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.
Foreigners Share The Weirdest Things About The U.S. That Americans Don't Even Realize
Let's be real--the USA is a weird place.
If you live here, you know. It's like 50 small countries all tied together by a loose governmental structure. That in and of itself is already weird.
But there's so much more to the story that even Americans really don't grasp. Those who have come in from out of the country have an entirely new perspective.
u/nobboi asked:
Here were some of those answers.
Not The Telly You'd Like
How your medical ads show an old guy living life well because of X-drug. He has the best time, the wife is having the best time and it's all because of the drug making things better.
The end of the ad is full of warnings about how this happy drug can potentially kill you and your family, nuke your dog and make cats impotent.
Recap the cliff-hanger episode of life in Alaska before another ad break.
Unwatchable TV
Nationalism Ho
I went to Seaworld with my mum when I was in my mid teens. Halfway through the show, the performer (Not the whale) asked everybody in the military to stand up and the whole crowd gave them a round of applause. They sat back down and the show continued as if nothing had happened. Couldn't imagine anything similar happening back in Blighty.
More Settlements
When we were flying between cities, I found it weird to look out of the side of the plane and see towns mid-flight. In Australia, once you leave the city's airspace the landscape is completely barren until you arrive at your destination.
Wholesome Holiday Content
Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas is over:
The weirdest thing is that Americans will ask what you are doing for thanksgiving. Are you going to your family etc... When you say no. They invite you to their home.
(I was a student, My family was thousands of miles away, and I'm happy that the local Cracker Barrel is open and looking forward to a meal there)
My Professor did that. Invited me to his home. I had a good time, but it was strange. I'm meeting his uncles and aunts. and one little girl threw a tantrum, I had to take her to calm her down etc...
It was weird. But also wonderful. In my country things like this would never happen. You don't bring a stranger to a family event.
But I'm thankful things like this happen here.
Giant Land
American that just traveled overseas. I went to a great bookstore in Edinburgh and the cashier asked if I wanted to sign up for a rewards membership. This led to a conversation about how their CEO or something just took over Barnes and Noble in the States. I stated the closest B&N to me is an hour away, and the other cashier jumped in, saying how easy it is to forget how far apart things are in the States. He was just kind of baffled and said it often blows his mind. I moved 13 hours away from my hometown and I still manage to be in the same country, which seems like a foreign concept for most Europeans. When, in reality, I could have moved even further away and still been in the US.
Too Much Of All
Everything in America is huge. I don't just mean the people or portion sizes, because we all know about that- but the roads, the buildings, the ceilings, the space between everything... America is gigantic. It just feels larger than it does here. I'm Australian but I've been to Asia and size-wise it's similar to Australia, and I've seen Europeans say the same about America. Everything is bigger.
Unlimited Soda
Free refills. Went to a restaurant with my dad (both German) and all of a sudden the waiter took away my drink with another perfectly good sipp in it and I must have looked pretty shocked. It was only then when my dad explained to me that you guys have free refills.
All Around Largely Different
For me as British bloke who only travelled for 6 weeks in the US:
Your public transport is largely poor but everything is built for cars and your cars are big.
You advertise not businesses but personalities a lot. So it's not that KGH Estate Agents will well your property but MARY HUGHTON WILL PERSONALLY SELL YOUR HOUSE (with a big picture of her face).
Random people will talk to you. I'm a Londoner so it is different up north in the UK but especially when I got to the southern states people were so happy to talk to random strangers.
You guys actually sit at the bar in bars. When we go to a pub/bar, we'll go with friends and rarely interact outside of that group really. You guys jump up at that bar and just start chatting.
Where homelessness is visible it's bloody awful. San Francisco was horrible for this, me and my (now) wife ended up making a load of extra spag bowl to give to the homeless people outside our hostel because it was shocking to us.
If I think of anymore I'll add them but it's Christmas Day and I should probably talk to my family.
Different Social Cues
Canadian here, I was blown away by how weirdly social people are with strangers. Like some random guy I've never seen before just starts telling me his life story on the street. He is super normal, and doesn't seem crazy, just wants to talk to me for some reason. But then also, the dude at Wendy's is loudly threatening some 16 year old cashier in front of like 45 people. I got the impression the Wendy's guy was uncool, but the other guy seemed normal, and where I live I generally assume that a stranger talking to me for no reason is either crazy or high.
Making New Friends
I lived for a long time in different places around the world, and something that I really missed when moving to a new town was the lack of a US-style bar where it was easy for a stranger to meet people. Outside of the US, it is rare to find a bar where everyone just sits and faces the same direction, whether or not a sporting event was playing on the television. Instead, they have a more 'pub-like' environment, where everyone is sitting in groups at their individual tables.
This makes meeting new people extremely difficult. Think about it, with the "table-style" bar, in order to strike up a conversation with a stranger, you literally have to approach them while they are sitting at their own table with their own friends. It's almost impossible to not look like a total freak! In a proper "Cheers" style bar, you can just say some random phrase to the bartender and if the person sitting next to you wants to talk, they'll just join in on the conversation.
Basically, In non-US bars, if you aren't invited ahead of time by someone, you are damned to sit alone in some corner of the bar.