Check Out These 12+ Fascinating Facts About Felines

We all love our feline friends (even when they give us the cold shoulder for no reason at all), but how much do you really know about them?

Take a look at these 15 cat facts so you can try to better understand your furry companion.

1. Abraham Lincoln was a cat lover. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was once asked if Abe had any hobbies and she responded, “Cats!”

2. Cats purr for many reasons: when they’re happy, stressed, sick, hurt, or giving birth.

3. More than half of cats don’t respond to catnip, but researchers have discovered that catnip sensitivity is hereditary.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

4. Many historical figures loved and owned cats, including Mark Twain, Florence Nightengale, and Pope John Paul II.

5. Cats spend 30-50% of their day grooming themselves. They do this for several reasons: it tones down their scent so they can avoid predators, they cool themselves down this way, and it gets their blood flowing. Cats show affection by grooming each other, and it’s believed that their saliva serves as a natural antibiotic for wounds.

6. A group of cats born to one mother is called a kindle. A group of fully-grown cats is called a clowder.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

7. The oldest living current as of this writing is a 30-year-old kitty named Rubble.

8. The average running cat can clock in at a whopping 30 mph.

9. The first cat was launched into space by France in 1963. Félicette made it safely back to Earth.

10. A lot of people are allergic to cats, but it turns out 1 in 200 cats has asthma.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

11. In 2015, the most popular breed of cat in the U.S. was the Exotic Shorthair, followed by the Persian and the Maine Coon.

12. Ancient Egyptians revered cats and worshipped a half-feline goddess named Bastet.

13. Researchers in England found that people with college degrees are 1.36 times more likely to have a cat as opposed to another pet.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

14. Most cats hate water, but certain breeds enjoy it, including the Turkish Van, Maine Coons, and Bengals.

15. A cat has 244 bones in its body. A human only has 206.

The post Check Out These 12+ Fascinating Facts About Felines appeared first on UberFacts.

15 People Reveal Which Magical Creatures They Believe Really Exist

Let’s be honest: it’d be pretty sweet if magical creatures existed in our world. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t love to ride a dragon to work every day.

Most of us won’t ‘fess up to really believing these creatures exist out there in the world, hidden from our puny human eyes, but these 12+ people aren’t scared to go on the record!

#15. Interesting to me.

“While I don’t believe that they actually exist, the way that Native American refuse to ever talk about Wendigos/Skinwalkers always seemed interesting to me.

Perhaps the original tribes has some loonies among them and therefore was deemed as “supernatural” or it simply served as a way to keep children away from the woods? Who knows.

Edit: Does writing about these creatures on Reddit also draw their attention to you? Because then I just fucked us all.”

#14. Changed into myth.

“Unicorns.
The earliest written accounts of unicorns describe them more akin to deer in looks. There’s also a abnormality they can have with their antlers where they curl together into what looks like a single pointed horn instead of two twisting antlers.
It makes sense that they could be changed into myth.

Also, there’s a REAL species of flying dragon!
Ok, so Gliding dragon is a better description…. and it doesn’t breathe fire. Its native to indonesia”

#13. Before we could understand.

“Aralez. Mythological dog angels from Armenian culture. With the widespread stories of dogs saving people’s lives, providing companionship, and giving their very lives for people I can only believe that the Armenian tales recount tales of dogs in prehistory. Before we could understand the depth of their emotion and mental lives fully.”

#12. From the watery depths.

“Kraken.

Wouldn’t surprise me if one appeared from the watery depths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken#/media/File:Denys_de_Montfort_Poulpe_Colossal.jpg”

#11. Eaters of the Dead.

“I am Ojibwe. When people in the past faced Starving-Times due to crop failure/drought, or tribal warfare etc-people who had no other choice would eat the dead out of absolute desperation. People would go mad from starvation before they finally did this. As you can imagine, it was deeply shameful for survivors. After the Starving-Time, no one in the community wanted to discuss it, what they had to do to survive.

For our people, the Wendigo legend originated with these experiences. The Wendigo was a euphemism, an ACTUALIZATION of the survivors emotions during and after the Starving-Time, wherein the urge to eat became all-consuming of a person’s spirit. That the maddening hunger possessed them to such an extent that it would cause them to eat the community’s dead.

Instead of discussing their actual feelings about the cannibalism that was caused by starvation, the story of the Wendigo began. It continued to shape in retelling for centuries and centuries since time immemorial between different Ojibway communities.

