It’s clear that one simply can’t know everything there is to know about, but that never stopped a curious mind from learning. Luckily, in the age of the internet, it has never been easier; with just a few clicks you can reach information about anything and everything that interests you.
You can also start a discussion with fellow netizens in a matter of a couple of clicks, too, and that’s exactly what the redditor u/Jdavies44 did. They were curious to learn about interesting facts few people knew about so they asked fellow redditors to share them, and they discussed some rather fascinating things. If you’re curious to read about them, too, wait no longer and scroll down to find their answers on the list below.
Below you will also find our interview with a behavioral expert, author of Cracking the Curiosity Code, Dr. Diane Hamilton, who was kind enough to answer a few of Bored Panda’s questions about how fun facts, curiosity, and learning intertwine.
In mid-2000s Kagoshima, Japan, an alarming rise in power blackouts was traced back to crows who were building their nests on top of electric poles. The power company formed a “Crow Patrol” in order to seek and destroy the crows’ nests. The crows responsed by building thousands of dummy nests as decoys.
The war is ongoing.
Seeking to delve deeper into how curiosity correlates with learning, Bored Panda got in touch with Dr. Diane Hamilton, who pointed out that such a link is found not only in humans.
“Curiosity, a fundamental aspect of learning and knowledge, is not exclusive to humans,” she said in a recent interview. “The Max Planck Institute introduced the term ‘curiosity gene’ based on researching a songbird. Imagine a bird that lacks curiosity. It may fly around a bush, searching for berries, but if it doesn’t venture to explore other bushes, it will perish once the berries are depleted. Curiosity not only facilitates learning and knowledge, but also triggers a sense of reward in our brains, thanks to the release of dopamine.”
The weirdest animal in the world is the jellyfish called the Portuguese Man ‘o War (also called a bluebottle in Australia).
It gives birth via a process called “budding”, where a new animal just sort of pops off a random place on the jelly. But it doesn’t give birth to whole other jellyfish. It gives birth to many different types of animal-like creatures called “zooids”. They live on the bottom of the jelly, live independently from each other, but can’t survive without the others.
For instance, there’s a zooid that can digest fish, but can’t catch them. There’s a tentacle zooid that can catch fish, but can’t digest them. There are also several other zooids like that. Scientists have been scratching their heads about how to classify this creature, and are calling it a colony rather than an animal.
And that leads to an interesting question. What is the organism? Is it the zooid, because it moves around independently, but can’t really survive very long on its own? Or is it the whole jellyfish, in which case the zooids are a bit like organs, except for the fact that they might go for a walk occasionally?
And if you say that the whole jellyfish is the organism, maybe bees aren’t an organism either, but a beehive is?
That’s the problem with classification systems. As soon as you make one, along comes some weird example that makes you have to start again.
The author of Cracking the Curiosity Code noted that we’re not equally curious throughout our entire lives. “We are born with high levels of curiosity that peak around five and then diminish dramatically as we grow older,” she told Bored Panda.
“That same peak and drop happens to creativity as well. In his incredible TED talk about whether schools kill creativity, Sir Ken Robinson acknowledged that we have created an educational system that educates people out of their competencies. To fulfill 19th-century industrial job requirements, we created a hierarchy in education where math and science were at the top, and creative thinking was at the bottom. As education rewarded top-tiered skills like math and science more often, the system became about creating more academics, which in turn undervalued undergraduate degrees. This then caused more and more top-tiered skilled degrees to be made. Not surprisingly, such a system has harmed curiosity and creativity, which are fundamental for innovation.”
Switzerland, the country of neutrality, has unintentionally invaded its neighbor Liechtenstein 3-5 times…1968-2007.
3/4 times Liechtenstein didn’t know of it until Switzerland apologized.
The 1/4 was that one time Switzerland fired a missile and caused a forest fire, reparations were paid.
After one incident, the Liechtensteiners reportedly offered drinks to the Swiss soldiers.
A Liechtenstein spokesman said, “It’s not like they invaded with attack helicopters”.
