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Hang on to your hats, Pandas, because we’re going for a wild ride today. Down, down, down, deep into the Lands of Knowledge where we’ll visit the Caverns of Curiosity and the Tundra of Tantalizing Trivia.

Prompted by redditor u/da-genius-kid, internet users have been sharing some incredibly intriguing facts about the world. And some of these facts and tidbits of trivia, shared on the r/AskReddit subreddit, might just blow your mind and make you see the world in a different way. Scroll down, have a read, and remember to upvote the facts that you personally found to be the most interesting. Got any cool ones to share that we might have missed? Let us know in the comments.

I reached out to Steven Wooding, a member of the Insitute of Physics in the UK, as well as a member of the Omni Calculator Project that creates cool things like the Weird Units Converter, for a chat about fact reliability, avoiding stagnation, and what features a true scientist must have. He told Bored Panda that curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness are all very important for researchers.

"Scientists have to be curious about how the world works and persistent in their work, as it may take years for it to pay off. Creativity to imagine what might be possible and attention to detail to gain knowledge are also very important," he told me. "We have to be open-minded to new facts and let data guide the way, rather than just what we think. On the other hand, we should also be critical of data. One experiment doesn’t make a fact. A fact comes from experiments that can be repeated and verified many times over."

#1

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Male reindeer lose their antlers in the winter but females don’t. Therefore Santa’s sleigh is pulled by a team of strong independent ladies.

AllDogsGoToReddit , unsplash Report

Steven, from the Omni Calculator Project team, agrees that our attention spans appear to be getting shorter with the advent of platforms like Twitter and TikTok, as well as newsfeeds.

"If you feel you are time-pressured, it’s probably only natural that you don’t want to invest a chunk of time on one article but instead scan the headlines to get lots of little bits of information. I have certainly noticed myself being less likely to read a long article unless it’s something that genuinely interests me," he explained that our natural interests, as well as our desire to save our time and energy limit how much attention we give to each and every bit of news we come across. Unfortunately, this means that some of us tend to stay at a superficial level.

"The negative impact is that we won’t reach a deeper level of understanding of something and end up missing out. This is ironic, as people today rush around trying not to miss out on things," Steven explained.

#2

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Natural redheads (of which I am one) have a genetic resistance to anesthesia + unusually high tolerance for pain. I guess the latter is to compensate for the former?

Anyway, that’s why I always had a terrible fear of the dentist; they’d give me the normal dose of novocaine, then think I was lying when I said it didn’t work. Fun times! Knew I finally found the right dentist when he walked in, took one look at me, and told the tech to load up four times the novocaine - what he called the “redhead dose.” And I’ve never had to feel that pain again.

LollyHutzenklutz , unsplash Report

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

It's the truth, my dentist called me a fast metabolizer and the OB/GYN concurred.

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#3

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Juno, who was sent to Jupiter by NASA, was Jupiter's wife in Roman mythology. Jupiter's moons are named after Jupiter's mistresses. So NASA sent Jupiter's wife to 'spy' on him and his mistresses. Always thought this was pretty cool

Timmyb1985 , nasa Report

The expert also gave Bored Panda his take on how to avoid getting stuck in a stagnant mindset, as though we already know absolutely everything.

"It’s essential to have a growth mindset and realize that you probably know very little. We can only gain more profound knowledge of the world by investing time in exploring it. This issue goes back to short attention spans, which gives us a broad, but shallow spread of knowledge. Take the time to read a book on a subject, and you are bound to learn more," he suggested that we find the patience to delve deeper into a subject.

#4

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Most people know that dogs have a really good sense of smell, but I recently did some research into the full extent of it.

40% of the brain goes entirely to their sense of smell. They have a completely different organ that is designed purely to take in the smell, separately from the oxygen they breathe (unlike humans, we process it together).

To put this into perspective, we can taste a teaspoon of sugar in our coffee. They could smell a teaspoon of sugar inside two olympic sized swimming pools.

