Category: trivia

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People Confess Which Things They Learned Embarrassingly Late In Life

They say it’s never too late to learn anything.

While that sentiment may be true, it doesn’t mean acquiring what others thought was common knowledge later in life isn’t an utter embarrassment.

Still, that shouldn’t prevent us from seeking wisdom no matter how old we are.

Some may argue that’s easier said than done.

Redditor keepcalmandbecalm provided an opportunity for strangers online to fess up about being late to the game of enlightenment.

They asked:

“What fact did you learn at an embarrassingly late age?”

Before The Feast

“I had to explain to my friend last year (28YO) that the turkey we saw in the farm park was the same animal as the turkey dinner she was eating.”

“She knew this about chicken, but… just never made that mental connection about turkey.” – pianobarbarian1

Airborne Sewage

“I thought piss and sh*t were just dropped out of airplanes mid flight and disintegrated in thin air.” – I_AmTheGovernment

Rinsing Process

“Shampoo goes on first. Made the mistake of arguing with a friend in high about how conditioner makes your hair all weird feeling, so you use the shampoo at the end to bring it back to normal. He’s never let me live it down.” – CeeCeeBABCOCK

Double Whammy

“I’ve got two.”

“Whenever I complained about any part of my body aching, my dad would say “oh that’s cause you’re growing”. And I believed him, right until I was 19.”

“In my culture we use water to wash our asses after pooping, and sure, we all learnt that. What I didn’t realise was that you’re still meant to wipe after, so I walked around with wet pants until I was 20 facepalm.” – yas9in

Growth Spurt

“Growing pains.Thats what my mom always told me when I was little and my legs hurt.I’m 6 feet tall now female.My son is constantly saying his legs hurt so I googled this assuming it’s growing pains.”

“When your a kid your muscles just get sore from over playing,sports,etc.This was maybe a month ago that I learned this,always assumed Growing Pains was a real thing.” – Wtfismypassword4444

Airborne Amphibian

“When I was 28 I learned that flying fish are a real animal. I thought they were pretend, like unicorns.” – fishnugget1

Hot And Bothered

“That the phrase ‘in heat’ didn’t mean they lived in a warm climate. I learned that when I was today years old.” – owestball

Black Hole?

“There was a big building called ‘The Space Center’ that we’d always pass by and for the longest time I thought it was like a space camp sorta place. I was well into the teens when it finally clicked.”

“It’s a storage facility. So yeah that was a major letdown on all fronts.” – WhenBuyIt

Not About Role Playing

“That I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus is about the mom kissing the dad who’s dressed up as Santa. I just assumed it was a little innocent cheating.” – PoolSharkPete

Two Articles Of Clothing

“I was somewhere in my 20s when I found out that the words “sweater” and “sweatshirt” aren’t interchangeable.” – Caitlen315

It’s Not A Mashup

“Mangopapaya is not a fruit, my mom just never remembered the difference between a mango and a papaya, so I grew up thinking a mangos real name is mangopapaya.” – Marosie

What Makes Them Puff

“Pufferfish puff up with water, not air. It’s so obvious and it never even occurred to me.”

“I only realised how stupid I was when I read a reddit comment about a year ago pointing the fact out.” – AgnosticMantis

Trimmed

“I learned at 13 I was circumcized.” – Pyromaniac64

A Safe Combo

“That eating fish and having milk won’t kill you. My parents seem to believe that the combination makes you sick but Google told me otherwise..” – healme_

Altered Snacks

“Pickles are cucumbers and raisins are grapes.” – foxtailavenger

A Pun

“Not a fact, just a realization. It wasn’t until recently (and I’m in my late 40s) that I realized the phrase ‘if I told you that you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me’ didn’t mean that you’d lose respect for me for the act.”

“It finally dawned on me that it meant what the rest of you all know it means. Thankfully this dawned on me privately and not in conversation or I’d have felt like the double the moron I do now.” – Prima13

The Argument

“I thought concur meant disagree till i got in an argument with someone and later found out they were trying to agree with me.” – Lord_Ikaros

Proper Pronunciation

“How rendezvous and dachshund are pronounced. I knew what the words were when spoken, obviously, but every time I’d see them written I’d get stuck. I’d try to sound them out.”

