Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Things that are utterly bloody fascinating

784 replies

ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 14:24

Let's hear it please - I love a good wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll start - The Willard Suitcases. Over 400 suitcases of possessions were found in an attic at the Willard Insane Asylum belong to patients who had died whilst inpatients so never left. The New York State Museum started a project to document the cases and their contents, and you can learn all about it and see the cases on their website.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
Inkypot · 06/03/2023 22:14

BluebellBlueballs · 06/03/2023 17:04

Painted lady butterflies ( probably other types too) migrate UK to Africa every year, not only do they know how to get there but they do it over several generations, like a relay race.

Then they do it again the other way in the summer.

Bonkers.

That is fascinating! I never knew this, always think of them as so fragile. Now sitting in bed wondering how on Earth those tiny wings take them that far when my fat ass is knackered just walking home from the shop 😳

Inkypot · 06/03/2023 22:13

Needmorelego · 06/03/2023 17:43

I love photos of abandoned buildings/theme parks too.
I like finding them on Google Earth.
I also like finding out about weird buildings and finding them on Google Earth too.
For example I discovered there's a KFC in America that looks like this...

I was not expecting that from the cropped version of the image before I opened it 😂😂😂

Daftasabroom · 06/03/2023 22:13

Mitochondrial Eve

Blows my mind.

cakewitch · 06/03/2023 22:13

I'm oddly fascinated by indoor fish ponds. I just love them.

GobbieMaggie · 06/03/2023 22:11

London, it's a consuming fascination. Right from the Romans to the present day.

HotSauceCommittee · 06/03/2023 22:05

I'm a bit tired tonight, but I am anticipating a cracking good time on the internet when I look up the physics of how my new combi-microwave oven grill thing works with the metal accessories inside.

I was fascinated looking up case law and sentencing guidelines in the case of R v Auriol Grey, the woman convicted of the manslaughter of the cyclist.

HoppingMarchHares · 06/03/2023 22:00

I knew I shouldn't have clicked this link. I was about to go to bed. Now I'll still be awake in 2 hours, lost down rabbit holes.

countdowntonap · 06/03/2023 21:54

Geoguessr now downloaded and I’m officially addicted!

Dogsandchocolaterule · 06/03/2023 20:56

That game sounds amazing is it an app?

ArseMenagerie · 06/03/2023 18:39

There’s a fantastic geography game that I love where you get dropped on the earth in google earth and have to guess where you are from the landscape/ buildings.
its called Geoguessr

Whatineed · 06/03/2023 18:35

The story of the song "My Sharona" by The Knack. Total ick factor that the singer as a grown man was lusting after a 17 year old girl. That Sharona is still around today and never got a penny, and how much the remaining songwriter makes a year from that song....

pca.st/episode/975a6d5d-fc99-48af-a5bc-dae074792400

Tabitha1960 · 06/03/2023 18:28

The suffragettes. It's a much longer, bigger, more complicated and exciting story than most people seem to think. I cannot get enough of the subject: lectures, newsreels, photographs, books, websites, individual biographies. If I have a spare hour to fill I sometimes just log on to the newspaper archives and read contemporary news stories about their activities.

A side benefit to this is that, when recently a Mastermind contender chose the suffragettes as her specialist subject, she scored 9 out of the 11 questions asked of her, whilst I got all 11 correct.

I am at a complete loss to understand why a TV series has not been made depicting the whole story. All they've ever been given is one six-part, low-budget series made in 1974 and all but forgotten.

These women deserve better than that!

Mrsjayy · 06/03/2023 17:50

ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 14:24

Let's hear it please - I love a good wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll start - The Willard Suitcases. Over 400 suitcases of possessions were found in an attic at the Willard Insane Asylum belong to patients who had died whilst inpatients so never left. The New York State Museum started a project to document the cases and their contents, and you can learn all about it and see the cases on their website.

This the kind of thing that sends me down holes

Echobelly · 06/03/2023 17:48

This book about France is fascinating:

www.wob.com/en-gb/books/graham-robb/discovery-of-france/9780330427609?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=19553274428&cq_con=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&gclid=CjwKCAiAu5agBhBzEiwAdiR5tGxS3cm8LOCfVB7Atz4wk1uG2vjV6vyjxGbp8H31zAxT6t2bZzq_FRoCKlsQAvD_BwE#GOR001254204

What we know as France is really quite a recent thing and the varieties of customs and languages are super interesting. France even had a sort of 'lower caste' of people, the Cagots, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-last-untouchable-in-europe-878705.html - their terrible treatment lasted for around a millenium but the reason for the pariah status is now a mystery.

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 06/03/2023 17:48

The Turin Shroud.

Onemorewaferthinmint · 06/03/2023 17:47

Another thing I love is those videos comparing the size of objects - stars so big that they would make the planet jupiter a) look like a billiard ball and b) raise its temperature by thousands of degrees

Halfeatentoast · 06/03/2023 17:47

@Onemorewaferthinmint thanks! I'll definitely check that out!

Needmorelego · 06/03/2023 17:43

I love photos of abandoned buildings/theme parks too.
I like finding them on Google Earth.
I also like finding out about weird buildings and finding them on Google Earth too.
For example I discovered there's a KFC in America that looks like this...

Things that are utterly bloody fascinating
Onemorewaferthinmint · 06/03/2023 17:43

Yes there’s a similar channel on YouTube by RobWords. Fascinating stuff on the source of English words

Halfeatentoast · 06/03/2023 17:42

I think so! Some of it gets very detailed and a bit over my head, but most are easy to follow and he also gives some good links to others who do other interesting work on the same subject.

SinnerBoy · 06/03/2023 17:38

Halfeatentoast

Halfeatentoast

Oh, that's sounds interesting, I'll have to look him up.

Halfeatentoast · 06/03/2023 17:37

The English language and how it changes over time. There's a guy on YouTube called Simon Roper who discusses these things and I find it fascinating. My favourite is when the same thing is read out but changed to fit different eras or places in the UK.

BluebellBlueballs · 06/03/2023 17:04

Painted lady butterflies ( probably other types too) migrate UK to Africa every year, not only do they know how to get there but they do it over several generations, like a relay race.

Then they do it again the other way in the summer.

Bonkers.

TokyoSushi · 06/03/2023 17:00

Oh the suitcases and the fabrics, just fascinating.

SinnerBoy · 06/03/2023 16:51

This programme - I appreciate that not everybody likes fungus!

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b041m6fh

Swipe left for the next trending thread