Mildly Interesting

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

“I am not a war criminal”

Praljak was a Bosnian Croatian war criminal and former member of the Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council.

He was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal in 2017 for war crimes and violations of the Geneva Conventions.

On November 29, 2017, during his appeal hearing, Praljak rejected the verdict, declaring, "I am not a war criminal," before drinking poison and dying shortly after.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

In 2010, 19-year-old Sam Ballard was at a party in Sydney, Australia, when his mates dared him to do something reckless — swallow a garden slug. Laughing, Sam took the dare, never realizing the devastating price that would follow. Unbeknownst to them, the slug carried rat lungworm, a parasitic worm capable of infecting the human brain. Within days, Sam fell gravely ill and was diagnosed with eosinophilic meningoencephalitis — a rare, severe brain infection.

Sam spent 420 days in a coma. When he finally woke, he was paralyzed, blind in one eye, and required 24-hour care. His once active life — full of rugby, friends, and laughter — had been replaced with hospital rooms and medical routines. Over time, Sam’s story spread across the internet, first as a shocking headline, then as a haunting reminder of how quickly things can change. In 2018, eight years after that fateful night, Sam Ballard passed away at the age of 28.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

On March 15, 2024, 21-year-old Evgeny Titov from Zhigulyovsk, Russia, disappeared after traveling nearly 1,600 kilometers from Tolyatti to St. Petersburg to visit a friend.

His family lost contact with him, and investigators later found a personal diary containing cryptic entries, suggesting he may have been confused or distressed.

Titov was eventually discovered trapped in a narrow drainage pipe near Pulkovo Airport. Witnesses said he crawled about 12 meters through a 30-centimeter-wide sewer shaft before becoming stuck. It took seven hours and heavy machinery for emergency crews to free him.

Upon rescue, he suffered hypothermia but survived. Titov later claimed he had no memory of how or why he entered the pipe, insisting he was simply at the airport to change a plane ticket.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

In 2016, an EgyptAir flight was hijacked midair by a man claiming to be wearing an explosive belt. While passengers feared for their lives, one British man, Ben Innes, decided to ask the hijacker for a photo — and actually smiled beside him as the standoff unfolded.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

The Terracotta Warriors in Shaanxi, China.

In 1974, a Chinese farmer was digging a well when he discovered a life-sized clay soldier.
Since then, 2,000 terracotta clay warriors have been excavated, and it is believed that 6,000 more remain buried underground.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Decided to go diving through some files I kept on a USB stick from my teenage years. Found a photo of my desktop, circa 2007. This photo is officially old enough to buy alcohol.
Pre-social media (as we know it). Facebook and YouTube were in their infancy, and not widely adopted. Newgrounds was king. We used Internet message forums. The sense of Community was great. The Internet wasn't centralised to a few homogenised sites.
Windows XP on one of the first flat screen monitors. And a PC desk designed for the 90s era computers, with a *built in* PS1 tray. You couldn't be cooler back in those days.
And the perceptive among you might have noticed this one, too - we took photos like these on digital cameras, entirely separate from our phones!

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

A squadron of goldfinches

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Birds blocking out the sun in Rome

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

A bat carrying its offspring

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

@Ghostthatwalks9 And Rohan will answer

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Saudi Arabia has deployed solar-powered laser beacons in the Nafud Desert to guide lost travelers to water sources.

These beacons emit visible laser signals at night, making it easier for people in distress to find their way to safety, especially in the vast and often barren desert landscape.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Green vine snakes don't bite.
They do better: they judge you.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Sperm Whale's front fin bones that resemble human hand bones, including a thumb

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Bees Hold a Hidden Wisdom

When a beehive loses its queen—the one life-giver and unifier of their intricate society—it faces a quiet catastrophe. The rhythm of the colony slows. No new eggs mean no future, and within weeks, extinction looms.

But the bees don’t fall into chaos. They don’t wait for rescue.

Instead, they act—swiftly, intelligently, instinctively. What follows is one of nature’s most remarkable responses to crisis.

It begins with an unexpected decision.

From among the countless ordinary larvae—destined to become ordinary worker bees—a few are chosen. They aren’t special. They weren’t born different. But their destiny is about to change.

These chosen few are fed something extraordinary: royal jelly—a potent, nutrient-rich secretion from specialized nurse bees. It’s more than food; it’s a signal. A biological switch.

Fed exclusively on this substance, one larva’s body begins to transform. It grows larger, stronger. Its lifespan extends nearly twentyfold. It will no longer serve. It will reign.

The queen is not born. She is made.

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

A female falcon was equipped with a GPS tracker during her journey from South Africa to Finland.

She covered approximately 230 km per day, flying in a straight line across African lands until she reached the desert in the north.

She then followed the path of the Nile River over Sudan and Egypt, avoiding flying over the Mediterranean Sea. Instead, she crossed over Syria and Lebanon, also steering clear of the Black Sea—because if she got thirsty, she wouldn’t be able to drink from it.

She continued in a straight line and reached Finland after 42 days.

[Mike The Litterpicker @mike56200]

I painted this dirty derelict utility box on the outskirts of walsall town centre. Its actually empty, the wiring that went here now goes to a large all new box just don the road, so this is left to rot. No one takes any responsibility to remove it - or indeed look after it

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

It’s marbles 🤯

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Ever wondered what holds the orders in one of these things you see in restaurants?

1/2

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Sand covered snow in the Algerian desert looks like tiramisu

[Mildly Interesting @MildlyInteres]

Lens flare in this photo looks like Eric Cartman