We humans are meaning-seeking creatures. The question ‘why?’ has pushed us to explore the mysteries of the universe as well as the depths of our existence. But in the process, we learned that not every revelation brings us peace of mind.
Reddit user Yoloextreme345 made a post on the platform, asking everyone on it, “What is a fact you know off the top of your head (preferably disturbing) that you probably shouldn’t?” and people immediately started sharing things they would like to forget.
From ancient funeral practices to modern celebrity lives, here are some of the most popular answers.
#1
The more the ice caps melt, the higher the likelihood that some ancient bacteria is released and ravages our population.
Image source: thespank
#2
A Jewish doctor treated Hitler’s Mother(The only person Adolf ever truly loved) while she was dying of cancer.
He promised his eternal gratitude to the doctor and even after becoming a pathological anti-Semite and later the Fuhrer, he was true to his word and was adamant the doctor and his family be placed under protection from the purge.
While some may think this an act of genuine kindness, I just think about all the lives lost because Hitler never stopped to think that all Jews were capable of good and not just the one who happened to have been good to him because of immediate proximity..
Image source: jesster_0, Pixabay
#3
In ancient Egypt, the deceased bodies of beautiful and high ranking women were left to decay for several days before mummification to discuourage necrophilia by the embalmers.
Image source: TheLoneleyPython, M abnodey
#4
A woodpecker retracts its tongue and wraps it around its brain to prevent injury when drilling into trees in search of insects,
Image source: Razberrella
#5
Humans, being mostly Carbon, can be made into diamonds.
I plan to go the cheaper route and have my ashes be rolled into a glass paperweight. Some day I might even end up on the shelf of a Goodwill for $2.99
Edit: 3000 points has unlocked another, also disturbing fact.
Snow is so sound deadening, that your kid could be building a snowfort, have it collapse, and you wouldn’t hear their cries for help. Even worse is when they’re tunneling into one of those parking lot plow piles. They won’t hear the plow coming.
Image source: Onlyhereforthelaughs
#6
That reports of child abuse dropped precipitously during the COVID-19 pandemic not because less children were abused but because teachers were unable to see the typical evidence of abuse because most teaching was conducted online.
Image source: OldschoolScience
#7
Humans can live without their stomachs (and no you don’t necessarily need any ostomy bags either).
Ask me how I know…
Never mind, I’ll tell you.
I don’t have one any longer (stomach cancer).
Edit: Thank you kind strangers for the awards. ☺️ Never got one before and now I have two, scratch that FOUR Now
Edit 2:Y’all!!!! You are so sweet and kind. Thank you everyone for the well wishes, kindness and questions.
Please go get genetically tested for these things. So far 4 of the 6 members of my family don’t have stomachs anymore (all this year).
Genetic testing can save your life!
Edit 3: Fun fact: Us ones without stomachs call ourselves seahorses now because they don’t have stomachs either.
Image source: Prettydeadlady
#8
I was told by a very senior police officer (a parent of a kid I taught) that it is estimated that 30% of all missing persons reported to police who are never located have been murdered and more often than not they have been murdered by the person reporting them missing in the first place. The police know this, but lack evidence to proceed with prosecutions.
Image source: VorlonKing, Billie Grace Ward
#9
I remember hearing some dude (retired military) on a podcast talk about how fragile our electric grid really is, and if it ever went down some 60%-ish of the population would die in about 2-3 months because nobody knows how to gather food or water anymore.
Image source: Rhodekoff, Brett Sayles
#10
Big corporation always calculate wether its cheaper to pay a fine/settlement rather than obey the law.
Image source: MelantorBoost
#11
Elon Musk’s father is currently with and has a child with his step-daughter. He became her step-father when she was about 3
Image source: MotherOfDachshunds42, Bo Allen
#12
I think I speak with every woman on here: blood stains are easier to get out of fabric than you think they are with very few cleaning materials, provided you get to them quickly enough.
Image source: tashalovescake, No Revisions
#13
Most arsonists are found masturbating somewhere within a few blocks of their fires
Image source: wpggloryhole, Pixabay
#14
That when you have a headache because you’re extremely hungover, it’s because your dehydrated brain is shriveling and pulling on the membranes that connect it to your skull.
Once I found that out it’s made all of my hangover headaches much worse just thinking about it.
Image source: skoogdoo, Andrea Piacquadio
#15
One of the most toxic chemicals on Earth is an organic mercury compound. The material safety sheet notes that it has a slightly sweet odor, but at a concentration where the smell is detectable, it is already lethal. That observation came from someone who would inevitably die from accidental exposure.
