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No matter how many all-nighters you pull devouring volume after volume of dust-laden encyclopedias, it will never be enough. Because learning is a process, and there’s no end visible on the horizon.

But most of us are just fine with one or two "did you know that?" facts always ready to be served at a dinner table. Except they get old fast and nobody wants to listen to another “banana is a berry,” like, ever.

Luckily, one Reddit user who goes by u/RyanBlitzpatrick did everyone a favor and asked people on r/AskReddit “What's a fact that just blows your mind?” 3.6K upvotes and 3.5K comments later, the results are in and you’d better get your notebook ready, 'cause these are some of the hand-picked knowledge bites that may honestly surprise you.

#1

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones When you dream, one part of your brain is making up the story, and another part is experiencing those events and is genuinely surprised by all the twists in the plot.

jayantadey1996 , Quinn Dombrowski Report

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#2

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones 2006, which doesn’t feel THAT long ago, saw the death of two colossally old tortoises. The first, Harriet, was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos on the HMS Beagle. She belonged to Steve Irwin at the time of her death. Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin shared a “pet.” Estimated to have lived 176 years.

The second, Adwaita, was born before the United States declared its independence from England. Think of it: just 14 years ago, there was a land creature alive that was older than our country. Just incredible.

harpo-polo , wikipedia Report

#3

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones November 2, 2000 was the last time all humans were on the planet together. Since then at least one person has remained on the international space station

theguy4785 , nasa Report

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I wish it was as easy to remember these facts as it was to scroll through. In reality, we do learn things every day, but not much of that information sticks with us.

But memory is a very complex function. It turns out, much of it is generated not only through recollection, but also through the emotions that are attached to it. Shahram Heshmat, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield, believes that “emotion affects all the phases of memory formation.”

For example, “Attention guides our focus to select what’s most relevant for our lives and is normally associated with novelty.” And nothing focuses the mind more than a surprise which escalates emotional intensity.

#4

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year.

Also, that same year, Betty White was already 7 years old.

Rob_Vegas , wikipedia Report

#5

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The oldest living tree in the world methuselah is 4851 years old

social-shipwreck , Matthew Dillon Report

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#6

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That the Oxford Univeristy is older than the Aztec Empire

TheRhinoMonk , Samuel M Report

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Kit Tan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oxford University established in 1096, the alliance of three city-states forming the Aztec Empire occured in 1428.

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Another interesting thing which escalates long-term memory is not the recollection of a fact itself, but rather the so-called mood memory. Prof. Heshmat explains that “Our current emotional state facilitates recall of experiences that had a similar emotional tone.”

For example, being in a bad mood primes us to think of and remember unpleasant moments.Having said that, most of the things we forget easily have to do with our inability to put them in our long-term memory.

#7

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, travelled around the world four times, and was clearly heard 3,000 miles away.

That's like you standing in New York and hearing a sound from San Francisc

armagoei , NASA Goddard Space Report

#8

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones If time travel were possible, you would need a time-and-space-machine to survive the trip, otherwise when you travelled back in time, the planet would be at a different point in its rotation around the sun and our solar system would be at a different point in space as it rotates, which means you'd travel back in time and be in an empty part of space

brad-corp , Herman Rhoids Report

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#9

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The International Space station is closer to the earth than San Francisco is to L.A

BareassedM , NASA Report

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Johnny
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can bike from SF to LA in 42 hours, less than the typical 2 day trip to the ISS (though some have been shorter)

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Meanwhile, forcing yourself to memorize things is likely not to be very effective because our brains are not capable of making sense of dense information quickly and forming strong associations.

It's better to use super simple tricks such as visualization (imagine what you are trying to remember), repetition (boring but effective), and learning the opposite things (create associations in your head).

And never underestimate the power of understanding that which you’re learning, because you'll never be able to remember something you can’t explain yourself.

