People's Favorite 'Let That Sink In' Fun Facts

There are some things we don't learn in school.

Surplus Honor

"The United States hasn’t minted any new Purple Heart medals since World War II. We’ve been using the stockpile that was prepared in anticipation of a ground invasion of Japan."

– sperrymonster

Tracking In Progress

"Since it's discovery, in 1930, Pluto has not yet made a full orbit of the sun."

– tamman2000

Living Miracle

"Over the space of three days, an estimated 165 people survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks."

"Tsutomu Yamaguchi is one of the more famous ones, who was only two miles from ground zero when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It hit when he was walking to work on the last day of a work trip. After he heard the drone of a plane, he looked up at it and the sky lit up. He was then plucked from the ground, spun around and tossed into a nearby potato field."

"Miraculously he survived, despite being covered in burns, soaked in radiation, and with two blown ear drums. He spent a night in an air shelter then took an overnight sleeper train home to Nagasaki to see his family. When he made it to a hospital in Nagasaki he was so burnt a childhood friend didn’t recognise him. Neither did his family. Despite his wounds he made it to work the next day. He started giving his boss a rundown on what happened, and his boss thought he was crazy."

"There was no way one bomb could destroy a city. Suddenly, a bright light lit up the room. He panicked and dropped to the floor of the office seconds before the shock wave smashed out the office windows. He had just been hit twice by a nuclear blast in the space of three days."

"At the age of 93 he was given the title 'nijyuu hibakusha,' or twice bombed person. He died the next year."

"So next time you think you’re having a sh**ty week at work... yeah."

"This article is a good one on him"

– -Kiwi-Man-

These fascinating tidbits would make for interesting party conversations.

"Cows kill more Americans than terrorists. Most years."

– unquietmammal

Friends' Royalties

"All 6 of the stars of Friends negotiated 2% syndication rights for the show. Friends still makes about a billion yearly through reruns, Hulu etc. All 6 friends collect a 20 million dollar check annually."

"Yes, that means David Schwimmer still gets 20 million dollars a year for doing nothing."

"So when you are alone in your 1br apt, watching friends and snickering how any of them are losers who haven’t been famous since, there’s a reason why. They don’t have to work, ever again."

– MontanaSD

New Erotic Entries

"Next year, there will be pornstars who were born in 2000."

– robtheexploder

Wrap your heads around this.

Virtually Possible

"We can't prove we aren't in a simulation."

– schlipschlopskadoo

Domestic Dread

"Schizophrenia's hallucinations are shaped by culture. Americans with schizophrenia tend to have more paranoid and harsher voices/hallucinations. In India and Africa people with schizophrenia tend to have more playful and positive voices"

– Thatdamnalex

A.I. Challenger

"Google's Deepmind self learning AI 'AlphaZero' spent 4 hours learning chess, and proceeded to beat the top chess engine in the world."

"The particularly interesting part is that it wins by playing in a very 'human' way. Chess engines tend to run algorithms to assess a board after a move is chosen (looking at millions of moves every second) and decide who's better based on a set of parameters, making their play very direct. AlphaZero seemed to develop a far more human playstyle, somehow seeing something less quantifiable that led to an advantage in a position. Over the past 200 years, numerous chess masters studied a style of play similar to AlphaZero."

"That means that in 4 hours, AlphaZero developed a better understanding of the game than we could over the 1000+ years it has been studied."

– anon

We live in a wild world.

Or are we merely a part of someone's imagination?

We can't disprove that possibility.

Let that sink in.