“I remember being stuck behind Buick Rendezvous in traffic and sound it out phonetically and think to myself ‘well that’s a weird thing to name a car.’ In my mid 20s.” – JaggedUmbrella

It’s That Month

“That the month is pronounced and spelled February and not Febuary despite being born in that month.” – jetpacksheep

Crunching The Numbers

“The twelve days of Christmas are from Christmas to the Feast of the Epiphany sometimes called Three Kings Day on January 6th. I was raised Catholic. It’s a holy day of obligation. I just never counted the days. I even wondered why it’s 12 days in the song.”

“The fact that it’s called epiphany stings a bit. I’m 45.” – prolific-lurker

You Only Get One Replacement

“Not me, but I was talking to my best friend about how I have a lisp since the accident last year that left me without several teeth.”

“He replied with ‘wait, it’s been a year why haven’t they grown back?’”

“Me- wtf do you mean, teeth don’t grow back?”

“Him-no no they don’t grow back but wouldn’t the new set have grown in yet or are they still coming in?”

“Me-new set? You only have one set of adult teeth.”

“Him-wait what”

“This man made it to 22 firmly believing you lose one set of teeth as a kid and then have TWO SETS of adult teeth.”

“God, I wish, then I wouldn’t be paying $4000 for replacement teeth.” – MidnightCiggarette

I really shouldn’t be laughing at any of these.

For the longest time, I was fully convinced I had to avoid swallowing watermelon seeds because I thought one would grow inside of me.

I was rightfully roasted for ages when I learned the truth when I was 12.

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People Share The Saddest Historical Facts They Know

They say history is written by the victors, but who would ever want to write about some of these tales?

The hardest truths to read about are the saddest ones, where terrible tragedies and awful atrocities happened to real-life people.

Maybe reading about them in hindsight will make things easier? Or maybe it’ll just make you happy you live in the era you do now.

Reddit user, moseich, wanted to feel the feels when they asked:

“What historical fact makes you cry?”

Good Dogs, Sad Dogs

“WW1- Mercy dogs, they would go out into no mans land and find wounded soldiers. They would bring medical supplies for the soldiers to patch themselves up.”

“Or if the soldier was to mortally wounded, stay and comfort them in their final moments.” ~ Lucky-daydreamer

Soldiers Wanting To Share In The Haunting Tunes

“I learned about this in a Dan Carlin podcast. During the German-Soviet war, there was a Red Army soldier who sang each night with a hauntingly-beautiful voice. His comrades would give him their tea rations and scarves to protect his larynx.”

“One night, he couldn’t sing because he had gotten sick.”

“A German soldier crawled across no-man’s-land and tossed something into the Soviet trench; the Soviet soldiers thought it was a grenade.”

“However, it was a package containing a letter asking if the singer was okay and if he needed medicine. A truly heart-warming moment in an otherwise horrific front.” ~ Scruffy_Nerf_Hoarder

A Good Pet Until The Very End

“The story of Alex (1977-2007), an African grey parrot who learned to speak, recognize objects and play with his owner. It was one of the smartest parrots ever reported.”

“He loved his owner and his owner adored him as well.”

“In the end, he suffered arteriosclerosis, so his owner went to see him one last time, to which Alex told his owner: ‘You are good; I love you.’ She replied, ‘I love you too’.”

“Alex said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and the owner replied ‘yes, I’ll see you tomorrow’.” ~ metal_gearmen

One Minute Gone

“Henry Gunther was an American soldier killed during WWI at 10:59am on November 11th, 1918; one minute before the Armistice took effect at 11:00am.”

“Gunther charged a German roadblock outfitted with machine guns. German soldiers tried waving him off knowing the war would come to an end in mere moments.”

“Apparently he got too close, fired a couple rounds, and was promptly shot and killed instantly.” ~ _DMYZ

Oh, America, You Disappoint Us…

“The Sand Creek massacre is particularly bad. They had so much faith in the peace treaties that had been signed, the signs of good faith from American settlers.”

