30 Really Creepy Facts About The World That Are A Reminder About How Weird Our Timeline Really Is
The world is far more complicated than some of us like to think. Morality isn’t black-or-white, historical facts are often hazier than we’d like them to be, and the interconnectivity of everything means that the deeper down the knowledge rabbit hole we go, the more lost we can sometimes feel.
There are some truly weird things about life on Planet Earth you can accidentally stumble upon while you’re down there. You might learn something about human biology or nature that really unnerves you. Or you might uncover something about your country’s past that puts into question pretty much everything else that you might know.
Today, we’re featuring some of the creepiest, most bizarre facts from these two viral r/AskReddit threads here and here. These internet users thought that others should know what they know, too. While you’re upvoting the most interesting facts of the bunch, have a think about the most peculiar things you have locked away in your database as well, Pandas. You can tell us all about them in the comment section.
Steven Wooding, a member of the Institute of Physics in the UK, part of the Omni Calculator Project, and the creator of the Weird Units Converter, shared his thoughts with Bored Panda about learning new facts and staying curious as well as less cynical as we age. You'll find our full interview with him below.
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The Roman Empire lasted over 1000 years, American society is only 243 years old, we could quite possibly collapse just like the Roman Empire did.
Bored Panda was interested to get Steven's take on how we can come to terms with the fact that when we gain new information, it might make us realize that we've been spouting nonsense in the past.
"Nobody likes to learn they were giving out incorrect information in the past. It hurts, but we have to push through it, accept new facts and work with them. After all, they could lead to the next big breakthrough," he explained that we all have to remain steadfast and learn to embrace the fact that we are wrong at times.
"This is constantly happening in science; as new discoveries are made, old discoveries have to be reevaluated," he said.
Drowning is quiet, and most kids drown right in front of the person that’s supposed to be watching them.
The last use of a guillotine in France was the same year the first Star Wars movie premiered. 1977
I guess France figured it was already ahead of ... nevermind, I'll show myself out before completing the joke...
According to Steven, from the Omni Calculator Project team, it's hard to stay on top of new knowledge, especially as you get older. We tend to think that we know everything and there's nothing new to learn.
"Try to view the world as a child does. Basically, keep asking 'why?' questions. As you learn the answer to one question, another will arise, and so on. It is a common situation in science that the more we know, the more questions there are. Keep questioning the world around you," he told us how we can start the chain towards living a more curious, and less cynical life.
Steven wanted to share an interesting fact with all of you dear Readers, too. "Crows are the Einsteins of the bird world. Expert at solving puzzles, and they can even recognize your face. They will actively avoid individuals who have been aggressive toward them in the past," he said. Hopefully, you'll see crows in a different light from now on, Pandas.
you aren’t scared of being alone. You’re scared of not being alone when you’re supposed to be.
Anglerfish, when Anglerfish mates the male Literally deforms its body and fuses with the female then they live together for the rest of their lives
If a fetus doesn't get enough calcium from their mother's diet they will take the calcium from their mother's bones.
Curiosity is a great quality to have. It shows that we’re full of energy, a desire to learn something new, and we’re constantly on an adventure to get closer to the truth. Sure, some knowledge might be dangerous or we’re just not ready to hear some creepy facts yet, but curiosity in and of itself is something that we believe drives humanity forward, as a whole. Without curiosity, there would be no progress. Only stagnation and dogma.
A while back, parenting blogger Samantha Scroggin, the founder of ‘Walking Outside in Slippers,’ told us what parents can do to nurture their kids’ interest in learning new things. She also revealed to us the best approach on how to deal with endless ‘whys.’
"Kids asking 'why?' is an important part of their natural curiosity. That said, the constant chatter and questions can grow tedious. I am very open with my kids, and answer just about any question they bring to me. But sometimes I tell them, not right now. I need quiet. And they rarely grant me that quiet. But still, I ask," she told Bored Panda that patience and good communication are essential in helping children’s curiosity thrive.
About 3 000 people disappear every year in the US and are never found again
In 1844, there was a case of hysteria in a French convent of nuns. One started meowing and after a week all the nuns were meowing harmoniously in the afternoons. It didn’t stop until neighbors called soldiers.
Only 9% of the ocean has been explored, and that there are creatures that we would think of as aliens living deep, deep down...
According to the parenting expert, the best thing that families can do is create a safe space for children to develop their own skills, talents, and interests. The vital thing is to never judge your kids. Parents should also “avoid the temptation to push them down a certain path just because it's familiar and more comfortable for us.”
Kids often mimic their parents’ interests, but that’s not always the case. Samantha opened up about what things are like in her own family.
