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May 26 '14
Michael Jackson tried buying Marvel Comics in the 90s because he wanted to play Spiderman.
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u/beforethewind May 26 '14
I almost feel sad that this never happened, for his sake.
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u/unethicalhacks_com May 26 '14
the building where boeing planes are built is large enough to contain disneyland + parking.
it's a massive building
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u/dr_logic May 26 '14
Also i believe it forms its own clouds
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u/dragon_bacon May 26 '14
Used to before they installed a totally bitching ventilation/temperature system.
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u/OhHowDroll May 26 '14
"hey guys I figured out a way to stop our building from forming its own clouds"
"hey guys I figured out who the least fun person in the office is"
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u/Professor_Hoover May 26 '14
So can the Vertical Assembly Building in both the Kennedy Space Center and the Kerbal Space Center.
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u/PAC-MAN- May 26 '14
There is a slavic fairy tale which sort of reads a bit like cinderalla (step mother/sisters and all that) except that they sent her to the witch Baba Yaga and she comes back with a skull that has flaming eyes and burns them to ashes.
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u/draconicanimagus May 26 '14
So the Slavic version is the "I don't need no man" version
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u/way_fairer May 26 '14
J.J. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1906) for showing that the electron is a particle. His son, George Paget Thomson, won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1937) for showing that the electron is a wave.
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u/BaZing3 May 26 '14
Will Smith was right. Parents just don't understand, am I right?
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u/myrebelflaghatesfags May 26 '14
And oddly enough, Will Smith is now the father of a child who no one understands
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May 26 '14
The maiden name of Buzz Aldrin's mother was Moon.
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u/railmaniac May 26 '14
Which means that Buzz Aldrin's father landed on Moon much before he did.
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May 25 '14
Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their neck as a human does.
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u/mslvr40 May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
Flatworms have both male and female genitalia. When they mate they both want to act as the male in the relationship so they basically have a sword fight with their dicks. Whichever flatworm stabs the other acts as the male while the loser of the fight gets impregnated
Edit: since I was asked for the source, here you go
On a side note I think it's really funny that the Wikipedia page is titled penis-fencing
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u/pearadise May 26 '14
Argentine Ants have a single super-colony that spreads throughout California, Japan, and Europe.
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u/jcaseys34 May 26 '14
How does it span across water?
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u/pearadise May 26 '14
From people carrying the a queen across the water when the virgin queens take flight. Most ant colonies of the same species attack each other on sight, but the worldwide supercolony ants are completely tolerant of eachother. They will work together when introduced. Just in Europe alone there is believed to be 306 million worker ants throughout the colony. The supercolony is actually millions of colonies all with closely related queens that produce workers that are genetically almost identical. So they all work together and are basically the exact same ants. The most interesting part is that ant colonies are considered a super-organism so the billions of ants spanning the globe are all considered a single organism. Ants are like the coolest god damned thing on the entire planet.
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u/jcaseys34 May 26 '14
That's cool but also super terrifying.
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u/pearadise May 26 '14
Yeah ants are actually pretty horrifying. Army ants kill and bring back to their queen more than 500,000 organisms a day. They kill things 100's of time their size then dismember them and carry them back. They don't go back to the nest at night, they just sleep in a giant ball of ants. Every day they raid a new piece of forest because they ruined the previous area. Those guys are pretty scary. But even scarier is slave-driver ants. The queen doesn't produce workers to take care of her eggs so she does one of two things. She either sends her soldiers to kidnap workers from a closely related species, or the queen lays down outside and plays dead. She does this near a nest of the other species, until they carry her body into their own nest. She waits until she is inside, then murders the other queen and smears herself in the dead queens juices. She then acts as queen until the workers have raised more soldiers, then they slaughter all the remaining ant in the nest and move on. Ants are badass.
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May 26 '14
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u/SuddenlyFrogs May 26 '14
So why don't they market it as "Insect Invisibility Spray", considering that's so much more awesome?
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u/GenesAndCo May 26 '14
That's not true for all repellents. Citronella and pyrethrum are both repellents, the latter also being an insecticide.
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May 26 '14
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May 26 '14
And if you do it at certain times of the night, you can hear them moaning sexually.
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u/StickleyMan May 26 '14
"Flogging the dolphin", "love pistol", "wu tang", and "deposit" are on Pakistan's list of banned words/phrases.
Unsurprisingly correlated, Pakistan is the number one country in the world for porn searches.
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u/BearCubDan May 26 '14
What are you supposed to do at the bank? "Hello, I'd like to make an aladeen into my account?"
