1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (116 page)

882

FACT :
In 1856, a pterodactyl was discovered in France by workers blasting rocks to build a railway. The beast used its
ten-foot wingspan
to stagger out into the sunlight before it let out a hoarse cry and died.

Naturalists identified the creature and the rock strata as being millions of years old.
The hoarse cry was pterodactyl for, “Christ, not France.”

David Hatcher Childress, Lost Cities & Ancient Mysteries of Africa & Arabia (Adventures Unlimited Press, 1989).

883

FACT :
Crystal skulls found in Mexico have long fascinated archaeologists. One specimen, sold at Sotheby’s in London in 1943, is known as the “Skull of Doom” and is said
to have mystical powers
, emit blue lights from its eyes, and crash computer hard drives.
Sounds more like the Skull Of Windows Vista.

Jane MacLaren Walsh, “Legend of the Crystal Skulls,” Archaeology, May/June 2008,
www.archaeology.org
.

884

FACT :
In 1938, an archeological expedition in China discovered hundreds of stone disks in caves in the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains, each measuring nine inches in diameter and etched with miniscule hieroglyphics that tell
a story of aircrafts from distant worlds crashing in the mountains
. The disks are believed to be thousands of years old.
And a possible indication of when man discovered opium.

Stephen Wagner, “The Dropa Stones,”
About.com
,
www.paranormal.about.com
.

885

FACT :
Scientists are unable to explain a number of fossils that have been found, including one of a human handprint in limestone and a human finger found in the Arctic in Canada,
both estimated to be 100–110 million years old
.
I’m unable to explain the number of fossils driving cars around my neighborhood; I thought being able to see over the steering wheel—or at all—was required for a driver’s license.

Stephen Wagner, “Impossible Fossils,”
About.com
,
www.paranormal.about.com
.

886

FACT :
The Bermuda Triangle and the Oregon Vortex are believed by some to be connected to “magnetic vortexes,” in which the walls between known and unknown dimensions are so thin
people can pass through them
and seemingly disappear.
Some people believe in the Tooth Fairy, too.

Nicholas R. Nelson, Paradox: A Round Trip Through the Bermuda Triangle (New Horizon, 1980).

887

FACT :
Some experts theorize that
time travel may be possible
by passing through black holes.
Of course they do. No one will volunteer to go through a black hole and disprove them.

Kevin Bonsor, “How Time Travel Will Work,”
HowStuffWorks.com
,
www.science.howstuffworks.com
.

888

FACT :
Other scientists believe that
wormholes have the greatest potential for time travel
; they could, in theory, permit travel light-years away from Earth in just a fraction of the time required for conventional space travel.
I wish this were true. I’d travel ahead in time and see what joke I came up with for this entry.

Kevin Bonsor, “How Time Travel Will Work,”
HowStuffWorks.com
,
www.science.howstuffworks.com
.

889

FACT :
In December 1862, the merchant ship
Mary Celeste
was discovered adrift in the Atlantic Ocean,
unmanned and abandoned despite fair weather
. The crew was never found, nor was any clue as to how or why they vanished.
There can’t possibly be any reasonable explanation; no, it could only be aliens or magic holes in the sea or the Chupacabra. Maybe even King Tut’s curse.

Angus Konstam, Ghost Ships: Tales of Abandoned, Doomed, and Haunted Vessels (Globe Pequot, 2005), 78.

890

FACT :
According to legend, a Dutch sea captain who wrecked near the Cape of Good Hope in the seventeenth century was punished for blasphemy and tempting fate
by having to relive his ordeal for all eternity
. The phantom of his ship, the
Flying Dutchman
, is said to haunt the waters off the Cape of Good Hope, bringing doom to any mariner who sees it.
Cape of Good Hope-I Don’t-See-That-Sumbitch.

Angus Konstam, Ghost Ships: Tales of Abandoned, Doomed, and Haunted Vessels (Globe Pequot, 2005), 62.