A cancer alert dog kept marking to one mole on a woman's arm. They had already tested it and it was negative. They decided to retest due to the dog's behavior, and found an incredibly small fraction of a cancer cell in the spot.

mazebean5 , unsplash Report

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#5

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Lemons aren't naturally occuring, they were created through the breeding of bitter oranges and citrons. So we made lemons, then made lemonade. Screw you life.

DeggleMo , unsplash Report

#6

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread The Sun is extremely loud, we just can't hear it because sound can't travel through the vacuum of space.

KingdaToro , nasa Report

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

Well yeah...its nuclear fusion or something going on in there. It's bound to make some kind hellish racket.

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However fun the internet might be, we should still be aware that some information out there is spread to bamboozle us. An expert told Bored Panda just last week about the red flags each and every one of us should watch out for.

"Red flags to watch out for that a claim may be fake: it's outlandish, it's too good to be true, you haven't seen the claim anywhere else, you've never heard the source, the source isn't reputable, you can't find two other sources making the same claim, your gut tells you, ‘this can't be true,'" Mike Sington, an entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyle expert from Los Angeles, who knows how social and traditional media works, explained to me earlier.

He told Bored Panda that the reliability of information has suffered because of how popular social media has become. "The rise of social media has decreased the reliability of information because misinformation can spread so quickly before it can be corrected," he said.

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#7

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Cats don't meow to talk to other cats they use different language for that They meow to talk to us

Winter-Rip7364 , unsplash Report

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

I knew it ! I thought I saw my cat speaking German and smoking a cigarette ! As soon as he saw me he dropped the cigarette and stepped on it while attempting to meow while coughing.

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#8

People who are born deaf and develop schizophrenia see random hands signing to them.

TMNTWEBB Report

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#9

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread A sword made from the blood of your enemies is technically possible.

If you separate the iron out of the blood of 300 adults, you could smelt it down to an iron ingot. This ingot would be enough to be used to create a longsword.

disturbing_silence , unsplash Report

According to the expert, one simple way to double-check the reliability of a source, fact, or news story is to start off with a simple Google search. If you can’t find any additional sourcing or evidence, remain skeptical.

"Do this and think before reposting or you may be contributing to the problem. Amplification doesn’t make a claim true or accurate," he said.

The sources that the expert trusts the most include Associated Press, Reuters, and The New York Times. "They employ fact-checkers and editors that ensure the information they post is correct. They’re basically doing the research and homework for you. There are literally too many online sources to list that can’t be trusted and should be avoided. Anyone can basically post anything they want… proceed with caution," the expert warned.

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#10

Diamonds aren't valuable nor are they rare. De Beers (An international corporation that specialises in everything diamond) created a advertising campaign saying that a man should be spending a two month salary on a diamond engagement ring. They then raised price's, restricted supply and created this costly illusion that generations of people still consider it to be a mandatory part in marriage process.

liam_of_the_south Report

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James016
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That should be "international crime syndicate that specialises in everything diamond"

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#11

Picasso and Alice Cooper were pen pals.

Carolus1234 Report

#12

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Woodpeckers tongues wrap around their skulls to prevent them getting concussions.

HalfEyeLizard , unsplash Report

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Space whale
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So here lies the question.... Do the have big tongues or small skulls

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"Our attention spans have been reduced to mere seconds at a time because that’s the way information and entertainment is fed to us now. People get tiny bite-sized bits of news by scrolling a Twitter feed, they entertain themselves by scrolling quickly through Instagram and TikTok. It’s creating a habit that doesn’t have to be," Mike warned that we’re being changed by what we consume.

"The good news is there’s plenty of long-form entertainment and news available, you just have to seek it out. I believe the benefit is worth it. I’ve discovered it improves your ability to focus, it’s more calming, you retain more information, and it gives you a more balanced and nuanced view of the world.”

