It's strange to think we walk around with powerful supercomputers in our pockets, yet we don't use them as much as we should to learn interesting facts about the world. Our planet is massive, always changing, and there's always something cool to learn. Just take a note from these people and learn something incredibly cool.
Reddit user, u/[deleted], wanted to hear about:
What's something cool you recently learned about?
Everyone Be Ready To Set Your Clocks
the simpsons episode 25 GIFGiphyThe Earth is slowly decelerating, 17 milliseconds slower per 100 years. In 140 million years, the time in a day will be increased to 25 hours.
Oh cool, that will be right before I get my xbox series x.
The True Side Of America
That in 2007, Rockstar Games allowed fans to call a number and rant about what they thought was wrong with America. The best calls were featured on a radio station in "Grand Theft Auto IV"
It Comes Around So Rarely, It's All Chance
The origin of the word "happiness" is from the Middle English "hap" which has to do with chance and possibility. As in "happenstance" or per-haps. So hap-iness was originally about the feeling of good fortune/getting lucky; the chance that something could or could not occur, and then it goes your way. Happiness is that specific feeling when something that could have gone horribly wrong goes amazing well.
Cool! And, Gross!
New fish pop up in ponds because ducks eat fish eggs from other ones and excrete them whole in another water body
A Life-Saving Feather Transplant
That vets can "transplant" feathers to birds and will harvest flight and tail feathers from bird who didn't make it and donate to another bird in need like an organ donor.
Powered By SCIENCE
watching season 3 GIFGiphyFor the last 50+ years, every submarine and aircraft carrier built by the US Navy has been powered by nuclear reactors. What's more, the aircraft carriers have a 50 year service life and only need to be refueled ONE TIME. There has also never been a nuclear related accident on board these ships (two subs have sank, but not because of a failure in the propulsion system).
Rocket J. Squirrel Says, "What's Up?"
Squirrels can acquire terminal velocity while plummeting to the ground (on average above 70 feet) and survive 80% of the time.
Ingested And Stuck
Rodents can't vomit.
This is exactly why rat poison works. They can't vomit up the poison
Monitoring All Aspects Of Prisoner Life
The shower water on Alcatraz was intentionally kept very hot.
This is so prisoners wouldn't get used to cold water and be able to swim to shore if they escaped.
Within Our Line Of Sight
On December 21, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn will align such that you can see them together in the same telescope, and even with the naked eye. It's called The Great Conjunction.
Edit: To answer some common questions:
- It should be viewable from most anywhere in the world. In the Northern Hemisphere look southwest. In the Southern Hemisphere look south.
- The best time to view will be 30 minutes to 2 hours after sunset.
- If it's cloudy on the 21st don't worry. The 21st is just the date that they're closest. But since the planets move so slowly across the sky it should allow for similar viewing in the several days before and after the 21st.
- The planets will appear pretty low in the sky so try to find a viewing location where you can see as much of the horizon as possible in the proper direction. Since there are several nights this will be visible it's best to try early to find the right spot.
A Protective Wall
No one who was born blind has ever gone on to develop schizophrenia. Researchers are investigating how congenital blindness may protect people from developing the condition.
The New "Normal"
Museums are struggling to keep the appropriate humidity levels for their collections because of the lack of foot traffic and people breathing in the buildings due to COVID.
Edit: should say I heard this on the podcast "No Such Thing as a Fish", which I highly recommend, as I'm sure many in this comment chain would as well :) I think, as some have pointed out, "struggle" might not be the right word to have used, but it does appear from the research I did this morning that it is something museums are dealing with due to lack of foot traffic creating a "new normal" of humidity in these places.
Let's Be Up Front: They're Bigger Than You Think
intimidating homer simpson GIFGiphyHow f-cking big wolves are.
Honestly, why did I never know this before?!?!
This was my exact reaction to seeing a MOOSE.
My grandpa told me once that a moose is an ugly horse and wow I didn't realize they were really that big until I came across one backpacking.
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Curious to hear from strangers online about their teenage years, an anonymous Redditor asked:
"What was 'the incident' at your high school?"
Major school incidences ranged from the bizarre to tragedy.
