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Infotainment has to be our favorite way to spend our coffee breaks and commutes. Equal parts informative and entertaining, it’s the kind of internet content that instantly hooks you in and doesn’t want to let go.

The next thing you know, you’ve spent the last couple of hours reading Wikipedia, jumping from articles about science and the animal kingdom to analyses of historical events and art movements. A single quality social media post can reignite your curiosity and remind you just how much fun it can be to learn new things about the world.

The popular ‘Fascinating’ Twitter page, aka @fasc1nate, is home to some pretty interesting science, history, and art facts from around the world. We’ve collected some of their coolest pics and most mind-blowing facts to share with you today. You’ll find them below, so scroll on down and upvote the pics that got your attention the most. Go on, take a break, and have some educational fun. You deserve it.

Since we're featuring a lot of posts about animals, Bored Panda decided to reach out to Dr. Suzanne MacDonald from the Department of Psychology at York University, in Toronto. Dr. MacDonald researches animal behavior, and she kindly answered our questions about people's interactions with wildlife, as well as how different species interact with one another. Read on to see what we discussed.

Bored Panda wanted to understand the things that people should not do when interacting with wild wildlife. Dr. MacDonald, from York University, said that the best way to deal with wild animals is "to NOT FEED THEM." If you don't follow this rule, it leads to problems that "will inevitably result in their early demise."

So remember, Pandas, no feeding the wildlife... no matter how cute the animals look. Promise?

"I think benign co-existence should be the goal," the animal behavior specialist told Bored Panda that humans and wildlife should follow a "live and let live" philosophy.

We were also interested in how animals of different species get along in the wild, and if there's a constant struggle for resources and territory. Dr. MacDonald told Bored Panda that it all depends on the species.

"Predators and their prey are locked in a constant battle. Other species, that occupy the same territory and search for the same food types (like skunks and opossums, for example), generally tolerate each other unless food is scarce, in which case they will compete," the animal behavior expert said.

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"It is within a particular species that most competition occurs—for space, food, water, mates, territory. So for example, raccoons compete with other raccoons for all those things, and that’s where you see the most conflicts. They rarely escalate to fights-to-the-death, though, and are mostly about establishing dominance through who can make the most noise and look the most intimidating."

Created nearly a decade ago, all the way back in February 2013, the ‘Fascinating’ Twitter project has amassed over 216.5k followers in that time. The content shared resonated with a lot of people because it mixes photos that instantly grab their attention with bite-sized facts.

Their posts are a good starting point for someone hoping to look into a topic, whether it’s about animal behavior, plants, ancient archeology, or anthropology. We feel that as long as you’re interested in the world and learning something new, life continues to be a lot of fun.

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Anna Te
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's always amazing to me to see that our ancestors, just like ourselves, wanted to share their life and leave some kind of legacy about themselves behind. We all can be proud to be daughters and sons of those who came before us

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BobTDG
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Even though kingfishers are native to my local area, I've never managed to see one in real life, so good on Alan McFadyen .

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However, just because something’s posted online, has a pretty picture attached to it, and has gone viral, doesn’t automatically make it the truth. Part of living in the 2020s and navigating the digital landscape means that media and internet literacy should be given more attention. In short, this means checking the reliability of the source and verifying facts before pressing the like and share buttons on whatever social media platform you use the most often.

Many cool facts really do end up being true. However, social media also means that misinformation can (be) spread quickly, too. Whether intentionally or completely by accident.

Recently, Bored Panda had a chat about verifying the reliability of information with scientist Steven Wooding, a member of the Institute of Physics in the UK and part of the Omni Calculator team.

“If a claim comes from a single source (whether it is an authority figure or not), you have to be quite skeptical,” he told us.

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danmarshctr_1 avatar
the Return of Bruno
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Flowering plants, including most "broadleaf" trees (angiosperms) date back only about 130 million years. Ginkgos look like broadleaf trees, but have been around for 190 million years, and their family of trees have been around for about 300 million years. (For much of the era of the dinosaurs, the trees were conifers and cycads, which sorta look like palm trees.)

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Auntriarch
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They do go a beautiful gold. I have a very small one in my garden

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Lord Mysticlaw
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Serious question, can't all trees live pretty much indefinitely under the right conditions?

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Emo Sloth
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think trees do die of old age, but it's very rare because that tree usually dies of something else before they get old enough to die of old age.

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Vinchenski
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of when all the needles fall off my Christmas tree..

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Mosheh Wolf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They also lose all of their leaves within a couple of days, which is why it has that huge pile of leaves there.

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elcee
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

and the leaves aren't, they are actually modified needles!! they are one of the oldest kind of trees, unchanged for 200,000 years!? there are male and female trees, and you can collect the stinky fruit. and roast the kernels and eat. they are one of the prettiest prettiest trees..... and. make fantastic street trees as they live long and can tolerate the pollution better than some

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Daisijayne Gray
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why am I craving that powdered butter you shake onto popcorn? Wow!

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Riley Quinn
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My initial thought spoiled the moment. My inner voice said, in that obnoxious sing-sing tone, "ha, I don't have to rake no more".

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Jp@nda
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eh the gingko in my backyard is just a couple hundred years old but it's MASSIVE, it's an ecosystem in and of itself. The leaves are beautiful and stay on longer than other trees but they all wait and pretty much fall at the same time in two days. It's a huge pain to clean up but the kid and animals love it!

