It’s funny how some pictures go viral because they’re just super random, weird, or awesome. These pictures went viral for those very reasons, but they were also surprisingly informative .
Take a look at this list, and you might learn a thing or two. There were plenty of things here that I didn’t know, either. It’s great when a viral image can teach you something new.
“Common snapping turtle babies look like tiny dinosaurs.”
Snapping turtles are the bane of kayakers and swimmers alike. They’re pretty freaky, and dangerous to boot.
But. their young are actually pretty cute. That shell is so dark and scaly, like a dinosaur’s hide (or what I would imagine a dragon’s hide would look like). These little guys really are like baby dinos!
“My Uber driver offered a conversation “menu” for his ride.”
Today I learned that Uber drivers really will go above and beyond for those 5 stars. This one has a ride menu for different conversation topics, which is kind of nice. It beats sitting in silence or making super awkward small talk, that’s for sure.
“This giant 16th century ‘Colossus’ sculpture in Florence, Italy has entire rooms hidden inside it.”
This is so cool! I definitely didn’t know that statues could double as chambers. Not that I didn’t think it was possible, just that I didn’t really think anyone would go out and do that. The idea of secret rooms is beyond cool, even if these ones aren’t really secret anymore.
“Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile.”
This is stunning! I’m always so amazed at how many beautiful places there are in the world. This image is so cool because, not only does it have those mountains that are lit up by the sun, but it also has that barren-looking valley below that’s covered in shadows. It’s real art!
“Rival Monkey tribes fight in the middle of a busy Thailand street stopping traffic.”
I bet you didn’t know that monkeys lived in tribes. And I bed you didn’t know that those tribes fought one another. Even if you did, you probably wouldn’t expect them to fight in the middle of a street where cars drive. That must’ve been one crazy traffic jam.
“This is what cartographers thought the world looked like in 1581.”
They’re missing a few things, but it’s surprisingly accurate for the time. Especially since they didn’t have satellites to show you exactly how each continent and land mass looks. I shouldn’t be surprised by how few borders there are (if those lines even count as borders), but here we are.
“Simone Biles’ GOAT Leotard.”
This shouldn’t come to a surprise to any of us, even if this is the first time most of us have seen this. Simone Biles is the gymnastics GOAT, after all, so having a goat leotard is the most fitting thing in the world. There will never be another gymnast quite like her.
“Olympic skateboarder Margielyn Didal with some guy.”
Fun fact: skateboarding is a brand new sport in the Olympics. As in, Tokyo 2020 is the first time anyone has skateboarded for a medal. Which means this random dude standing next to Olympian Margielyn Didal never got the chance to compete.
(Don’t worry, guys, I know that’s Tony Hawk).
“A Mural on the side of a building in Milano, Italy.”
Now that’s a cool mural. It’s pretty trippy; it’s really hard to tell where the actual windows are, or if there even are actual windows to begin with. I didn’t know that paintings could be so realistic and yet create such incredible optical illusions at the same time, but here we are.
“In case you wanted to know what the rest of an Easter Island Moai looks like…”
In case you didn’t know, Moai statues have existed for at least 500 years . They look like strange heads from a glance, but they’re actually strange heads attached to bodies that go deep beyond the surface. They’re pretty cool if you ask me.
It must’ve taken forever for just one of them to be built.
“Lake Oroville – 3 years, April 2021 and last week.”
It’s pretty sad how extreme heat and droughts have dried Lake Oroville so drastically . Something like this just isn’t normal. Hopefully, though, there’s a chance that the water can come back to the lake with enough rainfall or something.
Seriously though, looking at something like this is just so upsetting.
“Maria Andrejczyk, a javelin thrower from Poland, auctioned off her silver medal from the Tokyo Olympics for $125,000 to help an infant in her home country receive life-saving heart surgery.”
This is actually a pretty awesome story. It goes to show you that Olympic-level athletes achieve great things both at the games and outside of them.
“Manhole cover in Wiesbaden, Germany.”
Now that’s a sewer entryway if I’ve ever seen one! Look at that, it even has stairs. And if you look closely, you can actually see some guy climbing up them, so they actually do work.
Still, you wouldn’t catch me going down there if my life depended on it.
“This one popsicle stick in a bag of arts and crafts sticks. The writing reads: ‘Made in prison of Tonghua Jilin Province.'”
