Author: Eric Spring

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People Break Down The Wildest Rumors From High School That Turned Out To Be True

As often as we were told not to believe—or spread—them, we tended to love rumors in high school.

Whether it was an overheard tidbit flying around the hallways or some juicy gossip in the lunch room, it wasn’t uncommon to find ourselves bending our ears to hear every eye-widening detail.

Apparently Redditor tall_hopelessromantic was feeling a bit deprived of the tea lately, because they kicked off a thread with the following question:

“What popular rumour in your school turned out to be true?”

Plenty of people, of course, spoke of romantic affairs. 

“Our science teacher was having an affair with our science technician and regularly left the class to have sex with her in the technicians room.”

“That rumour started day 1, then 4 years, 2 divorces and 2 very quick departures later it was confirmed and what was left behind was a technicians daughter in my year whose life had fallen apart.” — Porochaz

Some were quite upsetting. 

“That a 12-year-old 6th grader had gotten pregnant over summer break. Our Los Angeles county suburb (it was a small and far-separated from LA itself, see how large that county actually is on Google if you are unawares)…”

“…was so scandalized by this ‘rumor’ that a newspaper article came out with a cartoon drawing of a pregnant girl in a pretty little girl dress and ribbon in her hair — playing with dolls and kneeling next to a doll-house — accompanied the story about the ‘little girl who got pregnant and planned to keep the baby.’ “

“She was interviewed. I remember her name but it’s unnecessary— the whole damn town knew who it was.”

“What’s wild is that the kids in Jr. High actually had a baby shower for this 7th grader as she got close to full-term, and all brought in packs of diapers and formula for her on a designated day. With the teachers, principal, and probably the school district in support of this. The year was 1984-1985.” — RelentlesslyCrooked

But others were a bit more wholesome.

“In my Catholic (Jesuit) high school, one of the priests and one of the nuns were very close friends. We all loved them, and we could see that they were quite fond of one another (and they made a really nice looking couple).”

“We used to affectionately kid them about ‘meeting in the tunnel’ between the convent and the rectory. A few years after my class graduated, they both left their Orders, got married, and had kids. We’re all happy for them.” — SmokeHimInside

Other rumors hinged on crime and other questionable activities.

“In high school: that the biology teacher was growing weed in the environmental lab. Supposedly he did it for 30 years without anyone noticing. No one could ever prove it though.”

“Later on, I was assigned to be the agent taking care of some of his financial matters, so I went to his house to have him sign some paperwork. He had a hydroponic setup there, so I asked him about the environmental lab. It was like Han Solo in The Force Awakens.”

“ ‘It’s true. All of it.’ Then he offered me a brownie.” — JayMax19

In one case, the truth was stranger than fiction. 

“That one of the students was actually a cop. Turns out he was a cop and busted one of the actual students for selling handguns in school.”

“If you thought 21 jump street was unrealistic think again. Cop was a 33 year old male and undercover for like half the semester.” — AllThotsGo2Heaven2

Then there was the horrifying kind. 

“That one of the seniors in my school wrote all over the men’s room bathroom about bringing a bomb to school.”

“The bomb squad evacuated us all, dogs came and they found one in a random locker. It was absolutely nuts, kid got arrested two seats next to me in english class a couple of days later once they could prove he did it” — Alienexxa227

And of course, more weed. 

“There was always a rumor that the head janitor was a huge pothead and would smoke with students in one of the storage sheds away from the main building.”

“I always figured it was bullsh** until my friend CJ sent me a pic of him and the janitor smoking weed while surrounded by folding chairs.” — apocalypticradish

In one case, the rumor was shownto be true, rather than told. 

“At our school this one kid was rumored to be a son of one of the local gyms amateur boxer teacher. Non of us had no real reason to think twice about it. Once we got to high school this kid started teasing that kid.”

“I had a couple of mutal friends with the bully so I warned the guy he might want to let up on teasing him. A couple days go by the dude didn’t stop. And the boxer’s kid proceeded to give this guy one of the worst one sided fights I have ever seen.”

“The bully learned his lesson and never bullied anyone else for the rest of our high school years. So it turned out to be true.” — gibry12

For one teacher, the scientific method left every door open. 

“Biology teacher decided to use the scientific method to personally prove or disprove to himself that humans could photosynthesize.”

“He did this by laying bare ass naked on his front lawn, landing him a public nudity charge.” — Arikan89

And some were just plain bizarre.

Like this one, which involved an animal.

“this was a roumour that went around my elementary school. basically my school had a lock down but they didn’t tell us what it was for.”

