
Not every fact in this great big mystery of a world of ours has a use. Sometimes facts just ARE. Independently from opinion or from use. They just quite literally exist.
Though as humans, we are such passionately curious creatures that we seek out new things to learn even if it doesn't actually do anything for us.
Even if it only takes up space in our brains.
"What is the stupidest fact you know?"
Here were some of the answers.
A Strangely Vital Exercise
"Penguins poop with the greatest force of any known animal as if they did it slower they would lose internal body heat."-theboorster
"Out of all the evolutionary survival traits I would have NEVER thought sh*tting faster would be one of them lol and now I know."-Artemismajor
A Drizzle By Any Other Name
"Although in Metereology the definition of drizzle is for the water droplets to be smaller than 0,5 mm the general accepted way to define at a glance wether what's falling from the sky is rain or drizzle is to observe if the droplets can splash on top of your shoe once they hit the ground"
"If they do it means that they are large enough and contain enough mass to be classified as rain, otherwise it's drizzle. Sounds silly until you try to measure the dimension of a water droplet falling from the sky every time it starts pouring to fill a weather report."-Zartas
Similar To Break A Leg, No?
"In France we say 'Merde' (literally 'sh*t' in english) to say good luck, because saying good luck is seen as a bad luck."
"It comes from the middle ages when people traveled in horse carts, when there was a lot of sh*t in front of theaters it meant the play had a lot of success."-Chrissou_A
No fact is not worth knowing.
Misnomer Of Horsepower
"While it is true that the maximum output of a horse is around 15 horsepower, when you average the output of a horse over the course of a work day it ends up being around a horsepower."
"1 Horsepower is equivalent to one horse doing 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute. (Or more simply, the amount of work done by a horse raising a 33-pound bucket of water from the bottom of a 1000-foot-deep well in 60 seconds)."-AndrewLewer69
Pink Flamingoes Are A LIE
"Shrimp is the food in question that dyes flamingos pink. They are white when they are born. If they were to eat something else that would still sustain them they would lose their pink coloring over time."
"Flamingos kept in zoos are not fed shrimp but an additive is added to their food to make sure they stay pink so people aren't confused."-sharrrper
A Parliament Of Facts
"Pennsylvania was the first state to legalize witchcraft.
Highway Gothic is the official font for road signs in America.
The world's largest paperclip is located in Saskatchewan."
"Robert Ridgeley Taylor invented the pumpable liquid hand soap dispenser.
Every 14 minutes, an American loses, breaks, or sits on a pair of sunglasses."
"Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
There are 86 lego bricks for everyone on Earth.
A group of owls is called a parliament."
"There are around 25 billion chickens in the world.
The average strawberry has 200 seeds…Take your pick."-Musical_Leaf_Juice15
Respelling The Country Over And Over
"When Sweden versus Denmark in a sporting event, the scoreboard would read SWE - DEN which spells Sweden. If you take all the remaining characters that were removed, you get DEN - MARK which spells Denmark."-InfernalOrgasm
Every single fact, even if useless, can really enrich our lives.
A Swimming Moose Is Dangerous
"Moose swim waaay faster than you'd expect. My Dad and I were in Isle Royale years ago and we saw a couple swimming across the lake when we were in our canoe."
"We paddled closer to get a better look and the Momma moose turned towards us and came after us(she had a baby with her)."
"We didn't get closer than 30 yards on our own. When she turned towards us, we paddled away and realized she was gaining, so we paddled faster. She kept gaining."
"Thank God she lost interest or was just satisfied in the result, because we were not going to get away if she wanted to get us. Crazy."-WrongStatus
Font Has Been A Front All Along
"The word Font is almost always used incorrectly. If you are picking out the style of letters you want to use what you are selecting is a 'typeface' not a font. The font is the container that holds the typeface."
"So for instance if we were doing a print job back in the movable type days and wanted to do it in Gothic you might tell your assistant 'Go get the Gothic font.'"
"What that means though is 'Go get me the drawer that contains the Gothic typeface' The word font refers to the drawer, not the contents."
"When they started making word processors on computers with multiple typeface options they retained the old printers jargon but didn't explain it."
"When you select a Gothic font in MS Word what you are selecting is a file folder which contains the Gothic typeface. Font refers to the file folder, not the contents."-sharrrper
Beautiful Colors
"If you look at red for a while, then look at a very blue blue, you can see a blue that is more blue than the bluest blue."