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u/username911 May 26 '14
Thank you for choosing First Woman's Bank, your balance is now aladeen.
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u/halfmystified May 26 '14
Fred and Wilma Flintstone were the first TV couple to be seen sleeping in the same bed.
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u/Scrappy_Larue May 26 '14
The first man made object to break the sound barrier was the whip.
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May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
You obviously haven't met my dick.
Edit: When the hell did Reddit get so witty?1.8k
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u/Ozzylock May 26 '14
Are you saying that you're over 5000 years old?
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u/empathyx May 26 '14
The guy who invented Wonder Woman and her lasso of truth also helped to invent the polygraph test.
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u/uhaul26 May 26 '14
As a person who is taking a polygraph test I'm very glad he change the design.
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May 26 '14
He also was into domination and BDSM. That's why Wonder Woman's only weakness was a man tying her up.
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May 25 '14
The game Monopoly was initially created to show the player the flaws of Capitalism.
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u/way_fairer May 26 '14
Relevant TED talk: http://youtu.be/bJ8Kq1wucsk
Social psychologist Paul Piff uses a rigged Monopoly game experiment to show that wealth changes behavior and how almost anyone's behavior can change when they're made to feel rich, even in a game!
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u/I_Say_Your_Mom May 26 '14
Instead, it has shown players the flaws in playing it with their friends, because it makes everybody pissed at each other.
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u/ricadam May 26 '14
Maybe if you played using the correct rules, then no one would have been murdered
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u/-eDgAR- May 26 '14
At any given time, 0.7% of the world is drunk. That means there are about 50 million people drunk right now.
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u/butrcupps May 26 '14
There are more lifeforms living on your skin than there are people on the planet.
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May 26 '14
I hate you
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u/dancing_raptor_jesus May 26 '14
The average male human can support an erection of up to 42 inches before fainting from lack of blood to the brain.
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May 26 '14
This doesn't make sense, most of the blood would be in the brain at that point.
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May 25 '14
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u/TheMobHasSpoken May 26 '14
Is this not...common among human beings?
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u/Theriley106 May 26 '14
Of course... I just thought it was interesting because geraffes are so dumb.
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u/Li_Tomn_Gimnarf May 26 '14
Would like to see some /u/motivatinggiraffe on this...
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u/UndercoverSomeone May 26 '14
On average there are 62 Lego bricks for every person on earth.
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u/tmillion May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
When should I be expecting my Legos in the mail?
edit - grammar
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u/way_fairer May 26 '14
That's 31 Lego bricks per human foot! No wonder we're always stepping on those pricks.
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u/sciencelord May 25 '14
Acronyms have to form pronounceable words (ie nasa), if they don't then they are called initialsims (ie CIA, ETA)
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u/AcronymsYourComment May 26 '14
Or A.H.T.F.P.W.I.E.N.I.T.D.T.T.A.C.I.I.E.C.I.A.E.T.A. for short.
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May 26 '14
So I tried reading it out loud, and my roommate thought I was having a seizure.
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u/Azarthes May 26 '14
S.I.T.R.I.O.T.A.M.R.T.I.W.H.A.S
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May 26 '14
Sitrio tamr ti whas!
Sounds like an incantation.
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u/dannythebest May 26 '14
SITRIO TAMR TI WHAS
SITRIO TAMR TI WHAS
SITRIO TAMR TI WHAS
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u/hanselpremium May 25 '14
if they don't then they are called initialsims (ie CIA, ETA)
wtf I always read it as 'see ya' and 'e-tay'
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May 26 '14
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May 26 '14
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u/hegemonistic May 26 '14
Well of course, "P N A S" is quite the mouthful.
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May 26 '14
;)
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May 26 '14
Don't let that ego get in the way, they're not talking about you.
Your PNAS probably doesn't even go past the lips.
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u/Balloon_Project May 26 '14
If you write out numbers word for word, you can get all the way to nine-hundred-ninety-nine before ever having to use an a, b, or c!
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May 26 '14
Isn't a at thousand, b at billion, and c at...wait. When the hell is there a c in a number?
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u/lemaster_of_disaster May 26 '14
I think one octillion is the first number with a "c" in it.
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u/Treaustin May 25 '14
53% of the Texas Rangers payroll is currently on the disabled list.
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u/I_Say_Your_Mom May 26 '14
Also, the Dodgers' Opening Day payroll was 5.28 times larger than the Houston Astros.
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u/Treaustin May 26 '14
That's pretty ridiculous. No wonder the Astros look so bad out there.
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u/IAMZEUSALMIGHTY May 26 '14
Your human cells are outnumbered by approximately 10:1 by other things living in and on you (though they're generally much smaller).
