People Share Their Best 'Don't Ask How I Know That' Fun Facts
Reddit user Dry_Bus_935 asked: 'What is your "don't ask how I know" random fact?'
Whether you're naturally interested in fun facts and trivia or not, it's always nice to know a few that you can pull out of your pocket at a moment's notice as a nice conversation starter.
But there are some fun facts out there that are so weird, people become more preoccupied with how the teller found out that information rather than the information itself.
Redditor Dry_Bus_935 asked:
"What is your 'don't ask me how I know' random fact?"
Nuclear Fail Safe
"You have quite a lot of time, certainly more than ten seconds, to turn back on the main pumps of a nuclear reactor once you have accidentally turned them off."
- egorf
"I'm not surprised. The amount of fail safes, redundancies, and emergency scenario planning for nuclear power plants is insane."
"I toured a nuclear plant and wrote my high school senior thesis on the plans put in place to ensure the Fukushima disaster would not happen at that plant."
"I'm sure the secondary pumps are plenty capable of handling the reactor until the main pumps are repaired or just turned back on."
- Borderlandsman
Happy Cat
"If your cat chews on fresh eucalyptus, they might start hallucinating and fall over repeatedly, leading to a $400 emergency vet bill just to be told she’s just kinda high."
- oddidealstronghold
"And, that's part of why koalas love it. Little stoners."
- littlebluefoxy
Archaeology: Do Not Lick
"Old human bones are very porous, so if you lick them, they’ll stick to your tongue."
- clanculcarius
Sharing is Caring
"A pigeon will only eat a Starburst if you chew it up a little bit first. Just to clarify: chew the Starburst, not the pigeon."
- OhTheHueManatee
"Instructions unclear. Pigeon unhappy."
- Wild-Lychee-3312
Intriguing Anatomy
"Everyone is here with the creepy crime stuff, and I'm just like, 'A soft fur rat has 22 nipples.'"
- horroscoblue
"Okay, so either they have really small nipples, their nipples overlap, or they have nipples in places where there shouldn't be nipples."
"(I've never written the word 'nipples' so many times in a singular sentence before.)"
- GdeGraaf
'Don't Ask Me,' Indeed!
"Turmeric can be used as clothes dye. It is capable of permanently dyeing cotton cloth even after it has passed through the digestive tract of an adult male."
- SlefeMcDichael
"You s**t your pants, didn't you?"
- PMmecrossstitch
"I'd prefer not to answer that question."
- SlefeMcDichael
High-Risk Survival Skills
"If you ever trying to survive in the Arctic, don’t eat polar bear liver. It is so high in vitamin A, it will kill you."
- WrongWayCorrigan-361
"It's also surrounded by a lethal amount of angry polar bear."
- horanc2
Real-Life Spies
"TV shows and movies go out of their way to make military/intelligence officers look bada**."
"But real-life 'spies,' by design and training, are boring. They have regular houses and standard second-hand cars, they dress down, and they have vague, boring job titles (accounts receivable) as cover, and they do not draw attention to themselves. Most come from specialized academia."
- Ok_Worth_1093
Haunting Reality
"Your muscles can keep twitching for several hours after you die."
- JustDave62
"Also, beards can appear to grow. This is however not because the beard itself grows but because the skin shrinks."
- RRautamaa
"I worked at a morgue for over eight years. If you grasp the hand of a dead body to move the arm, the hand will grasp back, but that's just muscles and tendons reacting to the tension."
- goneferalinid
The Sneakiness of Drowning
"When a drowning victim is revived, get them to a hospital as soon as possible. Drowning is the leading cause of death of kids from the age of one to seven and is ruled as accidental drowning when it comes to secondary drowning or dry drowning."
"Basically, your lungs are full of water despite being revived. Your lungs will absorb the liquid, but not before your body acidifies from high levels of carbon dioxide. The only chance to survive is to have the lungs pumped with oxygen via CPAP machine and time."
"Also, drowning is extremely quiet. You don’t hear the victim go under. And if you see flailing, do not attempt to save the victim otherwise you’ll become another drowning victim. Throw them a lifeline and hope their amygdala realizes that a rope or something is floating near them and grabs on it."
- Dfiggsmeister
Not Everyone's Favorite Chocolate
"Hershey’s chocolate has the strong smell of vomit or feces to some people (me), and that’s because they use butyric acid as a preservative. Butyric acid is the compound that makes vomit smell so bad."