So picture the Wendigo. A huge, towering spirit that walked the bush. It’s power was so great, that it knocked down trees as it moved. It came to life every winter, especially after drought. When the People could not store enough food in spring, summer and fall-for winter.

When the communities crops had failed. When the forest had been dry as tinder, and no berries and roots could grow. When the fishing had been poor because the fish were not running in the streams. When the hinting was poor because animals starved. Because animal-mothers could not eat enough and they did not produce milk for their babies and the babies died, and the mothers starved. When even the beavers the Land left because the streams dried up and because the birch trees withered.

That was when the Wendigo came to the Land to torment the People. It followed them through the bush as they searched for food, until they could go no further. The Wendigo then ran down the People. Possessed the People. Made them mad with hunger and lust for food of any kind. Made them so evil and mad that they would eat the dead. The Elders. The children. And if the Wendigo entered you, you also became a Wendigo. You could then possess others to become Eaters of the Dead as well.”

#10. Especially not at dusk.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily likely per se, but my family are Irish and they hardcore believe in the Fair Folk, or the Aos Si. They’re not exactly fairies, they’re … different? Meaner. You don’t fuck with them, basically, and if something’s going horribly wrong in your life it’s probably because you fucked with them or you made them angry. And you have to be careful how you talk about them, too – kind of like with skinwalkers, you don’t name them. You just call them the Fair Folk, or the Folk.

They mostly hang out and try to get you to owe them a favour. You don’t take anything from the Folk, or you owe them one, and you don’t want to be in that position. There’s lots of different types that do lots of different things, though.

I don’t wanna come off as that weirdo who believes in what is… essentially fairies, but I grew up with the stories and I have a healthy level of skepticism about this. I’m not saying they’re real but I’m also not about to step into a fairy circle any time soon. Especially not at dusk.”

#9. Hiding in the depths.

“Anything from the sea really sounds plausible to me considering how little we have explored it. Sea serpents and the Kraken are major examples of something that could realistically be hiding in the depths and only come up to the surface on rare occasions.”

#8. I’ve dated it.

“The Jersey Devil. I’ve dated it.”

#7. Just some poor rabbits.

“Jackelopes definitely exist. Only they’re not some weird rabbit antelope hybrid. They’re just some poor rabbits infected with the Shope Papilloma Virus which causes strange horn-like growths.”

#6. I believe.

“Nicholas Cage. Some say it’s all movie magic, but I believe he’s real.”

#5. Really really really.

“It’s not that I inherently believe there is scientific evidence corroborating its existence, but I just really really really want Mothman to exist.”

#4. The one who stops the flow of rivers.

“Not that I think it’s likely, but I love the Mokele Mbembe legend. Supposedly some sort of dinosaur-like creature living in the swamps in Cameroon or thereabouts. It’s name means “the one who stops the flow of rivers.”

Legend has it that this enormous beast has a long neck, and is bigger than an elephant. It’s supposedly walks along the riverbeds and swamplands most submerged, and has been thought to kill large predators like crocodiles, but then not eat them. There is a story about a small village that killed one of these creatures and ate it, and a short time later, everyone who had eaten its flesh became sick or died.

The main reason it’s so compelling is that the jungle and swamplands where it supposedly lives are so dense and impassable for people that it could have conceivably lived in the relatively unchanged climate for thousand upon thousand of years, and humans would have never encountered it, or even been able to venture into its habitat with any reasonable effort.”

#3. They steal your undies.

“Trolls are real and they steal your undies.”

#2. Probably less exciting.

“Some form of yeti or Sasquatch, aka “Bigfoot”, most likely did exist at one point in time. It doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to me, albeit the real thing was probably less exciting.”

#1. Basically nil.

“Do aliens count?

I guess aliens.

I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that they’ve visited Earth, or abducted people, but somewhere out there?

Yeah, I definitely think so.

The universe is so mind-bogglingly massive that the odds of us being the only life in the universe are basically nil.”

The post 15 People Reveal Which Magical Creatures They Believe Really Exist appeared first on UberFacts.

4 Crazy Vacations Your Ancestors Totally Went On

Back in the old days, entertainment options were pretty limited. Theme parks weren’t a thing, the Internet and television weren’t even a glint in anyone’s imagination, and travel was basically limited to where you could drive. Don’t get me wrong, there were things that you could do, but safety wasn’t exactly guaranteed.

