It can be hard to maintain a reverence for a world that seems to be falling apart left right and centre. But, somehow, in light of all the recent bad news, people have found a way to stay curious, stay excited, and share their wacky finds. Enjoy these bizarre and fascinating stories, and remember to stay weird!
1. Ooooh, nicely done.
This week I learned that in 2014 people created fake 90$ Play Station 4 listings on Amazon and showed them to Walmart, thus getting a 90$ PS4 because of Walmart’s price matching.
nachog2003
2. The best laid plans of mice and men.
This week I learned that Simpsons Director David Mirkin tried to leak fake endings for the Two Part Episode Who killed Mr. Burns, but to his surprise all news outlets rejected him, stating it would be immoral to air spoilers.
Fishb20
3. I never even thought about the fact that Paris has a mayor.
Paris, France, was the first western capital to have a black mayor in 1879.
wisi_eu
4. I don’t want to run across one of those…
I learned that New York police officers used to carry an 11 inch club during the day, and a 26 inch club at night, when things were more dangerous. This is the origin of the term nightstick.
testtoob
5. Oh yeah, make that a priority.
I learned this week that anyone from Canada can order a portrait of The Queen and have it shipped to them for free. Canadians, get on that!
Mrs_Urethra_Franklin
6. Well… what do I… I don’t even…
This week I learned of the Ting Hai effect, a stock market phenomenon in which there is a sudden and unexplained drop in the stock market whenever a film or a television series starring Hong Kong actor Adam Cheng is released.
Asparagus64
7. Wow…. that’s a lot of dough…
The Empire State Building generates more revenue from the observation deck than all the commercial tenants in the remaining 101 floors combined.
mealsharedotorg
8. That is oddly comforting…
Dogs can smell their owners from 11 miles away.
nimbus2k1
9. Are you kidding me!!??
Almost $1 out of every $2 spent online in the US is with Amazon.
desertdj
10. I wonder what happens!
This week I learned that in the book of “The princess bride” there’s a missing chapter called “the reconciliation” William Goldman (the author) wrote that if you wanted to read it you had to send a letter to the publisher house, and they would mailed it to you.
heidi19forever
11. I mean, technically you still COULD raise it upside down.
The Union Jack is not symmetrical, to guarantee you can’t hang it upside down.
amadman114
12. My standards for sweetness are now totally ruined…
Carrots are used in carrot cake because during the medieval period, sweeteners were scarce and expensive, and carrots contain more sugar than any other vegetable besides the sugar beet.
chrismiles94
13. Well dang if he didn’t know his stuff!
This week I learned that George Washington feared the growing influence of political parties in the US. He thought that it would lead to “the alternate domination” of each party, taking revenge on each other in the form of reactionary political policies, and that it would eventually cause the North and South to split.
Mer-fishy
14. Gonna cost way to much to change the design I guess?
Arizona iced tea hasn’t changed its 99 retail price since 1992. I guess it probably helps that they print it on all their labels.
CJ_Productions
15. Okay, I need an uncle like that…
In 2001 a shark bit off a boy’s arm in Florida. His uncle rescued him before wrestling the 200-pound shark to shore. The arm was retrieved from inside the shark and after an 11-hour operation was reattached.
petrifiedclam
16. That’s something you should never forget.
In 1949 BB King re-entered a burning music hall to save his favorite $30 Gibson guitar. King later learned the fire was started when two men knocked over a burning barrel of kerosene while fighting over a woman named Lucille. King has named every guitar he’s owned Lucille as a reminder.
ArbainHestia
17. No reason to change it, then!
Due to updates in technology, Stephen Hawking could have a more “modernized” voice, however he chooses to keep the robotic voice because he says it is the voice he has come to identify with.
Terrapinz
18. It’s good to have something in the middle.
This week I learned that if you don’t identify as an “extrovert” or “introvert,” you might be an “ambivert.” An ambivert is moderately comfortable with groups and social interaction, but also relishes time alone, away from a crowd.
SwissGamerGuy
19. Someone is finally standing up for Pluto.
Pluto is, by law, still a planet in New Mexico.
htmlarson
20. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
James Cameron got the go-ahead to make ‘Aliens’ by writing the word ‘Alien’ on a board, then adding an ‘s’ and turning it into a dollar sign.