"This is called hyperbolic blue and it's caused by your brain adapting to the red color then overcorrecting before it can re adapt to seeing blue. This isn't useful but it's a thing."
"Also magenta and brown aren't real."-miner_sd
Isn't the world a strange, varied, interesting place? And every single fact that we can learn about it makes us more worldly.
Even if there doesn't really seem to be a use for that fact, it still becomes a pleasure to know.
I hated science classes.
As soon as I could I ran.
But it follows me.
Because science can be downright disturbing.
That's why I blocked out so many of the details.
Redditor Flimsy_Finger4291wanted to compare notes on all the frightening facts that are a definitive. They asked:
"What's the scariest thing that science has proven real?"
As if knowledge isn't scary enough, let's her more...
Hello Terry
"Some tumors have teeth, hair and even eyes."
Twat_Waffle_Stomp
"My sister had one minus the eyes! It was cantaloupe sized on one of her ovaries before it was found. She named it Terry the Teratoma."
Karina_is_my_cat
Hungry Bacteria
"Brain-eating amoebas."
dark_n_lovely_qu33n
"My best friend and bunk mate from summer camp died from one of those when I was in 7th grade. Happened so quickly, we were a week into camp and he got really sick. They gave us all heavy meningitis shots because they didn’t know what it was and within a few days he was dead. Turned out to be a brain eating amoeba."
"Edit: strangely enough on the same day he started getting sick one of the lifeguards that was sitting out in a boat waiting for the next group of kids for what we called Trojans Vs. Spartans day had a seizure, fell off the boat and drowned. Only deaths they’d ever had in the 50+ years the camp had been open."
Csharp27
Far Far Away
"The size of our galaxy, how many other galaxies there are and how far away they are. When you can actually see something that incomprehensible.."
Jfonzy
"The nearest star to us would take the Voyager 70,000 years to reach. The nearest galaxy to ours would take the Voyager 749,000,000 years. If we some how managed to take on the monstrous task of speed of light travel it would still take 25,000 years to reach the nearest galaxy. And it's even further apart after you read this. Wild stuff!"
ConqueredCorn
Head Changes
"How the brain is literally rewired and chemically altered by childhood neglect and abuse."
petalumaisreal
"It's genuinely kinda freaky, playing a puzzle game, and noticing how quickly you're getting better at it. The kind of puzzles that were a real blocker in the beginning become baby-easy after like an hour of playing puzzles like it."
LtLabcoat
"My sister faced horrible abuse at the hands of our father, and she has been working through it with multiple therapists over the last 10 years and she is only now starting to get her life back. I feel like she was robbed at a fair chance at life because of our a**hole father."
Pehdazur
Awake
"Prions, horrific and totally unpredictable."
geordiesteve520
"Fatal familial insomnia is a prions disease where you can't sleep anymore, you just stay awake until your brain deteriorates and you die."
DrinknEspresso
Now I can never UNKNOW about prions. Perfect.
Days gone by...
"Ageing. I'm content with death but the idea of my body growing old, frail and eventually falling apart before the end game gives me goosebumps."
EvidenceOfInnocence
Bursts
"Gamma ray bursts. No warning, no escape, no defense, no survivors."
Swampwolf42
"If you're talking about supernovas if the star isn't too close the gamma burst would probably only destroy some part of our ozone layer. And gamma radiation is actually the least lethal out of all types of waves."
Broccoli_sauce24
Sizzle
"Entropy. Time shall consume all things. Inevitable heat death of the universe."
Revolutionary_Elk420
"I personally want the 'Big Crunch' to be true. That instead of fizzling out it all gets sucked back into an infinitely small/dense particle and then another Big Bang happens. It’s my explanation for the multiverse. It’s all one timeline. Just infinitely long."
ChoppyWAL99
They're Watching
"More like a theory, the 'orangutan paradox,' when we film a documentary on orangutans, they can’t realize that we are observing them, yet they are the most intelligent species of their category, so aliens might be watching us and we are as oblivious as an orangutan."
Time_Succotash
Fade 2 Silent
"That hearing is the last sense to leave, when dying."
User Deleted
Well that is the antithesis of comfort. Life is so fun.
Ever since Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope opened on May 25, 1977, a devoted fanbase developed.
And that fanbase has opinions.
Lots and lots of opinions.
Redditor Ebo8000 wanted to know:
"What is your most controversial take on Star Wars?"
Doors
"LASERS LOCK DOORS. LASERS OPEN DOORS. LASERS KNOW WHAT YOU WANT THE DOOR TO DO."