“To better understand this impact, look at its effect on children,” Dr. Hamilton continued. “As part of his work with NASA, Professor George Land created an assessment to test for creativity and studied children to view how their levels changed. He found that 98% of children were creative geniuses at age five. By age ten, that number fell to 30%. By age 15, that figure dropped to 12%; by age 31, only 2% were creative geniuses.
“Curiosity is important throughout all stages of our existence. Unfortunately, when our levels drop in adulthood, that can limit us and lead us into jobs we don’t love or choices that feel safe rather than rewarding.”
Lake Superior. on that lake is an island called Isle Royale. on that island is a lake. on that lake is an island. on that island is a pond, and on that pond is boulder. that boulder is the largest island on the largest pond on the largest island on the largest lake on the largest island on the largest lake in the world (by surface area).
“Reading about interesting things is great for our curiosity,” the expert said, discussing how browsing random fascinating facts like the ones on this list can affect one’s curiosity. “Sometimes, we don’t know what we don’t know, and reading a fun fact can spark the desire to dig deeper. It makes us want to learn more.”
Modern postural yoga– the type and style predominantly practiced in Western countries– is about 100 years old. It was invented in India by Indians and is derived mostly from British calisthenics and Swedish gymnastics. It was *specifically marketed to affluent westerners by Indians* as a superior form of spiritual and physical exercise. It’s working as designed for its target market.
According to Dr. Hamilton, curiosity is the spark to all that organizations want to achieve regarding innovation, engagement, and everything that makes people productive. “When we learn, we find out where we are the best fit in our jobs, and that aligns us with better careers.
“The real trick is determining what inhibits our curiosity,” she said, suggesting that the Curiosity Code Index assessment is a great way to do that. “Like DiSC or other personality tests, it only takes around 10 minutes to find out the things that have held us back from learning and exploring. More importantly, it offers insights into overcoming those factors that have stopped us from developing our curiosity.”
A compressed spring weighs more than when the same spring is at rest. The stored potential energy of the compressed spring makes it heavier.
Really puts e = mc^2 into perspective.
Shirley Temple led an extremely successful life as a diplomat after her childhood acting career. She was present in Czechoslovakia when the Soviet’s cracked down on them (as in, she seen people killed). Later after the fall of the USSR, she was the head of establishing diplomatic relations between the US and Czechoslovakia.
When you put a bumper sticker or decal on, spray a couple sprays of diluted soapy water or simple green on the surface of the car first, then put the sticker down…. And you can slide it around until it’s even and centered. Use a credit card to squeegee the moisture out from underneath, pat dry, and leave it alone. It’ll adhere as it dries.
No more crooked stickers.
Most of the time, the closest planet to Earth is Mercury. Actually, most of the time Mercury is the closest planet to all of the other planets, too. Even Pluto.
If you don’t believe it, try a quick experiment. Take four cookies (or other small objects) and line them up on a table in front of you, perpendicular to your body. The closest cookie represents Earth. The next cookie is Venus, then Mercury, then the farthest cookie is the Sun. Obviously, Venus is closest to Earth in this configuration.
Now move Venus and Mercury in their “orbits” 90 degrees to the right (or left, it doesn’t matter) of the Sun. Measure the distance from Earth to Mercury and Venus. Mercury is now closest to Earth.
Move Venus and Mercury another 90 degrees and Mercury is obviously closer, even without measuring, but measure it if you want to.
Move Venus and Mercury another 90 degrees and you’ll have the mirror image of the first 90 degrees configuration. Measure it if you want to. Mercury is still closest to Earth.
You have to move Venus and Mercury closer to the Earth before you get to a point where they are the same distance from Earth. It works like this for all the planets.
Venus and Mercury and don’t revolve together like this in real life. They revolve at different speeds. But over thousands or millions of years, it all averages out.
Solar eclipses are a completely random quirk of arbitrary factors.
The sun is roughly 400x bigger than the moon. The sun is also roughly 400x further away from earth than the moon.
Nothing created or enforces that ratio. It’s just a random happenstance that from our view, on the surface of this planet, the sun and moon seem roughly the same size, and can perfectly overlap.
