Life isn’t just about cute animals, fun artwork, and wholesome stories. Our world is full of uncomfortable historical and scientific facts that would make any Panda feel uneasy and just a bit queasy. However, we think that facts are facts: we have to do our best to see the full picture, even if we don’t feel too rosy and cozy reading some things.
We’ve collected the most ‘unfun’ facts about life on Planet Earth, as shared by internet users on the r/AskReddit subreddit. Scroll down to have a read. Though we have to warn you, these facts really aren’t for the faint of heart. If you’d rather have something bright and light instead, you should definitely check out this Bored Panda article right here about people doing good deeds out of the kindness of their hearts. To the rest of you who are sticking around—we salute your bravery and curiosity. Onwards!
Of course, we have to remember to take everything that we read on the internet with a grain of salt. We reached out to Joseph M. Pierre, a professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, to talk about conspiracy theories, whether some events seem to attract far more lies than usual, and what kinds of people tend to believe in misinformation. Read on for Bored Panda’s interview with him. When you’re done, you should take a peek at our earlier article about not-so-fun facts right over here.
#1
There is a whale called 52 Blue that only sings at that frequency meaning it can’t communicate with other whales. It is nicknamed the loneliest whale on the planet.
Image source: Dave3012, Dmitry Osipenko
#2
More Americans died in 2 months from Covid19 than 10 years of Vietnam.
Image source: landertall, Hospital CLÍNIC
#3
When your skin becomes red from spending too much time under the sunlight, it’s basically because your skin cells are committing suicide to avoid becoming cancerous.
Image source: Captain-Cheesehead
#4
The youngest person to ever give birth was a Peruvian girl, Lina Medina, a Quechua Indian who gave birth to a child in 1939 at age 5. She had precocious puberty and had her first period at age eight months. She may have been raped at a debauched indigenous religious festival where people often brought small children and rapes were known to occur. The man who raped her was never found, and she was silent about how she got pregnant.
The delivery was by Caesarean as vaginal delivery was deemed impossible. Her son was told that he was her little brother, and she also treated him in this manner. Obviously, she was an incompetent parent, preferring to play with dolls rather than tend to the baby, but that’s to be expected. The case is well documented in medical journals, including photos of her pregnant body. It is also in the Guinness Book.
She later married, had another son, went to work for the physician who delivered her and lived a quite normal life. The son was healthy but died young at age 40. She and her family both refused all requests to speak of the case, including offers of significant sums of money. As of 2008, she was still alive at age 75 and living in a slum in Lima, Peru. If she is still alive, she would be 87 years old.
Image source: Silverfox17421, Mysterious Nights India
#5
You might still be “it” from an unfinished game of tag
Image source: lacedflame, John R. Hofmann Sr.
#6
Fatal familial insomnia exists. It’s a rare, incurable prionic brain disease that progressively destroys your brain’s ability to sleep. Eventually, you stop sleeping altogether, go insane, have seizures, and die.
Image source: Fenius_Farsaid, Ben Blennerhassett
#7
Most animals will kill you before eating you, bears just start eating you
Image source: 0verlyEnthusiastic, Tony Hisgett
#8
There are at least 8 nuclear weapons known to be missing.
Image source: yo_gabba_gavin, The Official CTBTO Photostream
#9
Judith Barsi, the little girl who voice acted Ducky in The Land Before Time was murdered by her father at age ten. All they found of her and her mother were charred remains. The father shot himself after.
Image source: red_duke
#10
You have a higher chance of dying on the way to get a lottery ticket than actually winning.
Image source: Soggy-Seals, Erik Mclean
#11
Your voice on recordings is actually how your voice really sounds. Your voice in your head is a bit muffled and deeper because the sound travels through your head instead of the air. That’s why it feels weird to hear your own voice recorded.
Image source: Summar-ice, Soundtrap
#12
Child helplines are most busy day is Christmas Eve, because parents get drunk and what not. It’s so sad to think about.
Image source: Kvindertilsalg, Bruno Martins
#13
One day the last person who knows your name will die and you will be forgotten.
You could still be alive when this happens.
Image source: HeyHoLetsGo615, luis enrique
#14
Anyone can have a brain aneurysm at any age. No matter your health situation
Image source: Scicst, Christian Erfurt
#15
There are more slaves today than at any time in history.
