25 Strange Facts, Stories And Pics That May Pique The Interest Of Curious Minds

For those who love learning something new about the world every day and have an innate fascination with the strange, you’ve come to the right place. The internet is brimming with random bits and pieces of knowledge, and today we’ve curated an intriguing collection from the “Strange Things” Facebook page. According to their bio, the page shares “light-hearted, odd, interesting facts and fun!! Some of the stuff on the page is awesome.” Scroll to check out a few of our top favourites from this curious selection in the gallery below.  

#1

Image source: StrangeThings Canadian fans of the late Leonard Nimoy have angered the Bank of Canada by defacing their $5 notes in tribute to Mr Spock. The image of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911, has long been altered to look like Nimoy’s iconic Star Trek character

#2

Image source: StrangeThings This X-ray shows the position of a foot when wearing a high-heeled shoe. High heels may enhance a woman's beauty, but human biology teaches us that the body is not adapted to this accessory. Therefore, overusing high heels can cause severe problems due to the improper biomechanical stress placed on the entire body. Wearing high heels forces the foot to be on its toes for extended periods. This causes the muscles to adapt to this position with a shortened length, and in fact, muscle shortening of the triceps surae (gastrocnemius and soleus) and plantar muscles has been demonstrated as a result of this posture. In the long run, this can lead to pain in the back of the knee.

#3

Image source: StrangeThings "Two firefighters arrived at an accident scene to find everyone safe, except for one little girl still trembling with fear. She clutched a few bottles of nail polish in her small hands, eyes wide and tearful. Instead of talking about the crash, the firefighters knelt beside her. They asked about her favorite colors. They let her paint their nails. Her smile bloomed. The fear faded. For a few precious minutes, the flashing lights and sirens disappeared. When they left, their nails were far from regulation, but painted in the perfect shade of comfort and kindness. Because sometimes, the greatest rescue isn’t pulling someone from danger. It’s helping them feel safe again."

#4

Image source: StrangeThings In Finland, children read to dogs in libraries - and even to cows on farms - because the animals are calm, attentive listeners who help kids relax and concentrate, with organized programs run by the Finnish kennel club and participating municipalities

#5

Image source: StrangeThings A bear broke into an ice cream shop in Tahoe and ate so much that he passed out on the floor. The shop had just released its new monthly flavor — honey — and locals loved it, but the biggest fan turned out to be this hungry bear. On only the second day of serving the new flavor, workers opened the shop to find tubs of honey ice cream completely empty and a large black bear lying on the floor, fast asleep after his feast. Wildlife officials were called. They carefully woke the bear and safely guided him out before moving him to a safer place far from town. Experts explained that bears have an incredible sense of smell — up to seven times stronger than a bloodhound’s — which helps them find food from miles away. It wasn’t surprising that the honey ice cream drew him straight inside. The local wildlife center paid for the ice cream, and when the shop owner was asked about it, he just laughed and said, “As long as someone’s paying, I hope he comes back — that’s the fastest we’ve ever sold out!”

#6

Image source: StrangeThings In 2011, a 59-year-old man named James Verone robbed a bank. He did so by handing the teller a small note that asked for one dollar. Just one dollar. After receiving his dollar, Mr. Verone sat down and waited for the police to arrive. Suffering from chronic health problems, Verone had recently lost his job as a delivery driver—and with it, his health insurance. As a result, he could not afford the medical care he needed to survive. He knew that in prison, he would receive the treatment he needed even without insurance, so he committed the robbery simply to stay alive. He was sentenced to one year in prison, during which he received life-saving treatment. A civilized country should never allow any of its citizens to become so desperate for medical care that they are forced to commit armed robbery just to survive. Charging people exorbitant amounts for the medications and treatments they need merely for profit is an insane injustice

#7

Image source: StrangeThings You can't store ice in a desert! Oh yes you can. The Persians could! Because they had the ingenious yakhchals, the ancient refrigerators! By 400 BCE, Persian engineers had mastered storing ice in the middle of the desert, in the middle of summer; Yakhchal or "Ice Pit" is an architectural method used to produce ice and preserve food. A yakchal was dome-shaped with thick brick and clay walls. This construction helped maintain a cold temperature inside the dome. During the winter, water was collected from rivers or melting snow Mountains. This water was directed to yakchals through canals and was distributed in small ponds or pools within the dome. During the night and the coldest hours of the day, the water would freeze due to the low desert temperatures at night. Once frozen, the ice was cut into pieces and stored in the lowest part of yakchal, where the temperature was colder. The shape of the dome ( often rising as tall as 60 feet tall) and the natural insulation of the walls (made out of a special mortar, composed of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash in specific proportions) helped keep the ice frozen for many months. During summer, the stored ice was used to cool drinks, preserve food, or even for medicinal purposes. In short, the yakchal took advantage of the natural cold of the desert night to create and maintain ice, using simple but effective storage techniques and thermal insulation. Simply genius!