“one kid came in the next day and told us that his sister said it was a cow in the field in between the high school and middle school. so my second grade class went and told everyone else in the school. the next day we had an assembly that confirmed this rumor.” — Ptential_Hedgehog92

Or this one, which also involved an animal. 

“In middle school, there was a rumor my 7th-8th grade Social Studies teacher owned a pet donkey. Turned out to be true. The donkey’s name was Pedro the Donkey.” — MasterAqua2

But no matter how wild or out there these rumors may sound, we can rest assured there plenty more—perhaps wilder—out there as well.

Only you know how your school stacks up .

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People Share The Most Fascinating Facts About Serial Killers

As much as we’re all aware they’re morbid, morally destitute, and thrive on violence above all else, we are fascinated by the lives of serial killers.

Surf through any streaming site and you’re sure to see at least a few documentaries and fictional dramas whose subject is some guy on a killing rampage.

But whether we feel ethically compromised about that interest or not, the content isn’t about to slow down anytime soon.

Redditor zimmy9921 made sure of that when they asked the following question:

“What are some serial killer facts/ facts about serial killers that you find extremely interesting?”

The Killers’ Methods 

“Jeffrey Dahmer…towards the end right before he got caught, had so many bodies in his apartment that he ran out of room and stored one victim in his bathtub. He proceeded to shower over him everyday for a month!”

“Think about that…straddling over a rotten corpse to get fresh and clean for the day. Unreal…” — TrollOfTheInterwebs

“The serial killer Bela Kiss liked to pickle people in barrels stored in his basement. Someone figured it out but they couldn’t get him because he was fighting in World War I. By the time they tracked him down he had disappeared and left a dead guy in his hospital bed.”

“He supposedly joined the French Foreign Legion and deserted that too, and I think history loses track of him after that, with the exception of one possible sighting as a janitor in New York. The janitor disappeared before anyone could confirm it.” — Ayback183

“I am surprised we don’t hear more about Robert Hansen in popular culture. He would kidnap women and turn them loose in the Alaskan wilderness, where he would then hunt them down like animals and kill them.”

“He didn’t have the highest number of victims, but his method of hunting them for sport is absolutely insane.” — glaring-oryx

“Mack Ray Edwards, he was a serial killer who worked for CalTrans. He’d kill his victims and then bury the bodies in places he would later help build the highways over.”

Not all his victims have been found, and many are very likely still under some of the California highways you may have driven over countless times.” — llcucf80

Wildly Bold and Snarky

“PeeWee Gaskins, most prolific serial killer in SC drove around in a hearse with a bumper sticker that read ‘I haul dead people.’ He told people that he needed it to take the bodies of people he killed to his private cemetery.”

“He claimed to have killed between 100 and 110 people.” — SCCock

“Jeffrey Dahmer gave the people in his apartment building sandwiches that could’ve possibly been made from his victims’ flesh.” — votedog

“The golden state killer, known at the time as the east area rapist, would often break into the homes of couples, making the woman tie up the man.”

“He would stack dishes on the back of the man and threaten that if he heard the dishes fall, he would kill everyone in the house, then he would rape the woman repeatedly and ransack the house for hours.”

“At a community meeting about the rapist a macho man stood up and went on a rant about how a real man would never let such a thing happen to him or his wife.”

“The rapist proceeded to attack that man and his wife soon after, meaning he was attending the community meeting about himself.” — PM-ME-A-SPICY-MEME

“I find it interesting that apparently the BTK-killer installed alarms at several people houses because of their fear of the BTK-killer.” — bleke_1

“Dennis Rader, aka BTK (Bind Torture Kill) started communicating with police after years of silence in like 2004ish? He had gone decades without being caught and once again started sending taunting letters and items to them.”

“He asked them if he could be traced if he sent them his writings on a floppy disc and they assured him through a communication in a newspaper that no, they couldn’t trace him. He sent them a floppy disc and they found metadata linking to his church.”

“He was arrested shortly thereafter. He was hurt that they would lie to him because he thought they had developed a rapport…” — goatywizard

“Additional BTK funfacts: He worked for a home security company, and gained access to some of his victims’ homes that way.”

“When some home security cos tried to sell me on their services when I first got a house, said ‘not today, serial killers!’ to that whole mess.” — Zebirdsandzebats

“[BTK’s] wife found a poem that he wrote about one of his victims.”

“When confronted he lied and said it was for a writing assignment for a class he was taking and he chose to write it about this woman because she was all over news due to her murder.”