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#13

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread People live closer in time to T Rex than T rex lived to stegosaurus.

atomicskier76 , unsplash Report

#14

Apple seeds DO NOT yield the same apple it came from... every apple seed yields a completely unique apple. If you want the exact same apple, you have to cut a branch off the existing apple tree and graft in onto another tree

GlutonForPUNishment Report

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Osgood_7
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Farmers have to do this to get good tasting apples because apple trees have self-self recognition genes, so if pollen from let's say a Macintosh lands on another Macintosh, the second will recognize that they share too many genes and the physical tube that takes the pollen to the ovum will not form. So in order to fertilize the Macintosh tree so the delicious Macintosh fruits can form, you have to fertilize using pollen from another type of apple tree with different enough genes to register as non self to the Macintosh tree. The apple that forms on the Macintosh tree is still fully a Macintosh apple, but the *seeds* inside that apple are a Macintosh hybrid. The problem is that hybrids are really gross, so the hybrid seeds are useless.

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#15

The smell grass emits after it is getting cut actually has quite the purpose: it's supposed to mark whoever hurt the plant so that predators of the animal would eventually start to associate the smell with prey. Therefore grass is literally trying to kill us once you start hurting it.

RazzorHD Report

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

huh , my dogs L O V E cut grass , as soon asi cut it they're out there giving the place a real good sniffing , way more than the usual , they even rub them selves in it

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#16

Fathers can breastfeed..no meds or other intervention needed...in times of stress, mostly after the death of the mother in childbirth. Father's have attempted to breastfeed and, boom. Start producing viable milk. It's has been documented a non trivial amount of times..

Hondahobbit50 Report

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

I'd really like to know if the resulting "father's milk" is nutritionally adequate for the baby, because mother's milk is not a simple thing. It actually changes as the baby grows from newborn to infant, to provide for the nutritional needs of the child as it grows.

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#17

Axolotls can regenerate anything as long as they stay within their original climate and pool of water. If they stay outside of it or the pool changes chemicals, they become salamanders that can't regenerate anymore. I'm really hoping scientists will be able to clone their dna and start utilising that regeneration genome for people in need of regeneration therapy.

Bromjunaar_20 Report

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

...but would they then have to stay in their house with the thermostat set to the same temperature? ;D

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#18

Neil Armstrong backwards is Gnorts Mr. Alien

lizardturd1 Report

#19

The brain is the only thing that we know of that has named itself.

MaidenMotherCrone89 Report

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Marcellus the Third
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to think the brain was the most important part of my body, but then I realized who was telling me this...

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#20

Pineapple contains bromelain.

Bromelain is an enzyme that fulfills a proteolytic function, it degrades proteins producing amino acids that make it up.

So that stinging you feel when you eat pineapple is because the pineapple is also eating you.

Horokusaky Report

#21

Crows have extremely good memory, they can even get their relatives to recognize people that they've already recognised

Samurai_Guardian Report

#22

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread The lighter was invented before the match.

johnnyloveswag , unsplash Report

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Oopsydaisy
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I fail to see why this is surprising. A lighter is just basically flint technology, which was what was used to light fires. Matches require a relatively high level of manufacturing capability.

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#23

If you're within vicinity of a fallen powerline, bunny hop or slide your feet side-to-side to get away from the pole. This is to counteract "step potential" as lifting your feet off the ground will cause a difference in voltage causing an electrocution.

AdvancedZeta Report

#24

Woman already have their lifetime supply of eggs in their bodies when they're unborn, inside their pregnant mothers as a fetus, so the egg that would become you as ultimately also existed inside your grandmother via your mother.

AugustineBlackwater Report

#25

Time scale stuff breaks my brain

Cleopatra lived closer in time to the building of the first Pizza Hut than to the building of the pyramids for example (to use a well known example)

It was only 66 years between the first successful flight test by the Wright brothers and landing man on the moon... Human ingenuity knows no bounds when money isn't an issue and barriers are removed.

No-Cryptographer-192 Report

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Luther von Wolfen
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The accumulation of information matters a lot too. Every invention builds on other inventions that came before.

