1. The average person walks past at least 16 murderers in their lifetime.
Some badass on Reddit did the math for someone living in an average-sized city:
10 new people per day x 365 days per year x 71 years of living = about 260,000 separate individuals somebody might walk by. 260,000 people in a lifetime x 6 murderers per 100,000 people = 15.6, or about 16 murderers.
They’re called “demodex mites,” and the older you are, the more there are in your follicles. They’re spread by skin-to-skin contact — try to forget that when you get a nice ‘ol kiss from Gramma.
It’s called “coffin birth,” and can happen when a pregnant corpse releases gas while decomposing that expels the dead fetus out. This can happen within 48-72 hours of the mom’s death.
—Eunice Villanueva, Facebook
4. Over 1,600 people have gone missing in U.S. National Parks, never to be seen again.
Unfortunately, these people tend to stay missing because tracking them is insanely difficult — even after the U.S. government put an analysis and reporting system in place after 9/11.
5. There is a parasite that destroys the tongue of a fish and then replaces the tongue with its own body.
Essentially it transforms itself into a living, parasitic, but fully-functioning and otherwise harmless tongue. It’s called cymothoa exigua.
7. In 1518, there was a dancing plague where about 400 people began to involuntary dance for days on end.
Healthcare professionals assumed that they were shaking off a fever. Some people died of a heart attack, exhaustion, or even strokes.
8. There’s a parasite in cat poop that can literally control rats’ minds, should they eat it.
It’s called Toxoplasma gondii, and it changes a rat’s mind function to make them drawn to the smell of cat urine, making it easier for cats to find and catch the rat. Literally leading the rat to its death.
10. Serial killer Dennis Rader would sometimes spend time in his victim’s houses, hiding in their closets until they were at their most vulnerable.
Also known as the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill), he’d kill entire families and steal things from their homes from the ’70s to the ’90s. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR HOUSE FOR MURDERERS.
—Megan Brooke Klaine, Facebook
11. There’s a zombie fungus that basically enslaves ants for its own benefit until it kills them.
It’s called desmidiospora myrmecophila, a furry, parasitic fungus that causes infected insects to behave strangely.
16. Your brain can play tricks on you to make you see monsters in the mirror, called the Troxler Effect.
The Troxler Effect is an optical illusion that affects how you perceive things, both visually and mentally. Spooky.
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