“I think that was the closest a family member came to finding out.” — PantherMoose

“Many years ago I read the entire police report on the Green River killer. I was fascinated by his attempts to cover his tracks by buying new car tires and destroying shoes and getting new ones after murders (to avoid leaving traceable tracks behind.)”

“Also fascinating that he took the jewelry off his victims and left it in the ladies restroom at his workplace and got off on seeing the ‘found’ jewelry on various woman around the office.” — smarmageddon

Oddball Facts

“Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t eat people with tattoos because he said the ink made the flesh taste weird.”

“Be safe, get inked.” — Bossmantho

“That most serial killers have roughly average, often below average IQs, and their reputation as smart and difficult to catch is because of a couple of high profile outliers and the fact that their victims are usually the sort of people who cops and society don’t pay as much attention to.” — ithran_dishon

“Jeffrey Dahmer was neglected by his parents in childhood and hadn’t even seen his mother for 10 years prior to incarceration. At sentencing his father and step mother asked for 10 minutes to say goodbye and hug.”

“His father often visited him in prison and he had weekly phone calls with his mother. Despite the heinous crimes they seemed to have some kind of unconditional love. It makes all of the stories I hear about estrangement seem to have a different, strange perspective.” — Goose1963

“I don’t recall which one it was, but I remember hearing that there was a killer who would only go into the home if the front door was unlocked because otherwise he ‘didn’t feel welcome.’ Lock your doors people!” — RealKenny

So if, on the off chance, you want to freak everyone out at a party or an ice breaker, you have plenty of ammo now.

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Lawyers Break Down The Pettiest Reasons They’ve Ever Seen A Couple Divorce

It’s by now common knowledge a profoundly high amount of marriages end in divorce in the United States.

Bearing that upsetting news in mind, we’d like to think each of those relationships meet their end for a worthy reason, full of movie-like passion and the strong convictions of both partners.

But a recent Reddit thread squashed those lofty hopes.

To bring us all back down to earth, Redditor KarysMR asked:

“Lawyers of Reddit, what is the pettiest reason you’ve ever seen for divorce?”

Many lawyers interpreted “petty” to mean “mind-bogglingly trivial.”

“Definitely the fridge Story!! A woman filed for divorce because her husband would eat everything he can find in their fridge whenever the wife was out for work.”

“So she came back to a basically empty fridge each night.”

“He also cheated on her but she was less angry about that. The fridge was what pushed her to the point she wanted a divorce.” — wrenisanecklace

“the husband kept putting wet/used towel on their bed.” — automind

“Wife wanted divorce like 2 months into marriage because the husband would squeeze the toothpaste from the top and not bottom.”

“She claims to have told him a millions times over to stop. Would have been easier to get 2 toothpastes i thought.” — Infamous-Offer6342

“Not a lawyer- but apparently my brother divorced his wife when McDonald’s forgot to put bbq sauce in with her chicken nuggets at the drive through and she asked him to go back and get some.”

“He didn’t and then I guess she started smashing up food and throwing it at him/out the window….. so yeah…. McDonalds how could you ruin a marriage ?…….” — WITCH_glitch_I-hex-u

“Not a lawyer: My Mom’s coworker divorced over dishes in the dishwasher.”

“The wife would get so frustrated over the husband (coworker) not rinsing dishes before he loads them in the dishwasher.”

“To compromise, they bought a super nice, top of the line dishwasher. Solves the problem, right?”

“She yelled about the dishes that night. He filed for divorce the next day.” — weberster

“Not a lawyer but this happened to my wife’s cousin.”

“Her husband came home one day asking her to give a higher financial contribution on the groceries, because she, as a lady, was using more toilet paper than him.”

“She took it as a joke and had a good laugh. He got mad, and asked for divorce.”

“Worth mentioning that his salary was 3 times higher than hers.” — Yashky

Many people witnessed bizarre breaking points.

“Nobody ever believes me about this one, but it’s true.”

“A man wanted a divorce from his wife because – and he gave this example as the ‘last straw’ – his wife ate those nasty pumpkin Halloween candies, like candy corn but pumpkin shaped.”

“He had been looking forward to them all day and when he got home, she had eaten them all. He snapped.”

“Swear on my life this story is true.” — Brkiri

“My father-in-law and mother-in-law’s breaking point was when he threw a breadcrumb at her from across the kitchen.”

“The divorce took 4 years to settle.” — ITS_JUST_LOW_T

One Redditor offered up another version of that story.

“My ex thinks I divorced him because my friends told me to.”

