Redditor r3tr0gam3r83 wanted to hear about which realizations in life have left people SHOOK, so they asked:
"What is something that blew your mind once you realized it?"
Avocados are not vegetables.
They're fruits, berries to be exact.
Like what?!?!
Colleagues
GIF by Bud LightGiphy"Sometimes it is more important to like your colleagues than the actual job."
"I had shi**y jobs with the most amazing colleagues and had shi**y colleagues and the most amazing job. I'd pick the first every time."
chr989
Star Trekking
"That you could legitimately travel at warp speed through the center of galaxies and never run any real risk of hitting a star. That’s how spread out space really is."
justanotherguyhere16
"Also, galaxies, stars, and even the Universe is constantly moving. I think time travel has been invented, but they can’t figure out the 'space' part of it.
"Yes, they can travel back in time, but relatively speaking, they can’t figure out how to navigate to the part of the planet they want to reach. So when they travel back in time, it’s relative to where they currently are, and end up not moving through space, thus ending up in the middle of an empty vacuum."
theknights-whosay-Ni
Jaws is Old
"That sharks predated the rings of Saturn."
BeardedDominant
"Sharks also developed the immune system that ended up in both dinosaurs/birds and mammals."
csiz
"We don’t know that. We can’t say for certain that the rings are only 100 million years old. It’s still debated."
The_Kek_5000
"I'm pretty sure that sharks are older than trees."
Cayderent
From the Trees
"One day I sat on a tram, passing a river. There was a duck in a tree. I realized I'd never seen ducks in trees. No one else seemed to notice, but I was puzzled. Now whenever I come across something that seems intuitive but I have never considered I call it a duck in a tree."
Ol_Pasta
"This realization happened to me this past year. We apparently have a family of wood ducks in one of the big trees in our yard. Our neighbor said she has seen a duck walking around on a branch. I made it 37 years without knowing some ducks can roost in trees. My wife caught a video of the mama leading like eight ducks into the field next to our house. We aren't even near water."
jwbourne
Artistic Timeline
Confused Eminem GIFGiphy"Pablo Picasso and Eminem were both alive at the same time."
leebon427
"I’d bet a lot of people think Picasso is a Renaissance artist."
editormatt
I admit it. I'm one of those people. Pablo and Marshall, in one lifetime.
New facts are fun.
The New World
Design Loop GIF by xponentialdesignGiphy"They were colonizing the Wild West at the same time as they were building skyscrapers in Manhattan. I always think of them taking place eighty to a hundred years apart. It's wild."
Emilayday
Oh the Power
"Nuclear power plants are just steam power plants that use nuclear reactions to heat the water. There's no fancy magic extracting energy directly from nuclear material. They just boil water and spin a turbine."
RenaKunisaki
"Most electrical generation is spinning a turbine. Photovoltaic solar power is pretty much the only exception, and it's not the only form of solar power. There's solar thermal power, which uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate the heat of the sun to make steam and turn a turbine."
Brawndo91
The Empire
"The Roman Empire fully fell less than 50 years before the discovery of the new world."
South-by-north
"The Romans also had copper wire, magnets, and battery acid. They could have invented electricity hundreds of years before it was actually discovered. But they didn't. The wire was used for jewelry, the magnets as lodestones, and the battery acid was used to clean the rust off of swords."
Kahzgul
"RIP Byzantine Empire. 1453 never forget."
crossbowman44
The Witness
"Owl‘s silent flight. I mean I always knew that but a while ago was the first time I actually witnessed it. Owl came flying towards me and landed only a few feet away and you couldn‘t hear anything. Crazy."
Zealousideal-You-324
"I saw a barn owl swoop down and catch a mouse while hiking at night, and the whole thing happened in complete silence. It gave me a deep sense of unease because it was literally like someone hit the mute button on life."
VulcanVisions
Bad Kermit
Kermit The Frog Meme GIF by IdentityGiphy"Poison dart frogs aren't poisonous in captivity."
"I own 5 of them and anytime I tell someone I own some I always get 'Do you ever lick them' or 'Can you go kill someone with them.' But yeah they get their poison from what they eat, and all I give them is fruit flies."
JMfury
Poison frogs?
That sounds like something Rose would have a story about on 'The Golden Girls.'
One Reddit user asked:
What common product has a feature you're not sure everyone is aware of?
and honestly, we know we normally do a whole big long intro, but we're all over here so annoyed at all the stuff we didn't know that we're gonna go try things out. We're pretty sure we have quite a few of these things laying around here somewhere...
Microsoft Whaaaaaaaaat
shocked kimmy schmidt GIF by Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtGiphyWhen you are writing in Microsoft word or Outlook and accidentally leave caps lock on, select the text and press Shift F3. It will change the text between upper and lower case, and there's a third option to make the first letter of each word upper case too.
