15 Facts That Will Be On The Test This Friday

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15 Facts That Will Be On The Test This Friday

"I can't believe you've never had a dream. Never in your life?"

"I haven't had a single dream."

The words rang true inside of her, as if she'd heard them in a dream herself. This wasn't the first time that this question had been asked of her—but it was the first time that she realized its significance. Her father had always been there when it came time to tell bedtime stories she and her sister enjoyed, telling one of his many wild tales, but no one in the world besides her knew that his stories weren't made up. He couldn't tell stories he didn't know himself. 

And now, she wanted something totally different -- something, maybe, that could make her finally dream for the first time.

"Please, father ... tell us something new. Something you've never told us before. Something amazing."

Her father nodded sharply, inhaled, and then began quietly speaking, with a tremble in his voice:

Steroids caused one woman to grow nails instead of hair.

A person started to grow nails instead of hair after being treated for an allergy attack. CRACKED.COM For three years after a Memphis resident received steroids for an allergic attack in 2009, her body grew black nails where it would normally grow hair.

ABC 

A hot air balloon duel happened above Paris.

Two men dueled in hot air balloons when they realized they were dating the same woman. CRACKED.COM The 19th century Frenchmen, LePique and Grandpré, took to the skies over Paris to win the heart of a ballerina. Lepique missed, but Grandpré hit and sent Lepique and his pilot plummeting to their deaths.

Vintage News 

The biggest jellyfish in the world is 8.5 storeys tall.

The lion's mane jellyfish is 120 feet long. CRACKED.COM Although they spend time in the open ocean and don't often come into contact with humans, their tentacles contain large amounts of neurotoxins and their sting can cause rashes.

Smithsonian 

Horny tortoises made the raptors in “Jurassic Park” especially terrifying.

The sound of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park is a recording of mating tortoises. CRACKED.COM It's somewhat embarrassing, said Gary Rydstrom, the sound designer for the original 1993 film, but when the raptors bark at each other to communicate, it's a tortoise having sex.

Vulture 

Smell and taste is worse on an airplane.

Our sense of taste is cut by 30% on a plane, and smell by 20%. SA319 5V CRACKED.COM The dry cabin air dries out our nasal passages, and low cabin pressure decreases the levels of oxygen in our blood, hindering our sensitivity to sweet and salty food by 30%.

Insider

King Tut’s meteorite dagger is a mystery.

King Tut was buried with a dagger made from a meteorite. CRACKED.COM The Egyptians most likely didn't have the technology to craft a weapon from meteorite debris, so some believe it either came from a more advanced civilization, or was left behind by aliens.

History

Tiger skin is striped like their fur.

Tigers have skin striped just like their fur. CRAGKED.COM A tiger's stripes are like fingerprints, no two have the same pattern. The stripes serve to help conceal the tiger when it's hunting prey, which are color blind to the tiger's distinctive orange coat.

Down To Earth

President John Quincy Adams wanted to trade with a race that lived underground.

John Quincy Adams wanted to send a team to burrow to the center of the Earth. CRACKED.COM The U.S. president thought there must be a civilization in the hollow Earth, and decided the best way to establish trade with them is to send a 100-man team to the Arctic on reindeer-pulled sleighs.

Smithsonian Magazine

Mosquitoes chew through your skin.

Mosquitoes use their 47 teeth to gnaw through fabric and skin. GRAGKED.COM These teeth are located at the end of their proboscis, a system of six thin, needlelike mouthparts, and are used to cut through the skin or layers of protective clothes.

NPR 

The journey a photon takes from the sun’s core is thousands of years.

A photon takes 100,000 years to travel from the sun's core to its surface. CRACKED.COM Photons are made in the dense core of the sun and travel for thousands of years through many layers, turning from hydrogen and helium atoms to visible light, before finally escaping into space.

ABC Science 

Ant heads were used as surgical staples.

Ants were once used to hold wounds closed. CRACKED.COM Primarily practiced in the Americas, people would hold an ant above an open wound and wait for it to bite the skin. Once bitten, the head would be removed so that the pincers would stay in place as a stitch.

Vice 

A European mummy had tattoos to help his joint pain.

The oldest European mummy was found with acupuncture tattoos. GRACKED.COM Ötzi the Iceman was alive from sometime between 3400 and 3100 ВСЕ. Не had 19 sets of thin, black tattoos circling his knees, wrists, and ankles.

Science Direct

The tallest mountain is partially submerged.

The tallest mountain on Earth isn't Everest, it's in Hawaii. CRACKED.COM Mauna Kea in Hawaii is actually technically the tallest mountain in the world, if you measure from base to summit. The only thing holding Mauna Kea back is that it's mostly underwater.

SF Gate 

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