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Sure, we can turn a blind eye to the dark side of the world. But that won't make it any brighter. I would even argue that we should, on the contrary, venture into the shadows. Into the unknown. I believe we'd come out with a better understanding of ourselves. Or at the very least, of our surroundings.
Luckily, there are two Reddit posts we can use as starting points for our journey. One by u/Literal-Pile-of-Poo and the other by u/Yoloextreme345. They're phrased differently but essentially ask the same thing and invite other users to share some of the most disturbing facts they know. And many have. Here are some of the most popular submissions.
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#1
When X-ray technology first became widely available to pediatricians, they noticed a startling high number of broken bones. Befuddled doctors assumed there was a previously unknown pediatric bone disease being observed for the first time. Turns out we had no idea how common child abuse is.
#2
Humans, being mostly Carbon, can be made into diamonds.
I plan to go the cheaper route and have my ashes be rolled into a glass paperweight. Some day I might even end up on the shelf of a Goodwill for $2.99
We managed to get in touch with one of the people who started this discussion, u/Literal-Pile-of-Poo, and they were kind enough to have a little chat with us about their now-viral post.
"I think I [came up with the idea for it when I] was just watching TV and [since] I liked reading those kinds of threads in r/AskReddit where people tell stories or something that was just interesting like [random] facts, I thought I would just make a post that I would find interesting to read as well," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
#4
Whales don't die from old age they just lose the strength to pull them selves up for air and slowly sink and drown
"From the responses, I learned a lot about how nature is much more brutal than it seems. Many of the facts were about weird things animals do," the Redditor added.
But with that being said, they think people should not seek messed up info if they're not into that kind of thing. "The less disturbing things you come across the better in my opinion. But, I feel this post was more geared towards changing your perspective on how things work."
#5
Right now, your Government is doing things YOU think only OTHER Governments do.
#6
Three of the air packs that were found on the wreckage of the Challenger disaster were activated, meaning at least one of the astronauts was alive all the way to the ocean.
However, there's something intrinsically human about seeking out gloom. Experts call it negativity bias.
In short, it's our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, this negativity bias means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise.
As humans, we tend to:
- Remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones;
- Recall insults better than praise;
- React more strongly to negative stimuli;
- Think about negative things more frequently than positive ones;
- Respond more strongly to negative events than to equally positive ones;
So chances are, we'll see similar posts in the future as well.
#7
I was told by a very senior police officer (a parent of a kid I taught) that it is estimated that 30% of all missing persons reported to police who are never located have been murdered and more often than not they have been murdered by the person reporting them missing in the first place. The police know this, but lack evidence to proceed with prosecutions.
#8
Doctors used to perform heart surgery on infants without anesthesia. Thankfully this practice was ended.
In the 1980s.
#9
A Jewish doctor treated Hitler’s Mother(The only person Adolf ever truly loved) while she was dying of cancer.
He promised his eternal gratitude to the doctor and even after becoming a pathological anti-Semite and later the Fuhrer, he was true to his word and was adamant the doctor and his family be placed under protection from the purge.
While some may think this an act of genuine kindness, I just think about all the lives lost because Hitler never stopped to think that all Jews were capable of good and not just the one who happened to have been good to him because of immediate proximity..
#10
When I was younger: realizing that adults don’t have a clue what they are doing half the time either was the biggest wake up call.
#11
There are face mites which live inside your pores next to your hair follicle, eat your sebum, don't have anuses and come out at night to mate on your skin. And there's nothing you can do about it. I'm so sorry.
#12
Urine used to be an ingredient in stained glass.
So now whenever I see old churches with stained glass, I think of piss-stained rainbow windows.
#13
There is micro plastic in everything you eat and drink. Even the air you breathe contains plastic
#14
"If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you" doesnt mean the attorney is free
#15
The average polar bear liver contains enough Vitamin A to kill 52 adults.
#16
One of the most toxic chemicals on Earth is an organic mercury compound. The material safety sheet notes that it has a slightly sweet odor, but at a concentration where the smell is detectable, it is already lethal. That observation came from someone who would inevitably die from accidental exposure.