Always seems to blow peoples minds when I tell them.
- graeuk
The other one along with this I love to tell people about is windows key + period which opens an Emoji keyboard on your pc.
- Chimie45
The Windows
With many car key remotes, you can make all the windows go down at once by pushing the "unlock" button 3 times.I learned this the hard way, sat on my keys, all my windows and sunroof opened.. in the middle of a snowstorm
- stixyBW
On our car remote it's press and hold unlock to lower all windows. Great, until I sat on the key in the house whilst it was raining outside. It still smells a bit musty months later.
- xylose
During the summer it routinely hits 100F during the summer. My car is parked in direct sunlight from the time I get to work until the time I leave.
I can literally bake cookies in my car in the summer. Being able to let the windows down from a distance like that would be a god send.
Move That Cursor
If you hold down the space bar on your iPhone (and some androids) it allows you to move the cursor anywhere in the text.
Woah. You have saved a lot of my time in future. Thanks
Most of the time the cursor defaults to the beginning or end of the word I tapped. Using the space bar is wayyyy faster for very quickly place the cursor EXACTLY where I want.
Also, a key component to this trick is that you can re-tap the space bar (while doing the cursor movement) to switch to highlight mode. Highlighting shit on iOS is hard AF to get it precisely where you want. This solves that.
- 1saltyMF
Switch It Up
Most ceiling fans have a switch to reverse direction of the blades.
Set to clockwise at low speed in winter for an updraft that redistributes warmed air at the ceiling downward, and then switch to counter-clockwise at higher speed in summer to create a cooling downdraft.
If you're gonna use that switch, before you turn the fan back on, make sure you dust the blades! You will get a nice snowfall of dust on your head and in your eyes otherwise.
The Most Magical Mute
You can mute many microwaves.
Holy shot I need to figure this one out. I always set it for more time than I need so I can open it before it runs out of time, otherwise,
BEEEEEEEEP......
BEEEEEEEEP......
BEEEEEEEEP......
BEEEEEEEEP......
BEEEEEEEEP......
And there's nothing you can do until the 5 excruciatingly long beeps.
I would absolutely buy the first microwave that gives the user control over beeping volume, or has an abbreviated beep mode. It's fascinating how manufacturers put so much attention on aesthetics, but in terms of acoustics they have no issues with making their products ugly as f*ck.
Staple Shenanigans
office space stapler GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphyStaplers have a spring loaded base plate that can be popped up and rotated, which will make the staples splay outward as opposed to inward.
The rub is that nobody wants that so as a practical joke I flip them for everyone's stapler and watch as then go f*cking batsh*t crazy.
- kdubstep
I noticed that at work one day and looked up why that is.
A staple that points outward is far easier to remove. So if only want to staple some documents temporarily, that's what that setting is for.
Basically bend it in the middle and the staple comes right out, no fancy stop remover necessary.
Stop Stretching
Oven doors come off. just open till the first stop and pull straight up. i don't know how many people i've seen stretching to clean the back.
And stove tops lift up and can be locked like a car hood!
So you get everything under/around the coils
I remember when I did that in college and my roommates were absolutely floored that it did that. I'm just like... I've always known this and your kitchen at home must be NASTY.
That Overlap Is There For A Reason
Baby onesies have the overlap at the shoulders so you can pull it down the kids and off if they have a diaper blow out.
So much better than trying to get a sh*t-covered onesie over their head. I'm so annoyed that I found out about this after I was done with the baby stage.
Man, this tip would have been nice when my kids were babies and regularly getting those up-to-the-neck poop explosions when they were in their jumper seats.
When You're Not Carrying Quarters
Most gas station coin operated air compressors have a button on the back. Press this button three times and the pump starts automatically.
Parking Problems
Find parking function on Google Maps.
When you park in a stadium or airport parking lot or a city you unfamiliar with: Open Google Maps, hit bullseye (location) then the blue dot. Pinpoints location and gives option to add notes to remind yourself of things like garage level etc.
Not Sure, But It Works
The metal part inside the handles of meat scissors (that gap left inside when they are closed which often has metal or a round cut out with ridges) is extremely useful for opening stuck lids on soda bottles and such.
I'm not sure it's supposed to be a bottle opener, but it works really well as one.
A Tab And Seagull Necks
You know those plastic rings for six-packs? They have a little tab that if you pull on it, they're much easier to tear. I've been using that for ages. It's really useful if you're worried your trash is gonna end up around a seagull's neck.
All This Paint Wisdom
painter GIFGiphyI am trained in house paint (the things I know, wow)
ALWAYS when buying paint, ask for the MSDS sheet... (material safety data sheet)... think of it like this. You buy a bottle of Tylenol and the short instructions are on the box. But, if you ask the pharmacy they can print you the long version that tells you all the crap you didn't know, you needed to know... well same with a can of paint.
