Recently, Reddit user u/Bancoarotelle asked, "What is the most disturbing thing to know?" and boy am I disturbed.
1. "During World War 2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the bubonic plague."
2. "There are about six US nuclear weapons that are currently unaccounted for."
3. "That there are anywhere between 25–50 active serial killers in the United States, according to the FBI."
4. "Polar bears are the only bear species that actively hunt and kill humans for food. There’s a rhyme that everyone living where bears live needs to know, and why the rhyme is so important: If it’s brown, lie down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, say goodnight."
5. "By the time you show the symptoms of rabies, it's already too late. It can also be dormant for a year before you show those symptoms."
6. "If an elephant's mate dies, then they can die from broken heart syndrome."
7. "Cruise liners all have a morgue for all the passengers that inevitably die each trip."
8. "HVAC technician here. NEVER TRUST RESTAURANT ICE. Ice machines need to be fully dismantled for cleaning every couple of months or so in order to remain sanitary."
9. "The CPR dummy face template is based on a dead 16-year-old girl’s face. Her body was pulled from the River Seine in the 1880s, and her cause of death and identity were never discovered. A mortician was so ‘entranced’ by her peaceful expression that he made a plaster mask of her, which became the face of CPR dummies and health training equipment."
10. "That slavery is still one of the biggest profiting trades in the world."
11. "If you try to grab the brain in its natural state, it will fall apart. When you see scientists pick up the brain, they have used chemicals to harden it."
12. "There is value to the human body as a commodity. And different parts of our body are worth different amounts — while corneas are small, they fetch a large price (£15,000, or about $22,450), whereas our skeleton garners significantly less (£5,000, about $7,483)."
13. "Early childhood malnutrition (between ages 0–5) causes irreversible loss of IQ (11–20 points) and predisposes people to higher levels of violence. The prefrontal cortex doesn't develop the same. And if you miss that window, there's no intervention that can recover the gap."
14. "One-third of all people who break their hip die within the year... So please tape pillows to your elderly relatives."
15. "The liver can be ruptured in one punch. The liver is the second most fragile organ in the human body."
16. And finally, "A tumor can have teeth and eyes."
They're called teratomas, and they occur most often in ovaries and testicles. They're VERY rare, though, and they can be benign, so no need to worry too much about it. But it's quite gnarly to look at, so just spare your eyes and use your imagination.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.
Which of these disturbed you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