#17
Around 30 people die every year, getting crushed from shaking a vending machine.
#18
I remember being told eggs have a protein structure so similar to our blood that you could use blood as an egg substitute in cakes etc.
Really wish I wasn't told that
#19
Dolphins cut of the head of smaller fish and use it for masturbation.
Nature is wonderful innit?
#20
People dying often smell sweet. Not in a sugary way, but much more in flowery way. It's the decompositions of the body already starting. It can also smell vaguely like alcohol, especially their breath
#21
The fungus that can take over a bug's brain and turn them into basically a real life zombie ant
#25
Decomposing bodies:
Generally, it could take about a year for the body to decompose into a skeleton in ordinary soil and eight to twelve years to decompose a skeleton.
And if a dead body is inside a coffin and buried deep underground, it could even take 50 years to decompose all tissues on the body.
Billy Beecham 3 years ago (edited)
Yet if you leave it in the tub of a non air conditioned apartment you get soup in like what, eight days?
CP 3 years ago
I know a lot of people will disagree but burying our dead is a waste money and land.
Moneythink 3 years ago
I plan to be composted. Here's hoping I become fertilizer for a sequoia.
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Eb 3 years ago
Depends on the soil. It's fascinating to see the bodies that have been recovered from peat soil, still largely intact after 2,000 years or more. Apparently sandy soil is more acidic and reduces a body to bones quickly, which is why ancient human remains are rarely found in desert countries.
Tassenküchlein168 3 years ago
I have questions. Then why we use coffins? And what’s about hundreds of years old skeletons, digged out by archeologists?
Nubis Knight 3 years ago
And if the ground is to moist it can lead to a "wax"-like state of the decomposing corpse instead of completly rotting away.
Jon S. 3 years ago
It can take a lot longer than 50 years in a coffin. I've dug up Victorian skeles with skin and hair.
Bored Birgit 3 years ago
Or in moor. Moor bodies often are nearly good as new.
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Brenda Pereira 2 years ago
Imagine having to open the casket of someone who died a years earlier only to find a soup of bones and body parts. Cremation, here I come!
The Scout 2 years ago
To help along with decomposition, many undertakers - if unobserved - will use the excavator to collapse or at least perforate the coffin lid before closing the grave. If the conditions are averse, like very moist clay soil, often in combination with a high ground water level, decomposition is massively disturbed, often leading to saponification of the body. This has become a well-known problem at cemeteries, because if the graves are leveled after a few decades to make room for the next burials, some bodys are still coherent and covered with grave wax instead of being reduced to a few bones. As this could be traumatic for the next of kin if notified, most of there are then silently cremated and re-buried.
What ninjas can't 3 years ago
Whenever I'm at my grandfathers grave I think about the fact that I'm standing on his decomposing body, and it seems surreal because when I'm at my grandmothers I still seem to expect him to walk in the door after parking their car.
Twodogsandapicnictable 3 years ago
It doesn't matter once they're embalmed. Like modern day mummies for eons.
Raven DeathShade 3 years ago (edited)
For fish in water: they float on top of the water for day 1, day 2 they get pulled towards your filter or sink to the ground, day 3 their eyes go fully cloudy and they start decomposing, day 4 they start affecting the water quality. (RIP Molly, Perdita, Cookies and Cream, and Leopard.)
Tiny Dynamine 3 years ago
It's a bit sad to know that people talking to the graves of their relatives are basically just talking to a skeleton.
Don't Look 3 years ago
Yeah, I keep saying this (been to a LOT of burials) but everyone always seems comforted by it for some reason.
Brian Bennett 3 years ago
Bines and teeth don't Decompose - that's how we trace a lot of human activity!
#26
It takes 8 pounds of pressure to tear off a human ear; a force approximately equivalent to crushing a soda can.
#27
The body fat of a drowned person turns into a soap-like substance if they stay under water with no air contact
#28
Anything and everything about Albert Fish. Man was a true degenerate. If you're faint of heart or have a weak stomach, do NOT look him up. Absolutely disgusting. I wish I could unread everything I read about him.