#10

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Arctic foxes can survive temperatures as low as -70 degrees Celsius

Weeneem , Tambako The Jaguar Report

#11

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones If an underwater bubble is collapsed by loud sound, light is produced and no one knows why

1 -Mark_YU5MAV- , AleGranholm Report

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#12

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Some people don’t have an inner monologue, like they literally don’t have a voice in their head.

DublD96 , Matt Gibson Report

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Lynda Momalo
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can't even imagine. Those must be the people who fall asleep easily!

Tabitha L
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My husband is one of these people. And yes, he sleeps easily every night. Falls asleep in less than 2 minutes (I've timed it). I've asked him what goes through his head while on an elevator, he said 'nothing'.

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Quinn Parker
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow, am I the only person in this thread who is like this? I didn't realise the rest of you actually hear voices in your heads??

Aaron Molina
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

its like when you read a sentence, you dont actually hear a voice voice, but is a voice. kinda like imagine calling out your favorite person's name in your mind.

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Rick
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I asked some deaf (from birth) people what they have as their inner monologue if they’ve never heard their own voice or any other persons voice. They all said they visualise a random pair of hands signing everything they think rapidly.

Parmeisan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have an inner monologue but it's not a voice at all, it's just the awareness of one word after another

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Dave Walker
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Count me in to this one. I thought "voices in your head" was a metaphor before I asked other people! I can make myself "vocalise" internally (imagining a voice reading words), but it's not what's normally going through my mind. And, yes, I can fall asleep extremely quickly!!

Nicole Jones
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I did as well. I can't get my head around the fact people actually hear voices... in their thoughts. It's so weird!

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My O My
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I didn't have one and memories and feeling were pictures. Had to learn to vocalise my thought to cope with them

Nicole Jones
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't have an inner monologue but I also can't think/visualize pictures in my head either. I feel like my brain is rubbish lol.

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Parmeisan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also images. Some people actually have an inner eye and can "see" detailed images... like imagining yourself in a meadow with a stream running and trees and flowers around. Some cannot "see" at all. And lots like me are in the middle - I can start to picture some of that stuff but it's broad strokes only, no detail, I can only focus on the detail of one thing (maybe the petals on a flower) but I lose them instantly if I try to think of something else (e.g. the stream). I can "see" my mom's face, but only really a very broad "idea" of it or a more detailed image of any ONE feature e.g. eyes or nose or hair.

Parmeisan
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, some people have multiple voices in their heads (like they are literally thinking two completely different things at once, all the time) and some don't. Some have a better or worse inner ear. My husband says "counting sheep" for him is actually an image of sheep jumping a fence (for me I can see a sheep but only one at a time so the idea of counting them is kinda pointless, I might as well forget the sheep and just count) but they're cartoons and they bleat when they jump. He can't imagine it without the sound. Everybody has such different experiences in their own mind and everyone generally assumes there's just one way to think but that's not true at all. It's quite fascinating! Have a conversation or three about this stuff, you'll learn a lot about the people in your life.

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Katinka Min
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm one of them and I was completely stunned when I found out only last year, that some people hav a non-stop monologue in their brain. That would drive me insane!! My brain mostly works with images and concepts, not actual words.

Sanna Koskinen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

IKR?! Monologue-based thinking just sounds like it's incredibly slow and inefficient!

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MiraiJack
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The amount of people who decided not to abide to the COVID-19’s quarantine and social distancing proves that some people don’t even have a brain, let alone a voice inside their heads.

Dynein
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I once made a small poll on a public comment section. There's several versions of inner voice: self-narrator, interview, monologue/talking to yourself in your head, dialogue, non-verbal (pictures etc.)

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tuzdayschild
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I cannot imagine how productive they must be. My inner voice is a time sucking swamp witch.

Nicole Jones
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not having an inner voice doesn't mean people don't have thoughts. Those thoughts consume you as much as the voice I imagine. The voice is just how your brain expresses those thoughts.

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David Mealer
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Then how do they read? They’d have to hear the words in their heads to be able to understand it

Kristen Brighina
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How do they read to themselves? They’d have to say the words in their head, right??

