Facts are something that we all love and we all have our favorites.
The ones we can’t wait to drop anytime we get the chance, the ones that never fail to get us the reaction we want – and yes, the weirdest things we’ve heard that are just impossible to forget.
Those are the facts Reddit is asking for today, and let me tell you, these 18 people came up with some real doozies!
18. I’ll be listening for that this summer.
When male honey bees orgasm, their penises explode with a “pop!” audible to human ears.
And when winter comes the worker bees (which are all female) kick the male bees out to die in the cold because they do nothing other than mate with the queen and the queen can make more even if she is new and unmated. She needs to mate in order to make more female bees.
17. Consider my mind blown.
Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, and gai lan are all the same species of plant (Brassica oleracea), just bred to enhance different parts of the plant.
16. Well that’s unfortunate.
The man who invented the match.com website lost his wife to a man she met … On match.com
15. Cremated or just a really big can?
Fredric Baur, the inventor of the Pringles can, is buried in one.
14. This is definitely useful information.
Door knobs that are made out of brass can disinfect itself in about 8 hours.
Copper has the same effect. This early study published in April 2020 demonstrates the SARS-Cov-2 virus particles became non-viable after 4 hours on copper surfaces.
13. I mean there had to be some trick to it.
Woodpeckers tongues wrap around their brain to cushion them from a concussion when they peck against tree trunks.
12. The weight of paint.
If you want to paint a violin red you have to use a Naphthol or Pyrrol Red as a Cadmium Red pigment is too heavy and will alter the sound.
It adds up, the first two space shuttle External tanks were painted white. The external tanks ended up weighing 600 pounds more than the unpainted ones.
11. Now that’s ironic.
We don’t really know who the inventor of the fire hydrant is, because the patent was destroyed…….in a fire.
Homer: Springfield’s never had a hurricane in recorded history.
Lisa: The records only go back to the ’70s when the hall of records was mysteriously blown away.
10. Those things freak me out.
Koalas have fingerprints that are very close to human fingerprints. There apparently have been several “break-in” in Australia by the same “person” based of off fingerprint evidence.
Turned out to be a koala that was responsible for all of these.
9. I bet that’s delicious.
Volkswagen makes a currywurst (a type of sausage) and it has its own Original Part number. #199 398 500 A
No word on whether or not it’s wrapped in a proper pretzel.
8. This does not surprise me about poodles.
There was a genetic bottle neck in standard poodles starting in the 1950s. A kennel called the Wycliffe kennel linebred exceptional show dogs which became highly sought after as studs.
Even today, many standard poodles carry a substantial percentage from this line which traces back to just five dogs.
7. Fungi are amazing.
A fungi grows next to the highly radioactive “Elephant’s Foot” in the Chernobyl reactor. It feeds off the gamma rays emitted by the nuclear fuel in a process known as “radiosynthesis.”
If you were exposed to similar levels of radiation, you would have a lethal dose in 3 minutes.
Radiotrophic fungus was first discovered at the Chernobyl site in 1991, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the start of internationally-aided cleanup/containment efforts. Not so sure about right next to the Elephant’s Foot, but it was definitely found growing in large, flourishing colonies all throughout the site’s cooling water supply.
This fungus appears to use melanin – the same dark-brown pigment that gives humans all their various normal skin tones, except in much, much higher concentrations – to power sugar-producing reactions by deriving energy from nuclear decay the same way plants and cyanobacteria use the green pigment chlorophyll to synthesize sugars by deriving energy from (sun)light.
Basically, this stuff is a mold colony that has the most extreme tan ever, and uses it to eat radiation.
Similar fungi have been found accumulated on the exterior hulls of low-orbit spacecraft, and experiments were recently (2018-2019) conducted to begin investigating if the stuff could be used as shielding to protect astronauts from solar/cosmic radiation. Apparently, results were promising!
6. This is very disconcerting.
The spinal cord has the consistency of a ripe banana.
Yeah our vertebrae are rings of interlocking armor for a reason.
5. Those are fun party tricks.
Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins can. They can also die of starvation with a full stomach.
Their gut bacteria is very temperature dependent. Due to Global Warming
, the temp in the Caribbean can go below its more usual 23C down to about 20C at times, which will kill their digestive bacteria, so they can’t digest what they eat. Sloths can’t regulate their body temperature well, so they can’t maintain an internal temp to stop this happening.
4. Terrifying, if you’re a caterpillar.
When caterpillars make their chrysalises, the don’t just grow wings & change, they dissolve completely into goo which then reforms into the butterfly.
Better yet, if you “train” the caterpillars to dislike certain stimuli, the resulting butterflies retain that memory & will avoid the same stimuli.
I don’t have a source to hand but I asked a relative who works a lot around butterflies.
She said that it has actually been shown that they retain some structure during metamorphosis, including their nervous system which explains the memory retention.
3. Facts about camels.
Most of the camels of Saudi Arabia are imported from Australia.
The largest wild population of camels is also in Australia.
It is illegal to kill wild camels in Arizona.
Back in the day they imported camels to cross Southern Arizona, found horses more reliable so released the camels. There’s a thriving population of wild horses in Arizona but sadly no more camels.
Llamas and other camel species can thrive here though.
Lastly, I remember watching Planet Earth for the first time and seeing Bactrian camels on film, for the first time, in their natural habitat. One of my favorite tv memories.
2. Talk about dark.
Anglerfish mate by the male biting the female’s abdomen.
Over time, the male is absorbed and linked to the female’s circulatory system while the male basically melts into a parasite-looking growth that is actually nothing but testicles which the female will use when she’s ready.
Weird enough for you?
1. And they still didn’t see that iceberg coming.
Titanic was fitted with microphones for receiving underwater bell signals. With this system the sound of submarine bells was received through the hull of the vessel.
Submarine bells, used as fog signals, were located on lightships, at lighthouses, and even on some specially equipped buoys. They were actuated by electric signals, compressed air, or simply by wave motion.
Titanic had two submarine microphones on her hull, one on each side. These were the “ears” of the ship. By switching between the port and starboard microphones and comparing the volume of the bells, the navigation officer could determine the direction to the navigation aid. Sound travels much further through water than through air – these bells could be heard over 15 miles away through the headset.
A pretty cool way of navigating at a time when GPS and RADAR didn’t yet exist!
I’m definitely adding some of these to my list.
What’s your favorite weird fact? Share it with us in the comments!
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