5 Amazing uses of Urine

1. (Teeth Whitener) Pee gives you a bright white smile
Before whitening strips, ancient Romans used urine to brighten their pearly whites.
The Roman poet Catullus wrote, "Egnatius, because he has snow-white teeth, smiles all the time...in the country of Spain what each man pisses, he’s used to brushing his teeth and red gums with, every morning, so the fact that your teeth are so polished just shows you're the more full of piss."
While it's clear that Catullus was not a fan of the man he wrote about, he also revealed that people used urine to clean and whiten their teeth. Talk about bad morning breath.

2. Softening leather
Before scientists were able to synthesize chemicals in the lab, urine was a rich source of urea, a nitrogen-based compound that when set aside for long periods decays into ammonia.
Ammonia acts as a weak base when in water, making it the perfect substance for the ancients to use when softening and tanning animal hides to make leather.
Soaking the animal skins in urine also made the process of removing hair and bits of unwanted flesh from the skin. Gross.

3. Cleansing agent
Next time you are cleaning, check the label of the cleaning product of your choice. Ammonia is a prominent ingredient in many household cleaners as it is is a powerful cleansing agent and helps fight dirt and grease.
Ammonia is also found in urine and the early Europeans often preferred pee to soap when cleaning their homes.
In ancient Rome, vessels were placed on streets as urine collectors. After the buckets were full from people passing by to relieve themselves, the vats were taken to a laundry and used to wash dirty clothes.
We'll stick to soap.

4. Dying fabric
Apparently stale urine was popular with 16th century Brits. During the 1500's, families dedicated chamber pots to collecting their pee to be used in developing brighter colors when dying fabric.
Urine was so important to the booming textile industry in England that an "estimated amount equivalent to the urine steam of 1,000 people for an entire year were shipped across the country to Yorkshire" to be used in dying fabric according to the Smithsonian.

5. Pee makes things go boom
Urine as a teeth whitener not your thing? Why not use your pee to make gunpowder?
Charcoal and sulfur used in small quantities to make gunpowder are easily found. But the main ingredient, potassium nitrate was only made available on a large-scale in the early 1900's. Until then, gunpowder manufacturers used the nitrogen found in urine to make their product.

20 Health facts you’ve gotten wrong your whole life

1.  Organic food is pesticide-free and more nutritious.
2.  Eating food within 5 seconds of dropping it on the floor is safe.
3.  The chemical tryptophan in turkey makes you sleepy.
4.  Eating chocolate gives you acne.
5.  An apple a day keeps the doctor away. (Apples are packed with vitamin C and fiber, both of which are important to long-term health, but they aren't all you need. And if certain viruses or bacteria get into your system, an apple will unfortunately do nothing to protect you. Go ahead and get that flu shot, even if you eat apples.)
6.  Natural sugar like honey is better for you than processed sugar.
7.  Coffee stunts your growth.
8.  Eating ice cream will make your cold worse.
9.  Sugar is as addictive as heroin.
10. Sugar causes hyperactivity in children.
11. Your blood turns blue when it's out of oxygen.
12. Humans have five senses. (Sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch are just the beginning. Don't forget about balance, temperature, and time, as well as proprioception — the body awareness that helps us not walk into things all the time — and nociception, our sense of pain.)
13. Pregnancy gives you "baby brain" and makes you dumb.
14. Humans can't grow new brain cells.
15. Everyone should drink eight glasses of water a day. (A good rule is to drink when you're thirsty — you don't need to count the glasses.)
16. Vaccines cause autism.
17. Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis.
18. Being cold can give you a cold. (Your doctor will help explain to you that Common Cold is caused by Virus)
19. Being stressed will give you high blood pressure.
20. Humans got HIV because someone had sex with a monkey.