#30
Your bones are warm and wet.
What do you think ?
Autumn Artemis 3 years ago
The most depressing thing about this article was the relentless commentary from our dear friend Peter Weir. Have the day you deserve, sir.
GoddessOdd 3 years ago
I've never seen anyone want to get negative votes so badly. It's really very sad for him, in a way, spending his life trying to piss people off to get attention.
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More Thinking Needed 3 years ago
As horrible as these are, it's still a nice break from the real world.
Don't Look 3 years ago
Don't look at them as facts. Look at (some of) them as either the alternative view or even the lateral version of something. For instance, instead of worrying about microplastics in the air, consider that you are actually inhaling it from your own clothing. Either way, feel free to disregard 90% of these. It's not like we can actually do anything about them anyway.
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Pablo Ramos 3 years ago
Brushing your teeth is the only action you take where you're actually cleaning a part of your skeleton.
fuggnuggins 2 years ago
Here's a kid who was born without a jaw. Posted his first rap song on Youtube. https://www.9news.com.au/good-news/non-verbal-teen-born-without-jaw-releases-first-rap-song/32430bd6-6202-4342-b0b0-8b336914be12 Mumble rap, presumably.
Janina Prado 3 years ago
Why we several entries removed? This morning there were more than 30.
Lvisman96 3 years ago
Janina...I think its because they get down voted... not sure.
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Jo Choto 3 years ago
So much facting ( and a little bit of nonsense, but hey, that's the Bored Panda way).
John Baker 3 years ago
More like a lot of nonsense and a little bit of facting. ;-)
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Joan Zatorski 3 years ago
I believe it's important to discuss the "secrets" we've hidden for so many years. It is hard, scary and sometimes overwhelming, but it will only be improved when we reveal it. Covering it up or pretending it's not happening only makes it worse.
John Baker 3 years ago
Because that isn't a fact. But then, neither are a lot of other things on this list. ;-)
Load More Replies... Autumn Artemis 3 years ago
The most depressing thing about this article was the relentless commentary from our dear friend Peter Weir. Have the day you deserve, sir.
GoddessOdd 3 years ago
I've never seen anyone want to get negative votes so badly. It's really very sad for him, in a way, spending his life trying to piss people off to get attention.
Load More Replies... More Thinking Needed 3 years ago
As horrible as these are, it's still a nice break from the real world.
Don't Look 3 years ago
Don't look at them as facts. Look at (some of) them as either the alternative view or even the lateral version of something. For instance, instead of worrying about microplastics in the air, consider that you are actually inhaling it from your own clothing. Either way, feel free to disregard 90% of these. It's not like we can actually do anything about them anyway.
Load More Replies... Pablo Ramos 3 years ago
Brushing your teeth is the only action you take where you're actually cleaning a part of your skeleton.
fuggnuggins 2 years ago
Here's a kid who was born without a jaw. Posted his first rap song on Youtube. https://www.9news.com.au/good-news/non-verbal-teen-born-without-jaw-releases-first-rap-song/32430bd6-6202-4342-b0b0-8b336914be12 Mumble rap, presumably.
Janina Prado 3 years ago
Why we several entries removed? This morning there were more than 30.
Lvisman96 3 years ago
Janina...I think its because they get down voted... not sure.
Load More Replies... Jo Choto 3 years ago
So much facting ( and a little bit of nonsense, but hey, that's the Bored Panda way).
John Baker 3 years ago
More like a lot of nonsense and a little bit of facting. ;-)
Load More Replies... Joan Zatorski 3 years ago
I believe it's important to discuss the "secrets" we've hidden for so many years. It is hard, scary and sometimes overwhelming, but it will only be improved when we reveal it. Covering it up or pretending it's not happening only makes it worse.
John Baker 3 years ago
Because that isn't a fact. But then, neither are a lot of other things on this list. ;-)
Load More Replies... Related on Bored Panda
