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50 Facts About The World People Accidentally Realized And Had To Share Them Online
Interview With Expert
One of the best parts about the internet is how great a learning tool it can be. Even if you’re just casually browsing some random forum or website, you can stumble across a weird fact you’ve never heard before. The next thing you know, you’re knee-deep in research and it's been hours since you last had a snack.
The members of the r/AskReddit online community had a lot of fun sharing the most mind-blowing facts that they recently realized. It sometimes takes a tiny thing to change your perspective completely. Whether that’s seeing a duck in a tree, thinking about space travel, or finally comprehending how late the Roman Empire actually fell. Scroll down for some fresh facts that you (probably!) don’t know.
Bored Panda wanted to learn more about source reliability and how to reverse our shortening attention spans, so we reached out to Susan A. Nolan, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Seton Hall University. You'll find her insights as you read on.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I got really high and started thinking about our modern life.
Clean pottable water on tap.Living in air conditioned houses with multiple rooms.
Able to drive around in a machine capable of carrying thousands of pounds.
Able to go experience food from around the world with little difficulty.
(Edited in)--Able to flush away your waste with water, NOT have it just build up and putrify somewhere, but be treated, cleaned and recycled.
Able to talk to people across the world in real time.
Even if it is expensive, the medical capacity we have in the first world is astounding.
When you realize that we are all living like "mini" kings with our luxury, you start to apprecaite it more.
It blew my mind just how much we take for granted. Hot showers is definitely one people really do not appreciate
Jeremy James 1 year ago
After spending most of my 20's living in vehicles, the miracle of hot running water is not lost on me. It is still and will always be a luxury.
We asked Professor Nolan about the key factors that indicate that a source or a claim made somewhere is most likely reliable. She was kind enough to shed some light on this.
"The best sources provide links to the original sources for the information they are sharing. This lets us check out the sources ourselves. If in doubt, click on those links," the expert from Seton Hall University told Bored Panda via email.
"Credible original sources should indicate the evidence behind the fact. Did it come from a study from a researcher linked to a university, medical center, or other established organization? Was the finding published in a scientific or medical journal?" she drew attention to some questions that everyone should be asking.
RELATED:
#2
Moses was the first human to download info from a cloud to a tablet
#3
Being poor is very very very expensive. Once you have a decent amount of money and no debt, it’s very easy to live super cheap.
Once you have the money to buy things, it’s MUCH easier to say no to those things.
Kyra Heiker 1 year ago
Also when you're poor you can't stock up on things when they're on sale.
"If the original source is a .com website, you should ask if the purpose of the site is to make money. Source websites that end in .edu, .gov, or .org don't necessarily mean that they are credible, but it's a good sign!" Nolan explained to us.
"Finally, trust your gut. If it sounds too good or weird or unlikely to be true, it may not be," she said that audiences shouldn't ignore their instincts about various claims made on the internet.
In the meantime, the psychology professor shared her thoughts on what people can do to reverse the trend of shortening attention spans. Screen time is key here.
"The best thing to do is to cut back on screentime. Try to be completely offline for an hour a day and maybe even build to one day a week," she said.
#4
Difference between a million and a billion. Someone explained it in terms of time, a million seconds is 11 days and a billion seconds is almost 31 years. I knew a billion was a lot more but damn this put it in perspective.
electronicgogo 1 year ago
this really makes me realize just how insanely rich elon musk truly is. he's like a country & king unto himself. this is wrong on so many levels. no single person has any reason to be this wealthy.
#5
When I found out a large percentage of people walk around all day without an inner monologue it really messed with me. How do you think? Do you think? How do you make decisions?
Rani Trent 1 year ago
My daughter is one of these. I'm a psychology professor and she was in one of my classes. We started talking about the internal narrator and she was sooo confused!
#6
One day I sat on a tram, passing a river. There was a duck in a tree. I realised I've never seen ducks in trees. No one else seemed to notice, but I was puzzled.
Now whenever I come across something that seems intuitive but I have never considered I call it a duck in a tree.
"Go old school. Put your electronics out of arms reach and read a book or magazine on paper. Start training your brain not to expect to jump to something new every few minutes," the professor urged.
Nolan co-runs the 'Misinformation Desk' blog on Psychology Today and can also be found on X (formerly Twitter).
Studies have shown that our attention spans really are shrinking. Time reports that based on Gloria Mark's research, people could focus for around 2.5 minutes when using electronic devices before shifting their focus elsewhere. Now, the is down to around 47 seconds. Mark is a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of 'Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity.'