“Only to be massacred. The leader of the camp, Black Kettle, desperately holding up the American flag he’d been given with a white flag underneath it, encouraging his people to gather around it—thinking that the [United States Army] would realize they were allies and stop the killings. Only to be shot down.”

“The descriptions of the massacre are brutal—children tortured and slaughtered, pregnant women with their children torn out of their stomachs. Genitals torn from corpses and taken for trophies.”

“It really made me realize you can never underestimate the cruelty of mankind. Especially considering most of the murdered in this massacre were defenseless women, children, and elderly.” ~ Lia_Is_Lying

Survived By Being Out For The Day

“There were approximately 300 infants and children that were murdered in Jonestown, being forcibly fed or injected with cyanide. I feel so much pain for all the victims but the kids in particular make me ache with despair.” ~ Lastofherkind

“There were some teens that weren’t among the number, because they were gone playing a basketball tournament.” ~ qualitygravedigger

Couldn’t Fit This Into The Play

“When Alexander Hamilton’s eldest son died, his second child Angelica Hamilton had a mental breakdown and she never recovered. Sometimes, her family would walk into a room with only her in it, and she would be speaking to her dead brother.” ~ meenakshi96

“The Light Has Gone…”

“Teddy Roosevelt’s mother Mittie and his wife Alice, who had just given birth days before, both died in the same house on the same day, hours apart from each other. In his diary entry that day, he drew a large black X and scribbled ‘The light has gone out of my life’.”

“That’s some heavy sh*t right there, man.” ~ fracking_toasters_

Sharing Each Other’s Humanity

“Christmas Day, 1914. German and British soldiers got up from their trenches and called a 48 hour truce to just chill and even play soccer.”

“This makes me cry because it shows that the soldiers of both sides really found it pointless to fight other people just cause their country said so. This is probably the strongest story of unity I’ve heard about in history class.” ~ Electoriad

Keeping Your Honor Even In War

“In WWII an American pilot named Charles Brown was flying a B-17 in a bomb raid over Germany where his aircraft was severely shot up and entered a free fall when Brown passed out. When Brown awoke, he was only a few thousand feet above the ground and barely was able to recover the aircraft.”

“When the Luftwaffe spotted a limping B-17 far below the formation, they dispatched a pilot named Franz Stigler, a soon to be ace just 1 kill away, with 2 Downed B-17s earlier that day. As he approached from the rear, Stigler noticed that the B-17s tail gunner didn’t move and after further inspection, realized he and several other gunners were dead. Stigler saw this and remembered what his flight instructor had said years ago, ‘if you shoot a man in a parachute, ill shoot you myself’.”

“Stigler saw this limping B-17 as no different from a downed pilot in a parachute. To prevent German flak cannons from taking it out, Stigler flew in formation with the B-17 all the way until the English Channel where it landed safely. Stigler never mentioned the incident, and could’ve been court martialed for it.”

“Decades later, Charles went looking for the enemy pilot that saved his life that fateful day, and eventually met him face to face, becoming close friends and dying just a few months apart from each other in 2008.” ~ OleRockTheGoodAg

History can be a harsh critic, leaving you feeling like all of time is a cruel place.

May we all make the best choices we can to make sure history looks back on us with kind eyes.

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People Break Down The Most Random Science Facts

I love science.

Although I hated it in high school, now that I’m old… I mean an adult, I love it.

Why you ask?

Because the more science you learn, the more you can understand what’s happening around you and live better.

But science has sadly been under attack for the last several years.

So let’s be our own Bill Nye and absorb a bit of science for our own good.

Redditor Look_Under_The_Bed went to Reddit for all the best science on offer and asked:

“What’s a random science fact that you know?”

So let’s talk science…

You never know when you’ll need to spit out some random facts to impress people at parties.

And if nothing else, we’ll be better prepared for Jeopardy!.

Cry me a River…

“When you cry really hard, your nose runs because it’s connected to the same pipes as your tear ducts, so your nose is also helping you get your tears out.” ~ Threspian

“On a similar note, your nose runs when it’s cold out because you have created a heat gradient.”

“Warm air can hold more water than cool air so as you exhale, the water condenses at the end of your nose and so your nose runs.”  ~ wolfmoral

LOOK OUT BELOW!!!

