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50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
CuriositiesJUL 26, 2022

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”

Gabija Palšytė
Liucija Adomaite
Gabija Palšytė and Liucija Adomaite
202
17
Not all knowledge is made equal. Some you get from books and uni days, some of it you learn from practice. The main chunk of information we digest arrives from the internet, and an equally big part of it we don’t need at all.
On the other hand, the internet is notoriously good at cherrypicking the most entertaining parts and separating them from boring things. Hence, all the lost hours we lose while procrastinating on a daily basis! And this thread is living proof of it.
“What's a 'fun fact' that nobody asked for?” asked Redditor SoggyCereal12 and received an overwhelming amount of responses. People rolled up their sleeves and took out their best cards in what turned out to be the most random amusement dressed up as real-life facts. Check out our previous features for more weird, interesting, and creepy facts.

#1

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
On 8 April, 1942, a detachment of Polish soldiers, deployed to Iran by the Allies, bought a bear cub from an Iranian boy. In August the bear was given to the 22nd Artillery Supply company and named Wojtek by the soldiers.
They fed him condensed milk, honey, fruit, and beer, which ended up being his favorite drink. He also picked up smoking, and enjoyed wrestling with his human friends, and bunking in on cold nights.
When the Polish II Corps was redeployed it Italy to fight alongside the British, the Brits wouldn’t transport mere mascots on a troop ship, so Wojtek was formally enrolled in the Polish army as a private.
During the brutal Battle of Monte Cassino Private Wojtek helped keep the guns firing by hauling boxes of ammo, each containing four 25 pound shells. These crates normally took four men to haul. For his bravery and service in battle Wojtek was promoted to Corporal, and his visage became the emblem of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company.
After the war the 22nd was sent to Scotland, before being demobilized, at which point Wojtek was given to the Edinburgh Zoo, where he was often visited by Polish soldiers until his death in 1963.
That is the story of Corporal Wojtek, the Polish artillery bear.
crimp_chimp, https://en.wikipedia.org/
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384points

#2

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
When Haiti was fighting the French in a civil war the French send some polish to deal with it when they saw how the slaves were treated the Polish joined the Haiti revolution
MaxSnow21, wikipedia.org
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329points

#3

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
On 1939, February 14th a German battleship was launched and was sank with only 118 of the 2,200 crew members surviving. Among them was a black and white cat named Oscar which was found floating on a board and was picked up from the water by a British ship.
On October 27th, 1941, the ship sank to the west of Gibraltar and Oscar was found clinging to a piece of plank and was later brought to the shore establishment in Gibraltar. When British officers learned what happened they named him “Unsinkable Sam”.
After that he was adopted by the crew of the HMS Ark Royal and in 1941, November 14th, a torpedo hit the ship. Sam was AGAIN found clinging to a piece of plank and was described as “angry but unharmed”.
By this time it was enough for the por cat and remained it’a days on land hunting mice in Gibraltar and then being transferred to the UK where he lived his final days.
And this was the story of “Unsinkable Sam”
WeeabooButWithASmile, wikipedia.org
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291points

“As humans, we are naturally curious creatures. We are always trying to understand our place in the world and how things work,” Alex Wong, the marketing expert, book author and creator of “Hijack Copywriter” told Bored Panda.

Wong believes that facts and stats help to give us a better idea of how everything fits together. “Without facts and stats, all we have are theories, which may or may not be true. That’s one thing I love about science. It’s the pursuit of gaining a deeper understanding and knowledge of the world around us. And with this scientific knowledge, we can solve complex problems and make better decisions.”

#4

Baby kittens and puppies can’t urinate and defecate on their own. Their mothers lick their genitals and anuses to prompt them to do so and then also cleans it up. Most people don’t know this if they happen to be taking care of an orphaned young kitten or puppy so this it ends up being a cause of death for a lot of them. If you ever take care of an orphaned kitten/puppy or know someone who is you must use a damp paper towel or wash rag to wipe their bottoms until they urinate or defecate. 🌈 *The More You Know* ⭐️
DetectiveBennett
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290points

#5

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
Elephants can purr, like cats.
YuriPugnant, Wolfgang Hasselmann
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264points

#6

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
Alligators don’t age biologically, they don’t die from old age, they die from starvation or a disease. Blew my mind.
VengeanceCookieX, Jack Kelly
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254points

It's no secret, however, that much of the information that gets shared online is presented as facts although we can never be sure. When asked how not to fall into the traps of fake and misleading facts, Wong said that “the only way to avoid this trap is to expose yourself to as many different ideas and viewpoints as possible. This means you have to educate yourself about the topic before coming to any definitive conclusions.”