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#26

I did about two months of research into subliminal messaging and mental health through virtual environments for my psych class. It is commonly known that negative messages in the morning can cause people's day to be ruined, and can heavily influence mood and work ethic. With my research and experiment, I found that the opposite is also true. You see, the problem lies with the different brain waves as you wake up.

I'm no psychologist, and this paper was written a senior seminar ago, so I don't remember the waves exactly. The important part is that there are four waves your brain releases depending on consciousness. Going through all four are very important for your mental well-being. By looking at your phone in the morning, you skip from the forst to the last wave, which leaves you mentally and emotionally vulnerable.

As I mentioned, however, the opposite is true. I used a test group of 5 people, who all had diagnosed depression and/or anxiety, as well as one participant having no history of depression or anxiety. Every night, at around 3am, I would send them a text message personalized to each of them, with positive messages assuring them that they'll have a good day and that if times are hard, the best they can do is try their hardest. I put a lot of effort into these, and every week I checked in on them, taking into account changes in their personal lives.

When I connected all the data, what I found was that all the people with anxiety and depression had significantly better work ethic, and took more initiative to solve their problems. They also noted slightly lowered levels of anxiety, and thought of self harm were lowered, too. As for the participant who had no mental health problems, he noticed a general increase in positivity and work ethic, as well.

So I guess of you have someone who's been really down lately, and you love them, send them a text for when they wake up. The effects needed about a week to set in, and they cap out at around a month and an half in from what I noticed. This is not a cure to depression and anxiety, but it is a small thing that someone can do for a loved one.

It's this study that has made me realize that I want to use my computer science degree to help people's mental health, and why I decided to get my masters in computer science, and get a degree in Psychology while I'm at it. Technology had proven itself to be bad for humanity's mental health, and it's time someone tried to fix it. I don't think I'm that man, but I'd sure as hell like to help pave the road for the guy that is.

Tldr; encouraging messages to be read as soon as someone wakes up is a great way to slightly help someone through their mental health problems

ChulainnRS Report

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Mazer
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A better way to reduce depression is to actually help people to find and keep adequate and affordable basics like education, housing, health care, mental health care etc etc etc and a way to help them meet their basic needs. Words are cheap these days. Telling someone they are worthy and yet if that persons life is filled with no way to obtain the basics, then this is a bit like sending a person with stage 4 cancer, a get well card.

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#27

That the placebo effect is real. It has to be accounted for in human trials of medical treatments.

This means that our minds have the capacity to affect real healthcare outcomes and this happens consistently.

migrinc Report

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

This doesn't mean that pain is not real! ----//----There was a faith healer of deal, who said that pain was not real. But if you sat on a pin, and it punctured your skin, you like not what you fancy you feel. :D

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#28

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread For 1 600 billionth of a second when a hydrogen bomb detonates, it is 100 million degrees Celsius, the core of the sun is 15 million degrees Celsius.

i_like_atla , wikimedia Report

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

happy days. leave it to us humans to really f**k up the planet

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#29

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Since it’s discovery in 1930 Pluto has yet to orbit the sun and won’t until 2178.

jettatom , wikimedia Report

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Lemuel Botha
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well would you finish your job after you were fired and kicked out of your group?

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#30

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread In the time it takes you to read this sentence, you’ve traveled approximately 2,200 miles through space relative to the cosmic background radiation.

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#31

Your tongue rests on the roof of your mouth, not the base.

SeaWeasil Report

#32

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread In the 70s, in the USA, it was believed that infants didn’t feel pain. My first operation was in 74, when I was a day old, to shove a sac full of exposed nerves back into my spine (spina bifida myelomeningocele).

MansonGirl15 , unsplash Report

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Tracy Wallick
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yet in 2021, apparently it's still believed the cervix has no nerve endings (and thus anesthesia/pain relief and prevention are not administered), despite the fact that thousands of women report excruciating pain during procedures such as IUD insertion, cervical biopsy, etc.

