Think you can handle the truth?
You’re probably comfortable with your routine at this point in your life. You’ve been around the world and back and you know everything you need to know to live a happy, safe, successful life, right? WRONG. What if I told you that sometimes it’s the facts you didn’t know you needed to know that can really rattle your thoughts. Do you know how many people die watching TV every year? How about how many thousands of meteors are hurtling toward you at this very second? Think you’re safe from bacteria and vermin? Think again. In this gallery, you’ll learn all of the creepy facts about life that you ever wanted to know — and some that you’ll probably wish you didn’t.
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Start the slideshow below… but you’ve been warned!
So let’s start with something totally weird…
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That was in 2009. In 2010, a US man discovered a pea plant growing in his lung. So that makes the odds that there’s a plant growing in your lungs right now approximately 1/350,000,000,000. Which isn’t zero. So THAT’S TERRIFYING.
But we can get to the nature stuff in a second. Let’s talk about people first.
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On TV, interrogations make it look like the police really know what they’re doing, right? Actually, studies have shown that given the physical and psychological environment of police interrogations, 43% of innocent people confess to crimes they didn’t commit.
Which might not be a problem, if this wasn’t also the case:
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Turns out that asking random Americans to perform their “civil duty” might not actually be the most effective solution to upholding justice. Rats.
Think about this next time you reach for the hand sanitizer.
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Turns out that the vast majority of these bacteria are actually good bacteria that help your body perform its normal functions. But it’s still kinda gross, right?
Oh, you should probably think about it when you reach for your cell phone, too.
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This is real. Next time you touch your phone to your face, think about the fact that a UK study labelled 14.7 million of the 63 million cell phones in the UK as hazardous to public safety because of how much bacteria they hold. Happy texting!
Is your skin crawling yet? How about now?
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For all you singles out there, think about it. You’re not alone when you go to bed every night — you’re sharing the space with 10 million of your closest friends!
Apparently you’re not even safe around adorable farm animals anymore.
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Apparently, this is actually a thing people have to deal with. Pigs in the wild are omnivores, they hunt in packs, and their hunting methods include charging to induce blunt force trauma, pouncing with sharp hooves, and tearing with their front teeth. BABE, how could you?!
Oh, pigs don’t scare you? How about thousands of spiders in trees?
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After the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan, health experts predicted an outbreak of malaria from mosquitos, but the number of cases actually dropped during this period. The reason? When the water came in, all of the spiders climbed into trees and built giant super-spider webs and made spider babies, and when the water receded, hundreds of thousands of new spiders were there to take care of the mosquito population. Never thought I’d say this, but spiders rule!
Don’t sweat it though – you probably won’t die from a spider bite anyway.
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So go ahead, let your irrational fear of spiders be replaced by a slightly less irrational fear of popping champagne at parties.
If you’re not worried about falling spiders, you should be worried about falling meteorites.
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So you don’t necessarily have to go running for your titanium shield umbrellas, but between 37,000 and 87,000 tons of meteor material falls to Earth every single year. Much of this is in the form of dust, but approximately 20,000 meteorites greater than 10 grams collide with earth every year, so keep it in the back of your mind.
If you live in the US, another thing to look out for is bullets.
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The topic of gun control is hot on the minds of most people in the U.S. right now, and for good reason. There’s gotta be something wrong with a policy where soldiers are more likely to be killed on home soil than in combat.
But then again, how are we surprised when there are statistics like this?
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This statistic takes on a whole new meaning when you add in the fact that only about 34% of Americans own a gun — so why do so few people have so many guns? Just saying.
Gentlemen — at attention!
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Sure zippers are easy and a lot of pants have them, but why even play with fire? Get the button-front. You’re saving yourself, and possibly your future children.
What’s next — my TV will want to kill me?
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Yes. Literally. In 2012, about 43,000 Americans were injured when television sets fell onto them, and more than 350 were killed. The vast majority of these cases were with small children — so make sure those wall mounts are secure!
In addition to all these physical threats to your security, don’t forget that your cyber-self is under attack every day.
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600,000 Facebook profile hacks per day means 219,000,000 per year. The bottom line: be careful. Monitor your account. Or don’t have one. Your choice.