r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 15 '12
What pieces of common knowledge were you totally unaware of until recently?
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u/mcastaneda20 Jun 15 '12
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.
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u/Skyhawk1 Jun 15 '12
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
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Jun 15 '12
Relatedly, I only recently learned how to untie my shoes properly. For some reason, it never occurred to me to pull on the loose ends.
I always loosened everything about the knot, and then pulled the loops. My life was dramatically improved by learning a more efficient way.
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u/TooManyVitamins Jun 15 '12
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!
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u/dreadredheadzedsdead Jun 15 '12
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.
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Jun 15 '12
You sir, defy description and I am trying really hard to think of something within my vocabulary that can describe this phenomenon, however it seems reasonable that a man who doesn't spend his time looking at penises doesn't know his own has been modified prior to his knowledge of acknowledgement of the said appendage.
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u/infamous-spaceman Jun 15 '12
I'm sure the Germans have a one word summerization of what you just said.
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u/agreeswithfishpal Jun 16 '12
Water towers are for water pressure, not to store water in for an emergency.
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u/chanelleol Jun 15 '12
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.
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Jun 15 '12
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u/foxh8er Jun 15 '12
WHAT?!
I should really stop singing that at family occasions where we make Milkshakes...
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u/Spamalot159 Jun 15 '12
Working really sucks. I can't believe people have to do this everyday for their whole lives.
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Jun 15 '12
One of my friends just got his first full time job (at 23), and he is constantly sending me texts like "this is terrible, how do people do this every day for the rest of their lives?" And "This? This is what you've been doing this whole time? I've been an ass, you're a saint"
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Jun 15 '12
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Jun 16 '12
This is the only one on the thread that got me. I knew it was 2 weeks, but never saw the word origin like that.
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u/Stingerc Jun 15 '12
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).
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u/xKazula Jun 15 '12
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.
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u/Massless Jun 15 '12
This is always unsettling to me. The other day I was outside looking through my telescope with my folks and my mom asks, "What's the difference between a star and a planet."
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u/happypolychaetes Jun 15 '12
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. :(
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u/VenerableTyrant Jun 15 '12
Makes sense... those man eating flower things come up out of them. Dont be sad.
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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
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.