"Edit: Digging further into it, there are some claims that they may not be “adding” the butyric acid, but rather it is occurring from essentially spoiling the milk in their milk chocolate. Either way, the butyric acid and putrid smell remains a part of their product."
- hefewiseman1
"That explains the weird aftertaste I always get! I don’t smell it but their chocolate always has this super unpleasant sharp/acidic aftertaste that I find repulsive. I assume this is why!!"
- PomegranateNo975
Do Not Lick the Asbestos
"Asbestos tastes like chalk. And if you lick it, it has the texture of extremely gritty sandpaper. Which is actually the feeling of microscopic asbestos needles piercing your flesh!"
- TooYoungToBeThisOld1
Mapping Out the War
"Beginning in 1911 in anticipation of the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, two statesmen, one from England and one from France, began visiting locations in France that they believed would be the settings for a number of major battles that would occur during the great war."
"Long bike rides through these future battle zones in the countryside and weeks spent building a foundation for a French-Anglo codebook that would later prove important in helping win the war."
- fjordperfect123
Avoiding Lawsuits > Protecting Patients
"Doctors, or surgeons more specifically, that make too many mistakes during surgery, ie, leaving instruments in patients, frequently gets ‘quietly traded’ to other hospitals where they continue their path of destruction with the patients not being aware of their past record. Hospitals tend to keep quiet about the matter to avoid lawsuits."
- Kittytigris
Bonus Points: Do This While Having Lunch in Your Car
"If you overfill a fast food gravy cup and then put a lid on, it will create a pressurized gravy stream that sprays all over your face and uniform while your coworker looks on in horror."
- thechaosjester776
This subReddit thread was so a roller-coaster of random facts, we've surely all walked away learning something.
But the biggest takeaway might just be: Maybe don't lick so many things.
People Share The Weirdest Facts They Know
Reddit user Former_Ladder9969 asked: 'What is a weird fact you know for some reason?'
We've all heard some things that sound too good to be true, but we've also certainly heard some things that were too weird to be true.
But as strange as they might sound, from weird scientific facts to things that people have done to animals that actually exist outside of a distant, mystical realm, there are some things that are simply, stranger than fiction.
Curious about others' takes, Redditor Former_Ladder9969 asked:
"What is a weird fact you know for some reason?"
The Draw of the Deck
"The King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache."
- MR_dizzaster
"He's also sticking a sword in his head."
- Uwumeshu
"He was shaving and missed."
- puneralissimo
Random Facts About Strangers
"Diddy, the music artist, doesn’t like the way towels feel on his skin. So instead of drying off like a normal person after a shower, he walks around his house to air dry instead."
"Why do I know this?"
"Because for some reason, this was a fact given during an old show on VH1 called 'Pop Up Videos,' where they would play a music video with random facts being shown throughout. I have zero idea why of all the vital things I should have stored in my memory, this was one that stuck after all these years."
- dabking24
Spacial Awareness
"Australia is wider than the moon."
- MrSatanachia
"I can't decide if I'm more amazed that the moon is actually way smaller than I imagined, or that Australia is way bigger than I imagined."
- 5Beans6
"This is my confusion, lol (laughing out loud)."
- TheTinyHandsofTRex
That's Commitment
"Crabs have a muscle that enables them to release their claw if they have to."
- Norwegianxrp
"It took me an incredibly long time to realize this means like… fully release it, like remove it from their body. I thought it just meant release the grip they have."
- wowowaoa
Mystical Representation
"The national animal of Scotland is a Unicorn."
- Batmans-dragon80
"Yes, that’s true. Mainly because we have so many of them roaming wild in the glens. Chasing the Haggi and avoiding Nessie."
- Bri1311
Education through Music
"Because of a song that used to constantly play on the radio I have it pretty well memorized that there are 86,400 seconds in the average day."
- Vanilla_Neko
"Because of a song on the radio, I learned that the minimum expectation for displays of love can be measured in 500 miles."
- Slight_Bodybuilder25
Where the Grass is Greener... and Newer
"There were no grasses on the earth when dinosaurs were here."
- Snowfl4ke85
"During the Jurassic and the Early Cretaceous, the higher flora was dominated by cycads, ginkgoes, conifers, and ferns. Other groups of plants included extinct seed plants with fern-like foliage. The exact origins of flowering plants are uncertain, although evidence suggests that they are not closely related to any group of modern non-flowering plants."