“What actually happened was I was bitching about him to a friend and she said ‘you know, he really is a passive aggressive piece of garbage. He does this all the time’.”

“And then I started thinking about how he really did pull that crap all the time and how I wasn’t actually depressed, I just hated living with him.”

“She opened my eyes, but I divorced him because he treated me like crap, not because my friend told me to.” — scaly_friends_4me

Other times, the divorce was prompted by a surprise discovery.

“I remember one episode of a TV show here in my country, similar to Jerry Springer, the woman didn’t know her husband used dentures until marrying and living together.”

“She said she couldn’t handle anymore, she was disgusted.”

“They both cried, she said a lot of ‘I’m sorry’ but she couldn’t go on. They were married for a few months.”

“Don’t know if it was true though.” — nerdy_latino

“The weirdest I’ve ever seen is a coworker of mine.”

“His wife saw a picture of him at a pool when he was in high school and really athletic. Toned, muscular, tan and so on.”

“Over the 10 years after high school he stopped lifting and lost his muscle tone and just became skinny.”

She told him she wanted him to get back to working out because she really liked the way he once looked and he said it was something he missed doing and agreed to get a gym membership.”

“He was going to the gym four days a week but was only really working out for two of them. On the days he didn’t work out he would sit in the sauna to get sweaty, watch Netflix and then go home.”

“When she asked about him going to the gym and accidentally let it slip that he was fudging workouts twice a week. She apparently found that to be a deal breaker and filed for divorce.” — SafewordisJohnCandy

“A woman came in wanting to divorce her husband. He had just gotten a new job and a pretty big raise.”

“It turned out that this new job of his also required that he work from home but he was working in an office before.”

“She was having an affair with their next-door neighbor and him being home more meant that she couldn’t cheat on her husband easily.”

“That was definitely a twist. I was expecting something like him being the one having the affair but nope!” — red_duke117

“A teacher I had in HS got divorced because his wife didnt like how much sex he had before they had been married.”

“To put in context how petty of a reason that was, they had been married for 12 yrs and had three kids together.”

“She had also met him a few years into his teaching career which didn’t start till he was 32.”

“But to say both sides of the argument, he did have a staggering large amount of sex, he was an Olympian and had been going to the Olympics to compete since he was 18.”

“He was the best teacher to ever have as a homeroom teacher as the stories he could tell were just surreal.” — TarvidD12

So there you have it.

Even if you find yourself in the throes of a dying marriage destined for failure for the least legitimate reason possible, you will not be alone.

I guess there’s some comfort in that, right?

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People Break Out Their Most Obscure Animal Facts

Everybody loves a good fun fact.

They’re worth their weight in gold when you find yourself at an intimidating team-builder or other ice breaker situation.

On top of that, if you can master the art of injecting them into conversation without sounding like a middle school science teacher, you can rely on them to turn a boring chat around at a party.

And of all the fun facts, the animal ones seem to pique our interest more than most others.

Those creatures all around continue to fascinate us with their mysterious behaviors—often genius—behaviors.

Apparently Redditor KnightsWhoSayKni was fresh out of those facts, so they asked a simple, yet compelling question:

“What’s your #1 obscure animal fact?”

People came locked and loaded with all sorts of weird truths.

One common area of intrigue was, of course, anatomy.

“The American bison is the only animal in which both lungs share a common cavity. In every other animal the lungs are separated. What this meant is that when shot by an arrow, both lungs would collapse and the buffalo would suffocate quickly.”

“(For other animals, being shot in the chest would only collapse one lung, and they would at least have a chance) That’s why such a large animal could be taken down with relatively small weapons.” — angmarsilar

“Sloth hands work opposite to ours. They have to exert energy to open their ‘fist’ and relax to close it. This is how they can hang from trees while they’re sleeping and not fall off.” — liripipe

“Ancient penguins could have been up to 7 feet tall.” — StarsandstampS

“Some squid have toroid shaped (donut) brains, and their esophagus (throat) passing through it. If they eat something too big they can get brain damage.” — horch13

“Bird poop is white because they don’t secrete ammonia in urea like we do when we pee so it comes out in one movement and as nearly pure ammonia. Why that stuff eats your car paint!” — dave-pumpkins

Plenty of people were fascinated by the mental tendencies of certain animals. 

“Fish have been seen using tools – deliberately hitting a clam with a rock to get it to open so they can eat it.”

“Some fish (eels and groupers) form hunting partnerships where they communicate across the species barrier with specific signals to put their individual strengths to work (the eels chase prey out of crevices to where the groupers are waiting in open water).”

