Category: Facts

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People Divulge The Coolest Facts About The Human Body They Know

It’s easy to dismiss everything going on inside of us as unimportant and anyone who didn’t pay attention in high school biology class might agree with that statement, but the human body is a wonder of science and nature.

 

By all accounts, we all appear mundane on the outside.

We are all of us just a walking, talking bag of bones, electrical impulses and chemical reactions in a meat suit with an appetite for excellent television and an addiction to overpowered, miniature super computers we carry with us everywhere.

But there’s more to us than that.

For example, did you know your liver is capable of regenerating itself like Wolverine or that you can produce enough spit in a lifetime to fill up two entire swimming pools?

WARNING: some of it is kind of gross to those with weak stomachs.

Just when we think we know everything about the human body, the internet goes and surprises us with a bit of blood and gore.

Redditor Actionkat63 asked:

“What’s a strange, but true fact about the human body?”

We’re All Queens

“The acid in your stomach could burn your skin! I always thought that was pretty interesting, and reminds me of the scene in Alien, where the alien blood burns everything.” ~ RebaRocket

Get Your Running Shoes On

“Humans can outrun almost every animal on long distance.” ~ WantedJOCZ

“Long distances only. Humans have been known to jog for days at a time without sleeping, and we seem to have evolved as endurance predators (ie, jog after an animal until it’s literally too tired to fight back).”

“In cold weather the only animal that beats us is huskies, and in hot weather we can be outdistanced by camels and IIRC kangaroos, but otherwise we tend to win in the end.” ~ Pseudonymico

They Can’t Wiggle Out Of This

“Your intestines are in near constant motion, wiggling like a worm.” ~ EasilyForgotten1

But Are We Still Allowed To Lick Things?

“We know what everything would feel like on our tongues without even licking it.” ~ meh2557

“I’ve read this before and it blew my mind looking around at everything and realizing how weirdly, fascinatingly true it is. I’m assuming it’s a combination of you know textures from your fingers and that stage of infancy when babies put everything in their mouths.” ~ ablondedude

Care Package: Incoming!

“When pregnant, if a mother suffers a heart attack or other large physiological issue, the fetus will release a swarm of stem cells that move to the affected area, greatly helping in survival and healing.” ~ SugaBear9001

Flip The Switch

“that the brain operates on the same amount of power as a 10-watt lightbulb” ~ boringg-moon

Shut It All Down!

“Our immune system is so strong it can kill our own bodies’ cells: so techinically we do have a self destruct sequence” ~ SheepSh-t2525

“Our cells have a self destruct sequence also. If things start getting weird, your mitochondria send a signal to the brain which sends a signal to the cells lysosomes which then burst open and destroy the cell.”

“It’s called apoptosis or programmed cell death.” ~ callisstaa

Every Adults’ Kneecaps Feel This One

“Until the age of like 2 ish babies don’t have real kneecaps, they are made of a squishy cartilage type thing” ~ Bunchnivski

Lots of their bones are squishy cartilage stuff, and only grow into bone as they age. Compare this baby hand with this adult hand x-ray.”

“We can actually use this development of cartilage into bone in the wrist to figure out roughly how old somebody is.” ~ elcarath

We Just Need To Keep Believing And Soon We Can Also See Over Tall Walls

“We have the same number of bones in our neck as a giraffe.” ~ Team_Captain_America

“Giraffes’ neck vertibrae are just really big.” ~ KaityKat117

It Truly Is Liquid Gold

“Human breast milk adapts it’s nutritious content to fit the need of the offspring. Baby lacks iron?”

“Next dose of milk will contain more iron. It’s amazing.” ~ Grimms_tale

“how does that work?”

“like.. how does the body of the mother know what the baby needs?”

“or is it more a ‘the ingredients of milk change over time, as the baby goes through different stages of grow’?” ~ Chepi_ChepChep

“Breastmilk is SO cool!! There’s a reason why it’s called liquid gold!”

“More fun facts:”

“1- breastmilk can be dripped into babies eye/ear/nose to treat infections (as mentioned by someone below, it works best as an anti-inflammatory, which can help! Also, it’s more of a preventative than a cure.)”

“2- breastmilk does change depending on babies needs and as they grow”

“3- breastmilk contents differ depending on babies gender”

“4- breastmilk can help with cradle cap”

“5- it works on mild eczema!”

“6- the components of breastmilk could lead to treatment for cancers! possibilities still under trial”

“7- it’s “made” out of the mother’s blood”.

“Milk is made inside glands from the blood stream. Breast milk is NOT made from the mother’s stomach contents”

“The foods mom eats are broken down in the digestive system. Blood reaches the milk glands where it delivers carbohydrates, nutrients, white blood cells, enzymes, pro- and pre-biotics water, fat, and proteins into the gland. link!”

