Some say you learn something new every day, and in the age of the internet it has never been easier. With content on basically anything and everything at the ends of one’s fingertips, a person can look up whatever it is that interests them the most, be it recipes or the world’s weirdest records in a matter of seconds.
By browsing the good, the bad, and the ugly, they are likely to stumble upon some rather perplexing things, too. Some of such things have been discussed by members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community, when one user asked them about the deeply unsettling facts they know. Fellow netizens shared quite a few, ranging from history horror stories to upsetting medical conditions, and beyond, so scroll down to view them, but do it at your own risk as they are indeed rather unsettling.
Seeking to learn more about how such unsettling facts can affect us, Bored Panda turned to Dr. Noam Shpancer, a psychology professor at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions. You will find his thoughts in the text below.
#1
Over 46% of ocean waste is fishing nets. And commercial fishing kills more animals in the ocean than any plastic does. Idk why this isn’t talked about more.
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250points
#2
There were Holocaust survivors that died shortly after being liberated because their body couldn't handle the increased calories when they were fed by the soldiers that freed them.
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222points
#3
People with dementia just... forget how to eat one day. They forget how to swallow.
We don't know if they feel starvation or pain, because they're too far gone.
My brother works in a dementia care facility, and they know that a patient is gonna die soon when they eventually refuse food.
And we don't euthanise them. They just... starve. To death. And they never tell the families that.
Edit: I'm *so* sorry to those that have lost loved ones to dementia. It's a really cruel and heartless way to die.
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202points
In a recent interview with Bored Panda, psychology professor Dr. Noam Shpancer of Otterbein University in Ohio suggested that thinking about the unsettling aspects of life can be somewhat beneficial, as it helps us understand ourselves and the world better and learn to solve problems. However, according to the expert, wallowing in our miserable experiences is usually unhelpful.
“The quality of your life depends heavily on where you direct your attention, so you’d want to be intentional about that,” he suggested, adding that ruminating over troublesome facts can result in lower mood and higher anxiety.
#4
In 2018 my sister was murdered. We know who did it. We keep track of where he lives, he has moved 4 times since my sister disappeared. The police also know he did it. There’s not enough evidence to bring him in or charge him. Her body has still never been found. If I go after him he becomes the victim and I won’t be able to be a father to my children.
He gets to be alive every day. He’s a serial rapist. We suspect my sister was not his first murder. From our interactions with state police and FBI my impression is that our situation, while a nightmare, is perhaps not as rare as you would normally assume or hope.
196points
#5
Terminal lucidity is the return of mental clarity or memory or consciousness shortly before death. This happens to around 10% of people with dementia. :[.
177points
#6
Youtubers who 'find' animals in distress with the camera running usually put animals in distress to look like heroes.
Source
https://youtu.be/p7nVntZpJLM
Other videos are it there.
https://youtu.be/p7nVntZpJLM
Other videos are it there.
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163points
#7
There was a medical manufacturing lab in the UK that kept having reports of headaches and weird visions. People would see something at the edge of their vision, but couldn't figure out what it was. It wasn't just one person either, and was causing some serious panic. When they entered a room, they felt a "presence," like someone else was in the room with them, and something would appear at the corner of their eye, then disappear when they tried to look.
Turns out, it was caused by a newly installed fan that was vibrating, causing a sound that was too low-frequency for humans to hear it. Hilariously, the guy who discovered it found it using a fencing sword. He had brought it to work and put it in a vice to polish it, but then the sword started vibrating. Me, I would have nope'd out of there, considering the room was haunted, and now a sword is moving, but he was apparently much braver.
The frequency is known as the "fear" or "ghost" frequency. It's around 19hz. [Here](https://youtu.be/h-zM3qAzBaw) is a YouTube video of 18.98hz. Mileage may vary, for some people it causes just mild discomfort, others it causes total panic, and still others it does nothing. For me, it caused my eyes to feel weird, and after a good minute or so, I noticed weirdness at the edge of my vision, and was definitely creeped out. I shut it off then, definitely an unnerving experience.
It's not entirely known why it triggers such a response. The optical illusions and eye discomfort are likely due to the frequency resonating with your eyeballs, causing them to vibrate. But the actual fear response is unknown. Some theories are that our bodies are able to detect low frequencies, such as that of earthquakes or predator roars, but we just can't hear it. A bit like how deaf people can still "feel" certain sounds. So we become alert and nervous around these "infrasounds," since they usually indicated danger. This, combined with the optical illusions, leads to some pretty uncomfortable experiences.
Oh, and don't worry, "vibrate your eyeballs" sounds way worse than it is. It's like super tiny vibrations, and your eyeballs are nice and squishy. It's not harmful in the slightest. At least, not mentally. Certainly feels like you are doing some eldritch ritual though.
(Edited due to me being a doorknob and mixing up Hz with kHz).
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160points
“Contemplating losses and mistakes can help us understand ourselves and our situation better,” Dr. Shpancer suggested, adding that knowledge is power, so such knowledge can lead to self-empowerment.
