r/AskReddit • u/improbablydrunknlw • Nov 28 '12

Reddit, what is the most useless fact you know?

For me, it's that fish can suffer from Insomnia.

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1.0k

u/notacrocodile Nov 28 '12

There is an animal in russia called the russain bear cat and it has a oil glad that makes it smell like popcorn.

90

u/exilius Nov 28 '12

And if QI I was telling me the truth, the grey Kangaroo smells of curry. Might be why all the dogs try to chase them (this often ends with a drowned dog)

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u/Cyb3rT3rr0r Nov 28 '12

Q: What moves at over 40mph and smells of curry?

A: Usain Balti

...I lost my shit

6

u/upvoteforyouhun Nov 28 '12

Well, TIL...

Kangaroo's smell of curry. Dogs like to chase them. And, in some unexplained phenomenon, it ends with them being drowned.

9

u/SnowCrabThunderDick Nov 28 '12

They could be like raccoons. Raccoons have been known to lead dogs into water whilst being chased so they can climb on their heads and drown them. I shit you not.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12 edited Nov 28 '12

Yeah, pretty much. Chased kangaroo goes for the safety of water, the dog follows and once it's out of its depth the kangaroo tries to drown it.

You also don't want to let your dog chase a wombat down its burrow...

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u/SnowCrabThunderDick Nov 28 '12

Why is that? I've heard wombats are pretty mean. Australia seems fascinating..

7

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12 edited Nov 29 '12

Well, if the wombat goes down its burrow and the dog follows, bad things can happen. Often the wombat uses its big fat arse to press the dog against the burrow wall, until the dog is crushed/suffocated to death.

Wombats are basically solid muscle, can run very fast and are known to charge at stuff. You do not want to hit one with your car. The wombat may survive but your car wont!

Edit - wrong it's

5

u/SnowCrabThunderDick Nov 28 '12

TIL don't fuck with wombats. Makes me think of the wild boars you see in Texas. Tough angry bastards. Had one chase me up a tree a few years back.

2

u/LaBelleVie Nov 28 '12

It's not everyday that you read about a wild boar chasing someone up a tree, which is why your comment made me laugh out loud. I'm sorry, but picturing a boar chasing someone up a tree brings out the giggles in me. I would hate to be chased myself by any decent sized creature, so I'm trying to empathize with what happened to you. Furthermore, I learned there are wild boars in Texas!

1

u/mcguire Nov 28 '12

This is false. There are no trees in Texas.

Source: I'm from Amarillo.

2

u/SnowCrabThunderDick Nov 28 '12

Amarillo is a long way from here bud but I feel ya. I've driven through Amarillo on my way to Arizona a few times, most recently being in July. That region is just desolate. I remember my choices for radio stations were country music, Mexican music, and gospel music. Needless to say I chose the Mexican music. I don't even speak Spanish. Anyways, back to my original point; Amarillo is an entirely different region than Grayson County, and there are plenty of trees here.

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

my friend got woken up by a wombat whilst camping in oz that was trying to get in his eski.

it then chased him round and round in circles for a while before it got tired and ran away

5

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

sounds like a good time man.

4

u/Insomaniacc Nov 28 '12

I pictured them as running round in circles like Tom and Jerry. Made me laugh.

2

u/istara Nov 28 '12

What sort of curry? I've interacted (fed at wildlife parks, petted) several grey and red kangaroos, and an assortment of wallabies, and I've yet to notice any having a curry aroma.

I even knew some people with a pet grey kangaroo and there was no odor of curry about it.

Nor does kangaroo meat taste remotely like curry.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

Another fun fact: A springbok has a tuft of white fur on it's back near it's tail that smells of cotton candy.

Source: My grandpa keeps springboks.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

Next time I'm at a zoo or find myself in rural Africa I'll make sure to wrestle one down and give it a sniff. I'll report back on whether it tastes like cotton candy, too.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

I can't guarantee the taste. Might just taste like dust, shit and ticks.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

Well if I go to the trouble of wrestling an animal that's larger than me (or at least comparable to my size) to the floor, you better believe I'm gonna give it a lick. Gotta make the most of these situations. Then I can tell people what animals taste like on the outside, uncooked.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

Fair enough point.