"Flowering plants underwent rapid radiation beginning around the middle of the Cretaceous period, and makeup around 90% of living plant species today. With the spread of these plants came the decline of previously dominant groups such as conifers. During the Cretaceous, ferns would also begin to diversify."
"The oldest known fossils of grasses are from the Early Cretaceous, with the family having diversified into modern groups by the end of the Cretaceous. The oldest large flowering trees are known from the Late Cretaceous, with the trunk having a preserved diameter of one-point-eight meters and an estimated height of 50 meters."
- UnexpectedDinoLesson
Weird Way to Say Hello
"Manatees control their buoyancy by farting. Toot toot, floaty sea cow."
- Plane-Vacation-1228
"Wait, so those bubbles you see on the water surface that signify their presence are...?"
- DismalDude77
Goals for Building the Longest Train...
"There's no maximum length to a train, you just add another engine."
- TrueGritt90
"That tracks."
- Snedro
The Smallest Philosopher
"That dead ants produce a pheromone that alerts the other ants that they need to move them to the ant graveyard."
"If a drop of this pheromone is placed on a live ant, it will take itself to the graveyard and stay there until the pheromone dissipates."
- Jessi_L_1324
"The ant: Am I dead?"
- Professional_Stay748
"That ant would make a great philosopher."
- skatalite2020
High-Risk Flights
"Some military helicopters on aircraft carriers are made of magnesium and should they catch fire, it's literally impossible to put them out as the magnesium will take the oxygen from the water and use that to keep burning."
"So the only thing that can be done is to push them overboard and even as they sink they will continue to burn until the magnesium is completely burned up."
- Strange_Stage1311
The First Scapegoat
"Some tribes of ancient people used to tie up a goat, whisper their sins to it, then allow it to 'accidentally' escape so it would carry their sins away and thus resolve them of guilt."
"It was, literally, their 'escape goat,' and that's where the term 'scapegoat' comes from."
- TheAbyssGazesAlso
The Power of Percentages
"Percentages can be reversed."
"For example, five percent of ten is ten percent of five."
- Routine_Leading_4757
"43 years and I'm only learning this now."
- TheMechTech80
Wordy Phobias
"The fear of long words is called 'hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.'
- Illustrious_Hawk_734
"Also, the fear of palindromes is called 'aibohphobia,' which just goes to show that the people who name phobias are a**holes."
- PhoenixMason13
"The question is, who even has a fear of palindromes?"
- ConduckKing
"Eve, Bob, and Hannah."
- Lostarchitorture
Not only are these facts unexpected, but it's wild to think that some of them are true.
But the simple, plain truth is that the truth is always all that simple. It can be weird and hard to believe, and yet, there it is.
While we may not all enjoy studying history, we all have certain types of stories that interest us, and one that seems to catch everyone's attention are the hard-to-believe, almost far-fetched tales.
Interestingly enough, history is full of these stories, leaving many to believe that reality is truly stranger than fiction.
Redditor ThrowAwayMyLife2341 asked:
"What are some events in recorded history that are extremely hard to believe, but without a doubt actually happened?"
Second Chance Flight
"My colleague was on the plane to Hawaii where the entire top of the plane ripped off… they flew the rest of the way without any overhead."
"They landed and everyone walked off. It's absolutely insane to see the pictures. Talk about being given a second chance."
- SkydivingSquid
Running Late for the Olympics
"In 1908, Russia showed up 12 days late to the Olympics because the world switched calendars while they did not."
- drailCA
"To accommodate the Russian team, some events were rescheduled so that the Russian athletes could participate. This led to a longer duration for those Olympics, which lasted from April 27 to October 31, making it the longest Olympic Games in history."
- parkerjh
An Inescapable War
"The Battle of Bull Run, one of the first battles of the US Civil War, occurred on and around Wilmer McClean's farm in Northern Virginia. Not wanting to live surrounded by war, McClean and his family moved to Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia."
"The Battle of Appomattox Courthouse was the last significant battle between Union and Confederate forces. The Confederates signed the surrender order in Wilmer's sitting room."
"It is said that the Civil War started on Wilmer's farm and ended in his sitting room."