“They also get fooled by illusions in the same way we do, meaning that their brains are processing and interpreting their environment in a similar way to us.”

“That’s technically three facts but I like fish.” — BoldlyGone1

“There’s an insect called the scorpiofly that impresses mates by bringing them prey to eat. The bigger the meal, the better.”

“Only, some scorpionflies aren’t that great at catching food. So some of these males will imitate females, and wait for other males to bring them their gifts. Then they take the gift, fly away, and give it to an actual female.” — smiffypiffy

“On ostrich farms, some farmers have a hard time with breeding because the ostrich is more attracted to humans than other ostriches.”

“That’s right, somewhere out there an ostrich wants to fu** you.” — cleancutPunk

“Dogs may make social judgements about people based on how those people treat their owners. A study out of Japan had dog owners asking two people for help opening a container. There were three possible outcomes.”

A person reacting negatively by refusing and turning away, a person remaining neutral and a person helping. The dogs were then offered food from the people the owner had approached for help.”

“Dogs were much much less likely to accept food from the people who had refused to help their owners, and much more likely to accept food from those who had been neutral or who had helped.” — LogicalMess

Then came mention of those out-there behaviors. 

“Snapping/pistol shrimps and their colonies are so loud that they can interfere with sonar used by other animals and submarines.”

They also create tiny but incredibly powerful explosions implosions through the sheer force of their pincers closing ludicrously fast, which is cool.” — SolipsistAngel

“A green sea turtle can swim faster than Usain bolt can sprint. An animal out there with a house for a body can swim at speeds we don’t allow in playground zones 35MPH.” — rkhbusa

“Avocados were evolved to be eaten by the giant ground sloth. Imagine a sloth, but so massive it could only live on the ground. The flesh attracted the sloth and the very large seed was ‘designed’ to travel through their intestinal tract for re-seeding or whatever plants do.”

“Humans killed the sloth but loved the avo. We domesticated the avo to increase the yummy flesh. The pit has gotten smaller but is still very large. Whenever you eat an avo, think of the long extinct giant sloth.” — quokkafarts

“I’ve said this in my own thread but I’ll say it again.”

“Porcupines climb trees and come down backwards and use their tail to feel for the ground. Sometimes their tail will hit a branch and they will think it is the ground and so they will jump off and impale themselves.”

“Over time they evolved to have antibiotics in their quills so when they fall out of trees they don’t die.” — otterdragon

“Squirrels are responsible for thousands of new trees every year. They collect and bury their nuts all over the place so they’ll have food to last thru winter, but they forget about most of them.” — southwycke75344

And a few talked about what was myth and what was real. 

“Scientists thought the platypus was a joke until they send a dead one back to be studied.” — [deleted]

“People thought the okapi was a hoax until it was photographed. In parts of Sumatra it is believed that the orangutan can speak and refuses to do so because they don’t want to work.” — Victoresball

So there you have it.

Plenty of bizarre, fascinating, grotesque tidbits to keep you stocked for any lull in conversation.

Posted on

People Break Out Their Most Obscure Animal Facts

Everybody loves a good fun fact.

They’re worth their weight in gold when you find yourself at an intimidating team-builder or other ice breaker situation.

On top of that, if you can master the art of injecting them into conversation without sounding like a middle school science teacher, you can rely on them to turn a boring chat around at a party.

And of all the fun facts, the animal ones seem to pique our interest more than most others.

Those creatures all around continue to fascinate us with their mysterious behaviors—often genius—behaviors.

Apparently Redditor KnightsWhoSayKni was fresh out of those facts, so they asked a simple, yet compelling question:

“What’s your #1 obscure animal fact?”

People came locked and loaded with all sorts of weird truths.

One common area of intrigue was, of course, anatomy.

“The American bison is the only animal in which both lungs share a common cavity. In every other animal the lungs are separated. What this meant is that when shot by an arrow, both lungs would collapse and the buffalo would suffocate quickly.”

“(For other animals, being shot in the chest would only collapse one lung, and they would at least have a chance) That’s why such a large animal could be taken down with relatively small weapons.” — angmarsilar

“Sloth hands work opposite to ours. They have to exert energy to open their ‘fist’ and relax to close it. This is how they can hang from trees while they’re sleeping and not fall off.” — liripipe

“Ancient penguins could have been up to 7 feet tall.” — StarsandstampS

“Some squid have toroid shaped (donut) brains, and their esophagus (throat) passing through it. If they eat something too big they can get brain damage.” — horch13

“Bird poop is white because they don’t secrete ammonia in urea like we do when we pee so it comes out in one movement and as nearly pure ammonia. Why that stuff eats your car paint!” — dave-pumpkins

Plenty of people were fascinated by the mental tendencies of certain animals. 