Kate
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I demand to know who these people are. We need a registry.

White Wolf
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am one of them. I see pictures and colours, but I never understood how people have a "voice" in their heads.

Quinn Parker
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Likewise. I think in images and emotions more than words. So interesting to learn about how the rest of humanity is thinking.

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Doglover45
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i knew that but idk how u even know anything lol. no offense

Maddie Painter
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yup, that's me. I can't hear my thoughts inside my head but I also can't see them and I always wonder how do I remember things? I still can't understand my own brain haha

Heather Jones
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have a friend who says she dreams with no sound and in black and white.

Elaine Dodge
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Has anyone checked their pulse? Or X-rayed their heads? Perhaps the reason there's no voice is because they're without a brain?

Anton Kider
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the guy's a vampire since he isn't reflected in the mirror...

Michelle C.
Community Member
4 years ago

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Khloe Ness
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

WHAT? thats so sad! i always have great ideas and i keep them in!

somnomania
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

there's a similar sort of thing where some people can read and not get a picture in their head from it, i forget what it's called

Sandra Llewelyn
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wish I had that when I'm trying to sleep and my head won't shut up

Fatima Anna
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A few night ago I was so sleepy but couldn't have a sound rest because my inner f..voice kept talking non stop. At some point I thought that was my daughter who sleeps next to me is talking in her dream. I made a huge afford to open my eyes and turn my head to her when that voice shut up. I realized it was my inner voice playing games w my brain.

Dave Chapman
Community Member
4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

Ruth Beaty
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wish I could get mine to shut up sometimes, she drives me batty, lol.

Bobby Sammons
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What's worse is when you have several and they are always arguing!

Lucy Hollings
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am one of these people and I can't imagine how boring or restrictive it would be to think with a monologue in your head. If I'm making something, I think in flashes of experience and sensations, tagged with emotions. Like, memory of the flexibility of a similar material and scepticism, mental glimpse of diagram from a book with a strong feeling that could work. I can rattle off complex chains of reasoning within a few seconds this way, but for Pete's sake don't ask me to verbalise what I'm thinking. I reckon this type of thinking is definitely faster for some things. I also went to an international language school for awhile, most people there thought without dialogues in their heads. Maybe it makes it easier to learn languages?

Jonathan Schoonbroodt
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lol the opposite sounds more ridiculous, hearing voices ISN'T normal.... I don't have any "inner monologue" either, why would you need one? Sounds bit weird this

Ronnie Lai
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My bf is like that actually, I'll ask him what he thinks about somethin and he'll just dead pan be like "nothing"

Caroline Driver
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've also heard that there are people who don't visualise in their heads, which seems just so bizarre

Christina SchweitzerGrigoriou
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So people who hold grudges feel "repeat" hurt when faced with a new unrelated situation.

Emiel Mostert
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It sounds like my first wife, she never had any thoughts and just did not understand when I explained what went on in my head all the time. Now I am a HSP, high sensitive person, there head is always picking up signals and triggers. She was good at het work and very intelligent. I wish I had know this then, then I would have understood her better.

Jo Choto
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have constant thoughts in my head, but it's not like I HEAR a voice.

Zophra
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wonder if this monologue can somehow compensate if a person is deaf and knows sign language...

Arctic's Gate
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have had so many arguments with people who are convinced that everyone has an inner monologue...I have never had an inner monologue, but if I believe these folks I apparently have no idea how I think XD

Up All Night
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sure you imagined someone's response before? Or generally imagine other people talking? It counts as an inner voice.

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Nia Loves Art
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This I have heard but I can’t imagine at all. How do you think if you don’t have an inner monologue? How do you know what to say? How is it possible to read or write or form an opinion or make a decision? I can’t wrap my mind around it.

Reagan Besteman
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don’t specifically hear a voice talking to me but I still hear my thoughts. It’s hard to explain. It’s like I hear a voice but it’s not an actual voice.