#7

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
There is a forest that is 107 acres, but made up of only one tree. Thousands of aspens that share a single root system.
Schoonie-Singleton, Jeroen den Otter
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239points

#8

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
In starship trooper, the actors agreed to do the coed shower scene only if the director got naked with them and he did.
Zorops
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230points

#9

Your nipples are your perfect "natural lipstick shade".
Do not recommend colour matching in stores though.
chut2906
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228points

Wong urges people to be open to different points of view and look for weaknesses from your side. “Read as many types of resources as you can and never assume you know everything,” he added.

Another great tip is, when reading a news story or post, to check the source and see where it is coming from. You may want to ask yourself these questions, Wong argues: “Are they credible? Who wrote it? Is there a bias? Are they leaving out specific facts? A news story from BuzzFeed is going to be presented very differently from Fox News.”

#10

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
The world's largest tire producer by total number of tires made is Lego.
Rabid_Dingo, Benjamin Brunner
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206points

#11

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
Ground cinnamon is technically sawdust
n123breaker2, Marco Verch Professional Photographer
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203points

#12

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
When a rooster crows it partially pinches shut its ear canals so it won't deafen itself...
KlutzieKelpie, Sarah Halliday
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198points

According to a study by three MIT researchers, false news travels faster on social media sites, such as on Twitter, than real news. Wong noted this quote from their study:“...false news stories are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true stories are. It also takes true stories about six times as long to reach 1,500 people as it does for false stories to reach the same number of people.”

“If this is true, this is frightening!” he added. Although, Wong is not surprised at all. “False news stories are generally crafted in a way to maximize views and clicks. This helps with advertising. In contrast, a real news story may be less exciting and glamorous,” the marketing expert explained.

#13

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
If you ever see someone using an iPhone in a movie, they are not one of the bad guys. Apple requires as a condition of licensing their products for use in film/TV, that only protagonists are allowed to operate them on camera. So, if a character is using an iPad in a horror movie, they will not end up secretly being the killer.
wheresmychin, Bagus Hernawan
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196points

#14

Between 1913 and 1914, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Emperor Franz Joseph, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Leon Trotsky lived in Vienna within 4km of each other. Talk about sitcom idea!
plan3s
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194points

#15

Lucille Ball helped bankroll the first script and episode of Star Trek
WolfThick
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182points

Moreover, social media constantly bombards us with news snippets that conform to our points of view. “And once we see a news story that confirms our existing beliefs, we want to share with it our group, who go on to spread it to their friends, and so forth,” Wong concluded.

#16

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
The "little piggie" that went to market...
Wasn't shopping.
vms-crot, Christopher Carson
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181points

#17

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
Alexander the great, Mussolini, Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Hitler allegedly suffered from ailurophobia, the fear of cats.
neptuneenergy
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177points

#18

The story of "Beauty and the Beast" was probably based on the tragic life of Petrus Gonsalvus.
According to Refinery 29, in 1537 there was a young boy named Petrus Gonsalvus who was regularly called a beast. Reportedly, this was most likely because he had a case of hypertrichosis, a condition that causes a person to grow hair all over their body, often referred to as "werewolf syndrome."
Gonsalvus was just 10 years old when he was taken from his native country, Spain, and sent to the King of France to operate as a type of court jester. "King Henry decided to take on Gonsalvus as his little pet project," Refinery 29 wrote, "the king groomed Gonsalvus to be a nobleman."
Eventually, King Henry's wife, Catherine de'Medici (who took over after the king died), found Gonsalvus a wife — coincidentally another woman named Catherine. Though it took some getting used to, the beauty fell in love with "the beast." They were married for 40 years and had seven kids together, four of which also had hypertrichosis.
sjoep21
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165points

#19

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
Your immune system doesn’t know your eyes exist. They have their own immune system. If your body’s immune system ever learned about your eyes it would view them as a foreign invader, and your white blood cells would melt them straight out of your sockets.
wheresmychin, Victor Freitas
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159points

#20

50 “Fun Facts That Nobody Asked For”
There was a Finnish soldier named Aimo Koivunen who got separated from his unit. He had no food or weapons, and to avoid dying, took enough methamphetamine for 30 men. During his insane drug binge, he skied about 250 miles, passed over a landmine and survived, and caught and ate a bird raw. That's just a few details, I recommend actually reading about this absolute legend yourself.
AbsentLabRat, wikidata.org
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156points
202
17