11 Everyday Things That Prove Your Life Is A Lie
Why did pirates really wear eyepatches?
What mind-blowing secret are penguins hiding under their feathers?
Find out in 11 Everyday Things That Prove Your Life Is A Lie!
Number 11.
"Pirate Eye" When you imagine the dastardly likeness of
a pirate you are likely to picture someone with a hook hand, peg leg and an eyepatch.
One would think that these accessories are all necessary to replace or cover-up damage
the pirate had received from the various sea-battles and swashbuckling adventures.
However, this is not the case when it came to eyepatches.
In fact, if you were to go back in time and meet a pirate in an eye-patch and lift up
the eyepatch, what you would more than likely find would be a perfectly healthy eye and
you could also probably catch the pirate switching which eye they had it on from day to day.
You see, pirates didn't use eye-patches to cover up a scarred or missing eyeball, they
used them as a clever way to help their eyes adjust to light.
Because pirates had to often go back and forth between the sunshine soaked decks and the
dark rooms below, often during hectic skirmishes, they needed a way to make sure they weren't
hampered by temporary blindness.
They found the quickest way to adjust to the light was by wearing an eyepatch and then
switching which eye it was over as they went below decks, as the covered eye would be already
adapted to the darkness.
Number 10.
"Food Fraud" How many times have you seen a commercial
on T.V.
for food and it looks so delicious that you have to go get it, but once you get that food
that looked so scrumptious on screen in your hands, it looks far less savory and often
disappointing.
Well that's because the food in these commercials, just like the actors has been excessively
dolled up.
In order to give seafood that fresh from the ocean to the table look, commercial production
companies often coat their seafood with glycerin and water.
To keep the patties on burgers looking juicy and grilled to perfection they often coat
them in shoe polish.
Want to make that fruit salad you just prepared look fresh and succulent on your instagram
post, as if its ingredients were just handpicked by you?
Well you can use the age-old photographer's trick of spritzing them with hairspray or
deodorizing sprays.
Sometimes the food is made out of an entirely different food and sometimes it isn't even
made out of food at all.
How do they make ice cream look perfectly delectable without having it melt while filming
well most of the time that isn't ice cream rather mashed potatoes made to look like the
popular summertime confection.
On top of that ice cream stunt double, you are likely looking at shaving cream instead
of whipped cream as whip cream also likes to run.
In order to keep the ice cubes in soft drinks from melting from take to take, they use plastic
ice cubes.
To keep pancakes or waffles from going soggy as they would with real maple syrup, commercials
often use engine oil instead.
Number 9.
"Heads In The Sand" If you were asked to name some quick facts
about ostriches your list would probably start off like this, "they are large flightless
birds, they can run really fast, have giant eggs and like to bury their heads in the sand".
But the last of these four facts is completely false.
Cartoons and popular culture have long dpicted the ostrich as spending their days cranium-deep
in dirt but this is actually due to an optical illusion.
You see, ostriches dig holes in order to create nests in desert sand, and after laying their
eggs they often stick their heads in the holes to rotate the eggs.
From a distance, because of a mirage effect and the fact that ostriches necks are similar
in color to the ground, it appears like the ostrich has buried its head.
Just as with humans, an ostrich wouldn't last long if it really buried its head as they
too depend on the precious resource--oxygen.
Number 8.
"Of Mice and Cheese" Mice and cheese have been paired together
as soulmates in popular culture as if they were as inseparable as Romeo and Juliet, but
the truth is, if you wanted the perfect bait to lure a mouse through a maze or catch one
in a trap, cheese wouldn't even make the top ten.
Now if a mouse was incredibly hungry and there was nothing else to eat you might find it
nibbling on little bit of gouda but you could say the same for almost any other type of
food.
If you really wanted some bait that a mouse couldn't resist they have been known to be
incredibly fond of grains and fruit, so put the limburger to the side and try a slice
of cantaloupe and a croissant at the end of your little labyrinth for best results.
Number 7.
"Septemberfest" Because it is a melting pot of various cultures
the United States has adopted many holidays from other countries and celebrating them
as their own like Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick's Day and Oktoberfest.
However, a lot of the time in the adoption process some of the important details and
traditions are either misunderstood, left-out or just plain Americanized.
Such is the case with Oktoberfest.
This traditional German festival was originally started to celebrate the wedding of Prince
Ludwig and Princess Therese in 1810, but has since come to represent the changing of the
seasons and the harvest.
Because there are a lot of Americans with German ancestry and even Americans who don't,
have rarely been known to turn down an excuse to eat lots of meat and drink massive quantities
of beer, Oktoberfest has been celebrated in the United States almost as long as it has
in Germany and has only increased in popularity over the years.
The problem is, as it becomes more and more commercialized and distinct from the real
Oktoberfest, Americans have forgot that the festival isn't just about it being October
nor is that really when it takes place.
Despite its name and what most American beer companies would have you believe, Oktoberfest
is actually mainly held in September and usually ends only a couple days into October.
The official Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany begins 17 days prior to the first Sunday in
Oktober.
Number 6.
