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.
Come now, just put your avocado toast down and voila! Life solved!
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I wish that were still true. I was in college in the early 70s. Tuition was $325.00 a semester. I worked part time for the university, so it was like they were paying me to go to school. I also got a staff parking sticker.
I paid $150/quarter at a US state university in 1970. Minimum wage was $1.60/hour, so working ~35 hours a month paid for tuition. The price of a college education today is just ridiculous.
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When I went to a Big 10 university in 1968, the tuition was $195 per semester. Adjusted for inflation that still would be only $1604 per semester today. You would expect a college to be run by smart people. Why aren't they smart enough to handle money?
In Norway we pay about 100$ per semester. And we pay for books we need. The rest is financed by the state. Pay your taxes:) Peace and love.
Here we just get shot at and hope it ends the misery faster
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I was a college student with a minimum wage job back then - in the US. The only way I could pull this off was to be dependent on my parents for just about everything else. I will say that tuition costs are out of control today.
In 1970 when I started college at a State College, tuition was $100 a semester. Fees were about $160 as I recall. Books, I don't remember, but they were overpriced back them, too. I had a scholarship and worked. My hourly rate was $1.25. Gas was 35 cents a gallon. I commuted to school in a carpool. My first "professional" job paid about $8800 a year. I thought I was rich. Those numbers are 100% real. I don't know what the hell happened! In the late 70s a phony gas crisis kicked gas up to 50-60 cents a gallon. Rather like TODAY, just more money.
In 2022, a student working a minimum wage job could pay for...um, some food?
Need far more info here. Which college? How many hours worked. Did this pay only tuition? What about meals, travel, books, housing?
You seem to be one of the few not feeding their preconceived ideas. BP's post was based originally on a 2014 meme for Tuition Only (30% of the total cost of attending a university in the US. The hours worked totaled 520 (40 hours/week for 13 weeks in the summer) It was also for in-state tuition for a 4 year university. No Meals, No Room, No Books, No Fees, No Travel. The post is very misleading since it isn't for the total cost!
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This is why kids today get labeled as lazy by out of touch older people. Even making triple minimum wage you can't do this in the U.S. today.
In 1978 United States, min. wage was $2.65. Working an avg. of 15 hrs./week for 49 weeks = 735 hrs. worked each year (Note: This means 55 hrs./week of work + study during the academic year). $2.65 x 735 = $1,950 is earned each year. University costs are $8,250. This means $6,300 is unpaid and borrowed/owed each year (not including the additional interest fees). $6,300 in Dec. 1978 = $27,000 in May 2022. CONCLUSION: In the United States, in 1978, it was not possible to pay for college by working min. wage jobs — that was the 1950’s. If you are feeling salty about the low cost of college in the past, find someone in their 80’s (born during the great depression) to give a piece of your mind to. Source 1: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/heres-how-much-college-cost-the-year-you-were-born.html Source 2: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart Source 3: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart Education should be supported more !!!
The college costs cited by DEN VER are adjusted to 2018 dollars. In fact, the cost of tuition (incl. fees, room and board) to a public 4-year school was less than $2000, in 1978 dollars. So yeah, the original post is correct (or close to it). https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college
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Back then, you could get a good job without a college degree. Now even the most menial job requires one. Ridiculous.
I just recently found out that Reagan's policies were responsible for the great rise in tuition. He eliminated grants that faculty had relied upon to pay their salaries. Suddenly, in the early 1990s, universities found they to get money to "harden" (pay for) faculty salaries. Tuitions skyrocketed and it just became easier and easier to keep jacking tuitions. (or take money from skeevy people like Epstein)
Between the low tuition and the ample amount of grants offered, getting through college with virtually no debt was common. The situation now is unconscionable.
And you could buy a used car in decent shape AND afford a modest rent.
B******T!!! I was making double minimum wage and could barely eat......
Yea about that. Sucks for those of us that are their kids. You know how the phrase goes “Well when I…”
Those times went away a long time ago. That wasn't even true 10-15 years later.
Things like this can be addressed by a grass roots campaign which knows no party lines. Each state needs to start petitioning their elected Representatives (key word, representative is) to cap the salaries of congresspersons to the median annual salary of their respective state. In this way each state would truly be Represented by individuals that understand the plights of everyday citizens. A prime example of the disconnect is Mitch McConnell's latest s**t vomit about how Americans are currently flush because of the stimulus payments. https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/economy/news/mitch-mcconnell-says-the-labor-shortage-will-be-solved-when-people-run-out-of-stimulus-money-because-americans-are-flush-for-the-moment/articleshow/92686289.cms
I did that as well as pay for my room and books. I got $100 a month to buy food.
Then the government started offering student loans. Chalk up another win for the Idiocracy.
what a load of nonsense... boomer here, graduated with a private university BA in 1976 free & clear, no debt, no loans, then followed by an additional degree... but to do this, a lot of things had to happen they seem to gloss over so blithely here: 1) parents lived very modestly & sacrificed MUCH to help pay for tuition (thanks again, mom & dad, (they didn't help with the second degree, paid cash as you go anyhow))... 2) lived at home & went to 2nd-rate local junior college to take as many cheap classes as I could transfer, (a lot of them did not transfer, always check first)... 3) worked at numerous different crummy jobs during the semesters, worked during semester breaks, work during summer breaks, work-work-work, very little time for fun social things, no fraternities with all the time-stealing/grade-stealing foolishness they put you through (nope, didn't have a lot of fun, still made mostly A's, graduated cum laude, did have good friends anyhow)... 4) had to put up with obnoxious, burdensome, annoying roommates to help with rent & share costs, still waiting on one of them to take his turn cleaning the kitchen & bath... So when the editors & contributors put up something like this, don't take it without scrutiny or any questions... and P.S., you kids out there moaning about how expensive college is: if you can pull off doing all or most of these things, YOU CAN GRADUATE DEBT-FREE. I have a 20 y.o. nephew who is on this program right now, pay as you go, no loans. The only thing he is doing different from the above program is that he takes a semester off to work full time after about three school semesters. This program still works. Learn from a boomer who has been there and done that. This program can save you a fortune, and you still get the degree you want. Start your career and life debt free by getting on this program. It works.
I think the key point is your mom and dad paid. My dad paid for my college and I had no debt. But I can see how that's not feasible for a majority of people. (Also went to college in the early 2000's, in state tuition, at a very low cost school at the time. I don't know the exact numbers but I know tuition has risen significantly since then.)
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Well when you get the government involved in anything that is what happens!
Sigh. The federal government may have screwed up some things but one reason why college was cheaper then was because the states funded their universities better then. So absolutely government was involved back then as well! You anti-government types crack me up when you pretend that government is always bad!
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“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.
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.
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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