What followed was that our ancestors likely took some pretty dangerous holidays – perhaps without even realizing how people a couple hundred years in the future would see things differently. I’m sure it also has something to do with the fact that we have a lot more rules, regulations, and government branches designated to making sure the human population doesn’t dwindle to zero due to pure stupidity.

It’s a big job, to be sure.

But before all of this beautiful mess we’ve created, our people had to wing it. And wing it, they did.

#4. Hermit stalking.

People who stumbled across people like Robert Harrill – later known as the Fort Fisher Hermit – told their friends how awesome it was to sit and chat with a real-life hermit. And then more people came. Seriously.

For his part, Harrill was a man who had a rough go of things before settling in his abandoned wartime bunker in North Carolina, and though he might have been interesting, he probably would have preferred being alone. Because why else does one choose to live alone in the middle of nowhere?

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

He did get over it when people kept coming to the tune of 10,000 a year, and made a decent living off the change they left after listening to his sermons on the hard lessons life had taught him.

#3. They went to Yellowstone.

Yeah, yeah, some of you have been to Yellowstone, too, but not when it offered a “bear lunch counter,” like it did in 1919. It was a raised bear feeding platform accompanied by nearby bleachers for spectators and yeah, it’s about as dangerous as it sounds.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A ranger rode a horse-drawn cart out onto the feeding platform and gave a lecture while a swarm (literally) of bears showed up for their free lunch. VIPs could even pay extra to be up on the platform and feed the bears (by hand) themselves.

The bears did eventually start attacking people for food and the program was phased out. If only humans had learned their lesson when it comes to bears in Yellowstone.

#2. Visited the Orient – without leaving the States.

Residents of San Fransisco’s Chinatown figured out a way to make a quick buck during the Great Depression – they played up racial stereotypes for white tourists in everything from added “oriental features” to fake opium dens and “captured” white women.

New York’s Chinatown got wind and followed suit, and residents there staged events like knife fights between “opium-crazed men” while actual tour guides warned their parties to stay close lest they end up in cages of their own.

I’m adding this as a place on my time-travel todo list.

#1. Octopus wrestling.

Photo Credit: Old Seattle Times

In the 50s and 60s, people in the Pacific Northwest used to wrestle octopi. On purpose. If you’re picturing man vs. octopus in some kind of cage fight, though, think again – it was basically divers who competed to see who could find the biggest octopus and drag it back to the surface.

The post 4 Crazy Vacations Your Ancestors Totally Went On appeared first on UberFacts.

The Old School Insult These 15 People Would Love to Make a Thing Again

It’s fun to sit around and talk about the things we miss from the years when we were growing up, but how often do you long to bring back the playground insults from your days at school? These 15 people have thought about it, and after you read through their suggestions, I guarantee you will be, too.

#15. Very descriptive.

“You look like 10 pounds of sh*t in a five pound sack.”

#14. More proper.

“I wish people still said “You forget yourself” as a response to a comment someone made. It’s like a more proper “How dare you” with the implication that you are beneath them and should remember your place”

#13. Strangely endearing.

“A roommate once referred to an idiotic person she knew as “a muppet.” It was strangely endearing and oh-so-slightly savage that I’ve used it since but would love to live in a world where we could freely call each other muppets.”

#12. I fell in love with my fella the first time we used this word spontaneously.

“nincompoop”

#11. We all miss that

“Calling someone a Spaz. I miss that.”

#10. Okay, that’s going wayyyyy back.

“I bite my thumb.”

#9. Oooohhhh dang.

“You six piece chicken mcnobody.”

#8. YAS.

“Doofus.”

#7. Your face!

“Your face”

Eg “that shirt looks mental” “your face looks mental” “dude that doesn’t make any sense” “your face doesn’t make any sense”

#6. See also: go piss up a rope.

“Go take a long walk off a short peir.”

#5. So, there.

“You’re not invited to my birthday party”

#4. Rufio FTW.

“You lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food dude.”

#3. Basically.

“Up your nose with a rubber hose. Basically any insult from Welcome Back, Kotter.”

#2. Mom?

“Ragamuffin.”

#1. Classic.

“Eat sh*t and die.”

The post The Old School Insult These 15 People Would Love to Make a Thing Again appeared first on UberFacts.

