21 Truly Fascinating Facts I Learned This Week That, TBH, Have Changed My Perspective On Everything I Once Knew

🚨 Warning: This article contains mentions of murder, violence, and other sensitive topics. 🚨

1.If being trapped underground in a speeding metal tube freaks you out, then just be glad that trains have windows now! The first subway cars ever built in London had tiny little slits for windows. Passengers couldn't see out them to know when to get off the train, and the lack of windows made riders feel incredibly claustrophobic. So why no windows? The engineers who designed the train thought that there was nothing worth looking at underground in the tunnels.

Warner Brothers / Via giphy.com

2.Actor Claire Danes is barred from entering the Philippines, and has been for more than two decades. In a 1998 Vogue interview, Danes said she found Manila, the country's capital city, to be "ghastly and weird." The actor had recently spent time there filming the movie Brokedown Palace. She later doubled down on her criticism, telling Premiere magazine, the city "smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over, and that there is no sewerage system, and the people do not have anything — no arms, no legs, no eyes."

As a result, the city council formally banned Danes from entering the country, and even voted to forbid her movies from being shown. Manila said the ban would be lifted once Danes issued a formal apology. While she has since apologized for her remarks, the city council shot back, saying they didn't believe her apology was genuine. She is still barred from the Philippines.

3.While traveling to space, astronauts' eyeballs can change shape, leading to vision problems. Among those who had spent over six months at the International Space Station, NASA documented several instances of astronauts suddenly becoming far-sighted, having issues reading, and needing others to assist them because they couldn't see. It is believed that this is due to a build-up of fluid in the head, which applies immense pressure to the eyeball.

ESA / Via giphy.com

4.Randy Steven Kraft is a serial killer known as the "Scorecard Killer," because he was known for keeping a list that resembled a scorecard of all of the people he murdered. Kraft's scorecard included initials and abbreviations to list out the names of his victims, which also made it difficult for others to determine who each entry was about.

Kraft was convicted of killing 16 young men between 1972 and 1983 in Los Angeles. He mostly killed by strangling or suffocating his victims, although he would also sometimes give them alcohol or drugs to cause a fatal overdose. Most of the men he killed were in the Marines. Kraft had enlisted in the Air Force after graduating from college, but was medically discharged after he came out as gay.

Officials were able to connect 14 murders to the same person, who they believed was above average intelligence. They also noted that the killer likely had military training. Police began to suspect Kraft after his license plate was connected to a 15th murder, but he was released on a lack of evidence. Years later, he was pulled over by police, who found a man's body in the car. They also found Kraft's scorecard, which connected him to 16 murders. There were so many markings on the card that it is believed Kraft actually killed about 60 men. He was sentenced to death in 1989, and still remains on death row, where he maintains that he is innocent.

5.After reading M. Night Shyamalan's spec script for The Sixth Sense, Disney executive David Vogel bought the rights to the movie for about $3 million. Disney believed that the movie would never amount to anything, and fired Vogel for buying the film. They also sold the production rights to the movie to Spyglass Entertainment, meaning Disney would only get a tiny portion of the movie's profits. The Sixth Sense went on to spend five weeks at number one, and was nominated for six Oscars. Guess Vogel had a sixth sense about how well the movie would do!

Spyglass Entertainment / Via giphy.com

6.The FBI has an iron-clad rule that applicants must not have used marijuana in the last three years. As a result, the agency has said they've had a hard time hiring hackers. Those who have used cocaine or ecstasy must wait 10 years before becoming eligible to work for the FBI.

7.Even sports legends get embarrassed. During a trip to Las Vegas, Michael Jordan tipped a casino waitress $5 for bringing him a drink. Hockey icon Wayne Gretzky, who was accompanying Jordan on the trip, stopped the waitress and handed her $100 instead, telling Jordan, "That's how we tip in Las Vegas, Michael."

8.There is a red waterfall in Antarctica, which is known as Blood Falls. The water is red because it contains no oxygen, and is home to dozens of different species of microorganisms, which are thought to be flowing from a lake that has been trapped under the ice for over 2 million years. Scientists believe that a similar ecosystem might live on Mars.

9.Cleopatra supposedly always wore red lipstick, which was made from flowers, fish scales, and crushed-up bugs. During that time, red lipstick was seen as a sign of social status, and both men and women donned the shade.