- csudebate
History of Bombings
"There was a Japanese man called Tsutomu Yamaguchi who was on his way to work in Hiroshima in 1945, when he saw falling through the sky, two miles from where he stood, what ultimately turned out to be the atomic bomb."
"He had just enough time to take cover in a ditch as the bomb detonated and miraculously he survived. Somehow the Hiroshima train station was still operational and so Yamaguchi, battered, bombed and bruised, decided to board a train to his family home so he could recover... in Nagasaki."
"Three days later, Yamaguchi was called into work to explain what he saw, which he did. At work, as he began to tell the story of what happened, the second bomb dropped."
"It was the reinforced concrete walls around him that saved him this time, and Yamaguchi quickly ran to find his wife and son. Ground temperatures in the city reached 4,000°C and radioactive rain poured down."
"The family's home was destroyed, but Yamaguchi's wife and son had thankfully been out shopping - looking for burn ointment for Yamaguchi, when the bomb fell, and they'd survived."
"Despite this ordeal of having survived two nuclear explosions and subsequent radiation exposure, Yamaguchi went on to live till 93 yrs of age. He died in 2010 after being recognized by the Japanese government as a 'nijyuu hibakusha,' or 'twice-bombed person.'"
- Voodizzy_
A Monumental Fall
"Nicholas Alkemade fell 18,000 feet without a parachute from a burning plane in 1944 and suffered no serious injury."
- hazps
"I see how the snow cover helped but how he didn’t get skewered by pine trees or break a single bone is shocking."
- switchbladeeatworld
"Imagine what he was thinking when he got up from that fall. What kind of crazy thoughts were running through his head."
- Lankey_Craig
"'Yeah, no one is gonna believe this one.'"
- Pennywise626
"Germans almost didn't, after finding him in just a flight suit but no parachute. They initially pegged him as a spy who'd been dropped behind their lines and had stashed his chute and gear. As such, he was likely to be executed."
"Except Alkemade was so insistent his captors went and found the wreckage of his aircraft, with the burnt remains of his chute stashed behind his gun position. Germans told him the news and shared vodka with him to celebrate."
- JohnnyJohnCowboyMan
Mass Dance in France
"That time everyone died of a dancing sickness where they danced themselves to death in France. Mass hysteria."
- DavinaCole
"St. Vitus’ Dance, as it is called, still doesn’t have a definitely known cause."
"New research as of 2021 shows Sydenham chorea as the most likely cause."
- ENFJPLinguaphile
The Return of the Sun
"The Battle of Halys."
"In roughly 6th century BC, the Medes and the Lydians were at war. The war had lasted for six years and climaxed at the Battle of Halys."
"During the battle, a solar eclipse began. Both sides believed that the Gods were angry at their long and bloody war, and were taking the sun away from them."
"They declared peace that day, and the sun was returned. But yeah, a war ended because of a solar eclipse."
- TheRogueBear
A Spicy Battle
"The Nutmeg Wars. The Dutch and the English went to war THREE times over nutmeg, which at the time was only known to grow on one South Pacific island."
- missoularedhead
Entertaining Prisoners
"Theodore Roosevelt found his boat was stolen. So he built a new boat, tracked the thieves down, and arrested them."
"He then proceeded to walk them multiple days, without sleeping, so they could receive a trial instead of just shooting them on the spot."
"It was in the middle of a harsh winter so he didn’t handcuff them (for fear they’d get frostbite), so instead, he just kept himself awake by reading Tolstoy with a gun trained on them the whole trek."
- Another_Road
"That's only the twenty-second most Teddy thing I've ever read, but a new one, which makes me love it."
- Beard_of_Valor
"I am always half convinced that Teddy Roosevelt was not a real person. No one could have been that absolutely wild and done that many things, but there is just too much overwhelming proof."
- LeSilverKitsune
Christmas Day 1914
"Christmas day 1914. The truce on the WW1 battlefields."
"It shows the humanity inside everyone, but they were able to wake up the next day and go straight back to war, kill the men that they’d spent a sincere day with."
- PotterWhoLock01
Honoring Everyone's Dead
"I can't remember where I saw/heard the story of Christmas Day 1914 (I think from the BBC), but I believe from one of the last-living Tommys, who said that whilst they were forced to start shooting at each other, the majority of shots intentionally missed, from both sides of no man's land."
