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No matter how many all-nighters you pull devouring volume after volume of dust-laden encyclopedias, it will never be enough. Because learning is a process, and there’s no end visible on the horizon.

But most of us are just fine with one or two "did you know that?" facts always ready to be served at a dinner table. Except they get old fast and nobody wants to listen to another “banana is a berry,” like, ever.

Luckily, one Reddit user who goes by u/RyanBlitzpatrick did everyone a favor and asked people on r/AskReddit “What's a fact that just blows your mind?” 3.6K upvotes and 3.5K comments later, the results are in and you’d better get your notebook ready, 'cause these are some of the hand-picked knowledge bites that may honestly surprise you.

#1

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones When you dream, one part of your brain is making up the story, and another part is experiencing those events and is genuinely surprised by all the twists in the plot.

jayantadey1996 , Quinn Dombrowski Report

#2

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones 2006, which doesn’t feel THAT long ago, saw the death of two colossally old tortoises. The first, Harriet, was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos on the HMS Beagle. She belonged to Steve Irwin at the time of her death. Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin shared a “pet.” Estimated to have lived 176 years.

The second, Adwaita, was born before the United States declared its independence from England. Think of it: just 14 years ago, there was a land creature alive that was older than our country. Just incredible.

harpo-polo , wikipedia Report

#3

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones November 2, 2000 was the last time all humans were on the planet together. Since then at least one person has remained on the international space station

theguy4785 , nasa Report

I wish it was as easy to remember these facts as it was to scroll through. In reality, we do learn things every day, but not much of that information sticks with us.

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But memory is a very complex function. It turns out, much of it is generated not only through recollection, but also through the emotions that are attached to it. Shahram Heshmat, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield, believes that “emotion affects all the phases of memory formation.”

For example, “Attention guides our focus to select what’s most relevant for our lives and is normally associated with novelty.” And nothing focuses the mind more than a surprise which escalates emotional intensity.

#4

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year.

Also, that same year, Betty White was already 7 years old.

Rob_Vegas , wikipedia Report

#5

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The oldest living tree in the world methuselah is 4851 years old

social-shipwreck , Matthew Dillon Report

#6

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That the Oxford Univeristy is older than the Aztec Empire

TheRhinoMonk , Samuel M Report

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Kit Tan
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oxford University established in 1096, the alliance of three city-states forming the Aztec Empire occured in 1428.

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Another interesting thing which escalates long-term memory is not the recollection of a fact itself, but rather the so-called mood memory. Prof. Heshmat explains that “Our current emotional state facilitates recall of experiences that had a similar emotional tone.”

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For example, being in a bad mood primes us to think of and remember unpleasant moments.Having said that, most of the things we forget easily have to do with our inability to put them in our long-term memory.

#7

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, travelled around the world four times, and was clearly heard 3,000 miles away.

That's like you standing in New York and hearing a sound from San Francisc

armagoei , NASA Goddard Space Report

#8

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones If time travel were possible, you would need a time-and-space-machine to survive the trip, otherwise when you travelled back in time, the planet would be at a different point in its rotation around the sun and our solar system would be at a different point in space as it rotates, which means you'd travel back in time and be in an empty part of space

brad-corp , Herman Rhoids Report

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#9

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The International Space station is closer to the earth than San Francisco is to L.A

BareassedM , NASA Report

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Johnny
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can bike from SF to LA in 42 hours, less than the typical 2 day trip to the ISS (though some have been shorter)

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Meanwhile, forcing yourself to memorize things is likely not to be very effective because our brains are not capable of making sense of dense information quickly and forming strong associations.

It's better to use super simple tricks such as visualization (imagine what you are trying to remember), repetition (boring but effective), and learning the opposite things (create associations in your head).

And never underestimate the power of understanding that which you’re learning, because you'll never be able to remember something you can’t explain yourself.

#10

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Arctic foxes can survive temperatures as low as -70 degrees Celsius

Weeneem , Tambako The Jaguar Report

#11

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones If an underwater bubble is collapsed by loud sound, light is produced and no one knows why

1 -Mark_YU5MAV- , AleGranholm Report

#12

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Some people don’t have an inner monologue, like they literally don’t have a voice in their head.

DublD96 , Matt Gibson Report

#13

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones A woman once jumped off the 86th floor of the Empire State Building but the wind pushed her back and she fell on a ledge on the 85th floor. She survived.

reddit.com Report

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#14

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The fact that nobody knows that if we all see colours the same way

anime_fan77 , oh_debby Report

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Dorothy Parker
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think about that. It's more than just how you identify a color. There are colors in the aqua family I see as blue and my husband sees as green.

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#15

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That there are people in the world who don't like music. Not one specific type, but music as a whole.

