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Original poster

Things you have just found out that have blown your mind.

410 replies

Strictlyfanoftenyears · 11/05/2022 10:35

I have just found out that the "sticky backed plastic" on Blue Peter was actually "sellotape" but they werent allowed to advertise it. How did I not know this?🤔

OP posts:
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6
LunaAndHerMoonDragons · 12/05/2022 02:37

CaveMum · 11/05/2022 17:15

That the last US Civil War (1861-1865) widow died in 2020 - 135 years after the war finished!

She married him when he was 93 and she was 17, he did it so she could get his pension in return for the help she gave him.

LunaAndHerMoonDragons · 12/05/2022 02:41

RhubarbFairy · 11/05/2022 17:12

How does that work?!

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Because his second wife, Julia Gardiner, was so much younger, Tyler was still fathering children throughout his sixties. One of those children was Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., born in 1853, nearly a decade after his father’s term in office. Lyon Sr. ended up following a similar domestic path, being widowed and then remarrying to a much younger woman. They had Harrison when he was 75 and she was 39.

MardyOldGoth · 12/05/2022 02:42

Most frogs don't make a 'ribbit ribbit' sound. The sound was recorded in California for Hollywood movies and became considered the default noise made by frogs.

Pretty sure I got that from QI.

LunaAndHerMoonDragons · 12/05/2022 03:26

DratThatCat · 11/05/2022 21:38

If a woman only has one fallopian tube, when the ovary on the side that has no tube releases an egg, the one remaining tube will move over to catch it.

I found this out on the brilliant podcast 28ish Days Later. The female reproductive system is amazing.

Did not know this, had to google to check. Fallopian tubes don't work quite the way I thought they did.

Invased · 12/05/2022 03:26

This reply has been deleted

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BalloonsAndWhistles · 12/05/2022 05:49

DataFlop · 11/05/2022 11:16

I found out that they don't take the old kidneys out when doing a kidney transplant. Thought someone was having me on, but it's confirmed by the NHS website!

20 years ago, during my training, I observed a live donor kidney transplant and can definitely confirm this.

Coldhandscoldheart · 12/05/2022 06:13

Strictlyfanoftenyears · 11/05/2022 10:35

I have just found out that the "sticky backed plastic" on Blue Peter was actually "sellotape" but they werent allowed to advertise it. How did I not know this?🤔

Omg yes, and I always thought we didn’t have the stuff to make whatever it was because we never had sticky backed plastic. Except we did, because even our chaotic house had sellotape

Mummyoflittledragon · 12/05/2022 06:15

Staffy1 · 11/05/2022 20:14

Are you sure about this? I thought he slept in his boat overnight and then joined his friends in the garden in the day, (although why it’s then called the night garden I don’t know).

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I think this is correct. These are his dreams. 😭

Magicandspiders · 12/05/2022 06:48

I was shocked when I realised that Bluey was a girl too! Convinced it was one boy, one girl.

anotherbrewplease · 12/05/2022 06:48

@KensingtonGore

Rude!!

😂

ememem84 · 12/05/2022 06:56

Slavetomytoddlers · 12/05/2022 01:38

I have two.

  1. If you feel the gap between your thumb and index finger on your dominant hand really carefully, you’ll feel a tiny finger embedded under the skin. Millions of years ago, humans had six fingers and this is an evolutionary throw back. It even has a teeny tiny nail.

  2. Lots of people believe what they read on the internet and you’ve been feeling your hand looking for an imaginary finger.
    Ha ha.
    Losers.

Dick. 😂😂

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 12/05/2022 07:01

Shreddies aren't knitted by a group of old ladies in a care home ...

... they are made a cluster of finicky spiders who 'weave them', having been fed solely on a diet of dried malt.

pussycatlickinglollyices · 12/05/2022 07:02

ememem84 · 12/05/2022 06:56

Dick. 😂😂

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@ememem84 You've got a dick between your thumb and index finger? 🤔😮

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 12/05/2022 07:05

DataFlop · 11/05/2022 11:16

I found out that they don't take the old kidneys out when doing a kidney transplant. Thought someone was having me on, but it's confirmed by the NHS website!

This is why you can only get steak pies in hospital canteens - not steak and kidney.

sashh · 12/05/2022 07:31

BreadAndWater · 12/05/2022 02:04

@GrowThroughWhatYouGoThrough

The complex tests to go through to be matched with a viable kidney and everything that involves and with dialysis and everything after
Not a simple plumbing job
Bit as this is a ‘fun’ thread
I will leave it there!

Have you met many surgeons?

One hospital I worked in we had a consultant surgeon who would wander over to the cath lab grumbling about being bored doing bloody plumbing (bypass surgery) and did we have anything more interesting?

Hee must have been pleased when stents became the treatment of choice.

CorsicaDreaming · 12/05/2022 07:32

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 11/05/2022 11:40

The majority of the world's population has more than the average (mean) number of limbs.

So obvious when you think about it...

Can you explain that one?

risefromyourgrave · 12/05/2022 07:37

I love the fact that Oxford University is older than the Aztecs, the Easter Island statues and the Magna Carta!

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 12/05/2022 07:39

@CorsicaDreaming its been explained uptrend by some one better at it than me...

The majority of us have 4 limbs. However there are a very small minority, but big enough to effect it statistically, that have list a limb or were born without one or more. An extra limb is practically impossible. Therefor the average (mean)is just below four, not four. (The most common number is still 4)

userxx · 12/05/2022 07:48

DoorWasAJar · 12/05/2022 01:23

Pineapples don’t grow on the ground, wtf 😳

Where do they come from then ? Maybe have a quick Google.

ememem84 · 12/05/2022 07:51

pussycatlickinglollyices · 12/05/2022 07:02

@ememem84 You've got a dick between your thumb and index finger? 🤔😮

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😂😂

LunaAndHerMoonDragons · 12/05/2022 07:52

LadyOfTheCanyon · 11/05/2022 23:26

Another 9 times tables one: the numbers on the left go up and on the right go down 1 digit at a time. I was useless at times tables but the 9s are a doddle!

09
18
27
36
45
54
63
72
81

You can do them on your fingers too. Hold hands up in front of you, 1 X 9 put down thumb on left hand, leaves 9 up. 2 X 9 put down finger after thumb, have 1 up on the left side of that finger and 8 to the right, that's 18. Works up to 9 X 10.

Puffalicious · 12/05/2022 07:53

SkiingIsHeaven · 12/05/2022 00:22

You can also do the 9 x table on your fingers.

Hold out your hands palms up. Fold down the number 1 finger which is your left thumb. How many fingers to the right = 9. Ie 1 x 9. = 9

Then start again. Hold down just the second finger. You have 2 finger on the left and 8 on the right as in one and 8; 18. So 2 x 9 = 18.

Keep going with the other fingers.

Hard to read but just do it with your hands and it works.

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Bloody marvellous!

mihimagna · 12/05/2022 07:55

The Berentein Bears is actually Berenstain Bears.

brightenmynorthernsky1 · 12/05/2022 07:57

Flake chocolate bars won’t melt…even in the microwave!

Daftasabroom · 12/05/2022 07:58

Aghh · 11/05/2022 22:27

A stupid one - I always thought the word was chimley, found out recently it’s chimney (I’m 45!).

Also - if you go East for long enough, you end up going West, and via versa, same with North/South (think of a ball).

North/south yes, east/west no. You could travel east forever, just as wherever you are in the sun always rises in the east, so just travel in the direction of the rising sun.