48 Facts People Know Are True, But They Still Shock Them

1) That someone who is barely literate can be US president. 2) That the barely literate person does not need to produce school and university transcripts and tax files to qualify for US president.

You will not scare the fish away by talking while fishing. They just wanted us to shut up and be quiet.

On the 12th of March 1951, Dennis the Menace was introduced to British audiences in a comic called the Beano.

On March 12th 1951, Dennis the Menace was introduced to American audiences in a comic strip.

These are not the same character and neither production houses were aware of what the other was doing. So by total coincidence, the world was introduced to two different characters both called Dennis the Menace on the exact same day.

That your brain can basically rewrite memories over time and you can end up “remembering” things slightly wrong without realizing it.

A third of the US adult population read below a 6th grade level or not at all.

Schizophrenia has never been observed/diagnosed (anywhere in the world) in a person who was blind since birth.

One thing that still shocks me is that your brain can replay emotional pain almost the same way it processes physical pain. Makes sense why some memories hurt for years.

It is extremely likely, for all practical purposes, that no two thoroughly randomized 52-card decks have ever been shuffled into the same order

I can't wrap my head around it. The number of possible combinations is too large to comprehend.

I can't remember what made me look this up earlier in the week but I was reminded that Clive of India, Governor General of Bengal who passed awasy in 1774, had a pet giant tortoise, Adwaita, that didn't pass until 2006.

The Sun accounts for about 99.86% of all the mass in the system. The remaining 0.14% is distributed across all the planets, moons, OP's mom, and debris.

1/3 of homeless people experienced a traumatic brain injury. 


Imagine slipping on rock in your driveway and uncomfortably bonking your head only for your life to begin unraveling over a period of weeks or months. 


You become so impulsive that you become unreliable at work, your spouse thinks your new behavior is too dangerous for your kids to be around. Your parents can no longer keep giving you money. 


All because a random rock in your driveway caused you to trip and bonk your head.

The 2011 9.1 earthquake that hit Japan sped up the Earth's rotation by 10 milliseconds, threw the Earth's axis off by 6.5 inches, and stretched Japan's big island eastwards by 7-10ft.

The Appalachians are the same tectonic range as the Caledonians: the central to north Atlantic region of North America has the same mountains as the northern Atlantic region of Europe.

The lower layers don't have fossils, because they began forming before the evolution of bones (1.2 billion years for the Appalachians, 400 million years for bones).

The Spanish word for handcuffs is “esposas”. The spanish name for a wife? Esposa.

Pangaea was only the most recent supercontinent - there have actually been several over the course of Earth's history - forming, breaking, and forming again.

When you get a sunburn, the UV radiation doesn't actually scorch or "cook" your skin cells. It mutates and damages their DNA structure so severely that the cells essentially commit collective self destruction to prevent themselves from turning into cancer.

Sleep is extremely important for consolidating memory. It may be that this is why we dream - it's our brain's process of sorting through memories and putting them in the correct folders. As such, those who experience a profound lack of sleep over the course of their lives is significantly more prone to developing dementia.

60% of Canadians live south of Seattle, WA

And to get to Canada from Detroit, you go south, not north.

The Washington monument has no mortar and the weight of the bricks holds it together.

One single cloud can weigh up to around 1,000,000 tonnes.