Who would have thought that a trip to the movie theater would change this man’s world forever? He certainly didn’t, but when he went to watch Martin Scorsese’s 3D family adventure, it actually happened.
Bruce Bridgeman had come accustomed to experiencing the world without any perception of depth. He literally lived in a 2D world.
That’s why he didn’t think he would need to pay the surcharge for the 3D glasses offered with the movie. That would be pointless, right?
Luckily he did, and then, the unthinkable happened!
His brain must have made a click as he was suddenly able to experience the world in 3D, not just the movie, and his stereoblindness was cured in a split second!
This man woke up from a 2D world and suddenly saw the world in 3D. / Pixabay
11. These termites built a megapolis as large as Britain
In northeastern Brazil, researchers have discovered an enormous network of mounds created by termites. It’s estimated to be over 4,000 years old and this enormous termite universe is the size of Great Britain.
The mounds are interconnected with tunnels that the termites excavated. One of the most amazing facts is that the amount of soil that they dug up would be enough to build the equivalent of 4,000 Great Pyramids of Giza!
This is simply huge, and remarkably, they don’t plan to stop any time soon as well as more mounds are being constructed by these busy insects right now!
Enormous number of termite mounds in northeastern Brazil / Source
10. The Goblin Shark has an amazing killing mechanism
Animals living in the deep ocean better don’t come near the fearsome Goblin Shark. This monster of the deep sea doesn’t just look terrifying, but actually kills prey in a horrific way.
This particular type of shark lies still until unsuspecting prey passes by, and then catapults its jaws at a speed of over 3 meters per second to devour the unlucky creature.
This type of feeding allows Goblin Sharks to “throw” their jaws about 10% of their body length is referred to as “slingshot feeding.”
That’s astounding and scary at the same time!
9. Genghis Khan was an active fella
A study conducted in 2003 kinda proves he was a very busy man during his lifetime. Apart from invading territories in Mongolia and its surroundings, and murdering about 40 million people in the process, he’s responsible for a lot of descendants as well.
It has been estimated that about 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan, and about 8% of men living in the former Mongolian Empire have almost the exact same Y-chromosome.
Pretty amazing stuff, even though he was a ruthless ruler and we don’t really want to see the likes of him ever again in this world.
8. This man is a Wikipedia rockstar and earns nothing for it
Believe it or not, but this man is responsible for 1/3 of everything that is on Wikipedia, the most popular online encyclopedia.
Steven Pruitt has written over 35,000 articles and has made over 3 million edits on the site! Really amazing numbers.
While he’s looked upon as a nerd who still lives in his parent’s house, he is actually an internet legend, named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people on the internet.
One of the most amazing facts is that the second editor on Wikipedia is 900,000 edits behind him. It’s fair to conclude that he will remain the top content producer on Wikipedia in the future as well!
Steven Pruitt / Ser Amantio di Nicolao / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
7. One fine day, you find some gold worth $3 million
It’s just about everybody’s dream to find some treasure, but a little boy together with his father in Essex, England, actually did.
James Hyatt from Billeriquay found a gold pendant depicting the Virgin Mary that is believed to be from the 16th century. It’s made of 73% gold and was valued by the British Museum at £2.5 million!
The money from the sale was shared between the finder and the landowner (who most probably would have never found it).
This pendant was found by a boy and his father and is valued at £2.5 million. / Source
6. This device has saved millions of lives but was invented by accident
Who would have thought that a device that saved millions of lives already, and will save millions more in the future, was actually invented by accident?
When Wilson Greatbatch, an American engineer, and inventor, was messing around with an oscilloscope in 1956 he installed the wrong resistor. Soon after his mistake, he found out it could drive a human heartbeat.
All that’s left is implanting the device and a life is saved, sometimes multiple times. By 1961, there were 100 people walking around with a pacemaker, right now this number is over 3 million!
