39 weird facts most people don’t know

One translation of the poem he sent to his friend begins:

I’ve already grown a goitre from this torture,

hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy

(or anywhere else where the stagnant water’s poison).

Doesn’t sound like he was too thrilled with his task.

These are the secret messages you can find in the world’s most famous paintings.

Ella Slack has a similar height and stature to the queen, so before big events, she’ll do a rehearsal to avoid any royal pains like the sun getting in Her Majesty’s eyes. Slack has been doing it for three decades but isn’t allowed to sit in the throne, so she has to squat above it.

On Earth, the atmosphere scatters more sunlight, so our shadows aren’t too dark. But on the Moon, shadows are so dark that Neil Armstrong said he had trouble seeing where he was going.

When threatened, they’ll shoot out their internal organs, which are poisonous to predators. They’ll sometimes get rid of their entire digestive systems – but the organs grow back.

Tim Berners-Lee, who created the main software of the World Wide Web, admitted he regrets one thing: Adding “//” after “https:” in a web address. It was standard for programming but didn’t serve any real purpose, and when looking back in 2009, he said leaving it out would have saved time and space. We guess we can forgive him.

You’ll think these 67 mind-blowing facts are made up. But they’re not!

About a month after the statue’s 1886 dedication, it became a working lighthouse for 16 years, with its torch visible from 38 kilometres away.

Learn about 13 secret chambers hidden inside famous landmarks. 

Neither are raspberries and blackberries, according to botanists. True berries stem from one single-ovary flower and have two or more seeds. Strawberries don’t fit that bill, but bananas, kiwis and watermelon do.

Quit falling for these other 51 facts that you’ve always believed but are actually false.

They’re also known as a “conspiracy,” which is equally creepy.

And here are 27 more hilarious (but totally real) names for groups of animals.

The countdown Fritz Lang used to create suspense in the rocket launch scene of his 1929 silent film Frau im Mond didn’t just change film history – it also inspired NASA to use countdowns before its own blastoffs. It’s not exactly a race against the clock though. NASA can feel free to pause the clock to check mechanical difficulties.

Biologists found them in a specific 14-block strip of the city.