Meyer Weinstock
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We librarians have a saying: the librarian who doesn't talk to themselves...is going postal.

M Dream
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i 'm on the opposite side, trying to live outside of my brain also!

Luisa Vasconcelos
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My inner voice is a pain in the a*s. O wake up in the middle of the night to make pipi and i hear all The worries of the all world. The only moment she is out, is when i do sport.

brandon sat
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i read somewhere that instead of having an actual inner monologue, they see the words in their head as the conversation instead of actually "hearing" them.

Lola
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wouldn’t mind not having an inner monologue, especially at 2 am when my brain decides it would be a wonderful idea to have one.

Becca Gizmo the Squirrel
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I always pick a random person I know and have conversations with them in my head. Like if I see a cool looking tree I'm talking about it with some in my head not just me talking to myself.

Light
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I talk to myself and I have an inner voice as well. Talking to myself makes me focused on what I am doing as there are 'many tabs' open in my mind.

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ThreeOfAKind
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What?? I’m guessing extroverts are more likely not to have an inner voice...

RufffiesWithRidges
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can think of someone who doesn't have a voice in his head...🤨 potus

Courtney LeDroit
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are those the people who say everything out loud? Cause I don't think my kid has an internal voice.

Debrina Blackmoon
Community Member
4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

meh
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wait a sec, so those voices in my head are normal?!! I thought I was cuckoo!

CatWoman312
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are they psychopaths? Our inner voice is often said to be our conscience and since psychopaths don’t have one is it safe to say they don’t have an inter voice?

Up All Night
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Conscience is sometimes called an inner voice, but not all inner voice is about conscience.

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Eglė Bukauskaitė
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Brain is magic. Think of DiD - they do speak between different personalities in their own heads.

Monday
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That''s not true. Ignoring the fact that DiD hasn't been confirmed as actually being real in most parts of the developed world, people with DiD have no idea that they have it. They don't know about the other personalities, they can't talk to the other personalities and they certainly can't summon them at will. When another personality takes over the original person/personality essentially has a blackout and remembers nothing for that time. It's schizophrenia where different voices talk in your head.

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#13

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones A woman once jumped off the 86th floor of the Empire State Building but the wind pushed her back and she fell on a ledge on the 85th floor. She survived.

reddit.com Report

#14

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The fact that nobody knows that if we all see colours the same way

anime_fan77 , oh_debby Report

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Dorothy Parker
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think about that. It's more than just how you identify a color. There are colors in the aqua family I see as blue and my husband sees as green.

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#15

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That there are people in the world who don't like music. Not one specific type, but music as a whole.

That both blows my mind and disturbs me

IncertRandomNameHere , Eugene Peretz Report

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Madison Feehan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hope I don't run into any of these people, because we wouldn't be vibin'!

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#16

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones I still can’t get over the fact that teddy roosevelt got shot and continued to give a three hour speech

stevew32 , wikipedia Report

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Hunter
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i remember learning about that i think it went like I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose

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#17

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Ant biologists still don't know the maximum life span of most ant queens. They just live too long to keep track, and they're not too easy to keep in captivity. The longest one on record is like 30 years old, and there could easily be species that live longer than that

Broflake-Melter , yokohamayomama Report

#18

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones There is a termite colony in the Amazon Rain Forest that is the size of Great Britain and is almost 4,000 years old. There are also hundreds of millions of termite mounds

Redditor_2017 , cell Report

#19

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The U.S government has an official for a Zombie apocalypse. CONPLAN 8888 also known as Counter-Zombie Dominance was written in 2011. And just in case you think it's weird bureaucratic humor, the first line reads, 'This plan was not actually designed as a joke.'

sdsanth Report

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#20

There are more trees on Earth then there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Confirmed by NASA.