“8- mothers can detect issues with the baby through all of that kissing, which tells her body what to produce (like more antibodies ect) whoa!“~ Exotic-BlueBird

And That’s Enough For Today…

“It’s possible for your bowel movements to go backwards, causing you to poop from your mouth” ~ ipakookapi

“Just a way your body adapts to changes. If, for some reason you can’t poop, your body will attempt to expel it like its other waste products. You’ll find your breath will go rank, you’ll throw up poop and you urine will smell strong.”

“This will happen shortly before you die of sepsis, since all of these methods collectively aren’t good enough to dispose of everything you need.” ~ Gh3rkins

Never forget the human body is a fascinating and marvelous wonder of biology, chemistry and physics.

Just never be surprised when it does something surprising and/or upsetting to learn about.

We’re only human, after all.

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People Share The Craziest Conspiracy Theories That Have Been Proven True

Conspiracy theories are attractive.

It might be easy to dismiss someone who believes that the moon landing was faked or that Covid-19 vaccines aren’t safe, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

According to the Fight Fake News initiative at Louisiana State University (LSU), “Conspiracy theories are captivating because they provide explanations for confusing, emotional and ambiguous events especially when official explanations seem inadequate.”

People “naturally want to make sense of the world,” the initiative notes, observing that conspiracy theories “provide structured narratives of events that comport with how some people process information.”

So what happens when a conspiracy theory turns out to actually be true? Your brain just exploded at the thought, huh?

People were keen to share information after Redditor BrilliantKrill asked the online community:

“What are some popular conspiracy theories that have been proved?”

“The United States…”

“The United States really did engage in a secret and illegal bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam war.” ~ Redditor

To which this person replied…

“Yep. Led to the rise of the Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge. If you don’t remember, Pol Pot instigated a massive genocide in Cambodia.” ~ tface23

“He was a world-class drinker…”

“Hemingway went off the grid at the end of his life believing that the FBI was tracking him. He was a world-class drinker and not the best individual.”

“He wasn’t wrong about that.” ~ thatthingdo

To which this person replied…

“The sad part is that being tracked fueled his anxiety which eventually contributed to his decision to kill himself.” ~ TXR22

“The Black Hand…”

“The Black Hand did give Gavrilo Princip the gun he used to kill Archduke Ferdinand. They had other assassins on that route.”

“And even though this hits up all the marks of a conspiracy theory, it’s true.” ~ Bitlong_Salad

To which this person replied…

“The Serbian prime minister knew about the plans and tried to discreetly warn about it but was misunderstood.”

“The original assassination plan included grenades, but every assassin failed, Princip actually intended to kill one of his fellow assassins, who was caught and failed to commit suicide, when the archduke happened to pass by on his way to visit wounded officers in the hospital.” ~ GrandTheftPony

And on that same note…

“When you hear the full story of Ferdinand’s death, it’s much harder to consider it a conspiracy.”

“I mean, everything about it was so poorly thought out down to the fact that Ferdinand was the highest-ranking ally the Black Hand’s cause had within the government at the time.” ~ HandicapperGeneral

But what about phones, eh?

“That older Iphones are purposely being slowed down.” ~ mark484877

But hold up!

“It’s not so black and white, but you are correct. What a lot of people fail to mention is that Samsung does the same thing if not worse because you can ‘speed it back up’ for a fee.” ~ tireddrew

And then this happened:

“Have you heard of Verizon or Google doing the same? My Pixel 2 battery used to last me 2+ days easily before the phone was paid off.”

“Within a week of paying it off, my battery suddenly started lasting me about half a day with minimal use, and the phone started running slowly as well. Come to think of it, the GPS issues started around then too.”

“When using maps, the GPS can tell me where I am, but doesn’t update location once I start navigation.”

Looks like there’s some disagreement here.

“Service providers have no control over when your phone’s hardware clocks out. But a lot of Android phones usually die when they hit the 2-3 year mark.”

“As much as people hate on Apple, I’ve been a user since 2012 and have had an excellent experience. I used to be Android, but I had an LG phone that really soured the experience and now I’ll never go back.” ~ tireddrew

“A proposed CIA operation…”

“Operation Northwoods: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods“

“A proposed CIA operation to train Cuban refugees to commit mass shooting sprees in cities like Miami, to help convince the public that we should invade Cuba and kill Castro. Luckily, JFK had the sense to reject the idea.” ~ Redditor

Oh, and speaking of that:

“Operation Northwoods is a classic example of a Western government planning a false flag against civilians to justify war.”

