Unusual Facts Most People Don't Know
"Reddit user Own_Championship7862 asked: 'What’s an unusual fact that most people don’t know?'"
There will never be enough time to consume all the facts and figures life has to offer.
My favorite type of new info is strange and unusual facts.
They're great for parties and first dates.
And one should always be ready to be on a quiz show.
You never know when it could happen.
And knowing the length of a giraffe's legs could win you millions.
Or make you the most interesting chatterbox in a room.
Redditor Own_Championship7862 wanted everyone to share some off-the-wall facts, so they asked:
"What’s an unusual fact that most people don’t know?"
I have no odd and fabulous facts to share.
So teach me. I am a sponge.
Keep them All!!
Friends Infomercial GIFGiphy"When someone gets a kidney transplant they generally just cram the new one in and don't take out the old ones. So the person ends up with three kidneys."
Optimal_Towel
"They continue this with multiple kidney transplants too. Had a patient recently on her third transplant and yep, there are five kidneys crammed into her abdomen. Too risky to take any of the other ones out."
baconboy73
Body Works
"When going to surgery for a gunshot, we don't typically search for bullets. The body will encapsulate it to protect itself."
New-Inspector-9628
"As I remember Rene Pretre a worldwide famous surgeon talking about this: There's a lot more about the decision to either leave the bullet or do get it out. It depends on a lot of factors. In the old times, as medicine was not that good, it was a thing that they could not get the bullets out when it was in a difficult position inside the bodies. Today, it's different."
"Also, it depends on the bullet itself, not every bullet stays solid - a bullet can be halfway shattered without having the effect of a dumdum bullet, later in the process of healing it could still be that fragments get off and make problems. Today, it's also easier to prevent and treat infections, this was a big killer in the old times."
Diacetyl-Morphin
Growing and Growing
"I have recently learned that Lobsters don't display senescence which is the deterioration of the body as it ages. Their bodies are continuously growing and their exoskeletons get heavier and heavier, hence when they molt into a new exoskeleton it takes more and more energy to take off the old one."
"Eventually they die because one day they just go, 'Yeeeeeaaaah sooo like this exoskeleton is too heavy so imma just go meet Lobster God and head out from the mortal world.'"
"Now a thought... If a group of people helped a lobster shed it's exo- skeleton... And if said lobster kept growing... Technically, a giant lobster could be brought into existence should the lobster not die from old age."
FunnyComedian8290
Get Out
"More eels swim out of the Bermuda Triangle than swim into it."
Optimal_Towel
"Most eel species breed in the Sargasso Sea - aka the Bermuda Triangle. There’s a type of seaweed that lives on the top of the ocean called Sargassum that turtles, eels, and a bunch of animals use as a breeding ground. Eels go there, lay their eggs, little silver eels babies pop out and go back home."
roseygrl98
Revolutions
Venus GIF by The TelegraphGiphy"A day on Venus (one complete rotation around its axis) is longer than a year (a complete revolution around the sun) on Venus."
GRL_1151
The galaxy is too cool.
We'll never know enough.
Head Butt Time
giraffes fighting GIFGiphy"The male giraffe will continuously headbutt the female in the bladder until she urinates. The male then tastes the pee and that helps it determine whether the female is ovulating. If she is, it’s business time."
hornypandey
Go Vanillla
"Wearing white wedding dresses only came into fashion after Queen Victoria started the trend. White isn’t meant to have any other meaning or represent purity as many people think. Before this trend, most brides just wore their best dress of any color as it was expensive to buy a dress just for the occasion."
week7
Active Ingredients
"I love when this question comes up because I get to talk about the thunder clappers."
"When the Lewis and Clark expedition was exploring the west of North America, their diet of dried meat left them constipated. They were all taking these pills called thunder clappers to make themselves sh*t. The active ingredient in thunder clappers is mercury, and historians can track the expedition because they left increased deposits of mercury in the soil."
KerchBridgeSmoker
Color Schemes
"Pink used to be a masculine color."
"During the height of the British Empire, the soldiers in the far reaches of the world donned their red coats in battle and patrol. The newer recruits would look especially sharp with a bold red color. The rugged war heroes though? Their coats were faded and worn into more of a pink color."
"If you saw a guy wearing a pink coat, odds are they have stories to tell with a thousand-yard stare. This became a desirable thing to show off your experience and grit. Hence pink was associated with combat prowess and ruggedness and became a masculine color during that time."
ChristIsLordAlmighty
War Incentives?
Ice Cream Elmo GIF by SésamoGiphy"In WWII, the American navy had barges with ice cream bars on them to visit soldiers in the Pacific after battles as a way of boosting morale."