Spajster Report

#21

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones A neutron star is so dense that a teaspoon of material from one would weigh around 10 million tons

ladies-pmme-nudespls Report

#22

If the timeline of the universe (up to now) was compressed into a year starting on new year's day, Homo sapiens would appear at 11:54 pm on December 31st

vsbobclear Report

#23

Mitochondria is only passed down by mother so there's a concept of mitochondrial eve, all humans today have their mitochondrial dna derived from her

k110111 Report

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Dorothy Parker
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hold onto your hats if you're a white supremacist. The place or origin is believed to be East Africa.

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#24

Strawberries aren’t berries.

But bananas are

CallumDudo Report

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#25

The Fermi Paradox.

With the number of potentially habitable Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, it’s very strange that we haven’t detected alien signals of any kind so far.

There’s lots of theories as to why that is, but my favorite is called the great silenceDark Forest (which sounds way cooler). Basically everyone else out there is being quiet and not transmitting because they know of some danger that we are unaware of, and they don’t want it to find them. Gives me chills.

Edit: It’s interesting that most of the replies here, joking or serious, correspond to legitimate theories on the Fermi Paradox.

azermanus Report

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Scagsy
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They may be transmitting in an entirely new form which we don't possess

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#26

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That the biggest bacteria species known, Thiomargarita namibiensis, can have a maximum diameter of 0.7 millimeters, which is big enough for you to see it without a microscope.

That's insane if you consider that your average bacteria species has a diameter of 0.001 millimeters.

Cachuchotas , wikipedia. Report

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#27

How a computer does what it does. Blows my mind how 1's and 0's can do so much. Maybe I'm uneducated, but still mind blowing

VeryAutisticWeeb Report

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Johnny
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The 1's and 0's aren't so amazing, binary math is easily understood -- the amazing thing to me is the timing, the fastest CPU's can reach 5Ghz, that's so fast that light can only travel around 2 inches with every CPU clock tick.

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#28

A pig will eat a whole human body except for the teeth

TheTommyKnockerZ Report

#29

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The way the human brain works. These cells that are powered by tiny jolts of electricity are collectively having conscious thoughts, coming up with morals and empathy and every human behavior

pigeon_q , Jerimee Richir Report

#30

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That Neutrinos have mass and every second of every day about a billion of them are going through every square inch of your body - but the space between your atoms is so huge there's pretty much a 0% chance they will ever hit you

ProbablyNotArcturian , Ryan Report

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Jus
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm more amazed that we consist of atoms with huge spaces in between and we are still in one piece. Wow.

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#31

One million seconds = approx 12 days

One billion seconds = 32 years

One trillion seconds = 32,000 years

Seeing as people are currently throwing the word 'trillion' around a lot lately (as in pounds or dollars) this really highlights the truly massive differences between these sums.

One quadrillion seconds = 32 million years.

chippingsodbury Report

#32

Every 2 years there's a convention that reunites all the cities called newcastle in any language, this convention is called Newcastles Of The World, it even has his own website

robbolla11 Report

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Brittania Douglas
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4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My Choir sang at one in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. It was very interesting.

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#33

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Several thousand years ago, the Sahara was actually grassland with massive lakes that rivalled the Great Lakes of North America.

Also, at one point the Straight of Gibraltar was closed. This meant that the Mediterranean Sea almost completely evaporated.

hekatonkhairez , cattan2011 Report

#34

There is a world war between ants

TieJe Report

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#35

Took more time to go from bronze swords to steel swords than steel swords to nuclear weapons and less time from nukes to melting lasers that literally MELT metal is seconds

crappy-mods Report

#36

Ounce for ounce, bone density is stronger than steel.

DramaticGnat Report

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Hello it Smee
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Another fun fact: It would creep everyone our if we make bridges out of dead people's bones.

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#37

Kleopatra was born closer in time to the launch of the first iphone than to the construction of the piramids

UselessIndividual1 Report

#38

You are outnumbered in your own body. The bacteria present in/on your body outnumber your own cells. We wouldn't even be able to survive without most of them

Medysus Report

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Malakai
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Roughly 48% of the cells in your body are actually "you" (tissues, blood, nerves, etc), while the rest is bacteria and microorganisms that help you function!

