens, he noticed that one was acting different from the rest. The chicken was kicking and running around. Olsen picked it up and left it in an apple box on his front porch. The next morning, he went to check on it and was surprised to see that Mike was still alive. He fed Mike using an eyedropper and took him to town to show his friends. Olsen would bet his friends that he had a headless chicken in his wagon for beer and other stuff.

The story of the headless bird spread around town like wildfire. It attracted various newspapers, magazines and even a sideshow circuit. Disaster finally struck Mike in 1947, after a sideshow tour in Phoenix, Arizona, when a kernel lodged into his throat and suffocated him. A postmortem was conducted to learn how Mike managed to survive for so long. It was found that when Olsen tried to decapitate the rooster, he missed most of the brain and a clot prevented the chicken from bleeding to death.

4. Saturn and Jupiter have lightning storms that make it rain diamonds.

The idea of raining diamonds may sound crazy to us, but in fact, scientists believe that lightning storms in Saturn and Jupiter produce diamonds. Diamonds are formed when carbon is subjected to extreme heat and pressure. Theoretically, you can create a diamond out of a regular household item. You would have to heat it though, and exert enough pressure for an extended period of time, in order for the process to be successful. The formation of diamonds on Earth takes place 100 miles beneath our feet. It is then brought closer to the surface by a volcanic magma highway.

Saturn and Jupiter have dense atmospheres which are capable of compressing and heating carbon in mid-air. The journey of the diamond begins as methane gas in the atmosphere, which is in turn converted into carbon soot by lightning storms. As the carbon soot falls towards the surface of the planets, the pressure on it increases. When the soot reaches about 1,000 miles, it is converted into graphite. Finally, 3,700 miles down from the atmosphere, the graphite is converted into diamonds. The shiny gems fall to the surface of the planet, which is basically just a sea of liquid methane and hydrogen. Since the core of both planets are super hot, the diamonds will eventually be melted into molten carbon.

5. Viagra, the impotence drug, mixed with water can be used to keep cut flowers straight.

Yes, you did read that right. According to the British Medical Journal, researchers from Israel and Australia have successfully conducted the experiment to find an alternative use of the pill. The pill can not only treat male impotence, it can extend the life of cut flowers. Professor Yaacov Leshem, a researcher at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, led the group who performed the experiments. According to their findings, a cut flower can stay fresh a week longer than its normal wilting period. The experiment only required one milligram of Viagra, which was mixed with the water in the vase.