fact
In 1949 Simon the cat was awarded a military medal after surviving injuries from a cannon shell, raising morale, and killing off a rat infestation during the Yangtze Incident.
The post In 1949 Simon the cat was awarded… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Due to food and labour shortages in the 1960’s, Brazil has the world’s largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan.
The post Due to food and labour shortages… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
The deepest parts of the ocean remain a mystery to people and scientists alike. And eels are just a tiny part of it. But, they are still incredibly interesting.
Here are some eel facts that will slither right into your brain and shock you.
Electrifying facts about eels
pic.twitter.com/t4cBJA2PqQ
— UberFacts (@UberFacts) July 5, 2021
There are over 800 different species of eels in the world. They can be as short as the 2-inch one-jawed eel, or as long as the 13-foot slender giant moray eel.
Most eels live in the shallow waters of the ocean, but some live in waters as deep as 13,000 feet.
They can burrow into sand, mud, or among rocks.
Most eels are also nocturnal, so they’re rarely seen by people.
The heaviest eel is the European conger. The maximum size reported of one of these eels is 240 pounds.
That’s a lotta eel.
Most eels begin life as larvae. The larvae are flat and transparent, and they eat marine snow, which are small particles floating in the water.
From there, they become glass eels, so named for their appearance.
At this stage, they transition from the ocean to freshwater.
As they grow, they become what are called elvers.
In the 19th century, Londoners would call the passage of young eels along the Thames “eel fare.” It’s been theorized that that’s where the term “elver” comes from.
After being elvers, eels mature into yellow stage eels, and finally, silver stage eels.
At this point, most eels will be back in the ocean to mate.
One of the most commonly known types of eel, the electric eel, is not actually an eel at all!
It’s really a South American knifefish, and it’s more closely related to carps and catfish than to true eels.
Electric eels can emit shocks up to 650 volts. That’s over five times the power of a standard American wall socket. But despite their electrifying power, these eels aren’t usually very aggressive.
They’ll usually just shock to stun prey or ward off predators. They also use a weak electric pulse as a kind of radar because their eyesight is very bad.
The eel used in sushi is usually unagi, which are freshwater eels.
The European eel, a common type of freshwater eel is currently an endangered species.
Eel blood is toxic to humans and other mammals if it is directly injected into the bloodstream.
Serum from an eel is about three times as poisonous as the most venomous viper. Luckily, the toxins in eel blood can be easily killed either by cooking or digestion.
Who knew eels could be suck fascinating creatures.
One of the coolest things about reading history is realizing just how bananas all those real people were.
Kings, military leaders, pioneers of art, and explorers—there are countless examples of people who, if they’d been dreamed up in a book or a movie, would be too far-fetched to even believe.
And yet they were very real.
But with all those stories come the tendencies to over-hype, omit key details, or just buy into false narratives entirely.
Redditor ReallyRealMaoZedong apparently was in the mood for skepticism when he asked:
“Who is the most overrated person in history?”
“King Tut. He didn’t really do much, he was just a boy who unfortunately died young. We just happened to find his tomb and that made him famous lol.”
“The tomb itself, while amazing and much to learn from, is a result of his culture and the line he happened to be born into, not really anything HE chose to do.” — barbaramillicent
“King Arthur. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.”
“Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” — bozwold
“I don’t know about ‘most overrated’ but MaoZeDong was a brilliant guerrilla leader who transitioned into be very good at retaining power while being very bad at running a country.”
“I would not hang giant portraits of the guy all over my country.” — dieinafirenazi
“Gandhi.”
“I can go on…” — 00__starstruck__00
“Not in all history, but Chris McCandless was a f’king moron who does not deserve to be romanticised.”
“Against all advice, he strolled out into the Alaskan wilderness with no idea what he was doing, with no map, underprepared, undersupplied and with no research into seasonal dangers, smashed up some cabins, shot a moose despite not being able to preserve or store the meat…”
“…thought he could teach himself to identify edible wild mishrooms, didn’t look beyond the river crossing he initially used where he would have found a hand-operated cable car half a mile away and died – probably from eating strange seeds – in an abandoned bus on a known hunting trail.”
“He was not pioneering, or inspiring, or bold, or free, he was f’king stupid and somehow this inspires people!” — Mischief_Makers
“Hitler. Hear me out!”
“National Socialism and Antisemitism was not something he invented and I am pretty sure that if it wasn’t for him somebody else like Goebbels or Hess would have become German dictator.”
“When people say, oh if only Hitler wasn’t born then WW2 or the Shoa would not have happened, that’s utter bullsh*t. I wish while teaching about the Holocaust, people would put it into context.”
“The climate of polarization in the 1920s in Germany is very similar to what is going on now in the USA. People were and are seeking out extremists with conspiracy theories to follow because they look for scapegoats.”