The MSDS will tell you how to prep your surface, that type of hair brush you need or roller, how many coats at what thickness the paint and primer should be, for the paint to live up to its warranty.
If you spill house paint on a solid surface... leave it, let it dry a few hours (but don't leave it for days, cause then it will cure), spray Windex on it and grab a knife, peels right up.
Also, if you have peeling paint that you need to remove, instead of spending hours in the sun scrapping paint, get one of those Windex power washers, that hook on a hose... loosens up all the paint so it comes off easy... less work.
Also, exterior paint has a min/max surface temp. Most brands, if the surface temp us below 65 or over 80, paint could fail like peel off, not dry right, pin point, and various other things.
Some paint brands can go higher then or lower then the average. That goes for ALL exterior paint /stain products, the surface temp of the item your painting matters.
So, if its 70 degrees out, pain the area in the sun not the shade, you need the surface temp to not fall below the product specifications. That even goes for safety paint that's on curbs and the lines in a parking lot. If you paint those and they are always peeling up... that's why.
A Safety Feature
Most in-sink garbage disposals have a reset button on them. If the disposal stops working completely (will not turn on at all) try pushing that button.
Mine stopped dead once after it got hung up on a piece of silverware. I figured it would at least make noise if broken and it might have been a safety feature. Felt around on it and there was a little button.
Pencil Lube
You can use a pencil to make zippers open & close more smoothly.
The "lead" in a pencil is actually graphite, which is a lubricant. If you have a pair of jeans or whatever with a pesky zipper that catches or gets stuck, just run a pencil along it a few times. It will work great!
You can also use a pencil on a freshly cut key.
Just Add Water
Your Vitamix or high speed blender will clean itself.
All you have to do is rinse it, fill it up halfway with warm water, add a few squirts of dish soap, and run it, gradually increasing the speed to full power.
Let it run on full power for 60 seconds then rise it out. Works great and makes some amazing soap foam for washing other dishes as well!
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Like to this day the amount of lies we were fed leaves me angry and stunned - and not just in history class. Did you know several states are legally allowed to straight-up lie in the curriculum of sex ed classes? There is no requirement that the information taught in multiple states has to be medically accurate.
One Reddit user asked:
What's a fact that absolutely blew your mind?
My one fact is that the educational system is a whole ass purposeful lying liarpants. Let's see what Reddit had to say.
Oxford
Oxford University was founded in 1096 and is several hundred years older than Machu Picchu.
Oxford was founded 300 years before the Aztec empire
Wai..wah wai wai wiai, WHAT?
On Trial
pet sleeping GIFGiphyIn the Middle Ages, European countries would put on real trials for animals. They were legitimate, with real defense attorneys.
A sow and her piglets were put on trial for killing a five-year-old kid. The sow was found guilty and put to death, but her piglets were acquitted because there was no evidence they took part.
They did this in Tennessee in the 1900's where an elephant was tried and hanged for murder.
Sharks
Sharks have existed 100 million years before the first trees.
Sharks first showed up on the scene 350 million years ago and 250 million years ago. Also, sharks have survived 4 of the 5 mass extinctions. They didn't exist for the first one.
Room To Spare
All the planets in our solar system can fit between the Earth and the Moon, with a little room to spare.
Whaaaa? Oddly this one hurts my brain the most.
- dmbf
There's a lot of space in space.
Clean Bones
That when you brush your teeth you're actually cleaning your skeleton
Gotta keep your bone mech clean. That flesh armor only guards so much.
Gross, thanks!
Light Horizon
There is a light horizon in the universe, and we will never know what's beyond it
The funny thing, (or maybe just terrifying thing), is that at some point in the far future, the light horizon will actually get smaller over time.
This is because the universe is expanding faster then light can travel, and so that light will never make it to us no matter how much time passes, and this phenomenon will only become more relevant.
The Beatles
the beatles GIF by US National ArchivesGiphyThe Beatles were only together for 7 years. Well, technically for 8 but they released all of their albums in a seven year stretch, releasing two albums a year for many of those years.
Even crazier- when they broke up, Paul McCartney was 28.
Think about it- all that genius, the music, the success, the greatest band ever to exist- and he wasn't even 30.
They Have To Die For My Survival
Diseases are caused by micro organisms.
Organisms. Germs are organisms.
It totally blew my mind that the thing screwing my internal organs was a group of sentient living beings that have to die for my survival.
Ice Age
Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the iphone than the completion of the Great Pyramid
Woolly Mammoths still walked the earth when the Great Pyramid was being built.
So by correlation, Cleopatra lived closer to the release of the movie Ice Age, than the actual ice age.
Flaunt It
Jumping spiders have basically the same vision we do, they can see us and know when we're looking at them and like to show off!