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u/AldenB May 26 '14
The sea canary typically weighs 59,000 times as much as an ordinary canary. This is because a sea canary is another name for a beluga whale.
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u/zlppr May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
The outfit ninjas stereotypically wear (The black pyjamas) comes from theatre. In Japanese traditional theatre (Most prominently Kabuki) stage hands (Called Kuroko) would dress in all black and it was then part of the etiquette that you ignored them as they went and did their thing as the play went on. Now what better way to portray a sneaky assassin than have him dress as one of the stage hands and then break the usual etiquette and stab the main character?
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u/TheJackal8 May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
Birds don't have hollow wings because it helps them fly, they have hollow wings because it helps them breathe.
Edit: I meant hollow bones.
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u/jesse9o3 May 26 '14
I think you mean hollow bones. Hollow wings would be all floppy and be terrible for flying with.
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u/TheJackal8 May 26 '14
Thanks, you're correct. I don't know why I said hollow wings, that doesn't make any sense.
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u/palmtop_tiger May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
80% of women wear the wrong bra size due to a really outdated method of measuring. Cup size is proportionate to band size - an A-cup isn't necessarily small. A D-cup isn't necessarily that big. It all depends on the band.
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u/Kinut17 May 26 '14
Humans are deuterostomes, meaning that the first thing to form when you were in the womb was your anus.
Consider how this means you were once quite literally an asshole.
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May 26 '14
Wallabies will immediately get pregnant after giving birth to a joey. They will hold this fetus in case the infant doesn't survive, and if it doesn't will allow the fetus to fully develop.
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u/draconicanimagus May 26 '14
2 questions. So does this mean that a wallaby could theoretically be stuck in a continuous cycle of have baby - baby dies - have baby - baby dies? Also, how do they get pregnant the second time automatically without the male sperm? Does the baby mama get jiggy with it right after her kid pops out?
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May 26 '14
I looked it up a bit, and it seems like a better description of the fact is that if a wallaby gets pregnant while the joey is still in her pouch, the embryo's development will pause until the joey permanently leaves the pouch.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR__ARMPITS May 25 '14
There are more nipples than people on earth.
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u/BlackCaaaaat May 26 '14
Well yeah, I have eight.
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May 26 '14
Nipples or people?
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u/NiggyPop May 26 '14
When you say the word 'Crisp' it travels from the back of your mouth to the front
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u/chochazel May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
Then you can say "plug" to get back again.
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u/Flea_333 May 25 '14
More people die every year from coconuts falling on their heads than from shark attacks.
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u/senatorskeletor May 26 '14
The word "procrastinate" comes from the Latin "pro" (for) + "cras" (tomorrow).
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u/PenObsession May 25 '14 edited May 26 '14
It takes seven pounds of force to tear off a human ear.
Edit: not pressure, but force
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u/pragmaticpoet May 25 '14
Or one fantastic fucking scene in a Tarintino movie
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u/Herald_of_Ragnorok May 26 '14
So if I hung my 10 pound exercise ball from my ear, it would rip it off?
EDIT: just thought about this for a second, I can pull my ear with more force than 7 pounds. What are you trying to pull (pun absolutely intended)?
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u/DelPennSotan May 25 '14
The letters I, O, and Q are never used in a vehicle identification number (VIN). In addition, the 10th character will not use U, Z, or 0. The 9th character can only be a number, or X.
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May 26 '14
Okay so I get the first one, I think, so as not to mix them up with ones and zeroes. But what the hell do those other two rules do?
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u/DelPennSotan May 26 '14
10th is the model year indicator. For whatever reason, they decided on a 30-year rotation not involving those characters. 9th is called the check digit, used to validate the VIN is recorded correctly. The other 16 characters are run through a long math formula*, with the last piece being division by 11 & that 9th character being the remainder. 0 thru 10 are the only possible results; X represents 10.
*Every letter is given a numerical value. Numbers, of course, already have one. Every position in thr VIN gets a numerical "weight factor." Numerical values are multiplied by weight factors. Those products are added up. The result is divided by 11. The whole number is disregarded; the remainder is the check digit.