"The genes are strong in my family. My husband and I are both writers, and my kids are both artsy types. My son, 10, is a little actor and singer who even appeared on Kids Say the Darndest Things this year. My 6-year-old daughter amazes me with her drawing ability," the mom told Bored Panda.
"Although my kids' talents are not identical to my husband and me, they are likewise little creative powerhouses. We as parents have made them feel safe and comfortable being themselves and expressing their skills. Then there are some abilities that clearly pass on directly from the parents. For example, my son and daughter are both math whizzes like my husband, while math has always been my nemesis."
It's estimated that there is around 25-50 active serial killers in the US
Somewhat recently (2012), scientists discovered over 1,400 new species of bacteria living in the belly button. Everyone’s belly button ecology is unique (add it to the fingerprints & snowflakes list). In that same study, 1 volunteers belly button harbored bacteria strands that had only ever been found in soil from Japan- where this man has never been.
Tarantulas can swim.
Meanwhile, child independence expert Lenore Skenazy explained to Bored Panda that it’s not learning that people fall in love with. Rather, we fall in love with the activities we love doing, whatever that might be. Passion for a subject leads to a natural curiosity about the thing, as we develop our skills and knowledge. In short, “the learning comes automatically” when you’re doing something you’re either interested in or an activity that’s essential.
“You fall in love with something that you love to do—drawing, kicking a ball, playing make-believe, walking in the woods, reading. All of those things involve learning. If they didn’t, you’d be bored and you’d stop doing them. Instead, as a kid AND as an adult, you get into something and do it because each time you get a little better, or try a slightly different technique,” she said.
“In a game, you’re ALWAYS thinking and learning because the ball never comes to you in exactly the same way twice. In the woods, there’s always something new to look at, climb or poke. In play, you have to react to the other person. And you pick up a book to fall into another world and learn all about it,” Lenore said.
You could drop dead instantly by a brain hemorrhage/aneurism and have no warning signs prior. One second you're perfectly fine, and the next you're dead
Having survived a brain aneurism the pain is excruciating and would be anything but a wonderful way to go!
Load More Replies...This happened to my boss at my first job. She was out on her boat with her husband and just collapsed and died instantly. We were all so shocked and saddened by it, she was a really cool lady.
I don’t know why but I am not bothered by the fact that I can die suddenly
Possibly because there is little you can do to prevent it happening.
Load More Replies...Actually, you do have some symptoms. Often you have a persistent mild head ache and feel a bit nauseous (but it will feel like a common cold), and at least in my father his personality changed slightly in the 6 months prior as the aneurysm that was about to burst pressed on brain tissue. But it is very unexpected indeed.
This happened to a friend's mom in high school. She went to the ER. They told her to go home and say good bye and come right back. It was a horrific and terrifyingly sad situation.
Load More Replies...This is what happened to my mom. Her body lived for about a month, but I think she was gone from the moment she hit the floor. It was more of a relief when she finally passed than anything.
Believe me, you know. I survived a grade 5 burst brain aneurysm at my brain stem and for weeks prior I was telling people I thought my brain was melting (it was bleeding). Thanks to the stroke that came with it I'm handicapped for the rest of my life but I'm proud of how far I've come. Had learn everything again, from writing my name to driving a car. :-)
Not a regular occurrence though. Many suffer for months with bad headaches and some just for a day.
Happened in front of my husband. Happened to a neuro reseacher who only gasped out "oh God, no" as he sank to the floor.
This is how my dad died. Came home from work, made a cup of tea, then just dropped dead.
That’s how my dad died too. But he lived for about 12 hours…
Load More Replies...Not true, you have about 5 minutes to get emergency medical attention.
Seriously, if I were to suffer illness, this is the way i'd want to go - INSTANT *boom!* gone! Whatever, I just don't want to suffer while going.... make it quick and be done with...
Great... another thing to think about and drive me to having a brain hemorrhage.
Happened to my mom after dinner one night. She said "I don't feel good." and fell over dead at 36.
happened to my Mother in Law when walking from the Kitchen to the Living room, paramedics said she was probably dead before she hit the floor....devastating how life deals those chips...
I knew a woman that this happened to. She was in her late 20's, super fit and very healthy.
My Mom worked with a woman who died this way. She was on a family reunion vacation, went into the kitchen for a drink and dropped dead. With 30 relatives in attendance. What a mind f*ck.
That happened to my friend's little sister when she was just 23. It was sad, she left behind a three-year-old son.
My cousin died this way. Prime of his youth, top physical condition. He had just joined the Army and just finished Airborne / Ranger school. On post one friend's car needed a push so he and several got behind it and was pushing the car. He said, "Whew, I'm tired." Sat down on the curb and died. Just gut wrenching.