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#33

Multiplying any two digit number with eleven is the sum of the two digit inserted between the two digits 63×11=> (6+3) => 693

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#34

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread If our Sun was the size of a white blood cell, our galaxy would be the size of the continental United States.

FutrzakKowalski , unsplash Report

#35

Humans create as much heat as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Which is why greenhouses have a single 100 watt bulb burning that workers turn off when they enter. Keeps the temperature constant.

fyrdude58 Report

#36

The 1966-1967 UCLA Bruins Men’s Basketball team went undefeated and won the National Championship. They were ranked number 1 throughout the entire season. In those days, freshmen weren’t allowed to play on the varsity team, but every year, at the end of the season, the freshmen team played the varsity team in an exhibition game. UCLA’s freshmen team beat the undefeated varsity team by 15 points with a young center named Lew Alcindor, later changing his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

mattpo1018 Report

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

That seems to be a lot of words to say that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played on a team that defeated an, as yet, undefeated team.

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#37

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread The microgravity in space can cause an astronauts blood to run backwards

DavosLostFingers , The New York Public Library Report

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Marcellus the Third
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The eye problems are the most striking: Astronauts leave with 20/20 vision (and otherwise in optimal health too), but over half have noticeable eye problems (headaches and farsightedness) when they return after 6+ months --- one came back with 20/100 vision after half a year; this is an obvious problem for a trip to Mars. This may have recently been solved by a new pressurized sleeping bag, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59591301 .

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#38

clown fish are hermaphrodite and, if the movie was realistic, Marlin in Finding Nemo would become a female and try to copulate with his son, as the mother was killed

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#39

Purple isn't a real frequency of light like red or blue. It's how our brains interpret jumbled frequencies of red and blue light. It seems to be a byproduct of how our brains developed to interpret the light that hits the blue, green, and red cones in our eyes.

noguarde Report

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peter howard
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are colours that don't exist except within our brains (magenta for example) this is because magenta doesn't exist in the spectrum of light

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#40

The last living person who was the child of a Civil War veteran, died in June of 2020. Her father was 83 when she was born.

Carolus1234 Report

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oktopus
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There were also widows of US Civil War veterans drawing Civil War pensions well into the 21st century, IIRC.

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#41

Women’s sanitary pads have come along way in history.

In the 1700s they made special aprons to try and hid it.

Early 1900s women were using rags similar to baby nappies to disguise it.

In the 1920s during the war nurses figured out Kotex curad bandages were much more absorbing so they used them with a belt made specially for holding it.

In 1929 the first tampon was invented.

In the 1930s menstrual cups were invented but many women felt it was a backwards concept so it wasn’t popular.

In 1970 pad companies started using adhesive backing.

The 1980s are to blame for advertising with blue liquid. To show absorbency.

youre-kinda-terrible Report

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Luther von Wolfen
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Menstrual cups are gaining popularity because they have almost no negative environmental impact, as opposed to tampons.

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#42

A polar bears skin is black.

heyandy1 Report

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H.L.Lewis
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I believe their hair is also hollow. It is what keeps them warm, with the black skin.

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#43

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Splinter free toilet paper was invented in 1935. Which means before that, toilet paper had splinters. Ouch.

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

I may spend the rest of today thinking about this sporadically. Thanks....

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#44

One of the reasons Germany didn’t invent nukes first was because a few Norwegians sabotaged one of their bases and stunted their progress.

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Luther von Wolfen
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There were underground resistance groups in all Nazi-occupied countries, including Germany, that contributed to defeating the Nazis and to getting Jews and other targeted minorities to safe countries. Not all heroes wear capes.

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#45

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Atoms don’t touch so you really haven’t touched anything

Sad-Adhesiveness5146 , unsplash Report

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Marcellus the Third
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your own atoms don't touch either so... you don't exist? What is this sophistry trying to say?

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#46

I find it really interesting that we have around 5-10 pounds of bacteria living in our intestines. These bacteria play a vital role in digestion and are responsible for creating certain vitamins, such as B12.