#7
Earth is the only planet in the observable universe that we know of whose only Moon is simultaneously 1/400th of the size and at 1/400th of the distance of its Sun, making it the only known planet capable of having perfect eclipses.
It's a very cool coincidence, if you ask me.
#8
“I’ll see you around!”
“Not if I see you first!”
Took me a while to realize this meant if that person sees you first they will avoid you and you will end up not seeing them
#9
That I’m not responsible to make other people happy
Marilyn Russell 1 year ago
I just found out at age 54 that this compulsion comes from a traumatic childhood where we had to grow up early and try to make adults around us feel better so they could be happy and we could feel safe. Time to let this one go I think. Other people’s feelings are not our responsibility.
Lisa McLendon, Ph.D., the William Allen White Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Bremner Editing Center Coordinator at the University of Kansas, previously explained to Bored Panda that legitimate news sources follow "a code of ethics and standards for journalism." For one, they don't publish rumors. They also verify information and correct errors.
"The New York Times, BBC, Reuters, Associated Press (AP), etc. are examples of this, and established local newspapers are too. One way to tell is whether other news outlets cite them. For example, AP picks up and distributes content from its members, and only legitimate news outlets are members of AP," Lendon told us earlier.
"But there are 'pink slime' news outlets that have popped up in the U.S. that look similar to legitimate newspapers but push highly biased and even incorrect information. Are they even located in your community? Are they trying to push a particular agenda while trying to appear that they aren’t? For health information, make sure it comes from a hospital or doctor who does not have a vested interest in selling you something."
#10
That my girlfriend (now wife) actually, genuinely loves me. I sincerely thought I was unlovable until that point.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
Still tend to disbelieve someone can love me, other than my own daughter.
#11
Poison dart frogs arent poisonous in captivity. I own 5 of them and anytime I tell someone I own some I always get "do you ever lick them" or "can you go k**l someone with them".. but yeah they get their poison from what they eat, and all I give them is fruit flies.
#12
Owl‘s silent flight. I mean i always knew that but a while ago was the first time i actually witnessed it. Owl came flying towards me and landed only a few feet away and you couldn‘t hear anything. Crazy.
A big part of thriving in the digital age means knowing how to interact with the news, social media, and various sources. To put it very simply, you want to avoid falling prey to (and sharing) misinformation. And you want to limit the amount of time you spend in front of screens, especially when consuming negative content.
It helps to be a bit skeptical of any facts that you come across when browsing the internet. If something feels too good or bad to be true, it probably is. If you have the time, feel free to do some independent research. Cross-reference the facts using a wider range of sources, with different leanings. Consider the reliability of both the sources and the people making the claims, too. What’s their track record like? Are they looking at claims from a variety of perspectives or do they have a clear bias? Think about what the source might be trying to achieve here.
#13
You die. No matter what, how good or bad you do, how hard you fight or how fast you give up. Eventually we all just... Die. Everyone does it, and fairly quickly, no one will remember your failures or successes. Your name might live a few millenia but eventually no one cares. It's freeing. You're free to be you. F**k that person, say that dumb s**t, eat that coney, just be a person amongst uncountable billions that lived and died. It's all you, go live, laugh, love, you basic b***h.
Little Wonder 1 year ago
To paraphase a tumblr post "I won't be forgotten if I eat the Mona Lisa"
2x4b523p 1 year ago
Maybe not forgotten but you will be dead soon from lead poisoning. https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/s/nBWZF0ltUy
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Sunny Foxglove 1 year ago
A few millenia? The average person will be known for 2 generations if they have kids. If you're not remembered, you don't exist.
Jill Rhodry 1 year ago
Yeah, they say you die twice - your physical death and the last time someone speaks your name.
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MichelleDonut 1 year ago
A coney is a hot dog with toppings, often chili (varies slightly by region). A coney is a rabbit in some English dialects. But I prefer the hot dog.
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keyboardtek 1 year ago
If reincarnation turns out to be real, I want to come back as a Toyota Camry. They last forever.
Alicia M 1 year ago
We're only a couple of generations away from being forgotten completely. When I'm gone, I don't think anyone will ever think about my grandparents again.
LGBTQpanda 1 year ago
Why ya gotta go and hit me with reality. On a Monday, no less! Daaang. Brutal, Alicia!
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Scott Wilkins 1 year ago
As you expand the picture you realize your life, your country, your planet, your solar system...even the universe...will eventually cease to exist like it never mattered.
Daya Meyer 1 year ago
And then there are people who are developing anxiety issues because of thoughts like these. Their conclusions are like "The universe is so big, there are so many people and we are all so small and unimportant!"