“The man on the top is just a symptom for a systemic problem which lies much deeper.” — marlenshka
“Ben Bradlee. He was lionized for going after Nixon as editor of the Washington Post.”
“But he lied under oath during the trial of a Black man who was accused of murdering one of Kennedy’s mistresses, all because he was friends with JFK and wanted to cover up his indiscretions. An innocent Black man nearly went to the electric chair.”
“He only pursued the truth when the president was a Republican.” — The_Bee_Sneeze
“Charles de Gaulle. MF was an officer of the army that lost half of France in 2 weeks to the Germans in WW2. Flees like a cockroach to the UK where somehow embodies the spirit of the resistance, somehow receives the title of General, even though his tasks were not dangerous nor fundamental.”
“When the allies take over France, he is not in any of the strategic discussions among generals of different armies, nonetheless he walks into Paris as their great liberator. Couple of years later gets elected president (because somehow he has managed to keep his popularity??).”
“While president, North African colonies declare war (and independence) from France. Many people die, and the french economy and territories takes a huge blow. Also he managed to dismantle the oldest European university of the world (Université de Paris)…”
“But nooooo! His name is on an airport, many avenues and countless plazas accross France.” — KarmaWhoreRepeating
“Ayn Rand. Elitist prick, complete nutbag, husband abuser, most likely committed infidelity. Moreover, her ideas are terrible. So dumb.”
“She clearly thinks poor=dumb and useless, when she doesn’t realize how privileged education is what makes someone ‘productive’ in the way that she imagined.”
“She even says it in Atlas Shrugged, John gault and Francisco wouldn’t have become who they were if they hadn’t had that one philosophy teacher who became a short order cook because the world is so mediocre and undeserving of his genius.”
“And the saddest part is so many people after reading Atlas Shrugged are like ‘yeah, selfishness is the best, anyone who is poor is weak and stupid. My life is good and it’s impossible to have a good life unless you won it for yourself so I must be the best person ever and all you plebs can eat my sh**.’ “
“Randian economics is a conflict in terms.” — Begotten_Glint
“John F. Kennedy.”
“Pill-popping, booty-slaying, trust-fund, back alley politician who conveniently only took an interest in civil rights in preparation for re-election.”
“He was handsome, charming, and his tragic death made him seem much better than he actually was.” — Way_2_Go_Donny
So there you have it.
Hope this list didn’t deflate any of your heroes.
But if it did, consider the value of being in the know.
Sure, the world is a fascinating place, but planet Earth itself is just as fascinating on its surface. The bodies of land and water that cover our mother Earth are as much a character in the story of our lives and the story of humanity as humans themselves.
Also, sometimes looking at a map doesn’t quite convey accurately what those places are LIKE, geographically.
We know in general where they are and what shape their borders take, usually, but do we know some of the cooler things?
“What geography fact blows your mind?”
Here were some of those answers.
“Australia is wider than the moon.”-fouryinthehouse
“There are 14 mountains over the height of 8000 metres. All of them are in Asia.”-victoryofsamothrace
“Texas is large enough that I could fit Copenhagen, Brussels, Zagreb, and Warsaw with their real life distances from each other inside the State lines.”
“The Great Lakes contain enough fresh water to flood an area the size of Great Britain in over 100 meters of water.”-whatifevery1wascalm
“Alaska is actually HUGE. It’s larger than Montana, Texas, and California combined. Yet, illustrated on maps as being tiny.”-Maximum_Mountain_446
“The distance between New Zealand and Australia is roughly the same as the distance between The Netherlands and Libya.”
“Came up in this thread comparing chocolate milk around the world.”
“One redditor made the assertion that NZ’s choc milk was probably as bad as Australia’s, because of the proximity of the two countries”-Javanz
“When I worked for FedEx back in the 90’s, one of the reasons why they chose Anchorage as a global hub?”
“Apart from the fact that aircraft use less fuel due to it being cooler, it was that it is one of the only places in the world that is within 10 hours of the three biggest global markets; North America, Europe and Asia!”
“Who would have thought that a place considered in the middle of nowhere is actually the centre of the world.”-Geronimo2U
“Despite Canada being the US’s ‘neighbor to the north,’ the majority of Canadians live south of Seattle.”-Slant_Juicy
“My parents in Canada live closer to me in England than they do to my in-laws in Canada.”-Kurgan1536
“If you took a boat out of Reykjavík and sailed directly south, the first land mass you’d hit would be Antarctica.”-RyzenRaider
“-The Appalachian mountain range formed before the North American continent broke away from Europe, so there’s a little chunk of the Appalachians in France.”
“-Relatively speaking, we live on the skin of an apple. That’s about how thick the Earth’s crust is in proportion to its volume.”
