Dad Asks For 'Mind-Blowing' Facts To Tell Daughter Before Bed And Reddit Delivers

Caitlyn Clancey
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People say that children's brains are like sponges — they're constantly absorbing new information from the world around them and trying to make sense of it all. In fact, by age five, a child's brain is usually about 90 percent developed, so that sponge soaks up pretty quickly.

Because of their sponge-like tendencies, children are naturally curious. That's why they ask a lot of questions, which some of us may find mildly irritating, particularly if we don't always have the answers they want.

But one dad is encouraging his daughter's natural curiosity. Reddit user u/ExpiringFrog reached out to the good people of the internet to help him come up with some simple yet "mind-blowing" facts he could tell his daughter at bedtime. And the internet definitely delivered.

A single strand of spaghetti is a "spaghetto".

Unsplash | Mae Mu

Quick crash course in the Italian language: plural words have an "i" at the end of them while singular ones have an "o" or an "a". So in Lady and the Tramp, the dogs shared a bowl of spaghetti, but slurped one strand of spaghetto.

Kangaroos can't hop backwards.

Unsplash | John Torcasio

These mammals' unusually shaped hind legs and long, bulky tails actually prevent them from going backwards. Which probably makes it incredibly difficult for them to do the moonwalk. Just sayin'.

There's a bank in Italy that uses Parmesan cheese as collateral.

Unsplash | Alexander Maasch

Since 1953, the regional bank Credito Emiliano has accepted Parmesan as collateral from local farmers and holds the wheels of cheese as insurance in climate-controlled vaults, which is good to know.

No stinky cheese at this bank!

Sea otters like to hold hands with each other while they sleep.

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As if that wasn't cute enough, these guys also have a favorite rock they like to keep in a secret skin pouch which they use to break open clams and shellfish.

At one time, parents could mail their kids to Grandma's house through the postal service.

Unsplash | Paolo Bendandi

At the turn of the 20th century, when the post office decided to start shipping large packages and parcels through the mail, some parents decided to take advantage of this and would send their children through the mail.

Of course, there was a weight limit, so it was mostly just babies who found themselves shipped off to grandma's house via mail. Suddenly those long car rides to visit Nana don't seem so bad, do they?

The pyramids were already ancient when Cleopatra came along.

Wikimedia

In fact, Cleopatra is closer to our timeline than she is to the building of the Great Pyramids. She was born some 2,500 years after the pyramids were constructed, but only about 2,000 years before man first landed on the moon.

In Switzerland, it's illegal own only one guinea pig.

Unsplash | Bonnie Kittle

If you intend on becoming a guinea pig owner, you must be ready to invest in at least two of these furry little guys, because they get lonely and need a buddy!

If acting in a movie, some dogs/wolves need CGI tails edited in during their "mean" scenes.

Unsplash | Vincent van Zalinge

This is because these animals can get so excited about doing such a good job on set that their tails can't stop wagging. And a wagging tail sort of ruins the whole "ferocious beast" image.

Oxford University is older than the Aztec civilization.

Unsplash | Vadim Sherbakov

Yeah, just like with Cleopatra and those pyramids, your historical timeline is once again being proven wrong. Teaching at Oxford began as early as 1096 while the Aztec civilization of central Mexico didn't come about until 1325.

Some dogs can tell when their owner is about to come home.

Unsplash | Mike Burke

If you have a pretty regular daily routine, your dog has likely picked up on it and recognizes when you're finally due home at the end of the day based on how much of your scent is left in the house.

Bees tell their friends about really good flowers by dancing.

Flickr | Ryanito403

Yep, if there's a particularly nice flower they think everyone should know about, one bee will dance inside the hive while the others watch to learn the directions to that particular patch.

From the time it was first discovered until it was demoted from planethood, Pluto hasn't made one full revolution around the sun.

Pixaby | skeeze

Let's all take a brief moment and reflect on the loss of our favorite dwarf planet who was tragically kicked off the list of "recognized" planets in our solar system.

Gone but never forgotten.

Herring fish communicate with each other using farts.

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In order to "speak" to each other without alerting other fish, herrings pass gas, and those bubbles make a high-frequency sound that only other herrings are able to hear.

Well, what else are they supposed to use? They don't have cell phones.

There's an entire island in Japan inhabited solely by rabbits.

Unsplash | Fidel Fernando

Okunoshima, also known as the "Rabbit Island", is home to around 700 cotton-tailed cuties. The best part? People can come visit the island to play with the rabbits and feed them, too!

Polar bears have black skin, not white.

Unsplash | Brian McMahon

Not only is their skin black but their fur is clear! The black skin allows the bears to absorb heat from the sun so they can stay nice and warm while roaming their frigid homes.

Butterflies smell using their feet.

Unsplash | Yuichi Kageyama

These gorgeous insects' sense of smell is located in their little feet, which they use to smell flowers that they land on before they lay eggs. Fun fact: octopus also smell sing their feet (er, tentacles!)

Cows have best friends, and when they get separated, they get agitated.

Unsplash | Stijn te Strake

It's a lot like what happens to us when we're suddenly left without our BFF. Who are we without our other halves?

Hippopotamus milk is pink.

Unsplash | Stefan Steinbauer

Hippo's milk comes out bright pink because of two types of acids the mammal secretes. One is reddish in color while the other is a bit more orange. When the two are combined in the hippo's milk (white), it turns pink. It's simple, really. White + red = pink!

The filling inside a Kit Kat candy bear is made up of other Kit Kats.

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Getting ready for some candy inception. Each Kit Kat bar features crunchy, deicous wafers inside of them. But those wafers are actually stuffed with other Kit Kats. So basically, Kit Kats are made of other Kit Kats which are made of other Kit Kats and I have a head ache now.

Giraffe tongues are black.

Unsplash | David Clode

Not only are they black (or sometimes purple or blue), but these tongues are also 50cm-long! That's one serious tongue!

London taxicab drivers have to take a series of tests called ‘The Knowledge.’

They must learn a whopping 320 routes and 25,000 streets, not forgetting the 20,000 landmarks. This can all takes up to four years to learn.

Most elephants weigh less than a blue whale's tongue.

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Blue whales can run up to 100 feet long and weigh upwards of 200 tonnes, so it's no surprise that their organs and body parts are equally massive.

The marine mammal's tongue weighs around 2.7 tonnes, which is around the same size as the average African elephant.

Scotland's national animal is the unicorn.

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Why? Simple: in Celtic mythology, the unicorn was a symbol of purity and innocence. It was also representative of masculinity and power.

Since Scotland is famed for its love of long history, myths, and legends, it's really no surprise it chose such a dominant, elegant, mythological creature for its national animal.

Michael Jackson couldn’t read or write music, or play any instruments very well.

He could, however, sing and beatbox the sounds of different instruments into a tape recorder. He would even sing the chords to other musicians in the studio who helped record his music.

Animals that lay eggs don't have belly buttons.

Reddit | IndigoCassowary

Like our happy friend the platypus up there, being born via egg-laying means no umbilical cord, which means no belly button, which makes sense when you really think about it, but have any of us ever thought about this before?

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