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#47

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread You could fit all the planets in the solar system between Earth and The Moon at their average distance, with nearly 5,000 miles to spare.

thebutler97 , NASA Report

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Steve Barnett
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They were once. But Jupiter accidently spilled Mars's pint, Mercury, being all hot and bothered, got involved and it turned ugly. Venus was jealous of Earth's atmosphere and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune had 'personal space' issues.

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54
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this is actually true. the distance between the earth and Moon is about 238,855 miles. The diameters of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are 3,031.9 mi, 7,520.8 mi, 4,212.3 mi, 86,881 mi, 72,367 mi, 31,518 mi, and 30,599 mi, respectively. so, 238,855 - (3,031.9 - 7,520.8 - 4,212.3 - 86,881 - 72,367 - 31,518 - 30,599) = 2725. so yes, theyd all fit

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

When I look up at the moon, I like visualizing that 30 earths would fit between the earth and the moon.

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#48

According to linguistic and genetic evidence, the first settlers of Madagascar came not from Africa, but from what is now Indonesia.

Makes more sense when you look at a map of ocean currents.

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Jon S.
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I only heard this recently. But not only did they come from Indonesia, they are closely related to the Polynesians. So essentially when one group went island hoping east, another group went west. The second group of settlers were Arabs from the north, and only the third wave were Africans from the west.

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#49

The James Webb Space Telescope launching later this week is so insanely sensitive it boggles the mind. Some of the things it will be looking at will be 20x dimmer than looking at a 5 watt lightbulb on the moon. Even with it’s massive 6 meter (20 foot) diameter main mirror just a single photon of light will be hitting it per second from the target. To put that into perspective, if you look up at a reasonably bright star, even with your pupil being just 8 mm across, probably upwards of a million photos are striking your eye just from that star every second.

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#50

In Formula 1, the full grid of 20 cars during all practice, qualifying and race sessions over an entire single season will burn less fuel than one commercial flight from London to New York.

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

That maybe (I thought it was a lot more), but still the races are all over the world, and cars, teams, drivers, and whoever belongs to the circus have to fly to the races and back...

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#51

Almost is the longest word in the English language that is in alphabetical order

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#52

There are more atoms in a teaspoon of water than there are teaspoons of water in the Atlantic Ocean

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#53

Comic Sans is a good font to use if a dyslexic person will be reading the material.

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

Fortunately now there are alternatives that are less aestehically challenging, as OpenDyslexic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDyslexic#:~:text=OpenDyslexic%20is%20a%20free%20typeface,also%20an%20open%2Dsource%20font), Dyslexie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexie) or FS Me (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS_Me).

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#54

Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were college roommates

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

It gets weirder, the 1970s drippy book and movie "Love Story" was written by a professor they all knew, and was supposedly based on the romance of Al and Tipper Gore (now divorced). And in the movie, Tommy Lee Jones played the Al Gore character's roommate...

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#55

Nintendo is older than CocaCola.

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#56

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread Scientists don't know how anesthesia works. It just does.

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

A surgeon once said to me "we have to poison you enough to put you under, but not so much that we kill you".

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#57

Konrad Heyer, the earliest born person ever to be photographed, was born sixty years before Abraham Lincoln, and twenty years before Napoleon.

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#58

Tectonic plates moving about the same rate as our fingernails grow.

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

The Himalayas are still rising from the crashing of 2 of these plates. In a few million years, the momentum will stop and the plates will begin reversing direction, then the mountains will slowly fall. So, if you are mountain climbing there you will have to go a little higher each year.

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#59

If you put dry erase marker over permanent marker the permanent marker erases too (for dry erase boards)

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

You can also make dry erase markings float. Write on a spoon and carefully ease it into a pool of water. If you do it right the ink will come off an float.

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#60

That the theory of dinosaurs being extinct from asteroid happened in the 1980s

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

Because it's been the dominant theory my whole life, I always forget that the theory is only slightly older than me :O

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#61

We can only ever prove if extraterrestrial life exists, we can never prove it doesn't exist. But just because we haven't made contact with them or them with us doesn't mean they don't exist.

