There are a lot of weird things in the world, and it’s impossible for any of us to identify every random rock, sign, or item we come across.
That’s where the internet comes in. It always amazes me how quickly the answer can be found with a simple pic and a question in the right subreddit .
Oddjobnick wondered what this strange tower was.
Turns out that it’s both a cell tower and a flagpole. Many places are beginning to find clever ways to disguise the tech we need to keep our smartphones going. Flagpoles are a common way, but I’ve even seen towers disguised as trees.
This vintage manual of army regulations has a very unusual binding system.
It’s an adjustable spine, allowing updates and new sections to be added and removed as needed.
Commenters even managed to find the original owner on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial page.
This strange fossil is a tooth of some sort.
Reddit | aurum_27 It’s huge, but most commenters are pretty sure it’s from an equine of some sort. That’s got to be one big horse!
Other ideas of its source included bison, cow, or caribou.
I always wonder about the meanings of these temporary road markings.
I know they’re to prevent someone accidentally hitting infrastructure, but it’s the code I wonder about.
Apparently , in North America, orange means that there are communications lines under there. Yellow would mean gas lines.
“This is some kind of rock I found while cleaning my parents’ house before they moved.” —myboyatc
It’s silicon carbide, which is extremely rare in nature but easily manufactured. It’s a big part of our modern life. Its uses include cutting tools, LEDs, astronomy, jewelry, and even nuclear fuel.
These patches were found inside an old leather binder.
Reddit | spiderlanewales Though they were photographed upside down, they were still quickly identified as being WWII-era military patches.
The bottom one is for the 8th Air Force and the top is the U.S. Army Air Forces.
This Disney pin looks an awful lot like the monster at the end of Fantasia to me.
But, it’s actually a version featuring Mater from Cars, _w_hich is a pretty funny mashup.
This was found on the fireplace when someone was moving into a new house.
It’s a small oil lamp. The wick is long gone, but I bet it still smells strongly of the oil used to light it back in the day.
“What is this? My friend found it in his dryer.” —Le-Letty
I’m assuming it was a shared dryer, because that friend would probably remember buying a “male enhancement” pill at the convenience store. That’s what’s usually sold in these little bottles.
A Reddit user wondered what these strange signs around their city were.
It’s a “cross pattée” symbol , most commonly recognized for its association with the Knights Templar. But it’s also a common symbol adopted by firefighters in the U.S.
In this case, the signs mark the locations of fire hydrants.
These strange metal balls were found inside a wall.
They are vintage pachinko balls, used in the popular Japanese game of chance and famous in the U.S. for the similar Price is Right game.
Reddit user gravityzebra wondered what they were seeing all over the beach in Portugal.
They are the spines of sea urchins, so I wouldn’t want to step on them.
Contrary to myth, peeing on a sting does nothing, but soaking a stung limb in vinegar will dissolve the spines.
“Found in a Japanese candy store. But the outside is plastic so I don’t think it’s candy. The inside is not very sweet either. What did I eat??” —truci
They ate candy similar to Pixy Stix. The outside is plastic, and you are meant to press your teeth down on it to pull the candy out.
While flying over farmland, someone wondered what the circular fields were.
They may look like giant pie charts, but they’re actually just fields of crops planted for circle irrigation . A system of rotating sprinklers sits in the center of the field, watering everything evenly.
“My grandma got this at a garage sale with a bunch of art supplies, what is it?” —Bohtersnipe
I knew this one! It’s a dip pen fitted with a (mangled) calligraphy nib. The nib is toast but can be easily removed and replaced with a new one.
Koh-I-Noor is an art and writing supply manufacturer established in the 1800s.
We see a lot of random vehicles with strange sensors these days.
This particular one is by Here , a navigation company. The device is a GPS and LIDAR system for 3D mapping of streets.
This plastic thing was found in the dryer of a laundromat.
It’s a golf tee. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like this before. It’s probably much easier to balance the ball atop of compared to the small heads of the tees I used growing up.
You can find the coolest things while clearing the houses of previous generations.
This weird device is actually a pocket ear trumpet. While it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well as modern hearing augmentation, it’s cool in a totally steampunk sort of way.