- SlamVanDamn
"But if you get past the door and close it behind you and you don’t want anyone to follow you through it…"
"…you shoot the bloody door panel!"
- treeonwheels
"Also, f*cking hell, we're in the future (or in the past), whatever, and people have better technology."
"Why put the door control RIGHT NEXT to the door? Put the door control system in a breaker box."
"Build every door so in case of malfunction they all shut closed (after all, they're in space and you don't want to lose air in decompression, do you?)"
"Shoot the breaker box, now the whole floor is closed until someone can figure out what happened."
"Almost look like those doors just exist as dramatic elements..."
- smegma_yogurt
The Past
"I’d like a film about when the Republic was at its height. 1,000 generations is 25,000 years and we’ve had 9 movies about the last 60."
- Musickat18
The Future
"Not sure if controversial but they need to take the franchise and yeet it 200 years in the future."
"I'm tired of the Empire era where they need to justify why more than 2 Jedi and 2 Sith exist at one moment alongside knowing everything is pointless until Luke leaves the farm."
- Alandrus_sun
Design Fail? No!
"The Death Stars weren't badly designed they were just badly managed."
"Yes, designing them assuming large scale assaults was stupid given the political state of the galaxy but the second Death Star wasn't even finished so that doesn't count, it's all Palpatine's fault. As for the first one that was finished, the Alliance made three runs on the exhaust port."
"The first was called off before they made it to the trench, the second failed and the third was carried out by space Jesus which isn't exactly fair."
"All in all it sounds like a fairly effective defence when you consider the design philosophy."
- Engeneus
Cool Factor
"The entire universe has a cool factor that outweighs the atrocious storytelling."
- Ozty
"Bro imagine the following movies, but if they were in Star Wars universe."
"Magnificent 7 - A Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Ex-Imperial, Pilot, Wookie, a Droid, and Lawman team up to defend a town against pirates"
"Dredd - Two Jedi climb up an apartment block to confront a new dark side user who has mental control of the entire apartment block"
"Supernatural (T.V. Show) - A Jedi and their apprentice go around and solve and defeat Dark Side Force spots—where the Force consolidates from emotions and creates foul creatures to fight"
"Top Gun - But it's you know, Wedge or something"
"Ford versus Ferrari - But it's podracing or swoop racing"
- BoutsofInsanity
Ships
"Something about the ships in the original series always felt more like real ships than in any of the later movies, despite the objectively better effects of the later films."
"Some of this is probably the use of models (i.e. actual three dimensional objects), but I think there is some critical difference in the design that makes them feel more real (probably because they were designed to be things that would actually work as models)."
"Whatever it is, I LOVED the ships in the original series and never really liked any of the new ones."
- UnspecificGravity
"The original trilogy changed the world by showing a universe in space that was dirty and lived in. The special effects from the later movies did not recognize this."
Boba who?
"Boba Fett is an oddly overrated background character, and even after watching The Book of Boba Fett, I don’t really care about him."
- imidoesonlyfans
"He was never a character. He was a cool helmet."
- JimPlaysGames
"He was a cool jetpack too."
- RipperFromYT
Time for the weather...
"Han is actually older than Obi-Wan due to Time Dilation."
- Snowbofreak
"Time dilation in a universe where every planet and moon has the same gravity and atmosphere?"
- suman_issei
"And just 1 biome."
- DogShampoop
"That way they only need one Weather Channel per planet."
- The_Most_Superb
"And over to Klaatu for the Tatooine weather report. Klaatu?"
"It's still sunny."
- Budsygus
These are the droids we're looking for.
"Star Wars is actually the life story of C-3PO—think about it."
- jonguy77
"I disagree. I think its R2-D2's story. He had a much greater presence in Episode 1, 2 and 3, and got the same amount of screen time as C-3PO in 4, 5 and 6."
‐ MacGregor_Rose
Fan is short for fanatic.
"Fans ruined the whole franchise."
- SeaworthinessNo5209
Ouch...
So, did your controversial Star Wars opinion make the list?
Death is a subject many people shy away from because what they don't know beyond our realm of existence can be intimidating.
Hollywood hasn't helped, as movies and TV have typically portrayed death as something sinister and violent.
How could anyone be convinced death is a peaceful transition, and that what awaits on the other side is actually an unimaginable utopia?
Curious to hear strangers' thoughts about death, Redditor GoodNess2020 invoked a quote by an iconic literary figure and asked:
"Mark Twain once said, 'I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.' Why do you agree/disagree with his statement?"