“-The Australian tectonic plate is drifting north at a rapid rate relative to other plates. The whole continent is moving north and slightly clockwise at around 2.7 inches a year, which is fast enough that GPS systems have had to compensate for it to stay accurate.”
“In a few hundred million years, Australia will probably collide with Asia, creating a mountain range even taller than the Himalayas when it does.”
“-It’s also easy to forget how recent some of our research and discoveries are. Though the idea of ‘continental drift’ was first proposed in 1915, the theory of plate tectonics wasn’t really well developed until the 1950s, continuing into the 1970s.”
“And while we currently understand pretty well that an asteroid impact caused most dinosaurs to rapidly go extinct, down to the exact location of the crater and the size of the asteroid and everything, the asteroid-impact theory wasn’t proposed until 1980.”-Taman_Should
“The most southern piece of land of Canada (Middle Island) is further south than the entirety of 13 US States. As well as partially of another 14.”
“Also even though its located in Canada’s territorial waters and always been a part of Canada:”
“Up until 2000 it was privately owned by the owner of an Ohio Car Dealership and was purchased by (edit; a private charity for $867k and donated to) Parks Canada when he died.”-GreyGonzales
“Antarctica is the world’s largest desert, since it doesn’t get all that much rainfall. Also, if you put a cherry on top of it, Antarctica is the world’s largest dessert.”-CrabbyBlueberry
“How far north Europe is. I always pictured Europe as roughly parallel to the US, so northern Europe would be the same latitude as Minnesota and southern Europe as Florida.”
“Not even close. The UK is almost entirely north of the lower 48 states and Rome is further north than New York City.”-mordeci00
“In Iceland, you can see where the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasia tectonic plate are moving away from each other.”
“Another place that is similar, but not as intense, is Point Reyes National Seashore in California. It is separated by the San Andreas Fault, where the North American and Pacific plates come together.”-[username deleted]
“The earth is remarkably smooth.”
“Everest at 8.85km above sea level compared to the Marianas trench at -11kms. A net difference of 19.85kms on a sphere 12,742kms. 0.156% of the planets circumference contains all terrain heights.”
“The surface of a cue ball (2.25in), has a tolerance for surface finish allowing pits or grooves to be up to 0.005in. 0.222% of its circumference.”
“Earth is smoother than a cue ball, even if you put Everest next to the Marianas trench or dug the trench another 9km deeper, it would still be within scaled cue ball tolerance for smoothness.”-Jtothe3rd
“Russia’s western most border and city in Europe is farther west than Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. The city is also farther west than Warsaw, Poland.”
“Not really mind blowing per se, but people forget about Kaliningrad Oblast, lol. For all the ‘Finland/Bielefeld doesn’t exist’ jokes, I’m surprised no one ever tried it with Kaliningrad given the weirdness of the Oblast.”
“Kaliningrad is closer to Berlin than Gusev is to Pskov or Smolensk.”-Legion213
“Even though on the maps, and how people describe Russia, it seems like a really, really big country. In reality, it’s less than twice the size of the U.S. (It’s still a large country, I just over-estimate it).”
“Also: The largest country (Russia) is over 38.8 MILLION times larger than the smallest country in area (Vatican City).”-Pingu277
“Astronomer here- also, Russia has more surface area than Pluto!”-Andromeda321
“I was always told growing up that Russia and Alaska are only 2 miles apart from each other at their closest point.”
“They are, but not the mainlands. The Diomede Islands are 2 islands, 1 owned by each country, and only about 2 miles apart.”
“The mainlands are closer to like 50 miles apart, which is still closer than most people might realize.”-whatifevery1wascalm
Like we said, looking at a map doesn’t tell the entire story.
Some parts of Alaska are closer to Russia than New York City is to Washington DC or Boston.
Australia and Asia will one day collide.
No matter what field you choose to inspect when it comes to our mother Earth, gold and fascinating subject matter await you at every turn.
Language may seem like a pretty boring subject—we all had to study it throughout our school years, after all.
But languages are way weirder—and way cooler—than you might think.
“What is a fun language fact you know?”
“The official Italian language is both new and old. It is based on an old dialect that was only adopted by the Italian state after unification in the late 1800’s.”
“It’s based on a literary language spoken by upper class Tuscans in 11th-12th 13th century. Most regions in Italy still speak their own dialect and the official Italian taught in schools.”
