Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
“Oxen Are Just Employed Cows”: People Share 40 Things They Learned Embarrassingly Late In Life
Did you know that when a pufferfish “puffs up,” they are filling themselves with water, not air? If you did, congratulations, you have more common sense than most, as this is not as widely known as one might think. But then again, there is so much information out there that it’s entirely possible to be unaware of “regular” things for years.
Someone asked “What is a fact that you only recently learned, but should have known for ages?” and netizens shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to comment your own stories below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Talking doesn't scare the fish, grandpa just wanted us to shut up.
RELATED:
#2
Puffer fish fill up with water to inflate. Not air. I don't know where I thought the fish got the air from.
WindySwede 1 month ago (edited)
Cause we live in air thus that connection when not thinking about it? edit: or did some cartoon bend our view of reality here as well? 😄
#3
My cat used to never drink a lot of water and she would just spend a lot of time staring at the bowl, turns out she was experiencing whisker fatigue so I got her a wider bowl.
Poor cat.
Bex 1 month ago
My girl likes moving water, but won't drink from those cat fountains. So I keep clean water in a bowl for her, and the cold watwr dribbling out of the bathtub faucet all the time. 99% of the time she's not sleeping, she's playing w the water in the tub. She's weird and almost 18 and the love of my life lol
#4
When you say no because you don’t feel comfortable doing it and someone pushes you to do it anyway, just don’t do it. I just learned about boundaries and I’m freakin’ over age 50.
#5
Human skin doesn’t have the ability to sense water. We can only tell that something is wet because of temperature or pressure, but we don’t have the proper receptors for water itself.
That’s why sensory deprivation tanks with room temperature or barely warm water work so well, and why you can’t tell if clothing left out to dry is damp or if it’s just cold.
When I read that somewhere, it was a huge mindf**k. Now I think about it constantly.
Edit: We know that humans don’t have these receptors because we know that certain animals DO. Including fruit flies and cockroaches. Which is weird.
Edit: To all the people saying that they test an object’s wetness by placing it against their lips or cheek, this is still exactly the same principle I’m describing above. You can’t feel the wetness, you’re feeling the sensation of air moving against the wetness. It’s no different from holding the object in your hand. We rely on cues like temperature and pressure to decide if something is wet.
Edit: A lot of people are saying this is b******t and I made it up because you CAN tell when something is wet. Congrats, you’re restating exactly what I already said. We rely on environmental cues to determine it. Also, what I’m referring to is hygrosensation. Do your own research. Google it.
Feathered Dinosaur 1 month ago (edited)
You can easily confirm this: wear a latex glove and put your hand in water (preferably cold). Your hand will feel wet even though there are zero water molecules touching your skin
#6
There are people who do not have an internal monologue. I was like WTF.
Tucker Cahooter 1 month ago
I don't have an internal monologue, I have an external dialogue with myself, usually ending with me telling myself to shut up
#7
That the “Spanish flu” probably started in Kansas soldier barracks and spread due to WW1. The only reason it’s named the Spanish flu is because Spain was the only country that reported on it- many other countries had a media blackout on it.
#8
It wasn’t new information, but through the footage during severe storms from massive waves crashing on ships today, realizing how terrifying it would be to cross the ocean in the 1400s.
#10
Oxen are just employed cows, not a whole separate species of bovine.
#11
It’s not the stripper that spins- it’s the pole. Blew my mind, I thought those ladies were masters of centrifugal force AND core strength!
#12
To be tea, it has to come from the tea plant. Black, white, green, oolong teas are all the same plant but with different processing and harvesting.
Anything else that calls themselves a tea is actually a tisane - including roiboos.
#13
Eartha Kitt, the woman who sings Santa Baby, also voiced Yzma from Emperor's New Groove.
#14
When they kept liquor stores open at the beginning of the pandemic, it was to ensure that alcoholics wouldn’t overflow the hospitals even more by suffering from alcohol withdrawals.
#15
Groundhogs and woodchucks are the same animal.
Peter Parker 1 month ago
How much ground would a groundhog hog if a... ah never mind, it just doesn't work the same..
#16
That opossums are great for the environment and if your dog attacks them, you should stop them. And if you're brave enough to move them to safer grounds, they will emit a foul odor while playing dead. It stinks, but if you're willing, pick them up like a kitten (scruff of neck)and relocate. Don't worry, like skunks, the smell comes from there a**s, but! they don't douse you with the smell. It's just to deter predators.
