OMG Facts *official tumblr*

August 2010

None of the current judges on America’s Got Talent are actually from the United States.

America’s Got Talent is a reality television series where performers (like the rappin granny in the picture) compete by performing in front of a panel of celebrity judges for a million dollar prize and the chance to headline their own show on the Las Vegas Strip.

Previous judges on the panel were R&B singer Brandy and actor David Hasselhoff. However, in its current season all the celebrity judges…

Aug 24, 2010

The word ‘news’ is not an acronym that stands for ‘North, East, West, and South.

Quite simply, it is a word that is used to refer to recent events…or in other words, NEW things…NEWS. It’s really not any more complicated than that.
(source)

Aug 24, 201015 notes

The woolen bathing suits that people used to wear weighed about 20 pounds when wet.

Around this time, sea-bathing, or wading while holding onto a rope, was a far more popular pastime than free swimming at public beaches. With the potentially crippling weight of a soggy woolen swimsuit, you can see why.
(source)

Aug 24, 20106 notes

Lil Wayne lost his virginity at the age of 11.

During a game of ‘Win, Lose, or Draw,’ Dwayne Carter, Jr. (as he was known back then) was dragged into a dark closet by a 13-year-old girl. The rest is history.
(source)

Aug 23, 201070 notes

A man was once run over by his own dog.

Christopher Bishop of Ridge Manor, FL was checking for oil leaks beneath his truck, which was in neutral with the engine running. Suddenly his bulldog, Tassey, jumped in the vehicle and knocked the gearshift into reverse!

The truck rolled over Bishop’s left side, but luckily he managed to avoid any serious injury. Man’s best friend, indeed!
(source)

Aug 23, 201019 notes

Mexico City sinks several inches annually.

The city itself drops between 0.2 and 1.3 feet per year! Because Mexico City has one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas, there is an extremely high demand for water.

70% of this water comes from the groundwater beneath the city. But it is being extracted much faster than it can be naturally replaced.

This drastic water deficit has severely weakened the ground upon which the city rests, causing the Mexican capital to sink.
(…

Aug 23, 201017 notes

If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7 am, you will arrive in Honolulu at approximately 7:45 pm the previous day.

Due to a massive gap in time zones, Honolulu is 19 hours behind Tokyo. Subtracting the 7 hour and 45 minute flight time between these two cities gives us a trip difference of 11 hours and 15 min. Therefore, you would actually land in Hawaii more than 11 hours before you left Japan!
(Sources: 1, 2)

Aug 23, 201077 notes

The colder the climate, the shorter a mammal’s legs tend to be.

The same also goes for its ears and tail. Cold-climate mammals all tend to have shorter limbs and bodies that are rounder and bulkier than their warmer cousins.

These adaptations all enable cold-climate mammals to conserve precious body heat.

The Arctic hare has shorter ears, short stocky legs, and big feet that serve as snowshoes.
(source)

Aug 23, 201031 notes

It is possible to cry tears of blood.

In 1984, a 15 year old girl in India was found crying blood while studying for exams.

Though it is often infused with supernatural or religious meanings, crying tears of blood is physically possible! This is a condition known as haemolacria, in which tears can either be partially or almost completely composed of blood.

It may appear as a symptom of several types of ailments including jaundice, vascular tumors, and severe cases of anemia….

Aug 23, 201048 notes

Male emperor penguins can survive for two months without food.

After laying a single egg, the female penguins leave the nest for a two-month hunting trip. This leaves the male with the responsibility of keeping the egg safe and warm!

Unlike other types of birds, male emperor penguins stand and balance the egg on their feet. In order to keep the egg warm, they cover it with a feathery flap of skin known as a brood pouch. The male does not eat anything for a until the female penguin…

Aug 23, 201014 notes

A day is longer than a year on Venus.

It takes 225 Earth days or 7 1/5 months for Venus to make a complete orbit around the sun (that’s 1 Venus year). However, it takes 243 Earth days for Venus to spin around its own axis (1 Venus day).

Therefore: 1 Venus year=225 Earth days and 1 Venus day=243 Earth days.
(source)

Aug 23, 201039 notes

Searching for ‘elgooG’ on Google will take you to a Google website that is completely backwards.

The backwards website will come up directly if you click the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button instead of ‘Google Search.’ This website was originally created just for fun, but has actually become quite useful in China after Google was banned there.

You can check out elgooG for yourself, but they’ve been having some server issues so not everything loads properly.
(source)

Aug 23, 201053 notes

Human fingernails grow up to FOUR TIMES faster than toenails!

It takes fingernails 3 to 6 months to regrow completely, while taking toenails anywhere from 12 to 18 months. The rate of nail growth is based on the length of the outermost finger bones. Therefore, fingernails grow faster than toenails and the nail of a person’s index finger grows faster than their pinky fingernail.

Check out this awesome animated gif of a fingernail growing!
(Sources: 1, 2)

Aug 23, 201020 notes

A fly that appears to have drowned can be revived with the use of everyday table salt.

Flies breathe through a series of tubes on their body called spiracles. When a fly is in water for an extended period of time, these tubes are blocked and it loses consciousness as part of a natural defense mechanism.

Like many insects, flies can survive without oxygen for an extended period of time. The salt draws water out of the spiracles, and if the fly has not actually drowned it will be able…

Aug 23, 201021 notes

Lemon sharks can grow a new set of teeth in eight days.

Sharks have several rows of teeth, two front rows for biting prey, and rows of teeth in the back that are used as backup. Sharks lack a hard jaw bone to keep their teeth in place, so they break and lose teeth all the time when they eat.

Shark teeth grow forward in a sort of ‘conveyor belt’ fashion, with lemon sharks having one of the highest replacement rates, replacing teeth every 7-8 days.
(Source: 1, 2)

Aug 23, 201010 notes

Cell phones can start a fire in your pocket.

In fact, one Washington man’s phone set his pants on fire! Another man from Vallejo, California suffered third degree burns all over his body when he slept with his phone in his pocket.

There have been several reported incidents in which a seemingly normal cell phone has burst into flames. It’s a rare occurrence that happens while the phone is in use or in the pocket of the owner.

All batteries run the risk of bursting into flames,…

Aug 23, 201032 notes

Family Guy is the first television show to be resurrected on the basis of DVD sales.

Originally cancelled in 2002, Family Guy was revived a mere two years later due to a massive cult following on DVD. The first season alone sold over 2.2 million copies, giving it the second-highest DVD sales for a TV series ever!
(1, 2)

Aug 22, 201024 notes

Ke$ha wasn’t paid or accredited for her breakout hit.

She is actually the featured female voice in Flo Rida’s chart topping hit, “Right Round.” Released in 2008, this song still holds the single-week record for digital sales! Despite the lack of compensation, this exposure jump-started Ke$ha’s career and put her well on her way to becoming the household name she is today.
(source)

Aug 22, 201032 notes

Area 51 can be seen from Google Earth.
(Source)

Aug 21, 201027 notes

Homosexuality was listed as a mental illness with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) until 1973.

In the past, the studies of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people involved only those in therapy. This biased their conclusions and they ended up listing homosexuality as a mental illness in the APA manual.

In 1973, after doing more research on the subject they removed it from the APA manual. In 1975 the APA officially declared that homosexuality is not a disorder.
(source)

Aug 21, 201036 notes