#39

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Your brain automatically translates wtf but not lol

anartisticusername , aimee rivers Report

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Lynda Momalo
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm fairly sure it's because LOL with its consonant, vowel, consonant construction reads like a word -- while WTF is clearly not a word and, what's more, has more syllables to pronounce if you say the letters instead of the words (5 vs. 3).

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#40

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The v2 rocket killed more people while actually making it than during ww2 when it was used. Also pepsi once had the 6th largest army/navy in the world.

lolcoren , wikipedia Report

#41

That our galaxy and the Andromeda are going to collide a long, long time from now to form Milkdromeda!

That and that our universe will slowly die one day. There'll be no galaxies, no stars, no nebulae, nothing. It will all die out and leave noting but black holes and dwarf stars

hawkymoo Report

#42

Russia is bigger than Pluto!

Raptorini Report

#43

The 10th president of the USA John Tyler, born in 1790 has two living grandsons

Lord-AG Report

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Lynda Momalo
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This factoid has been floating around for many years. Anyone checked on them recently?

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#44

Vacuum decay could completely annihilate the entire universe at any moment and we wouldn't even see it coming. One moment you're doing your thing, the next you and everything else just blips completely out of existence

kangarooninjadonuts Report

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Andres Tejeda
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't give 2020 any Ideas. That sounds like the Plan for new years before going into 2021.

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#45

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones It took us about 70,000 years to go from stone tools to settlements

mindfeces , Gary Todd Report

#46

A gram of uranium is roughly 20 billion calories... Mind was BLOWN!

Onesielover88 Report

#47

Some animal abilities are truly amazing to me.

There's a type of lizard called the axolotl that can regenerate lost limbs in a matter of months.

And there's also a jellyfish called the immortal jellyfish that is, well, immortal. When they are attacked or when they get old, they can somehow revert to when they were babies and start growing up again.

Also, some animals can live without a head. A chicken once lived 18 headless months. And a turtle (tortoise? what's the difference?) lived 1.

I_hate_traveling Report

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Wubbleyew
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Turtle, amphibious, spend most of their time in water. Tortoise, land dwelling, doesn't swim

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#48

France is the only country that has recorded a successful cavalry charge against boats

yodabsinthe Report

#49

That scientist was able to figure out what a girl looked like, where she was from and even her last meal from just a piece of chewing gum

Purple_Gosling Report

#50

Charles Darwin is considered to be the Father of Evolution. But he never once used the word "evolution" in his masterpiece book "On the Origin of Species".

TheSquirrelWithin Report

#51

When something is in orbit, that essentially means it is perpetually falling

I_hate_traveling Report

#52

The 52 factorial story (52 factorial being the number of possible combinations of a deck of cards.

If you haven’t read this before here. It still hurts my brain every time I read it.

“This number is beyond astronomically large. I say beyond astronomically large because most numbers that we already consider to be astronomically large are mere infinitesimal fractions of this number. So, just how large is it? Let's try to wrap our puny human brains around the magnitude of this number with a fun little theoretical exercise. Start a timer that will count down the number of seconds from 52! to 0. We're going to see how much fun we can have before the timer counts down all the way.

Start by picking your favorite spot on the equator. You're going to walk around the world along the equator, but take a very leisurely pace of one step every billion years. The equatorial circumference of the Earth is 40,075,017 meters. Make sure to pack a deck of playing cards, so you can get in a few trillion hands of solitaire between steps. After you complete your round the world trip, remove one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean. Now do the same thing again: walk around the world at one billion years per step, removing one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean each time you circle the globe. The Pacific Ocean contains 707.6 million cubic kilometers of water. Continue until the ocean is empty. When it is, take one sheet of paper and place it flat on the ground. Now, fill the ocean back up and start the entire process all over again, adding a sheet of paper to the stack each time you’ve emptied the ocean.

