65 Extremely Random Things I Literally Just Found Out That Completely And Totally Blew My Mind Last Month

Buzz Feed

01-04-2025

1. This is what Netflix's homepage looked like in 1999, one year after it launched:
Netflix
What do you say we get the popcorn going, pour a little wine, and wait 3-5 business days for Patch Adams to arrive.
2. This isn't a big ol' grape. It's the world's largest single-celled organism:
x.com
It's called Valonia ventricosa, and it's a type of algae.
3. This is what Mount Saint Helens looked like before and after its 1980 eruption:
4. This is artist Dario Campanile next to the painting he made for Paramount's 75th anniversary. The painting would go on to be the source of the company's subsequent logos:
Neat!
5. This is what a cyclist's legs look like after competing in the Tour De France:
6. This is what New York City looked like from space on 9/11/2001:
NASA
Captured from the ISS.
7. Plastic surgery has been around for a long time—here are some examples from the 1920s:
8. Here's another example of a facelift from the 1920s:
9. This is what the Korean penisula — North Korea on top, South Korea on bottom – looks like from space:
10. This is a rubber beauty mask designed to eliminate wrinkles, massage the face, and promote skin health from the 1920s:
11. Some chickens lay eggs with white yolks:
reddit.com
It just doesn't seem right.
12. There is a set of intact, neatly stacked plates inside the wreckage of the Titanic:
13. This monument marks the location of the first ever nuclear bomb explosion:
14. These bad boys are the oldest pair of pants ever discovered, dating back to over 3,000 years ago:
dainst.org
They were found in western China, and you know what? They look pretty cool to me.
15. Prescription cocaine is still used today in hospitals as a local anesthetic:
Just feels weird to see.
16. This is what Florida looks like from space:
To paraphrase Carl Sagan: Every Floridian you love, every Floridian who has robbed a gas station, every Floridian who has unwisely kept an exotic animal as a pet, every Floridian who has ever been seriously hurt flying off a jump in a backyard go-kart accident, has lived out their lives on that peninsula.
17. These are the prices from a 107 years ago from a restaurant in Alabama:
18. Before he was James Bond, Sean Connery competed in the Mr. Universe pageant in 1953:
19. Most of the palm trees you see out and about are trimmed. Here's what a bunch of un-trimmed ones look like:
And if you've ever lived in a place with palm trees, you know that there's probably a whole slew of critters in them there unshorn trees.
20. This is what a young Joseph Stalin looked like:
Grethe Ulgjell / Alamy Stock Photo
His friends called him Joe. Not actually sure of that. Probably not true.
21. Elephant seals are absolutely gigantic:
Alamy Stock Photo
And I love them.
22. This is what a kidney stone looks like under an electron microscope:
BSIP SA / Alamy Stock Photo
(Cartoon cat getting its finger stuck in a mousetrap voice) YEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWWCH!
23. This is what the United Kingdom looked like from space during the winter of 2010:
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
Likes like one of those Games of Thrones.
24. Speaking of big giant animals, here's Hiram (center), the world's largest horse as of 1907:
Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo
Folks, do we stan Hiram, aka the largest horse in the world?
25. Some Australian beaches have "emergency vinegar" to treat jellyfish stings:
u/vc6vWHzrHvb2PY2LyP6b / Via reddit.com
You get some emergency olive oil and we got ourselves an Italian feast.
26. This is a picture of the spectators, including alleged mobsters, covering their faces with hats to avoid recognition during Al Capone's trial in October 1931:
Ullstein Bild Dtl. / ullstein bild via Getty Images
Poor form by the guy in the front row to the right. You hate to see it.
27. Smoking does a doozy to your walls:
u/thunder_chunky_fresh / Via reddit.com
Not great... unless you're a big fan of beige.
28. Sugargliders have tiny little sugarglider fingerprints:
u/skimbleshanxi / Via reddit.com
Just in case a sugarglider tries to frame you for something.
29. This is the exact gun John Wilkes Booth used to kill Abraham Lincoln:
Buyenlarge / Getty Images
RIP Abe.
30. This is what happens to your knee replacement if you're cremated:
u/ThatCurlyHairedGuy20 / Via reddit.com
A comforting thought. Have a nice day!
31. This is the first aerial photo ever taken, captured by James Wallace Black from a hot-air balloon high above Boston:
Alamy Stock Photo
This picture, from 1860, is called"Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It."
