What pieces of common knowledge were you totally unaware of until recently?

PracticalMedicine · 1 year

Not me, but I've informed two people in the past year (both who have been driving for 2-3 years) that the little black thing on their rear view mirror is for when you're driving at night and you want to avoid being blinded by the headlights of the car behind you.

vortex320 · 1 year

I'm not an exception to the rule that "everyone dies".

mcastaneda20 · 1 year

That reason soft drinks are called soft drinks is because they contain no alcohol. I never got why the called stuff with alcohol a "hard" drink until I randomly went to Vons once.

Skyhawk1 · 1 year

That I've been tying my sneakers wrong my whole life.

Apparently, depending on which hand you make the first loop with, it is important whether you form the second loop in front of, or in back of the first loop.

One ends up with a self-tightening 'reef' knot and the other ends up in a 'granny knot' that will loosen over time.

Here it is, explained more thoroughly- http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0%2C7120%2Cs6-240-319--13001-0%2C00.html

TooManyVitamins · 1 year

I can put my bin out the night before instead of getting up at 5am to push it to the street. I thought there were neighbourhood rules against that but apparently not!

dreadredheadzedsdead · 1 year

I had no idea what an uncircumcised penis looked like till last week, leading me to the discovery that I am in fact circumcised. I'm twenty by the way.

chanelleol · 1 year

It just dawned on me the other day that tutorials are called such because they tutor you on how to do something. Needless to say I felt like a complete idiot once I realized this.

agreeswithfishpal · 1 year

Water towers are for water pressure, not to store water in for an emergency.

foxh8er · 1 year

[deleted]

Spamalot159 · 1 year

Working really sucks. I can't believe people have to do this everyday for their whole lives.

haloshade · 1 year

Fortnight= Fourteen Nights

Stingerc · 1 year

Mentioned this before, but up until maybe 2 years ago (I'm 35) I used to dry swallow pills and use the water to soothe the scratchy feeling in my throat left from swallowing them. My GF saws doing this and said "no dummy, you use the water to swallow the pills, that way they don't scratch". Never felt stupider in my life. And I have a grad degree...and my Dad is a freaking doctor (he laughed like hell when I told him).

xKazula · 1 year

Just the other day, my best friend told me that until about a year ago, she thought that the earth was flat. She thought the earth was like the ground, and everything she knew about was just up in the sky (sun, moon, planets, etc) and that above that was heaven.

I always knew she didn't pay much attention in school, but this just takes it to a whole new level.

prydek · 1 year

I learned that etc stands for etcetera, I used to spell it ect.

happypolychaetes · 1 year

I realized that the green tubes in Mario are pipes. Because Mario and Luigi are plumbers.

I always thought of them as flower pots, since that's the idea I got into my head as a kid playing Mario, and it stuck around for almost 20 years.

Needless to say, my mind was blown, and I ran around telling all my friends about my newfound knowledge. No one was impressed. :(

primordial_soup · 1 year

I recently noticed that the Windows logo is a window.

andrewsmith1986 · 1 year

The "Laffy" part of Laffy-Taffy is the joke on the wrapper.

ctrlaltninja · 1 year

While grocery shopping with my roommate, said she wanted to bake a cake, once we got the cake mix picked out we both agreed that cupcakes would be better... so I set the box down and began looking for "cupcake batter" before I realized that I am an idiot.

c3h3e3l3s · 1 year

Kind of embarrassing but I didn't realize that the logo in 'Disney' was actually a D. I thought it was a design and they just wrote 'isney' after it.

Last_Epiphany · 1 year

Lighter roast coffee has more caffeine than darker roasts.

I've been drinking the bitterer dark roast coffee for the extra caffeine boost for years...

greenRiverThriller · 1 year

That felons cant vote.

Hickspy · 1 year

I recently found out that Gogurt was JUST yogurt.

Pissed.

stareatthesun442 · 1 year

Breakfast means you're "breaking your fast".

Cupboards · 1 year

I was playing my piano one day a year or so ago, going through some scales, and just noodling around like usual, when I was my mind was blown by pure idiocy. I'm not sure if anyone here remembers The Simpson's episode where Homer starts a barbershop quartet, and they needed a band name that was catchy, funny, and clever but becomes less of each, for every subsequent mention of the name. The "b-Sharps", now as a music lover I can't believe I didn't get this joke until I was 25 years old... There is no actual "b-sharp" note, it is a C. It's such a musicians joke that not many will get it, but damnit how can I be that slow in the head... 12 years to figure out a stupid joke. This made me a sad panda....

tryuntilImblue · 1 year

Not me, but my best friend is a mechanical engineer major. He is BRILLIANT when it comes to numbers and equations and all that fun stuff. Just this week he got 100% on some upper level physics final.when the next best score was a 76%.

Today I explained to him that the eggs we eat are not baby birds. They are unfertilized. He was SHOCKED.

Slysliver · 1 year

It tooks me until about a year ago to realize that a tooth cavity is a hole in your tooth. 2 months ago I figure out it's called "Surf and Turf" when you get steak and lobster is because lobsters are from the surf and cow are from the turf. I am not a clever man.

HemHaw · 1 year

Water does not conduct electricity. Shit in the water conducts electricity. You can run a computer without issue under a bath of distilled water.

splashdamage · 1 year

When I was little I LOVED Shirley Temples, but my grandpa didn't want me drinking a "girly drink" so he convinced me they were really called John Waynes. I didn't learn the truth until I was 18.