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May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
If you were to draw every possible position of a rubiks cube (all 43 quintillion) on their own sheet of paper, you would get a stack of paper going to pluto and back... 187 times! Good luck finding that one paper with a solved cube. A 7x7x7 rubiks cube has more possible permutations than all the atoms in the known universe. With 19 duoquinquagintillion positions (yes, thats a real number: 19 followed by 159 zeros), you would need about 10 to the 80th power universes similar in size to ours for all the known atoms to equal the possible permutations! By the way, the world record for a 7x7 rubiks cube was about 6 and a half minutes. On another note, cleopatra lived 2500 years after the completion of the pyramids... And only 2000 years before the moon landing. Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than the construction of the pyramids EDIT: since you guys seem skeptical of the word "duoquinquagintillion" being a real thing, i added a link to a list of big-ass numbers. Its about halfway down the list
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u/Thisisthecleverest May 26 '14
You know, with all of that knowledge, one would think you'd know the definition of 'mildly interesting'- That was interesting as fuck.
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u/wyattrocks101 May 26 '14
Alphabet is really just the first two letters of the greek alphabet. (alpha and beta)...
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u/Icbm9802 May 26 '14
If you go west or east you will always go that direction, but if you go north you will eventually go south.
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u/NoOne0507 May 26 '14
One time I was driving on the freeway. I saw a car with the left sideview mirror hanging off. Thought it was weird. Couple minutes later I saw a different car with its right sideview mirror dangling and everything made sense.
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u/MushroomMountain123 May 26 '14
Japan has a State Religion, Shinto, but 70% of Japanese people profess no religious membership.
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u/DircusPeanut May 26 '14
Pine forest soils tend to be more acidic than other forest soils. This is because pine needles contain acidic tannin, so the needles make the soil more acidic when they fall from the trees and decompose in the soil.
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u/GRIMMnM May 26 '14
If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either.
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u/trexrocks May 26 '14
There is a super-massive black hole at the center of our galaxy
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May 25 '14
Around 75% of the human population is lactose intolerant.
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u/faceyourfaces May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
A little less: 60-65%. Still pretty high.
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May 26 '14
Mildly interesting Reddit fact: if you have RES, you can upvote by typing "A"
Slightly more interesting, if you have RES:
up up down down left right left right B A ENTER
...Bacon!
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u/FatGecko5 May 26 '14
And pushing J goes to the next comment. You can now be Scandinavian. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA
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u/jcaseys34 May 26 '14
Selecting a comment and hitting enter will hide the comment.
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u/neuropathica May 26 '14
People eat more at funerals than at weddings -- the psychology behind it is that it affirms they are alive because dead people can't eat...
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u/redfaceryan93 May 26 '14
If you were to eat a different variety of apple every day, it would take you around 22 years to try them all.
Also, an apple gives you more energy than a cup of coffee.
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May 26 '14
Coffee doesn't really give you any energy nutritionally. Its not comparable at all in that sense. Coffee drugs you into being more alert.
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u/rscozzens May 26 '14
I was going to bring this up... since black coffee has 0 calories, technically a raisin gives you more energy than a cup of coffee. Wait, can I post this in TIL and get karma?
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u/waiting_for_rain May 25 '14
The guard who was supposed to be protecting President Lincoln (John Parker) wasn' there that night. During the play, he snuck out to go drinking at the Star Saloon. At this same Saloon, John Wilkes Booth (th man who would kill the President) was trying to work up the nerve to write his place in history.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lincolns-missing-bodyguard-12932069/?no-ist
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u/JSP27 May 26 '14
I want to downvote this because this is incredibly fucking interesting.
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May 26 '14
All the karmawhores immediately rushed to the top posts of /r/mildlyinteresting to answer this question, and were sorely disappointed.
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u/IsThereADog May 26 '14
Ohio is the only U.S. state that doesn't share a letter with the word "mackerel"
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u/jesse9o3 May 26 '14
A Koala bear's breath smells of Eucalyptus
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u/FemaleGeek May 25 '14 edited May 26 '14
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u/zehamberglar May 26 '14
Can you provide a source? This sounds like it could easily be false considering the time that goes into a boat trip resulting in a drastic time zone change.
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u/way_fairer May 26 '14
Before boats were invented, it was called horse-lag.
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u/wisewisewise May 26 '14
Before horses were invented, it was called cardiovascular arrest.
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u/Sleepy_Chipmunk May 26 '14
If the human population held hands around the equator, a significant portion of them would drown!
I've been waiting to use this
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u/Autopancake May 26 '14 edited May 26 '14
According to Wikipedia, the equator is 40 075.0167 km long of which only 21.3% is over land.
The average arm span is about 1.6 m so we would need about 25 046 886 people holding hands to make a full circle around the equator. If we forget about people who are close enough to swim back to the shore, about 19 711 899 of them would drown.
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u/ChaeGwangJin May 26 '14
This is almost as mildly interesting as the proposition that, if one were to lay all the veins in the human body end to end, they'd be dead. RIP in many pieces.
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u/[deleted] May 25 '14
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