50 Fun/WTF Facts Everyone Should Know

Nostradamus wrote a cookbook that contained a recipe for "love jam" so powerful it would instantly persuade two people tasting it to have sex.

27. NASA estimates that the value of minerals in the asteroid belt exceeds $600,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s nearly $100 billion per person alive.

28. To combat brood parasites, Superb Fairy Wrens teach their young in the egg a password they must sing to get food.

29. In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a race at Belmont Park in New York despite being dead. He was the first and thus far the only jockey is known to have won a race after death.

30. Sword-billed Hummingbirds are the only birds with a bill longer than their body.

The shortest war in history was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar in 1896 and lasted 38 to 45 minutes. At 09.02 British ships started a bombardment of the sultan's palace which ended at 09.40. 500 Zanzibaris were killed, but only one British sailor was injured.

32. Cherries are the only edible source of melatonin and consuming them daily can help you sleep better.

33. The Romans believed eyelashes fell out from excessive sex, so women would use cosmetics to make their eyelashes look fuller and longer to demonstrate their chastity.

34. William Penn was the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania and has a giant statue in Philadelphia atop the city hall. Sculptor Alexander Milne Calder wanted to make it look like Penn was watching over the city, but from the side, it looks like he has a hard on.

35. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.

MP4 is a rock band consisting of four British parliamentarians.

37. The Mantis Shrimp can swing it's claw so fast it boils the water around it and creates a flash of light.

38. The Groom of the Stool was an English courtier who helped the king poop.

39. Konaki Sumo is a contest where sumo wrestlers compete to make babies cry.

40. During World War 2, the US military seriously considered strapping tiny bombs to Mexican Free-tailed Bats which would then be deployed over Japanese cities. The plan, called Project X-ray, was eventually abandoned, but not before a general's car was destroyed by explosive-laden bats.

In the German village of Fuggerei, the rent hasn’t been raised since 1520. It costs only 88 cents to live there for an entire year.

42. The Lizzie Borden murder house operates as a museum and bed & breakfast and you can spend the night there.

43. A con man named Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower twice to a French scrap metal dealer.

44. There is a Boot Monument in Saratoga National Park, New York. It is the only war memorial in the U.S. that doesn't name its honoree because he is the infamous American traitor Benedict Arnold.

45. Over 20,000 people have purchased Alien Abduction Insurance. The insurance policy is redeemed if the insured person can prove they were abducted by aliens and returned to Earth. Some companies offer policies for alien pregnancy, alien examinations, and death caused by aliens.

Back in 19th century Australia, a common cure for rheumatism was to sit inside a dead whale for 30 hours.

47. Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Québec is the only town in the world with two exclamation points in its name.

48. In 480 B.C., two Persian pontoon bridges across the Dardanelles were destroyed by a storm. Hot-tempered King Xerxes I punished the strait by throwing fetters into it, whipping it 300 times, and branding it with hot irons, while his soldiers were commanded to shout at the water.

49. The nurikabe is a spirit from Japanese folklore. It manifests as a wall that impedes or misdirects walking travelers at night.

50. Fleas can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms, this is equal to a 6 feet person jumping 295 feet long and 160 feet high.