Pale_King101
21. Sounds better than where I live.
Queen Mary of England was gifted a 1:12 scale doll house in 1924. It had working lights, books that were specially written by writers for the library, bottles filled with the appropriate drinks in the wine cellar, and model cars made by Rolls Royce. Even the toilets had working plumbing.
idip
22. I’d be more worried that the show killed him.
In 1975 a man died of laughter while watching his favourite TV show. His widow later sent The programme a letter thanking them for making his final moments of life so pleasant.
Overtreffen
23. Well.. so what if it was?
When it was invented, the sewing machine was controversial because it was feared to be too sexually stimulating to women.
panfuneral
24. That’s amazing work right there.
MIT-educated biologist, Katharine McCormick, inherited a substantial family fortune and funded the development of the first birth control pill in the 1950s.
DjTj81
25. Can you imagine that racket?
The Sun is so loud that if space was filled with air it would be 125db on Earth, from 92 Million miles away, about the same as a loud rock concert.
anothercarguy
26. So, so satisfying.
This week I learned that an inventor trying to make a sock to prevent trench foot first produced modern water balloons. Having made a latex-coated sock and filling it with water to test for leaks, he found a rip and angrily threw it on his table. Pleased with the splash, he decided to market water balloons for children.
thr33beggars
27. Ugh, I really hate to hear this one. He’s so good!
When F. Scott Fitzgerald died, he thought he was a failure, and his work forever forgotten. His novel, The Great Gatsby, was reviewed poorly and had only sold 20,000 copies. It’s now considered the greatest novel in American history, and sells over 500,000 copies per year.
stevexyc
28. Sometimes people just have to take your freedom.
In 1975 Icelandic women “essentially shut down the country for a day” by starting a Women’s Strike that led to Icelands parliament actually passing a law guaranteeing equal rights for women and men: a large political step towards true equality.
J_Sto
29. Someone please get on making a map of this.
Ohio State University is built on a century old system of tunnels hidden from the public. With the right knowledge, one can walk to every building on campus underground.
h_erbivore
30. What an amazing performance that was.
After Elvis performed Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, Paul Simon, who attended the show, said “That’s it, we might as well all give up now.”
demoCREEPS
31. Crack it open and read it.
Ethiopia is home to the oldest most complete Christian bible.
Futurearmydoctor
32. We’ve got to help these new parents out!
USA is the ONLY developed country that provide no type of financial assistance to new parents.
PoisedbutHard
33. That’s one way to celebrate your love the dairial arts.
Fidel Castro loved dairy products so much, he had an enormous ice cream parlour that seats 1,000 people built in 1966 to share his love with the people of Cuba. It still exists and became a state run ice cream chain. Yum!
baconrising
34. I wonder what Donald Trump has to say about this.
This week I learned that Louis CK’s first language was Spanish – he grew up in Mexico and still carries a Mexican passport along with his American one.
danideahl
34. Cutest vegetarian I’ve ever heard of!
This week I learned that an ‘extinct’ tree frog has been rediscovered in India after 137 years. Unusually, the frogs feed mostly on vegetation, rather than insects or larvae. Neat!
Sariel007
35. That sounds like some solid lore right there.
There are 820 readable pieces of literature in Skyrim, including letters, journals, spell tomes, books that offer skill points, 5 books that add quests, and 307 books that serve no other purpose than lore.
dorkmax
36. What a genius idea!
There is a long-term care facility in the Netherlands that allows college students to stay for free in exchange for 30 hours of volunteer per month. When students come home from a class, concert, or party, they share those experiences with their elderly neighbors, some of whom are over 90.
ubcguys
37. Ok but that’s an important thing to settle in the right way!
There was once a 50 man pub brawl in a British pub over who would get the last bag of dry roasted peanuts.
nicklo2k
38. Consistency is key…
This week I learned that “TV Pickup” is a phenomenon wherein people in Britain all simultaneously turn on their electric kettles during commercial TV breaks causing massive power surges countrywide.
asprun
39. At some point we need to question whether she’s actually human.
Shakuntala Devi aka “the Human Computer” was able to Multiply 2 13 digit #s, picked at random. She answered correctly, 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds.
ordin22
40. That is surprising if I’m being totally honest.
Apart from humans, dogs are the only other known species that can understand finger pointing. Not even chimpanzees could manage it in one study.
kinokokoro
41. Well… I wonder why no one else showed up…
A 45 year old Bosnian man named Amir Vehabovic faked his death back in 2007 because he wanted to see who would attend his funeral. Only his mother attended. After this debacle, he wrote dozens of angry letters to his so-called friends and what he thought of their friendship going forward.
iTerence16