Every so often, we can stumble upon something that catches our fancy so much that it’s hard to stop thinking about.
Most of the time, that’s because we’re not quite sure what we’ve just found, but you might find that even when you discover what you’ve brought home, you’ll still catch yourself glancing over at it fondly.
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When I was about 16, that’s basically how I treated the shard of a bass guitar that my cousin smashed during his stag and doe. I mean, that is a pretty cool keepsake, right?
But while it’s nice to have those little moments with the things that pique your curiosity, it’s even nicer to share them with the world as the people on this list have done.
Although we can see that it comes from a tree, it’s hard to recognize this spiny curiosity as a fruit.
But despite the fact that it looks like something we’d normally observe under a microscope, a fruit is exactly what Madagascar’s Uncarina sakalva is.
This ceiling definitely makes a vivid impression, which is likely quite refreshing in what’s usually a drab place.
Depending on where you go in Sweden, you might find that the subway stations have had a similar amount of artistic ambition put into them.
This also makes it pretty easy to give directions in here.
If the icy look of this thing seems at odds with its bottle shape, allow me to explain.
Apparently, an icicle dripped into this empty beer bottle until it was completely filled with water.
Some time later, the water inside the bottle froze again and shattered its glass prison in the process. So now, we essentially have a transplanted icicle in the shape of a bottle.
Sadly, this sign doesn’t give you an opportunity to apply to the world’s most indecisive college.
Instead, it turns out that the famous Russo brothers responsible for directing the more ambitious Avengers movies are currently filming on this campus.
Presumably, they wanted to set their film on a different campus than they landed on, so now these banners are proudly promoting “Whatever College University.”
At first, this looks either like an aerial view or like a small ecosystem has sprouted up among some concrete.
Well, I suppose you could say that second guess is a little closer to the truth.
What we’re looking at is the top of a shipping container where an impressive colony of mold has grown around some standing water.
You’ve likely seen a shark cage before, but it’s not the only way people can safely get up close and personal with dangerous animals.
There’s an attraction in Australia that lets people observe crocodile behaviors from the safety of this protective dome.
It’s perfect for Steve Irwin fans who would readily admit they don’t have it in them to live as he did.
It’s both mind-blowing and haunting to know that the ravages of war can dramatically change a land so quickly.
It’s even more shocking to learn that all of this damage occurred over the course of just about eight months.
And as Maclean’s magazine reported , the battle for this area alone resulted in at least 770,000 deaths.
You may have noticed that your hair can freeze when it gets particularly cold, but that’s the whole point of one Canadian competition.
According to CBS News , the Takhini Hot Springs in the nation’s Yukon territory have just the right combination of hot waters and bitterly cold air to make these uniquely frozen hairstyles possible.
This powerful photo captures a meeting that crosses five generations.
As the uploader explained, their daughter is grabbing the ring finger of their wife’s great-grandmother.
Some of us are lucky enough to have met at least one great-grandparent, but it’s a particularly impressive feat to live long enough to meet a great-great-grandchild.
Despite how it may seem in this photo, Santa’s Village didn’t have any strange lighting issues this year.
Instead, the uploader just happened to take this picture at the exact moment that one of Santa’s elves had their flash go off.
This university found a pretty unexpected way to upcycle.
Apparently, after they tore down an old gym to make room for a new building, they decided to cut the floors of the old basketball court into tables.
I’ve never heard of people doing that, but it seems to work well.
This table sits on the border of three different countries.
Not only that, but it’s placed in such a way that residents from Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia can all sit at the table while technically staying in their respective countries.
Just by looking at this photographer’s expression, we can tell he got a more interesting photo than he bargained for.
Granted, that’s probably more true of the one that he’s in than the one that he’s taking.
After all, he likely just ended up with a blurry shot of a cat’s face. We ended up with the evidence of this cat’s perfect sense of timing and unwillingness to share the spotlight.
It’s not unheard of for infamous criminals to leave calling cards, and this has to be one of the wildest.
Apparently, this smiley face made of gunshots was the mark of the Swedish bank robbing and bombing group known as the Military League.
My only question is whether they put one marksman in charge of smiley face duty or whether each member contributed a shot.
These shadows seem like they belong in some alternate dream world, and that was probably the artist’s intention.
This person had enough skill to almost make them seem like real shadows, but the one on the right is even more ambitious because it’s not complete until a train passes by.
The longer a tree stands, the greater the chances that something will end up getting caught in its growth.
