The world is a pretty fascinating place. Compared to my daily routine (Netflix, eat, sleep), the world is also a fairly extreme place.
Let’s have a look at a few examples.
Celebrate independence.
You know how movies sometimes show people firing guns in the air to celebrate something?
Well, that happens in real life — in this case, to celebrate the Fourth of July. In case you didn’t realize, bullets eventually fall back to earth.
Dedication.
The pic of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket heading to space is impressive enough, but it’s even cooler when you realize that a photographer had to get chest-deep in a swamp in the middle of the night to get the shot.
Magnets!
MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging. As it turns out, the magnets used in one of these machines are pretty freakin’ strong.
Good thing there was nobody in the wheelchair when it was left too close.
The next time you’re feeling old or feeling uninspired, pull this pic up.
This 90-year-old painter regularly gets into contorted positions to create her art.
If only her brush could talk…
Do you even #trashtag?
#trashtag has been going around for awhile now. It’s obviously a good thing to pick up litter, and we should all do our part.
This diver is going a bit above and beyond, though.
Mockery.
This bald eagle enclosure gives the eagles within everything they need to live.
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That doesn’t mean they’re on the same level as the eagles that are truly free — and sometimes those eagles stop by just to rub it in.
Airbags, man.
This wrecked car looks like some kind of melted steampunk contraption.
It also looks like a serious crash, and it was. But thanks to safety precautions, the driver walked away safely.
How big could it be?
We all know the sun is big, but we don’t often conceptualize how big it is.
That big solar flare in the middle of this image could fit two Earths inside its loop.
You’re probably wondering how I wound up here…
Raccoons/trash pandas are agile little critters, but some of their actions are just mindblowing.
How did this guy there? What were his goals in getting there? How will he get down?
Window to the outside world.
The design here mocks North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, but the initiative is important.
Propaganda is so widespread in North Korea that these little flash drives could be the first time North Koreans ever get a glimpse of the outside world.
Pale blue dot.
That tiny, tiny dot, captured in an image from the Saturn-orbiting Cassini probe, is Earth.
As Carl Sagan once said, that dot contains absolutely everything we know. But from a distance, it’s just another dot in the sky.
Hand-me-down.
This garment at Norway’s Mountain Museum looks a little dated, but also intact and ready to slip on.
In fact, the remarkably well-preserved wool shirt is nearly 2,000 years old.
Big Macs, big gats.
This Detroit McDonald’s has a counter protected by bulletproof glass. The only time I ever went to White Castle, it had a setup like this.
The glass was way less disturbing than the sliders.
Hey buddy.
Everyone knows that orcas are smart creatures that can be trained. But this orca isn’t at SeaWorld.
It’s a wild animal in the Pacific Ocean that’s still docile enough to hang out with these canoers from Tulalip Nation in Washington State.
War casts a shadow.
This house in Wroclaw, Poland, looks like it’s well built.
I’m basing that not on its age, but on the fact that it’s still standing after being visibly scarred with bullets during World War II.
Why’s there a gloved hand in front of a tree?
Owls are incredible hunters: fast, silent and deadly.
When you factor in the fact that some of them have this kind of next-level camo, you’ll realize why mice and bunnies don’t stand a chance against them.
Life finds a way.
It isn’t uncommon to leave something behind at the beach.
In this case, a lone Croc was left behind — and by the time it was found, it had been thoroughly colonized by barnacles.
It’s always cool to go to a natural history museum to get a sense of scale.
Whether you’re looking at a blue whale skeleton or, in this case, the leg of an argentinosaurus, it’s easy to feel small.
Follow the rainbow.
Rainbow eucalyptus trees are like something out of a fantasy novel. When the bark peels away, it reveals brightly-colored wood underneath.
The specific color is based on how old that part of the tree is.
Incredible weather.
This is a time-lapse photo of one of the huge thunderstorms that hit North America recently. In particular, this was taken over British Columbia.
Spot, is that you?
I tend to miss a lot of instances of pareidolia. For whatever reason, my brain doesn’t see the things other people do.
But this rusty spot on a tile wall is definitely a doggo.
Those really look like teeth.
This Neanderthal man fell into a cave system in what is now Italy. The moist, mineral-rich environment allowed the minerals to grow on his bones over thousands of years.
But what did he look like?
Researchers can’t remove him from the cave without risk of serious damage, but by using 3D scanning and taking DNA samples, they’ve managed to create a realistic model of what the man once looked like.
Well, this is creepy.
This is a real human circulatory system. We all have this nest of craziness inside us.
To preserve it, polymer is pumped into a cadaver to harden throughout the body and then acids are used to dissolve the flesh around it.
Om nom railing.
The googly eyes make this pretty adorable, but it’s always kind of creeped me out how trees will just eat anything that is too close to their trunk.
And yet, things like this still happen.
To be fair, this is more the fault of poor city planning than the trees themselves. Often, trees planted to create picturesque streets don’t have enough room to create a strong root system that can withstand heavy winds.
If you hate needles, I’m sorry for this.
Because this is an ultra-close shot of what happens to your skin when a needle has been inserted.
I’m not afraid of needles, but this squicks me out.
Poop tomatoes are a thing.
Tomato seeds aren’t digested by the human body, so they get pooped out completely intact. Since feces is great fertilizer, this means many water treatment facilities find healthy tomato plants growing inside them.
Boom.
This is the most extreme example I’ve ever seen of the sun making a mountain look like an explosion.
Boom 2.0
This is the aftermath of actual explosions at Area 51. Whether you believe the craters are from crashing UFOs or munitions testing, is up to you.
Ants are getting too smart for us.
They are now defeating sticky traps by building bridges with gravel.
That can’t be good.
These mushrooms suddenly grew around the slabs in a garage. There’s definitely something going on under that floor that needs tending too.
Hopefully, it’s not a dead body.
It could have been worse.
At least the mushrooms reaching out from the concrete didn’t look like this fungi, which is aptly nicknamed “dead mans’ fingers.”
Don’t forget your sunscreen.
Imagine the sunburn required for this giant piece of peel to come off so cleanly. No thank you.
Healthy iron levels.
When you hear about iron levels, it’s hard to conceptualize of the iron in your bloodstream as…iron.
But it totally is, and if you had any doubt, you can see how a cremated body yields magnetic iron dust.
Don’t look down.
This is the view down an ancient castle toilet. It was high-tech for the time.
Dam, that’s cool.
If you’re ever flying over a body of water with a strangely straight edge, it’s probably a manmade levee or dam and not a natural formation.
No spoilers!
Seriously, if you told me this abandoned movie theater was a sneak peak from Stranger Things 4 , I’d believe you.
Kick the habit.
Smokers know that their exhaled nicotine and tar winds up in clothing and other fabric.
Turns out that a smoker’s curtains are absolute nightmare fuel if they’re not regularly cleaned.
