Was there anyone among us who didn't love Pop Up Video?
Of course not. Random tidbits and factoids are like a brain's favorite snack, and putting them to music only made it better.
One Reddit user asked:
What's a totally random, obscure fact that you know?
We know Pop Up Video has been off the air for forever, but as our gift to you we're going to help you recreate that vibe for a moment. Put on your favorite playlist and enjoy these random factoids.
And can someone check on Australia? Why does everything glow in Australia? Should we be concerned?
... I'm kind of concerned. Radioactive platypi seems not good.
Just Another Manic Monday
monday GIF
Giphy
It is more likely for anyone to have a stroke on Monday rather any other day, because of the stress that comes with the beginning of a new week.
in this link it also says that the most common weeks are around holidays too.
https://www.pulsara.com/blog/if-youre-going-to-have-a-stroke-or-stemi-heres-when-it-might-happen
My father had a heart attack on an early Monday morning. The wonderful people at the hospital told us that they get the most heart attack and stroke victims at - I think - 9 o'clock in the morning. Thankfully it was minor and he is now happy and healthy!
Woah, this is 100% accurate! My father had his stroke on the Monday after the Easter weekend, right when he wanted to get up for work.
He hasn't been to work since.
- anna-gla
Holy crap. I had what I believe was a seizure earlier this morning. It's Monday.
This scares the sh*t out of me. I live alone with my dog in a house with lots of hardwood stairs as well. Nobody to really check on me.
Terrible cell reception, you have to go to a specific spot on my property for a good call. My fear is that I'll die, and nobody will find me for weeks or months.
Lobster Face
Lobsters pee out of their faces. From right under their eyes.
also you'd be wrong to assume they do it to.. actually pee. In fact they pee into each other's face to communicate, or before a fight, or before some hot sexy time.
Before You Dig
I located utility lines for awhile. You honestly have no idea how much infrastructure is underneath you. Get your lines marked before you dig. There is a decent chance that there is a major electrical or fiber optic line running through your back yard, not just the lines to YOUR house.
when they are marked:
Red-electric
Green-sewer
Blue-water
Yellow-Gas
Orange-communication
orange with a dot on either side- fiber optic
any color in a diamond with parallel lines- duct run, lots of lines in one trench.
It's funny because my dad and I went to put a fence up and had the lines marked. Put a auger right through a communication line because they marked it like 4' off lol
- SPYK3O
Can't Vomit
Horses can't throw up.
That's why most modern rat poisons are emetic. Other creatures (cats, dogs, human children, etc.) that find and eat the poison very quickly become violently sick and vomit up most or all of the poisonous material, significantly reducing the risk that they will be harmed by it.
Rats, however, cannot be sick, and so the poison stays in them and kills them off.
- McChes
Wait, what do horses do if they eat something bad? Do they just have strong stomachs?
Lol no. They die.
Horses can be pretty ridiculous about randomly dying, especially with colic, which is basically a horrible horse tummy ache. I knew one horse that would colic if you didn't feed him his special food at the exact same time every day 3 times a day.
My Aunt's horse died from eating moldy bread because you are right, horses cant throw up.
- the_obmj
Um ... Australia? Things OK Down There?
platypus GIF
Giphy
Platypuses glow when they're exposed to UV lights.
Bioflorescent... they are steadily found more and more examples that do the same thing. I think Tasmanian Devils and Wombats were both captured recently.
It seems to only happen to those animals in captivity?
The belief is that these (primarily) nocturnal creatures are expected to be seen by daylight in zoos and as a result they absorb too much UV radiation from the sun and when in the dark they re-emit and it shows up better under UV light.
Wombats glow on their noses!
Netflix
Netflix was founded before Google
Even better: In 2000, Netflix offered itself for sale to Blockbuster for something like $50 million. Blockbuster, convinced that Netflix was a flash in the pan and that people would always want to rent disks, declined.
This was before streaming was even an idea in the mind of Reed Hastings; streaming was still a very, very new technology at the time and most people were still on dial-up modems, so it just wasn't feasible. Still, things would be certainly different today.
Default Mode
Your brain prefers to default your mood back to one that you've made comfortable for yourself. So you can literally train yourself to default back to being sad, or being happy, or being anxious etc.
Unfortunately I don't have expertise in exactly how to do that.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) would be helpful and maybe a type of therapy called Gestalt therapy? But I'm no expert on any of this stuff.
I have 2 friends who are counsellors and a sister as well. So maybe I could ask them.
A Man-child Changes History
This one potentially changed the course of history.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire was the ruler of Germany during WWI. Though technically a constitutional monarchy at the time Germany, and its military especially, operated more like an autocratic monarchic state. The top ranks of the German military relied on the personal patronage the kaiser for career advancement.
Thing is, he was a bit of a man-child. So instead of a jump, "how high," situation, it was more like "here's a dress, it'd be funny if you marched around."
In 1908, Field Marshal Dietrich von Hulsen-Haeseler was the top ranking German officer and was only 56 years old. He died that year of a heart attack while marching around for kaiser dressed in a tutu and a feathered hat. Presumably because of the stress and embarrassment of the situation.
Had he lived, he would've commanded the German military in WWI. Instead, they entered the war led by Generals who had risen to the rank without ever actually commanding an army in the field. They were untested jesters in war. It didn't go well.
And that is my useless fact of the day!
Spirit Carbon
Ancient Europeans believed that if they ground up the bones of their greatest warriors or sacred animals and mixed them in with the iron when forging a sword, the sword would contain their spirits, making it stronger.
Little did they know that by adding in the ground up bones they were introducing carbon to the mix and creating carbon steel, which is much stronger than simple iron.
So they were making their swords stronger by adding the sacred bones, just not in the way they thought they were.
Brain Bag
I just learned this yesterday. After an autopsy the brain is put in to the body instead of back in the skull.
It's very hard to fit the cap back on the skull with brain put back in place. The better fit without the brain makes the head look better after the autopsy for sake of the family.
All innards removed are put into a bag, in the abdominal cavity, and then the corpse is stitched up.
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