Barbara Burns 1 month ago
I love opossums - they eat a HUGE number of ticks and other parasites!
#17
Cooking food in a cast-iron skillet increases the iron content in your meal. I don't know why I never thought of it like that until recently...
#18
Linen is not just a particular weave of cotton. It's made from a completely different plant (flax).
Rachel Pelz 1 month ago
Takes a hell of a lot of work to get linen from flax. But guess what, cotton doesn't grow in most parts of Europe but flax does.
#19
That the filter in the dishwasher should be cleaned out monthly. Not my original schedule which was never.
WindySwede 1 month ago
And then the whole machine! There are special cleaning products for that. Se your manual.
#20
Percentages are always reversible.Example 32% of 78 is same as 78% of 32.
#21
Ponies are not baby horses. They are small foreveeeeer
#22
When using nasal spray, you are supposed to **inhale** and spray simultaneously. I discovered this while watching TV a few weeks ago.
Nobody ever showed me how to fkn use a nasal spray, and it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do it on my own because it feels a bit uncomfortable, but my allergy sprays work sooooooo much better now.
I feel like a dumba*s.
Tucker Cahooter 1 month ago
Presumably the instructions to do so were on the packet or leaflet.
#23
I knew that a litter of kittens can have different fathers but I just found out that twin humans can have different fathers also. Crazy.
#24
Revolving restaurants on towers only revolve on the inside. The entire top of the structure does not move. That would be insane.
#25
Until yesterday I thought blackened chicken was just that, chicken that had been grilled the f**k out of.
Turns out it's a delicious blend of spices.
#26
Sigh, to remove the top from deodorant, you need to twist it up. I was pulling the plastic barrier out with my teeth.
I know.
#28
Narwals are real.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
And they are having a whale of a time! But for what porpoise?
#29
You are only supposed to have a few crackers with your soup.
So growing up my parents were not fond of having me. So by age 5 i didn't eat unless i made my own food. So when i got to the point where i could make soup i would eat a whole sleeve of crackers for every bowl i ate. I didn't find out until just recently how unhealthy it was. I always ate soup when i was alone since its single serving. The few times i got it at a restaurant i assumed they wanted you to pay more to get the rest of the crackers so they tease you with 2 packs.
Edit: Wow, thank you for all the amazing responses. For context my parents always had food around, i was never without anything. But my parents basically ignored me whenever they were not emotionally abusing me. I couldn't tell you why, but i was often told i was a mistake. They both passed during the pandemic but i was able to build a relationship with my dad a bit before they passed. I have 2 boys of my own now and of course i am over compensating by showering them with love!
#30
How common stillbirths are.
Dusty's mom 1 month ago
And yet conservatives want to force women who have experienced them to be examined in case of attempted abortions. I can't imagine the trauma on top of the tragic pain.
#31
The potato company OreIda is a named after two states that produce much of their potatoes, Oregon and Idaho.
sofacushionfort 1 month ago (edited)
C&H sugar = California and Hawaii. Domino sugar = Dominican Republic
#32
For 42 years of my life I thought that historical people who killed themselves by sticking their heads in the oven (ie Sylvia Plath) were just _metal as f**k_ and baked their brains to death, and only just learned that old timey ovens ran on highly toxic coal gas that basically knocked you out permanently.
Lost Panda 1 month ago
Never thought it was baking, but the natural gas from the oven. Never truly thought "What about before nat gas?"
#33
Up til she was about 25 my ex wife thought reindeer were made up for Christmas movies.
#34
Babies aren't supposed to drink water apparently. Not that I should have known, but never would have guessed.
Amina Trabelsi 1 month ago
They get enough Water through milk, they start drinking Water during weaning, no Need before!
#35
Another one I only learned about 2 years ago. There are people who are "mind-blind" and can't visualise objects or images in their mind. It's called Aphantasia and I (and about 3% of the population) have it. Never know other people could mentally visualise their thoughts.
**edit: Thanks for the many upvotes and replies.** Seems like this is quite interresting to many people who have it or don't understand it. I wanted to add some information that came to me during some conversations here:
1) It seems to happen in different "degrees" on a visual spectrum. Some people are also face-blind, some can visualize very simple forms like square for example. Someone here said that it's maybe like with different image qualities. Some can see images in 4K HD, some have blurry edges on their images, some see only very simple shapes, some can't image anything visual.