Happened to my ex-bf's mom. She was only 36. Working as a waitress that day, went to deliver food to 1 of her tables & collapsed in front of 2 EMTs. They were able to keep her alive, but she was already brain dead. My ex at the age of 18 had to make the decision to pull the plug on his own mother since he was her closest next of kin that was of age. (His sister was 7 or 8 yrs old...) I still have a letter from his mom that she wrote to me while I was homesick at college. She was an amazingly sweet person!
That happened to my dad. He was terminally ill with an unrelated disease and nearing the end, but terrified of deteriorating in a hospital when he can no longer speak or control himself. In a way the aneurism was a blessing.
Happened to my sons 16 year old girlfriend only last year. Horrible for everyone x
Nearly happened to my father. Thank goodness we lived so close to a major tertiary hospital and he was able to get live saving surgery in time. As they tend to be genetic my siblings and I all had imaging to check our brains - fortunately none of us do. The neurosurgeon said some people prefer not to know, though, as they spend their lives feeling like a ticking timebomb. I have young kids, though - i needed to be prepared.
Yup.. happened to my mom. She was getting ready to get on a plane. All of sudden she said she had a terrible headache and then just collapsed. She lived due to being close to the hospital, but was never the same person.
This is my greatest fear, although somehow I am perfectly OK with the idea of dying peacefully in my sleep 🤷♀️
That happened to one of my university professors. She was a great teacher and it was a pretty shocking loss for her students.
A friend of mine did this, The coroner said she was dead before she hit the floor.
happened to a guy I worked with and to a newscaster on the news I used to watch. In both cases, they said something was wrong right before falling down dead.
Better than an infarction (blood clot) where one of the symptoms is literally an impending sense of doom.
Happened to one of my uncles... he took a sip from his beer bottle, fell back like a log... and was dead. He was a tall, strong and otherwise very fit man in his mid-40s. The autopsy found that he had an aneurism.
Happened to my best friend in 6th grade. She was supposed to spend the night with me, changed her mind and went to another friend's. Called her mom and said she had the worst headache ever. Hey mom got there and she was laying on the bathroom floor with her head on the toilet. Her mom said, put your glasses on. She did and fell unconscious. She never regained consciousness
This happened to my son's best friend at the age of 25. Utterly traumatic for everyone who knew him.
Happened to a 24 yo friend of mine. Finished signing up to a new school and dropped dead in the lobby.
You have to be born with an aneurism and you can survive an aneurism that bursts.
If you stare at the mirror in the dark long enough, your brain starts to make your eyes see things. Usually transforming you, or the room into something horrifying- more usually monsters. This is called ''peripheral fading" or the Troxler Effect.
When a person is electrocuted in the electric chair, they feel everything. They are fully aware of their bodies being fried as it happens in real time.
One inmate who survived the first round of electrocution said it tasted like cold peanut butter.
According to the expert, parents should embrace their kids learning about the world in a variety of formats. “Having books at home can help a child find new things to fall into—but so does YouTube. Remember: every new technology is distrusted at first,” she said, adding that Socrates himself hated the idea that people had started writing down ideas instead of memorizing them.
“So yes, books are great. But don’t ignore all the skills, hobbies, facts, and new things kids can learn online as well. If you’re worried about the bad stuff, install some filters. But learning from a podcast or DIY video is still LEARNING. Think of all the things you have learned since your formal schooling ended. Learning doesn’t only take place in a classroom or book!”
Dogs like squeaky toys because it sounds like a small animal being crushed.
There is a rare genetic disease called Fatal familial insomnia where over the course of months you literary can not go or be put to sleep no matter what you take or what you do. The symptoms get progressively worse until finally you stay awake watching yourself go insane until you [pass away] from exhaustion.
Postpartum psychosis can show up in a new mother virtually overnight. It can make them hallucinate, making them think their baby is a demon or the antichrist for example. New mothers murder their own children because of postpartum psychosis more often than you might like to think.
The more the mother knows it's a possibility the better she'll be able to combat it if it arrives.
Please be careful about this description - a mother suffering with PNP is much more likely to injure herself than her child. For more information and support please visit https://www.app-network.org
The children's story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was based on a real event. "Hamelin town records start with this event. The earliest written record is from the town chronicles in an entry from 1384 which states: "It is 100 years since our children left." no one know what or who took the children, but there's records of the entire towns children being taken.
The bodies of the sailors who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald are still down there, almost perfectly preserved, due to the water at that depth being just barely above freezing. Divers who have explored the wreckage have seen their bodies frozen in place to parts of the ship, and have come back reporting that they feel as if they were being followed during their time underwater.