“Here’s a brief history for the curious.” –TrevArts
“My mother’s grandparents immigrated to the US from northern Italy around the turn of the 20th century. They apparently didn’t speak standard Italian, they spoke Lombard, which is a funky looking language/dialect. My mom said her grandparents kind of cut off the end of words like the French do.” -SagiTsukiko
“My grandparents originally lived near Napoli and spoke Neapolitan. Compared to standard Italian a lot of the pronunciations are totally different. My mother learned it from her parents and when we went to Italy to visit relatives who didn’t immigrate she got comments from people on how she spoke the old language instead of the new one.” -PrivateVasili
“The Finnish phrase ‘kuusi palaa’ can be understood in 9 different ways:
“Six pieces / Six of them return / Six of them are on fire / The number six returns / The number six is on fire / A spruce is on fire / A spruce returns / Your moon is on fire / Your moon returns”
“A piece = pala / (multiple) pieces = palaa / A moon = kuu / Your moon = kuusi / A spruce = kuusi / Six = kuusi / To be on fire = palaa / To return = palata / Return(s) = palaa” -InfamousChibi
“‘How many do you want?’ ‘Kuusi palaa.’ ‘My moon is what?’” –joha130
“We think of English, particularly American English, as becoming more homogeneous over time (usually attributed to the prevalence of national-level media), but in fact, the fastest vowel shift in the history of the English language is currently underway. It’s called the Northern Cities Shift, and is taking place from Chicago to upstate New York.” -HungryLikeTheWolf99
“The pronunciation of short vowels have shifted from their common sound, for example short o is now pronounced as short a, so the word block sounds more like black. It is happening around the great lakes and linguists aren’t sure why it has happened.” -maryxchristmas
“This short video shows people who demonstrate the accent but were filmed for other reasons (i.e. they were not trying to accentuate the Northern Cities Vowel Shift).”
“Edit: I wanted to add this video as well. It does a good job of actually explaining the phenomenon.” -Cat_Man_Dew
“Sauerstoffe, the German word for oxygen, literally translates to ‘sour material’.” -PersonWhoExists50306
“This isn’t the only weird element name in German.”
“Hydrogen = Wasserstoff = ‘Water stuff’”
“Nitrogen = Stickstoff = ‘Choke stuff’”
“Carbon = Kohlenstoff = ‘Coal stuff’” -GeneralDarian
“‘Oxygen’ means acid forming. Acids taste sour.” –GozerDGozerian
“Many people think that the medical names for organs of the body are derived from Latin, but only the muscles and bones are. For example, ‘gluteus maximus’ is Latin for biggest muscle. But, ‘pulmonary’ is derived from the Greek, since it is not a muscle (i.e. pertaining to the lungs).” -Ex_Nihil
“In French, grape is ‘raisin’ and raisin is ‘raisin sec’ (which roughly translates to ‘dry grape’).”
“F**ked me up as a child.” -_aft3rlif3_
“My parents always interchanged French and English, but would only use raisin for the dry type and I never knew if I was getting grapes or raisins.” -notyetcommitteds2
“American Sign Language (ASL) is one of many signed languages around the world and has very little relation to the English language.”
“Also, when confronted with a proper noun, name or a concept that needs to be clarified because of the lack of a sign, we use fingerspelling. While you might think this is like speaking the letters of a name, signers spell so quickly that you aren’t supposed to catch every letter, just notice the general shape of the word as it’s spelled.”
“Some signs for ‘bank”dog’ and ‘what’ are fingerspelled so hurriedly that you omit a letter or two, leaving a quick motion in place of what would have been B-A-N-K.”
“Fingerspelling in general is bananas. Watch a Deaf person spell their own name (especially something long like Josephine) and you’ll see what I mean. It’s probably the toughest part of the language to learn since it’s nearly all intuitive.” -ICantHearYoo
“Pineapple is some variation of ‘ananas’ in most languages…except English” -yeEEeEeeEeee3eeeeEet
“In Mexican Spanish, pineapple is piña, while in most other varieties it’s anana” -ThePeasantKingM
“It’s ananas in Kannada, a smaller language of a state of India. So weird, considering I doubt that there is any shared roots with other languages.” -Redditor
“Its ananas in Marathi too. I think it is that for PIE [Proto-Indo-European] root languages. Kannada isn’t one but maybe interacting with Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan language probably gave it ananas.” -AdiSoldier245
“When people type Arabic using Latin letters, they substitute some numbers for letters because they look similar. It’s commonly called “Arabeezy” as a portmanteau of the Arabic word for English, Engleezy, and Arabic. Examples include ew3adni, 2ool, 7abibi, 3li, 6arab. So sometimes you’ll see sentences like, ‘Eh a5bar sho3’lak?’ and wonder if their cat jumped on their keyboard.” -H0use0fpwncakes
“Been learning Arabic for two years and I had no idea the numbers were chosen because they looked like the letter, I just thought it was because English had no equivalent for that Arabic letter so we used numbers. This makes much more sense haha” -laika_pushinka
“You can’t really interrupt someone who use a language that places the verb at the end of the sentence because you won’t understand what he wants unless he’s finished” -OmarAdelX
“I mean to a certain extent. Japanese is that type of language but some sentences are even made not to be finished.. You don’t need the verb always.” -elrulestheworld
“Sure you can…if you know what they are going to say (context). Source – speak Japanese. People interrupt all the time.” -bless_your-heart-
“I’ve always wondered how translators work with this?”
