32 Unexpected Discoveries That Made Us Think

Life’s little surprises help punctuate the monotony and serve a valuable purpose by keeping us on our toes. So embrace the unexpected, because the unexpected is often illuminating.

A real superhero.

Not only does this tour guide have a novel idea to collect discarded plastic bottles along the trail, she’s doing it with a badass color-coordinated bottle-pickin’ sash. This is as close as the real world gets to superheroes.

So many questions.

At some point, somebody decided they wanted a chimney that looked like it had been knotted up by a giant. I don’t understand the motivation, but I can certainly applaud the execution.

More bang for your buck.

I’ve peeled a few garlic cloves in my time, but I’ve never seen a bulb before that’s just one big clove. It’s equal parts unsettling and intriguing.

*Generic Matrix reference*.

This looks like the iconic falling green code from The Matrix , but it’s actually a rice field viewed from above. I’d say more stuff about The Matrix , but it’s been awhile since I last watched it.

Room for improvement.

In Rhode Island, road projects (sorry, “Rhode Works”) announce themselves with signs detailing whether they were completed on time and under budget. It’s an interesting way for municipalities to be transparent and show accountability.

It’s been awhile.

Someone discovered this 123-year-old Winchester rifle propped up against a tree in rural Nevada. It’s hard to believe that someone leaned this here in the 19th century and that it’s remained there ever since — but it also appears that this is exactly the case.

The aughts were a different time.

This subway system just layers new ads over old. When they’re all peeled off, they reveal a snapshot of the year 2000. Look, I was around back then and I still don’t know how to answer for the popularity of Tom Green.

+10 to charisma!

The ancient Egyptians created some interestingly modern-looking stuff, including this 20-sided die from about 400 BC. Did ancient Egyptians invent Dungeons and Dragons? I mean, it definitely looks like it.

Handy dandy.

The form factor of this century-old nursing kit looks somewhat like a Zippo lighter, and it includes everything an old-timey nurse might need — including needles and a syringe of cocaine.

Seismic beauty.

This pendulum is designed to trace long-swooping patterns in the sand below. But when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the area, it recorded the chaotic seismic shaking.

Ants, man.

Ants are dumb on an individual level, but scary-smart as a colony. Case in point: ants bypassed this glue trap, with no ants getting stuck in the process, by building a bridge of gravel.

Let it breathe!

These street-level lamps evidently collect enough moisture, and let enough sunlight in, to allow ferns to grow inside. It’s like a miniature greenhouse.

Surprise!

Why is it that every time I see a yellow slip on my car, it’s some nonsense about “parking in front of a fire hydrant” or “car is missing a windshield”, and not a gift certificate?

Upcycled.

This pen is recycled from a plastic water bottle. The best part is how the water bottle wasn’t simply melted down and remade, but actually has its aesthetic incorporated into the pen’s design.

City of Brotherly Love.

Thanks to the Gideons, practically every hotel has a bible in the bedside table. But in Philadelphia, the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bibles are replaced by something more patriotic.

Nature’s popsicles.

Some trees are positively dripping with sap, so when temperatures get cold, the dripping sap turns into frozen sap. I know it isn’t legit maple syrup yet, but I would definitely try one of these sapcicles.

This definitely seems like a bizarre decoration choice until you find out where it is.

According to the uploader, the radiology department at the hospital they work at features this friendly X-ray on the wall.

Not only is that a clever idea, but it makes the confusion of navigating a hospital a little easier to boot.

Despite how it may look, this is an actual snake and not an elaborate recreation of a child’s drawing.

It’s known as an Arabian sand boa and as its adorably dopey look might suggest, it’s not known for being particularly venomous or dangerous.

Some airports can definitely find a way to stand out, but the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina has picked a more comfortable way than others.

While The Las Vegas airport has slot machines and the Denver airport has a host of bizarre decoration choices, whoever was in charge of this one decided to emphasize the area’s down-home appeal with some rocking chairs.

If part of this pet store’s mural seems oddly three-dimensional, that’s not just the result of the artist flexing their skills.

Instead, that turtle’s eye served as a clever way to incorporate the store’s security camera dome into the piece.

By the time this tree fell over, it had obviously been getting weaker for a while.

Otherwise, it seems unlikely that this neighboring tree would have been able to split it in half just by standing there like it was Robin Hood’s winning arrow.

As this person illustrates here, they’ve noticed their eyes get lighter in color over the last four years.

While either this change or a process that leaves them darker can apparently occur without incident, it can also be a sign of a pigmentary dispersion disorder than can eventually develop into glaucoma.

So if you notice this yourself, it could be worth seeing an optometrist about.

When this person refilled their soap dispenser, they learned something interesting about the soap they previously filled it with.

Namely, that the remnants of the old, white soap were less dense than the blue soap they recently added, which is why we can see them float towards the top like this.

If you’re wondering what this person is going through, it helps to understand that this isn’t technically a person at all.

Instead, the hand we’re looking at actually belongs to a gorilla with vitiligo.

Although we can still notice some clear differences between its hands and ours, the pigment change does make them look eerily similar.

There may not much that’s inherently special about what this dog is doing, but he’s actually breaking a record in this photo.

That’s because Finley the golden retriever has demonstrated multiple times that he’s able to hold six tennis balls in his mouth at once, which beats the Guinness World Record set by another dog of the same breed in Texas.

As USA Today , Finley’s owner is still in the process of verifying the new record with the Guinness records committee, but is confident that Finley will replicate his trick to their satisfaction.

If this works as advertised, it’s a pretty ingenious way to ensure the six people who hold the keys to these locks can use them individually.

That’s because when one of these locks in unlocked, the effect is supposed to be significant enough that it’s possible to open the gate.

Obviously, each key holder will have to approach their lock in different ways, but all should be able to get in without the others.

Although it’s not unheard of to have more digits than usual, this person’s body developed in a similar, but unexpected way.

Rather than having an extra finger or toe, it turns out they have an extra, but seemingly useless bone growing near their shoulder.

If you fly over the Rocky Mountains, you may notice that some patches of it exist in square divisions.

Apparently, these divisions were put in place by the Public Land Survey System and the snow looks different in each one due to the different land uses for those section.

For instance, some could be tree farms, while others could be ranches.

Phantom of the wallet.

If you hold onto the same wallet for a long time, and if your state’s driver’s licenses are printed with shoddy ink, you might see the same unsettling effect appear in your wallet.

This locker has everything.

And by “everything”, I mean, of course, a standard power outlet. Much of our lives seem to be a race from one wall outlet to another, so this is a very welcome feature.

Future archaeological find.

Some worker dropped a tape measure into this concrete block as it was settling, and it’s now there for all eternity. What will future generations think of our clumsiness?

The tiniest.

The whole point of nesting dolls is to have a range of dolls, small to large, that fit neatly inside each other. This doll, though, is especially tiny.