“Fish have been seen using tools – deliberately hitting a clam with a rock to get it to open so they can eat it.”

“Some fish (eels and groupers) form hunting partnerships where they communicate across the species barrier with specific signals to put their individual strengths to work (the eels chase prey out of crevices to where the groupers are waiting in open water).”

“They also get fooled by illusions in the same way we do, meaning that their brains are processing and interpreting their environment in a similar way to us.”

“That’s technically three facts but I like fish.” — BoldlyGone1

“There’s an insect called the scorpiofly that impresses mates by bringing them prey to eat. The bigger the meal, the better.”

“Only, some scorpionflies aren’t that great at catching food. So some of these males will imitate females, and wait for other males to bring them their gifts. Then they take the gift, fly away, and give it to an actual female.” — smiffypiffy

“On ostrich farms, some farmers have a hard time with breeding because the ostrich is more attracted to humans than other ostriches.”

“That’s right, somewhere out there an ostrich wants to fu** you.” — cleancutPunk

“Dogs may make social judgements about people based on how those people treat their owners. A study out of Japan had dog owners asking two people for help opening a container. There were three possible outcomes.”

A person reacting negatively by refusing and turning away, a person remaining neutral and a person helping. The dogs were then offered food from the people the owner had approached for help.”

“Dogs were much much less likely to accept food from the people who had refused to help their owners, and much more likely to accept food from those who had been neutral or who had helped.” — LogicalMess

Then came mention of those out-there behaviors. 

“Snapping/pistol shrimps and their colonies are so loud that they can interfere with sonar used by other animals and submarines.”

They also create tiny but incredibly powerful explosions implosions through the sheer force of their pincers closing ludicrously fast, which is cool.” — SolipsistAngel

“A green sea turtle can swim faster than Usain bolt can sprint. An animal out there with a house for a body can swim at speeds we don’t allow in playground zones 35MPH.” — rkhbusa

“Avocados were evolved to be eaten by the giant ground sloth. Imagine a sloth, but so massive it could only live on the ground. The flesh attracted the sloth and the very large seed was ‘designed’ to travel through their intestinal tract for re-seeding or whatever plants do.”

“Humans killed the sloth but loved the avo. We domesticated the avo to increase the yummy flesh. The pit has gotten smaller but is still very large. Whenever you eat an avo, think of the long extinct giant sloth.” — quokkafarts

“I’ve said this in my own thread but I’ll say it again.”

“Porcupines climb trees and come down backwards and use their tail to feel for the ground. Sometimes their tail will hit a branch and they will think it is the ground and so they will jump off and impale themselves.”

“Over time they evolved to have antibiotics in their quills so when they fall out of trees they don’t die.” — otterdragon

“Squirrels are responsible for thousands of new trees every year. They collect and bury their nuts all over the place so they’ll have food to last thru winter, but they forget about most of them.” — southwycke75344

And a few talked about what was myth and what was real. 

“Scientists thought the platypus was a joke until they send a dead one back to be studied.” — [deleted]

“People thought the okapi was a hoax until it was photographed. In parts of Sumatra it is believed that the orangutan can speak and refuses to do so because they don’t want to work.” — Victoresball

So there you have it.

Plenty of bizarre, fascinating, grotesque tidbits to keep you stocked for any lull in conversation.

Posted on

People Break Out Their Most Obscure Animal Facts

Everybody loves a good fun fact.

They’re worth their weight in gold when you find yourself at an intimidating team-builder or other ice breaker situation.

On top of that, if you can master the art of injecting them into conversation without sounding like a middle school science teacher, you can rely on them to turn a boring chat around at a party.

And of all the fun facts, the animal ones seem to pique our interest more than most others.

Those creatures all around continue to fascinate us with their mysterious behaviors—often genius—behaviors.

Apparently Redditor KnightsWhoSayKni was fresh out of those facts, so they asked a simple, yet compelling question:

“What’s your #1 obscure animal fact?”

People came locked and loaded with all sorts of weird truths.

One common area of intrigue was, of course, anatomy.

“The American bison is the only animal in which both lungs share a common cavity. In every other animal the lungs are separated. What this meant is that when shot by an arrow, both lungs would collapse and the buffalo would suffocate quickly.”