You only need 39 digits of pi to calculate the radius of the universe to the width of a single atom.
It sounds BS but it’s true. For the average engineer or scientist you’ll never need more than 3.141.
Johnny Appleseed is a legendary character and we know of him because he spread alcohol through the frontier. He was planting apples for alcohol and was welcomed by so many in their homes because he brought a jug of cider to every home he visited.
The emotion you feel when realizing, that the people around you are complex human beings like yourself with emotions, memories and “someone inside there”, is called Sonder.
Nike has warranties on their shoes. If yours remains in the tread life and within the warranty date, you just make a claim and they’ll give you a voucher for new shoes and paid postage to send the old ones back.
Target will also take any Cat and Jack clothes back for an exchange as your kids grow.
Brake pads only need to be bought once for the life of a car. They are then warranty exchanged as you wear them out.
Clearly, I’m a dad.
A long a*s time time ago a dude in Egypt paid a guy to walk 8,000 kilometers to a tower to measure the length of it’s shadow & that’s how we found out the earth was round.
Edit: 800km I stand corrected. Still, quite the trip. I hope he paid well.
In water, sound can project downwards, bend back up, hit the surface from below, reflect, go down again, and bend back towards the surface. Multiple times.
There are craters on the poles of mercury that are SO DEEP that rays of light from the sun have never directly struck their bottoms, and scientists have found evidence of water ice at the bottom of these craters.
Felix Baumgartner doesn’t have the record for the highest altitude free jump. He did jump from 128k feet (39 km) in 2012, and very publicly. But then Alan Eustace with almost no fanfare jumped from 135k feet (41.4 km) in 2014.
All of the gold discovered thus far would fit in a cube that is 23 meters wide on every side.
If you spell out every whole number starting at 0 and ending at 999,999,999, you will not use the letter “B.”.
Everything you see around you is literally created by the interaction of electrons and photons (except radiation and gravity.)
Three basic actions create it all:
1) A photon goes from place to place.
2) An electron goes from place to place.
3) An electron emits or absorbs a photon.
Literally that’s it.
Studies show that taking steroids and not exercising builds more muscle than exercising without taking steroids. The percentage of obese people who get to and maintain a healthy weight is statistically lower than the percentage of people who survive a gunshot to the head.
The average life expectancy figure accounts for deaths at all ages. The longer you live, the higher your overall probability of exceeding that number.
Also, the probability of someone dying in their first year of life is similar to a person dying at any given age in their 60s.
All of the planets in our solar system, if laid side by side, would fit between the earth and the moon.
That if you enter on a freeway the Wrong Way at night, all the reflectors you see on the freeway will reflect as Red. Hopefully the driver can figure out something is wrong and at least pull over.
In 1944, 9 American airmen were shot down over the island Chichijima.
8 were captured by Japanese troops and executed, at least 4 were cannibalized by Japanese officers. Reports vary if it was for reasons of starvation or ritual.
One airman evaded capture and was eventually rescued. 44 years later he was elected President of the United States.
Google “The Chichijima incident” for more info.
If everyone on earth was standing shoulder to shoulder, front to back, they’d all fit comfortably within the tiny state of Rhode Island.
If your intestines are in the way during abdominal surgery, standard procedure is to scoop them out and dump them in a bowl for the duration, then basically pour them back in when you’re done. As long as you don’t pull enough to create an actual knot, the guts will wiggle themselves back into exactly the same shape and configuration they had before being disturbed.
When dinosaurs were walking around, our planet was on the opposite side of the galaxy.
The Earth’s rotation is speeding up and that means our days are getting slightly shorter. In a decade they will have to make clocks a second shorter.
Cleopatra exists closer to us in time than she does to building of the Great Pyramid.
Mycelium, the organism that bears mushrooms, is neither flora (plants) nor fauna (animal), but rather fungi. So, they are neither animal nor plant.
The carbon dioxide laser is the most popular industrial laser in the world. You can hold whatever opinion you want on climate change, but carbon dioxide is so good at making heat it’s used to generate laser beams.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