“I do see this example ‘refuted’ in the sense that it was merely in the brainstorming stages and not operationally ready, but it was meant to be implemented fairly soon after the memo was written – US planners anticipated Cuba would sign a defense pact with the Soviet Union in the coming months.”

“Such a pact would’ve tied America’s hands behind its back in trying to thwart the Cuban revolution.”

“I think it’s noteworthy how the generals casually throw in a reference to ‘Remember the Maine’, in connection with planning a false flag. I wonder if it’s an open secret in military/intelligence black ops circles that such incidents were actually carried out from the inside.”

“One scenario from Northwoods – the swapping of civilian airliners with drone aircraft – is thought by some 9/11 Truthers to have been used to carry out the September 11th attacks.” ~ 50YearPlanBro

Okay, okay… just hear me out for a moment here—just one more about this, okay? Okay? Good.

“As in it never got past the memo phase and was never close to being implemented? Have you even read the actual memo the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave JFK.”

“It’s so badly written that it reeks of someone telling their subordinates the government version of ‘I need pictures, pictures of Spiderman’. DoD wanted to prove it could come up with something and it was just….awful.” ~ CitationX_7N11C

And just listen to this observation:

“The term “conspiracy theorist” was coined during the JFK assassination to discredit the people that had a different interpretation from the official story.” ~ OttoManSatire

Is there something here?

“They turned ‘conspiracy’ into a dirty word. People act like it is some mythological creature but it is simply a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.” ~ OMGhateallofyou

According to Karen Douglas, Ph.D., a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, “Believing in conspiracy theories and being suspicious about the actions of others is in some ways quite an adaptive thing to do.”

We don’t necessarily want to trust everyone, she points out, so conspiracy theories have always been around.

Which one will surprise us next by turning out to be true? We have no way to know, but there are at least a few people out there who are bound to feel vindicated.

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People Share The Absolute Scariest Space Facts They Know

For some, outerspace represents a sense of hope and advancement.

For others, the cosmos has more of that whole “terrifying hellscape” thing going on.

This article is probably going to vibe a bit more with group 2 than the “space, the final frontier” set.

Reddit user Zjaf asked:

“What’s the scariest space fact/mystery in your opinion?”

Who’s ready to get plunged into some fact-based existential dread? Let’s get into it. These are the space-facts that people find the most unsettling.

It’s HUGE.

“The sheer distance between things. It’s scary and somewhat depressing.” – regretfulbastard

“Definitely scary on the existential dread scale.”

“Even better, the scale is only increasing faster. Short of developing faster than light travel or the expansion of the universe slowing down, eventually the only things lighting up the night sky where humans once roamed will be our own galaxy and our nearest galactic neighbors.”

“All those other galaxies spotted by Hubble will be beyond the distance that we will ever see light from them again. The entire Milky Way will be in quarantine with just a few family members to call company for the remainder of the universe existing.” – desolation0

“If Einstein is correct (every experience so far has proved that he is, unfortunately), space isn’t meant for us.”

“Even if we manage to reach to build a near light speed spacecraft, it would take years to reach the nearest star systems – but time would seem to go by faster to everyone aboard the ship.”

“But it gets worse: any communication is also bound by the speed of light. Even if we create an outpost on Proxima Centauri b, it would take at least 8.5 YEARS to get an answer to any communication. And it’s the nearest planet. Any kind of united civilization is utterly impossible in these conditions.” – asshai

A Single Destructive Event

“The Kessler Effect is the theory that a single destructive event in Low earth orbit could create a cascade where satellites break up into tiny fragments.”

“Those tiny fragments would then go about taking out other satellites, breaking THEM up into smaller fragments and so on, until the earth is completely surrounded by a massive cloud of tiny flying death shrapnel which would make leaving this planet almost impossible.”

“If you look up how much space debris there is already up there and how many satellites currently orbit, plus the continued growth of the commercial space industry… I think about it a lot.” – sosogos

“A large volcano eruption has the capacity to knock out enough communication for long enough to trigger such an event. The fact that magma below the earth surface has the capacity to takeout satellites blows my mind.” – a55per

The Void

“The Bootes void.”

“An area of space where there should be 50,000 or so galaxies (compared to other areas of the same size) but there’s only about 60.”

“Could just be empty space for some unknown reason, or it could be an ever expanding intergalactic empire using Dyson spheres. Also I think it appears to be growing but that could just be galaxies moving away from the void” – nazi_marxist

“It’s 330,000,000 light years in diameter. You could travel at the speed of light for literally 330,000,000 years and see absolutely nothing.” – r0b0tMark

We’re Stuck Here

“This visual that either shows how slow light speed is or how vast space is, depending on which way you look at it.”