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

More than 3,000 years? Laughs sardonically. Mine didn't last three years.

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CJT MSG
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't know which one is more stunning, the wisteria or this one.

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Lana Jig-maker
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How can you tell how old a tree is without cutting it to see the rings

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Spooky Scary Skeletons
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also known as "Stinko" trees because at that certain time of the year they emit a stench that smells like fresh vomit.

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Kat Min
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When they drop their leaves, it is sheer colour exctasy. You are sourrounded by the most gorgeous yellow.

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RafCo (he/him)
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read once that ginkos lived in North America but went extinct here during the ice age. Writing this now, I am wondering if that's true, or is it something I made up because I wanted it to be true. Actually, I'm not a huge fan of the tree. They are beautiful, but they smell bad. I call them the semen tree, because that's what their seeds smell like when they start to rot on the ground.

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I'm.Just.A.Girl
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never thought of a tree having a natural ending to their life cycle. that's a intriguing thought. A tree living long enough to reach the natural end.

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“Even if there are loads [of independent sources], they may have gotten locked into a 'groupthink' situation, and the claim is actually false. We should never have blind faith in authority figures. There is always a chance they could be wrong,” he explained that far from everything that we see, read, and hear is true.

Experimental bias and cherry-picking results are some of the most common ways that authority figures might mislead others. 

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"Often you just need to look at who funded the research. It's not surprising that (in the past at least) research funded by a maker of cigarettes said that their product was safe," the scientist told us.

While skepticism is important, too much of it can be detrimental to scientific efforts and progress. There has to be a reasonable balance between outright skepticism and blind faith in authority figures.

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"If the public were very skeptical, science would be hindered, and progress slowed. In areas such as healthcare and technology, science is delivering for people and making a difference in their everyday lives," the scientist told Bored Panda.

"In the past few decades, [faith in the scientific community] has probably increased. Climate change is now more widely accepted than ever before now that its effects are clear to see. And science has got the world through the recent pandemic with innovative vaccines, anti-viral drugs, and data science,” he said.

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Buren
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This will confuse the hell out of future archaeologist: what was Fred doing there?

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A while back, Lee McIntryre, from Boston University, spoke to us about media literacy. He pointed out that just because a fact or claim is constantly repeated doesn’t make it true.

"Repetition is important in making us believe things, whether they are true or not. There is a cognitive bias called the 'illusory truth effect' which is when we are repeatedly exposed to false information over and over and, over time, it begins to seem more plausible," he said.

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"Social psychologists have known since the 1960s that repetition works, for truth or falsity. In fact, this idea goes back to Plato who said that it didn't hurt to repeat a true thing,” the expert said, warning that some might use this effect as a way to spread propaganda, as they have in the past century to horrible effect.

Even well-educated individuals aren’t immune to making mistakes. For instance, someone might intellectually understand how the illusory truth effect works and how repetition ties into it. However, in real life, they might fall victim to it without even realizing it. Cognitive biases are an ever-present danger, even if we understand them.

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Kathryn Baylis
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Either Hyperion has hyperactive growth hormones, or it was the lone survivor of an ancient wildfire, and everything else around it is new growth (in comparison). Arborists/Botanists are welcome to let me know why it’s so much taller than the surrounding forest.

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"It would be exhausting to fact-check every single news item we hear. In fact, insisting on this degree of skepticism is something that demagogues use to get us to be cynical, because when we doubt that it is possible to know the truth—even when it is staring us in the face—we are riper to their manipulation. So I'd say the best thing with news is to do a little investigation into finding a reliable source," Lee told Bored Panda.

"Look for an organization that does investigative journalism (and doesn't just repeat information from other sources), double sources its quotations, discloses conflicts of interest, etc. Once we've found that we can relax a bit and trust the reporting behind the stories. Do we still need to be on guard? Yes. Even The New York Times can make mistakes. Or individual reporters can have biases. But that doesn't mean 'all sources are equal.'"

Some of the questions we need to ask when considering any claim or source include: “Is the story copyrighted? Is it dated? Is there a byline? Are other stories by the author solid? Is it published in a source that has been reliable in the past? Does it seem plausible—if not then you can do some research," Lee explained.

"Will we get fooled sometimes in doing this? Yes. But we're going to get fooled sometimes anyway. It's analogous to how scientists form their beliefs. They are skeptics, but they also—at some point when the evidence is sufficient—give their assent. Scientists deal with warrant, not 'proof.' They are what philosophers call 'fallibilists.' You give your belief to things that are well-sourced with evidence, while always holding out the possibility that if further evidence comes to light that contradicts your belief, you should give it up because you might be wrong."

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Liz
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'the floor is Lava, IG'... I always thought that if you were that close to Lava the fumes would kill you...

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Rigor Moreno
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And don't give that - "and then engineers came bulls**t", there's no sign huge vehicle traffic in this... hahaha

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

Imagine being the child who wants to raise alpacas rather than carry on the family business.

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Nunya Business
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No more dissecting frogs in Biology class. Just put this guy on his back & watch how his guts work.

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Note: this post originally had 47 images. It’s been shortened to the top 45 images based on user votes.