#8

Image source: StrangeThings Cat paw prints in the medieval floor tiles of the 12th century CE St Peter Church in Wormleighton, England.

#9

Image source: StrangeThings A turkish bee keeper was tired of bears taking all of his bees honey. He’d tried every type of security system even putting the bees in cages. He instead decided to allow the bears to become taste testers. It turned out they were great candidates for this job as they had very specific and refined tastes for honey. They would come each night, and sniff the different honeys, before starting with their favorite one. He makes great money from this honey now. His top honey sells for $300 for 2 lbs.

#10

Image source: StrangeThings

#11

Image source: StrangeThings The "war" between Denmark and Canada has been going on since 1984. The two countries, specifically Greenland and Canada (the Danes are deputies), are 'fighting' over a small, uninhabitable island called Hans Island. The war goes like this: In turns, both countries send their military to the small island in order to hoist their own flag, and to remove their counterpart's one. Over and over again. The Danes always leave a bottle of Danish liquor for the Canadians, and the Canadians leave a bottle of whiskey for the Danes. If that's not the right way to resolve a conflict, I don't know what is.

#12

Image source: StrangeThings These London fences look so strange for a special reason. There are housing estates in London that have pretty ugly fences and you wonder who designed them. If you look closely, you'll see strange curved pipes around the edges. But they're actually good for something. Well. They were. These "fences" were once stretchers. During the war, when wounded were carried away, they were placed on these steel scaffolds. It wasn't comfortable and there was a lot of complaining about it. But it was easy to clean them and they were not so heavy because of the grids. After the war one had masses of such stretches, which were now useless. And since many fences were no longer available in London, because all available metal had somehow been misused for the war, they came up with a "recycling idea". And they built fences from the stretchers. The stretchers were placed on the curved poles on the ground. And so the London fences are silent monuments for us, which can admonish us not to let it come to that again.

#13

Image source: StrangeThings Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which trunks, branches or roots of two trees grow together. It is biologically similar to grafting and such trees are referred to in forestry as gemels, from the Latin word meaning "a pair."

#14

Image source: StrangeThings Shrimp and goby fish. The goby fish has much better vision and will stand guard, while the shrimp digs a hole for them. Then, at night, they both share that hole so that they are safer from predators. What amazes me is that this behavior became inbred in the species over time. The shrimp became less afraid of the fish and vice-a-versa. They just figured out, “We are better off together, than against.” If only more humans realized this

#15

Image source: StrangeThings “In Finland every year, about four thousand reindeer lose their lives on Finnish roads in car accidents, so they paint their antlers with reflective paint so drivers can see them at night.”

#16

Image source: StrangeThings After qualifying for the 5000m Olympic trials in 1928, black athlete Dolphus Stroud had to make his way to Boston on his own. He walked, ran, and hitch-hiked for 12 days, arriving just 6 hours before his race. Exhausted and malnourished, he collapsed on the 6th lap. In June 1928, Stroud won the 5,000 metre Rocky Mountain regional Olympic qualifier. He expected the organizers to cover his transportation costs to Boston for the 1928 United States Olympic trials. After winning, he was informed that they would not be covering his expenses, alleging that he did not approach the previous record, which was a requirement.It was speculated that this may have been an excuse the organizers invented to prevent a Black man from riding on a bus with white athletes. After being declined funding, Stroud walked, ran, and hitchhiked for 12 days over the course of 1,765 miles.He departed at 4 a.m., wielding a "Denver to Olympia" sign, $10, a backpack, water, and a golf club for protection. Initially, the streets were desolate—he reported sometimes walking 20 miles without seeing another car—but coverage in the Chicago Daily News led to an increase in pickups.He ultimately arrived six hours before the start of his race. Due to malnutrition and exhaustion he was unable to complete the race, collapsing on his sixth lap

#17

Image source: StrangeThings Oil and gas companies will sometimes use Turkey vultures to help spot gas leaks. Ethyl mercaptan is added to natural gas to help people smell when there is a gas leak (otherwise they often won’t know, making the leak potentially lethal). This smell is also emitted from a rotting carcass. Turkey Vultures happen to be very attuned to this smell. Natural gas company employees know to take note if they see a bunch of turkey vultures converged near one of their pipes or facilities because that usually means there is a leak somewhere. The vultures are probably confused, wondering where their dinner is when it is in fact just a metal pipe. It’s a rather clever, albeit indirect way of dispatching wildlife to help solve business needs. Vultures, aka “nature’s cleanup crew” are one of the more underappreciated animals. In nature, there is no malice and no remorse. And absolutely nothing goes to waste.