That both blows my mind and disturbs me

IncertRandomNameHere , Eugene Peretz Report

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Madison Feehan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hope I don't run into any of these people, because we wouldn't be vibin'!

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#16

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones I still can’t get over the fact that teddy roosevelt got shot and continued to give a three hour speech

stevew32 , wikipedia Report

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Hunter
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i remember learning about that i think it went like I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose

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#17

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones Ant biologists still don't know the maximum life span of most ant queens. They just live too long to keep track, and they're not too easy to keep in captivity. The longest one on record is like 30 years old, and there could easily be species that live longer than that

Broflake-Melter , yokohamayomama Report

#18

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones There is a termite colony in the Amazon Rain Forest that is the size of Great Britain and is almost 4,000 years old. There are also hundreds of millions of termite mounds

Redditor_2017 , cell Report

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#19

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The U.S government has an official for a Zombie apocalypse. CONPLAN 8888 also known as Counter-Zombie Dominance was written in 2011. And just in case you think it's weird bureaucratic humor, the first line reads, 'This plan was not actually designed as a joke.'

sdsanth Report

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Wubbleyew
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A plan for Zombies but no real plan for covid. Nice work

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Lynda Momalo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There WAS a plan for a pandemic -- Trump threw it out. Obama's team even ran through an in person scenario of how to handle a pandemic -- but everyone who went to it either forgot it or were fired or quit.

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Laugh or not
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Does the plan take into consideration the people who will walk right into zombies' arms because it is their freedom?

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MiraiJack
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"This plan was not actually designed as a joke" - That's proof it's a joke.

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pebs
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I could not believe it and I did some research ... In fact it is a training plan for cadets, specifically designed to be engaging for students. Okay, this is the US, but if it had been a plan against a threat considered real, it would have been too much for them too.

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Bizianka
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is publicly available. They said they choose zombie apocalypse on purpose as universal scenario for major emergency with no politics involved.

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Brent Hollett
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And yet, in a real zombie apocalypse, people would be demanding to be able to go to the beach and calling zombies a hoax...

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Rare Wubbox
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Magic zombies, radioactive zombies, chicken zombies, pathogenic zombies, space zombies, vegetarian zombies and symbiotic zombies are all part of the plan.

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Iapetos
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Vegetarian zombies aren't even a problem. You can integrate them into the normal population and never worry about their eating habits. "GRAAAAIINS!"

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martin Phiri
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

the way things are right now i wouldn't be surprised honestly

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Jo Choto
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But they can't organize quarantine or face masks or PPE. Not optimistic about a zombie apocalypse.

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tuzdayschild
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sooooo, the U.S. government has a plan for zombies but not for a pandemic. Sounds about right.

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Tiffany Marie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sure they have one for vampires and werewolves also. ... We will end up with aliens before all thee above. .. Lol

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Steve Bowman
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So U.S. government plans without this first line ARE designed as a joke?

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Bacony
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is there a plan for aliens that does not involve blowing them up?

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Nina Khmielnitzky
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

https://www.stratcom.mil/Portals/8/Documents/FOIA/CONPLAN_8888-11.pdf?ver=2016-10-17-114016-887

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Laura Lawson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All zombie/living dead theories leave out 1 minute detail that derails the whole idea. It's actually a microscopic detail. Bacteria. Within a week, bacteria will eat all fleshy bits of a body, leaving only the skeleton. And that doesn't include flies & other insects that love to munch on dead things. And scavenging animals. Then there are the gases that build up in a corpse because of the bacteria excreting CO2. All of the dead would be balloons in no time, especially the ones in water. Then would just rot into a puddle of bone & slime. So the zombie apocalypse would not last that long at all. It's called science! One of the biggest irritants of the show The Walking Dead is the lack of flies. They are in Georgia, USA I believe & it gets freaking hot there. The flies would be out of control with all of the dead bodies. You would be able to make out a zombie horde a mile away from the sound of the flies!

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MammaG
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Zombies are physically impossible. Dead people cannot think to walk or move. There is no energy source. Decomposing tissue and muscle cannot ambulate.

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Jason Carle
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's fake read the disclaimer on the first page: https://www.stratcom.mil/Portals/8/Documents/FOIA/CONPLAN_8888-11.pdf?ver=2016-10-17-114016-887

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Clare Amidei
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You just have to hide, zombies will decay in a few days and maggots and vultures will eat them all.

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Garth Robinson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Covid 19 is the precursor to Zombies, they shall be known as Combies !

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Mya Lugar
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We all know people can't live with parts missing and rotting..can't live after being buried,,can't walk on water or part seas. That is , all but children and adults with imaginary friends.