2) I can clearly explain to you what my house looks like, I can describe every part of my house from memory, I could draw it to you, but maybe I would get the textures a bit wrong but everything that is there every day, I can describe it. for example, the couch I sit in every day is something I could draw and know if I touch it that it's my couch, but I might get the color wrong or the texture. The older a memory, the more faded it is.
3) I don't have many memories from my childhood. It's very vague. Like not even a picture of the moment. But a blurry picture where I can't focus, I might see a face or a house that I saw many many times, or a really huge event for me as a child (like dancing in front of the whole school at a talent show) I remember the event, some details, (like the cool sunglasses I was wearing with led lights in it) but everything around it is one vague blur, no further details about the stage, theater, audience, I only remember the applaus very well ;-)
4) something else clicked: I'm a real story teller and i'm kind of a "funny guy" so people like to listen when I talk/tell stories. But I had different occassions where I'm telling something that I recall happened to me (altough maybe I would spice it up for humorous effect) , but then afterwards I had people coming up to me to say that they told ME that story and it happened to them and I guess I create a false memory as it was my own. (and felt really bad about it)
*** edit 2:
5) apparently you people SEE numbers when doing calculus?! Now I understand why my partner thinks it's odd that I "still" count with my fingers or try to write in the air. That's all I got to work with!
*Questions I still have. People who don't have this. Can you really taste a taste when thinking about it, and smell a smell?*.
#36
How the Spanish arrived in the Philippines to conquer and settle. They did not sail East from Spain, you you would think. They sailed West from their Mexican colony across the Pacific.
arthbach 1 month ago
I did not know this, and as you say, it is really interesting.
Load More Replies...
David 1 month ago
A TIL for me several years ago was that the Filipinos killed Magellan. In my US grade school I learned how he was an explorer, first to circumnavigate the globe and so on. But visiting relatives in Cebu and visiting the Lapu Lapu shrine I learned Chief Lapu is remembered for being the guy who killed Magellan. Basically Magellan showed up and tried to push his way of life on the locals and they said NOPE.
Andy Frobig 1 month ago
Makes sense; they only got to the Americas because they were looking for the Indies, and it can't have taken long to realize they hadn't gotten there
dandylilah 1 month ago
Sailing west from Mexico makes more sense than sailing all the way around Africa.
John Mosley 1 month ago
Well, yes, but "their Mexican colony" implies "their (Spanish) colony in Mexico".
Load More Replies...
Abdullah Abd Rahman 1 month ago
Yes, they sailed West because they thought that would be a shorter route to reach India. That's why they called the lands they discovered the "West Indies".
#37
That Sherbert doesn’t have two R’s in it and is Sherbet! Who the hell says Sher Bet!? I’m in my late thirties and just found this out in 2023.
Dusty's mom 1 month ago
Always been sherbet for me, but Mom was a stickler for proper pronunciation. Relatives called it sherbert. It's fine. No big deal.
#38
Pickles are just small pickled cucumbers.... what? Who knew? Apparently everyone.
#39
In Super Mario Brothers on the NES, you can continue where you lost your last life by pressing a+start on the main screen.
#40
Maybe not recently learned but a few years ago when I found out how our solar system is just bumping along through space really fast, I can’t believe I didn’t know that. Thought we were stationary. Big ole dumb.
What do you think ?
Jihana 1 month ago
Mine is that I realised way to late that police dogs are called K9 because they are canine. In my defence: English is not my first language.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
Another fact you might not know. Uranus is large and gassy.
Nicky 1 month ago
Here's another one: the word "decimate" actually means kill one in ten, which is what the Romans did to their deserters. If your community is decimated, it literally means that 10 percent were killed, not that the whole place was wiped out.
Sand Ers 1 month ago
Not any more. Word definitions can change to reflect usage. That one has.
Load More Replies...
StrangeOne 1 month ago (edited)
Things I've learned, adults don't automatically just know what they know because they reached a certain age. They got all their information from their parents, friends, schooling, books and even had to learn how to be parents. Just like their parents, and their parent's parents, etc. Every generation is winging it and they don't always know what they're doing.
Sand Ers 1 month ago
I’ve had customers apologize for asking me “dumb” questions. I tell them that nobody was born knowing how to do any of the stuff I do. Somebody had to teach me. I love to explain how things work. I’ve talked myself out of a few jobs that way. I don’t mind. They’ll still call me when they hit something they can’t figure out. And they know I’m not trying to slip something past them.
