In Case You Didn't Want To Sleep Tonight, Here Are 24 Super-Disturbing Facts You Will Wish You Never Heard
Recently, we rounded up disturbing facts from this Reddit thread, and people were pretty horrified! In case you couldn't get enough, we're back with more! Here are 24 more facts that you will definitely regret reading.
1.The US president at any given time has absolute authority to launch nuclear weapons.
He doesn't personally carry out the order, but as long as it's verified as authentic, people basically have to follow through.
Suggested by u/seddit_rucks
2.Ever wondered what happens when someone dies on an airplane?
Well, it turns out they're usually kept in their seat or moved to the back row if there's room.
20th Century Fox
Suggested by Emazinggrace12
3.Last time, we talked about how cruise ships have morgues. Well, guess what? They also have jails.
Suggested by lisab120107
4.50% of American unhoused people were in the foster care system at one point.
Suggested by u/toasty_turban
5.And 25% of foster kids experience homelessness within two to four years of turning 18.
6.You may have read in the last post about human zoos — well, they still (kind of) exist. There was an episode of An Idiot Abroad where they visited a faux village of people with dwarfism who perform and interact with tourists.
Suggested by hmmfeed
There's been a bunch of controversy about whether or not The Kingdom of The Little People is in fact a human zoo — inhabitants are paid — but it certainly sounds similar to past "human zoos."
7.The Romans were notorious for gruesome execution methods. Perhaps the worst (alleged) method was called scaphism, where a person was fed and covered in honey, put in a swamp, and slowly eaten alive by maggots and worms.
Fox
Suggested by deliverusfromnada
8.Another ancient Rome fact: "During the late Roman Republic, one of the richest men in Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus, used to own a team of firefighters (there was no dedicated firefighter service at the time). If your building was burning, he would offer to buy the building. If you agreed, he put out the fire. If not, his team of firefighters just left and let the building burn."
9.In the last post, we talked about how rabies has a 99.9% fatality rate. You basically just have to wait out its symptoms until you die.
One of the later symptoms? Fear of water. Basically, you'll be super thirsty, but you'll spasm and be unable to ingest water.
Suggested by tfsexton88
10.You can get a prion disease (a rare, fatal brain disease) at any time from eating infected meat (among other things). It's always fatal.
Suggested by u/Evening-Reveal8497
One type is called fatal insomnia, where basically, you can't sleep, your coordination and mental functions become more and more impaired, and then you die.
NBC
Suggested by u/imjb87
11.Also, the "Black Death" — also called the Bubonic Plague — is still around.
Suggested by u/SwedishCaregiverSock
12.There's a type of tumor called a teratoma that can grow teeth, hair, and organs.
Suggested by u/Guilty-Gas-762
13.In case you need yet another thing to be scared of, there have been multiple alleged cases of spontaneous human combustion throughout history, and they can't all be disproved.
14.Bayer, the drug company, created a blood-clotting medicine for people with hemophilia in the 1980s. They used donated plasma, before there was a test for HIV. Thousands of hemophiliacs got HIV — Bayer and similar companies had to pay out $600 million in lawsuits.
Suggested by u/GFTRGC
Even worse? They created a new version that was heat-treated to kill HIV, which they sold to the US and Europe, but kept selling the old meds to Latin America and Asia.
NBC
15.You probably think of the chainsaw as a tool for cutting wood — or, like me, you think of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
But it was actually originally invented to help with childbirth. When babies would get stuck coming out, doctors would have to remove some pelvic bone and cartilage to free space, and the medical chainsaw that was invented aided with this.
Suggested by turnthepaiges
16.Speaking of birth, there was a 1965 invention that was meant to use centrifugal force — aka spinning someone around — to aid a woman in giving birth.
HBO
Suggested by emazinggrace12
17.Maybe more weird than disturbing, but true: 1/200 people on Earth are related to infamous conquerer Genghis Khan.
Suggested by u/AdmiralBarackAdama
18.Your pets will eat you if you die in your home and aren't found for days.
And...there have even been cases where they started to eat someone who'd fallen unconscious.
Fox
19.Another fun animal fact for ya: Male dolphins will "forcibly copulate" with female dolphins and will sometimes kill their children to coerce them into intercourse.
Suggested by I-am-here-what-next
20.Oh, and..."60% of all wildlife has vanished since 1970, and [it's] still going down."
21.A fun movie fact: the scream of the demon in The Exorcist was created using recorded sounds of pigs crying as they were about to be slaughtered.
Suggested by u/SevenSoIaris
22.Another fact about The Exorcist: One of the X-ray technicians in one scene would go on to become a convicted murderer.
23.Our universe could potentially be wiped out at any time by a wandering black hole, nearby supernova, vacuum decay, or any number of other things in the galaxy.
Suggested by u/cumquatsandcumfarts
24.And finally, we can't confirm this one, so take it with a grain of salt, but..."I’ve been deeply involved in AA for over 47 years. One of the many things I’ve learned is all professions include people who are drinking or drunk while working. This includes airline pilots. I’m betting as I write this there is a legally drunk pilot in the air right now."
What other facts do you know that are super disturbing? Let us know in the comments!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