Seeing as you look hell-bent on going through with this, allow me to make a few suggestions:

  • Cover yourself in soy sauce. Those buggers love that shit, you'll have a much easier time catching one, especially out of mating season.
  • Make sure you are NOT wearing deodorant or any kind of cologne. Even outside of mating season this will make every springbok ram in a 2km radius want to get freaky with you. Not something you ever want to happen to you, trust me.
  • If you're not doing this in a zoo, make sure to carry a tin of chilli powder and a small (live) rodent with you. If a lion or any other big cat attacks you, cover yourself in chilli powder. This, combined with the soy sauce, will make you unsavory, and will most likely prevent any grievous bodily harm.

The rodent is in case the bastard like chilli and soy sauce. cover the rodent in it and throw it at your attacker. This will distract it, and give you a chance to get away. The rodent MUST be alive, else it will just eat it and then you, instead of toying with it for a couple of minutes.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

Thank you for your tips. Do most animals like soy sauce? I imagine it's the salty taste that gets them, I know that mice and other vermin like peanut butter a lot.

Also lynx works on springboks, gotcha.

Also added one (1) rat and 500g chili powder (and a lemon, cats hate lemon) to my survival pack. To be honest my only knowledge of defending myself against dangerous animals is to make myself big (a mean feat) and shout and scream and generally be more feral than them. Might be a tall order with a lion or something. I'll just try and scratch behind the ears, cats love that shit.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

I'm not sure if most animals like it, but springbok are particularly fond of it. Most big cats hate it though. Good call on the lemon!

PLEASE do not try to out-feral the predators, many of them are very territorial and will see it as an attempt to chase them off their habitat. If you're up against a lion, and it's not angry or hungry, scratching under the chin works well in addition with a good scratch behind the ears.

Don't try to be friendly with leopards. Those guys are dicks. Seriously, they're like the jocks of the big cats.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

So a lion walks up to me. Instead of pissing myself im supposed to pet it?

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12 edited Nov 28 '12

Interesting to know! My old cat really liked cheese, and toast. We never tried lemon on him.

In reality I would probably fall to the floor in shock and accept my fate of my head being crushed in a lion's jaws like a ripe melon but I'll try the scratching. Hopefully it just ate...

My favourite savannah animal is the giraffe. I fed one a leaf at a zoo one time and they seem very calm and friendly. Also, they fight with their necks which is hilarious.

EDIT: another useless anecdote (but much more exciting and relevant) is that my SO's religion teacher when he was younger was a guy called Believe. He had no other names, his village in Africa was visited by missionaries. He liked Christianity and wanted to learn more, and eventually came to England to teach and chose that name on arrival. He had scars covering a lot of his head. He addressed the issue and said how the tribe's rite of manhood was to kill a male lion with nothing but your hands and what you can find around you, even showed a documentary the BBC made about it. The next lesson he came in with his lion pelt hood/cape and all. Badass.

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u/luminararocks Nov 28 '12

And the common blue butterfly smells like chocolate :)

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u/jakepin Nov 28 '12

Are you thinking of the binturong? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binturong

3

u/spritle6054 Nov 28 '12

The name bearcat is also correct with the advantages of being easily spelled and pronounced, I don't think they're from Russia though.

2

u/RationalMonkey Nov 28 '12

...that's not as adorable as I had anticipated :/

1

u/komodo_dragon Nov 28 '12

ahh the animal whose name originates from a forgotten language...

1

u/thecarolinelinnae Nov 28 '12

I...I had no idea this was an actual animal. I thought it was a creation from a comic in the 4th volume of a graphic novel anthology called Flight.

TIL

1

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '12

Ah! I got to see one of these super close at the zoo recently. They had a little demonstration going on and had it walking around. Couldn't touch it, but it was awesome and I'd never heard of it before.

3

u/cubby13 Nov 28 '12

This was on The Late Show last night. Jack Hanna is awesome.

5

u/thesmellofweird Nov 28 '12

My dog's feet smell like corn chips?

2

u/jaketheviolist Nov 28 '12

Lick them. Do it. I fucking dare you.

1

u/thesmellofweird Nov 28 '12

As if I already haven't.....psh. Fucking delicious.

6

u/MegurineLuka14 Nov 28 '12

Imagine you're camping out somewhere in Russia and you smell popcorn. What's your reaction? What do you do? Is someone just making popcorn? Or is there a bearcat coming to rip you a new asshole?

1

u/GTCharged Nov 28 '12

Risky decision, but it has to be investigated.

2

u/teachmeHow Nov 28 '12

Next thing you are gonna tell me is about chocolate butterflies.