“Squirrels can survive falling from terminal velocity.”  ~ terrariapro117

“I learned this after witnessing a squirrel hit the ground after a presumably long fall.”

“It made a loud SMACK as it hit the ground, scared the crap out of me and the dog, then scampered away, up another tree like nothing happened.”  ~ _cocophoto_

Time after Time…

“Time is slightly slower between higher altitudes and lower altitudes, to infinitesimal fractions of a second.”  ~ Redditor

“The designers of the GPS satellites had to compensate for this, since the entire system is built around ridiculously precise timekeeping.”

“It was calculated theoretically first as a consequence of general relativity, and then confirmed experimentally.” ~ Murgatroyd314

 Strength in opposing directions…

“Muscles can only contract. Muscle tissue can’t push.”

“Doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize that actions like sticking your tongue out of your mouth are completely the result of pulling, not pushing.” ~ fd1Jeff

“I teach anatomy. Always fun to watch students work through this information for the first time.”

“That is a series of pulling and relaxing and the opposite movements are also pulling and relaxing.”

“i.e…triceps vs biceps.”  ~ Warlock2017

2 every solar system turn…

“Venus the only planet to spin clockwise.” ~ siglawoo

“Sun’s axis rotates a full turn about every 27 Earth days but since the Sun is not solid but a ball of plasma the rotation speeds are different at different latitudes.”

“At the equator it’s surface rotates faster, every 24 days.”

“Another fun fact: the orbital plane of the planets is tilted about 7 degrees in relation to the Sun’s axis mentioned above.”

“This should not be the case because of the way planets form around a star.”

“Astronomer’s suspect that the orbital plane of the planets tilted as a result of the gravity of a large planet size object that is no longer around.”

“Existence of this planet is hypothetical so it was given a name Planet X (or sometimes Planet 9). Other anomalies had been observed that could also suggest existence of such an object.”

“Example: grouping of planetoids on the outskirts of the Solar System.”

“The reason that the planet hasn’t been observed directly is that it’s so far away beyond Neptune that it doesn’t reflect enough sunlight to be seen with available technology.”

“Another proposed explanation for the orbital plane tilt is existence of a nearby planet-sized black hole which orbits the Sun but hasn’t been detected yet.”

“The new James Webb space telescope that will be launched soon should help to answer those questions.”  ~ aykontakt

“Makes you wonder. What if something hit Venus?”

“In Dynamics if two objects hit each other and their center of gravities aren’t along the path each was traveling, one will spin clockwise and the other counterclockwise.”

“Maybe Earth and Venus are the same size because we’re the result of two roughly similar sized objects hitting each other in space. Idk.”  ~ detectiveDollar

Within Reach…

“You’re closer to space than you are to anything more than about an hour’s drive away.”

“Most folks take “space” to be “outside of Earth’s atmosphere.”

“There’s no precise boundary to where Earth’s atmosphere ends and space starts, but a lot of people take the Kármán line to be as good a point as any to split atmosphere vs. space.”

This line is 100km/62 miles up, which is roughly the distance your grandma can drive in an hour on the highway.”  ~ meatfrappe

I see the resemblance…

“Tyrannosaurus was closer in time to Humans than to Stegosaurus.”  ~ jsreyn

“That explains why my arms are so short.”  ~ TransientFeelings

“Haha same! When I sit on a chair, I never know what to do with my arms.”

“If I put them on my legs near my hips, I end up slouching because I can’t sit straight and put my hands on my thighs.”

“So I cross my arms and then people say I look defensive.”  ~ Zealousideal9151

Human Waste in Orbit…

“If you bleed more than 100ml/min on the international space station, they write you off and say any medical supplies spent on you is a waste.”  

“It’s been years since I saw the article but I believe the only plan at that point was ‘get the astronaut to earth ASAP’ which, you know… isn’t done in a few minutes, soooo.”  ~ Wit-wat-4

Square cut or pear shaped…

“Diamonds aren’t forever. In fact, they are dust at 500 degrees in your oven for a few hours.”

