50 Random Facts That Seem Too Hard To Believe Yet Are Completely True, As Shared On This Encyclopedic Instagram Account
If we allow our curiosity to roam around freely, it can take us to interesting places, both in real life and online. Like the Instagram account 'Facts And Science.'
Just like the famous subreddit 'Today I Learned,' it doesn't limit itself to just one subject and revolves around a vast specter of themes, ranging from human behavior and popular culture to the animal kingdom and beyond.
Being huge fans of trivia, we at Bored Panda decided to go through the account and hand-pick our favorite posts. After all, if 381K people follow it, the content has to be worth it, right?
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Um, that's a f****d up law. However I'm happy this little girl now has a loving father.
Going through obscure facts isn't just temporary fun. Turns out, it's also good for our mental health. For example, experts say that playing trivia games can provide a dopamine rush much like gambling, but without the negative effects.
Even if our trivia games differ, the benefits are there. Whether we're playing Trivial Pursuit at home or attending a pub trivia night, the basic premise remains the same: we experience the thrill of providing correct answers to questions about lesser-known facts.
"You get a rush or a neuroreward signal or a dopamine burst from winning,” John Kounios, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the doctoral program in applied cognitive and brain sciences at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, told Healthline. “I think whenever you’re challenged with a trivia question and you happen to know it, you get a rush. It’s sort of like gambling.”
Kounios said the benefits can also be similar to those of playing a video game.
However, unlike gambling and even video games, Kounios said trivia is generally not a problematic habit.
“I don’t think there are any pitfalls,” he said. “Like anything else that’s fun, it takes up time.”
His little face just made my morning. I'm going to go squeeze my good puppy right this instant.
Famously goes back a long way in the German military tradition- for officers at least- right back to the Austro-Prussian war in the 1860s when supposedly a Prussian officer defended himself from reprimand by arguing that he was simply "following orders". His commander, Prince Frederick Charles, reportedly replied: “His Majesty made you a Major because he believed you would know when not to obey his orders.”
A librarian from California, Sarah Kishler, loves trivia games and enjoys attending a monthly pub trivia night in which a team of librarians participates.
"Learning facts so that I can get better at trivia is definitely a passion of mine," she told Healthline. "Getting a question right is definitely very satisfying to me."
Over the past decade or so, pub trivia nights that are popular in the United Kingdom appear to have grown in other parts of Europe and the United States.
Enthusiasts like Kishler enjoy getting to interact with people at these events, especially compared to electronic trivia games.
She has learned that doing well at these social trivia games gives her "a feeling of validation" and increases her self-esteem.
It looks like some rare steampunk gem that they need to power their cities in a utopian future :D
What a great thing to do! It's often extremely difficult to re-integrate into society when no one will employ you. Well done Gordon
"I love general knowledge, geography, literature, music, science trivia," Kishler explained. "I just love to accumulate knowledge. I like the exercise that it gives my brain and memory."
She doesn't think of herself as a competitive person but nevertheless enjoys getting a bit amped up at trivia games.
“People really like to have some expertise on something and the brain is very good at focusing on things that you’re interested in,” Deborah Stokes, Ph.D., L.P.C., B.C.N., a psychologist in Virginia, who focuses on neurotherapy, also told Healthline.
According to Stokes, learning large bodies of knowledge can often start with trivia. And people who are interested in trivia can be brainy, have a high IQ, and be smart on a lot of levels.
However, Kounios said that people aren’t necessarily better at trivia games just because they’re more educated.
"Some people soak up facts,” Kounios added. "Plenty of people with a lot more education may not remember what they had for breakfast yesterday morning."
"In typical people, my observation, not backed up by any research, is that their interest in trivia is confined to topics that they are generally interested in. So if a person is very interested in history, then they may either seek out history trivia, or they might just naturally pick it up in the course of learning about nontrivial aspects of history."
Stokes also pointed out that trying to retain information about things we're interested in can be like a good exercise for the frontal cortex as the brain ages.
Unless your face literally looks like this you have no business complaining about wearing a mask.
With countless lives lost, people just trying to protect others by wearing a mask do not complain. Idiots who don't understand are the ones who complain.
Load More Replies...We had similar pics here in the UK. Imagine going through all that to care for sick and dying strangers and some tool turns up going 'Covid doesn't exist. I'm not wearing a mask.'.