And as the work crew responsible for splitting this tree into pieces found out, those odds go up even further when that tree grows near a ball park.
Yes, a baseball manged to get stuck in this tree to such an extent that it was eventually absorbed by it.
For whatever reason, this coffee shop’s ceiling is decorated with doors.
My guess is that it’s supposed to fit that apparent motto of exploration, as the first step to doing that usually involves opening a door.
Not to worry, we aren’t looking at some morbid artist’s handiwork and this isn’t a real skull.
Instead, this is how you can tell you’re standing next to the Smiling Skull bar in Athens, Ohio. It definitely seems to have a theme.
It’s unclear how it got here, but the Australian Parliament House in its capital of Canberra has an unusual feature.
In case it’s hard to make out, this is the fossil of a prawn than has somehow found itself embedded into the building’s marble foyer.
It’s nicknamed Shawn the Prawn and tour guides always make sure to point it out to school groups.
This sign is long out of date and even the tree seems to agree.
The sign in Modesto, California was first installed during the 1930s and marked this area as “reserved for ladies and their escorts.”
Yeah, the tree can pretty much have this one.
If you asked me as a kid who did this, I would be utterly convinced that it had to be Edward Scissorhands.
Both the level of detail and how amazingly cool the results are also seem beyond the capabilities of mere mortals.
Obviously, someone really is just that good, though.
That label is accurate. This is the world’s smallest guitar.
It was developed at Cornell University about 20 years ago, and is reportedly only 100 atoms thick.
The strings are also supposed to be playable, but how we’re supposed to go about doing that is anybody’s guess.
This might be the most honest movie ticket we’re likely to see.
Considering that it’s only been about four years since the last time they tried to reboot the Terminator franchise, it’s hard not to blame this theater for just calling this movie that instead of using its actual name.
This gorgeous shot over the Himalayas features a rare, striking phenomenon.
What we have here is an iridescent cloud, which appears this way when there enough water droplets of just the right size in the atmosphere to scatter light into rainbow patterns like this.
This game turns the idea of traditional claw machines of its head by putting us right into the action.
Fortunately, the human claw machine doesn’t offer actual humans as prizes, but rather dips us into the pit of prizes and lets us make the grab ourselves.
Because we already know we can’t trust the claws on the machines we’re used to.
If something seems amiss about this grocery store, that’s because it isn’t actually real.
Instead, it’s a dummy one put in place so the factory that makes refrigeration compressors can test them out before they start affecting real stores.
It’s not often that we might describe a snake as “pretty,” but this dazzling pattern definitely deserves that description.
This is supposed to be a white-lipped python, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if you have difficulty finding another one that looks like this.
Normally, this discarded chocolate milk carton wouldn’t even be worth noticing.
However, it seems that far too many people have agreed with that sentiment over the years because it’s apparently been laying around in the streets of Cairo since 1994.
Here we see an F-18 in the middle of a supersonic flight.
It should be noted that this isn’t necessarily what it looks like “at the moment the plane breaks the sound barrier,” but rather when it travels at high enough speeds to decrease air pressure around it.
This makes that air less able to hold water particles, thus creating this cone of vapor.
Even when you’re diligent about cleaning up cat fur, it can find a way to clutter up your space.
For instance, the uploader vacuums their place every week and uses a carpet rake to clear their cat’s fur away.
Despite all this, they still ended up with this much fur after cleaning the carpets in just two rooms. This is why my allergies are guaranteed to flare up in homes like these.
It only took about 30 years, but it seems like at least one school has finally embraced their students’ skateboards.
In a pretty wholesome architectural move, this school’s front office has installed some special racks so kids can hang their skateboards up before they go to class.
It may not seem like it, but both pictures feature the same shirt and backpack.
And it’s not as if either of them were dyed, either. Instead, the window tints of the bus the uploader rode brought out the hidden red pigments in both items and made them appear redder than they really were.
This bug net had a pretty nasty hole until some surprise reinforcements showed up.
It’s a little hard to make out, but a spider ended up filling the hole in this person’s defenses with its webs.
The uploader doesn’t have to deal with any annoying bugs and the spider gets to lay an even more effective trap than expected. Everybody wins! Well, except for the flies, I suppose.
Although they might grab some attention, the calluses on this hand aren’t the reason this image was uploaded.
Instead, this person wanted us all to be aware that they have an extra crease on their pinky finger.
It’s unclear why that is, exactly, but it often comes down to genetics.