People clarified what actually terrified them most about death
The Process
"I don't fear being dead. I fear dying."
– magicbluemonkeydog
"Yeah, that's usually the issue. It's why that quote doesn't mean much, to a lot of people."
"It's not a fear of eventually dying and not existing anymore. It's the act of dying itself. He didn't constantly die for all of time. He just wasn't alive."
– appleparkfive
Concept Of Loss
"To have not existed for billions of years is to have spent billions of years never knowing loss. To die is to know loss."
"If you look into a new bank account and see zero dollars, it’s nothing. If you look into a bank account that once had a million dollars and see there’s nothing in there, you’ll know it’s absence."
– -CrestiaBell
People provided an analogy to articulate what ceasing to exist must feel like.
It's About Time
"Time is only relevant to you when you are alive. He is right. Have you ever been sedated for surgery? You go under, and then instantly wake up and procedure is done.... or you died so no worries."
– 20190419
Consciousness Is Life
"You won’t be feeling anything in death though is the thing. That infinite/instant sensation was a living feeling, you just weren’t conscious for it - your body experienced it anyways. No body, no experience."
– Parradog1
Like Being Under
"That is very true, but for me, that's the closest amalgamation of what it probably feels like."
"No one can tell you what actual death will be like. It's impossible for you to experience nothingness."
"Thinking about death can be paralysing sometimes, and when I remember that the closest thing i can link as an experience I had, being put under, was actually sort of pleasant. I then think maybe death will be like that, and honestly it doesn't seem that bad."
– IamEclipse
When In Deep Sleep
"Yeah in contrast to sleep where you can actually feel like time has passed when you wake up."
– GreyFoxMe
Think Line Between Death And Slumber
"As CGPGrey puts it, your bed might very well be a suicide machine."
"Given our lack of understanding for the fundamental processes of our sentience, it's entirely possible that when you fall asleep, your mind is functionally killed, disassembled, analyzed, sorted, tweaked, and adjusted by your biology, before being reassembled when you wake. Every night."
– Mazon_Del
People opened up about their insecurities around the concept of death.
Fear Of What Comes Next
"I’m just paranoid that something does happen after death and it’s just based on one thing that you didn’t know about."
– PsychoDog_Music
The Circle Of Death
"There’s nothing to fear in oblivion. Unless, of course, your consciousness survives death. If so, it would be reasonable to fear the sensation of consciousness without senses, suspended alone in the cosmos, with no one to hear you, and no way to make yourself known. No reference point for counting time – a count that does not matter anyway in a literal eternity."
"You might wish that you still had a corporeal form, only so that you could make your mouth move to express your terror, to make the universal form of a terrified scream – the form of a letter O."
"But you won’t be able to. You just won’t!"
"This has been the Children’s Fun Fact Science Corner. Brought to you by shame, loneliness, and the letter..."
"O....."
– CecilSpeaksInItalics
When Faith Fails You
"what do you mean I'm going to hell?! I was a good person and attended church regularly!"
"Ah yes, but you failed to put a blue feather in your hat and then turn in circles the times praising God Almighty on the fifth Sunday after your twelfth birthday. To the pit with you!!!"
– phormix
There is an poignant episode from the Twilight Zone that brought me a sense of peace surrounding the concept of death.
Death was embodied by a handsome police officer who had been shot–played by a young Robert Redford–and begs to be let into the home of an elderly woman who had been living in perpetual fear of meeting "Mr. Death."
As the episode continues, she discovers much to her dismay that she welcomed Death into her home, but he warmly reassures her there is nothing to fear.
The episode ends with her finally offering her hand to Death after much protest, and they peacefully walk out together, arm in arm, into the light.
It was sweet and beautifully done. The 1962 episode was titled, "Nothing in the Dark."
That's how I imagine it to be.
A dashing Prince of Darkness telling me it's time to join him in guiding me to the other side.
Twilight Zone - "Nothing in the Dark" ending (SPOILER ALERT)
SPOILER ALERTFrom S3E16, "Nothing in the Dark". An old woman confronts her worst fear - the fear of death."Am I really so bad? Am I really so frightening? Yo...*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.
Warriors, scientests, feared world leaders, and other historical figures have left their mark on the world.
Many of them are remembered for their achievements or how they had a hand in contributing to an institution or community's demise.
But little is known about their ailments or struggles.