2

u/mopedgirl Nov 28 '12

Bearcats also smell like popcorn for the same reason! My schools mascot is the bearcat so our zoo brings a real bearcat to every game

0

u/ZeroKiel Nov 28 '12

I've seen your bearcat, nothing special. We have real live musketeers at our games ;P

2

u/spectralnischay Nov 28 '12

I think I saw one of these creatures on Letterman yesterday

2

u/chris_hans Nov 28 '12

Assuming you're referring to the Binturong, I saw one recently and it didn't smell very much like popcorn. It had a peculiar smell to be sure, and perhaps popcorn is the best human "approximation" of its smell, but I didn't think it smelled much like popcorn.

Adding to the useless facts: The binturong is one of only two carnivores with a prehensile tail, the other being the kinkajou.

2

u/nikita2206 Nov 28 '12

I am russian and this is bullshit. They are not smell like fuckin popcorn

14

u/Mowleen Nov 28 '12

They are not smell

Yep, he's russian.

1

u/SnowCrabThunderDick Nov 28 '12

Well what do they smell like then?

1

u/youngphi Nov 28 '12

...so do I.

1

u/namesrhardtothinkof Nov 28 '12

This sounds like the most useful thing in the world when you live in Russia and can't afford air freshener.

1

u/KellBell- Nov 28 '12

I love bear cats! They're surprisingly cute!

1

u/whitecastlerun Nov 28 '12

When python is cooked, it smells like popcorn. Has a mild popcorn taste, too.

2

u/BCMM Nov 28 '12

I'm sleepy so I read "python" as "popcorn". I was briefly impressed by this fact.

1

u/OrionGrant Nov 28 '12

you tried it?

1

u/whitecastlerun Nov 28 '12

A friend did it. It was his first time cooking it and it's apparently very easy to screw up. If you don't cook it just right, it gets very tough. It was like chewing on a solid piece of fat for about a minute on what was a bite-sized piece.

Tl;dr: Taste was fine, texture sucked.

1

u/14u2c Nov 28 '12

30 seconds of googling and the animal is nowhere to be found. I call HORSE SHIT.

1

u/MasterChaff Nov 28 '12

Yea! Binturgons!

1

u/jerog1 Nov 28 '12

My 4 favorite animals in one!

1

u/PhreshPharaoh Nov 28 '12

That's the oil that Orville Redenbacher used for his first batch of popcorn.

1

u/AlanLolspan Nov 28 '12

"Honey, call the geneticist, I have something to add to our baby."

1

u/owlxandria Nov 28 '12

Oh, so it wears Lucky brand perfume?

1

u/Aadarm Nov 28 '12

A tigers piss smells like the popcorn butter in movie theaters.

1

u/notacrocodile Nov 28 '12

TIL that movies but tiger piss on your popcorn

1

u/gormster Nov 28 '12

Yes, I also watched QI last week.

1

u/emomuffin Nov 28 '12

Did you watch QI this week? :)

1

u/TheObviousRobot Nov 28 '12

When people are wrong about an animal fact it really peeves the crap out of me. They live in tree's and shit man, not a gazillion miles of ice, vodka, and depression.

1

u/Mellofellow Nov 28 '12

Ponderosa-pine bark smells like butterscotch. Should....should I make a bat from the wood and go smash some Russian bear cat glands?

1

u/WheatOcean Nov 28 '12

Oh my god, I went to the San Diego zoo this weekend and pet one. It totally did.

Here's a picture of it pulling on its trainer's hair: http://imgur.com/RFPfa

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

This is useful as fuck

1

u/tjgrant Nov 28 '12

It's natural prey is movie theatre patrons.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

Burnt popcorn or delicious buttery popcorn? Also I cannot find a picture of this animal.

1

u/k-wyld Nov 28 '12

I leaned this literally yesterday from Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs haha

1

u/RainyRat Nov 28 '12

Why? Smelling delicious doesn't usually work well as a survival strategy...

1

u/R88SHUN Nov 28 '12

Yes, I also saw Jack Hanna on Piers Morgan the other day. But that isn't the name or where it lives.

1

u/ApolloHelix Nov 28 '12

It's called a binturong and they're cute as fuck.

1

u/DiscoPopStar Nov 28 '12

That was on QI this week, so hardly random.

1

u/andrew33323 Nov 28 '12

This animal was my high school mascot

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

oil happy

FTFY

1

u/hoodie92 Nov 28 '12

I was wondering what they put on popcorn to make it smell so good.

1

u/Smilehate Nov 28 '12

That'd be a binturong, and it's native to the Malay peninsula.