“I’ve seen videos showing the scale of the universe before, but this one really hit home for some reason. The speed of light, the fastest speed possible, looks painfully slow when you look at it in the context of even a fraction of our solar system.”

“We’re stuck here, aren’t we?” – [Reddit]

“This is the first time I was able to actually GRASP the scale of the universe. Holy sh*t is space huge…” – Cringetorics

What’s Beyond The Sphere?

“I can’t accept the fact that there is no end in space. But if there is indeed an end, then… what’s beyond it?”

“I’m stucked in the absurdity.”

“In the numerous answers I’ve received, the one that seems to come back the most is ‘the universe is curved, you would end up back where you started.’”

“Seems fair enough… Then again, that wouldn’t mean there is no limit.”

“On the contrary, that would just mean we are trapped in (or on the surface of) a sphere.”

“There is still a limit to a sphere. So the question remains… what’s beyond it?” – tartokwetsh

Way Overdue

“The earth is way overdue for a civilization/all life ending event.”

“Meteors and asteroids didn’t just stop hitting earth. Will it happen in my lifetime, my kids or my grandkids lifetimes? Or 1000 years from now?”

“Humans have only been here for a minute amount of time over the course of earths complete history and many things have happened to completely wipe out almost all life as we know it.” – tonkajoe6646

Brain Soup

“The Boltzmann Brain”

“The most likely ending to our universe will be all stars and black holes exploding and eventually the universe becomes a completely even soup of particles for all eternity.”

“In this theory, the Big Bang was actually a cosmic coincidence, in which enough of those base particles (literally every one that currently exists) collided in the even soup of a PAST universe. This collision caused the big bang to occur, thrusting into motion the energies that run our current universe.”

“Such an occurrence in the soup of infinite is INCREDIBLY unlikely.”

“What, instead, is far more likely is that just enough base particles came together in the exact right way as to create a literal floating brain in the infinite soup that has all of your memories and experiences up to the current moment.”

“Statistically speaking, it is unfathomably MORE likely that nothing you’ve ever perceived exists and, instead, you are merely a floating brain in an endless expanse of nothing, imagining the universe and doomed to return to the soup from whence you came, none the wiser.” – Snaz5

ISS Lifeguards?

“There is a section of ocean where the closest help at any time is 250ish miles straight up. On the International Space Station.” – Overly-mannly-mann

“Point Nemo is the most isolated (from land) point on earth. Due to the isolation and low shipping lane traffic in this part of the world, the nearest humans to someone at point Nemo would be those astronauts on the ISS.” – ViperSRT3g

From An Astronomer’s Perspective

“Astronomer here! There are a lot of things posted here that are not really likely to happen any time soon or affect your life on Earth much. So, if you want something to worry about, may I introduce you to the Carrington Event of 1859.“

“Basically Carrington was a scientist who noticed a flash from a huge cluster of sunspots, which was the biggest coronal mass ejection from the sun ever recorded (aka a ton of material ejected from the sun at high speeds). It hit Earth within a day- aurora were seen as far south as Hawaii, wires on telephone poles burst into flame, and telegraph operators even reported contacting each other when not connected.”

“If a similar event were to strike Earth today, it would cause billions of dollars in damage, because blown transformers are super hard to replace and a lot of satellites wouldn’t be able to handle it (and it goes without saying you’d have a serious radio blackout for a bit until it ended on a ton of essential frequencies).”

“Electronics would be fried, batteries wiped, etc. Some scientists think it could zap us ‘back to the dark ages.’ “

“The crazy thing about the Carrington event though is we really have no idea how often such events happen. But we do know that in 2012 there was a Carrington-level solar flare that barely missed Earth…“

“We do know these biggest flares happen during solar maximum- the sun has an 11 year cycle of sunspots and the period with the most is solar maximum. The next max would be 2025-2026 or so.”

“However we really don’t know how common these big flares are. Interestingly data from other stars shows they seem to be much more common around other stars than our own, with huge implications for life in some cases.” – Andromeda321

It Might Be Up To Us

“You know those classic utopian sci-fi stories, where benevolent aliens come down and end all the wars and uplift them to super-intellects and give everyone miraculous technology and immortality and welcome them into a peaceful galactic union and everything?”

“Ever wonder why, if aliens are roaming around faster than light, they haven’t swung by us yet?”

“One of the answers to that question: We might be the first. Depending on how long it takes life to develop, we might be the first to evolve to a point where we could plausibly make that happen without nuking ourselves into oblivion or destroying our atmosphere or what have you.”

“It might be up to us whether we make it or not as an interstellar species. We have the responsibility of getting our sh*t together, because it may well be up to us to save everyone else.”