Image source: sobriety_kinda_sucks, Rio Lecatompessy
#16
When the gas chambers were first assembled and experimented with at the Auschwitz concentration camp, the SS soldiers that oversaw the process found that the people inside would start screaming as soon as the gas agent was dropped in. The screaming was so loud that it could be heard through the thick walls of the building, and the victims would continue screaming over the course of 20 minutes until it gradually faded to nothing. The screaming disturbed the soldiers (believe it or not), so they tried to think of a way to drown out the noise so they didn’t have to hear it. Their idea was to get 2 motorcycles and rev the engines as loudly as they could at the same time during those 20 minutes.
It didn’t work.
Image source: someguy73, jan saudek
#17
I’ve been thinking about my parents, who are in their mid-60s. During my first 18 years, I spent some time with my parents during at least 90% of my days. But since heading off to college and then later moving out of Boston, I’ve probably seen them an average of only five times a year each, for an average of maybe two days each time. 10 days a year. About 3% of the days I spent with them each year of my childhood.
Being in their mid-60s, let’s continue to be super optimistic and say I’m one of the incredibly lucky people to have both parents alive into my 60s. That would give us about 30 more years of coexistence. If the ten days a year thing holds, that’s 300 days left to hang with mom and dad. Less time than I spent with them in any one of my 18 childhood years.
When you look at that reality, you realize that despite not being at the end of your life, you may very well be nearing the end of your time with some of the most important people in your life. If I lay out the total days I’ll ever spend with each of my parents—assuming I’m as lucky as can be—this becomes starkly clear.
It turns out that when I graduated from high school, I had already used up 93% of my in-person parent time. I’m now enjoying the last 5% of that time. We’re in the tail end.
Image source: collin-h, Tim Mossholder
#18
Only one in every 1,000 sea turtles born ever make it to adulthood
Image source: ItsFiin3, David Reynolds
#19
Touching an AM radio broadcast tower will kill you, and not only will it kill you, but it will hurt the entire time you’re dying. Number one, the voltage is so high that your hands would instantly clamp to whatever charged part of the tower you touched, then because it’s oscillating at a frequency your cells can’t feel you wouldn’t be able to feel yourself being electrocuted until it starts to heat your body from the current, and you’d also be able to hear your body acting as a “speaker” where you’d literally be able to hear whatever was on that particular station as you die.
Image source: adragonthatsgay, Steve Beger
#20
That brain-eating amoebas exist at all and is also pretty commonly found in freshwater ponds and lakes. Apparently, only 4 people have survived getting it in the last 50 years.
Image source: PM_Me_Nudes_2_Review, Koala
#21
When Hitler was four years old he fell into a pond next to a church and nearly drowned. however, the priest jumped in and saved his life. to think that WWII and the holocaust, as well as modern history as a whole, could have been prevented if not for that man is mind-blowing.
Image source: notreallysure_alec, Greg Hayter
#22
According to quantum mechanics, there’s a small chance the whole universe will suddenly disappear in the next 5 seconds also there’s a small chance the universe, the earth, all the people, the buildings, whatever device you are reading this from, your posts, the replies, the whole internet, your knowledge of everything, your personality, your memories, your existence, etc… was created just 1 second ago
Image source: sebax820, Guillermo Ferla
#23
When preparing a body for an open casket, the mortician will sew the person’s jaw shut (to keep their mouth from flopping open) and place special contact lenses on the eyes lined with hooks, both to keep the eyelid from snapping open due to shrinking tissues and to give the eye a bit more natural bulge, as the eye tends to sink into the socket after death.
Image source: Omny87, Scary Side of Earth
#24
The most common cause of death for tall people is a heart attack, brought on by the fact that their hearts just naturally have to work harder than average to circulate all that blood through that larger body.
Left-handed people are most likely to die in an accident involving a power tool, because they’re all designed by right-handed people, for right-handed people.
Image source: BigTallCanUke, Kelly Sikkema
#25
After experiencing the symptoms of Rabies there is no going back, you are dying 100%
Image source: PraisePancakes, Sarah Sapp
#26
From 1948- the end of the Cold War, there were approximately 5,000 close case scenarios in which Nuclear weapons were launched or detonated. The fact that we are alive is a statistical miracle.
Image source: Artison5112, The Official CTBTO Photostream
#27
There is more plastic than plankton in the ocean
Image source: saturnsbitc
#28
There are only 2 states in the US that have outlawed child marriage. One of them only just put it into law a few weeks ago. 23 states don’t even have an age limit on marriage.
Image source: Behkeybeerkey, indy100
#29
A human tooth has 36 calories
Image source: nawjas69, LOGAN WEAVER
#30
A new mattress weighs about 90lbs, a used mattress weighs about 110lbs
Image source: Humanaut93, Haley Owens
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