There is some really weird stuff out in the world. Some of it is made for very niche uses, some is just old and obsolete, and some it just freaking odd.
Before the internet, you were kind of just stuck wondering, but now you can google anything you find and if that doesn’t work, you can ask Reddit.
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Yeah, I have questions too…
“I saw this in Utrecht around the Nationaal Militair Museum. It was moving slowly down the unused runways, and had people inside eating breakfast. Driven by remote control by the lad by the lower right track,” explained the poster, and yeah, the eating breakfast thing is weird.
“Secret operation 610” is a project designed to allow riders to enjoy “a long period of contemplation of the elevated vessel and its historical context at the military airbase.”
Sometimes you just want to know what animal has dug a burrow in your backyard.
Don’t worry, this isn’t anything creepy. It’s for bunnies! D’aww!
A full-sized rabbit doesn’t fit, but the mama bunny will keep her babies safe and warm in there.
“Found after cracking the chicken egg. It is inside the fluid. Has a shape like a cocoon. It is about 1 cm length wise. White in colour.” —dcthelord
I can see why this would weird you out if you’ve never seen a chalaza before. Most bird eggs have them. They are strings of tissue that keep the yolk centered inside the whites. Perfectly safe to eat.
“Found this in an old house in North Carolina. It has “war 1846” carved in it.” —rupertroo
It seems like the carving is a red herring and this is actually an incomplete rope tightener. The tool was used with rope beds to ensure that the mattress wouldn’t sink.
That’s one big drill bit thing. The broom is for scale.
It’s a bunghole drill — pause for giggles.
A bunghole is actually the cork-plugged hole found on the sides of old barrels. Get your mind out of the the gutter.
“On the wall in my office [UK] spins around and the white plastic sections also move.” —carrot926
As a chronic fidgeter, this would be very dangerous to have in my office. But rather than being the old-timey equivalent of a fidget spinner, it’s actually a fire hose guide. The plastic bits roll to make the hose move more smoothly.
This bit of plastic has lights and not much else.
It’s actually meant to go on bike spokes. When the wheel spins, the lights create cool patterns. Some modern ones are even programmable with a phone app.
In my day we just taped noisy cardboard to the spokes and annoyed the crap out of our neighborhood.
“What are these things on the ground? Near an old RAF base, Tangmere UK.” —Casualdee
Nope, the aliens didn’t get mess up their crop circles. These are small archaeological digs being performed presumably being done ahead of the building of a new sewer pipeline in the area.
Well, this is a pretty cool find. It was found north of San Francisco during a hike.
Even cooler is that it’s a part from a 1945 plane [crash](Oct 4, 1945). Two Corsairs collided with each other on October 4th and the pilots parachuted to safety. Pretty neat!
“Found this thing in the street years ago and have never been able to figure out what it is.” —RowanBee
While this gear-shifting apparatus looks like an elaborate clock or innards of a robot, it’s really just the inside of a mechanical calculator, “more specifically the pick-up gear assembly.”
These planks with sponges stuffed into baskets were a pretty difficult google search for user figtoria.
Lucky for them, KorRedR identified them as “hwahwan,” or oversized bouquets. They’re used in Korea for special events like weddings and funerals.
Uh-oh. This one looks pretty serious.
“Found what looks like an RPG,” they wrote.
Apparently, it was dangerous, and the top of a mortar. The local bomb squad was called in the next morning to do their thing.
“This appeared next to my door, what could it be?” —flamingospacemarine
This immediately made us think of Green Lantern… but obviously that’s not what it is.
According to vistavision , this symbol represents extinction — the circle represents the earth, and the triangles represent time.
Reddit user AdequatelyChilled shared this photo of his grandfather’s pin.
The internet came to solve this within hours, stating that it is a “Nazi infantry assault badge, earned by participating in active infantry combat.”
“See this ball like structure every weekend on way to park, located near Cashtown/Mcknightstown PA.” —skipaferd
Many recalled seeing structures like this around their neighborhoods, often time calling them “giant golf balls,” however one reddit user had a more serious answer:
Magical-Machete said, “I used to work at different government sites with these covering the satellites. It’s pretty universal to call them golf balls, even among the adults at the sites. It’s pretty funny to me that everyone calls them that… then the reality hits that these are used to send and recieve incredibly strong satellite signals and aren’t really funny or charming at all.”
“The top twists to let out a piece of metal,” said redditer dontniceguyatme.
The first thing that came to mind for us was a faux lipstick tube that twists out a little knife — a means of self defense.
But many immediately identified it as a much less cool item. This here is a cigar punch.
“Found in my dads room, really hoping its not a sex thing.”
Don’t worry, Merciman , it’s not. Though it’s obvious why you might that.
It is actually a device meant to stretch over your boot and provide extra grip on snow and ice. There’s probably a matching one somewhere for the other boot.
These sort of look like futuristic replacements for the great pyramids in Egypt.
Apparently they are solar farms , which are less related to solar panels and more related to nuclear plants (yikes)!