Not-sure-wtf-I-am
Yuck!
"McDonald's engineered bubblegum flavored broccoli in an attempt to get kids to eat more vegetables.
"They still didn't want to eat it."
cmad182
I love broccoli.
I love gum.
I would not eat them as one.
Thanks to many inquisitive researchers throughout our world's history, many of life's greatest phenomena have been solved and explained.
But even with the plethora of resources available at our fingertips detailing how things work or why they came to existence, some scientific facts remain baffling.
Curious to hear examples of what makes our planet so unique and astounding, Redditor rambojambo11 asked:
"What is a cool scientific fact that you know that sounds unbelievable?"
Our unique environment still holds great mysteries.
Superior Body Of Water
"Lake Superior can hold all of the water from the rest of the Great Lakes combined with room to spare."
"This is more geography, but it always blows my mind when looking at a map that the continent of South America is almost entirely east of the United States."
– Marty_Eastwood
Infrared Light
"Infrared light was discovered all the way back in 1800. By accident. With a thermometer."
"William Herschel (who also discovered Uranus) was experimenting with a prism. He wanted to see if different colors of light had different temperatures. So he had the room completely dark except a beam of light hitting a prism and casting a rainbow onto the table. He had placed thermometers in each color band to see if there was a difference. As a control, he had an additional thermometer past the end of the light below the red band."
"Except when he compared his readings, he got something strange: the control thermometer was reading the highest temperature of all. This didn't make any sense. Was his thermometer faulty? He tried a few more tests with more thermometers in other places and came to an inescapable conclusion: there must be an additional invisible "color" below red that carried more heat than any of the visible colors. He named it infrared, which just literally means 'below red'."
– sharrrper
Who's Our Guide?
"GPS tracking is not the satellites tracking the object, but the object tracking the satellites."
– UnethicalFood
Making Waves
"The first radio signal broadcasted by humans to (unintentionally) escape the Earth's ionosphere was Hitler's opening address at the 1936 Summer Olympics."
– jx3z_o
All creatures great and small are miracles of earth.
The Ultimate Pre-Dator
"Sharks pre-date trees."
– Suuperdad
Sentient Prick
"because of evolutionary caution of being eaten by the larger females, male octopus can detach his penis and quite literally throw it at his woman."
"and if that is not even impressive weird enough, that detached penis has a brain on its own, programmed to stalk the female like a f'king terminator until she is inseminated!"
"these creatures are next-level mental!"
– Lord-Legatus
Safe Licking
"Giraffes’ tongues are black and purple to prevent sunburn while they’re feeding up high."
– aprilmayjunejuly21
This Is Hard To Swallow
"A species of fruit fly holds the record for the biggest sperm cells. Drosophila bifurca has sperm that are 5.8cm long. The body length of the males is about 3mm long."
– Salvelinus_alpinus
Burning Passion
"Female ferrets die if they don't find a partner to make with. Since they don't leave "Heat" Until they're mated with, the Oestrogen overload leads to Anemia, and death."
– TheEyeOfLight
Biology is fascinating.
Tiny Organ
"Some people have extra spleen or liver that are pea sized."
– iremovebrains
Home Invasion
"The immune system does not encounter viruses and formulate an antibody that matches its shape. Instead, the immune system pumps out random antibodies that sometimes happen to match a virus it comes into contact with, and then begins to produce more of that specific antibody."
– davilambic
These impressive scientific facts are just the tip of the iceberg. There are still many more out there that are jaw-dropping.
With so many scientifically proven facts approved and accepted by the scientific community, the most confounding fact remains that there are communities that deny proven data and information–especially ones that are capable of benefitting mankind.
Things People Will Never Understand No Matter How Many Times Someone Explains Them
We can have some things explained something over and over and over, and the details may never stick.
It doesn't mean we're dumb, not everything is meant to click.
Maybe you're more inclined to English and history, so science and math elude you. Or vice versa.
Redditor CodeBlackGoonit wanted to know what aspects of life will probably forever drive us crazy, so they asked:
"What's something you still don't understand even after many different people explain it to you?"
Math, science, love. I give up trying to figure it out.
The Fit
Giphy"How to properly fold a fitted sheet."
crystalsaladsandwich
"It’s pretty straight forward. Pretend to fold it up for 20 minutes, then just shove it somewhere."
dunnodudes
Beyond
"Fourth dimension."
Ceyram
"Think about describing something's location. 3d world is X, Y, and Z. So you could say 'My keys are on the table, 10 ft in from the front door, 5 ft to the left, and 3ft off the ground.'"