“(For other animals, being shot in the chest would only collapse one lung, and they would at least have a chance) That’s why such a large animal could be taken down with relatively small weapons.” — angmarsilar

“Sloth hands work opposite to ours. They have to exert energy to open their ‘fist’ and relax to close it. This is how they can hang from trees while they’re sleeping and not fall off.” — liripipe

“Ancient penguins could have been up to 7 feet tall.” — StarsandstampS

“Some squid have toroid shaped (donut) brains, and their esophagus (throat) passing through it. If they eat something too big they can get brain damage.” — horch13

“Bird poop is white because they don’t secrete ammonia in urea like we do when we pee so it comes out in one movement and as nearly pure ammonia. Why that stuff eats your car paint!” — dave-pumpkins

Plenty of people were fascinated by the mental tendencies of certain animals. 

“Fish have been seen using tools – deliberately hitting a clam with a rock to get it to open so they can eat it.”

“Some fish (eels and groupers) form hunting partnerships where they communicate across the species barrier with specific signals to put their individual strengths to work (the eels chase prey out of crevices to where the groupers are waiting in open water).”

“They also get fooled by illusions in the same way we do, meaning that their brains are processing and interpreting their environment in a similar way to us.”

“That’s technically three facts but I like fish.” — BoldlyGone1

“There’s an insect called the scorpiofly that impresses mates by bringing them prey to eat. The bigger the meal, the better.”

“Only, some scorpionflies aren’t that great at catching food. So some of these males will imitate females, and wait for other males to bring them their gifts. Then they take the gift, fly away, and give it to an actual female.” — smiffypiffy

“On ostrich farms, some farmers have a hard time with breeding because the ostrich is more attracted to humans than other ostriches.”

“That’s right, somewhere out there an ostrich wants to fu** you.” — cleancutPunk

“Dogs may make social judgements about people based on how those people treat their owners. A study out of Japan had dog owners asking two people for help opening a container. There were three possible outcomes.”

A person reacting negatively by refusing and turning away, a person remaining neutral and a person helping. The dogs were then offered food from the people the owner had approached for help.”

“Dogs were much much less likely to accept food from the people who had refused to help their owners, and much more likely to accept food from those who had been neutral or who had helped.” — LogicalMess

Then came mention of those out-there behaviors. 

“Snapping/pistol shrimps and their colonies are so loud that they can interfere with sonar used by other animals and submarines.”

They also create tiny but incredibly powerful explosions implosions through the sheer force of their pincers closing ludicrously fast, which is cool.” — SolipsistAngel

“A green sea turtle can swim faster than Usain bolt can sprint. An animal out there with a house for a body can swim at speeds we don’t allow in playground zones 35MPH.” — rkhbusa

“Avocados were evolved to be eaten by the giant ground sloth. Imagine a sloth, but so massive it could only live on the ground. The flesh attracted the sloth and the very large seed was ‘designed’ to travel through their intestinal tract for re-seeding or whatever plants do.”

“Humans killed the sloth but loved the avo. We domesticated the avo to increase the yummy flesh. The pit has gotten smaller but is still very large. Whenever you eat an avo, think of the long extinct giant sloth.” — quokkafarts

“I’ve said this in my own thread but I’ll say it again.”

“Porcupines climb trees and come down backwards and use their tail to feel for the ground. Sometimes their tail will hit a branch and they will think it is the ground and so they will jump off and impale themselves.”

“Over time they evolved to have antibiotics in their quills so when they fall out of trees they don’t die.” — otterdragon

“Squirrels are responsible for thousands of new trees every year. They collect and bury their nuts all over the place so they’ll have food to last thru winter, but they forget about most of them.” — southwycke75344

And a few talked about what was myth and what was real. 

“Scientists thought the platypus was a joke until they send a dead one back to be studied.” — [deleted]

“People thought the okapi was a hoax until it was photographed. In parts of Sumatra it is believed that the orangutan can speak and refuses to do so because they don’t want to work.” — Victoresball

So there you have it.

Plenty of bizarre, fascinating, grotesque tidbits to keep you stocked for any lull in conversation.

Posted on

People Break Out Their Most Obscure Animal Facts

Everybody loves a good fun fact.

They’re worth their weight in gold when you find yourself at an intimidating team-builder or other ice breaker situation.

On top of that, if you can master the art of injecting them into conversation without sounding like a middle school science teacher, you can rely on them to turn a boring chat around at a party.

And of all the fun facts, the animal ones seem to pique our interest more than most others.

Those creatures all around continue to fascinate us with their mysterious behaviors—often genius—behaviors.

