Grim but interesting facts about death
Sorry guys, I promise that at some point I will really start spreading cheerful facts again, but right now I'm in the middle of the transition from happy egg to a cave dweller with a winter depression, so that cheerfulness isn't always in me. And okay, also not entirely unimportant: I just find this incredibly interesting. I personally have a huge phobia of death and everything related to it, and that's why I always want to try to understand it a little better. Although I don't know if that has really succeeded with the facts below.
1. A human head remains conscious for about twenty seconds after decapitation
What must be going through your mind, huh? ‘Wow, this is sour.’ ‘Goddammit, that was it.’
2. When someone dies, hearing is the very last thing to fade away
That's why it's so important to keep talking to someone who is in a coma. I've heard this from hospital staff: they can really tell when someone doesn't have long left. You certainly don't want a loved one to pass away alone, and that's why continuing to talk (even if you get no response) is very important.
3. Men who die can get an erection after their death
Also known as rigor erectus (‘dead erection’) and this often happens when someone has a sudden (often violent) death. In women, a similar death often results in blood coming from their vagina, and the clitoris can become significantly larger.
4. Your nails do not continue to grow after your death
I really believed this for so long, but there is nothing true about it. It seems that way because the skin around your toes and fingers dries out and shrinks, but they do not actually grow.
5. Looking for immortality? Come back in your next life as a Turritopsis Dohrnii jellyfish
Also known as the only animal in the world that is literally immortal. So interesting: when they ‘age’, their tentacles fall off, they sink to the sea, and they start over as a baby jellyfish. So cool. Just think about what the Earth would look like in a million years. Only jellyfish?
6. People can produce sounds after their death and that will literally scare you to death
When someone has died, air and gas are released that need to come out through the throat and nose. This can cause your vocal cords to vibrate and produce a sound that sounds like a sort of growl. And others are really horrified by that.
7. In the 1800s, dead people were photographed
Pretty grim and it looks that way too. Taking photos was still a luxury item back then, so when someone died, this was really the last chance to capture someone as a memory. Often they didn't do this in their lifetime because it was too expensive.
8. Your eyeballs become flat when you are dead
WHUUUT. I find this really bizarre and quite disgusting. They also compare it to a grape that is completely dried out. When someone is laid out, there are also fake eyes in there to get the right shape, otherwise it looks really weird (opinions differ on this, but it still happens in the US, by the way).
9. Left-handed people die on average three years earlier than right-handed people
Yep, really true. Sorry, left-handed people.
10. Vending machines kill an average of thirteen people per year
So be careful when you take a Mars bar out of one.
