The world is a fascinating place. We should know-we live there.
In and above the world, we have so many exchanges of life; space; information; it feels impossible to ever fully grasp this incredible, strange thing called life that we live.
u/TheRebel2187 asked:
What's your favourite random fact?
Here were some of those answers.
It's Just A Dinosaur, NBD
In the production of the 2014 Godzilla movie the sound designers played Godzilla's roar through a whole lot of concert speakers and they got noise complaints from 3 miles away about people thinking there was an earthquake.
I'd Rather Watch Asparagus Grow
Asparagus grows so quickly during the spring (up to 10" in one 24 hour period, or almost half an inch per hour) that you could literally sit and watch it grow were you so inclined (or that bored).
Now I Can ALWAYS Get There
Alexander the great once built a permanent bridge to an island just because he was upset when they laughed at his offer for surrender on their part because he couldnt get there.
Tried To Eat Some Bugs But Then I Got High
So certain millipedes secrete cyanide as a protective mechanism to kill predators. However lemurs are immune to this lethal effect and instead intentionally provoke millipedes to get them to excrete cyanide. The lemurs do this because instead of killing them, the cyanide produced by the millipedes gets them high (and I think they can also use it as insect repellent). TLDR: Lemurs eat millipedes cyanide to get high.
Bye Bye Miss Electron-Pie
Astronomer here! Magnetars are a type of neutron star (the core of a giant dead star where a ball of neutrons the mass of the sun are crammed into a 20km/12mi radius) that have the most extreme magnetic fields we know of in the universe. How extreme? Well if you got within a thousand kilometers/ 620 miles of one, the magnetic field itself would kill you, by basically pulling the electrons out of your very atoms.
Space is so cool!
A Mysterious Spice
There used to be three staple seasonings for tables in ye olden days, salt, pepper and nobody knows, table sets from back then have been found with 3 containers consistently but no one ever bothered to write down what was in the 3rd one bc? Common knowledge right? What idiot wouldn't know what to put in the third container? Us apparently. Just another random bit of knowledge lost through the ages.
That's What We Call COLD
During the Cold War, an American condom company was shipping, well, condoms to the USSR but they switched the sizes so that, for example, a XL size was labeled under medium on the box so that the Russians would think Americans had big d!cks.
There And Back Again
There is approximately 2 meters of DNA packed into the average human cell. That means there is approximately 20,000,000,000 kilometers of DNA in the average adult human body, conservatively estimating 1013 cells in the body.
For reference, that is ~66 roundtrips between Earth and the Sun.
Salt Fat Acid Heat
Tomato is a vegetable and a fruit. Vegetables is a culinary term while fruits are botanical.
The age-old question actually has an answer—it's both! Tomatoes are fruits that are considered vegetables by nutritionists. Botanically, a fruit is a ripened flower ovary and contains seeds. Tomatoes, plums, zucchinis, and melons are all edible fruits, but things like maple "helicopters" and floating dandelion puffs are fruits too. For some reason, people got hung up on tomatoes, but the "fruit or vegetable" question could also work for any vegetable with seeds.
Now, nutritionally, the term "fruit" is used to describe sweet and fleshy botanical fruits, and "vegetable" is used to indicate a wide variety of plant parts that are not so high in fructose. In many cultures, vegetables tend to be served as part of the main dish or side, whereas sweet fruits are typically snacks or desserts. Thus, roots, tubers, stems, flower buds, leaves, and certain botanical fruits, including green beans, pumpkins, and of course tomatoes, are all considered vegetables by nutritionists.
There is no hard-and-fast rule that clearly designates a botanical fruit as a vegetable, but, given that tomatoes are generally not used in desserts and are closely related to other fruit-vegetables (e.g., eggplants and peppers), it is not too counterintuitive for tomatoes to be classified as vegetables. So go ahead and call a tomato whatever you want—it's super tasty either way.
A Natural Radiation Site
There existed a natural nuclear reactor in Africa 2 billion years ago. And 30 km from the site of the reactor were find the oldest fossils of animals, also aged of 2 billion years ago. There doesn't appear to be any link though.