"Hard-Boiled Humpty" When you think of the nursery rhyme Humpty
Dumpty in your head you probably picture Humpty as an anthropomorphic egg sitting on top of
a wall.
Well we hate to be the ones to break it to you but this image is another product of pop
culture inception running amok.
You may have even thought to yourself that the nursery rhyme doesn't make any sense,
because why would an egg be attended to by the king's horses and men and why would they
foolishly think it was possible to put an egg back together yolk and all?
Well, this is because Humpty Dumpty in actuality, was a cannon.
See?
Now it makes sense.
Yes, Humpty Dumpty is about a large clunky cannon used during the English Civil War of
the mid 1600s, that was destroyed beyond repair during battle.
Over the years the rhyme took on a life of its own and was interpreted many different
ways.
The portrayal of Humpty Dumpty as an egg can actually be attributed to the famed surrealist
fantasy writer Lewis Carroll, who described him as such in his novel 'Through the Looking-Glass'.
Number 5.
"Long Yellow Lines" The yellow lines on the road that keep us
from crashing head on into each other while traveling to and fro are one of the most important
facets of highway design.
If you have ever gazed at the seemingly endless lines and wondered how much paint it takes
to properly divide the world's roads you might be shocked to find out that these lines aren't
paint at all.
Although painting was the way back in the day, this method has gone the way of the dinosaur.
Nowadays these yellow lines are actually made out of preformed polymer tape.
The tape makes application far easier for construction crews and is also much more durable
and resistant to weather.
Number 4.
"Coyote vs. Road Runner" Sorry 'Looney Tunes' fans, this next fact
might shatter your pleasant cartoon memories.
You probably already know that cartoons aren't real and that the Wile E Coyote and Road Runner
are full of things that couldn't happen in real life like that of the coyote surviving
explosions, canyon falls and operating (though mostly unsuccessfully) complex machinery.
But you may not know that the seemingly more realistic underlying theme of a coyote hunting
the swifter prey of a road runner to no avail, is inherently flawed.
You see there is one big problem with this scenario...Coyotes are faster than road runners.
In fact, a coyote's average sprint speed of 40 miles per hour is double that of the road
runner's 20 miles per hour.
This means that Wile E could of easily caught the road runner if he had just trusted his
natural abilities instead of overthinking it and lining the pockets of ACME executives
with countless purchases of their flawed products.
Number 3.
"Sugar Loops" Another fact that is guaranteed to have you
questioning all of your childhood memories lies in the realm of breakfast cereals.
If you have ever enjoyed the sugary circular cereal Fruit Loops that is peddled by Toucan
Sam, you have been the victim of a corporate conspiracy.
Knowing that children have active imaginations and that even adults are susceptible to suggestion
the devious Kellogg corporation has been making us think we are tasting assorted fruit flavors
and that each colored loop has a corresponding fruit flavor.
In reality, all of the loops are the exact same flavor, which we are guessing is just
sugar with some drops from a gray bottle that says Fruitlike Flavoring.
Not only is this true of Fruit Loops, but the same can be said for Fruity Pebbles and
Trix, which even has the nerve to shape it's cereal like fruits.
Now don't you feel silly for alway picking out the yellow ones?
Number 2.
"Put A Ring On It" The Engagement Ring.
The symbol of a couple in love that are ready to take the next step.
A man on one knee holding up an engagement ring seems as timeless as love itself.
Except go back in time one-hundred years and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone wearing
an engagement ring.
This is because though there had been some cultures in the past who had practiced giving
gifts to lock down the love of their life, the modern engagement ring didn't exist until
the 1930s.
It was invented as a ploy by the DeBeers Mining corporation who basically had a monopoly on
diamonds but really no market for them.
In fact, DeBeers is pretty much single-handedly responsible for diamonds being considered
valuable at all.
Yes, they are beautiful, durable and have many uses but despite what you would come
to believe from their astronomical price, they actually aren't all that rare.
So DeBeers came up with the clever idea of making them a symbol of love and has orchestrated
one of the most powerful and long lasting advertising campaigns of all time to assure
that the diamond became an important part of our culture.
As the popularity of engagement rings and other diamond jewelry skyrocketed DeBeers
kept raising prices with no real competition to stop them.
Number 1.
"Penguin Legs" Everybody loves penguins, these tuxedo-patterned
south-pole denizens look absolutely cuddly and appear about as adorably clumsy on land
as they are adept at swimming in the cold waters around Antarctica.
But what you might not know is that these flightless birds are hiding a dark secret
under their monochromatic feathers.
They have knees!
Penguins may hide it well by waddling side-to-side like they have two peg legs and appear to
only have to stubby legs at the bottom of long torsos, but a quick glance at an x-ray
of one will prove that your life has been a sham.
Tucked up in the ellipsoidal mass of feathers that looks like an elongated belly--the penguin's
secret is revealed--two knobby knees that are small in size and probably unnecessary.
One can only hope that evolution will work its magic soon and make our once sacred image
of a kneeless Penguin a reality in the future.
What is something you believed for a long time, only to later find out it wasn't true?