Image source: patricksaurus, Martin Lopez
#16
“If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you” doesnt mean the attorney is free
Edit: Holy s**t I didn’t know this was going to catch so many eyes! For clarification this is in the US (suprise suprise) and this is on a state by state basis.
Image source: jadethefirefox, Sora Shimazaki
#17
Doctors removed the eyes of Jack The Rippers last known victim in order to check if they could extract an image of the killer.
Image source: gadget242, cottonbro studio
#18
If you touch something you shouldn’t, touch it again in the same place and the police can’t get a fingerprint as one distorted the other.
Edit: This is no longer true as technology has solved the “issue”. So wear gloves or don’t do naughty things without consent.
Image source: scooba_dude
#19
If you skin a person alive and they somehow don’t die of shock, they’ll actually die due to hypothermia as without skin, they become unable to regulate their core body temperature.
Image source: Dodec_Ahedron, Angela Roma
#20
If you’re a cannibal, never eat the brains. Eating brains is how you catch a disease called Kuru. It is 100% lethal.
Image source: TheHomieData, Robina Weermeijer
#21
•A dead body in the beginning stages of decomp smell like wet hay
•if you die alone and become a “bloater” they pop you like a big zit before removal
•the best way to remove frozen brain matter off the sidewalk is a flame thrower
Confessions of an emergency cleanup specialist ♥️😏
Image source: anon
#22
Dolphins throw around pufferfish like a volley ball just to play with them. They also get high off their toxins. Talk about a puff and pass.
Image source: vkhdudoit
#23
People dying often smell sweet. Not in a sugary way, but much more in flowery way. It’s the decompositions of the body already starting. It can also smell vaguely like alcohol, especially their breath
Image source: Mamaclover, Joel Muniz
#24
I once read that the average person walks past 36 murderers during their life.
Edit: the average American
Image source: Inside-Fly4901, TREEDEO.ST
#25
A perfectly healthy person can have a seizure at any point for no apparent reason.
The human brain has neurons misfire all the time. 99.999% of the time you don’t notice because there’s no noticeable effect, but if the wrong couple neurons misfire at the same time it can induce a seizure.
Source: happened to me
Image source: Temp_Variable
#26
22 U.S. Military Veterans commit suicide each day.
Image source: Ok-Huckleberry-207
#27
A person split in half by the stomach doesn’t die instantly. It has some lastly moments of suffering.
Source: a person was hit by a train and split in half in front of me. He took some time to die.
Image source: EmuChance4523, MART PRODUCTION
#28
That Robert Pickton, serial killer in British Columbia, used to dispose of bodies at a local fat rendering plant, meaning that many of the products made from that plant, think gummies or anything gelatin related, likely contained human remains.
Image source: westKev, Kyle Johnson
#29
That in ancient egypt it was a regular occasion that all people watched the pharao masturbate in to the nile
Image source: Main_Answer_8049
#30
A cremation oven is about 1800° F. Lava is about 2000° F. Hawaii has accessible lava.
Image source: Wags43
#31
The US military conducted chemical weapons tests on 60,000 US service members during WWII. It was kept secret until the 1990’s and wasn’t widely known until NPR wrote an investigative story on it in 2015.
Image source: anon
#32
The body fat of a drowned person turns into a soap-like substance if they stay under water with no air contact
Image source: WattebauschXC, Dih Andréa
#33
Orcas will slap baby seals 80+ ft into the air with their tails until the seal’s skin comes off, and eventually dies. The orcas will then not even eat it after, meaning that they literally just do it for fun.
Image source: Daddy_Smokestack, Jonas Bratland
#34
I’ve learnt of some uncomfortable facts from some Aztec (Mexica) fammily which has been passed down from generation to generation, though I don’t know how true this one is:
During a ritual, Aztec kings used to bring some victims up the tall pyramid so they may be sacrificed to their gods. Typically, these victims were tossed along the side of the very jagged rocks and we’re usually found dead at the bottom.
The priests would gather the bodies and cut them up for distribution to the people according to importance, so the king got the best piece and his family and the other priests received some parts, etc. They inevitably ate these pieces as part of their ritual.
Of course they didn’t just munch on them, they prepared them like any other meat and usually ate them with soups.
Fast forward to the time when the conquistadores came from Spain. These guys show up not long after some ritual took place, then the Aztecs welcomed them in and shared their food.