“Uncountable genocides, wars, famines, death on a scale larger than our species have ever understood. Literally the fate of the universe might depend on us.”

“I look around at us now, and that’s what scares me.” – sirblastalot

OK honestly?

That last one is the one that freaks us out most.

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People Break Out The Best Facts To Impress A Little Kid

Little kids are incredibly impressionable. Their minds are still learning and growing, which is a prime opportunity to tell them facts that will absolutely blow their little minds.

Whether you’re a parent, an aunt or uncle, a cool older sibling, or another adult in their life, there are a few facts you can tell them that will make you seem like you know everything about the world.

If you want to impress a young person in your life, this list will give you facts of all sorts that may even blow your own mind.

A Redditor went to Ask Reddit to ask:

“What are some cool facts to tell a 5 year old?”

Take notes!

Watch them try to do the impossible.

“You can’t lick your elbow.”

“Then you get a good 5min watching them try.” ~ CriticallyNormal

“Nah you wanna tell them that you can. Then they’ll try for the whole day and get increasingly p*ssed off.” ~ harkat82

“Actually a lot of kids can lick their elbow. Since they’re younger and more flexible they can bend their arms in weird directions in order to lick their elbow.” ~ chickenugget814

“You’re absolutely right. I just tried it on my 6 y/o nephew and promised him that he could have my phone (he always wants to play games with it) if he could do it. So yeah, bye Reddit!” ~ ninjatoes36

If you’re happy and you know it.

“Astronomer here! Clap your hands once, and then clap them again a second later. The two claps were actually done about 30,000 miles apart thanks to the Earth’s motion in space!”

“I did the calculation once and interestingly most of the stuff you think of, like the rotating Earth or out orbit around the sun, is a negligible part of it. The real contributions are from our star orbiting the galaxy, and the galaxy’s motion itself in space.” ~ Andromeda321

“Is that the earth moving around the sun or the sun moving around the center of the galaxy? Hey, are we aware if galaxies are rotating around a central universal point?” ~ whohw

“The earth moving around the sun is much, much less distance at any moment than the distance we get from the sun orbiting the galaxy.”

“Galaxies do not orbit around a central point, but galaxies around us are heading in the direction of the ‘Great Attractor’ which is outside our visible universe. It’s probably just an even bigger group of galaxies.” ~ Andromeda321

A free, new pet.

“The ducks at the park are free, you can take them home.” ~ NotDaWaed

“I tried this last week. Park police were not too impressed.” ~ mavinochi

“I caught one when I was a kid! And that’s how I got bitten by an angry mama duck.” ~ ZarquonsFlatTire

“Gotta be careful with them ducks. Some belong in gangs n sh*t.” ~ mavinochi

The Pacific Ocean.

“Every ‘c’ in ‘Pacific Ocean’ is pronounced differently.” ~ UWYO-Agent-7

“I just repeated Pacific Ocean several times in a really exaggerated manner just to be sure.” ~ AnRudIsAnamh

“Just told my wife ‘every c in Pacific ocean is spelled differently’… Whoops.” ~ Curran919

Numbers are weird.

“There are numbers below zero.” ~ Sergeant_Dimitri

“And other numbers orthogonal to the real number line entirely.”

“You might have to explain exponents/squaring things but some kids are precocious.” ~ 7788445511220011

“Are those imaginary numbers?” ~ rushingkar

“Yes. There might even be more examples that I’m not aware of tbh, but that was what I was thinking about.” ~ 7788445511220011

“Yep, we can get weirder. Real number exist in a line, complex numbers exist in a plane, and quaternions exists within a volume.”

“So, there exists a range of numbers orthogonal to both the simply real numbers and the simply imaginary numbers. Numbers above zero, numbers below zero, numbers to either side zero, and … hmm, before and after? back and forth from?”

“I dunno, I’m already disoriented.” ~ Haven_Stranger

Advice for dealing with bullies.

“If your being chased by a bully, run until there right behind you then drop into a ball and they’ll trip over you.”

“Then kick ’em in the d*ck.” ~ Lucidpotato666

“Did this as a kid. It worked SO well like it was a movie or something. I can still see him in the air.” ~ Mission_Huckleberry

“Will he ever land?” ~ PurpleVein

“That must have been one hell of a kick in the d*ck.” ~ striped_frog

Our top teeth may or may not be immobile.

“You can’t move your upper teeth.” ~ SNOUMANN

“Some other person on here said my upper teeth are moving at 30,000 miles per second.”