The Old School Insult These 15 People Would Love to Make a Thing Again

It’s fun to sit around and talk about the things we miss from the years when we were growing up, but how often do you long to bring back the playground insults from your days at school? These 15 people have thought about it, and after you read through their suggestions, I guarantee you will be, too.

#15. Very descriptive.

“You look like 10 pounds of sh*t in a five pound sack.”

#14. More proper.

“I wish people still said “You forget yourself” as a response to a comment someone made. It’s like a more proper “How dare you” with the implication that you are beneath them and should remember your place”

#13. Strangely endearing.

“A roommate once referred to an idiotic person she knew as “a muppet.” It was strangely endearing and oh-so-slightly savage that I’ve used it since but would love to live in a world where we could freely call each other muppets.”

#12. I fell in love with my fella the first time we used this word spontaneously.

“nincompoop”

#11. We all miss that

“Calling someone a Spaz. I miss that.”

#10. Okay, that’s going wayyyyy back.

“I bite my thumb.”

#9. Oooohhhh dang.

“You six piece chicken mcnobody.”

#8. YAS.

“Doofus.”

#7. Your face!

“Your face”

Eg “that shirt looks mental” “your face looks mental” “dude that doesn’t make any sense” “your face doesn’t make any sense”

#6. See also: go piss up a rope.

“Go take a long walk off a short peir.”

#5. So, there.

“You’re not invited to my birthday party”

#4. Rufio FTW.

“You lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food dude.”

#3. Basically.

“Up your nose with a rubber hose. Basically any insult from Welcome Back, Kotter.”

#2. Mom?

“Ragamuffin.”

#1. Classic.

“Eat sh*t and die.”

The post The Old School Insult These 15 People Would Love to Make a Thing Again appeared first on UberFacts.

These 10 Photos Show What Difference a Day Can Make

Can you believe these 10 photos were taken just a single day apart? The change is absolutely extraordinary.

1. Hurricane Harvey

2. Chernobyl, USSR

Photo Credit: chernobylguideback-in-ussr

3. Sahara Desert

Photo Credit: animalreadertelesurtv

4. Japanese Tsunami

Photo Credit: daypic

5. Fall of the Berlin Wall

Photo Credit: ingpeaceproject

6. Mount Saint Helens’ Eruption, 1980

Photo Credit: vulkaniaoffthegridnews

7. Stock Market Crash of 1929

Photo Credit: etoretro.ruaif

8. The 2010 Haiti Earthquake

Photo Credit: pokazima, novate

9. Earthquake in the Indian Ocean

Photo Credit: dailymail

10. Hurricane Katrina

Photo Credit: vevphotochronograph

The post These 10 Photos Show What Difference a Day Can Make appeared first on UberFacts.

How Did the English Language End up with Their/They’re/There?

It’s one of the most common mistakes in the English language, and it drives a lot of people up the wall. If you’ve ever read a rant by someone on Facebook or Twitter, chances are you’ve seen them misuse their/they’re/there. But how did it end up that way?

Photo Credit: Pixabay

It all started with Old English. The word for “there” was spelled þǽr (thǽr). The Old English word for “their” was hiera, so no one was having any trouble telling those two apart. When Scandinavians started coming to the British Isles around the year 1000, the locals started incorporating their words into English. One example is their word for “their”, þaire (thaire). Now there were two words that were similar, but had different spellings and pronunciations.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Over the next several centuries, the English language was standardized somewhat through more development and the invention of the printing press, which led to higher literacy levels.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

“There” changed spellings many times, including thar, thaire, ther, yar, theer, thiar, and thore. “Their” was alternately spelled as thayir, thayre, yaire, and theer. Over hundreds of years of changed spellings, we ended up with two words spelled differently with the same pronunciation. And then there was “they’re” (confused yet?). Contractions weren’t written like this until the late 16th century, and “they’re” naturally became the short spelling for “they are.” So English speakers ended up with three words that all sound the same but have different meanings.

Thanks a lot, ancestors.

The post How Did the English Language End up with Their/They’re/There? appeared first on UberFacts.

7 of the Most Beautiful Libraries from around the World

When was the last time you visited your local library? While some are new and updated, the sad truth is that many libraries are bland, brick buildings.

But there are still historic, grand temples that we can all visit if we’re lucky enough to be able to travel. Here are 7 of the most beautiful libraries in the world.