"I believe it was also the same man who said, in reference to Remembrance Day, to also remember the Germans. That stuck with me. They were like our lads; sent out to fight a war for war's sake, forced to do unspeakable things to other men because some higher-up told them they had to."
- The_Gene_Genie
"Australia is a bit like this with regard to the Turks on ANZAC Day."
"One of the main ceremonies is reading the letter from Turkish commander and later founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Atatürk:"
"'Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours...'"
"'You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons, as well.'"
- Zebidee
The Medical Church
"In 1944, during the allied invasion of France, 2 American paramedics, Ken Moore and Robert Wright, 101st Airborne, saved around 80 soldiers of both sides, allied and axis. They set themselves up in a church, had only what was in their first aid kits and medic bags, and had a strict no-gun policy."
"The church was almost destroyed by a mortar shell, but it didn’t go off. It was almost destroyed again, due to friendly fire. Ken Moore would risk his life by venturing out of the church and finding injured soldiers, and both medics stayed behind at the church, even though the rest of their forces had to retreat. Wright took on the responsibility of looking after the soldiers."
"The church still stands in Angoville-au-Plain, France, the blood-stained pews are still there, and a broken tile from the mortar shell was never fixed, to honor the legacy of these men."
"This is very simplified, and probably inaccurate in a few ways, but it is still an incredible story."
- JustACanadianGuy07
A Lack of Perspective
"In 1903, The New York Times published an article about flying machines. They stated that it would take the combined efforts of all Mathematicians and mechanics 1-to-10 million years for powered flight to be achieved."
"Anyway, about nine weeks later, the Wright brothers achieved powered flight for the first time."
"They were also overly cynical after. In 1910 they said that flight would only ever be for billionaires, of course, we had commercial flights by around the 60s achievable for many."
- Joe_PM2804
The Year Without Summer
"1816, The Year Without Summer."
- theassassintherapist
"I'm a big classic horror fan, so I'm kinda glad this happened. Indirectly lead to Mary Shelley writing 'Frankenstein.'"
- UniversalHammer71
An Astronomical Life Cycle
"Halley's Comet appeared in the sky when Mark Twain was born in 1835."
"The comet moves in a seventy-five or seventy-six-year orbit, and, as it neared Earth once again, Twain said, 'I came in with Halley’s Comet and I expect to go out with it.'"
"Sure enough, he died on April 21, 1910, just as the comet made its next pass within sight of Earth."
- SuvenPan
While history may not be everyone's favorite subject, it'd be really hard to believe if someone didn't find at least one of these hard-to-believe occurrences interesting.
All of us, if we really give ourselves time to think about it, know some pretty interesting things.
But while some things we know could be reasonable conversation starters, some of us know some things that are just plain weird.
Redditor Ok_Guidance_1916 asked:
"What is the weirdest fact you know?"
Bees: Unexpectedly Playful
"Bees like to play. Scientists put bees in a box thing under stress-free conditions with a few wooden round balls scattered about to see what would happen."
"There are videos of this experiment, and the bees just climb all over these wooden spheres, rolling them around happily. It's the cutest thing."
"The videos are very easy to find, but here is one of my favorites. One bee in particular from this very experiment came back and played with a ball FORTY times in one day. It had the best time of its life."
- WideFox116
"Every single thing I learn about bees makes me like them more."
- PepperoniJedi
Frogs: With Eyes Bigger Than Their Stomachs
"Frogs swallow using their eyes."
"If you've ever seen a frog eat something, they close their eyes as they swallow. They're using their eyes and eye muscles to push food down their little throats."
- LtColShinySides
Space: Much Bigger than the Candy Bar
"If you looked at one star per second, it would take you over 3,000 years to look at all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy."
- meresymptom
"And there are 20 times the number of galaxies in the universe as there are stars in our Milky Way."
- KonaBrad
Roald Dahl: Famous Last Swears
"Roald Dahl's last words were, 'Ow, f**k!'"
""The best part of this one is the context. He had prepared some lovely and touching last words, which he did indeed successfully say to his family at the appropriate time: 'You know, I'm not frightened. It's just that I will miss you all so much.'"
"Then, when he had apparently fallen unconscious, the nurse injected him with morphine to ease his passing. The still-alive Dahl stirred and uttered his actual last words: 'Ow, f**k!'"
- havron
Manatees and Hippos: Surprisingly Round
"Manatees aren't fat. They're round."