Lionsgate / Via giphy.com

10.Paul McCartney, who is a vegetarian and an animal rights activist, was approached to guest star on an episode of The Simpsons that featured Lisa Simpson becoming a vegetarian. When he learned about the episode's plot line, he said he would guest star on one condition: Lisa permanently became a vegetarian. The showrunners agreed, and Lisa Simpson has been a vegetarian ever since.

11.The average cloud weighs 1.1 million pounds and contains about 500,000,000 water droplets.

12.Two women's regulation basketballs can fit through a standard basketball hoop at one time. Two average men's basketballs just miss the cut, but some pairs could fit depending on how much air is in the balls.

Soul Pancake / Via giphy.com

13.After Robert Morin graduated from the University of New Hampshire, he worked at the college as a librarian for over 50 years. When he died in 2015 at age 77, everyone at the school was shocked to learn that Morin was a multimillionaire, who had left his entire $4 million fortune to the school. He said that $100,000 had to go to the library, and that he trusted that the university would do "the right thing" with the other $3.9 million. The school invested $1 million of the gift in a new scoreboard for the football stadium, a move that drew backlash and criticism that the school only spent "the bare minimum" on the library.

14.John Graham was a 22-year-old who had recently reconciled with his mother, Daisie, after being estranged for years. Despite their reconciliation, Graham still harbored resentment toward Daisie, and plotted to kill her. When Daisie planned a trip to Alaska to visit her daughter, Graham planted a dynamite time bomb in her suitcase. He then purchased a life insurance policy in his mother's name while in the airport terminal, hoping to collect around $37,500.

On November 1, 1955, the bomb detonated on board the flight, killing 44 people. It was the first attack of its kind on board a commercial aircraft. After six days of searching the wreckage, officials determined that the plane had been taken down by the bomb, and turned the investigation over to the FBI. They were able to pin down Graham due to the level of damage his mother's luggage had sustained. He was caught and sentenced to death in 1957. His trial was televised, making Colorado the first state to broadcast criminal trials.

15.On the fifth floor of the US Supreme Court building, there's a full basketball court that was constructed in the 1940s. The court was jokingly dubbed "The Highest Court in the Land." The basketball court is actually directly above the Supreme Courtroom, so people aren't allowed to play while court is in session.

16.Female sharks store sperm after mating. They can hold it for years until they are ready to reproduce. This practice actually promotes genetic diversity, and helps maintain wild shark populations.

17.Presidents over the years have had a variety of different pets, but Andrew Jackson's parrot was probably one of the more unique animals to ever call the White House home. Jackson purchased the African grey parrot as a gift for his wife, Rachel. The couple named the parrot Poll.

After Rachel died, Jackson and Poll spent even more time together, causing Poll to pick up on Jackson's frequent cursing. Poll even attended Jackson's funeral in 1845. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people, Poll began cursing, and had to be removed from the funeral proceedings.

BBC / Via giphy.com

18.I demand an explanation. Double Stuf Oreos contain only 1.86 times the amount of creme as a traditional Oreo. A math teacher discovered the discrepancy while conducting an experiment with his class.

19.There's a theory that William Shakespeare helped write the King James Bible. The bible was underway in 1610, when Shakespeare was 45 years old. The bard also had a relationship with King James, having written for him before. The last line of Psalm 45 ends in "shake," while the first word of Psalm 46 is "spear." People think this is a hidden message included in the text by Shakespeare himself. The theory has since been debunked, but some are convinced that the message means that the playwright had something to do with the bible's publication.

20.Bears actually weren't always called bears. In the Middle Ages, people were so scared of the animals that they refused to call them by their proper name because they feared it would summon them. Instead, they started referring to them as "bruin," meaning "the brown one," which later morphed into "bear." People adopted that as the actual name for the species, meaning the word "bear" is actually the world's oldest euphemism.

BBC / Via giphy.com

21.And finally, Althea Gibson was truly the blueprint for Black women in sports. As a child, Gibson loved tennis, but was barred from many competitions because she was Black. Eventually, tournament organizers couldn't deny her talents, and she began competing in high-profile tournaments. Her success also allowed her to attend college, although the negative press surrounding her caused her to consider quitting tennis and dropping out of college to join the Army. She stayed, and by 1951, she was the first Black player to compete at Wimbledon.

Gibson went on to win both the singles and doubles tournament at Wimbledon in 1957. She also won the US Open in 1958, cementing her as one of the world's best tennis players. She later took up golf, and became the first Black woman to ever compete on the pro tour. Upon her retirement in 1971, Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.