1. Biblioteca Classense – Ravenna, Italy

The main hall of the Biblioteca Classense was constructed in the 1700s and holds over 800,000 volumes.

2. Rijksmuseum Research Library – Amsterdam

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

This research library was constructed in 1885 by Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers and contains 450,000 volumes.

3. Biblioteca Do Convento De Mafra – Mafra, Portugal

Photo Credit: Flickr,Rosino

This library is now a museum and was founded in 1717.

4. Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura – Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The name translates to “the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading” and this building dates back to the 1880s. This library also holds the largest collection of Portuguese works outside of Portugal.

5. Strahovská Knihovna – Prague, Czech Republic

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Parts of this building date back to the 1600s.

6. Bibliothéque Sainte-Geneviéve – Paris, France

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

This Paris library is now part of a university and contains 2 million holdings. The building dates to the mid-1800s.

7. Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen – St. Gallen, Switzerland

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

This public reference library contains 170,000 volumes, and some of the collection survived a 10th-century fire. The building was designed in the 1700s by Austrian architect Peter Thumb.

The post 7 of the Most Beautiful Libraries from around the World appeared first on UberFacts.

9+ Interesting Facts About Marijuana

It seems like every week another state in the U.S. is legalizing marijuana.

Will YOUR state be next?

In the meantime, enjoy these facts about the sticky icky icky.

1. That figures

Photo Credit: did you know?

2. Smoke ’em if you got ’em

Photo Credit: did you know?

3. Hollywood connection

Photo Credit: did you know?

4. A helpful drug

Photo Credit: did you know?

5. This sounds like a dream job

Photo Credit: did you know?

6. I’ll take an ounce of maned wolf pee

Photo Credit: did you know?

7. Good thing he got caught

Photo Credit: did you know?

8. Ancient weed

Photo Credit: did you know?

9. Nuns having fun

Photo Credit: did you know?

10. Not a single one…

Photo Credit: did you know?

The post 9+ Interesting Facts About Marijuana appeared first on UberFacts.

Check out These 5 Fascinating Facts About Middle Children

Middle children definitely drew the short straw when it comes to siblings. Think about Jan Brady’s character in The Brady Bunch. Always being overlooked, always living in the shadow of her siblings (and then acting out and throwing hysterical fits).

Photo Credit: ABC

But scientific studies show that middle children don’t really have it all that bad after all. It turns out that they can be very creative, independent, and have great leadership qualities.

So turn that frown upside down Jan Brady (and all the other middle children out there). Here are 5 facts very interesting facts about the middle kids of the world.

1. Their lack of self-esteem might not be a bad thing

Middle children might not get a ton of attention at home and might get overlooked sometimes, but this can help keep their egos in check. Katrin Schumann says, “Having an accurate sense of your self-esteem is more important than having high self-esteem. Surprisingly, new studies show that high self-esteem does not correlate with better grades in school or greater success in life. It can actually lead to a lack of perseverance in the face of difficulties.”

2. They can be good negotiators

Photo Credit: iStock

One advantage of being stuck in the middle all the time? You can become a good negotiator. Katrin Schumann, co-author of The Secret Power of Middle Children, says, “Middles are used to not getting their own way, and so they become savvy, skillful manipulators. They can see all sides of a question and are empathetic and judge reactions well. They are more willing to compromise, and so they can argue successfully. Since they often have to wait around as kids, they’re more patient.”

3. They might be an endangered species

The numbers don’t lie: women used to have a lot more kids. But since the early 1970s, the numbers have declined. Today, 48% of American women have two children, as opposed to 3, 4, or 5 in years past. Society has changed, and people are going to school later and longer, getting married later in life, and the cost of raising kids has gone through the roof.

All this adds up to smaller families, which means fewer and fewer middle children out there. What a shame!

4. They’re faithful

Photo Credit: US Air Force

One study showed that 80% of middle children claimed they have never cheated in a relationship. In comparison, 65% of firstborn children and 53% of youngest children revealed they have been unfaithful to a partner or a spouse.

Studies also show that middle children are the happiest in their marriages…but not with each other because both people might tend to want to avoid conflict.

5. Middle children = Leaders

If we use the loose definition of middle children and include children who were not the oldest or youngest in their group of sibilngs, 52% of American Presidents fall into that category. That list includes Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy. Not bad company, eh?

The post Check out These 5 Fascinating Facts About Middle Children appeared first on UberFacts.