Most of us enjoy curling up in bed with a blanket while scrolling through the internet. Yet, some stories we stumble upon can send shivers down our spine. We’ve come across a few of these, and they aren’t just made-up stories, they are actually real-life accounts experienced by ordinary people.
You call your beloved cat to have his dinner. Sir Scratchy! Suddenly, you hear loud stomping. The dishes on the dinner table clink with every thump. A painting’s fallen off the wall! Is it an earthquake? No, that’s a cat the size of a pony walking into the dining room! It needs ten times as much food as the average cat. And it purrs like a tractor! No, Scratchy, stop rolling, you’ll turn over the cupboard! Well, this is one possible scenario for the evolution of animals in the future. Climate, water, oxygen in the air, and even gravity are factors that influence the course of evolution. For example, scientists predict that some bird species will gradually lose their warm feathers. In the future, they will basically look like sphinx cats with beaks and wings. The same thing might happen to our pets. Gradually, their fur will become shorter until they’re completely bald.
Well, it’s that time of year again: Spring cleaning! Making your way outside, you grab the duster and broom to get rid of all those cobwebs on your windows. They don’t stand a chance this time! Removing one cobweb after the other, you suddenly notice some weird shaped mud stuck under the eaves and porch! What’s this?It suddenly dawns on you: these have to be Mud Dauber Wasp nests! You’re probably thinking there’s a swarm of them around with so many nests being side by side! Luckily, Mud Dauber Wasps are solitary insects. Phew! All those little mud huts are filled with paralyzed spiders. Sometimes, even up to 500 spiders can be trapped in these lockers, just waiting for the wasp young to hatch.
Flies are everywhere we go, literally. It is believed that flies originated in Asia, but these days they live everywhere people live, only excluding Antarctica, and — maybe — a couple of islands. Flies have traveled the oceans following humans, but they never go anywhere alone. In the wilderness and deserts, where humans are absent, you won’t find any flies.
The plane had been in the air for a mere 25 seconds when the pilots noticed weird noises and bizarre vibrations. They tried several ways to improve the situation, but nothing worked. The engine surges continued. And just over a minute into the flight, when the plane reached 3,000 feet, both engines failed: first, the right one; two seconds later, the left one. The pilots decided to return to the airport they had just left. At the same time, they tried to restart the engines. Nothing seemed to work. The flight crew made a decision to pitch the plane down and then level it off. Perhaps it could help them gain some speed for the glide! But soon, they realized they wouldn’t make it to the airport. Was the plane going to crash?! That’s when the Miracle at Gottröra occurred.
Big herds of dinosaurs run through the forest. The temperature rises rapidly, and everything behind them begins to ignite. Some dinosaurs get stuck in swamps and can’t get out. Pterodactyls fly over their heads as they try to avoid the blast wave that will soon cover the Earth. This event happened about 66 million years ago. It wiped out almost every living thing on Earth. Birds and flying dinosaurs were just about the only ones who could survive the most massive extinction event ever. Hey don’t blame me. I wasn’t around then.
Poor Pete. Pete is so scared of bugs all he wants is to find a place on Earth where he can be safe from them. After years of research and traveling, he eventually finds the place to go: Antarctica! Pete makes it there, confident that bugs wouldn’t survive in the cold. Ahhhhhhh! Little did he know that insects are on every continent of this planet. Well, not really. He was kind of right about Antarctica: it isn’t home to a lot of bugs. In fact, there is only one true species of insect that calls this place home: it’s a wingless midge called Belgica antarctica. This fly is tiny [0.08 to 0.23 inches long], but it’s still Antarctica’s largest terrestrial bug.
Turbulence is caused by sudden shifts in the airflow and is nothing to be afraid of. But if that simple knowledge doesn’t help you, try this visualization from a pilot. Put a small piece of napkin inside a pot of jelly. The napkin is the plane, and it’s surrounded by jelly, or sorry, by air pressure. If you tap the jelly, the napkin will not fall anywhere. It just starts slightly moving within the jelly.
Welcome aboard our flight from London to Miami. It will take us 4 hours 30 minutes. The weather in Miami is... wait — did the pilot just say 4 hours and a half? It sounds like a dream, but it will most likely become our reality in less than 10 years from now! Boom Supersonic, an aircraft manufacturer, is working on a passenger supersonic jet called the Overture that will be able to carry 65 to 80 people at twice the speed of current commercial aircraft. One of the major American airlines is interested in buying around 40 planes.
Hey! I have an invitation for you. Pack your bags, and let’s head down to the world’s most visited city: Paris! The city of love, the city of blinding lights, or whatever you want to call it. Our goal is to uncover as many secrets as possible regarding the world-famous Musée du Louvre. Are you up for it? Grab your travel book and bon voyage!
You work in a large nature reserve that is home to more than a thousand species of animals. At night, you drive through the territory in a jeep to see if everything is okay. Most animals are sleeping. Suddenly you hear the monkeys screaming. They jump from branch to branch. A herd of horses runs out of the forest. They look worried, too. You hear many animals crying. Looks like some unknown strange thing has woken up and horrified the whole reserve. You see a flash in the night sky. It’s a meteorite, and it’s flying right towards you. You get in the car, hit the gas, and drive away as far as possible. The space rock falls right in front of you and throws your vehicle to the side. You pass out.