The lifesaving pacemaker was invented by accident. / Pixabay
5. This parrot learned Spanish during his 5-year absence
Nigel, the California-based African grey parrot has a British accent and is often heard saying “cheerio” to his owners.
After being missing, it appears a new family had bought Nigel at a garage sale for $400 and named him Morgan.
What’s most amazing about this story is that during his 4-year absence, Nigel had learned Spanish from the family’s grandfather, who was born in Guatemala.
After being reunited with its original owner, he decided that Nigel could stay with his adopted family. This means he will continue saying “buenos dias” instead of “cheerio” for the rest of his life!
Nigel the grey parrot learned how to speak Spanish during his 4-year absence.
4. 50 years of hard labor is proof of true love
If it isn’t, then we don’t know what is.
This amazing love story is about a 19-year old boy named Liu who falls in love with a 29-year-old widow named Xu. The people in the village they lived in, however, didn’t approve of their relationship, so they ran away.
They ended up living in harsh conditions in a cave somewhere in the hills. When Liu noticed it was hard for Xu to walk up and down to fetch water, he decided to help her out.
Over the next 50 years, he used his bare hands to create 6,000 steps so his wife could move around easier on the slippery hillside they lived on, far away from society.
The amazing story of xu (right) and Liu (left) who created a ladder of love for 50 years
3. The director of the Shawshank Redemption refused a $3,000,000 offer
When Frank Darabont took advantage of Stephen King’s deal in the early 1980s, he was able to acquire his first script for $1, and made a short film called “The Woman in the Room.” (1984)
He was lucky that Stephen King liked his version of the story as he was able to acquire the rights to the script of another book “Rita Hayworth and Shankshaw Redemption” for just $5,000 as well.
In just 8 weeks of work, he turned this novel into a movie script and was shortly after offered $3,000,000 by established director Rob Reiner.
Amazingly, Frank Darabont, who at the time had little experience, refused the offer because he wanted to direct the movie himself!
The result was a masterpiece of a movie called “The Shawshank redemption” that remains the best-rated movie of all time on IMDB.
Frank Darabont refused an offer of $3,000,000 for The Shawshank Redemption script / Wiki Commons
2. This man didn’t just survive an atom bomb
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in good spirits on that fatal day in Hiroshima. Who wouldn’t have been, it was a wonderful sunny summer day on August 6, 1945.
He first got a glimpse of the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay and suddenly saw a big flash before getting knocked over. He was badly burned on his left side.
Miraculously he survived and took shelter a few days later in the worst place imaginable, Nagasaki.
Exactly 3 days later, he found himself in the city that the other bomb was dropped and survived once again to tell his story.
Despite suffering major consequences of these events, he spent his life pleading for the abolishment of nuclear weapons, even doing so at the United Nations in New York.
he was one of approximately 165 Japanese citizens who were bombed twice, yet he remains the only one to be officially recognized as such. He passed away at the old age of 93 after battling cancer.
The man who survived two atom bombs / Wiki Commons
1. This woman survived a plane crash
Vesna Vulović (1950-2016) was a Serbian stewardess who was doing her job onboard JAT (Jat Airways) Flight 367 on January 26, 1972.
Suddenly, a briefcase bomb went off and the plane was torn apart, catapulting just about everybody out of the plane at an altitude of 10,160 m (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi).
What are the chances you survive an incident like this?
Vesna got stuck in the tail end of the plane, trapped by a food cart that ensured that she wasn’t sent flying out in the open air.
Even though she had a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae, broken legs, broken ribs, a fractured pelvis, was in a coma for several days, and hospitalized for multiple months, she survived!
Unfortunately, she was the only one that did and nobody has ever been arrested for this horrific crime.
She’s also listed in the Guinness world record book for surviving the highest fall without a parachute:
Vesna Vulović survived a plane crash / Wiki Commons
This concludes what will become the ultimate list with amazing facts. Make sure to bookmark this page to discover more soon!