"Many mammals develop a layer of fat or blubber to preserve body heat. Manatees are tropical mammals and do not need a lot of body fat."
- MrHyde_Is_Awake
"Hippopotamus also only have around 2% body fat, which is lower than professional bodybuilders normally get for competition."
- iCameToLearnSomeCode
"...Which is why they are a lot faster than they seem, and can easily split you in half in one bite."
- MadxCarnage
"Yeah, don’t mess with professional bodybuilders."
- JesusIsMyZoloft
The Space-Time Continuum
"Rosa Parks could have seen Shrek in theaters."
- narwhalsonacid
Kidneys: Collect All Five!
"When you get a kidney transplant they leave the old ones in unless there’s a reason to remove them (cancer etc)
I currently have five. Two original, two failed transplants, one functioning transplant."
- toomuchisjustenough
"On this episode of 'Hoarders'...'"
"(Seriously, I hope you're doing well now.)"
- OhWhatsHisName
KFC: Committed to Their Recipe
"KFC follows 11 people on Twitter: the five former Spice Girls and six guys named Herb."
- jliol
"Please let this be true."
"EDIT: I just looked it up. It's true. That's golden."
- disastertwink
"...fried perfection with our amazing blend of 11 herbs and spices. Get two pieces with a side and a biscuit for just five dollars!"
- Dason37
Get that Natural Platypus Glow
"Platypus glow when you hit them with UV light."
- bregorthebard
"That seems a bit extreme, couldn't you just shine the UV light on them instead?"
- IBeAPirate01
The Shock of the S.S. Daniel J. Morrell
"In recent times, more people have become aware of the story of the S.S. Daniel J. Morrell, a 600-foot-long Great Lakes ship that broke in half, and people on the front section thought they saw another ship coming to rescue them, but it was in fact the rear section approaching them under power."
"What people seldom learn is that, when the wreck pieces were discovered, the lifeboats of the rear section weren't deployed in the apparently three hours that it continued to steam along before sinking, thus leading analysts to conclude that the staff in the rear section had no idea the ship had even broken apart until it sank."
- CorsairVI
Jellyfish: The Biological Fountain of Youth
"In the animal kingdom, there is a type of jellyfish called the Immortal Jellyfish (scientifically known as Turritopsis Dohrnii)."
"What makes it fascinating is its ability to revert back to its earliest form after reaching adulthood. When facing environmental stress or old age, it can transform its cells, essentially returning to a polyp stage and then growing into a new adult jellyfish."
"This process can theoretically repeat indefinitely, hence the name 'Immortal Jellyfish.' While it's not truly immortal in the sense of living forever, it has an exceptional regenerative capability that allows it to bypass the typical life cycle limitations of other organisms."
- side-hustler
"It’s worth noting that it IS biologically immortal; it just can’t ever achieve that because they are food for other animals."
"Also, they’re able to age backward through transdifferentiation, in which adult cells revert back into stem cells so that they can become juvenile cells."
"If we can understand how they do that, it would likely help cure a bunch of different cancers."
- Zane_628
Forest Mice: Just Wanna Have Fun
"If you place hamster wheels in the forest, mice will run on them for fun."
- Eniptsu
"That's actually pretty wholesome and a fun fact."
- taddymason_76
A Rowing Metaphor: Looking to the Past
"In most languages, people think of the future as 'in front' of them and the past as 'behind' them. So we think of ourselves as 'moving forward' in time. It's such an ingrained metaphor that we don't even think about it."
"But there are a couple of outliers: languages where the past is 'in front' and the future is 'behind.'"
"In at least one of these languages, someone explained that the past is in front because you can see it. You know what was in your past, but the future is a mystery you can't see, just like you can't see what's behind you."
- picked-papaya
"Like rowing a boat, we enter the future backwards. All we see are scenes of the past, and one cannot see the views of tomorrow."
- ddyourpleasure
The Earliest Book and Late to Rise
"I'll give two:"
"The Tale of Genji, usually considered the be the world's first novel (not to be confused with Don Quixote, the first modern novel) is over 1000 years old."
"China is all under one time-zone officially; Beijing Time, to be specific, which means that all the way in the west of the country, the sun rises around 10 AM."
- TricellCEO
The Kale Doesn't Fall Far From the Broccoli
"Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, and Brussel Sprouts are all the same plant cultivated for different characteristics."