“Diamonds aren’t pressure/temperature stable at the surface. If you heat them without also applying incredible pressure, they become CO2 and a little pile of carbon.”  ~ Driftmoth

Veggies keep you level…

“If you ever get a cut and it won’t seem to stop bleeding chances are you’re low on vitamin K as it’s the one that helps your blood clot. Vitamin K can be found in most vegetables.”  ~ orion284

“Especially leafy greens! Which is why people on warfarin (and certain other anticoagulants IIRC) need to be mindful of their greens intake… ideally.”

“They should eat them only in moderation and aim for the same amount every day to keep their warfarin levels stable.”  ~ sheepthechicken

Always Sunny, Everyday

“The sun rises on the ISS every ~90 minutes which is the time it takes to orbit the earth and so astronauts experience about 16 mornings everyday.”  ~ pseud0human

I feel like my IQ points just jumped exponentially.

There is definitely enough information there to make me look a tad more sophisticated at parties.

There is no such thing as useless knowledge! The more you know, the more you grow.

Maybe I should write for Hallmark…

Anyway, knowledge of science can be fun and keep us from making foolish mistakes or bad decisions.

Remember that kids.

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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.

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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 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.

Posted on

People Share Science Facts That’ll Change The Way You See The World

Most grownups think they’ve got it all figured out.

Life experiences may have made them more street-savvy, but when it comes to science, it turns out we all still have plenty to learn.

We never stop learning, and isn’t that a wonderful thing?

Redditors were intellectually stimulated when Redditor jdgiabajwbdidb asked:

“What is a science fact that not many people know that will change the way they look at life?”

How well do we know the species with whom we share our planet?

The Thing About Elephants

“Elephants are known to bury their dead under foliage and remain with the bodies for some time afterwards, exhibiting behaviour not dissimilar to human mourning.”

“Indeed, it is the association of apparent grief or mourning that is considered to indicate a ‘burial’, as opposed to simply covering up or disposing of a body.”

“I also read somewhere that they have buried humans.” – ErrorCodeTaken

The Thing About Spiders

“Not a single Tarantula species is able to kill you with venom, so if you see a big hairy boi just know, it can’t kill you, not yet, also link to a picture of my escaped Tarantula” – MeGaPP-_-

The Thing About Mosquitos

“Most people know that the mosquito is the deadliest animal when it comes to total human deaths ever. Next to humans of course.”

“And this is due to the malaria parasite spread by mosquitoes. It is estimated that four to five per cent of all humans that have ever lived died from malaria (rather than half as some sources state).”

“The treatment for malaria is quinine, which was known since the 1700’s. This is often contained in tonic water, which is bitter and not that palatable.”

“The anecdotal story is that during the days of British colonization of India, the British East India Company had of course problems with malaria.”

“Drinking tonic water was not popular with the British, so what’d they do? add booze, i.e. gin. And this is where you get gin and tonic.”

“Of course modern research has shown that the amounts of tonic water you’d need is quite large (~1 liter for a minimal effect) to make that story apocryphal at best (although I know some people who probably managed to meet the necessary quota to ward of malaria).”

“But it is interesting to think that we managed to make the treatment for one of the worst disease humanity has known into a cocktail.”

“What is real though is that malaria can be used to treat syphilis. Malaria causes a high fever which kills the syphilis bacteria.”

“In fact, Dr Julius Wagner-Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1927 for this discovery (but he later became a hardcore Nazi and eugenisist. Of course we no longer use this because the mortality rate was 15%, but this was much lower than the death rate for syphilis.”

“Unfortunately, many parts of the world still suffer from malaria, where it is still a major killer.” – monkeypie1234

We have lived on one planet our entire lives and yet there are many facts about our home that elude us.

The Thing About H20

“Water does not innately conduct electricity, it is all the dissolved stuff that allow electricity to pass through it.”

“Water is fascinating stuff.” – Nicholi417

The Thing About Tremors

“Earthquakes can happen literally everywhere on Earth, however humans rarely feel anything below a 2.5 in magnitude.” – botchman

The Thing About Our Atmosphere

“The Amazon Rainforest isn’t actually the lungs of Earth.”