So maybe some day we might be able to prove they do exist, but we'll never be able to prove they don't exist.

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James016
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The biggest sign of intelligent life "out there" is that they have not made contact with us

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#62

Time travels for you ever so slightly faster when you’re at the top of a building compare to on the ground floor.

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#63

Cannibalism is legal in 49 states. You can purchase parts through research, people donate their bodies to research and the researchers buy them, and after that you can eat it. Now, you can’t mutilate a corpse, or murder someone to get the meat but as long as you purchase it legally, you can eat foot meat tacos right in front of the cops and they can’t do anything about it, I mean they can try but you’ll be let go if you bought everything properly.

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#64

Dr. Ruth, the sex Dr was trained as a sniper in the Israeli military, and Bob Ross, that painter was an airforce drill instructor.

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

I had the pleasure of meeting her years ago at a college honors society convention; she was one of our speakers. We had to put a box/riser behind the podium for her to stand on. She was rather diminutive. Excellent speaker, incredibly easy to talk to and funny as hell! Wicked sense of humor

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#65

In Rwanda, witchcraft is considered cheating in sports, especially in Association football (soccer if you're from the USA, Japan, and Australia etc.) The punishment if caught ranges from fine to suspensions.

This was due to many complaints from other teams about such usage. In 2016, Moussa Camara was playing for Rayon Sports when he ran to the goal of rival Mukura. It wasn't clear, but the goalie caught Camara and informed the rest of Mukura. A chase got invovled, but Camara got away. Mukura complain that Camara went Harry Potter. There are footages of this, it mostly in French though, with the commentary team was laughing.

While it sounds petty, but in countries, like Rwanda, witchcraft is taken seriously.

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#66

Motorcycle helmets tested by the American Department of Transportation (DOT) have not been tested by the DOT, they have to be tested by a third party and helmet manufacturers can and do shop around for testers with loose standards.

Their standards are also based off of car crashes, not motorcycles, making your motorcycle helmet DOT standard mean dick all

For a safer helmet consider ECE or Snell

AnalogHorrorStory Report

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

Not exactly, it must be a certified licensed and bonded DOT approved agency. Further the agency is legally liable in civil suits if they did not test properly, as are the companies that hired them. That is false that they shop around for loose standards, because of the potential lawsuits.

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#67

Most of Canada's population lives south of Seattle.

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

True. Seattle real estate prices are so high they cold only afford Tacoma.

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#68

Sharks are older than trees.

Individual sharks that we have identified are older than the United States.

Dr. Pepper is older than albums of recorded music.

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

I think "individual sharks" is an exaggeration, as I recall there is precisely one, a greenland whale shark, which is about 400.

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#69

John Tyler, the 10th president of the U.S., still has a GRANDSON that is alive. Not a great grandson, not a great great grandson. A GRANDSON.

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

Until he was hunted down and smothered by a trivia buff sick of reading this factoid.

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#70

The fastest gust of wind ever recorded on Earth was 253 miles per hour.

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#71

Bookkeeper is the only word in the English language that has three sets of double letters consecutively.

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#73

If Brooklyn was its own city, it would be the fourth largest city in the U.S., after NYC, L.A. and Chicago.

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#74

Orange County, California, has a population higher than twenty European countries.

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#75

In the ancient days, condoms were made out of dried animal intestines

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

In the time of Cassanova, a party trick to prove yours were OK was to blow them up before use.

#76

The name for the ringing of bells is tintinnabulation

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Raven DeathShade
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A word invented, if I recall correctly, by Edgar Allen Poe in his poem, "The Bells".

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#77

The us airdropped pianos to it's troops

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#78

The first toothpaste was Portuguese urine. It had the highest ammonia content and only royalty could afford to have it imported.

AssumptionAdvanced58 Report

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

Copied this from Reddit to make you laugh: It had a very high pH number. Almost all p, no H

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#79

40 Random Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t, Shared In This Online Thread You only need to fold a piece of paper in half 45 times to be able to reach the Moon.