- thewilyone
"That's cool and strange, yet they taste so different."
- CelifrogTwo
It's always fascinating to learn new things, but it's especially cool when they are unexpected things.
From tumbling bees to elongated time zones, there's always a new piece of information to pick up.
Facts are crazy.
They've been politicized so much in the last decade that one never knows what to believe is fact or fiction.
Who knew that one day 'The Onion' would be handing out true stories?
Or that SNL would be parodied by life itself.
There have been so many times I've sat gobsmacked by what I've read or heard coming out of an actual person's mouth.
Science and history are full of information that just sounds bafflingly insane.
Redditor Kondellark wondered about what life truths are so outrageous they nearly prove truth is stranger than fiction, so they asked:
"What is a true fact so baffling, it should be false?"
The truth will always be more off the wall than we think.
Lies have to come from somewhere.
That Decade
roaring twenties smile GIFGiphy"There used to be a radioactive energy drink called 'Radithor' that was in the US market for a decade from 1918-1928. Some of the more prominent users had to be buried in lead coffins."
WildWonderWolf
The Power
"There is a 1 in roughly 5.2 to the 61st power chance that if you were to slap a table, all of the molecules in your hand and the table would miss each other and your hand would go through it."
"Story time: I learned this fact from a deep intellectual conversation with my engineering class 2 years ago, so there very well could be some kind of detail I'm missing here, but nonetheless, what i said is theoretically true."
32151134
Go Wayne!
"You could take away all of Wayne Gretzky’s goals that he scored during his career and he would still be the all-time NHL points leader off his assists alone."
"Bonus Gretzky fact: He and his brother own the record for being the highest scoring pair of siblings. Brent had 4 points in his whole career."
holy_cal
"Of every father/son combo in NHL history, Wayne and Trevor Gretzky have the most goals. Trevor Gretzky was a baseball player."
Damage
happy betty boop GIF by OctoNationGiphy"Giant squids have a donut shaped brain so their esophagus can run through the middle. If they try to swallow too large a bite of food they can get brain damage."
VerminSupreme__
Unless a squid is fried with marinara sauce... stay away from me.
Bad Face
Wide Eyed Reaction GIF by MOODMANGiphy"If a gorilla looks grumpy, it's because they are relaxed and at ease."
"So I’m a gorilla. Cool."
Think about that...
"When the 22nd President of the U.S., Grover Cleveland was 27 years old, he was friends with a married couple who had a baby girl named Frances. As a gift, he bought them a high-end baby stroller for little Frances. 21 years later, he married Frances and she became the youngest 1st Lady. Think about that."
FixFalcon
"This isn't mindblowing or anything, but a fun presidential fact: Grover Cleveland was also the only U.S. President to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was the 22nd AND 24th President, with Benjamin Harrison (23rd President) serving as the meat in the sandwich that was Grover Cleveland's two terms."
japanishinquisition
In the Hole
"The gravity of black holes is so great that it literally bends light around the black hole, so that if you could somehow stand close enough to a black hole and look straight ahead, you would actually see the back of your own head."
chyko9
"So going through a black hole = realizing we all live in a videogame."
"While getting close to the black hole you start seeing weird things. Thinking that light is just being freaky... you suddenly go from thinking the last thing you see before you step into the next dimension is the back of your own head, to realizing it’s actually just you currently looking at yourself on a screen in 3rd person view."
jaqueburton
no food at all...
"A morbidly obese person can survive with absolute starvation without any sickness or feeling ill (under close control). There have been studies since 60's, there is a patient in 1973 who went under a 382 day starvation diet for therapuetic purposes under close control with only vitamin and mineral supplements and water intake without protein, carbohydrate or fat intake (no food at all)."
"Dropped from 207 kg to 88kg and maintained it. After a follow up check-up 5 years later, the patient was 96 kilograms, stabilized. Prolonged fasting had no ill effects. If anybody is curious about the article, the pubmed ID is: PMC2495396."
Dartosismyname
Crunchy
Loop Waiting GIFGiphy"Giraffes eat bones."
"When I was in Africa we were legit surrounded by a family (?) of 12 giraffes. Then one bent over and picked up a gazelle carcass, looked dead into our eyes as it ate it's leg. It was so f**king creepy."
Kibeth_8
I knew there was something off about giraffes.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.