Lies and truth are not one in the same, but the are related. That’s because the most fantastical tales are forged in reality.
Which is why they say truth is stranger than fiction.
I mean look at the world we’re living in. Look at the half decade we just survived.
There are things we’ve all been privy to that if we told our younger selves years ago about we would’ve laughed in disbelief.
But facts are facts.
No matter how wild they can seem, the details are real. We just don’t know how anyone is left stunned by truth anymore.
Life is an Onion article, get comfortable.
That is why a shy Redditor wanted to get together and share some shocking, pearl clutching facts we may not have been so willing to originally believe until we got receipts.
They asked for:
“The most BS-sounding-but-true fact you know?”
“The RAM is watching”
“Cosmic rays from outer space cause glitches in your electronics. In some electronics, cosmic rays are the primary source of soft errors.”
“Cosmic rays are one of the main reasons that servers and high reliability computers use error correcting RAM.” ~ random_reddit_accoun
EVERGREEN
“Trees have such intricate root systems that a tree low on one particular type of nutrient will acquire some from his neighbors and make up for it later.”
“This is especially prevalent during the winter months when some trees don’t have leaves and so need extra help from their evergreen friends.” ~ kewlkidmgoo
HOT SUMMER
“In the early 1900’s a wave a molasses rushed through the streets of Boston at 35mph killing 21 people. For decades later, locals said on hot summer days they could still smell molasses in the air.” ~ bartlechoo
I’m Melting
“If you melted down the Eiffel Tower, the pool of iron would be less than 3 inches deep (in a square area the same dimensions as the tower base).” ~ Reddit
“You know those arch things connecting the legs of the Eiffel Tower? If you know anything about architecture, you’d probably assume they make perfect sense.”
“They are there to transfer the load of the tower above down to to the legs. Arches are perfect for that.”
“Nope. They’re a scam. Eiffel designed the thing without them, but the guys holding the money thought it looked too rickety.”
“And people wouldn’t pay to go up in it. So they forced him to bolt on fake arch panels to make it LOOK stronger.” ~ DrColdReality
KABOOM!
“There were people who were killed by the Atom bombs who were born during Japan’s Samurai era.”
“Japans military went from swords, spears and bows to planes, tanks and aircraft carriers in a single humans lifetime. And people say Civilization is unrealistic.” ~ neohellpoet
APPROVED
“The United States in World War 2 created a bomb that used bats.”
“The bats would be carrying small incendiary charges and would be released from the bomb in mid air, causing them to fly and scatter to different buildings in the area.”
“The charges would then detonate and set all the buildings on fire. It was tested and proven to be very effective.”
“This was actually APPROVED by the government for development and production, and then cancelled because of the atomic bomb.”
“The idea was thought up by a Dentist who was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt: Link” ~ DinosaurFriend
Under the Sea
“The Pistol Shrimp can create a cavitation bubble that when collapsing can create a sonoluminescence that can reach temperatures near the temperature of the surface of sun and the sound competes with some of the loudest creatures in the ocean.” ~ DaddysWetPeen
NUMBERS
“If every star in our galaxy had a trillion planets, each with a trillion people living on them, and each of these people has a trillion packs of cards and somehow they manage to make unique shuffles 1,000 times per second, and they’d been doing that since the Big Bang, they’d only just now be starting to repeat shuffles.”
“That was copied from this QI article.”
“The number of ways to shuffle a deck of cards is 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766, 975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000. ~ ccnova
The Choir Sings
“On March 1, 1950, the West Side Baptist Church exploded at 7:27 p.m., right when the scheduled choir practice was supposed to be occurring.”
“The explosion was powerful and swift, taking a nearby radio station off the air. However, not a single choir member got hurt.”
“All fifteen members were delayed from attending the practice. Two women had car troubles, one had trouble with a particularly difficult math problem, another was listening to their favorite radio station.”
“The list goes on and on. If they had been at the church on time for the choir practice, they would have died.” ~ SecretAgendaMan
Repeat…
“There is an immortal jellyfish. When it gets old it reverts itself back into it’s youngest stage and relives life over and over again!” ~ Rdken13
MICRO
“This is more scary that bull crap but its true nonetheless, there are thousands of micro tumors in your body right now and they only need correct conditions to become cancerous.”
“Your body kicks butt at fighting these micro tumors so you have nothing really to worry about.”
YUM
“Chocolate doesn’t have caffeine. Caffeine is added to chocolate because people, in err, expect it to be there.”
“In actuality it naturally contains theobromine which is a methylxanthine, like caffeine. This is what makes chocolate bad for dogs.”
“Also the toxic dose for them is similar between dogs and humans at around 150g/kg if I remember right.”
“Humans just weigh more and don’t tend to sneak into the pantry and eat a 2 lbs block of bakers chocolate.” ~ IRageAlotInIn
CARGO ISSUES
“In the Age of Sail, piracy was seen as simply part of doing business.”
“When approached by a pirate ship, a merchant vessel would almost never put up a fight, simply turning their cargo over instead. Why?”
“Because, as a cost of doing business, cargo was insured against piracy and there was no point in risking life and limb to protect it.” ~ Blenderhead36
They say don’t believe everything you read, but I just read a lot of stuff that makes sense.
Look at it this way, even if it’s odd, it’s still knowledge.
Collect as much of that as you can.
You never know when Jeopardy! will call.