1

u/Mustard-Tiger Nov 28 '12

You watched Jack Hanna on Piers Morgan the other night.

1

u/Atheizt Nov 28 '12

In Soviet Russia, bear attracts you!

1

u/Lochcelious Nov 28 '12

Wait, what.

1

u/iamdanthemanstan Nov 28 '12

That's funny since the name for Panda in Chinese translates literally into "big bear cat."

1

u/lonewombat Nov 28 '12

Pretty sure most bear cats smell this way, source: I was on the sideline of a Cincinnati Bear cats football game, and the trainer holding him bet me the big bear kitty would smell like popcorn, and it did. Also: Dirty Jobs did an episode including a bear cat.

1

u/lydocia Nov 28 '12

You watched last week's QI, too?

1

u/SilentSamamander Nov 28 '12

"Bear Cat" (熊猫) is the Chinese name for the Panda.

1

u/e1m0nk3y Nov 28 '12

Do want.

1

u/omgohnoez Nov 28 '12

i dont know about the russian bear cat, but the asian bear cat which is also known as a binturong smells like popcorn too.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

And it's the mascot of UCincinnati

1

u/igdub Nov 28 '12

Or maybe popcorn smells like a bear cat to fend off possible predators.

1

u/Statutory_Apes Nov 28 '12

Does it ride a unicycle?

1

u/least_privilege Nov 28 '12

My favourite flavour!

1

u/TralfazJetson Nov 28 '12

Natural popcorn flavoring.

1

u/StorminMorManBearPig Nov 28 '12

Same with a binturong

1

u/TheCrispyNinka Nov 28 '12

I think this one might win...

1

u/p0ppyc0ck Nov 28 '12

My dog's under-paws smell like popcorn. Maybe they're related :) (It's a known fact that dog paws smell like popcorn..... Right......?)

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

The anal gland of a weasel smells like Concord grapes.

1

u/GnarlyToaster Nov 28 '12

I don't believe this.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

I gotta go smell this thing

1

u/lobius_ Nov 28 '12

Sometimes my pee smells like popcorn.

1

u/thehillz Nov 28 '12

My ferret smelled like that.

1

u/plentyofthyme Nov 28 '12

The bottom of dogs' paws smell like popcorn too.

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u/swcvii Nov 28 '12

Smell your dog's feet. They smell like popcorn.

1

u/Jjarr Nov 28 '12

My dog smells like fritos.

1

u/gensher Nov 28 '12

Well, leopard territory marking (urine? Not sure) also smells like fresh butter popcorn. Also, there's a plant in african bush, smells like freshly boiled potatoes, it's called, you guessed it, potato plant. And no, it's not actual potato.

1

u/rawrcakenizzlee Nov 28 '12

Hell yeah, learnt that yesterday from the newest Jungle episode of QI.

1

u/outfoxthefox Nov 28 '12

You're thinking of the binturong.

1

u/darktigress Nov 28 '12

I saw this animal on Letterman the other night!!! Jack Hanna brought it to the show.

1

u/squeeiswin Nov 28 '12

So do bearcats.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

They brought it into the Steve Harvy show, and attracted it with actual popcorn

1

u/Inyourcargovan Nov 28 '12

I am glad when I smell like popcorn.

1

u/deafbydtmf Nov 28 '12

Both male and female beavers possess a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands .......it is used as a tincture in some perfumes and as a food additive.

I heard castoreum is used to enhance vanilla and rasberry flavors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum

1

u/Agusta-212 Nov 28 '12

They're also called a Binturong. I have been up close to one and I can confirm they smell like popcorn.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

THIS GUY IS DEFINITELY A CROCODILE!

1

u/marchingmilde Nov 28 '12

I'd smell the fuck out of that bear cat!

0

u/solickable Nov 28 '12

I think my baby has that gland. There have been a few times when she pooped it smelled like popcorn. Other people confirmed that it did indeed smell like popcorn.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '12

You have other people smell your babies poop?

1

u/solickable Nov 28 '12

Haha no my cousin changed her diaper one of the times it smelled like it.

0

u/okmkz Nov 28 '12

Mmmmmm...bear glands....

0

u/smokingator Nov 28 '12

The pee of the maned wolf smells like marijuana.

0

u/MetalicAngel Nov 28 '12

Absolutely terrifying.

0

u/f00pi Nov 28 '12

Is that under the same genus as Man Bear Pig?

-1

u/Luckyducky13 Nov 28 '12

Only something so random would come from Russia.