“Get your stories straight reddit. ComeOn!” ~ vitium

“My 7 year old can move one of her upper teeth- it’s loose and we’re waiting for it to fall out.” ~ linuxgeekmama

“Canadian dentistry simply consists of taking part in a hockey match where the offending teeth can be smashed out of your face by a large stick.” ~ imagine_amusing_name

“You can if you have dentures :D” ~ sodapopzero

Put ’em all together and what do you got?

“A group of zebras is called a dazzle and a group of giraffes is called a journey.” ~ Magicbean96

“Don’t Stop Believin’ this.” ~ termiAurthur

“I thought a group of giraffes was called a Tower…” ~ MyCatsAreDumb

“Eiffel for that every time…” ~ PawnedPawn

Today’s yesterday is yesterday’s tomorrow.

“We will never experience tomorrow as by the time it’s ‘tomorrow,’ it will be today.” ~Redditor

“You can say this about right now. There is never a right now bc once you even say it or think about it, it’s gone.” ~ thedopestantelope

“I keep trying to explain to my almost five year old that no, it’s not tomorrow now.” ~ linuxgeekmama

“Easy: promise you’ll take him to the zoo (or Disneyland or whatever) tomorrow. Then, every day: ‘Are we going to the zoo today?’ ‘No, it’s today. I said we’d go tomorrow.’”

“Eventually, they’ll catch on: My parents don’t love me. Also, the concepts of today and tomorrow. The important things.” ~ theAlpacaLives

It’s all in what you eat.

“Flamingos get their pink colour from shrimp they eat.” ~ cthullu-and-the-maid

“But how many shrimps do you have to eat, to make your skin turn pink?” ~ greccojunior

“I have never eaten a shrimp and my skin is pink.” ~ diablorious

We tend to think we know it all.

But sometimes we are learning just as much as the little ones in our lives.

Truly, we do learn something new every day.

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People Who Work For Dating Apps Share The Best Behind-The-Scenes Facts They Know

Online dating seems to be the norm for finding a partner these days, but the process can seem a bit esoteric and confusing for those who haven’t been using the apps all along.

Working for the companies that run dating apps and websites is more interesting than the average person might expect, too.

Reddit user brunetteht3 asked:

“Redditors that worked with a dating company (Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, etc.), what’s the most insane user stat or behind-the-scenes fact you found out about?”

Try Reaching Out

“I ran operations for an online dating company (notably not affiliated with Match). From database analytics I can tell you a few things.”

“Men initiate contact around 80% of the time in straight matchmaking, and if you are a woman looking to date other women and you simply initiate contact with another woman you have a good chance of success simply because it’s very very very common for women to match but then neither initiates contact.”

“IIRC we were able to determine that it takes on average about 3 dates before sex happens (I don’t recall how we worked that out, I’m not a data analyst, but presumably it was some keyword based algorithm looking at chat messages).”

“We got so many requests for information from the police that we had an informal system with them, to save them from wasting time getting warrants for information about people who we didn’t have data on, they would ask about a particular name/email/whatever other identifier and we would just say yes we have data about them or no we don’t, and if we did they’d then go get the warrant to get a copy of it.”

“The other thing I can tell you from our analytics, that really shouldn’t be at all surprising, is to get some decent profile photos.”

“Go get your talented friend or just hire a photographer to take some really nicely-lit well-composed photos of yourself and watch your match rate soar.” – jamesinc

Not The Best Job

“I used to work at a dating site in the UK. I was on the tech side but most of the staff was a group of young women who manually approved images and text changes to profiles.”

“There was about 10-15 of them and the turnover rate was about one a week. The work was just so mind numbing.”

“About 10 times a day they’ed shout that they’d ‘got another one’.”

“Which basically meant one of the hundreds of thousands of men on the site has differently thought ‘I’ve thought of something nobody else has tried, I’ll upload a picture of my c*ck’ at which point they’d all laugh at it, cancel the profile upload and go back to reading about people’s choice of pets or whatever else they thought was interesting.” –mvrander

This One Isn’t Either

“My ex bf worked for the Yahoo Italy dating site back in the earlyish 2000s. His job was to pretend to be a woman, and message male customers just as their accounts were going to expire.”

“This would encourage them to pay to renew their subscriptions. Once they renewed, he would ghost them.”

“He only lasted for a few months due to how unethical it was.” –visualisewhirledpeas

More Than One Word Per Text Is Probably Good

“I used to work at Bumble, although this was about 4-5 years ago. Globally, about 90% of the users are men, so there is a huge male to female disparity, although it’s not that bad on a per country basis (for some countries).” 

“The most depressing stat though was the histogram of word count in messages. Something like 91% of opening messages were just one word ‘hey’, and ~85% of conversations were just one exchange long (‘hey’ -> no reply ever).”

