When you're at a team-building event, it's best to come in locked and loaded with a great fact. Let's face it, some ice breaker is going to come along and you're gonna need something juicy.
But you--and everybody else suddenly thrown into their 11th icebreaker activity that year--have likely had enough of the usual interesting scientific facts.
You're trying to turn heads.
For a little help, look no further than a recent Reddit thread.
Redditors gathered to swap the most horrifying facts they've ever heard. These are the unnerving truths we'd rather never have discovered, but now that we did, we cannot stop thinking about them.
Commit a few to memory. You may be the star or the weirdo at the next team-builder, but at the very least you'll be memorable.
DaKoolAidMAN422 asked, "What is a scary or horrifying fact that shouldn't be true, but is?"
A good amount of Redditors opted to share the brief tidbits that still manage to pack a punch. These facts are not at all fun, but they do come in small packages.
So Which Is More Toxic?
"There is more actual lemon juice in lemon-scented Pledge spray than there is in Country Time Lemonade." -- jackof47trades
"So that's why it tastes better" -- Omny87
"instructions unclear. Drinking lemon pledge" -- lawnscribe
Opened Wide
"When you have scurvy, all your old scars and wounds open up, due to the vitamin needed to maintain scar tissue. So for me for example, I had my jaw dislocated and my gums cut open from check to check to remove wisdom teeth. If I got scurvy I would bleed uncontrollably from the inside of my mouth out."
"What would be your most horrifying scar?"
Light Speed Lunch
"Something is eating the Milky Way galaxy - no, it isn't the plot for a Star Trek episode, it's really happening."
"In 2009, researchers found a cluster of galaxies moving at an extraordinary speed towards a small patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. Some unknown force is tearing away chunks of the galaxy, and astronomers still have no clue what exactly is causing it. It's been named 'Dark Flow.' "
"There is something big out there, far bigger than anything in our known universe. Such a behemoth would impose a kind of 'tilt' on the universe, causing matter to move in one particular direction – as observations of the dark flow suggest. Could be anything - upto and including another universe."
-- sanctum502
A Taunting End
"An unbelievable number of people who die of dehydration do so with a fair amount of fresh water in their possession." -- Casual-Notice
"Yep, knew somebody that died this way due to horrible headaches (caused by an undiagnosed brain tumor found during her autopsy) that were so painful she threw up to the point of severe dehydration and died in her apartment right next to the sink." -- __Pause__
Feel Free to Pause Here Or Whatever
"The actual scientific cure for hiccups is anal massaging...and it works." -- zenithsmomma
"That's not terrifying. That's useful information!" -- knittykitty26
"Currently massaging anus. I don't have hiccups now, but doing it for future possible cases." -- theuniversalsquid
Each Worse Than the Last
- "Long-dormant bacteria and viruses, trapped in ice and permafrost for centuries, are reviving as Earth's climate warms"
- "Gamma-ray bursts can kill all life on earth without any warning"
- "Asteroids can mess earth up"
Laying in Wait
"You could have mad cow disease for 12 to 50 years before symptoms start showing." -- OhManOk
"That's just great. I was in England in 2008 and I thought I was in the clear." -- endorrawitch
WUT.
"A lone pilot was flying in Australia in 1978. He reported to air traffic control that he was accompanied by an aircraft above him."
"When asked to identify the aircraft, he replied 'It isn't an aircraft.' His plane disappeared, and was never to be found again."
Others kept their facts confined to the animal kingdom. With so many creatures all containing such minute differences in body and behavior, there are plenty of horrors to go around.
Just a Rotten Situation
"A single female tiger killed 432 people in India." -- RaykelVeillette
"It's a pretty sad story. She was severely injured by a poacher who failed to kill her, and to try to survive she went after easier prey: humans. She didn't inherently have a taste for us, she was just opportunistic and hungry." -- Drakmanka
They Are FAST
"in the NT (Australia) I remember seeing a government warning that crocodiles inhabit the area. Among the few bullet points of advice on the sign, the last one read 'If they see you, it is already too late' "
-- tigger04
THOUSANDS
"Snails have thousands of teeth." -- leaf-sauce
"And apparently there's one who can grow their body back after decapitation" -- Makaveli3k
"They're not teeth exactly. More like lil spikes on their tongue they can use to scrape things. Think rough cat tongue but more determined." -- ShiraCheshire
Brain Food
"There is a parasite that will eat your brain. It's called Naegleria fowleri and it lives in warm water lakes in the sand and silt in the shallows. It will swim up your nose and proceed to eat your neurons and your brain."
"Usually symptoms occur around 4 hours after infection and include headache, sensitivity to light and nausea. If you experience any of these after swimming in a lake you need to go to the hospital ASAP. If undiagnosed, you'll be dead within 24 hours."
"To diagnose it, you'll have to get a spinal tap and pray the tech working knows what to look for."
Just Imagine It All
"Whatever the sh** is at the bottom of the ocean"
"Seriously we know so little about this place and we've seen so much murderous sh** down there that we've only scratched the surface on how much nightmare fuel is actually down there."
Others brought up shocking examples of the things human beings do to one another. We ourselves, sometimes, are the most shocking fact there is.
All For a Chance
"Some monks used to endure a spiritual practice whereby they eliminated all their body fat through diet and exercise, ate wood lacquer tea to kill off internal bacteria, then sealed themselves in a tomb holding a string attached to a bell."
"A year after the bell stopped ringing, the tomb was opened and if the monk's body was found to be uncorrupted they were revered as a saint; if not, they were re-buried."
"The process took years and as they continued the monks required more and more help from their brothers until they entered the tomb."
"And the whole time you'd hear bells ringing from the nearby tombs as the monks inside slowly wound down the last days of their lives, voluntarily poisoned, starved, and buried alive for a chance at sainthood."
-- ejly
Unethical Research
"one of the experiments the japanese did during ww2 at unit 731 was cutting off limbs of living, waking people without anethesia and sowing those limbs onto other prisoners."
What Secrets That Person Must Possess
"In 2009 a paralyzed Belgian awoke from a 23-YEARS-LONG coma, and it was discovered he was fully conscious and could hear everything around him the entire time."
"Like.. What. The. Actual. F!?!? Just imagine lying there not being able to move for two decades but also being aware of your surroundings. That's all kinds of messed up nightmare fuel right there."
-- BdR76
If Not Dead, Where?
"Every single year, there are thousands of people in the US alone who disappear. Most of them show up again; usually the next day but sometimes a few days, a few weeks or even a few months later."
"However, out of these thousands of people, there are roughly 150 people - every single year - who disappear and... simply never appear again. Nobody knows what has happened to those people. They might be dead, they might not be, we simply don't know."
So jot these down, put them in your phone, or memorize them in your head if you have to. You never know when you'll want to whip one of these suckers out to freak a circle of people out.
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