“Like in German, for example, where you place the verb at the end.”
“For example, ‘I want to run quickly through the green grass.’ is ‘Ich möchte schnell durch das grüne Gras rennen.’”
“If someone was translating that it would seem like they’d hear ‘I want to quickly through the green grass run,’ so how do they know it’s going to be run?” -liamemsa
“Interpreter here, though in Spanish not German, but Spanish works the same way where I have to untangle the sentence to get it to make sense in English. When a client is talking, I usually wait for them to finish the thought before rendering it in the other language. This is called consecutive interpreting, one person talks, stops, and lets me do my thing. The other form, simultaneous, is when one person talks and once I can’t remember any more I start talking too, taking in info while I’m actively interpreting. Most of us don’t work in this mode often, unless you’re interpreting a conference or something. Most interpreter’s working memory is 4 ish sentences, so we know what you said and we just flip it around as we go. We also take notes depending on the type of session. It takes practice and a very high degree of fluency, but I honestly don’t think about the grammar much anymore. I’m trying to find the vocabulary that will get the message across best or remember a medical term.” -GrayGhoast
Language is even more fascinating than a lot of people think. Even if you take your native language for granted, there are probably a whole lot of really cool things you don’t know about it yet.
The world is a dangerous place sometimes.
According to a study by the CDC in 2018, nearly 24.8 million doctor’s visits were the cause of some sort of accident. While the odds are still in your favor of nothing happening to you when you step outside the door, the chances of it happening at all are enough to make people a little panicked whenever they do anything.
Driving behind a service truck with a lot of dangling equipment? Walking through a grassy field filled with sprinklers which haven’t been turned on all day? Going for that big meeting with your boss?
A lot can happen.
And you never really know, do you?
Reddit user, WinstonChurchillin, wanted to know what never gets easier.
“What makes you nervous no matter how many times you do it?”
“Walking over a storm drain with my keys in my hand” ~ Groovy_Chainsaw
“Using my table saw. Even though I am a Carpenter.” ~ jakobrivers
“Handling an angle grinder makes me nervous. I have to use it frequently because of my job, but it never gets easier.” ~ CatCatRatRat
“For a couple months I had a job in a college machine shop. I was always healthily scared of those machines. You’d get trained up hearing the story of the lathe-hair girl and worse bloodcurdling tales.”
“Always follow procedure, always double-check, always know the emergency stops, and if possible always have someone within shouting distance.” ~ dishonourableaccount
“When my boss goes ‘can we just have a quick chat?’” ~ zagreus9
“Or “Come into my office when you get a chance. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.” ~ DareWright
“Let’s break ourselves into small groups and…” ~ mayoroftheed
“And also, “Before we start, let’s go around the room and say a little bit about ourselves…” ~ ylssa26
“At meetings when they say, ‘Ok, everyone, let’s go around the room and introduce yourself’. Even worse when they require stupid things like, ‘Include your favorite food and why you like it’ or ‘Tell us why you’re here’. Uhhh…because it’s mandatory?” ~ DareWright
“The problem I have with this is I suddenly forget everything about myself.”
“Favorite food? ‘Oh god what have I eaten ever?’ Favorite movie? ‘I watch movies?’ Hobbies? ‘Is sleep a hobby, did I even sleep last night?’ Typically how it goes in my head.” ~ shermanerma
“Driving in between two semi trucks on the freeway. Bonus points if one or both is carrying a bunch of logs…”
“…For the record, I am very aware that this is something one should not do unless you have to. The only times this happens to me is if I am in one of the middle lanes on a 4 or 5 lane highway and semis come up on either side.”
“In those cases, I speed up as quick as I can to pass one or the other. Always drive defensively!” ~ princess_mediocrity
“Driving behind a truck with an overhanging load too. I’m always terrified my depth perception will fail me and I’ll ram it with my windshield” ~ SxeySteve
“My fear is driving behind a car with even a mattress attached to roof….my former boss died after a mattress came off the car in front of him….I sure miss him as he taught me to drive a stick, which was cool, though the truck was older, 1992 type truck. :)” ~ shana104
“Drive in front of a police officer when I have no reason to be nervous.” ~ DapperCam
“sit next to one at traffic lights. Do I look at them? If I don’t does it look suspicious? do I pretend like I’m bored? WHAT DO I DO” ~ Jcit878
“Walking out of a store without buying anything!” ~ KillerJupe
“I’m always paranoid that I’ll trigger the security alarm for no reason” ~ Violet_Hill
“Using a mandoline slicer.”