“Looking at human, digital mating habits splayed out in data science form was really depressing.” 

“The countries which had better male-female ratios (which I can remember) were the Nordic ones, Sweden and Norway were close to 50/50, and for a time, one of them even had more women on the app than men.”

“Not sure how it is now.” –trias10

It Might Not Always Work Out

“[There was] A dude with over 2000 right swipes and no matches.” –Deleted Account

“Bless him – that’s quite sad actually. Hope he found someone eventually.” –brunetteht3 

Maybe Don’t Use Dating Sites For Your Side Hustle

“Lots of gay guys get banned from grindr selling weed. Would get a lot of emails of ‘why am I banned’ .”

“Go to their profile and will say ‘HMU for that ?‘” –PayneTrayne

“At my bachelorette party in New Orleans someone wanted weed and was going to try to find someone on Burbon Street. My friend said it was way easier and safer for him to use Grindr ?” 

“Took less than ten minutes!” –mathlady89

Too Bad They Don’t Take Monopoly Money

“Most dating sites and apps are owned by one company The Match Group. They have a near monopoly. I think Bumble is one of the few not owned by them.” –HueJass84

“Funny you should say that, Bumble is owned by a woman who was also a co-founder of Tinder. The rest of that founding team owns The Match Group.” –zadeon9

“To be fair, she (Whitney Wolfe Herd) launched Bumble as a more comfortable and empowering alternative to Tinder and later sued them for sexual harassment. This comment seems to imply that she’s somehow in cahoots with Tinder/Match.” –spacemanaut

 So Many Unsolicited Pics

“I used to moderate OK Cupid. The amount of unsolicited dick pictures men would send women, not even accompanied by any words was horrifying.”

“I mean, you’d expect it because online dating is a cesspit but the sheer amount would still surprise you.”

I had to look at each reported picture and say ‘Yes, that’s a penis’.” –Jimmypeglegs

“99% of the time, the dick pic doesn’t work. What happens after it’s reported?” –IsThisNameTakenThen

“I’m guessing they think it’s a numbers game? I’d only ever see the picture if it had been reported by the recipient, but if they liked it then fair enough.” 

“As to what happens afterwards, usually their account would be banned. OKC were usually quite quick at getting rid of surprise dick piccers.” –Jimmypeglegs

Everybody Lies, But About Different Things

“I worked for Match for a couple years. This is probably widely known but women frequently lie about their age and weight and men lie about their height and salary.”

“Also, it’s a big problem that women are inundated with DMs while most men get none.” –ChickumNwaffles

Dating Life Pro Tips

“Ok so I didn’t work with a dating company per se… But I helped software engineers optimize their profiles.” 

“Men get VERY FEW matches, regardless of how good their profile is. Women get A LOT of matches, but most of those matches are useless.” 

“1) Don’t try to appeal mildly to EVERYONE. Appeal strongly to a small subset of people. Emphasize who you are.” 

“2) Show don’t tell—what makes a person want to date you? Will you impress them with your volunteer work?”

“Will you bring them fun places? Will you make them laugh?” 

“3) Get good photos. If you have to, get a friend with a good camera to take photos of you multiple times over a day with several changes of clothes.” 

“4) Be brutally honest. Do you need to go to the dentist because your teeth are gray? Go.”

“Do you need to get a haircut? Go somewhere that charges $50 a haircut and tell them to do what they want (if male).”

“Do your clothes fit? Ask a fashionable friend.”

“Remember: people are judging you on your appearance as much as you are judging them. They can’t see you’re kind of funny or interesting.”

“They can see if you’re well groomed and making an effort.” –Katamende

While online dating might seem even scarier after reading these facts, it’s still worth giving it a try if you’re looking for love.

Just remember to put your best (online) foot forward!

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I’ll Be There For These ‘Friends’ Facts

No one told you life was gonna be this way *clap, clap, clap.*

But now we can tell you all the things you didn’t know about one of the biggest sitcoms of all time.

Things you have to know about your favorite Friends.

What’s in a name?

Before settling on Friends as the title of the show, Insomnia Cafe, Six of One, and Friends Like Us were also considered.

The iconic fountain

Sitcom super fans who try to visit the show’s locations will be disappointed to discover that the iconic Friends opening credits were actually filmed on a Warner Brothers Studio soundstage in California.

No such fountain exists in New York City.

Speaking of the fountain

Jennifer Aniston thought it and the whole opening were weird.

The cast didn’t like the theme song either, but “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts went on to become a Top 20 hit in 1995.

Then, there were six

Friends turned the six stars into household names.

So it’s crazy to consider that originally there were only supposed to be four main cast members!

At first, Chandler and Phoebe were going to be supporting characters.