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Steve Cruz
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Makes as much sense as beginning Congress with prayer -- like anyone actually gives a F about anything in the bible, or a White House "prayer circle."

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Anna Repp
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope they wrote something for when an idiot gets elected to be a president!

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Kate Dalton
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is false, the term zombie is used as a stand in for any unknown entity. There is not true plan for zombies.

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Kate Dalton
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is false. The plan uses zombies as an 'unknown' entity. It isn't a joke but the zombie is a stand it for all unknown attacks.

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Mr Phusion
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A) That's NOT the first line. B) If you actually take the time to look this up you'll see the disclaimer saying this is a fictitious plan.

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Mr Phusion
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A)- That's not the first line. B)- If you take the time to look it up there's a disclaimer telling you it's fictitious. This is very misleading.

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AnnieLaurie Burke
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If there ever is a zombie invasion, many Americans will scoff and say it is a liberal hoax, and go hang out with the zombies.

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Nick Oursler
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

they chose zombie cause it was less scary somehow, its to prepare you incase of complete devistation which is ecaxt same way you set up for zombies

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Christina SchweitzerGrigoriou
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like to see the nerative and data on the grant proposal. If $$$ was allocated then there is a compelling reason to have this in place.

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Polly Pockets
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

it's a fictitious plan created by junior military officers undergoing training related to DOD Joint Operational Planning and Execution System https://www.stratcom.mil/Portals/8/Documents/FOIA/CONPLAN_8888-11.pdf?ver=2016-10-17-114016-887

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Ian Burridge
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Look it up. It was a fictitious plan put together by students. Still funny though.

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Ian Burridge
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Look it up. It was a fictitious plan put together by students.

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Matt Bradson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was actually the result of military planning training, not an actual, operational response plan. The majority of plans like this are classified and not available to the public. However, since it WAS written by a group of military personnel for an operational planning course, it DOES read exactly like the real deal.

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JeffC
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just so you all know; The April 30, 2011 document depicts fictional scenarios of zombie attacks as a means of training students in military planning.

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#20

There are more trees on Earth then there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Confirmed by NASA.

Spajster Report

#21

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones A neutron star is so dense that a teaspoon of material from one would weigh around 10 million tons

ladies-pmme-nudespls Report

#22

If the timeline of the universe (up to now) was compressed into a year starting on new year's day, Homo sapiens would appear at 11:54 pm on December 31st

vsbobclear Report

#23

Mitochondria is only passed down by mother so there's a concept of mitochondrial eve, all humans today have their mitochondrial dna derived from her

k110111 Report

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Dorothy Parker
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hold onto your hats if you're a white supremacist. The place or origin is believed to be East Africa.

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#24

Strawberries aren’t berries.

But bananas are

CallumDudo Report

#25

The Fermi Paradox.

With the number of potentially habitable Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, it’s very strange that we haven’t detected alien signals of any kind so far.

There’s lots of theories as to why that is, but my favorite is called the great silenceDark Forest (which sounds way cooler). Basically everyone else out there is being quiet and not transmitting because they know of some danger that we are unaware of, and they don’t want it to find them. Gives me chills.

Edit: It’s interesting that most of the replies here, joking or serious, correspond to legitimate theories on the Fermi Paradox.

azermanus Report

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Scagsy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They may be transmitting in an entirely new form which we don't possess

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#26

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That the biggest bacteria species known, Thiomargarita namibiensis, can have a maximum diameter of 0.7 millimeters, which is big enough for you to see it without a microscope.

That's insane if you consider that your average bacteria species has a diameter of 0.001 millimeters.

Cachuchotas , wikipedia. Report

#27

How a computer does what it does. Blows my mind how 1's and 0's can do so much. Maybe I'm uneducated, but still mind blowing

VeryAutisticWeeb Report

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Johnny
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The 1's and 0's aren't so amazing, binary math is easily understood -- the amazing thing to me is the timing, the fastest CPU's can reach 5Ghz, that's so fast that light can only travel around 2 inches with every CPU clock tick.

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#28

A pig will eat a whole human body except for the teeth

TheTommyKnockerZ Report

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#29

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones The way the human brain works. These cells that are powered by tiny jolts of electricity are collectively having conscious thoughts, coming up with morals and empathy and every human behavior

pigeon_q , Jerimee Richir Report

#30

People Are Sharing Facts That Blew Their Minds And Here Are 30 Of The Most Interesting Ones That Neutrinos have mass and every second of every day about a billion of them are going through every square inch of your body - but the space between your atoms is so huge there's pretty much a 0% chance they will ever hit you

ProbablyNotArcturian , Ryan Report

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Jus
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm more amazed that we consist of atoms with huge spaces in between and we are still in one piece. Wow.

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