There is nothing more satisfying than gorging on a dish with the perfect variety of ingredients creating a symphony of flavors for a completely euphoric experience.
Not all culinary creations excel at this. It depends on the individual whose taste preferences may be different from that of others.
All it takes is one ingredient to spoil the party.
Curious to hear from strangers Redditor poetic__ asked:
"What ingredient automatically ruins a dish for you?"

You would never expect these as responses for the assignment.
When The Emperor Lost His Groove
"Poison. Kuzco's poison. The poison for Kuzco."
– Warkitz
Doesn't Plate Well
"Spaghetti sauce if it's a plastic dish."
– misswallflowerr
"A bit of water and lemon juice gets the stain right out of plastic."
– Gundarium_Alchemist
Someone Swam In Your Soup
"Hair"
– GboyFlex
"Little black curly hair."
– highxv0ltage
Nope To Beach Picnics
"Sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
– Halcres
Now we're getting somewhere.
Finding The Right Balance For It
"Too many cloves. I have had many tooth pains in my lifetime and the taste of clove oil lingers dreadfully in my mind. I do like curry powder and some of my favorite pickle brines include a lot of cloves. The taste just has to be balanced with the other spices and seasonings. If I get any faint hint of it I'm immediately grossed out."
– glistening_cum_ropes
Doesn't Mix Well
"That piece of spices in your stew that you thought it was meat."
– Bewluga
"Ginger? Chomping into a piece of ginger when you thought it was meat.... 🎵You'll get the shock of your life."
– SynthPrax
Faking Sweetness
"Stevia. Blech"
– paytonsglove
"I'll never understand why people think stevia is a replacement for sugar. Doesn't taste anything like sugar. Same with Sucralose."
– anfcrazylady
Let's get specific.
Jiggly Dessert
"Jello. I have spent FAR too much time in a hospital as a child. according to my mother jello was basically all I could eat. since I got out, it's been my only culinary hate. taste, texture, just, nope."
– Nepeta33
There's A Time And Place
"Raisins where there should not be raisins."
– stressandscreaming
"Hey alright! Chocolate chip cookies! Don't mind if I do.... oh F'K YOU!!"
– conradbirdiebird
Tainted Sweets
"Rose Water."
"I want to love Indian and Middle Eastern sweets. They look so good, but nope every time it goes in my mouth all I can taste is rose water. Like chewing on the potpourri from grandmas bathroom."
– OkBoomerEh
I'm not a shrimp fan, however, I can eat it when it's fried in tempura batter.
My family would periodically order fried rice–which I absolutely love–whenever we ate at Chinese restaurants.
Even though we ordered pork or chicken fried rice, I found that many of the LA Chinese restaurants we ate at threw in surprise shrimp as if to spite me.
I would pick them out and eat the rest. Now, I don't know if it was just me, but I would still taste hints of shrimp juice every time, which ultimately ruins the dish for me. Yeah, it's just me.
Stay in your lane, shrimp!
Be it for reasons out of our control, or simply because we didn't allow enough time, all of us have shown up to something late at least once in our lives.
And the only thing that could make us feel worse than we already do about our tardiness, is being told "you're late."
Naturally, the obvious response to the obvious reminder would be a simple, "I'm sorry."
Though it's fair to say that when someone so blatantly states the obvious, maybe they deserve a somewhat more original response?
Redditor ReddBolt511 was curious to hear the best retorts people have given, or recieved, to being told they were late, leading them to ask:
"What's the best response to 'You're late'?
I learned my lesson.
"The first time I was late in over two years, HR wrote me up."
"In the evening I went home on time and HR asked me why I was already heading out."
"I told them I have learned my lesson and won't be late for the second time."- atot806
Tell me something I don't know.
"I know, thank you for your patience."- dayglo98
Priorities...
"Sorry I didn’t want to come."- HonestSapphireLion24
Gonna have to do better than that!
"A bloke in my high school had a cracker that I’ll never forget."
"Teacher: 'you’re 10 minutes late'."
"Student: 'yeah sorry I was walking slowly'."