That is exactly how I ended up with covid and spread it to my son. Had a patient come in constantly pulling their mask down, having to be reminded multiple times to pull it back up. I was doing his vitals when he pulled his mask down again and coughed in my face. Sure enough, he was covid positive. Thank goodness my while family is vaccinated, as we didn't have a severe case. I was sick for 3 days, my sin was sick for only a day, and it was mild, and my husband never got it or was asymptomatic.
Load More Replies...I was an ICU nurse during covid. It was awful, and we all suffered. But the patients and their families suffered the worst. I always thought posting these pictures was odd. A few skin abrasions is nothing compared to the suffering of the patients and the agony of the families who couldn't be there to comfort them. It was heart-breaking.
I don't think it's about diminishing the patients' suffering, but about showing the idiot anti-maskers that they can suck it up.
Load More Replies...My niece just tested positive, and even though she is a healthy 20 year old who was vaccinated, she's been miserable. It's not just a cold, she's pretty sick. Her dad made a comment about how masks don't work. Well, expect that she didn't get it despite working in retail until she stopped wearing one at work.
I hope she recovers very soon with no lingering symptoms
Load More Replies...I am always amused with certain individuals in my profession, who complained about having to wear a paper or cloth mask. Especially since the mask we normally wear, are a hell of a lot more cumbersome and restricting. *Shrug*
True. I mean, to be honest I prefer the duckbill mask worn when caring for chemotoxic patients even though it is.more restrictive than a surgical mask. If it's fit properly your glasses won't fog up. Ridiculous how the snowflakes think they can't breathe in them when they've been worn in certain areas for decades
Load More Replies...So who remembers when Americans ridiculed them for "faking" the impressions on their faces? I do.
Funny cuz these people probably aren’t throwing fits abt wearing these masks, yet an antivaxxer puts a sheer cloth over their face and litterally suffocate.
Oh nurses looked like that here in Sweden as well. They looked like that all over the world, in fact, so I don’t think you have to worry so much about propaganda in this case.
Load More Replies...I'm upvoting the fact that they would do this and suffer this pain to do their jobs.
Congrats to the Chinese government for LOCKING UP several of the doctors and nurses involved for warning the world what was coming.
i'll take the word of medical professionals, doctors, frontline nurses over some pathetic moron spouting baseless facebook advice, thanks. and an even bigger thank you for being one of the conditioned, complacent sheep prolonging the disease w your selfish, arrogant, ignorant 'me me me' spiel. take ur binky and take a nap. ur embarrassing urself
Load More Replies...While that's really cool, my mind is hiccuping on the fact that 3 million dollars can only cover 33 students, meaning that a full lecture hall earns a college a couple million of suckers paying 90K plus to try to have a successful life.
Marie Curie is not radiating joy, and Einstein seems relatively bored. Not as much as Niels, though.
I'm sorry 4 years? Is it just me or does that seem like a long time to put some lights in windows connected to a small pc?
Not really. The contract includes a lot of binding clauses, and the final product can only be a noncommercial, short (<45 min), short movie non meant for distribution. It comes with a lot of strings attached regarding the ownership of related IPs, including original ones from the filmmaker, that are transferred to mr. King on agreement of the contract. I am not saying it is a bad thing per se, but the way it is stated here overlooks a lot of the complexity of the contract involved.
The first time I saw the movie I thought it was Timothy Olyphant. It's the second time I realized it was him.
That must be such a pain in the neck when he wants to buy a beer or... do literally anything only grown-ups are supposed to do, really. "Are you lost, sonny jim?" "No, I work here." "Very funny - where are you parents." "I'M THE MANAGER!" "You're playing truant from school, for a more-like." "Ugh."
Note: this post originally had 66 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Since you didn't say anything posted here was untrue I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted (-2 when I first saw it) for merely stating a basic fact. I used my other phone to Google many of these to garner more information. Although I probably would have done some of this anyway, it would have helped greatly to have the most basic background information included. In fact, that would have even made it easier to Google.
Load More Replies...My favorite hard to believe fact is that 'Sharks are older than trees' I always thought that was so cool
Since you didn't say anything posted here was untrue I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted (-2 when I first saw it) for merely stating a basic fact. I used my other phone to Google many of these to garner more information. Although I probably would have done some of this anyway, it would have helped greatly to have the most basic background information included. In fact, that would have even made it easier to Google.
Load More Replies...My favorite hard to believe fact is that 'Sharks are older than trees' I always thought that was so cool