Sneaky Snake 1 year ago
This thought actually reduces my anxiety. It doesn't matter if I screw up. I don't matter and nobody matters. Why sweat over the lil stuff?
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LGBTQpanda 1 year ago
Well dang. you had to go and tell the truth. Now it's just sitting starting at all of us. Do go back to the mundane chore of living, waiting for the end or just poop on our boss's desks and run from the room screeching with laughter?
SuperDarkStudios 1 year ago
Weirdly enough. It isn't 'freeing' for me. I have no clue what's on the other side and that's terrifying for me.
Brian Jones 1 year ago
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate of everything eventually drops to zero. That, is entropy
Alexandra Nara 1 year ago
" there is no such thing as justice there is only me- the great leveler" ( death/ tp)
StarlightPanda! 1 year ago
Thinking like this will just kill you faster, especially if you're treating others horribly. You'll end up messing with the wrong person. But go ahead - Be a piece of s**t for your entire life. What a way to make it count. Idiot.
Ash 1 year ago
Not everybody's default when allowed to do what they want is to be bad to other people. Some of us only want the freedom to be ourselves. It doesn't necessarily mean you're treating others badly. I think it's a bit odd that you assume that it does?
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Lupita Nyong'heaux 1 year ago
it's interesting that this was YOUR first thought. contrary to you and starlight's thought process, not everybody is an a*****e as a default setting. some of us are genuinely good people who don't immediately default to "everybody dies, so lemme go be the biggest selfish a*****e i can be." ... just, wow, dude...
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Sometimes is more important to like your colleagues than the actual job.
I had s****y jobs with the most amazing colleagues and had s****y colleagues and the most amazing job. I'd pick the first every time.
Joe Publique 1 year ago
Flip-side: If you work in a job where they claim 'we're all like family here'.....run.
#15
Just how much white-collar crime there is and how little of it gets prosecuted.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
Don't think of how much white crime you're likely contributing in some way by being an employee.
There’s no source in the world that is going to be right about everything they write, 100% of the time. But the difference between a reliable source and an unreliable one is that the former will do their best to correct their mistakes. To err is to be human. To fact-check, edit, and admit to having made mistakes is to be divine… at least in the media industry.
The simple truth is that people are incredibly busy in this day and age. Not everyone has the time (or, let’s be honest, the energy) to check every single fact. So it becomes necessary to rely on sources based on their reputation.
Reading cool facts, discovering new topics, staying up to date with the news, and doing research is fun, sure. But it’s important to remember to take care of your physical and mental health first and foremost. If all you ever do is browse Reddit, scroll through Instagram, and binge-watch TikTok, you may want to shift your focus. Make sure that you’re getting plenty of sleep, eating right, getting lots of exercise, and spending time with awesome people. It’s easy to get lost in screens.
#16
It still blows my mind that I can walk without thinking about moving specific muscles. Like, I can just go around thinking dumb thoughts while my body just contracts the necessary muscles to move all these appendages just because I pointed in a direction and thought “go.”
Demongrrrrl 1 year ago
I recently read that walking backwards for at least 15 minutes a day is beneficial to cognition and arthritic knees and ankles.
#17
That sharks predated the rings of Saturn.
oui.oui.croissant (ollie) 1 year ago
Ya'll I love sharks sm they get such a bad rep my little cutie murder babies<33 (but that's a stereotype they don't really murder"
#18
Racism is there to distract us from the wealthy hoarding all the money and resources. I read what L B Johnson said about the lowest white man...
Zippia claims that the average person living in the United States spends 7 hours and 4 minutes looking at screens every single day. (Over half of that involves staring at the phone.) That’s slightly higher than the global average for daily screen time of 6 hours and 58 minutes. Considering that some experts recommend less than 2 hours of screen time per day, most people around the world could stand to do better.
The problem is, however, screens have become vital to professional success, as well as communication, leisure, and entertainment. Many people need computers and phones to do their jobs. So it comes down to limiting our screen time after work hours. You could, for example, delete or hide the apps that eat up most of your time, or stop bringing your phone with you to the bathroom. A lot of the time, people check their phones because they’re bored and anxious, not because they’re on the hunt for some specific info.
#19
That you could legitimately travel at warp speed through the center of galaxies and never run any real risk of hitting a star. That’s how spread out space really is.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
That's why it's called "space". There's a lot of empty space out there. When the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy collide, billions of years from now, It's unlikely ANY stars will actually collide.
#20
People are writing all these profound things while I flipped my s**t when I found out Blue on Blue’s Clues is a girl.