"But you go look, and they're not there. So, add a 4th dimension to your description, when were they there? Things move about in space over a period of time; time is that fourth dimension."
thinkofanamelater
Confusing Concepts
"The Krebs Cycle."
kair93
"In 8 years of higher education, I had to regurgitate and draw the Kreb's cycle on tests probably 15 times or so. I had to temporarily re-learn it every time. I still couldn't draw it today. You need to understand the concept, but the individual steps of the process are something most people will never need to remember."
GiggityDPT
Mash
"Math. Just anything more than the basics and my brain turns to mash."
gardenomette
"If it's a problem for you, look into getting tested for dyscalculia. I was diagnosed with it a few years ago and it was such a relief finding out that I'm not less intelligent, I'm not stupid or slow. That there's actually a reason. I wish they were aware of it all the years I was struggling in school. But I'm happy for the kids growing up now that they might have better access to proper help in those classes."
gardenomette
Bad Hype
Trash Cash GIF by Production ClubGiphy"NFT’s."
LeroyJr847
"There's nothing to understand. They're just another Ponzi scheme, but this time each token has a URL attached to it. They are made of hype."
Great-Contest-1928
These NFTs. Who thought this was a good idea?
Value Craziness
Stan Marsh America GIF by South ParkGiphy"The stock market."
Tinydustbunnies
"Owning very small slices of a company. As the company's value goes up or down, so does the value of the individual slices. Some slices also pay out a share of the profits to the 'owners' (dividends)."
SomeHSomeE
WHICH DOOR?
"The Monty Hall Problem."
foxtrot419
"Do this experiment with a friend. Have them shuffle a full deck of cards, and then have you draw one face down."
"Then, have them look through every single card in the deck for the ace of spades. If they find the ace of spades, select it and place it face down. If they don’t find the ace of spades, instead select a random card and put it face down. Put the rest of the deck aside."
"Now, one of you has the ace of spades. Who is more likely to have it: you, who picked blindly from the full deck, or your friend, who got to see every single card in the deck except yours? I think after a few trials, you will very quickly see why the odds are not 50/50."
MoobyTheGoldenSock
Signs
"The greater than/less than signs, <>. I can't read them and am always confused as to which is what. Honestly don't care anymore, I made it this far this long without understanding them so I don't want to know now. But a lot of people still try to explain it to me, the alligator mouth really confuses me even more."
llcucf80
Magic Watching
"How a dvd works. Or how a record player works, for that matter. Like how does it transfer the little grooves to make… sound and light? Black magic."
lilgato443
"DVDs are pits and hills, and it's all 1s and 0s. So it's just reading a file off of the disc, which is usually a video format, similar to an MP4."
"Vinyls have the sound waveform melted into them, the needle vibrates to recreate the sound. That's the gist of it. One complication is that highs are over emphasized and lows are deemphasized, and the turntable runs the sound through an RIAA filter to get the correct sound."
skaterrj
Educational Issues
animation domination lol GIF by gifnewsGiphy"Monopoly."
Heavy_Permission5704
"It was supposed to be an educational tool about how capitalism and private property ownership funnel wealth into the hands of a wealthy few, at the expense of the working class. Then a corporation copied it, rebranded that as a good thing and sold it as entertainment."
HandsomeHeathen
$$$ Issues
"People who don't make a lot who blow all of their money on stupid things that make it look like they have money, rather than actually getting themselves ahead."
"Can explain. Grew up poor. When the basics are (barely) covered, anything else left is seen as extra or feel good money so it is spent accordingly."
Mike7676
I will never get Monopoly. And I no longer care to.
Do you have anything to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
They say ignorance is bliss.
For example, finding out about a what a person enjoys in their spare time that isn't necessarily something you would find relatable could be enough to alter your perception of them.
Or discovering something about your current significant other's past that you strongly object to–even though it didn't happen while you were dating–can be enough for you to call it quits.
Sometimes, you wish you never knew about these things, but once the information is out there, you can't get the toothpaste back in the tube, you know?
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor SoozlesNoodles asked:
"What do you regret finding out?"
There's a reason why some family history is better left in the past.
How I Left Your Mom
"I didn't meet my dad until i was 15. It was in secret since my mother wanted nothing to do with him. Within the first 3 sentences exchanged, he felt the need to tell me that i was conceived on a beach in July during the last time they had sex. I was the product a going-away f'k in a relationship doomed before my conception. He followed it up with 'We were good at two things, me and your mom. Fightin and f'kin. Unfortunately we were fighting more than we were f'king so it stopped being worth it.'"
"10 years later and this is still how i get my family history."