“Almost all the Oxygen generated by the Amazon is used by the life found in the Amazon.”

“40% of Earth’s oxygen is actually produced by tiny Organisms called Diatoms.”

“These organisms can replicate at an incredible rate and trillions of them spread throughout the Oceans and create Oxygen through photosynthesis.”

“When the Diotoms die they transform into underwater snowflakes that remain on the sea floor.”

“When these seas dry up, the dead Diatoms create a salt desert, like the one in Northern Africa.”

“Huge sandstorms pick the Diotoms up and carry them across the Oceans and drop them down on the Amazon and are used as a fertilizer for the rainforest.”

“Where are Diatoms born? The rainforest, they spread to the sea, create Oxygen through photosynthesis, die, create salt deserts, get taken back to the rain forest and help create the rainforest that creates them.”

“That’s the circle of life right there.” – LordTopley

The Thing About Our Celestial Neighbor

“On average, Mercury is the nearest planet to every planet in our solar system.” – MoguoTheMoogle

We already know we are very complex organisms.

But just how complex is our species?

Keep reading.

The Thing About Our Ancestry

“Everyone on earth is at least 50th cousin with everyone else on earth.”

“And if you are currently dating or married to somebody who is from your own country and is of your own ethnicity, there’s a one in five chance that the two of you share a common family member fewer than 10 generations ago.”

“Happy investing!” – ArmstrongBillie

The Thing About Our Flesh

“That the human skin Is quite heavy Its around 16% of your body weight.” – Idontknowtbhsss

“The first cellular life derived from highly complicated chemical reactions in inert matter. Thus, you could say, that all matter tends towards complication: and once a level of complexity is reached it is then ‘considered alive’.”

“This being true would indicate over time that most atoms in the world, including the ones that make you up, have transitioned through of living systems and inert matter, and if not bound by time, complex information tends towards constructing life, thereby, all matter in the universe could have been potentially alive during its existence before being broken down again—simplified—returning to non life, in a cycle that repeats infinitely.”

“We got stuff from stars in us. And you won’t be remembered but the matter you give life to will exist for unknowable trillions of years, potentially becoming the same matter in another being.” – jert3

The Thing About Our View Of The World

“The retinas of our eyes capture things ‘upside down’. Our brains correct for it and turns the image ‘the right way up’.” – lardill

One fascinating factoid I learned was that we had more bones when we were born.

We basically had 300 bones with cartilage between them, making us flexible enough to pass through the birth canal.

As we grow older, our skeletal bodies end up with 206 bones, as many of them fuse together through our early rapid development.

When you think about it, our mere existence is, in itself, a true miracle.

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People Discuss Pop-Culture Revelations You’ll Never Want to Unlearn

You know that moment when you’re watching one of your favorite movies and something new about it just clicks in your head? It’s pretty fun. It can also make you feel slightly stupid if you figure you should have realized it earlier.

Probably the best thing to do with those feelings is to take to Twitter and share your epiphanies with the world.

10. The Backstreet Boys

Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) peaked at number 4 on the American Billboard charts in 1998.

9. American Gothic

Additionally, they were modeled after the artist’s sister and his dentist.

8. Pilot episodes

The pilot of the show Lost was the most expensive ever made up to that point, costing an estimated $14 million.

7. Who Let the Dogs Out

There’s an entire documentary about this song.

6. Lord of the Rings

Ian McKellen has a net worth of around $50 million.

5. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

The phrase is “Open Sesame” in Antoine Galland’s version of One Thousand and One Nights.

4. The Lion King

James Earl Jones was the only actor to reprise his role in the “live action” 2019 remake.

3. Disney Cartoons

The character’s first animated appearance was in 1932.

2. The Lion King (again)

While the story similarities are undeniable, people also point to the more troubling apparent rip off elements from a Japanese series called Kimba.

1. Chuck E Cheese

The bizarre pizza chain filed for bankruptcy in 2020.

And with that knowledge in our minds, we can all go forth, forever changed.

What did you realize when you were today years old?

Tell us in the comments.

The post People Discuss Pop-Culture Revelations You’ll Never Want to Unlearn appeared first on UberFacts.