Marley Nachi 1 year ago
Yeah, they call Blue 'she' during the episodes. Eg. "Let's go follow her..."
#21
Money only has value because we believe it has value. The reason a $10 bill can buy you $10 worth of items or service is because we all agree on what the value of the bill is.
SCamp 1 year ago
Most of society’s rules, laws, practices are based on belief or agreement. We only stop at a red light because we’ve agreed to, a red traffic light doesn’t intrinsically mean stop. The balance in your bank isn’t money, it’s figures on a screen that we agree has value. Diamonds are just rocks, gold is just a metal - we agree that they have value. If we all agree that beach shells have value, then they do.
#23
We're all just a bunch of atoms thinking about themselves
#24
That people that are blind from birth don't see "black" or "nothing," they see with their eyes what you see with your elbow.
#25
If you just do something, it becomes so much easier to do. Just get it over with, whatever it is.
#26
How bizarre acting is, I got really high once and I was watching a movie and it dawned on me how strange the whole thing is , you get random people pretending to be other people for my entertainment.... weird
Marzipanda 1 year ago
Indeed. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts." Shakespeare wrote that just for you!
#28
Some day there will be zero evidence our Earth ever existed. The sun will eventually consume the Earth.
Marzipanda 1 year ago
Thank goodness. Finally a solution to all those pop-up ads and spam emails.
#29
If you earn 50.000 € a year, starting directly after school and are working for 40 years until you retire, that's only 2.000.000 €.
This 2 million includes your whole life. Every holiday you ever make. Every gift you ever gave. Every car you ever bought. Your wedding, your house, your kids Christmas presents. Everything.
And yet, there are people out there who buy cars worth 2 million or even more. Ever heard someone making 10 millions? That's 5 times your life. A billion? That's the lives of a whole town.
Even if your double the income. There are people out there who could buy your live a thousand times
JessieJ&LilyLovebug 1 year ago
And now you'd understand why people resorted to storming castles with pitchforks and beheading the nobility with guillotines.
#30
That every time you shuffle a deck of cards it’s extremely likely that no deck of cards in history has ever been in the same order you just shuffled your deck to.
Sergio Bicerra 1 year ago
The number of combinations is so big it's almost unimaginable. More conbinations than atoms in the observable universe.
#31
They were colonizing the Wild West the same time as they were building skyscrapers in Manhattan. I always think of them taking place eighty to a hundred years apart. It's wild.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
The Wild West describes a period lasting from the end of the American Civil War until the early 20th century. WHen the Wright Brothers were testing their airplane at Kitty Hawk, there were gunfights, cowboys and indians, and all the usual wild west stuff.
#33
The light from the stars we see were emitted thousands of thousands of years ago and could potentially be from stars that are no longer there
#34
You can't get peoples respect just by being nice. I was nice my whole life and no one treated me seriously. I've noticed drastic change in how people treat me once I started to care less about other peoples opinion and was more confident sharing my worldview.
k1ddkanuck 1 year ago (edited)
One can be nice yet authoritative and effective at communicating at the same time though. You can be nice, but still speak with confidence, be stern when needed, and not take sh!t when someone is blatantly looking for confrontation. Being a nice person doesn't have to mean being a pushover.
#35
Matter and energy can be changed, but it is never destroyed. It is just changed. The second law of thermodynamics states that, within any system, nothing ever remains the same. Change is constant.
#36
That there are far more psychopaths than most of us think.
Puppy Dancing! 1 year ago (edited)
And most are in jail because less than 1% of people are really smart(geniuses), and we have less than 1% psychopaths, so 1 in 10,000 are smart psychopaths, the rest just have issues with making it seem like they are normal enough to have relationships and not being casually violent. Smart psychopaths want to make tons of money, so they go into business so they are usually in wall street.
#38
When you lose weight, most of it ends up as carbon dioxide which is exhaled from your lungs.
Sue Denham 1 year ago
Also, in my case, it's not really lost at all; it's just hiding in the cupboard or fridge waiting for me to find it again.
#39
Oxford university is older than the Aztecs
James' Journeys 1 year ago
Visit a reservation and spend time speaking with an elder and they'll tell you, western indigenous peoples live with nature in harmony. That's why there wasn't any big push to invent new things to conquer it. The eastern hemisphere cultures were always pushing to conquer nature and thus the advancements in technology.
#40
The other day I was in a thread with a bunch of men that had their minds blown after they realized our hair is twisted up in the towels on our heads after a shower.
THAT blew my mind.
