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Some, like mathematician Roger Antonsen, believe that numbers are the key to understanding the world. (Antonsen even gave a brilliant TED talk to explain this statement, which I highly recommend.) And there's a Reddit thread that vividly illustrates the point.

It started when platform user JustinMGH made a post, asking others to share facts and stats that sound like obvious exaggerations but actually aren't.

Immediately, people started delivering fascinating, weird, and even disturbing titbits of information, changing each other's perspective about everything around them, even if ever so slightly.

#1

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The difference between million and billion is huge (relatively):
1 Million seconds = 11 Days
1 Billion seconds = 31 years

TheIshark , Sarah-Rose Report

#2

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The budget to send to the Curiosity Rover to the Mars is less than the worldwide military expenditure for thirteen hours

anon , Robert Sullivan Report

#3

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Cleopatra was alive closer to the Moon landing than she was to the construction of the great pyramids.

anon , Christopher Michel Report

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Tabby_Sohee
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’ve heard this one a hundred times and it blows my mind every single time… what a history

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#4

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread USA citizens privately own more firearms than all countries combined. Even more than most militaries.

ChikNoods , Jamal Fanaian Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This must be why the USA is the safest country in the world. All them guns meaning people are safe from gun violence......

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cogadh
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fully half of those guns are owned by only 3% of the US population.

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XenoMurph
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But half are not. And many kept unsecurely or are in the hands of currently sane, law-abiding, and not angry people. Will ALL of those tens of millions of gun owners remain sane, law-abiding or peaceful tomorrow... unlikely.

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Marie Dahme
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or Wyoming. Back in the 70’s and 80’s wasn’t uncommon to see teenagers trucks in the parking lot of the high school with gun racks with fishing poles and rifles hanging in the gun rack. But that was like 40 or 50 years ago. And I grew up in a town of less than 800 people if that. The town is smaller now of course. But I’m sure things are different now. Times are a changin.

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LizzieBoredom
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One young man falls off a roller coaster and dies so the Government is placing new regulations on Roller Coaster Construction. How many people have died from gunfire this week alone?????

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LizzieBoredom
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Since all mass shootings are committed by males, we just need to ban males from owning guns. End of problem.

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Kevin Ber
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you are preparing for a civil war against the "commies", the Liberals, the lizard people and "the man" as well as a government take over of whatever c**p town you live in, you need the guns. You know to feel safe and act like an unlicensed, untrained cop or a poor facsimile of Rambo. A lot of those gun owners also drink alcohol while shooting, have way too much camo themed anything, and love things with the word "tactical" in front of it. Tactical dinnerware was my favorite thing marketed to these gullible folks.

fracarr avatar
François Carré
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Feeling the need to always be prepared for a bloody civil war, or any other kind of insane Fort Alamo situation, where you will have to kill your neighbour before they kill you. Such a sad way to live, such a horrific vision of the world if you just think about it.

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Becky Samuel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And yet as a country they seem sadly passive about having terrible working and living conditions. It confuses the heck out of me.

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Olive of the Meowls
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This makes me very concerned for my personal safety and the safety of those around me

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Larry
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's a paranoia epidemic. Who do they think is coming to get them that they need a personal armory

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J Matz
Community Member
1 year ago

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And if we didn't have guns, we'd have the most bombings and/or stabbings. Our country is f'd, but the crazies will be crazy one way or another, removing the guns, which could never happen, would solve very little, if not make things worse.

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Alicia M
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am an American who does not own a gun, but I know many people who have a small, personal arsenal. It's insane to need all those guns.

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Lisa B
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My (idiot) ex-husband owns 4 guns, 2 of which he has never even shot. I own zero guns. I have a very large dog for protection, and two smaller dogs as wireless doorbells to alert me if a leaf falls from the tree in the front yard. I feel safer now than I ever did while I was living with a drunk who likes to carry his guns around while he was wasted.

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Stump Rumpersonne
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where's the troglodyte that says aN aRmeD sOcIeTy Is A pOlITe SoCiEtY

jmatz avatar
J Matz
Community Member
1 year ago

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Not sure but are they the one who taught you how to type?

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TotallyNOTaFox
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The amount of people that died to firearms between 2009 and 2019 in the US is higher than the casualities their military had in all wars since their independence combined.

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cogadh
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In 2016, the Center for Disease control reported that since 1968, there were about 1.5 million gun deaths. At the time, all of US military war casualties combined amounted to 1.2 million. Both of these numbers are estimates and the truly accurate number is debated, but they are basically correct. This statistic surfaced just after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017. Since then, war casualties have not increased significantly, but, for example, in 2020 the CDC recorded the highest number of civilian gun deaths in it's history of keeping records, with a daily average of 124 gun deaths, a total of 45222 deaths, or about 10000 less than died in 3 years of the Korean War, or around half those who died in the 11 years of the Vietnam war. While I could find no actual source making the 2009-2019 claim and I couldn't be bothered to do the math off of the CDC reports myself, what I could verify is bad enough.

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Yugan Talovich
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, but you have to keep shooting innocent people because every gun and every bullet is profit for someone!

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Two_rolling_black_eyes
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is actually wrong in a really bad way. US civilians own almost 2.5 times as many small arms as all the world's militaries and police forces combined. A group called the Small Arms Survey (www.smallarmssurvey.org) works with the United Nations to track the number of guns in the world. The most comprehensive survey from 2017 shows that US civilians have 387,795,620 guns. 120 guns per 100 people. All law enforcement and militaries of the world have a combined 154,953,073 small arms. Here's a link with pretty maps and graphs to see how many your country has in each category (military, police, civilian). https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-ownership-by-country. Note: This is small arms. Tanks, fighter jets, and 500lb bombs are not being counted.

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Person
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You know the Arguments here. The logical and not. And how everyone is trying to disrespect others even though some people are just stating opinions or feelings really shows how divided we are as people. And why gun violence and such is so damn hard to solve. Yeah, there are dumbasses with guns, and there are smart people with guns. We can't decide on anything because everyone is just trying to shut everyone else up and tune people out if their opinion or answer to the problem is the slightest bit different. No wonder we're f^cked.

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thatlesbiantacocat
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is no reason a single country should have more guns than a whole a*s military. That does not work that way.

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GPZ
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Purely an observation: Also home of the highest gun related crime rate

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Šimon Špaček
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More than most militaries... Well, from 172 countries only 50 have more than 100000 soldiers. And we are comparing it to country with country with more that 300 millions of people (and gun obsession).

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BOTW PANDA
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You'd be suprised until you see some Texas family's collections.

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Head_on_a_Stick
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wikipedia reckons 1.2 guns per head in the US; almost 400 million guns in total. The second largest is Islas Malvinas (incorrectly referred to as "Falkland Islands" for some reason) with a paltry 0.62 guns per head. A clear win for the US.

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Liam Lowe
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Falkland Islands held a referendum on its political status: 99.8% of votes cast favoured remaining a British overseas territory. There's why it's "incorrectly" referred to as the Falkland Islands.

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Coral
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And they wonder why there is all these mass shootings!!

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Gypsy Lee
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When my FIL dies we'll have to call the ATF to come to dispose of his arsenal. This gives me real anxiety just thinking about it.

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Larry XK
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just to p**s everyone off a tad more, I am a left leaning centralist, voted Democratic all my life and I own not one but three handguns. I don't find a need for rifles or shotguns as of yet because I don't hunt, in fact I'm a staunch supporter of animal rights.

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L hill
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And it still won't protect anyone from nuclear weapons.

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Bec
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is a business in my town called Four Guns because they claim not only do we need A gun but every house needs 4 guns

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Paul Pienkowski
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have like 15 in my basement. I'm not a psycho, they're from my grandpa! They're mostly antique, too, so good future money...

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Stannous Flouride
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Over 60% of Americans do NOT live in a house that has a firearm in it or own one. Only 30% of Americans say they own a gun. So there's LOTS of stockpiling going on.

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Holy Cow Monkeys
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sorry, I'll get voted down, it's eminent. I personally own no guns & never will. I'm in TX. My family hunts with guns & bows. The whole family benefits from the food they bring in. Also, some folks I know don't often carry a gun on them. It's to form a militia if need be ( hope it never gets to that point) and for food. :/

cogadh avatar
cogadh
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your clarification is worth repeating. When the second amendment was written, the US had no standing army at all and that line about a militia was specifically for the government to call up civilians to defend the country if necessary. With no standing army and therefore no arsenal, it was necessary to allow civilians to own firearms for the defense of the country. It was not, as has been reinterpreted over the years, to allow for the formation of a militia in opposition to the government or any other entity.

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Alan Christensen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've read that the 20/80 Rule applies to US gun ownership, with 20 percent of the gun owners having 80 percent of the guns.

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Leo Domitrix
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exaggerated. US citizens do, however, own more than the US military in terms of just handguns/longarms. But the military has tanks, grenades, bombs, etc., so ..... keep that in mind.

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Leo Domitrix
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Before you downvote me, check out the ratio of private guns to military/police guns in Yemen: Nearly 15 million privately owned firearms in a country of 30 million is still reallllllly bad. The US doesn't have a monopoly on gun-related-stupidity, unfortunately.

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DEW
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is sad to hear. I don't mind people having guns I just think they should get rid of the ones that are only good in battle/war. I mean if someone comes to shoot up a school I'd rather they have 6 to 8 bullets and have to reload. With the guns that shoot hundreds of bullets at a time...you don't have a chance.

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Geoffrey Scott
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Seems that most mass shootings use AR15 style. I am a proponent of the 2nd...however..if you need more than 4-5 shots to take a deer, go sit down. Those who shake their testes over the 2nd and "original intent" should surrender all semi-autos and be provided with muzzle loaders, which were essentially what was available when the 2nd was adopted.

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ConservaDave
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly! The right to bear arms is in our constitution. In case our government starts pushing the socialism agenda too hard we get to say "I don't think so!" Added plus: Home protection.

scarletgeurin avatar
Person
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know this isn't exactly gonna make me well-liked here but have you seen some of what's happening with our government? If we don't have access to guns in the case of needing to defend ourselves and they do, we are kinda screwed. Not only that but gun restrictions should be put in place. I don't disagree with that, however, the idea of banning them isn't smart, it isn't like places without guns are safe. The stabbings in the UK, the assault and r@pe in Japan. People just suck, guns are the selected weapon of choice yes, which is why we need restrictions, but if you think the crazy people who shouldn't have them will just give them up if you say they can't have them, you're dead wrong. It's a complicated thing there isn't an easy solution. There are good ideas but too little thought in place about the long-term effects. (Of course, feel free to give me or info or respond to this, I wanna hear what others think as well. I just wanted to state my piece for now.)

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Vix Spiderthrust
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Stabbings in the UK? Your murder rate is five times higher than the UK's, or any other European country's. There are more deaths by stabbing in the USA every year than murders total in the UK. Places without guns are indeed much safer. And you aren't going to defend yourself against the US government with your guns, that's a pathetic fantasy.

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jmdirks
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Its wonderfully amazing what constitutionally provided rights can do.

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Kevin Ber
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

99.999% of all bullets shot in the US are used to shot inanimate objects. The vast majority of it being metal plates, paper or dirt.

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DJR
Community Member
1 year ago

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If you recognize the truth that all genocides are committed by governments, then you have to acknowledge that it is good for the masses to have more guns than the governments do. "Rule by consent of the governed" is meaningless if the governed don't have the ability to say "no".

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Vix Spiderthrust
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah yes, the paranoid wank-fantasy of gun obsessives that they will use their guns defending themselves from tyranny instead of, as is statistically far more likely, using them to commit suicide or accidentally injure themselves or a family member.

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#5

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Pocahontas and William Shakespeare died less than a year apart less than 150 miles away from each other.

LibraryLass , Ann Longmore-Etheridge Report

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Captain Kyra
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Barbara Walters, Anne Frank, and Martin Luther King Jr were all born the same year.

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#6

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The original height of Mount Everest was calculated to be exactly 29,000 ft high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft in order to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet was nothing more than a rounded estimate.

Chiper136 , watchsmart Report

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#8

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn’t survive WWII.

anotherpoweruser , Signal Corps Archive Report

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#9

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread 1 in 2 Australians will get skin cancer in their lifetime

Wibbles20 , Caleb Russell Report

#10

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Neutron stars are so dense that if you dropped a gummy bear from one meter away it would hit the surface in a microsecond with the force of 1,000 nuclear bombs.

Endless_Vanity , Kevin Gill Report

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ThatG
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One teaspoonful of this matter weighs more than 3 billion tons. If we were capable of dropping a small piece of neutron star onto the ground, it would slice through Earth like a bullet through cotton and come out the other side.

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#11

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The state of Maine has more Black Bears than black people.

The_Real_BenFranklin , Patrick Connelly Report

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oktopus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This does actually appear to be more-or-less correct, depending on the estimation of the bear population and the accuracy of the first Maine demographic statistics which popped up in a quick web search. Also, with the same caveat, there seems to be approximately one black bear for every square mile of Maine.

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#12

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Vatican city has a population of 2 popes per 1 square kilometer.

Darghy , Presidenza della Repubblica Report

#13

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread More silent films have been lost than saved

We live in an era where everything is saved, and it's hard to imagine such a massive loss of creative material. Plenty of films are lost, as late as the 1970s too.

ahhh_zombies , Richard Hsu Report

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#14

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Monsters Inc was released closer to the fall of the Berlin wall than to the present day.

setsomethingablaze , HarshLight Report

#15

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread All the ants in the world weigh about the same as all the people in the world.

Rheul , Anton Darius Report

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Headless Roach
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, they work extremely hard and live only about 8 days, while turtles don't do shït and get to live 150 years. Let it sink in.

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#16

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Nintendo existed at the same time as the Ottoman Empire.

roussell131 , Minh Hoang Report

#17

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread You could walk from North Korea to Norway and only pass through one other country.

Also, your feet would be a little sore.

SexAndCandiru , Samuel Rios Report

#18

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Radio astronomer here! You exert more energy when you unfold a single piece of paper than we have collected in *all* the radio waves we have *ever* collected from outer space.

Andromeda321 , European Southern Observatory Report

#19

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread In a room with 23 people there is a ~50% chance that 2 people share a birthday

Phllips , CONG TY THIEN YOGA Report

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#20

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, every two days human beings create as much information as we did from the dawn of time until 2003.

mortal19 , Chatham House Report

#21

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Samsung is responsible for 25% of South Korea's GDP

klxander , DennisM2 Report

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Abby
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I see that. smart phones ,watches. appliances, TVs. and used by so many ppl. I hope the new fridge were getting comes with some free kimchi.

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