Do this until the stack of paper reaches from the Earth to the Sun. Take a glance at the timer, you will see that the three left-most digits haven’t even changed. You still have 8.063e67 more seconds to go. 1 Astronomical Unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun, is defined as 149,597,870.691 kilometers. So, take the stack of papers down and do it all over again. One thousand times more. Unfortunately, that still won’t do it. There are still more than 5.385e67 seconds remaining. You’re just about a third of the way done.

To pass the remaining time, start shuffling your deck of cards. Every billion years deal yourself a 5-card poker hand. Each time you get a royal flush, buy yourself a lottery ticket. A royal flush occurs in one out of every 649,740 hands. If that ticket wins the jackpot, throw a grain of sand into the Grand Canyon. Keep going and when you’ve filled up the canyon with sand, remove one ounce of rock from Mt. Everest. Now empty the canyon and start all over again. When you’ve leveled Mt. Everest, look at the timer, you still have 5.364e67 seconds remaining. Mt. Everest weighs about 357 trillion pounds. You barely made a dent. If you were to repeat this 255 times, you would still be looking at 3.024e64 seconds. The timer would finally reach zero sometime during your 256th attempt. “

Zarzak_TZ Report

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DforDorothy
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The statement 'it hurts my brain' is indeed true in this case.I admire the person who had a brain capacity and time to come up with this way of explaining this, but I doubt that there are many people who can comprehend this.

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#53

I recently got my cat some catnip treats and as I was googling what to buy, I found that catnip actually works as an insect repellent. In fact, catnip is 10X more republican than DEET!

jaycentpants Report

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Lynda Momalo
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More REPUBLICAN? Maybe you're trying to say repellent? (Which Republicans generally are anyway.)

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#54

A concept more than a fact but how the whole body functions. Like, even just your heart beating in order to get blood round your body, let alone everything else working in sync. And most of it is done without us even noticing. It's no wonder some are flawed.

keepingstars Report

#55

There used to be nine different species of humans.
At least that is...

Homo Sapiens (aka us)

Homo Neanderthalensis

Homo Floresiensis (sometimes called Hobbits)

Denisovans

Homo Erectus

Homo Habilis

Homo Heidelbergensis

Homo Rudolfensis

Homo Rhodesiensis

Homo Ergaster

Those are all the members of the Homo family I can think of right know. However it is important to remeber that there are almost certainly some that I forgot to mention and there might be some that we haven't discovert yet. Furthermore it is surprisingly difficult to find out if the groups I've listed are distinct species or different groups of the same species (the fact that our definition of species is kinda arbitrary doesn't help). This is actually a surprisingly interesting topic I would recommend you look into.

EwwwwItsMe , pugni_fm Report

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sabocat
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was a time when Sapiens and Neanderthals lived side by side. Both human, but one more developed than the other. There is proof of interaction like trade, bullying and sex. That moment in time would be one of my time travelling destinations.

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#56

A now-closed cave in Utah still holds the body of a man who died in 2009

SmashedPotato97 Report

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Hello it Smee
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He was cave exploring with his family and got wedged in and couldn't be removed. Very sad way to go.

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#57

There are about 100 times as many cells in a human body than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy

336 points Report

#58

How MASSIVE the solar system is compared to Earth. Not even regarding any other part of space, just the solar system. It's insane.

There's this website that shows the entire solar system lengthwise - If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - take the time to read everything in it while you scroll through and just take in the massive expansiveness of space

P1ckled_Herring Report

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Nathan Seddon
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can fit all the planets in the solar system in the gap between the earth and the moon.

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#59

The biggest thunderbolt ever recorded in the universe was 150 000 Ly long. Our galaxy the milky way is 100 000 Ly long. And it came from a blasar which is a frikinn insanely big blackhole : M87. And yes this is the black hole we took in photo. It is way way bigger than our milky way's super massive one

Ou_pwo Report

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Johnny
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is it really a thunderbolt if it's in the vacuum of space where it makes no sound? Seems like it'd be more accurately labeled a lightning bolt.

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