“Even using the safety guard I get a little queasy when I have to use it.” ~ yourtemporaryBFF
“I sliced my thumb open once because I thought I was too good for the guard. I never ever use it without the guard now and still get too nervous to cut that far down with it.” ~ TeamToaster2014
“Anything that has to do with my car. I have been scammed even over a simple oil change.”
“even if I try to be confident, it’s very clear once I start talking that I have no clue about cars. Literally had someone quote $400 to change an air filter.”
“I said no because I could not afford it…. found out later how insane that quote was. Sadly that just fueled my fear.” ~ sebastianrileyt2
“I love it when they pull out my air filter to show me how dirty it is so they can charge me $100 to change it, and I’m like oh wow yeah I’ll have to change that. Now go put it back.” ~ SirWigglesVonWoogly
“Tuning my violin.” ~ TheLettre7
“Ugh, when that E string snaps and whips you in the face…” ~ dailysunshineKO
“The E string is the worst, had one time it snapped while tuning before a concert. I was able to get a backup, but still it’s nerve racking.” ~ TheLettre7
“Calling someone on the phone. I’m a fairly outgoing person and I love talking to people, but I rely a lot on seeing a person’s face and observing their body language, which isn’t possible on the phone.”
“Voicemails are less terrible, but I still panic a little because if I mess up while leaving a message, the other person has a freaking recording of me being really awkward. I’m so thankful texting exists.” ~ smugmisswoodhouse
“Sticking my hand inside the disposal when I drop a fork In it.”
“I’ve seen people telling me to unplug the disposal, how does one do that?” ~ The_Point-Man
Most of this is in your head.
Still, it never hurts to be a little extra cautious out there and make sure the disposal is unplugged.
Knowledge is power, and there is so much to take in.
What’s funny though, is that in some situations, some knowledge we acquire can sound more like made up storytelling.
There have been plenty of times where an Onion article became reality.
Go figure.
Redditor SuruchiSushi wanted to discuss all the fascinating facts about life that leave us reeling because it sounds more like fiction.
“What is a fact so ridiculous that it sounds fake?”
Let’s talk about what’s really real.
“We’ve eaten mummies into rarity.” ~ Daylight_The_Furry
“Yep, it was all the rage a few hundred years ago in Europe. Largely for medicinal purposes, ground up into powder and mixed with stuff, mostly.” ~ Reddit
“I mean, this was around the same time that British scientists categorized aboriginals as fauna. I don’t think they had a very good sense of who counted as people.” ~ Callmecaesar1
“Not only eaten, but they used to be ground up to make pigment for paints. Literally called mummy brown.” ~ThatOneAsianGuy33
“Some moths emerge from the cocoon without a mouth or anus.” ~happy_cake_babe
“Serious response: a lot of what we think of as ‘insects’ are actually the adult forms, and often don’t live very long as adults.”
“Basically they emerge as adults, go find another to make babies with, and then die once the eggs are laid.”
“If they’re only going to live a few hours or days, they can get by without mouths or buttholes.”
“A lot of insect species spend most of their time as little maggoty things, and only take their distinctive adult forms for a brief portion of their life.”
“Insects are weird, yo.” ~ AndAzraelSaid
“The term ‘prime minister’ was first used as a slur.” ~ ____andresito____
“The term ‘Prime Minister’ as we know it today emerged in the 18th century, during the prolonged conflict between Britain and France.”
“It was first applied insultingly to Sir Robert Walpole, who is now considered the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.”
“It was used by members of Parliament against Walpole, who served for 21 years and oversaw the increasing power of his role and simultaneous withdrawal of King George I from cabinet meetings.”
“The derogatory nature was derived from its comparison to France’s Chief Minister, Cardinal Richelieu.”
“The British were proud of not to be an absolute monarchy, like France, so the comparison was intended to be offensive.”
“Source” ~ Zhyko
“When two galaxies merge, almost nothing collides despite each having trillions of stars.” ~mrbigmac61
“Yep, it’s because there’s really just far too much space between objects when you zoom in.”
“Even the asteroid belt has thousands of miles of empty space between each asteroid.”
“If you flew through the asteroid belt, you’d only crash if you did so on purpose.” ~ nsci2ece
“In 1992, shipping containers with around 28,000 rubber ducks were lost at sea(in the Pacific Ocean)…. they’re still being found today.” ~ BlueSparkle2810
“Imagine being lost at sea for a few days, you see something in the water in front of you.”
“Maybe a clue to where land is? No. It’s a friggin’ rubber duck.” ~ DancingDoggos
“Bangladesh, a really tiny country has a population larger than all of Russia.” ~ R4zerSins
“Just scanning over Bangladesh on Google maps satellite view is incredible.”