Source: BusinessInsider

14 Weird And Fascinating Facts About Your Finger Nails

1.  your dominant hand fingernails grow faster than your other hand fingernails. Fingernails grow an average of 3.5 millimeters per month, whereas toenails grow an average of 1.6 millimeters a month.
2.  Temperature affects the growth of your nails. Nails grow faster in summers and warm condition. In winters the growth rate of nails slows down.
3.  Our whole body sweats, every part of our body sweats, but Nails don’t sweat. This is a universal fact, but we just never noticed about it.
4.  White spots on nails are not because of Calcium Deficiency. Okay, we all have heard this and are still hearing it every now and then, this is a very famous MYTH. Although it can be because of deficiency of Calcium, zinc, vitamin or there can be other reasons too. But a white spot on nail doesn’t surely mean a calcium deficiency. Other than nutrient deficiency, pressure or trauma to the nail plate can also make that white spot.
5.  Nails of Men tend to grow faster than the nails of  women. Now that’s something really interesting. Women need and long for longer nails and men’s nail grows faster. Only exception – Women’s nail grow much faster than anyone and anything during pregnancy.
6.  Nails and Hairs have a relationship, a lesser known one. Both Nails and Hairs are made up of the same stuff known as Keratin. So next time when taking care of your diet for hairs, you will see a significant difference in heath of your nails too.
7.  Most of the mammals have claws and the primates (including humans) have fingernails. Woah!! We all have known but never realized that the difference between Claws  and fingernails…. Interesting and fascinating!
8.  Nail biting is a nervous habit and is known as Onychophagia. According to a research, most of people get rid of this habit of nail biting on their own by the age of 30. Nail biting is not harmful, but sometimes swallowing nail bits can cause problem in the long run.
9.  If you like painting your nails, hold on and read this. Nails do breathe and your nail paint is killing your nails. The hardest thing on the tip of your finger adjoining nail is a living tissue. It breathes  and oxygen penetrate through the nail plate to nail bed. Your nail paint suffocates your nail bed, makes it dry and makes your nail weaker.
10. Your stress levels can inhibit nail growth. Having improper sleep due to increased stress can also affect nail growth. Stress and improper sleep diverts energy and nutrients away from nails. So next time you find your nails getting weaker, check your sleeping habits and keep calm.
11. Most people can’t stand the scratch of nails on a chalkboard. Just the thought of nail scratching on chalkboard makes you cringe, are you cringing? He he! Ok, lets see why do we cringe? According to a research, the noise that is made by nails on chalkboard gets amplified by shape of ear canals. Whatever may be the reason, the noise is really bad and writing about it is making me cringe. God help me!
12. The cuticles around your nails are to lock down the moisture of the nails which keeps the nail moisturized and strong. Not just sealing moisture, cuticles also ensure that germs stay out of nail bed. Make sure not to upset cuticles and if you have a cuticle injury, treat it as soon as possible.
13. Nails need blood, oxygen and nutrients for a proper growth. An injury on nail mostly results in the nail falling off after becoming black and blue. The black and blue of the nail after injury shows how delicate our nail beds are. The blood used by nail plate soon after injury makes the nail turn black and blue.
14. your nail tells a lot about your health. Trust me, shape, size, colors and lines on your nails are enough to tell your doctor about your health. Lung Diseases makes your nails look blueish. Every color of nails has different stories to tell, whitish nails, yellowish nails or even banded nails. Next time you see some strange things going or a color change in your nails, Consult a doctor.

23 Amazing And Weird Facts About The human Body

1. The brain doesn’t feel pain: Even though the brain processes pain signals, the brain itself does not actually feel pain.
2. Women have a better sense of smell better than men: Women are better than men at identifying smells.
3. Babies are stronger than oxen: On a pound for pound basis, that is. For their size, babies are quite powerful and strong.
4. A higher I.Q. equals more dreams: The smarter you are, the more you dream. A high I.Q. can also fight mental illness. Some people even believe they are smarter in their dreams than when they are awake.
5. Your smell is unique: Your body odor is unique to you — unless you have an identical twin. Even babies recognize the individual scents of their mothers.
6. A sneeze can exceed 100 mph: When a sneeze leaves your body, it does so at high speeds — so you should avoid suppressing it and causing damage to your body.
7. Your nose remembers 50,000 scents: It is possible for your nose to identify and remember more than 50,000 smells.
8. Your hearing decreases when you overeat: When you eat too much food, it actually reduces your ability to hear. So consider eating healthy — and only until you are full.
9. Babies always have blue eyes when they are born: Melanin and exposure to ultraviolet light are needed to bring out the true color of babies’ eyes. Until then they all have blue eyes.
10. Most men have regular erections while asleep: Every hour to hour and a half, sleeping men have erections — though they may not be aware of it.
11. Sex can be a pain reliever: Even though the “headache” excuse is often used to avoid sex, the truth is that intercourse can provide pain relief. Sex can also help you reduce stress.
12. Your brain operates on 10 watts of power: It’s true: The amazing computational power of your brain only requires about 10 watts of power to operate.
13. Chocolate is better than sex: In some studies, women claim they would rather have chocolate than sex. But does it really cause orgasm? Probably not on its own.
14. Your feet can produce a pint of sweat a day: There are 500,000 (250,000 for each) sweat glands in your feet, and that can mean a great deal of stinky sweat.
15. Throughout your life, the amount of saliva you have could fill two swimming pools: Since saliva is a vital part of digestion, it is little surprise that your mouth makes so much of it.
16. You probably pass gas 14 times a day: On average, you will expel flatulence several times as part of digestion.
17. 80% of the brain is water: Instead of being relatively solid, your brain 80% water. This means that it is important that you remain properly hydrated for the sake of your mind.
18. Bones can self-destruct: It is possible for your bones to destruct without enough calcium intake.
19. You are taller in the morning: Throughout the day, the cartilage between your bones is compressed, making you about 1 cm shorter by day’s end.
20. Your tongue is the strongest muscle in your body: Compared to its size, the tongue is the strongest muscle. But I doubt you’ll be lifting weights with it.
21. Being right-handed can prolong your life: If you’re right-handed, you could live up to nine years longer than a lefty.
22. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile: Scientists can’t agree on the exact number, but more muscles are required to frown than to smile.
23. Pinkie toe: There is speculation that since we no longer have to run for our dinner, and we wear sneakers, the pinkie toe‘s evolutionary purpose is disappearing — and maybe the pinkie itself will go the way of the dodo.