#18

Image source: StrangeThings Schrodinger's people

#19

Image source: StrangeThings When lightning strikes sand, it often creates a fulgurite. It melts all of the silica and then fuses it into glass—even though it doesn’t quite look like glass. Scientists often refer to it as “frozen lightning”.

#20

Image source: StrangeThings The Manx sheep. Is one of the few sheep breeds that can grow 4 horns! They are currently endangered.

#21

Image source: StrangeThings Some people think Hydrofluoric acid is the king because of Breaking bad. It's a lie told by Hollywood! Jesse dumps a body in a bathtub, the floor dissolves. It was a messy thing - but was also nonsense. Hydrofluoric acid is a mean nasty thing. But it is weak - chemically. It is a thing that does not dissociate enough to eat a man whole. It just pickles him - If you really need to get rid of the evidence, you want Hydrochloric acid. The stomach uses a weak version to digest steak. In high amounts the thing becomes a weapon - It eats the calcium in bones and breaks down the proteins - It turns a person into sludge. But it takes days, not minutes and reeks bad - You have to stir it, like soup. It is not a thing of magic - It is only chemistry - The business is slow, wet, gruesome work.

#22

Image source: StrangeThings A man in China, identified only as Mr. Liu, had a blind date. Having set up this blind date through a matchmaker, Mr. Liu was quite eager to meet the lady. Only to find out, to his great dismay, that she did not come alone — she had brought along 23 of her relatives to the restaurant.It was a fairly high-end restaurant too, making things worse… The woman’s relatives kept on ordering more and more food, cigarettes and countless expensive beverages, as the bill kept increasing… Mr. Liu, desperate at the insanity of the situation and helpless to do anything about it, was stressed out and overwhelmed. When the bill came in, it was nearly 20,000 Yuan ( approximately $2,800!) and he was completely flabbergasted. He immediately informed the crazy lady and her family that he would NOT be settling the bill and that she and her family would have to figure out how to pay the amount among themselves… The woman eventually SUED Mr. Liu, trying to get him to pay back the entire amount. The court, mercifully, ruled in Liu’s favor and had him pay for only the food and drinks he and his date consumed, leaving the bulk of the bill to the woman’s family. But yes, this is the worst thing you could ever do on a date — you never, EVER, bring other people on the date unannounced and expect your date to foot the bill.

#23

Image source: StrangeThings European vs. American way of dealing with eggs. As with most things, there are two approaches. American and European. One of them is clearly inferior and the other superior, again as per standard operating procedure. The Industrial egg washer. One major risk with egg consumption is the bacteria salmonella that is often present on eggs and can be dangerous if you eat undercooked eggs, as we all like to do on a daily or at least weekly basis, plus other bacteria that might penetrate inside. To that end Americans wash eggs thorughly, to remove anything that was in the chicken alongside the egg and remove bacteria. This works, but they also remove the protective coating on the egg that prevents bacteria from penetrating the pores on the shell. The egg isn’t contaminated when it leaves the factory, but something else could make its way inside quite quickly, so the egg needs to be refrigerated to prevent an infection. European approach is to vaccinate the chickens against salmonella and rely on the natural coating to protect the egg. These eggs don’t need refrigeration, but you also need to clean the chicken cages more often than Americans, because dirty eggs aren’t as appealing to the customer. The costs work out to be about the same in both cases. When it comes to food poisoning from eggs, the incidence in Europe is about one tenth that in America, which should provide a clue as to which approach is superior.

#24

Image source: StrangeThings Did you know that the small vertical line between a dog’s nose and upper lip has a function? It is called the philtrum, and it is not just a random feature. When a dog licks its lips, saliva gathers in that groove. Through a process called capillarization, the moisture moves upward to the nose and helps keep it damp. A moist nose is more effective at collecting and holding scent particles from the air. This plays a role in making a dog’s sense of smell highly sensitive. It is one of many examples of how animal anatomy supports survival and adaptation.

#25

Image source: StrangeThings Beneath Venice, the historic structures rest on thousands of wooden piles, mostly oak and fir, driven into the lagoon bed. Although it may seem strange to build on logs submerged in water, this engineering method has proven to be extraordinarily effective. The brackish water, devoid of oxygen, prevents the wood from rotting, while its constant contact with the water helps to harden it over time, transforming it into a stone-like material. This system has allowed Venetian palaces to maintain their stability for more than 2,000 years.