It can be hard to maintain a reverence for a world that seems to be falling apart left right and centre. But, somehow, in light of all the recent bad news, people have found a way to stay curious, stay excited, and share their wacky finds. Enjoy these bizarre and fascinating stories, and remember to stay weird!
1. This week I learned that in 2014 people created fake 90$ Play Station 4 listings on Amazon and showed them to Walmart, thus getting a 90$ PS4 because of Walmart's price matching.
2. This week I learned that Simpsons Director David Mirkin tried to leak fake endings for the Two Part Episode Who killed Mr. Burns, but to his surprise all news outlets rejected him, stating it would be immoral to air spoilers.
3. Paris, France, was the first western capital to have a black mayor in 1879.
4. I learned that New York police officers used to carry an 11 inch club during the day, and a 26 inch club at night, when things were more dangerous. This is the origin of the term nightstick.
5. I learned this week that anyone from Canada can order a portrait of The Queen and have it shipped to them for free. Canadians, get on that!
6. This week I learned of the Ting Hai effect, a stock market phenomenon in which there is a sudden and unexplained drop in the stock market whenever a film or a television series starring Hong Kong actor Adam Cheng is released.
7. The Empire State Building generates more revenue from the observation deck than all the commercial tenants in the remaining 101 floors combined.
8. Dogs can smell their owners from 11 miles away.
9. Almost $1 out of every $2 spent online in the US is with Amazon.
10. This week I learned that in the book of "The princess bride" there's a missing chapter called "the reconciliation" William Goldman (the author) wrote that if you wanted to read it you had to (Continued)
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that if you wanted to read it you had send a letter to the publisher house, and they would mailed it to you.
11. The Union Jack is not symmetrical, to guarantee you can't hang it upside down.
12. Carrots are used in carrot cake because during the medieval period, sweeteners were scarce and expensive, and carrots contain more sugar than any other vegetable besides the sugar beet.
13. This week I learned that George Washington feared the growing influence of political parties in the US. He thought that it would lead to "the alternate domination" of each party, taking revenge on each other in the form of reactionary political policies, and that it would eventually cause the North and South to split.
14. Arizona iced tea hasn't changed its 99 retail price since 1992. I guess it probably helps that they print it on all their labels.
15. In 2001 a shark bit off a boy's arm in Florida. His uncle rescued him before wrestling the 200-pound shark to shore. The arm was retrieved from inside the shark and after an 11-hour operation was reattached.
16. In 1949 BB King re-entered a burning music hall to save his favorite $30 Gibson guitar. King later learned the fire was started when two men knocked over a burning barrel of kerosene while fighting over a woman named Lucille. King has named every guitar he's owned Lucille as a reminder.
17. Due to updates in technology, Stephen Hawking could have a more "modernized" voice, however he chooses to keep the robotic voice because (Continued)
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he chooses to keep the robotic voice because he says it is the voice he has come to identify with.
18. This week I learned that if you don't identify as an "extrovert" or "introvert," you might be an "ambivert." An ambivert is moderately comfortable with groups and social interaction, but also relishes time alone, away from a crowd.
19. Pluto is, by law, still a planet in New Mexico.
20. James Cameron got the go-ahead to make 'Aliens' by writing the word 'Alien' on a board, then adding an 's' and turning it into a dollar sign.
21. Queen Mary of England was gifted a 1:12 scale doll house in 1924. It had working lights, books that were specially written by writers for the library, bottles filled with the appropriate drinks in the wine cellar, and model cars made by Rolls Royce. Even the toilets had working plumbing.
22. In 1975 a man died of laughter while watching his favourite TV show. His widow later sent The programme a letter thanking them for making his final moments of life so pleasant.
23. When it was invented, the sewing machine was controversial because it was feared to be too sexually stimulating to (Continued)
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it was feared to be too sexually stimulating to women.
24. MIT-educated biologist, Katharine McCormick, inherited a substantial family fortune and funded the development of the first birth control pill in the 1950s.
25. The Sun is so loud that if space was filled with air it would be 125db on Earth, from 92 Million miles away, about the same as a loud rock concert.
26. This week I learned that an inventor trying to make a sock to prevent trench foot first produced modern water balloons. Having made a latex-coated sock and filling it with water to test for leaks, he found a rip and angrily threw it on his table. Pleased with the splash, he decided to market water balloons for children.
27. When F. Scott Fitzgerald died, he thought he was a failure, and his work forever forgotten. His novel, The Great Gatsby, was reviewed poorly and had only sold 20,000 copies. It's now considered the greatest novel in American history, and sells over 500,000 copies per year.
28. In 1975 Icelandic women "essentially shut down the country for a day" by starting a Women's Strike that led to Icelands parliament actually (Continued)
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passing a law guaranteeing equal rights for women and men: a large political step towards true equality.
29. Ohio State University is built on a century old system of tunnels hidden from the public. With the right knowledge, one can walk to every building on campus underground.
30. After Elvis performed Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water", Paul Simon, who attended the show, said "That's it, we might as well all give up now."
31. Ethiopia is home to the oldest most complete Christian bible.
32. USA is the ONLY developed country that provide no type of financial assistance to new parents.
33. Fidel Castro loved dairy products so much, he had an enormous ice cream parlour that seats 1,000 people built in 1966 to share his love with the people of Cuba. It still exists and became a state run ice cream chain. Yum!
34. This week I learned that Louis CK's first language was Spanish - he grew up in Mexico and still carries a Mexican passport along with his American one.
34. This week I learned that an 'extinct' tree frog has been rediscovered in India after 137 years. Unusually, the frogs (Continued)
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Unusually, the frogs feed mostly on vegetation, rather than insects or larvae. Neat!
35. There are 820 readable pieces of literature in Skyrim, including letters, journals, spell tomes, books that offer skill points, 5 books that add quests, and 307 books that serve no other purpose than lore.
36. There is a long-term care facility in the Netherlands that allows college students to stay for free in exchange for 30 hours of volunteer per month. When students come home from a class, concert, or party, they share those experiences with their elderly neighbors, some of whom are over 90.
37. There was once a 50 man pub brawl in a British pub over who would get the last bag of dry roasted peanuts.
38. This week I learned that "TV Pickup" is a phenomenon wherein people in Britain all simultaneously turn on their electric kettles during commercial TV breaks causing massive power surges countrywide.
39. Shakuntala Devi aka "the Human Computer" was able to Multiply 2 13 digit #s, picked at random. She answered correctly, 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. Damn.
40. Apart from humans, dogs are the only other known species that can understand finger pointing. Not even chimpanzees could manage it in one study.
41. A 45 year old Bosnian man named Amir Vehabovic faked his death back in 2007 because he wanted to see who would attend his funeral. Only his mother attended. After this debacle, he wrote dozens of angry letters to his so-called friends and what he thought of their friendship going forward.
42. The toothpick is known to predate the arrival of early modern humans. It is the oldest instrument for dental cleaning. The skulls of Neanderthals, as well as Homo sapiens, have shown clear signs of having teeth that were picked with a tool.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.