Photos were taken, but per the request of the crew's family, they have never been released to the public.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Lg9HygEJc)
This makes me think of all the dead bodies on Everest, which are also very well preserved for the same reason :-(
Cotard’s Delusion is a rare psychiatric condition, severe cases of which cause the sufferer to wholeheartedly believe they are dead, putrefying, or simply do not exist. Some Cotard’s patients refuse to eat, as they do not believe they need to, with one notable patient dying of starvation. Another woman once asked to be taken to a morgue, to be with the other dead people.
By the time you start realizing the symptoms of rabies, it’s already too late.
The first symptoms of rabies may be similar to the flu, including weakness or discomfort, fever, or headache. There also may be discomfort, prickling, or an itching sensation at the site of the bite. These symptoms may last for days. Symptoms then progress to cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, confusion, and agitation. As the disease progresses, the person may experience delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, hydrophobia (fear of water), and insomnia. The acute period of disease typically ends after 2 to 10 days. Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal, and treatment is typically supportive. Less than 20 cases of human survival from clinical rabies have been documented. Only a few survivors had no history of pre- or postexposure prophylaxis. https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/symptoms/index.html#:~:text=The%20first%20symptoms%20of%20rabies,anxiety%2C%20confusion%2C%20and%20agitation.
You can fit 63 earth size objects in Uranus.
Oh...the jokes that will be made...getting the popcorn ready to read them later. Don't disappoint.
You have a bunch of microscopic parasites called Demodex on your eyelashes and in the pores on your face. They come out at night to lay eggs on and eat the oils on your face.
If given access to it, butterflies will happily drink blood
Adult teeth in toddlers are right under their eyes.
I have seen an X Ray of my then baby nieces head. It was horryfying
A "Rat King" is a phenomenon created when a large group of rats become fused together by their tails via ice, dirt, hair, blood, or even feces.
Encounters with this horrible phenomenon inspired some of humanity's greatest myths.
There is a island of the dolls in Mexico City that has thousands of creepy dolls to honor a little girl who drowned in the 1950s. The island is also one of the most haunted places.
Sooo...the last damn place I would ever go, for any reason, ever.
The island of Okunoshima in the Inland Sea of Japan is known for two reputable things:
1: It's named "Rabbit Island" because of the overabundance of wild rabbits and...
2: The island has WWII ruins of a chemical weapons factory, creating poison like mustard gas in its attacks on China. So vital was its secrecy to the Japanese government that they tried to wipe its location off maps.
Note: this post originally had 59 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Life and nature is essentially a horror story marketed with rainbows and unicorns to keep the audience engaged and from losing their minds.
"Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something." - Dread Pirate Roberts
Load More Replies...At this very moment the universe can end. Look up vacuum decay, it is very interesting. Also, a gamma ray burst can eradicate life on earth at this second. We may not see it coming before it’s too late
I’m going to just keep worrying about monkeypox, I can only worry about one disaster at a time!
Load More Replies...Do you have an Android? If so, no, you're not the only one.
Load More Replies...Hydraulic pressure can be scary. If you have a cut and a strong enough jet of liquid hits it, it can penetrate the cut and fill the skin up like a baloon. Mechanics have to be mindful of this, since they deal with hydraulic systems filled with oil, which can and do fail. It's known as hydraulic injection injury. Don't google it.
Yet another example of Bored Panda deliberately discriminating against Android users.
The organic compound produced by the putrefaction of animal tissue that causes the foul odour is called cadaverine
And there is another one together with that that causes the smell: putrescine. When I read about that, I needed days to get them out of my head! Now they are back! 😁
Load More Replies...Things like this make me feel so NORMAL! No matter what I do or think, I'm not that bad . . .
Life and nature is essentially a horror story marketed with rainbows and unicorns to keep the audience engaged and from losing their minds.
"Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something." - Dread Pirate Roberts
Load More Replies...At this very moment the universe can end. Look up vacuum decay, it is very interesting. Also, a gamma ray burst can eradicate life on earth at this second. We may not see it coming before it’s too late
I’m going to just keep worrying about monkeypox, I can only worry about one disaster at a time!
Load More Replies...Do you have an Android? If so, no, you're not the only one.
Load More Replies...Hydraulic pressure can be scary. If you have a cut and a strong enough jet of liquid hits it, it can penetrate the cut and fill the skin up like a baloon. Mechanics have to be mindful of this, since they deal with hydraulic systems filled with oil, which can and do fail. It's known as hydraulic injection injury. Don't google it.
Yet another example of Bored Panda deliberately discriminating against Android users.
The organic compound produced by the putrefaction of animal tissue that causes the foul odour is called cadaverine
And there is another one together with that that causes the smell: putrescine. When I read about that, I needed days to get them out of my head! Now they are back! 😁
Load More Replies...Things like this make me feel so NORMAL! No matter what I do or think, I'm not that bad . . .