– Gilgamesh9311
Reason For Divorce
"My dad informed me when i got back from Iraq that I was the reason he and my mother got a divorce. I never really wanted to join the military anyways, and it f'ked me up big time. They had financial troubles and my mom sent me care packages quite a lot. Apparently, that put them into bankruptcy, and if I hadn't joined it wouldnt have happened. I just wanted to get out of that house because it was like I didnt exist."
– Pandaclops
Redditors share some dark truths about their families.
Cause Of Death
"My mother died in a car accident when I was three. I found out from a newspaper article years later that it was her fault. She wasn’t paying attention and crossed the yellow line and ended both her life and that of the person in the other car."
– anon
The Big Secret
"That my mother knew she had cancer a year before she told anyone or rather, a year before she was 'diagnosed' after I literally forced her to see a doctor for her then extremely distended stomach."
"I was under the impression that we told each other absolutely everything because up until that point, we did. I found out the truth a month after she died when I’d requested all of her cancer-related paperwork from her oncologist."
– RxQuine
Unhappy Mother
"Mom telling me on regular basis when depressed that she wishes she would fall asleep and never wake up. Don't tell a six year old this, damn."
– Cal-cu-later
These Redditors prefer not knowing about the kinky sides in the family.
50 Shades
"That my younger sister has a high rank in a local BDSM club..."
– _dmsyr_
The Pain Threshhold
"When I was about 14 my mom took me to a tattoo shop to get her nipples pierced. While the procedure was happening, she turned to me and said 'your Dad bites harder then that'.....I could have lived without that info"
– Aliciana2
Debaucherous Daddy
"That my father cheated on my mother on a regular basis... not a cool thing to learn when you're 15 and don't know if you're mother knows or not."
– anon
Gotta Love Reddit
"My brother's girlfriend's NSFW reddit account. It's supposed to be a couples account. So you might guess the horrors I saw in there."
– doorknob_knob
Splish Splash
"What my sister and her boyfriend were doing in the bubblebath."
– EliteHoney
I appreciate transparency in people but within context.
If someone has a disturbing history, I'd rather not know about it.
Do you feel the same way?
There is little more nerve-wracking than a first date.
Particularly when it's a set-up or a blind date, where you know little to nothing about the person you're meeting.
Making the potential for a long stretch of awkward silence likely to the point of inevitable.
This is why it's important to come prepared with some questions at the ready.
Not only to avoid silence but also to get to know the person sitting across from you a bit better.
Simple questions such as their favorite ice cream flavor, the movie they could watch over and over again, the last book that made them cry, or the one ingredient they asked to be left off their cobb salad can easily determine whether or not there is any chance of a second date.
"What are some good first date questions to get to know someone?"
As one might expect, the Reddit community had a more than a little fun when answering this question.
A More Likely Possibility Than One Might Think...
"What's the largest mammal you think you could knock out with a single punch?"- AB0RTMISSI0N
The Come In Packs...
"In an emergency how many 3rd graders could you fight off?"- Pithius
Playing Happy Children GIF by MOODMANGiphyChildhood Friends... Hopefully?
"What are some things our parents don’t know about you?"- MayTanMay
Hey, When You Know, You Know!
"Will you marry me?"- MontagueorCapulet
First Date Jitters...
"Have you ever had a dream that, that, um, that you had, uh, that you had to, you could, you do, you wit, you wa, you could do so, you do you could, you want, you wanted them to do you so much you could do anything?"- whatnowalt23
Scared 30 Rock GIF by HULUGiphy...Is This Even Funny?...
"Which side were you rooting for in WW2?"- eagle1459
Thankfully, there were a few who did take the answer seriously, and offered some pretty good advice.
Where Were You?
"On our first date my husband and I did a thing where one of us would choose a year, then we'd both say what we were doing in that year of our lives."
"It was a great way to get to know each other!"- shhhushnow
Christmas Serendipity GIF by GoPlayGiphyGetting Their Name Right Is A Good Start
"If their name is an uncommon one, make sure you ask what's the correct pronunciation."
"Literally the first thing I said to my husband on our first date was 'hello' followed by a butchered attempt to say his name."
"He replied 'what did you just call me?' and up until that moment, I had never before felt the urge to jump into the nearby creek in mid-February."- yallready4this
No Greater Bond Than A Mutual Hatred Of Brussel Sprouts...
"Which vegetable offends you the most?"- Calculon009
Carnivore Or Vegetarian?
"Favorite dinosaur?"- Giant_bird_penis_69
yell jurassic world GIF by Regal CinemasGiphyThe way some people answer certain questions could immediately raise some flags, sending the ones who asked immediately back to Tinder or Hinge.
Of course, it should also be made clear, that it can also be easily determined as to whether or not there will be a second date by the questions people ask.
As one can't help but wonder how many second dates those who answered the first few questions have actually attended...