You can figure out by now where this is going, these conquistadores ate the soup so they inquired about what it was made of and sure enough they found out.
Although eating human meat was a big no no, the Spaniards actually enjoyed it. So when they inevitably conquered over the Aztecs, they ended up keeping the recipe of that soup. Instead of using human meat though, they used pork since they’ve said that it tastes similar.
We still eat that today, it’s called Pozole (Pozilli).
Image source: intimate_existence
#35
Cows can create mummified foetuses inside of their uterus. If the foetus dies and is not retrieved, the body absorbs all the liquids and humidity from the foetus, and what is left is a tiny dried up hard solid mummy of a calf.
Image source: Tia_Mariana, Barbara Webb
#36
19th century murderer William Palmer’s last words to the hangman who would take his life were “Are you sure it’s safe?”
Charles Dickens called him “the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey.”
Image source: MyIndiscretions, Eva Blue
#37
4% of people on Death Row are innocent
Image source: SweetDick_Willy
#38
The witch in Hansel and Gretel actually was cooking the two kids correctly, by using low heat cauldron over a long time with fatty meat, cuz she fattened them
Image source: SunbroRyguy
#39
Using a dead animal to try and throw off body sniffing dogs is a myth spread around to try and get people to trip up. If there’s disturbed ground and some random animal 3-4ft down you can bet your booty that entire areas getting turned over.
Image source: The_Big_Chub
#40
Takes 3hrs for a 180lb human to completely dissolve in a bathtub of potassium hydroxide.
Image source: MyOpinionAboutThis, Andrea Piacquadio
#41
During the Black Death, people would be so infected with the plague that the buboes (those lumps) that you could hear them gurgling with bacteria
Image source: Creative20something, SHVETS production
#42
Every person has technically has been female.
Image source: Plush_Orchid
#43
Otters are serial rapists and murderers
Image source: giantfupa, Anna Tarazevich
#44
Having an erection for 4+ hours can cause gangrene of the d**k which is when tissue is dead or dying due to lack of blood flow or an infection cause by bacteria. This can lead to erectile dysfunction, cosmetic issues, permanent tissue damage, and in worst cases as I’ve mentioned earlier, gangrene. This situation is called priapism.
Image source: anon, cottonbro studio
#45
Spotted hyena females have “Psuedopenises”. Pretty much both sexes have penises, except the female penis replaces the vagina. This means the urethra must be penetrated by a male in order to mate. The pseudopenis also functions as a birth canal. Pretty painful birth if you ask me.
In a study, Female Spotted Hyenas have been seen trying to peg Male Hyenas. Pretty amusing but also disturbing fact.
Special thanks to my 8th grade biology teacher for this mental scar of information.
Edit: Spotted Hyena females have the pseudopenises, not all Hyenas.
Image source: anon
#46
When you cremate someone with a tumor a lot of times the tumor doesn’t burn… it just smolders and smells bad.
Image source: Hellosweetie4
#47
If you need a human body to decompose faster, fill the a**s with yogurt. Don’t ask how i know, please just google it instead.
Image source: FiveDollarSunnies
#48
Had a school presentation of this, cause it fascinates me while simultaneously horrifies me. The movie The Rock got me interested in finding out how much of it was true.
The VX-nerve agent kills in a brutally painful way.
When you tell a muscle to contract, you send out a chemical (ACh) in said muscle causing it to contract. When you no longer want to tense it, you send out a new chemical (AChE) neutralising the first chemical. The VX-nerve agent prevents this new substance (AChE) from being used to neutralise the first substance (ACh).
In the movie they mention you get spasms strong enough to break your own back, which I don’t know if it’s true or not, but you will begin involuntarily tense every single muscle in your body (including the diaphragm muscle) with so much force it can tear it’s own muscle attachment until you eventually die because you can’t exhale.
If you spray mere millilitres of this substance on a door handle, the next person to grab the door handle will die. It was used to assassinate Kim Jong Un’s brother Kim Jong Nam, by spraying him in the face with this substance in a regular water spray container. I believe the ones who did this also died from the very minuscule amounts that landed on them as well.
Image source: Loading0525
#49
WD-40 rapidly destroys cocaine rendering it chemically unrecognizable. If you ever need to transport cocaine bring a bucket of wd-40 in case you get pulled over
Image source: Own_Yak_5019
#50
Freddie mercury’s last words were ‘pee pee’ as he needed help going to the toilet
Image source: Ceejaytherighteous, kentarotakizawa
Follow Us