Prank Gone Wrong
"Senior prank, someone dumped a few hundred pounds of flour and yeast into the school indoor pool, in hopes of turning it into a giant glob of dough (I guess). It didn’t work, just caused about 100K damage to plumbing, pumps, filters, etc. Prankster never caught."
– Sea_Ganache620
Cruel Morning
"In high school Two kids both named Logan. Both last names were very similar. One was popular and the other was not. Unpopular Logan was drunk and ran across a road in the middle of the night and was killed by a semi-truck."
"The next day the principal announced that popular Logan had died. Popular Logan was late for school."
"Everyone was very sad. Then popular Logan showed up and all school rejoiced that unpopular Logan was the one who died. Was f'ked up."
– AggressiveSmoke4054
Sudden Death
"A sophomore (my classmate) dropped unconscious in gym class and was rushed to the hospital. 3 days later they took him off life support and he died from a brain aneurysm."
"Edit to add: his funeral was held in the high school gym and damn near everyone went. Never in my life did I think I’d attend a funeral AT school."
– DisappointmentToMost
In The Nick Of Time
"A friend of mine in high school had a brain aneurysm, also as a sophomore. He'd been complaining for a few days about sudden, brief, very intense headaches. He was on the JV football team and went to play a game. Took a hard tackle and the aneurysm ruptured."
"That actually turned out to be the luckiest possible time for it to happen, because the school always had an ambulance on call at the side of the field during football games, so he was in the hands of EMTs within a minute of people realizing something was wrong. He was rushed to the hospital, they removed part of his skull to reduce the pressure on his brain and he spent a week or two in an induced coma. But in an absolute damn miracle, he made about as complete of a recovery as one can from that kind of injury; the only long-term effect was some very minor loss of muscle control in the left side of his face, so his smile was a little crooked."
"That was back in 2000."
"He just died three weeks ago from an accidental drug overdose."
– Lachwen
Lockdown
"A kid came to school with a machete and tree saw and slashed 7 students the day before Thanksgiving break."
"And a girl fell through the gym’s acoustic ceiling tiles and had to wear a halo."
– usfgirl1020
Incidences were not limited to just the students.
Murder
"A science teacher was beaten, chased and fatally set on fire by her husband who then shot himself."
– Fracture_98
Domestic Violence
"A teacher at the school I attended was being chased by her abusive husband. She drove to a police station with him following and tried to go inside but the doors were locked (it was some holiday). He shot her dead there and drove off. After that they made a rule to always have someone on staff and the doors unlocked."
– TheW83
There's no avoiding the brutal shaming that accompanies the high school experience.
Special Gym Class
"We had so many pregnant teen girls that they had their own gym class."
"A friend of mine who had a fake leg— he had a solid metal rod from mid thigh to mid calf from childhood leukemia so he couldn’t bend at the knee, was in the same class. Just this one poor guy and 30 pregnant 16 year olds."
"I was a teenager in the late 90s and grew up in the southeastern United States. It was a suburban area where a ton of people (still) identify as Evangelical Christians, it’s also called the Bible Belt. The required sex education classes didn’t teach anything but 'Just Say No' so there were girls who thought jumping up and down would prevent pregnancy. Not kidding. These were really sheltered girls who would attend Purity Dances, so it was quite a scandal that so many were pregnant at the same time. Most of the baby daddies were just dumb teenage boys who didn’t know the facts of life."
"Remember that there was no internet at this point so it’s not like teens could get information on their own especially if they were from a super religious background. A girl on my street was 'sent away' to live with an aunt when she got pregnant."
"Also, the pregnant girl gym class was technically for the physically disabled kids, hence why my friend was the lone guy in the class."
"His leg, from what he explained to me, had cancer in the bones of his knee. They didn’t want to amputate his whole leg so they removed the knee and grafted a rod in place— this would have been back in the late 80s so I’m sure they do stuff differently now."
– Malicious_Tacos
Students Can Be So Mean
"a girl had an epilepsy attack and she lost control of her bowels. Not a pretty sight."
"Mean girls type made fun of her, and she transferred to another high school."
– StuntCockofGilead
Teenagers deserve more credit than they're given.
These days, they are forced to grow up fast and learn important life lessons earlier than their parents like for them to experience due to various circumstances unfolding on campus.
If they can survive high school, they can survive almost anything in life past graduation.