Buttrnutsquash 1 year ago
My husband the other day asked me if my mom taught me how to do that, or was it just instinct. I had to think long and hard about that one...
#41
The Roman Empire fully fell less than 50 years before the discovery of the new world
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
First, damn, that's the first time I've thought of the Roman Empire all week. Second, this is debatable. This is referring to the Byzantine Empire. AKA the Eastern Roman Empire. They may have considered themselves Roman in the fifth century when the Western Empire fell, but a thousand years later they were NOT Roman anymore. Their capital was Constantinople. Most of them were Christian. They spoke Greek not Latin. IMO they were not Roman. Not in the 15th century. They were their own special, fascinating civilization.
#42
How many compound words are just hiding in plain sight in English.
You’ve got plenty of obvious ones like Breakfast. But some sneaky ones like Holiday and Disease.
#43
When I learned about the 20/80 rule, my life was turned upside down.
It says that 20 percent effort produces 80 percent results, but 80 percent effort produces only 20 percent results.
I couldn't believe it at first, but when I set a goal of sticking to the rule for a week (to test it), I realized that my productivity was much higher because my time is now limited. I stopped wasting time and try to get things done as quickly as possible so I don't have to stretch it out all day.
As a result, I have more free time for myself and my family, as well as hobbies and additional education.
#44
Be there or be square…. Because you’re not around.
Joe Publique 1 year ago (edited)
Common misconception. Actually, to ‘be square’ as a pejorative originated with the Jazz community in the 40s and meant ‘to be out of date or out of touch’. So, ‘be there or be square’ means ‘be there or be out of date and/or out of touch’.
#45
Breakfast is simply breaking your morning fast
#46
That how small we are compared to the universe and how our problems dont matter just like us. We are a multicellular specie living in the universe's TINY super cluster's TINY galaxy's TINY solar system's TINY star's TINY PLANET'S TINY nation. And you're still brainf***ed over your job? Relax! Nothing really matters, eventually everything will die out. So, do whatever you want, live your best life and make sure you had a fun time. Go ahead, have a fun time because we all will have to leave any second now. Good Luck.
OhnoI’vebeencensored 1 year ago
What if doing whatever I want and having a fun time is (for example) shooting speedballs and careening through city centre traffic at 80 mph? Is that ok?
#47
It always blows my mind that the match was invented after the lighter
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
SELF STRIKING match. Match originates from "matchstick", as in The Matchstick Girl, to describe any sort of small stick used to start a fire.
#48
Well, it may sound stupid af, but when I was 11 I realised that moon REFLECT sun's light, it doesn't glow on it's own, and that night staring at it was a whole new experience xD
Jen Samara 1 year ago
I KNOW! It's like, just space, magically floating object in space, something out there shining light onto this floating object thats just there, wow, the whole universe comes together.
#49
The speed of light is consistent in relativity no matter how fast you are traveling because of the effects speed has on time and gravity. If you are traveling at 99% the speed of light, then the light you emit from a flashlight would appear to be traveling away from you at the speed of light because your time is slowed.
#50
I saw this on a Facebook meme today: the word Ohio looks like a tractor.
What do you think ?
Charlotte A. 1 year ago
When I realised the tradition of a man walking his daughter down the aisle isn't sweet at all, but just a symbolic transfer of ownership from father to husband.
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
And the groom stands on the right so he may draw his sword to fight. His left side is where his shield would be. Also the bride is stood on the side closest to his heart, she is said to ‘under his heart’. All very archaic!
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General Anaesthesia 1 year ago (edited)
Some really mind-blowing misinformation among the few factoids as usual, BP. Downvoted for the misinformation, however trivial.
Pablo Ramos 1 year ago
That we are, as far as anyone knows, the way the universe figure out how to think about itself
Steve Hall 1 year ago
After reading these fifty posts, my suspicions about the average IQ are confirmed...some people really bring down the average.
Charlotte A. 1 year ago
When I realised the tradition of a man walking his daughter down the aisle isn't sweet at all, but just a symbolic transfer of ownership from father to husband.
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
And the groom stands on the right so he may draw his sword to fight. His left side is where his shield would be. Also the bride is stood on the side closest to his heart, she is said to ‘under his heart’. All very archaic!
Load More Replies... General Anaesthesia 1 year ago (edited)
Some really mind-blowing misinformation among the few factoids as usual, BP. Downvoted for the misinformation, however trivial.
Pablo Ramos 1 year ago
That we are, as far as anyone knows, the way the universe figure out how to think about itself
Steve Hall 1 year ago
After reading these fifty posts, my suspicions about the average IQ are confirmed...some people really bring down the average.
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