Curious to hear the medical histories of some of the world's most notorious people, Redditor ApexBarber asked:
"What historical figures most certainly had undiagnosed mental illnesses?"
They may be known for their greatness but it's believed they've had some hurdles to overcome.
The English Scientist
"A scientist from the 1700s, Henry Cavendish, measured the density of the earth like a century before it was confirmed within like 2% accuracy using pendelums and telescopes in a shack in his backyard. discovered Argon gas before anyone knew what it was."
"absolutely on the Autism Spectrum."
"He took the same walk, same route, at the same time, every night. specifically adjusted his route to avoid people. He wore the same clothes every day, when they wore out, he would have his tailor make him an identical outfit. He ate the same meal, leg of mutton, every day. once, a housemaid startled him on the stairs of his house, so he had a separate staircase built in the back of the house so it would never happen again. A certified genius, but weirdly antisocial, he would sit around his peers looking off to the side and listening to their conversations indirectly. A peer of his who was also his biographer noted his antisocial behavior and described him in this quote -"He was not a Poet, a Priest, or a Prophet, but only a cold, clear, Intelligence, raying down pure white light, which brightened everything on which it fell, but warmed nothing"
"Edit: unsure if Autism is considered a mental illness, but this was just an interesting historical figure to me. Also side note: I'm not diagnosing him myself, there are specialists/doctors in the field who have said this. Nikola Tesla and Hugo Gernsback were also mentioned as on the spectrum."
– Cybox_Beatbox
The King Of Macedon
"By the end of his life, Alexander the Great was showing clear signs of PTSD. Of course, he also had suffered numerous physical injury as well, so mix in drinking tons of wine (and who knows what else) to act as painkiller and you can argue he was an alcoholic as well, exasperating the aforementioned PTSD."
– Toadman005
"Moses Of Her People"
"Harriet Tubman had narcolepsy due to her slave master throwing a lead weight at her forehead when she was a girl. She would fall asleep and random times and everyone would wait. Remarkable how she made it every time."
– O0O00O000O0000O
His Traits Were Symptoms
"I don't know if you'd count autism as a mental illness, but Nikola Tesla was definitely autistic to some degree."
"His general awkwardness, obsessive nature, and disassociation with people throughout his life was seen in the past as traits of a brilliant scientist, but certainly, when you think about symptoms and traits that people on the spectrum have, it all aligns with him."
– TildeGunderson
These historical figures were known to be born leaders, but when they were not in public, they may have struggled with despair.
Civil Rights Leader
"Martin Luther King. He attempted suicide twice and Coretta said he used to have mental breakdowns and binge on junk food and alcohol."
– Savitribaii
"Most Folks Are As Happy As They Make Up Their Minds To Be"
"It’s very likely that Abraham Lincoln had clinical depression."
– excessivegrease
"Even if you start out healthy, imagine that on your orders 20,000 to 25,000 people are killed in battle and you have to know that this is the right thing to do, and it has to be done over, and over, and over."
– FLEXXMAN33
The Term He Used For His Bouts Of Depression
"Churchill had his ‘Black Dog’."
– happierinverted
Literary Figures
"If I remember correctly it’s theorized that Virginia Woolf may have been bipolar, I could see it with Oscar Wilde too tbh. Their writing style just mimics the thought patterns too well."
"ETA: I’m not sure if they really count as historical figures. My include F. Scott Fitzgerald but maybe not. Possibly Hans Christian Andersen, he was a little eccentric. And idk if it counts but Nicola Tesla may have been in love with a pigeon towards the end."
– New-Grape5551
The Paranoid Author
"Hemingway was sane until no one believed him about the CIA following him. Everyone thought he was schizophrenic and he killed himself. Later the government admitted to following him."
– Jimi_The_Cynic
People shared their fascinating theories.
Origin Of An Ancient Practice
"Not a specific known figure but I’m pretty sure that the person who invented Feng Shui actually just had OCD but enough social influence to get everyone else to go along with it. Your furniture has to be arranged just right or something terrible will happen, somehow."
– SmartAlec105
The Thing About The Chinese Philosopher
"I actually heard something similar that Confucius had most likely some form of Asperger syndrome. Apparently he had some very specific ideas about how a person should enter the home of a different family, and had rituals that must be observed in his ideal society."
– YishuTheBoosted
While a person can declare that remarkable people have accomplished remarkable things, there is one notion many people can agree on–that "ordinary" people aren't the most impressionable people enough to leave a historical mark.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/