Jamisloan · 1 year

I recently found out that Flo Rida is actually spelling FLORIDA.
And that's how he got his name.

nopablano · 1 year

In the WWE (then WWF) The Undertaker's creepy manager guy was Paul Bearer.

Didn't realize until WAY WAY WAY later that this was a play on a funeral pallbearer.

Well played, WWE. Well played.

Dicktremain · 1 year

I just learned about a month ago that the Arnold Palmer existed. I thought I had invented it when I put lemonade in with some sweet tea vodka and it was fantastic. I told one of my friends that if we just mixed lemonade with sweet tea it would probably taste pretty good too. Just think if I was older we would all be drinking Dicktremains.

Apostolate · 1 year

The Tianmen square guy was not run over by the tank, but was actually ushered out by others.

Sad moment for me.

Writteninsanity · 1 year

Until about a year ago, I thought that people were talking about "Youth in Asia" when they argued about "Euthanasia". I was always wondering why people thought it was a bad or good thing.

SquirtinFerCertain · 1 year

I just learned recently that pickles are cucumbers. I'm not sure where I thought they came from.. a pickle bush?

1637 · 1 year

TIL that you all seem to be functioning retards

PittPensPats · 1 year

I was informed earlier this year that Rocky Balboa wasn't real. Facepalm.

Onid8870 · 1 year

For over 16 years my friends and I used to go up to my friend's Dad's cabin (until he passed away and the family sold it) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to ski, ride snow mobiles and generally get drunk and fuck around. On the drive up we would stop at a place called S.A. Loon's to have lunch because it was delicious. After almost 10 years of making this trip on a yearly basis I was outside smoking a cigarette (damn smoking laws) I looked at the sign and I realized,"Sweet baby Jesus! That means saloons!! The sign says Saloon!!!"

BuschLightGladiator · 1 year

"Twinkle twinkle little star" and "the ABCs" have the same tune. Found that out like two weeks ago

giantpubes · 1 year

My friend thought female pads were tissues. Basically he's an international student, and you know how in those 25 cents feminine product dispensers instead of sayings pad it says napkins. He happened to be sick one day and while using a handicapped washroom wanted to buy some "napkins" in case his nose gets runny.

sommergirl · 1 year

That the shadow on the moon is the moons own shadow and not the shadow from earth.

lauren_india · 1 year

i only realised the other day that the term "rolling in the benjamins" is due to the presence of benjamin franklin on american money.

sicknightmyer · 1 year

My mother thinks that the sun is a planet... I keep telling her that it is a star but she doesn't believe me. I even showed her the encyclopedia, Wikipedia, any credible fact that the sun's a star, but she always think I'm fucking with her. Seriously, I love my mom and all but, she fucked up in the head

kitten36 · 1 year

I had the recent revelation that our thumbs are called "opposable" because they can be opposite of our fingers!

Warlizard · 1 year

Just go to /TIL. You'll see a whole long list of common knowledge items recently discovered.

iglidante · 1 year

Cars have reverse lights. They're the clear lights in between the tail/brake lights, and they shine when the driver puts the car in reverse. Somehow I drove for a decade without ever realizing that.

mcaustic · 1 year

Thermal Conductivity.

About three years ago, I was holding a metal stick in a fire.

WHAT THE HELL? The stick is hot at MY end.. but MY end is not in the fire?!

SnazzzyC · 1 year

I recently learned that frozen yogurt is not just softer ice cream. Mind blown.

0hfuck · 1 year

Until very recently I honestly believed the Salem witch trials happened in Salem, Oregon. It's still hard for me to grasp that they happened in Massachusetts since I have been under the assumption they took place in Oregon since I was a child.

jarchh · 1 year

It's not terribly recent (I'm now 22) but I remember actually being shocked when I was 16 and I realised that February had the first R in it, and wasn't spelt nearly as similarly to January as I had thought.

Romora117 · 1 year

The XKCD, it's just too relevant.

moscova89 · 1 year

Sand

Sand-als

concretesock · 1 year

I never knew what the title 'The Phantom Menace' really meant. Was making a sandwich and suddenly it dawned on me. It's because the Sith are like some sort of mysterious, looming threat. Almost like a phantom. I felt like a fucking idiot.

DawginYourMomma · 1 year

That there are a lot of oblivious people on reddit.

chemical_imbalance · 1 year

just because you graduate university, there's no guarantee you'll get a job.

Newbie1318 · 1 year

It wasn't until the other day I realize it was "for all intents and purposes" NOT for "all intensive purposes". 26 years before I figured that one out.

1 year

[deleted]

ShigglyB00 · 1 year

I only just learned that there's no such thing as a kraken.

All my seafaring adventures... meaningless

eatinglegos · 1 year

It's "Every kiss begins with Kay" because kiss starts with a K, and it sounds like Kay in Kay Jewelers.

I didn't know this until last week.

Juicelayer88 · 1 year

The term "Cracker" refers to white people cracking whips...

JacksConcience · 1 year

I recently learned that there is a man named Jimmy Buffet and he makes music. And that he's kind of a big deal.

Also, if you don't know who he is, your girlfriend may make fun of you for the rest of your life for not knowing who he is by the age of 21.

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