Apparently Redditor KnightsWhoSayKni was fresh out of those facts, so they asked a simple, yet compelling question:

“What’s your #1 obscure animal fact?”

People came locked and loaded with all sorts of weird truths.

One common area of intrigue was, of course, anatomy.

“The American bison is the only animal in which both lungs share a common cavity. In every other animal the lungs are separated. What this meant is that when shot by an arrow, both lungs would collapse and the buffalo would suffocate quickly.”

“(For other animals, being shot in the chest would only collapse one lung, and they would at least have a chance) That’s why such a large animal could be taken down with relatively small weapons.” — angmarsilar

“Sloth hands work opposite to ours. They have to exert energy to open their ‘fist’ and relax to close it. This is how they can hang from trees while they’re sleeping and not fall off.” — liripipe

“Ancient penguins could have been up to 7 feet tall.” — StarsandstampS

“Some squid have toroid shaped (donut) brains, and their esophagus (throat) passing through it. If they eat something too big they can get brain damage.” — horch13

“Bird poop is white because they don’t secrete ammonia in urea like we do when we pee so it comes out in one movement and as nearly pure ammonia. Why that stuff eats your car paint!” — dave-pumpkins

Plenty of people were fascinated by the mental tendencies of certain animals. 

“Fish have been seen using tools – deliberately hitting a clam with a rock to get it to open so they can eat it.”

“Some fish (eels and groupers) form hunting partnerships where they communicate across the species barrier with specific signals to put their individual strengths to work (the eels chase prey out of crevices to where the groupers are waiting in open water).”

“They also get fooled by illusions in the same way we do, meaning that their brains are processing and interpreting their environment in a similar way to us.”

“That’s technically three facts but I like fish.” — BoldlyGone1

“There’s an insect called the scorpiofly that impresses mates by bringing them prey to eat. The bigger the meal, the better.”

“Only, some scorpionflies aren’t that great at catching food. So some of these males will imitate females, and wait for other males to bring them their gifts. Then they take the gift, fly away, and give it to an actual female.” — smiffypiffy

“On ostrich farms, some farmers have a hard time with breeding because the ostrich is more attracted to humans than other ostriches.”

“That’s right, somewhere out there an ostrich wants to fu** you.” — cleancutPunk

“Dogs may make social judgements about people based on how those people treat their owners. A study out of Japan had dog owners asking two people for help opening a container. There were three possible outcomes.”

A person reacting negatively by refusing and turning away, a person remaining neutral and a person helping. The dogs were then offered food from the people the owner had approached for help.”

“Dogs were much much less likely to accept food from the people who had refused to help their owners, and much more likely to accept food from those who had been neutral or who had helped.” — LogicalMess

Then came mention of those out-there behaviors. 

“Snapping/pistol shrimps and their colonies are so loud that they can interfere with sonar used by other animals and submarines.”

They also create tiny but incredibly powerful explosions implosions through the sheer force of their pincers closing ludicrously fast, which is cool.” — SolipsistAngel

“A green sea turtle can swim faster than Usain bolt can sprint. An animal out there with a house for a body can swim at speeds we don’t allow in playground zones 35MPH.” — rkhbusa

“Avocados were evolved to be eaten by the giant ground sloth. Imagine a sloth, but so massive it could only live on the ground. The flesh attracted the sloth and the very large seed was ‘designed’ to travel through their intestinal tract for re-seeding or whatever plants do.”

“Humans killed the sloth but loved the avo. We domesticated the avo to increase the yummy flesh. The pit has gotten smaller but is still very large. Whenever you eat an avo, think of the long extinct giant sloth.” — quokkafarts

“I’ve said this in my own thread but I’ll say it again.”

“Porcupines climb trees and come down backwards and use their tail to feel for the ground. Sometimes their tail will hit a branch and they will think it is the ground and so they will jump off and impale themselves.”

“Over time they evolved to have antibiotics in their quills so when they fall out of trees they don’t die.” — otterdragon

“Squirrels are responsible for thousands of new trees every year. They collect and bury their nuts all over the place so they’ll have food to last thru winter, but they forget about most of them.” — southwycke75344

And a few talked about what was myth and what was real. 

“Scientists thought the platypus was a joke until they send a dead one back to be studied.” — [deleted]

“People thought the okapi was a hoax until it was photographed. In parts of Sumatra it is believed that the orangutan can speak and refuses to do so because they don’t want to work.” — Victoresball

So there you have it.

Plenty of bizarre, fascinating, grotesque tidbits to keep you stocked for any lull in conversation.