“Periodically contemplating scary or negative experiences can also provide perspective and help us appreciate the good in our lives as well as our own resilience. As a rule, a habit of avoidance is not healthy, because avoidance only teaches you to avoid more, rather than teaching you about yourself and the world.
“All this is true not only about difficult events that have already happened, but also about troubling eventualities that will happen in the future. Periodically stopping to contemplate our mortality, for example, can help us appreciate and savor more fully the gift of life,” Dr. Shpancer pointed out.
#8
Climate change. It’s a bit hard to grasp without context. And context is key because no one can understand, respect, or appreciate anything without context.
The earth is about 4.6 Billion years old. Arguing about climate change is difficult since 4.6 Billion seems like a very long time and we has humans have been alive for such a short time. “Why do I care? I won’t be alive to deal with it?”
So… let’s add context and say that the planet is 46 years old. That means that humans have been around for about 4 hours (4 hours ago I was making dinner). 1 minute ago the industrial revolution began (the mid to late 1800s - and I began typing this). In that time we have destroyed (removed, burned, chopped down) over 50% of the worlds forests.
This is not sustainable. For anyone’s generation.
To understand problems you must have context.
Edit: spelling, missing words, etc. (I’m getting drunk).
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153points
#9
In 1933, a doctor named Carl Tanzler raided the tomb of a female patient with whom he'd become obsessed and stole her body. He lived with the corpse for seven years. As the body fell apart, he attached the corpse's bones together with wire and coat hangers, and fitted the face with glass eyes. He was only caught when someone saw him dancing with the corpse in front of an open window.
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139points
#10
The Astronauts aboard the Challenger shuttle were still alive after the explosion. It took them a few minutes to fall to Earth, but they knew they were going to die.
134points
#11
Most serial killers won't ever even be noticed, never mind captured.
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132points
Despite positive things being arguably better for one’s well-being than negative, people often tend to focus more on the latter, likely due to the phenomenon known as negative bias.
According to Verywell Mind, such bias is the reason why it’s so difficult to shake a bad first impression, break yourself free from the shackles of traumatic events in the past, or focus more on the good rather than the bad things that happen throughout the day.
It is believed that such bias formed as a result of evolution, as earlier in history, focusing on bad or dangerous things increased an individual’s chances of survival; that became something they passed down to the subsequent generations. That might also be the reason we tend to be interested in unsettling facts such as the ones on this list or drawn to similar creepy content.
#12
In extreme cases of scurvy, your scars break down and old wounds re-open.
Collagen keeps scars together and that collagen maintains itself throughout our lives. But without vitamin C, that process begins to halt and the collagen breaks down.
Eat your fruits and veggies folks.
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130points
#13
Rainbow Valley at Mount Everest is named so because of the colorful coats of dead people
The Blue Mustang statue at the Denver Airport, Named Blucifer by the locals, killed its creator when a piece fell and severed an artery in his leg.
If weird “ghost” stuff is happening, make sure your carbon monoxide detector is working.
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127points
#14
Purebred dogs are basically just walking Frankensteins. They were created by rich Victorians in the 1800s for aspects such as speed and strength. However, this circle of a bloodline recession made it worse for the animals. It explains why many modern animals have very wrinkly faces and many golden retrievers don't live past the age of 12 due to cancer. I did a project on this awhile back and it's really interesting to read about.
Also the reason we don't have a lot of mummies is because rich people also ate them in the Victorian era.
To make it short: Purebred dogs are the equal of the Charles II of Spain and mummies were the snack that smiles back in the 1800s.
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118points
#15
That talent and skill isn’t enough to follow your dreams. You need appeal and people skills.
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117points
#16
Seemingly 100% healthy people with literally no reason to believe they would have any reason to, can still spontaneously drop dead.
Cherish every day!
Edit: just thanking for the upvotes. The topic is just a bit grim but, glad it gets people thinking about making their time here count, perhaps. Love y’all. ♥️.
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117points
#17
Cows don’t convert grass directly into protein. They have enormous colonies of bacteria in their stomachs that have population explosions when they eat grass, live, breed, die, and then the cows digest *them* into protein.
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114points
#18
The mathews and the hart bridges in jacksonville are about to fail, the pilings in the river do not touch bottom. I'm a commercial diver and I refuse to drive on these bridges.
Edit: https://www.fdot.gov/maintenance/bridgeinfo.shtm
Here you can read terminology and bridge ratings for every bridge in Florida, on the latest report Mathews has a "health index" of 96 but a "sufficiency rating" of 44, while the Hart is 90 and 30.
Here you can read terminology and bridge ratings for every bridge in Florida, on the latest report Mathews has a "health index" of 96 but a "sufficiency rating" of 44, while the Hart is 90 and 30.
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114points
#19
Russia sank a number of nuclear submarines, with the reactors intact, in shallow water. Once the submarine rusts enough, high level nuclear waste will start contaminating fairly crowded shipping lanes.
One of the submarines they sunk used a liquid metal cooled fast reactor. When water finally rusts its way into that reactor, instead of the reactor rusting, it may explode.
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108points
#20
All whales eventually lose the energy to surface for oxygen, so they basically just sink and drown.
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106points