People Share Their All-Time Favorite Random Facts

Time Betwixt Pharaohs

"That when King Tut was buried the pyramids were already 2000 years old and when Cleopatra (the last Pharaoh) died King Tut had been dead for 1000 years."-prothrow72

"I never really processed that the pyramids were 5,000 years old."

"Considering humans have been around for 300,000 years. It's kind of amazing the amount of progress we have been making with the last couple thousand of years"-cojallison99

Since The Dawn Of Magnolia Time

"Imma drop this here to save someone else a google search."

"'Magnolias are believed to be the earliest known flowering plants, with their fossils dating back over 100 million years.'

'Magnolia trees even existed before bees, so they rely on beetles for pollination. Instead of nectar, the flowers produce large quantities of pollen that the beetles use for food.'"-Captain_Spaulding87

The Axolotl Dissertation

"Axolotls in the wild can only be found in Xochimilco lake near Mexico city. The reason they are stuck in Juvenile form--they are a species of salamander locked in juvenile form."

"This is due to there being no Iodine present in the lake. As you say they can go through metamorphoses if Iodine is introduced into the water but usually its through an injection."

"Now heres the thing though, Iodine is extremely toxic to them, so in all likely hood you'll kill your pet attempting this. If by some chance you get the concentration and volume correct, you're still dooming them to a short life."

"Not only short but Axolotls will get weaker as they become a salamander. The induced metamorphosis can also kill them. They also tend to reject food more."

"Something a bit different, Axolotls can be considered highly intelligent or outright derps depending how you want to think about them."

"People who keep them need to learn to control their own reflect action, as to feed them you hold a pellet of food on the water surface."

"Typically, an Axolotl will make a single attempt to catch it and can be quite swift. If you pull back your hand as a reflex and they miss the pellet they literally think 'Well sh*t I can't catch that' and they won't bother trying to catch up it again."

"Axolotls have actually been reported dying in captivity due to starvation from this. It's essentially a mechanism to conserve energy."-Goetre

See anything you're eager to talk about at a party, yet?

A Brood Parasite

"There are various species of Brood Parasite birds. This means that these birds will lay their eggs in another birds nest so that victim bird has to raise the young."

"When the baby parasite bird hatches, it will often try killing the other young. Victim birds have various defense, but the coolest ones to me are some of them basically printing barcodes on the eggs so they know if one doesn't belong."

"And some of them singing a specific song to the egg, and if the hatched chick can't replicate the song, it gets yeeted from the nest."-Silvinis

Pumpkin, Squash....Bada Bing, Bada Boom

"According to the FDA, any squash with gold-colored flesh may be legally labelled as a pumpkin. So canned pumpkin pie filling can call itself '100% pumpkin' despite being butternut squash."

"Here's the official policy statement on labeling for pumpkins."

"'In the labeling of articles prepared from golden-fleshed, sweet squash or mixtures of such squash and field pumpkin, we will consider the designation "pumpkin" to be in essential compliance with the "common or usual name" requirements of sections 403(i)(l) and 403(i)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the "specifying of identity" required by section 1453(a)(1) of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act."-mlktwx

Oh...Oh My

"In UK law there's a case called R v Dudley and Stephens. Basically, they were two sailors who were stranded at sea during the 1800s who killed and ate their cabin boy (who was extremely ill) in order to avoid starving."

"They survived but were tried for their act of cannibalism. Essentially, they were let off with just a fine. The ruling was that the unlawful act was for the greater good, if they hadn't have killed and eaten him then it was likely that all of them would have starved to death, but instead only one of them died."

"This ruling was used in a recent conjoined twins case - if they carried out separation surgery then it was likely that one of the twins would have died."

"However, if they didn't perform the surgery then it was likely that both would die, so the surgery was allowed to proceed."-birchpiece91

So Flies ARE Avoiding Me

"That flies and little insects can see you in slow motion! The smaller your body is and the faster your metabolism - the slower you perceive time."

"So when you're hitting them, they're seeing your hand towards them in slow motion and can move really fast (appear to move fast because we're bigger in both metabolism and body aspect)."

"This also always gets me thinking about the universe, what if earth actually moves phenomenally fast but we just perceive time v slowly? Because of how small we are in comparison. Crazy to think about."-Aggravating_Sea_140

The universe is truly endlessly fascinating.

Good Doggos

" Dogs give off calming signals 99% of the time before they bite. These include; Whale eye, avoiding eye contact and actually turn to look away from you, yawning, hackles rising, a growl, lip curl, warning bark/ snap before attacking."

"Dogs give and read subtle body language signs to show their moods. Humans are just not smart enough to see them all the time."

"If you cuddle your dog and they turn away from you, the dog is showing that this experience isn't as pleasant for them as it is with you. Does not mean they will bite you it means they are doing everything to tell you they don't want to bite."-curious-lycanthrope

Come With Me In The Twilight

"Before the epidural was invented, women in labor were put into 'twilight sleep,' which wasn't really sleep. They were fully awake, just in an amnesiatic state so they couldn't remember anything, like why they were in pain or any trauma related to childbirth."

"Drs would try to keep them calm by blindfolding them, plugging their ears, and strapping them to the birthing table to 'promote sleep.'"

"Being pregnant with my first child, it's a terrifying thought to be in what most people describe as the worst pain of their lives while also not remembering WHY you're in pain or WHAT is happening."

"While also being immobilized and blind/deaf to your surroundings while people are poking and prodding at your personal spaces. Just horrifying."-FlyingCatLady

Not An Anthro Service

"Services like 23 and Me and Ancestry DNA can't actually determine your racial and ethnic background from your genetics by looking at and sequencing your genes."

"It's done by comparing with the aggregated data from other users' self-reported ethnic or racial background and comparing similarity to them."

"These are social categories, not biologically essential ones. That's why it's possible to see more genetic differentiation within a socially identified group than between two individuals of different groups."

"That cool 5% whatever is just a result of aggregate user data. You definitely have a super fascinating family history, but spitting in a vial won't tell you it!"-Momoyama

So now that you, too, are enlightened, are you going to keep these facts in your back pocket to start a conversation with someone?

Adding to our arsenal of facts is never truly a bad things.