And who would Monica have married if not Chandler?

Co-creator Marta Kauffman revealed Monica was meant to pair with Joey!

They had a lot of plans for Joey

The cast was very upset when Joey and Rachel became a couple.

Matt LeBlanc described the cast as “super defensive” since they all felt she belonged with Ross.

What could have been

Simpsons veteran Hank Azaria auditioned twice for the role of Joey.

Actresses Jane Lynch and Kathy Griffin were both considered for the role of Phoebe.

And actor and director Jon Favreau auditioned to play Chandler.

Meanwhile, David Schwimmer didn’t audition for Ross. He auditioned for a different show a year prior but the showrunners liked him so much, they skipped formalities and offered him the role outright.

Whoops!

Did you notice this minor set change?

Monica’s apartment number was 5 and changed to 20 in the middle of season one.

Chandler and Joey’s apartment also changed from number 4 to 19.

The writers didn’t realize how New York City apartments are numbered and that apartments 4 and 5 would most likely be on the first or second floor.

The end is tough

Wrapping up Friends really affected the cast members.

LeBlanc was so stressed that after 4 nicotine free years he started smoking cigarettes again.

The finale

For the season finale Central Perk was torn down and the set was built back as the airport that Rachel almost took off from.

Friends IRL

16 years after the show’s 2004 finale, the cast still keeps in touch

Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow even maintain a group chat together!

Social media icons

In 2019, Aniston joined Instagram, posting a selfie with the whole cast. The popularity of the post temporarily crashed Aniston’s profile on the photo-sharing site.

The post has earned 16.6 million likes.

The one with the reunion

Earlier this year we learned several lesser-known facts from the HBO Max FRIENDS reunion.

Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer crushed on each other on and off-screen. That explains their character’s chemistry.

But, David Schwimmer did have some issues with one of his costars, the adorable monkey known as Marcel.

In “The One Where No One is Ready” Joey and Chandler are fought over a chair. In one scene Matt LeBlanc was supposed to jump on the chair while Matthew Perry was out of the room. On the last take, LeBlanc tripped and dislocated his shoulder. That is why Joey had an arm sling for a few episodes.

Chandler and Monica were not supposed to be endgame, but the audience loved the pair so much, writers reconsidered the storyline.

The one we would pay to see

While creators and cast members have denied a Friends reboot, Aniston did suggest to InStyle that she, Cox, and Kudrow reprise their roles for a Golden Girls-like spin-off.

Who wouldn’t want to see that!

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Out Of This World Facts About The International Space Station

Space, the final frontier, which few have been lucky enough to experience first hand and even fewer have called home.

The International Space Station (ISS) is home to astronauts from all over the world, demonstrating that the global community can come together for science and progress.

Here are some out-of-this-world facts about the ISS that everyone should know.


Let’s talk basics

The International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting the planet for more than 20 years, since November 2000.

It is the single most expensive object ever built. The cost has been estimated at over $120 billion!

An international crew of between three to six people live and work aboard the ISS while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth about every 90 minutes.

In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 full orbits of Earth, traversing through 16 sunrises and sunsets.

It’s a small world after all

240 individuals from 19 countries have visited the ISS so far.

But one has been there the longest

Peggy Whitson holds the record for spending the most time living and working in space. She was there for 665 days.

For anyone with 20/20 vision

Thanks to the acre of solar panels that power the ISS, it can actually be observed with the naked eye from Earth as it flies overhead.

Which is pretty amazing because it flies at an average altitude of 248 miles above Earth.

No place like home

Speaking of home-y, the ISS really is.

The living and working space in the station is larger than a six-bedroom house. It has six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree bay window.

Space takes a toll on your body

Astronauts must exercise for two hours a day to combat the loss of muscle and bone mass that occurs while in space.

It took a lot of work

The largest modules and station pieces were delivered on 42 separate assembly flights.

Since it is huge

The ISS is 357-feet end-to-end, only one yard shy of an American football field including the end zones.

There’s nearly 8 miles of wires making up the electrical system.

That’s longer than the perimeter of Central Park!

So, it takes a lot to power it

More than 50 computers control all the systems on the space station.

And the ISS computers aren’t immune to viruses, in fact they’ve been infected 52 times and counting.

Sniff, sniff

The ISS is likely one of the only places you can actually smell space.

Astronauts have described it as a “metallic-ionization-type smell.”

And, soon we can all smell it

And, for most of us, the ISS has seemed way too far out of reach. Especially if you never got to go to Space Camp. But NASA has announced plans to change all that, and allow regular tourists to actually visit!

The first visits won’t come cheap, likely costing more than a million dollars for the first trip.

But you can’t beat that view!