So, these popsicle crafts sticks are apparently made by prisoners. I don’t really know how to feel about that. I dunno, it just seems like a weird concept.
“My tea’s (shadow?) from the sunrise in a glass cup.”
I always find it so funny when shadows also look like reflections. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but I think it only really happens when a liquid is hit with sun. It makes a pretty cool effect, so it’s at the very least quite fun to look at.
“This person who wrote into a newspaper to describe a darts achievement.”
I still can’t believe some people could just write whatever they wanted and get it into a newspaper. Since no one really reads the paper these days, it’s probably actually a lot easier now, but who knows?
But at least this guy got to show off his cool darts move.
“A pharmacy in my German hometown was founded before the West discovered the Americas.”
There’s so much history in Europe. And the rest of the world, too, of course, but I swear, we’re always hearing about Europe’s recorded history.
The fact that this pharmacy is still standing after more than half a century is amazing. But it’s even more amazing that it predates the discovery of the New World.
“This bag of spider snack you can buy at a supermarket in Tokyo.”
So… eating bugs as a snack is a thing now? I really don’t know how to feel about this one. On one hand, it’s probably fine. But on the other hand, it’s bugs . The whole concept of eating one just creeps me out.
“Took this picture of lightning hitting a building through a cloud this afternoon in South Africa.”
You know, out of all the pictures of lightning strikes floating around the internet these days, this one is cool because of the fact that it passes straight through a cloud. Who knew lightning could even do that without breaking the whole cloud apart?
“I didn’t know purple bell peppers existed.”
I, too, did not know that purple bell peppers existed. But now I do, and I’m super curious. Do they taste any different from red or orange peppers? Are they the same variety, just grown in a special way? How do they even get purple in the first place?
“Underside of yellow oyster mushrooms I grew.”
If you ever wanted to see the underside of a yellow oyster mushroom, here’s your chance. Is it the most life-changing experience? Probably not. But it’s pretty neat in itself, and I for one can respect that.
I love it. They look like little umbrellas or something.
“This is not a middle-aged guy tired from traveling – it’s a bronze sculpture in an airport.”
Apparently people can just make statues that look like real humans, now. Seriously, though, this is amazing! The amount of detail really does make it look like some guy is just taking a nap on the ground (inside of a glass display case, but still).
“Baby owls sleep down on their stomach because their heads are too heavy.”
This is equal parts fascinating and frightening. This baby owl kind of looks dead. But it’s just sleeping, apparently. Which is good, even though it doesn’t really look that good. Nature can be so weird at times.
“The cat learned how the fridge worked and now only drinks fresh, crisp water.”
Cats are definitely smarter than any of us give them credit for. They’d probably take over the world if they could create written language and had opposable thumbs. If they can figure things out like where the water comes out of the fridge, they can probably do a lot more.
“In the Atacama Desert in Chile, there’s 3,000-year-old, densely packed shrub called llareta.”
This is a really cool shrub! It looks almost like a boulder covered in moss, but it’s all plant apparently. Honestly, nature is so cool; you can find some really unique things in the plant world, that’s for sure.
“The powerlines over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana illustrate very well that Earth is not flat.”
Whether you needed a reminder that the Earth is flat or not, here’s a really amazing view nonetheless. This is such an absurdly long train of powerlines! I bet it can provide power to most of the state.
“1973 McDonald’s menu and prices.”
Talk about cheap fast food! I know that these menu prices would be the equivalent of a lot more money by today’s standards thanks to inflation, but can we just go back to 1973 prices anyway? I like these a lot better than the prices at McDonald’s nowadays.
“A playable ice xylophone.”
I really want to know how this works. Do the different sized pieces of ice make different sounds when they’re hit? Do the pitches change as the ice melts? So many questions!
Too bad it’s so hot this summer, having something like this would just melt in a few minutes.
“My son and I found out on a hike today that it’s a felony to poach Venus flytraps in the wild.”
I was today years old when I learned that Venus flytraps were a protected species. I don’t know exactly where this is, but I wouldn’t be taking my chances. Any sign that warns you not to commit a felony is a sign you should be listening to, even if it’s about plants.
“Sterile spoon used for specimen collection during surgery.”
I… have a lot of questions about this. But I’m not really sure I want any of the answers, so I’m not even going to ask them.
If you didn’t know that hospitals used spoons for parts of surgeries, you do now. At least you know this one is impeccably clean.