20 Weird Things You May Not Know About Your Hair

1. Hair is made up mostly of keratin, the same protein animals’ horns, hooves, claws, feathers, and beaks are made of.
2. When wet, a healthy strand of hair can stretch an additional 30% of its original length.
3. Hair grows slightly faster in warm weather, because heat stimulates circulation and encourages hair growth.
4. All hair is dead, with the exception of the hair that’s still inside the epidermis of your scalp.
5. Hair contains information about everything that has ever been in your bloodstream, including drugs, and is one of the most commonly used types of forensic evidence.
6. The only thing about you that can’t be identified by your hair is your gender—men’s hair and women’s hair are identical in structure.
7. Black is the most common hair color. Red is the rarest and only exists in about 1 percent of the world’s population, with blonde hair found in 2 percent.
8. As soon as a hair is plucked from its follicle, a new one begins to grow.
9. Hair is 50 percent carbon, 21 percent oxygen, 17 percent nitrogen, 6 percent hydrogen, and 5 percent sulphur.
10. Hair can grow anywhere on the human body with the exception of the palms of hands, soles of feet, eyelids, lips, and mucous membranes.
11. Goosebumps from cold or fear are the result of hair follicles contracting, causing the hair and surrounding skin to bunch up.
12. The average number of hair strands varies by natural color, with blondes having the most and redheads having the fewest.
13. The scientific term for split ends is “trichoptilosis.”
14. Aside from bone marrow, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body.
15. Balding only begins to become visible once you’ve lost over 50 percent of the hairs from your scalp.
16. At any given time, 90 percent of the hairs in your scalp are growing, while the other 10 percent are resting.
17. A single hair has a lifespan of about five years.
18. Hair acts as a layer of thermally insulating protection for our heads, which lack the insulation that fat provides for the rest of our bodies.
19. Eighty percent of Americans wash their hair twice a day.
20. Each strand of hair can support up to 100 grams in weight. Multiply that by the average 100,000 to 150,000 strands on each head, and your entire head of hair could support the weight equivalent to two elephants.

29 facts that will blow your mind in one sentence

1. You can’t hum while holding your nose.
2. The surface area of Russia is slightly larger than that of the surface area of Pluto.
3. Carrots were originally purple.
4. Humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas.
5. The population of Mars consists entirely of robots.
6. An octopus has three hearts.
7. There are more fake flamingos in the world than real flamingos.
8. If a piece of paper were folded 42 times, it would reach to the moon.
9. The name Jessica was created by Shakespeare in the play Merchant of Venice.
10.The YKK on your zipper stands for “Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikigaisha.”
11. “umop apisdn” is “upside down” spelled upside down with different letters of the alphabet.
12. It rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter.
13. Every two minutes, we take more pictures than all of humanity did in the 19th century.
14. There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the U.S.
15. Dolphins have names for one another.
16. A strawberry isn’t a berry but a banana is.
17. So are avocados and watermelon.
18. There is a basketball court on the top floor of the U.S. Supreme Court Building known as the “highest court in the land.”
19. A pig’s orgasm can last for 30 minutes.
20. There have been studies that show that goats, like us, have accents.
21. There are about twice as many nipples on Earth as there are people.
22. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia.
23. Pluto never made a full orbit around the sun from the time it was discovered to when it was declassified as a planet.
24. You can’t breathe and swallow at the same time.
25. A day in Venus is longer than a year in Venus.
26. Every year, hundreds of new trees grow because of squirrels forgetting where they buried their nuts.
27. The probability of you drinking a glass of water that contains a molecule of water that also passed through a dinosaur is almost 100%.
28. There are more atoms in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the oceans on Earth.
29. The toy Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.