11 Suuuper Fascinating Facts That Made My Brain Short-Circuit, And I'm Still Trying To Recover From The Reality Of Them All

According to Smithsonian Magazine, "A Swanson salesman named Gerry Thomas conceived the company’s frozen dinners in late 1953 when he saw that the company had 260 tons of frozen turkey left over after Thanksgiving, sitting in ten refrigerated railroad cars. (The train’s refrigeration worked only when the cars were moving, so Swanson had the trains travel back and forth between its Nebraska headquarters and the East Coast."

Gerry later had the idea to add other holiday staples to the meal as sides, like cornbread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and more. After Betty Cronin, Swanson’s bacteriologist, researched a safe way to heat up meat and vegetables while still killing off food-borne germs, they were good to go!

After learning that roosters' crows can range from 130-145 decibels, which is the equivalent intensity of standing 49 feet in front of a jet taking off or standing in the middle of an active aircraft carrier, researchers discovered how they're able to shield their ears from being damaged by their own sound.

"When a rooster's beak is fully open, as it is when crowing, a quarter of the ear canal completely closes and soft tissue covers 50% of the eardrum, the team reports in a paper in press at Zoology. This means roosters aren't capable of hearing their own crows at full strength. The intensity of a rooster's crow diminishes greatly with distance, so it probably doesn't cause significant hearing loss in nearby hens. But if it did, she'd likely be OK. Unlike mammals, birds can quickly regenerate hair cells in the inner ear if they become damaged."

Bob Eckstein, author of The History of the Snowman, noted that early Europeans used snowmen in a much more polictal way versus the fun and humorous way they're used today..

During the brutal winter of 1511 (also known as The Miracle of 1511), which was often referred to as the Winter of Death, Brussels suffered harsh weather, including six straight weeks of below-freezing temperatures. As a way to voice their concerns and frustrations with the current living conditions, "Many of the snow sculptures represented the public’s fears, frustrations, and desires," according to Atlas Obscura. "There were politically charged and sexually obscene tableaux in the streets for all to see — a form of visual satire and social commentary. Current events, complaints, local problems—if it was a nuisance, it was sculpted.”

"A display of frozen politicians became the town’s de facto op-ed page. The most feared characters, from the devil to the enemy ruler from Poederijen, were crafted in uncompromising poses. A sculpture of Redbad, last king of Frisia ('Freeze Land') represented Satan, and was symbolically responsible for the deep winter frosts that threatened lives and livelihoods each year."

Touched by the since of unity within the community, the King of France reportedly donated 1000 gold coins to the town.

Only 32 of the 50 states have an official state beverage, and 20 of them are milk. Other states listed cocktails, while others chose juices and soft drinks.

That's right! The country is one of the few mosquito-free areas due to its harsh and erratic climate. The temperature prevents the insect from being able to survive. Their eggs need a stable environment in order to survive, but because Iceland's weather goes back and forth from warm to cold, it makes it impossible for mosquito eggs to develop the way they're intended.

Astronauts returning from spacewalks report that their suits smell like hot metal or cooked meat, due to high-energy particles. Others have described it as a sweet smell, like raspberries or rum. Astronauts can't smell anything from inside their spacesuits, but the odor from space clings to their gear (helmets, gloves, suits, tools, etc.) and it can only be smelled when they return to their space station.

According to Discover Magazine, what the astronauts probably smell are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which form during combustion during the death of a star. These compounds can also be found in earth-bound materials, like bacon, and are considered carcinogenic.

Ancient Romans used urine as laundry detergent. It was valued for its ammonia content, which helped clean clothing. They collected both human and animal urine from public restrooms and animal urine from farms. Soap was not heavily available at the time, and due to urine's high ammonia content, it was an effective cleaning agent for things like grease and stains. Clothes were soaked in urine, and sometimes mixed with wood ashes. Then they were trampled to help remove the dirt.

Humans glow in the dark, but we can’t see it. Humans emit a faint bioluminescent glow, a thousand times weaker than the human eye can detect.

According to the Guardian, "The light is a thousand times weaker than the human eye can perceive. At such a low level, it is unlikely to serve any evolutionary purpose in humans, though when emitted more strongly by animals such as fireflies, glow-worms, and deep-sea fish, it can be used to attract mates and for illumination.

Bioluminescence is a side-effect of metabolic reactions within all creatures, the result of highly reactive free radicals produced through cell respiration interacting with free-floating lipids and proteins. The 'excited' molecules that result can react with chemicals called fluorophores to emit photons."

Kopi Luwak is a specialty coffee bean that is digested by an Asian palm civet. It's then fermented in their stomach and excreted. The process of producing coffee beans in this manner was discovered during the colonial period in the 19th century by native farmers in Indonesia, when the Dutch refused to allow local farmers to harvest their own coffee.

It's considered the rarest gourmet coffee and one of the most expensive, because a single pound of it sells for $100 (US dollars) or more.