Ugh I hate those spiders. We had one in the house once and it kept waving its arms around.'
Jumping spiders are the only kind of spider, that I as an arachnophobe like.
They're fluffy, cute and this fact cements that.
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Dumbo's Dirt
dumbo flintstones GIFGiphyElephants are known to bury their dead under foliage and remain with the bodies for some time afterwards, exhibiting behavior not dissimilar to human mourning. Indeed, it is the association of apparent grief or mourning that is considered to indicate a 'burial', as opposed to simply covering up or disposing of a body.
I also read somewhere that they have buried humans.
Murderers
Most people know that the mosquito is the deadliest animal when it comes to total human deaths ever. Next to humans of course. And this is due to the malaria parasite spread by mosquitoes. It is estimated that four to five per cent of all humans that have ever lived died from malaria (rather than half as some sources state).
The treatment for malaria is quinine, which was known since the 1700's. This is often contained in tonic water, which is bitter and not that palatable. The anecdotal story is that during the days of British colonization of India, the British East India Company had of course problems with malaria.
Drinking tonic water was not popular with the British, so what'd they do? add booze, i.e. gin. And this is where you get gin and tonic.
Of course modern research has shown that the amounts of tonic water you'd need is quite large (~1 liter for a minimal effect) to make that story apocryphal at best (although I know some people who probably managed to meet the necessary quota to ward of malaria). But it is interesting to think that we managed to make the treatment for one of the worst disease humanity has known into a cocktail.
What is real though is that malaria can be used to treat syphilis. Malaria causes a high fever which kills the syphilis bacteria. In fact, Dr Julius Wagner-Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1927 for this discovery (but he later became a hardcore Nazi and eugenisist. Of course we no longer use this because the mortality rate was 15%, but this was much lower than the death rate for syphilis.
Unfortunately, many parts of the world still suffer from malaria, where it is still a major killer.
One Bite
Not a single Tarantula species is able to kill you with venom, so if you see a big hairy boy just know, it can't kill you, not yet, also link to a picture of my escaped...
52×51×50×49...
There are more ways to shuffle a deck of cards than there are atoms making up the entire earth (or atoms in the universe if you use 2 decks), thats because the potential options are 52 factorial or 52×51×50×49... etc. chances are if you've shuffled a deck of cards then you've likely made history as that sequence has statistically NEVER happened before. Even if you had a trillion planets with a trillion people all shuffling a deck if cards every second since the moment of the big bang wed only just now be repeating sequences.
Liquid Spark
Water Douse GIFGiphyWater does not innately conduct electricity, it is all the dissolved stuff that allow electricity to pass through it.
Water is fascinating stuff.
Creating Oxygen
The Amazon Rainforest isn't actually the lungs of Earth. Almost all the Oxygen generated by the Amazon is used by the life found in the Amazon. 40% of Earth's oxygen is actually produced by tiny Organisms called Diatoms.
These organisms can replicate at an incredible rate and trillions of them spread throughout the Oceans and create Oxygen through photosynthesis. When the Diotoms die they transform into underwater snowflakes that remain on the sea floor. When these seas dry up, the dead Diatoms create a salt desert, like the one in Northern Africa.
Huge sandstorms pick the Diotoms up and carry them across the Oceans and drop them down on the Amazon and are used as a fertilizer for the rainforest.
Where are Diatoms born? The rainforest, they spread to the sea, create Oxygen through photosynthesis, die, create salt deserts, get taken back to the rain forest and help create the rainforest that creates them.
That's the circle of life right there.
In the Cosmos
On average, Mercury is the nearest planet to every planet in our solar system.
fit all of the planets in the solar system between the Earth and the Moon
Had to look that up. It's true.
Part of what threw me are all the crazy and awkward analogies you hear whenever you watch a space documentary that are meant to impress upon the viewer the immensity of the universe... like, "You can fit 80 gagillion Rose Bowls inside Jupiter's giant red spot and still have room for 7000 Eiffel Towers laid end-to-end."
The Family Tree
Everyone on earth is at least 50th cousin with everyone else on Earth.
And if you are currently dating or married to somebody who is from your own country and is of your own ethnicity, there's a one in five chance that the two of you share a common family member fewer than 10 generations ago.
From Below
Shake Shaking GIF by Southern California Earthquake CenterGiphyEarthquakes can happen literally everywhere on Earth, however humans rarely feel anything below a 2.5 in magnitude.
Bones
Something I read earlier: Babies have around 100 more bones than adults Babies have about 300 bones at birth, with cartilage between many of them. This extra flexibility helps them pass through the birth canal and also allows for rapid growth. With age, many of the bones fuse, leaving 206 bones that make up an average adult skeleton.
Flesh Diet
halloween flesh GIF by SebaldoGiphyThat the human skin Is quite heavy Its around 16% of your body weight.
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