“In the corner of my ceiling in my hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.” —Iplane
This is actually pretty cool. It’s a subtle way for the hotel to indicate to Muslim visitors which way they should face during prayers.
Sometimes, you’ve just been curious about something for a long time.
Like the little metal things sometimes found behind toilets. They’re master valve covers. When needed, you can use the hidden valve to shut down the water supply to the toilet.
“What are these egg-like things on our sink in Victoria, Australia?” —eggsonthesink
I’d have burned the house down before thinking of creating a Reddit account just to ask about these egg things.
He did the right thing, though, because they’re just bloated chia seeds.
Sometimes while traveling, you’re not quite sure what you just ate.
While some people thought they might be Dango, they’re more likely to be warabimochi, which is similar to mochi, but more jelly-like in texture. Either way, I would like all of them, please, and thanks.
This strange bone was found in a lake. Its 9-year-old discoverer really wanted to know what it is.
It is the tooth plate of a freshwater fish, possibly a sunfish or bluegill.
If I came across a wooden, toilet-like chair with a mirror under it, I’d have questions too.
It’s a birthing chair. The mother would sit on it and the mirror would help the doctor or midwife see the progression of labor.
Depending on where you live, you may see this little speaker-like device on a lot of front bumpers.
Apparently, that’s because they’re warning devices intended to scare off deer before they can run in front of your car.
They do this by emitting whistles at frequencies too high for the human hearing range. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any conclusive evidence evidence that they make deer less likely to run into your vehicle.
When the uploader came across this panel at an estate sale in Arizona, they got pretty curious as to what it could be.
And it didn’t take long before all sorts of people in the know recognized it as a silicon wafer that would normally get broken up into a bunch of different microchips.
As for what these microchips are supposed to do, it seems that it’s hard to know that without looking at them under a microscope.
As the uploader shows here, this object they found with their metal detector is about the size of a pen and has a large spring on the back.
While it’s easy to see why this would make for a puzzling discovery, it was apparently just as easy for someone else to identify this as a self-closing door hinge.
The only remaining question concerns why it was buried in the ground.
Considering that this was found among a bunch of kitchenware from the ’70s, it’s likely that it had been staying put for a long time.
However, it turns out that it’s not actually used for cooking, but rather for gardening. It’s apparently known as a dibbler or a dibble stick and it’s used for planting bulbs.
Sometimes we can use a car or live in a residence for a long time and still not know what some of its features are for.
Reddit | Fastraph For instance, the uploader wondered why their car had this little unit built into it, but learned that if a car has two of them in the back seat, then it’s supposed to hold a cargo net.
If the trunk is full and you’re worried that stuff in the back will fly forward at you, a cargo net is apparently your best bet.
Out of context, this foggy glass jar with the mousetrap-like attachment would seem completely mysterious.
However, it starts to make a little more sense when we learn that this is an antique firefighting device. Apparently, the spring is designed to trip when fire affects part of the mousetrap device so the hammer breaks the glass.
At which point, firefighting chemicals are released from the jar. They’re also apparently quite noxious so it’s a good idea to contact a fire department for disposal if you find one.
This strange metal hook continues to be mysterious even after the most likely explanation for it is revealed.
Apparently, it’s supposed to be an overly fancy bookmark that would feature some kind of charm or ribbon hanging from that latch at the top.
These tools are usually supposed to be flatter than this, but it’s otherwise built like similar vintage bookmark designs.
In parts of Eastern Europe, it’s apparently not uncommon for older cars to have this strip hanging from the back.
This piece is known as a static strip or a grounding strap and it’s supposed to reduce the static shock someone might get after gripping the door handle.
Considering that this effect is apparently at its worst on cold, dry days, it makes sense to see it so often in the chillier parts of the region.
The uploader figured that this arrived in their friend’s beauty box by mistake and that seems pretty likely.
After all, it’s pretty hard to imagine what the beauty applications could be for the throttle on an electric bike.
I’ll admit I’m no expert on makeup trends, but anything that involves such a weird tool would’ve attracted some buzz by noe.
According to the uploader, this little mass appears in one of about 50 of boxes of frozen prawns that comes to the supermarket they work at.
Apparently, this is what coralline algae looks like after it dies and the reason it shows up so frequently is that it can usually end up as bycatch when shrimp trawlers scrape the seabed.