32. This is what an authentic, mint condition Woodstock 1969 ticket looks like:
u/masterbuck10 / Via reddit.com
Gem Mint 10, folks. Would you rather have this or a 2011 Mike Trout Topps Update card?
33. I'm sure you're aware that every St. Patrick's Day, Chicago transforms its river into a vibrant shade of green...
Raymond Boyd / Getty Images
34. Well, did you know the dye is actually ORANGE?
u/Jonah517 / Via reddit.com
This is what a super concentrated amount of the dye looks like. Science, man.
35. After World War I, sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd led a team that crafted realistic masks to restore the faces of injured soldiers:
Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo
36. This is Louisa Ann Swain, the first American woman to ever vote in a general election:
Alamy Stock Photo
The vote happened in 1870, five decades before the 19th Amendment granted voting rights to all American women.
37. Cacti are a great way to measure progress:
u/kindly-pineapple-585 / Via reddit.com
Just in case you were wondering.
38. Here's what a beluga whale looks like from below:
Alamy Stock Photo
Like it has knees! KNEES! It doesn't, though.
39. This is apparently an eighth-grade test from 1912. Are you passing it?
u/flares117 / Via reddit.com
Feel free to describe the heart in the comments.
40. This is Stephen Taylor, the man with the world's longest tongue:
Doug Peters / Alamy Stock Photo
Apparently, he's since been dethroned by Nick Stoeberl. I don't really want to get too deep into the deep world of the world's longest tongue.
41. This is what the foundation of a skyscraper looks like:
u/exact-creme4957 / Via reddit.com
Looks VAST.
42. Some finger prosthetics have fingerprints:
reddit.com
Just when you thought you could get away with every crime ever.
43. This is what the Pacific Ocean looks like from space:
NASA / Dembinsky Photo Associates / Alamy Stock Photo
There are at least ten fish pictured here.
44. Here's a picture of a very safe, normal setup for parents and a baby to enjoy ice skating from the late 1930s:
Hulton Deutsch / Corbis via Getty Images
No problems here.
45. Speaking of babies, they used to travel up with the luggage on planes:
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
46. Looks totally fine to me:
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
Yup, nothin' to see here. Out of sight, out of mind.
47. This is how big a moose's tooth is:
u/busycarhouse / Via reddit.com
Imagine being a moose dentist. It'd be incredible.
48. Some places use really, really, really, really long brooms to dust the ceiling:
u/floating_laundry / Via reddit.com
Would love to see Mando Duplantis handle that thing.
49. This is what a credit card from the 1950s looked like:
u/footpickle / Via reddit.com
Next to a pay stub from the 1950s! Two for one!
50. This is what a hippo's skull looks like compared to a human skull:
commons.wikimedia.org
They really had to hammer it home with that terrifying staging.
51. Deep sea wolf eels are absolutely terrifying:
u/soloflo786 / Via reddit.com
No thanks, again!
52. You can not only EAT pinecones but you can also make jam from them:
u/drxgonmilk / Via reddit.com
53. Here's a topographic map of Africa, showing off the many mountains within the continent:
reddit.com
54. Both seals and sea lions have nails:
u/cyber_being_ / Via reddit.com
They use them for grooming and, yes, they need to be cut if they get too long.
55. This is what a hairless raccoon looks like:
reddit.com
I still love it. Come here, my friend.
56. This is what's on an "American" pizza in the Czech Republic:
u/Mike_ZzZzZ / Via reddit.com
Corn on pizza is one of the most harrowing things I've ever seen.
57. Finally, let's end by looking at the TRUE color of every planet in our solar system. This is what color Mercury really is:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Arizona State University/Carnegie Institution of Washington
58. And this is what Venus looks like to the naked eye:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
59. Here's where you are, Earth, in true color:
NASA
No surprise here.
60. This is what Mars looks like in real color:
ESA & MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
61. And this is what Jupiter looks like without any filters:
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
62. Here's Saturn in all its true-color glory:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
63. And this is Uranus in real color:
NASA/JPL
64. Here's Neptune in true color:
NASA / Voyager 2 / PDS / OPUS
65. And, finally, here's our little dwarf planet warrior, Pluto, in real color:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker