Sure, we can turn a blind eye to the dark side of the world. But that won't make it any brighter. I would even argue that we should, on the contrary, venture into the shadows. Into the unknown. I believe we'd come out with a better understanding of ourselves. Or at the very least, of our surroundings.
Luckily, there are two Reddit posts we can use as starting points for our journey. One by u/Literal-Pile-of-Poo and the other by u/Yoloextreme345. They're phrased differently but essentially ask the same thing and invite other users to share some of the most disturbing facts they know. And many have. Here are some of the most popular submissions.
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When X-ray technology first became widely available to pediatricians, they noticed a startling high number of broken bones. Befuddled doctors assumed there was a previously unknown pediatric bone disease being observed for the first time. Turns out we had no idea how common child abuse is.
Humans, being mostly Carbon, can be made into diamonds.
I plan to go the cheaper route and have my ashes be rolled into a glass paperweight. Some day I might even end up on the shelf of a Goodwill for $2.99
We managed to get in touch with one of the people who started this discussion, u/Literal-Pile-of-Poo, and they were kind enough to have a little chat with us about their now-viral post.
"I think I [came up with the idea for it when I] was just watching TV and [since] I liked reading those kinds of threads in r/AskReddit where people tell stories or something that was just interesting like [random] facts, I thought I would just make a post that I would find interesting to read as well," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
Giving birth has higher mortality rate than having an abortion.
Whales don't die from old age they just lose the strength to pull them selves up for air and slowly sink and drown
Damn. I got stage 4 copd so I can relate. Depressing. At least they could just *blink* be dead instead of that crap!
"From the responses, I learned a lot about how nature is much more brutal than it seems. Many of the facts were about weird things animals do," the Redditor added.
But with that being said, they think people should not seek messed up info if they're not into that kind of thing. "The less disturbing things you come across the better in my opinion. But, I feel this post was more geared towards changing your perspective on how things work."
Right now, your Government is doing things YOU think only OTHER Governments do.
Three of the air packs that were found on the wreckage of the Challenger disaster were activated, meaning at least one of the astronauts was alive all the way to the ocean.
I actually worked on that mission and one of the lead investigators had told me that other than the pilot, copilot and last person in the seating arrangement, all o2 aux systems had been activated. I believe he said the person behind had to do the activation, which implied 5 people were conscious. That investigator also worked Apollo One right out of college and told me that sad story. How did I come by this info, I had worked on the TDRSS fuel and engine systems and when I was watching the launch, I realized immediately it was a pressure-based explosion. So for 3 days I thought I may have caused the problem and was quite distraught. A VP at the company called his good friend, the investigator I mentioned, and they called me to ket me know i had not contributed to the disaster. But I will never forget the impact of that day and how it forever changed how I dealt with setbacks.
However, there's something intrinsically human about seeking out gloom. Experts call it negativity bias.
In short, it's our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, this negativity bias means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise.
As humans, we tend to:
- Remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones;
- Recall insults better than praise;
- React more strongly to negative stimuli;
- Think about negative things more frequently than positive ones;
- Respond more strongly to negative events than to equally positive ones;
So chances are, we'll see similar posts in the future as well.
I was told by a very senior police officer (a parent of a kid I taught) that it is estimated that 30% of all missing persons reported to police who are never located have been murdered and more often than not they have been murdered by the person reporting them missing in the first place. The police know this, but lack evidence to proceed with prosecutions.
Doctors used to perform heart surgery on infants without anesthesia. Thankfully this practice was ended.
In the 1980s.
In the 80's? Whose idea was it to not use anaesthesia? Whoever decided that deserves a pineapple up the ass without anaesthesia. Daily.
A Jewish doctor treated Hitler’s Mother(The only person Adolf ever truly loved) while she was dying of cancer.
He promised his eternal gratitude to the doctor and even after becoming a pathological anti-Semite and later the Fuhrer, he was true to his word and was adamant the doctor and his family be placed under protection from the purge.
While some may think this an act of genuine kindness, I just think about all the lives lost because Hitler never stopped to think that all Jews were capable of good and not just the one who happened to have been good to him because of immediate proximity..
Hitler probably didn't have Jews killed because he genuinely feared or hated them - he did it to give the German people a "common enemy" and basically to manipulate the public. Which is kind of worse.
When I was younger: realizing that adults don’t have a clue what they are doing half the time either was the biggest wake up call.
There are face mites which live inside your pores next to your hair follicle, eat your sebum, don't have anuses and come out at night to mate on your skin. And there's nothing you can do about it. I'm so sorry.
Yup. They be gettin freaky deaky on ya face all night long. You thought you had oily skin. Now you know that ain't oil. It freaky deaky juice.
Urine used to be an ingredient in stained glass.
So now whenever I see old churches with stained glass, I think of piss-stained rainbow windows.
There is micro plastic in everything you eat and drink. Even the air you breathe contains plastic
"If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you" doesnt mean the attorney is free
True, and it also doesn't mean they're any good. Most of them put zero effort into actually defending you and instead just encourage you to plead guilty and take the prosecutor's offer. Interesting that the judge, the prosecutor, and your court-appointed lawyer are all on the same payroll.
The average polar bear liver contains enough Vitamin A to kill 52 adults.
I think the average polar bear could do enough damage without the aid of it's liver.
One of the most toxic chemicals on Earth is an organic mercury compound. The material safety sheet notes that it has a slightly sweet odor, but at a concentration where the smell is detectable, it is already lethal. That observation came from someone who would inevitably die from accidental exposure.
Around 30 people die every year, getting crushed from shaking a vending machine.
I remember being told eggs have a protein structure so similar to our blood that you could use blood as an egg substitute in cakes etc.
Really wish I wasn't told that
Dolphins cut of the head of smaller fish and use it for masturbation.
Nature is wonderful innit?
People dying often smell sweet. Not in a sugary way, but much more in flowery way. It's the decompositions of the body already starting. It can also smell vaguely like alcohol, especially their breath
i know this! not just people, but animals too. sometimes weeks in advance. if u smell this, u can predict death with almost 100% accuracy. :(
Me and my husband are farmers (him lifelong, me since I married him *mumble* years ago) - he can smell when an animal is going to die within the next day or so. It's a blessing really because it makes it so much easier to decide on the most compassionate course of action.
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I believe this to be something only certain people can smell though. I have been a continuous care hospice nurse for about 15 years, meaning I sit at the bedside of patients to help maintain their comfort during their final moments (12 hour shifts). There is definitely a smell that many patients will have while dying a natural death. However to me it is never floral or pleasantly sweet, but while in the same room another person may comment of this beautiful fragrance. I have no deficient in my sense of smell in general. I don’t like the version I smell.
This is probably ketones building up in the blood from kidney failure
Load More Replies... during my dear Mama's last hours before death (June 2013), she exuded a strong vinegar odor; breath, skin everywhere. By the way, she also had visitation from my brother, who had passed in 1999. She opened her eyes and spoke very clearly to him, obviously answering questions...then she reached up to take his hand I guess. Pretty emotional for us all....
My sweet senior pup is in her last days, and we have noticed our crazy puppy being exceedingly gentle with her and sniffing her constantly. 😢
I'm so sorry. It is a rough time. I hope your pup's passing is peaceful. My heart goes out to you.
Load More Replies... My darling, darling old cat smelled like fallen autumn leaves in the end. One morning I knew for sure that she was going to go that day, partly because that sweet, peaceful scent was even stronger. I held her all day and later I kept the top I was wearing in a sealed bag. I could smell her on it for months and it helped a bit with the pain. That sad but oddly comforting smell will never be gone from my memory.
Nurses can go into a room with a dying patient and immediately smell death on them. It comes with practice....lots and lots of practice.
Some nursing homes & hospices use pet cats as comfort animals. Their job is to go around to the residents & give them hugs & love. Sometimes these cats park themselves overnight in bed with a resident, who dies the next day. No, they are not murder cats. They can predict when someone will die within 24 hours. This explains it.
I'll agree to disagree here. My neighbor, years ago, was ailing and had a fall a bunch of years back. I heard it through the wall and helped his wife get him to bed. I went home and smelled what can only be likened to actual death on my skin and clothes, so I bathed and washed them. The smell remained, seeping through the walls it seemed. He died a day later in that same bed and the smell didn't leave the house until about a week afterward. It was most certainly not sweet, but rather the most putrid, noxious smell I think I have ever had the displeasure of imprinting on my brain.
It might smell differently to different people but still be the same smell.
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I could smell this from my grandma when she was dying of cancer. I was the only one in a room of 12 people who could smell it. I thought I was going crazy.
I completely agree and believe you. My husband fought pancreatic cancer for nearly six years. His last few months, he has this sickly sweet smell to him. Cancer really does have a smell when it takes over the body and It changed to a more pungent, sharp smell a few days before he passed away. I knew by that change that it was his time at age 39.
Load More Replies... My dog's breath stinks of rotten fish, and I've often wished his breath smelt better. Hopefully it won't small flowery for a while yet.
My granny used to always smell like flowers ever since I knew her.
I was holding my father's hand when he passed away in 2019. He did smell slightly sweet, like dead roses.
"Especially their breath" ? Surely they are just blind drunk not dead.
I work with people you are dying and never thought they smelled sweet.
It doesn't mean they are dying. Children will smell like that when they have a high fever. And dying people don't always smell like that. I have had more patients not smell of it than did. (I'm a hospice nurse)
"What could be more repulsive than a severed toe in a bottle of rum?" Mortician: "Coincidentally... I also make a fine spirit. Shall we get started?"
WAIT thats not true for birds, I didn't smell that in my house :((((((((((((((((((((((((((
My friend hung himself and me and another friend found him and got him down, his breath, or the last of it to exhale while we were holding him, really did smell of alcohol.
I'm very sorry, that must have been very traumatic.
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I've encountered enough dead things just playing in the woods as a kid to yell you ""sweet" is not the word I would use. You could smell em way before you saw em, and there was nothin ""sweet" about it. They were not ripening fruit. It was the worst smell ever and stuck in your nose for days.
I can accurately gauge when a fish has died by studying the conditions of the water around it and the quality of their skin. Their eyes get cloudy by day 3 in the tank, approximately the same time their skin starts decomposing and falling apart. Day 4 is when it starts getting the water around it cloudy. And that's generally when you notice it, if not beforehand.
I can honestly say my mother didn't smell sweet. But, I know she wanted some alcohol during her last hours.
Also I think if your sweat smells like pear drops it could be diabetes. Diabetic neighbour told me.
I should think it would depend on whst they were dying from. I doubt any victim of a gunshot wound is going to start smelling different. Also, what exactly is decomposing? Your cells break down and are cleaned up or rebuilt all the time.
This person is describing people that go into organ failure.
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The fungus that can take over a bug's brain and turn them into basically a real life zombie ant
A human head can twist approximately 306° before it pops off
In order to conserve water, a camel's urine comes out as a thick syrup.
Decomposing bodies:
Generally, it could take about a year for the body to decompose into a skeleton in ordinary soil and eight to twelve years to decompose a skeleton.
And if a dead body is inside a coffin and buried deep underground, it could even take 50 years to decompose all tissues on the body.
Yet if you leave it in the tub of a non air conditioned apartment you get soup in like what, eight days?
It takes 8 pounds of pressure to tear off a human ear; a force approximately equivalent to crushing a soda can.
The body fat of a drowned person turns into a soap-like substance if they stay under water with no air contact
Anything and everything about Albert Fish. Man was a true degenerate. If you're faint of heart or have a weak stomach, do NOT look him up. Absolutely disgusting. I wish I could unread everything I read about him.
Because we all know you want to know now. "Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, child rapist, child murderer, and cannibal. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish
That some tumors can grow teeth and hairs
Toilets are designed so it is impossible to pass out while puking and drown in one. If someone drowns in a toilet they were murdered.
A turtle penis is nearly half the length of the turtle, they are the most well endowed reptile.
No wonder April O'Neil hung around the sewer with the four brothers.
When a frog throws up, its entire stomach will fly out its mouth and just hang there. The frog then flings out the contents of the stomach and swallows it back down.
the surgery with the highest mortality rate was 300%. how did this happen? well, there was a surgeon called Robert Liston who was famous for his fast amputations, and when I say fast I'm talking 30 seconds to 1 minute surgeries, 180x faster than amputations now (this happened in the 1800's). one day he was performing an amputation but accidentally amputated much more than he should have, due to the fact that the patient was thrashing about in pain while assistants held them down as there was no anasthetic at the time. he was amputating so fast that he cut through his assistant's finger. the surgical tools were probably dirty as both the patient an the assistant died of infections. as for the third guy, people enjoyed watching Liston preform surgeries and he was at the front of the crowd. Liston slashed the spectator's coat, which supposedly caused the spectator to die of shock (likely a heart attack).
TL:DR doctor amputated guy, cuts assistant and slashed spectator's coat, causing all 3 to die.
When dolphins become attached to humans and then the human they like are gone for a long time, the dolphin will drown itself from sadness
A person split in half by the stomach doesn't die instantly. It has some lastly moments of suffering.
Source: a person was hit by a train and split in half in front of me. He took some time to die.
Surprisingly common at subway and train stations, when people fall into the gap between the platform and a moving car. The friction of the moving car twists the torso around and around, essentially separating the upper and lower halves but leaving them connected. With a ruined spinal cord, the victim feels little pain and remains alert. First responders hate these incidents because they know that the only way to get the victim out--which has to be done--is by moving the train. The instant the pressure is released, the victim dies, even though they FEEL okay up to the last instant. It's a horrible scene for everyone involved.
Those bitter, sour, or otherwise nasty tasting pistachios had a worm, larva, or some other pest in them. I always assumed that I just needed to deal with a couple spoiled pistachios per bag and it’s no big deal. Nope. Larvae. I’ve never had pistachios since learning this.
Elon Musk’s father is currently with and has a child with his step-daughter. He became her step-father when she was about 3
Most seamonster sightings are whale penises
I recently learned that Nutella has a sun protection factor of 9.7. Since then I can't stop thinking about that.
In ancient Egypt, the deceased bodies of beautiful and high ranking women were left to decay for several days before mummification to discuourage necrophilia by the embalmers.
I remember hearing some dude (retired military) on a podcast talk about how fragile our electric grid really is, and if it ever went down some 60%-ish of the population would die in about 2-3 months because nobody knows how to gather food or water anymore.
Just everything about dementia. It’s absolutely f**king terrifying.
There are more people in slavery today than at any other time in history. More than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery in 2016, including about 25 million in forced labour, and 15 million in forced marriages.
That figs contains wasps. They pollenate by the wasp crawling inside the male plant and then the female one however the female plant has a smaller hole and the wasp dies inside. The wasp decomposes in the fruit. So if you eat a ripe fig you eat at least one wasp. Used to be my favorite. So sad.
Again, extra protein. There are bug bits in just about everything you eat. It's fine
There is no guarantee that all life on earth won’t end in the next moment, simply because the wrong type of radioactive space waves hit us
If you’re a cannibal, never eat the brains. Eating brains is how you catch a disease called Kuru. It is 100% lethal.
During the Black Death, people would be so infected with the plague that the buboes (those lumps) that you could hear them gurgling with bacteria
Dogs like squeaky toys because it sounds like frightened or injured prey. Day ruined
Orcas will slap baby seals 80+ ft into the air with their tails until the seal's skin comes off, and eventually dies. The orcas will then not even eat it after, meaning that they literally just do it for fun.
When someone is beaten and suffers blunt force trauma to the back of the head, it isn’t brain damage that kills them. Most of the time it damages the bones in the roof of your mouth and nose and the bleeding from these highly vascular areas make the person drown in their own blood.
Cows can create mummified foetuses inside of their uterus. If the foetus dies and is not retrieved, the body absorbs all the liquids and humidity from the foetus, and what is left is a tiny dried up hard solid mummy of a calf.
Doctors removed the eyes of Jack The Rippers last known victim in order to check if they could extract an image of the killer.
When a morbidly obese person is being cremated the oven doesn't need to get as hot as when a thin person being cremated due to the fat burning at a high temperature.
How rabies takes over in the human body. It's disturbing and f**king traumatizing to read.
I use to think when you get bit by infected dog, you will behave like a crazy dog too
That the average human will talk to 16 murders during their lifetime.
A cremation oven is about 1800° F. Lava is about 2000° F. Hawaii has accessible lava.
There are little microscopic insect thingies that live in the follicle of each one of your eyelashes.
Until the 1980’s, people had no idea that Orangutans had two different sub-species and ended up cross breeding the two. And the end result was known as the “cocktail orangutan”. The problem with these hybrid orangutans is while they are fertile, they suffer numerous health issues and allowing them to continue to breed will result in the orangutan population to diminish even more
That people who drown in confined spaces will claw the skin off the bone of their fingers trying to get out. They sometimes claw their own throats open.
This pertains to any method to dying in a confined space. At Auschwitz (not sure I spelt that right) you can see nail marks in the walls in the gas chambers.
Takes 3hrs for a 180lb human to completely dissolve in a bathtub of potassium hydroxide.
If you sniff any odor, it means a tiny amount of the sniffed matter entered your nose.
Therefore if you sniff vomit ...
Technically, when you smell vomit, you smell butyric acid. It's also in Parmigiano cheese, which is why it also has a vomit like smell. It's best to be smelled when you open a bag of grated Parmigiano. How do I know that? Chemistry teacher. Sometimes I let my students smell the acid. ;)
During the cold war British tornado pilots where told not to worry about having enough fuel to return to base as there wouldnt be a base to return to after the first 2 hours of war
When you are cremated the ovens do not melt your bones. The fragments are put in to a blender and pulverised in to the ash that we think of with cremation
Firstly, bones don't melt. Secondly, most of the bones are cremated to ash, but some fragments are left that are indeed finely ground up in a blender-type machine. It's not like your flesh is cremated and then your entire skeleton is put in a blender.
That if you think or imagine licking anything it doesn’t matter what it is, you just know what it feels like, your tongue just knows.
After the Tienemann Square Massacre. To get rid of the bodies, Chinese tanks drove over them and "pancaked" them so troops could easily just use hoses to wash them into the gutters
This seems like an urban legend. I've seen enough "pancaked" roadkill to know it is still pretty chunky and not really able to be washed off. Even with a high pressure hose it would be stringy and get stuck in drains.
The most depressing thing about this article was the relentless commentary from our dear friend Peter Weir. Have the day you deserve, sir.
I've never seen anyone want to get negative votes so badly. It's really very sad for him, in a way, spending his life trying to piss people off to get attention.
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As horrible as these are, it's still a nice break from the real world.
Don't look at them as facts. Look at (some of) them as either the alternative view or even the lateral version of something. For instance, instead of worrying about microplastics in the air, consider that you are actually inhaling it from your own clothing. Either way, feel free to disregard 90% of these. It's not like we can actually do anything about them anyway.
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Brushing your teeth is the only action you take where you're actually cleaning a part of your skeleton.
Here's a kid who was born without a jaw. Posted his first rap song on Youtube. https://www.9news.com.au/good-news/non-verbal-teen-born-without-jaw-releases-first-rap-song/32430bd6-6202-4342-b0b0-8b336914be12 Mumble rap, presumably.
Why we several entries removed? This morning there were more than 30.
Janina...I think its because they get down voted... not sure.
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So much facting ( and a little bit of nonsense, but hey, that's the Bored Panda way).
More like a lot of nonsense and a little bit of facting. ;-)
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I believe it's important to discuss the "secrets" we've hidden for so many years. It is hard, scary and sometimes overwhelming, but it will only be improved when we reveal it. Covering it up or pretending it's not happening only makes it worse.
Because that isn't a fact. But then, neither are a lot of other things on this list. ;-)
Load More Replies... The most depressing thing about this article was the relentless commentary from our dear friend Peter Weir. Have the day you deserve, sir.
I've never seen anyone want to get negative votes so badly. It's really very sad for him, in a way, spending his life trying to piss people off to get attention.
Load More Replies... As horrible as these are, it's still a nice break from the real world.
Don't look at them as facts. Look at (some of) them as either the alternative view or even the lateral version of something. For instance, instead of worrying about microplastics in the air, consider that you are actually inhaling it from your own clothing. Either way, feel free to disregard 90% of these. It's not like we can actually do anything about them anyway.
Load More Replies... Brushing your teeth is the only action you take where you're actually cleaning a part of your skeleton.
Here's a kid who was born without a jaw. Posted his first rap song on Youtube. https://www.9news.com.au/good-news/non-verbal-teen-born-without-jaw-releases-first-rap-song/32430bd6-6202-4342-b0b0-8b336914be12 Mumble rap, presumably.
Why we several entries removed? This morning there were more than 30.
Janina...I think its because they get down voted... not sure.
Load More Replies... So much facting ( and a little bit of nonsense, but hey, that's the Bored Panda way).
More like a lot of nonsense and a little bit of facting. ;-)
Load More Replies... I believe it's important to discuss the "secrets" we've hidden for so many years. It is hard, scary and sometimes overwhelming, but it will only be improved when we reveal it. Covering it up or pretending it's not happening only makes it worse.
Because that isn't a fact. But then, neither are a lot of other things on this list. ;-)
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