"It did not go down well."- Rosemount3051S
Catch me up, why don't you!
"Why?"
'What did I miss?"- rwubmc
Be one step ahead.
"Don't give them a chance to say anything."
"Walk in and say: 'I see you have started without me'."- JustBeingDylan
Be like the superhero they are...
"Walk past them and say:"
'"Well, now we’re waiting for you'.”
"RDJ as Iron Man".- miguelmoen
Maybe just be honest?
"I remember a guy was late for grade 12 chemistry class and our chemistry teacher was really strict and when the teacher asked him why are you late he quickly spat out"
"'Because I didn't make it here on time'."
"It's a great line but he didn't do it on purpose."- nardpuncher
You knew it was coming...
"How do you know my menstrual cycles?"- ThisAnswerIsLit
Next time you find yourself running late, rather than worrying about it the whole time, maybe spend it thinking of a clever response?
You'd be surprised how much is forgiven by a good laugh.
People Break Down Which Topics They Could Talk About For 30 Minutes With No Preparation
Everyone has their own areas of expertise.
Not necessarily something related to their professional field, but more one of their great interests or passions, which they almost unknowingly learned about over time.
And as a result, should said topic arise during a group gathering or dinner party, they'll be able to talk about it for hours.
Much to the delight, or dismay, of their friends and family.
Redditor NikonDexter was curious to learn people's hidden knowledge on which they could provide an impromptu lecture, leading them to ask:
"What topic could you talk about for 30 minutes with no preparation?"
People believe anything I say.
"Anything, as long as nobody’s fact-checking me."- Left_Complaint1604
You think the werewolves in Twilight are scary?...
"Why most modern interpretations of classic folklore creatures, werewolves, faeries, vampires, etc., are less scary than the original stories."- Applesintheorchard
Don't even get me started...
"Why people who don't use turn signals are f*ck heads."- scotsworth
Whenever I need to vent...
"All the stupid sh*t my coworkers do."- DerpWilson
Tell me it's just a game...
"Video games most likely."
"I could easily talk about one of the Ace Attorney cases for 30 minutes."- zettasyntax
"Warhammer 40000."
"It won't be a quick 30 minutes."- Son_of_steven19
The force is strong...
"How f*cking incompetent the Jedi order are."- species-baby
Just listen
"Music."- Love-In-Veinz
Varied interests...
"Metal."
"Both the fabrication material and the music."- Faythlessly
Everyone has a passion that they will never tire of learning.
But, don't be surprised or offended if your friends and family don't seem as interested.
That just means you don't have to pretend to be interested in what they start talking about...
Who hasn't taken part in a fad that became passé before the year was out.
Children of the 90s probably wish they spent much less time and effort obtaining Pogs and Magic Cards than they did.
But while some frivolous fads are an almost instant flash in the pan, sometimes they are only the beginning of a pop culture phenomenon which continues to this day, with no end in sight.
Much to the dismay of many.
Redditor FalloutFan4207 was curious to hear the things people can't believe are as popular as they are, leading them to ask:
"What should never have gotten popular?"
Did anyone find this funny?
"The stupid public pranks on strangers where it's more or less just harassment."- Laptraffik
"Doing stupid sh*t for clout."- Unknown_Captain
More like "Toddler and Exploitation"...
"Toddlers and Tiaras. Child beauty pageants."- spaceassorcery
Just a cruel tease...
"Micro transactions."- Jerrybeshara
Why pay for something you can get for free from a tap?
"Bottled water for like $3 as an alternative to soft drinks."- Tuesday2017
Not everyone deserves to be famous
"Giving obnoxious people a platform."
"See Dr. Phil and his gaggle of guests who are famous for being stupid."- glitchystitchy
"Making stupid people famous."- whitecity011
Just how "real" are these shows?
"Reality TV/celebrity obsession/Kardashian style shows."- dogsquad81
Is there really anything wrong with monogomy?
"Being a side chick/dude."
"Essentially glorifying cheating."- OhJeezItsCorrine
One can only hope that these will all be things of the past before too long.
And will make way for another trend which people will spend years wondering why it became as popular as it did.