“Even in areas that look green from zoomed out, there’s villages absolutely everywhere when you zoom in.”
“And then when you do get cities, they’re mega-densely populated metropolises with huge slum areas. It’s mad.” ~PillarofSheffield
“It’s legal to own, and drive a tank in the USA.”
“You can even drive it on the road if you replace the steel tracks with rubber tracks. The guns and cannon must be disabled though.” ~ KKKKOOOOBBBBRRRRAAAA
“Actually that last ‘fact’ is untrue. You do not need to disable the gun, in fact you can buy tank shells.”
“The reason however most are disabled (there are a few not disabled) is its ridiculously expensive and requires a lot more paperwork.” ~corbear007
“On the 29th of September 1940 two planes had a mid-air collision, got stuck together and successfully landed.”
“The pilot used the controls of the top plane and the engines of the bottom plane.”
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp478Tgm5gg“. ~ alphaechothunder77
“France didn’t stop executing people by guillotine until 1977.” ~ whereismattdamon
“Yeah, like all the modern execution methods. And the guillotine is even more sure than getting shot in the head.”
“The ol’ chopper is the method I’d choose if I had to be executed.”
“Course, I’d request that they quickly grab my chopped head and show me my body. That’d be sick.” ~ 4_P-
“20% of foster children are missing at any given time.” ~ SagiTsukiko
“20% of foster care children are missing.”
“A lot of this is due to runaways.”
“My girlfriend works in foster care and every week she has at least one foster child runaway, mind you these are just her cases and not her coworkers cases who also have constant runaways.” ~ skuzzlebut90
“98%. 2% are unaccounted for. It’s still a major issue that so many foster kids are running away, though.”
“A glimpse into how inadequate the system and many foster parents are.”
“It’s not always their fault that they cannot adequately care for a foster child, though, and many foster parents who are not abusive simply just were not prepared for a lot of the issues that may arise with a traumatized child who has been removed from their birth family and shuffled around.” ~ SagiTsukiko
“2 actors have died playing Judas in live biblical productions by accidentally hanging themselves for real in his death scene.” ~ acronicality
“The last time an inmate in the USA was executed by firing squad was on June 18th, 2010.” ~bob4for4
“Ronnie Lee Gardner (January 16, 1961 – June 18, 2010) was an American criminal who received the death penalty for shooting a man in the face and killing him during a robbery in 1985, and was executed by a firing squad by the state of Utah in 2010.”
“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Lee_Gardner“. ~ Reddit
Well that was a lot of knowledge to devour at once. Some fascinating, the rest surprising.
We were still using firing squads in this century?
I have no words.
Now we’re all one step closer to Jeopardy.
Prehistory became history when we were able to start recording and conveying what humans were doing.
Some say it started with cave paintings or rock carvings, some believe it started with Sumerian cuneiform, or the Egyptian hieroglyphs which happened around the same time. Some say the many cultures that used oral histories continued our first real form of recording the past.
It’s said history repeats itself and sometimes that history is hilarious.
Historians have been finding weird and random facts about our species old way of life and now we can share the funniest ones through the internet.
“History nerds of Reddit, what’s a historical fact/tidbit that will always get you to chuckle?”
It’s unbelievable that some of these things actually happened.
“That time when around 3 men claimed to be the pope and all excommunicated each other.” – sad_barrett_
“Or that time a pope sold his position. Or that time the king of France straight up had the pope murdered. Lots of great pope stories out there.” – Magmafrost13
“Or the time an honest to god pirate was elected pope.” – 1-1-19MemeBrigade
“He was one of the Popes during the Western Schism mentioned by sad_barrett_.” – A_Blessed_Feline
“Ancient Romans loved their dogs as much as we do. There are entire surviving texts of people talking about their daily, monotonous life with dogs. In some cases, we have more information about their dogs and what they did with them than other aspects of Roman life.”
“On a less funny but sweet note; when their dogs died, many of them were given elaborate graves with highly decorative tombstones. They often carved poems about them or wrote in length about how much they’ll miss them or what they loved about them most. These dog graveyards were considered sacred and vandalizing them was a major offense.”
“The YouTube channel Historia Civilis has an awesome video on the subject of surviving Roman manuscripts, including some other funny moments of Roman history.”