The legend goes that a dwarf named Fafnir was famous for his strength and courage. He was the son of a famous dwarf king. Because of his qualities, he was tasked with protecting their kingdom. Dwarfs were known to gather a lot of wealth, so a bit of added security was a must. I mean, they lived in a house made from gold and precious gems. But Fafnir also had another special talent: he was able to shapeshift! Tricked by Loki, the Norse spirit of mischief, Fafnir was taken over by his greed and the shine of his father’s treasure. He decided he did not want to share any of it, not even with his father or his brothers. He stole it and ran away all by himself to a place he’d be hard to find: the middle of the desert.
On average, Earth’s waters rise by 14 hundredths of an inch each year, and sometimes I feel like, you know, getting some floaties. So we can’t help but wonder what if we end up living underwater? We now have evidence that humans could adapt to that. The Bajau — a group of people living in South-East Asia — have evolved to have enlarged spleens. The spleen is the organ that stores oxygen-rich red blood cells. When these cells are released into the bloodstream, they enable divers to hold their breath underwater for longer periods of time. This allows the Bajau people to free dive to depths of up to 230 feet!
I know, right, why couldn’t we just strap a huge parachute to the entire plane? You bring up a great point — with some airplanes malfunctioning, why don’t we just make them float safely to the ground? I mean, if we can drop a human being on a parachute, why can’t we do the same for planes?
You’re traveling by train and hear the wheels banging against the tracks. But suddenly, the train rises and gains altitude. None of the passengers scream in panic because this is a regular thing now. Well, maybe not yet, but it might become our reality anytime soon! Akka Technologies company is developing such a project. Their goal is to reduce travel time and make trips more comfortable. To travel today, you need to get to the airport, spend a few hours there at the check-in and security check. And only after that can you board the plane. When the plane lands, you need to go through standard airport procedures again and then get to the city. Only after this, your trip is over. It means you use at least three different types of transport.
Oh, no! Your cat knocked down your mug. Coffee is all over your expensive rug. Let’s freeze time for a couple of moments and see exactly how long it will take for coffee to spill on the floor. In regular time, it should take about a second for the initial knockdown of the mug and for gravity to do its job. Your cat is giving those menacing eyes while doing it. Yikes. 24 or 25 frames per second means that a video you see on the screen looks exactly like people moving in real life. When the first-ever movies were made, cameras didn’t have the technology to support 25 frames per second. That’s why the movements were sped up and exaggerated. Fast-forward to the present day, and we have technology that can capture the tiniest details.
Amongst the swamps lives a strange bird with a Dutch clog for a beak. It screeches a high pitch whine, notifying other shoebills that this is its area when it comes to food. Its eerie calls add to the surrounding roars of dinosaurs in the distance. It’s not hunting dinosaurs, though, of course, but snakes, fish, lizards, and frogs amongst the reeds.
Superpowers? Believe it or not, some animals have them. From sticky tongues to changing colors, you’re about to meet 13 amazing animals with some very special abilities.
Fail. Aaagh! What a waste of an hour, running around with a rolled up newspaper trying to get that fly that keeps buzzing around your head. 3 things: why isn’t it afraid of you and why won’t it just fly away? And how is it so incredibly fast? Flies actually have a pretty normal speed for their size. You’re just a bit too slow.A tiny fly brain reacts several times faster than yours to what it sees. 1 second to the fly feels like 5 or 6 to you. When a fly looks at you, it sees you as if you’re hanging out at the bottom of your local pool, moving around really slowly.
Sometimes, a little hack can change your day for the best. From saving you time in the morning to saving you money on decorating your home, anything that can help make things better is welcome. Even simple things, like enjoying your chips without having to struggle to reach into the container and make a mess, can make life a little easier.
Whether they’re told for fun or to get your children to do or not do something, a small lie now and then can’t be harmful to their development. Harmless lies are an inevitable part of growing up, and we have all once believed them. Even though some people believed those little fibs until embarrassingly old age, they still remember them as a cute and funny memory.
We don’t pay a lot of attention to everyday things. What can be so interesting about a simple shirt or a pack of juice? But, as it turns out, some details in ordinary things can make their owners’ lives easier.
Celebrities get ready for important events for weeks or even months. They think up their looks to the tiniest details, often putting a special meaning into their clothes and accessories. Meanwhile, fans and fashion experts keep guessing what message their famous idols wanted to convey with the help of this or that detail.
Traveling by plane is probably the safest way of transport, and there are very good reasons for that. Plane accidents are very rare compared to other types of crashes. And that’s because a plane features countless safety measures that we may not even be aware of. The oxygen masks and seatbelts are only the beginning of the precautionary measures that the aviation industry has set for us.
While only female mosquitoes feed on human blood, both males and females can produce that pesky buzzing sound that keeps you awake at night. However, they don’t do this simply because they want to annoy you — they’ve got their own strong reasons for it.
Bloggers use all kinds of tricks in order to make the process of applying makeup easier and cheaper. They use silverware, children’s cosmetics, and even construction materials such as duct tape. Sometimes, these things look completely unreal — but do they really work?
Makeup is an integral part of the life and look of almost every modern woman. Sometimes it seems that not only does it consume finances, but also nerves and time. Wings always end up being uneven, while eyeshadows get all over your face. And all of this usually happens before even leaving home for work.
Any flight can be stressful. What is normal on the ground looks absolutely different and possibly uncomfortable up in the air.
It’s hard to surprise an experienced traveler, but there are still some things you’ve probably never thought of. Bright Side found several secrets that are only known to airport employees and the most curious passengers.
