Horrifying Facts You Didn’t Want To Know

8.

Currently, there are more slaves than ever before in recorded history. Estimates suggest that there are about 27 million people in some form of slavery today, which easily makes it the largest amount in history. This is more than double the amount taken during the transatlantic slave trade. Slavery can take different forms that go unrecognized throughout history. People may be slaves due to owing money, or for other less blatant reasons, but it is still slavery. In many countries, child labor is very common and the children are paid very little money. However, there is some hope for those who believed that it was being dealt with and eliminated largely already. While countries are outlawing slavery and getting better at enforcing it, there is hope it will be all or mostly gone within 30 years. Of course, we can never stop human nature, but as we get better at detecting it, stopping it and helping the victims, we make the world a little bit more free of slavery.

7.

Rattlesnake are a well known fear of anyone traveling through certain parts of the country. That tell-tale rattling sound is a reminder that something very dangerous is nearby and you should watch your step carefully. They have become iconic for their rattle and featured on TV and other popular media. In all those situations where they have been used in movies or television, nobody ever bothered to ask what was scarier than a rattlesnake that doesn’t make any noise at all. The answer is: a rattlesnake that is hiding its rattle sound. Rattlesnakes are starting to evolve so that they no longer rattle. While many believe it is a direct genetic mutation in order to increase survival, even those who don't agree necessarily think that it basically comes down to the same Darwinian survival mechanisms at work. Some rattlesnakes had a mutation where their rattle didn't work right, and those without the rattles seemed to survive longer, which led to more of those rattlesnakes reproducing. Rattlesnake's rattle may no longer be useful, so it is being discarded. It has been used to ward off predators in the past, but now it may not be as necessary. This could happen over time if this trend continues.

6.

Tuna is one of the larger fish and it has high mercury levels. People eat tuna on a regular basis, and some believe that the whole thing is kind of overblown. However, the truth is that tuna is actually a lot more harmful than most people realize. Tuna eats smaller fish and ends up with very high mercury levels. Some people have reported eating a lot of tuna while pregnant, and then having a child with birth defects. The sad truth is that many people are unaware of just how harmful tuna can be for pregnant women, as well as for healthy people. It is not recommended to eat it more than a couple of times a week. While it is hard to prove if the mercury in tuna is truly responsible for a lot of these birth defect cases, it is definitely quite possible. Many people believe that mercury from a vaccine may be the cause of autism. However, the mercury from a vaccine is a tiny amount and is a type of mercury that quickly leaves the body, while the amounts in fish like tuna are much higher, and linger much longer.

5.

The Doomsday Clock has been getting closer to midnight since 1991. The Atomic Scientists have been keeping an eye on something they call the “doomsday clock” and it has been steadily getting closer for the past few decades. While it went down a tad bit briefly in the early ’90s and went down one minute in 2010, it has been slowly rising pretty steadily for the past few decades. The clock is worryingly close to completing a global disaster. They are concerned that world leaders are not doing enough to address all the huge global issues, and believe that we're in a very serious situation. The clock is presently seconds away from tying with the closest it's ever been to completing disaster.

4.

Thousands of animals are killed each year because there aren't enough "no kill shelters." This is an increasingly big issue that's been getting more attention in recent years, as population growth and pet demand has created havoc for the animal kingdom. Pets are often abandoned due to what people call "puppy mills," where poorly bred animals are mass-produced to meet consumer demand. However, when a pet is abandoned, shelters can't take them all in, leading to thousands of deaths each year. Many advocates for animals are now suggesting spaying or neutering your pet to prevent the out of control pet population from getting worse. Almost out of necessity, animals are being put down in huge numbers. There are simply too many strays to be taken care of and far too many neglected animals, with new ones being bred all the time. This has led to a shelter movement where shelters promise they will find homes for animals instead of killing them. Pets are being euthanized at a rate of 10%, and this is only due to the growing number of pets. Unfortunately, this means that even with the burgeoning animal rights movement, millions of cats and dogs are still being put down every year.

3.

As we create more and more satellites, we're beginning to see the effects of Kessler Syndrome. The theory proposes that as satellites collide, they can cause GPS malfunctions and other problems. It's not yet dangerous, but it's something we need to worry about in the future. Regarding the collisions, Kessler does not believe they are going to speed up significantly within the next 20 years or more. Additionally, he believes that if we take the time to clean up all of the junk satellites in space, instead of just adding more, we may be able to prevent the problem from getting out of hand before it ever becomes an issue. Although 20 or more years may seem like a long way off, if we do not prepare for it now, it may already be too late.

2.

The egg industry has been grinding up baby male chicks in grinders for decades. While we accept that it involves some cruelty in slaughtering and processing animals for mass market, most of us feel that if the process could be made more ethical and still be efficient enough then that is definitely something people should be going for. In particular, while most of us accept factory farming as a necessary evil, some may be shocked when they learn of a big part of the process involved in the production of your eggs- baby male chicks are being ground up. For efficiency reasons, you never see one chicken breed being used for the other. When hatching chicks of the egg laying breed, only the females can actually lay eggs, and the males don’t have much use. This means that the standard practice is to toss the male chicks alive into a machine that is basically a wood chipper and grind them up while they are still alive. Even those of us who eat meat likely find this practice pretty barbaric – at least we believe in actually eating the animals that are killed for our sustenance. Grinding up the baby male chicks is basically just cruel and wasteful. The industry has claimed they are working on technology that will allow them to solve this by knowing which eggs to hatch in the first place – knowing which ones are female to begin with, but they won’t be ready to do that until at least 2020. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your Easter Egg hunt!

1.

People often find the idea of space travel extremely romantic – it sounds incredibly cool, and almost every Sci-Fi movie is set in space in some form or another. However, being in space is actually pretty awful. Even if you could get past all the issues of having to use vacuum tubes and other gadgets to do every basic task, you would have to deal with the fact that space will quickly eat away at your physical and mental health. See, the reason that NASA always demands people who are absolutely the most fit possible, and in totally perfect health, is because anyone else almost doesn’t even stand a chance at all of handling the rigors of space travel. Many astronauts, due to the unique effects on their bodies, come back with permanently decreased eyesight. Sleep deprivation is common, and the mental and physical stress is very difficult to handle. After prolonged time in space, atrophy of your muscle tissue, as well as your actual bone structure, are common. This is another reason why NASA does not want any astronaut to stay in space for too long without taking a break. To make matters worse, astronauts often report seeing flashes of bright light directly in their brains. This is radiation, and is possibly doing all kinds of different damage to them that won’t be fully understood until later. Even in low earth orbit, this can be dangerous. Farther out at space, the effects could be a lot worse. On top of this physicists have reason to believe that the immune system also doesn’t work as well in space – although this could also be due to the exposure to radiation weakening it either way! While space certainly sounds like a fun place to be in movies , for now they can leave the real thing to astronauts!

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thank you! :)