“For more information on Dogs in ancient Rome, including the touching epitaphs, I’ll point you guys towards Invicta on YouTube with this video.” – KnightCaptain_Bob
“Here’s the link showcasing some of the epitaphs.” – legothief
“‘Myianever barked without reason, but now he is silent.’” – Myfourcats1
“In WW2, Germans were dropping demoralizing letters on London… British used them as cheap toilet paper.” – salttrooper222
“Apparently the Germans also dropped a bunch of papers on allied positions showing their wives cheating on the soldiers while they were away. The soldiers just used it as porn.” – MeiNeedsMoreBuffs
“TBF didn’t we do the same thing in return. I just laugh at the idea that during the whole period of rationing, the one thing both sides had plenty of was toilet paper.” – Soppydog
“Fun fact: During ww2 the British diet was the best it had ever been until then. They had never been fed a more healthy and well balanced diet.” – Scamsurvivor
“The Allies dropped food packages on Germany (why, I can’t recall, but I think they were trying to ‘sow goodwill) and they wrote ‘gift’ on them. ‘Gift’ means ‘poison’ in German.” – Vajranaga
“A Polish Artillery supply Corp adopted a bear, made him a soldier, and kept him for the duration of the war.” – nerdykate100
“His name was Wojtek.”
“After the war he retired to Edinburgh Zoo where his old comrades would come and give him cigarettes.”
“There’s a statue of him in Edinburgh as well.” – sAindustrian
“Better than that, he used to play-wrestle the men, and his old comrades would climb down into the enclosure to give him beer and cigarettes – and wrestle him.” – Brickie78
“He scared away an entire company of Germans. Two scouts saw him carrying artillery shells in the middle of the night and told their commander that the Polish had a company of bears which made them retreat lmao.” – lowhangingfruit12
“Maeshowe’s runes. Archaeologists explored some old Viking chambers and found inscriptions that were 14 feet tall, and unreadable. After years deciphering these runes, they translated to, “this is very high.”
“We haven’t changed.” – duerlort
“I wish I could see the look on the face of the archaeologist who translated it.” – 1-1-19MemeBrigade
“Aren’t there some carvings like that in the Hagia Sophia? I seem to recall that some of the Vikings serving as the Varangian Guard got up to some amusing hijinks there.” – Almainyny
“Yeah the runes on the Hagia Sophia are ‘halfdan carved these runes.’” – thedankestyeet
“Imagine patrolling the Alps and you see elephants rolling up. But you don’t even know what an elephant is.” – TomasSchmieder
“Hannibal of Carthage with his War Elephants I presume? Traveling over the Alps on his way to destroy Rome and bringing Elephants into Europe for the first time. Imagine how terrifying it must’ve been for the Roman Legionaries, seeing five tons of pure muscle barreling down at them at speeds equaling horses. Yet, they availed Hannibal nothing. Rome vanquished him and annexed Carthage.” – ThatBada**online
“In all the Apollo missions three guys were sent to the moon. But only two guys got into the lander and went down and walked on the moon. The third guy stayed in the command module in orbit and had to listen to the radio chatter of the the other two guys talking about how badass it was to walk on the moon.” – stanley_leverlock
“Didn’t Collins lose all radio contact when he was on the far side?” – redopz
“All of the landing zones were on the near side of the moon. Every CM pilot lost complete contact with both mission control and the lander when they orbited the far side, as there were no relay satellites in lunar orbit.” – Redditor
“The loneliest man in the universe.” – ATF_Dogshoot_Squad
“I seem to recall reading somewhere that he found it very peaceful:”
“‘I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side’.” – elcarath
“Napoleon had a brother who lived in New Jersey.” – NotAJewishMother
“Must have made family reunions real depressing for that guy.” – Almostatimelord
“He moved to New Jersey after his brother’s fall from power. When Napoleon was emperor, he made him King of Spain.” – MooseFlyer
“Joseph Bonaparte was his brother and was made King of Spain. After the Peninsular War he retired to New Jersey when he was dethroned.” – MassiveFajiit
“There was a war between Michigan and Ohio over Toledo, and the Ohioans evacuated so fast there weren’t even any casualties. As a result, the government gave Michigan the upper peninsula and Ohio got to keep Toledo.” – typhondrums17
“Michigan won the war, which is why Toledo is now part of Ohio.” – Distantmind88
“Damn, Michigan giving out the harsh punishment.” -BarryMacochner
“The most rigged election, where the winner received 243000 votes, except there were only 15000 registered voters.” – 18270
“Gotta get that 1,680% voter turnout.” – fa1afel
“Someone commented the last time this was posted that its sort of a power move. ‘I’m going to fake this election, and make it really obvious. Everyone will know that the election is rigged but no one will do anything about it.’” – river4823
Modern humans haven’t changed much in the few hundred thousand years we’ve been around.
In relation to the Earth’s existence (4.4 billion years), we are barely even a blip on the timeline.
History will repeat itself, even the funny things that humans do.
The celebrity crooner Frank Sinatra not only was tied up to the mob for life as they had helped him with his career, but he also owned casinos at Lake Tahoe and elsewhere in the area.
The post The celebrity crooner Frank Sinatra… appeared first on Crazy Facts.