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#80

Luis Jiménez was killed by the sculpture he created, Blue Mustang, otherwise know as Blucifer. A part of the sculpture fell on him and severed an artery in his leg

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

Blucifer is found at the airport of Denver, as I learned here on bp. On the google photos it looks kinda demon-ish

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#81

If you go in the opposite direction of Earths rotation, you go slower if you go faster

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#82

Whales naturally drown to death.

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

Most whales dying of "old age" really drown, as they become too weak to resurface.

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#83

If the earth were compressed to the point at which it would become a black hole, it would be about the diameter of a golf ball.

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

Sure, but it would weigh the same, so you could never use standard clubs.

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#84

Pepsi purchased a military submarine after the Cold War.

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Jon S.
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Context: Russia sold Pepsi some defunct vessels for scrap, rather than use rubles, as the value was fluctuating.

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#85

Plasma used to cut steel plate is hotter than the surface of the sun.

Source - Am plasma system operator, among other things.

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

The surface of the sun is surprisingly cool for an ongoing giant nuclear fusion ball, around 6.000°C

#86

There’s no real evidence to suggest that menstrual cycles sync up.

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

Only the evidence of sheer population density - ~3,800,750,379 women have only 31 days at most to start each month, there's gonna be a little overlap.

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#87

Frogs swallow with their eyes

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#88

Horses only breathe through their nostrils and not their mouth at all!! It’s a minor thing in the big picture, but my mind went boom!

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

This is misinformed, it is only true while the horse is exercising. You want a proper horse fact that isn't horse s**t? Horses cannot vomit.

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#89

Still in early developing in the womb, human embryos specifically react to 3 dots of light shaping an upside-down triangle. That's the basic, primary geometry of a human face!

Humans are prepared to distinguish human faces among other stimuli. We're truly social animals, aren't we.

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Not A Panda
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nah, an upside down triangle is a cat's face. They develop to recognise cats.

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#90

Homo erectus lasted as a species for like two million years, something like four times how long Homo sapiens have been around. If we look at longevity of survival as a measure of some sort of success they’ve got us beat big time.

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#91

Western music tuning is imperfect. When you tune a piano you have to tune each interval to each other resulting in certain notes being sharp or flat in reference to the equal temper tuning we can derive mathematically.

gwbunnylips69 Report

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#92

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman, during her life, lived at the same time as Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan.

Carolus1234 Report

#93

The last living claimant to the Austro-Hungarian throne, died just ten years ago.

Carolus1234 Report

#94

There is less meat in a Big Mac than a Quarter Pounder.

I started my job at McDonald’s and I had a shift on the grilling area. A trainer told me about how much meat is in each patty.

The Big Mac uses two 10:1 patties, which are both a tenth of a pound.

The Quarter Pounder has a 4:1, which is a quarter of the pound (wow who knew).

Therefore, the Big Mac has a fifth of a pound of meat while the quarter pounder has a quarter.

JVHazard Report

#95

Everything in the entire universe is either a potato or it isn't.

geekworking Report

#96

Omicron is Greek for "little O" (o-micron). Compared to its uppercase counterpart "O-mega."

Substantial_Diet5271 Report

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

No, omicron is a short o and omega is a long o. Both have lower and upper case versions (O, o - Ω, ω). It would be good if BP editors did their job.

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#97

The average house in East Midlands UK in 2019 increased in value(earned) more than it's owner.

Sweeteriits Report

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

Could we teach the guy who wrote this article the difference between its and it's? I'm about to have a stroke.

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#98

Paul McCartney and Bertrand Russell, were dinner mates.

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#99

President Hoover met Hitler, President FDR met Stalin.

Carolus1234 Report

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Jon S.
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"World leaders meet world leaders" - I fail to see the significance in this fact.

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#100

When you slap your hand on a table, there's a 1 in 5.261 chance that all molecules miss each other and your hand goes through the table

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