Load More Replies...
nine4t4 1 month ago
I was at a farmer's market with a friend and they were blown away by brussel sprouts still on the stalk. Something I realize most people have never seen. My repsonse, "Did you think they grew in rows like tiny cabbages?" His answer was a pause and a very unconvincing, "Uh....no?"
Janissary35680 3 weeks ago
I'll confess. Until the first time I saw them growing on a stalk I did think they grew in rows like tiny cabbages.
Load More Replies...
chamomile tea 1 month ago
Does anyone else always scroll down to see the hidden comments, only to sigh and also downvote?
Brian Droste 1 month ago
The sun doesn't come out from behind the clouds. The clouds move out of the way.
Load More Replies...
Sky Render 1 month ago
Working with HCFA forms has taught me that most medical facilities have no idea for to properly fill out a HCFA form. Let alone that the main reason insurance doesn't pay them the first go around is because they messed up filling out the form so badly that it couldn't be read properly.
Brian Droste 1 month ago (edited)
I learned some things new on this post for the first time. I am 65 years old. I am not embarrassed. If you are a little bit older and you learned something for the first time, why should you be embarrassed. You either was taught something wrong or you never knew it in the first place and learned it for the first time. Nothing to be embarrassed about.
Janissary35680 3 weeks ago
Raisins are dried grapes and prunes are dried plums. I reached young adulthood without knowing that.
Jihana 1 month ago
Mine is that I realised way to late that police dogs are called K9 because they are canine. In my defence: English is not my first language.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
Another fact you might not know. Uranus is large and gassy.
Nicky 1 month ago
Here's another one: the word "decimate" actually means kill one in ten, which is what the Romans did to their deserters. If your community is decimated, it literally means that 10 percent were killed, not that the whole place was wiped out.
Sand Ers 1 month ago
Not any more. Word definitions can change to reflect usage. That one has.
Load More Replies... StrangeOne 1 month ago (edited)
Things I've learned, adults don't automatically just know what they know because they reached a certain age. They got all their information from their parents, friends, schooling, books and even had to learn how to be parents. Just like their parents, and their parent's parents, etc. Every generation is winging it and they don't always know what they're doing.
Sand Ers 1 month ago
I’ve had customers apologize for asking me “dumb” questions. I tell them that nobody was born knowing how to do any of the stuff I do. Somebody had to teach me. I love to explain how things work. I’ve talked myself out of a few jobs that way. I don’t mind. They’ll still call me when they hit something they can’t figure out. And they know I’m not trying to slip something past them.
Load More Replies... nine4t4 1 month ago
I was at a farmer's market with a friend and they were blown away by brussel sprouts still on the stalk. Something I realize most people have never seen. My repsonse, "Did you think they grew in rows like tiny cabbages?" His answer was a pause and a very unconvincing, "Uh....no?"
Janissary35680 3 weeks ago
I'll confess. Until the first time I saw them growing on a stalk I did think they grew in rows like tiny cabbages.
Load More Replies... chamomile tea 1 month ago
Does anyone else always scroll down to see the hidden comments, only to sigh and also downvote?
Brian Droste 1 month ago
The sun doesn't come out from behind the clouds. The clouds move out of the way.
Load More Replies... Sky Render 1 month ago
Working with HCFA forms has taught me that most medical facilities have no idea for to properly fill out a HCFA form. Let alone that the main reason insurance doesn't pay them the first go around is because they messed up filling out the form so badly that it couldn't be read properly.
Brian Droste 1 month ago (edited)
I learned some things new on this post for the first time. I am 65 years old. I am not embarrassed. If you are a little bit older and you learned something for the first time, why should you be embarrassed. You either was taught something wrong or you never knew it in the first place and learned it for the first time. Nothing to be embarrassed about.
Janissary35680 3 weeks ago
Raisins are dried grapes and prunes are dried plums. I reached young adulthood without knowing that.
You May Like 50 Cool And Interesting Facts About The World That May Be New To You “2,055 Brown Recluse Spiders Were Collected”: 30 “Today I Learned” Facts, From Shocking To Cool 50 Random And Interesting Facts You Might Not Know About The World
Mindaugas Balčiauskas
Evelina Šiukšterytė
Viktorija Ošikaitė
Related on Bored Panda
