All things have a purpose and function. However, some objects are so peculiar, so strange, and so weird that it takes amateur detectives and internet occultists to decipher their meaning. The ‘What Is This Thing’ subreddit is a treasure trove of everyday artifacts whose purpose was lost to the world… until Reddit’s resident Sherlock Holmeses took a look at them and explained exactly what people were looking at.
We’ve collected some of the best examples of odd things, so scroll down, have a look, have a read, and upvote your faves. Let us know in the comments if you learned something new and share the most obscure objects with your pals to test their knowledge.
Be sure to read on for Bored Panda’s interview with one of the subreddit’s moderators. And when you’re done with this list and if you’re still hungry for weird things whose purpose is unclear, then be sure to have a look through our previous posts about strange objects right here, here, as well as here.
More info: Reddit
#1 Mostly Concerned About Why Is This Thing?
Answer: For doing surgery on the cow
Image credits: CIoverload
#2 Weird Squirming Living Lovecraftian Nightmare On Our Lawn Chair This Morning. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Hag moth caterpillar with fuzzy “false arms” on its back to make it look like a dead leaf. (We’re looking at the belly)
Image credits: pbjburger
#3 Found On Guam In Shallow Water. 3-Meter Diameter Disk. Top Looks Like Polyester In A Honeycomb Shape That Is Fiber Glassed To Flimsy Aluminum Disk. I'm Stumped On This One. Never Seen Anything Like It. What Is This Thing?
Answer: There was recently a Chinese Long March 3B rocket launch that failed, and the rocket and its payload was seen reentering the atmosphere near Guam
Image credits: genopsyism
According to one of the subreddit’s moderators, there are several reasons why people become amateur detectives online and help others figure out what obscure objects are. The first reason is that interesting items show up and some folks can’t help but get involved. There’s also the “thrill of the chase”—people want to show off their great search skills.
“Many [people] have unique and obscure knowledge and they like to use it. Get enough of them together and they cover most things,” the moderator told Bored Panda.
The mod revealed that it’s very rare for a thing to get posted and for nobody to know what it is. They estimate that under 10 percent of ‘cases’ don’t get solved on the subreddit. “A majority of things are solved within 15 minutes of posting,” the mod added. With over 1.5 million members in the community, it's no wonder that mysteries get solved so quickly.
#4 I’m Not Doing My Dishes Until I Know What This Beautiful Thing Is
Answer: That’s a bacteria pellicle.
Image credits: rpunx
#5 Grainy-Like Things? They Appear Inside And On My Closet, And Reappear Whenever I Clean Them. What Are These?
Answer: Termite poop.
Image credits: wowiie
#6 This Sci-Fi Looking Place In Poland, Somewhere By Krakow. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Alvernia Studios is a film studio located near Kraków, Poland, 18 km (10 miles) from the Kraków-Balice Airport, with additional offices in Mumbai and Warsaw.
Image credits: StayAtHomeDuck
The subreddit has a more serious offshoot on Reddit called Trace an Object that searches for objects posted by Europol that are linked to child abuse cases.
“We've had some luck in identifying some things, but there's more yet unsolved and more to come as Europol does release some new information every few months,” the moderator explained. The Trace an Object subreddit currently has more than 52.6k members who are putting their sleuthing skills to good use.
#7 Water Flows From A Culvert Beneath A Trail Into This Circular Pool, Then Continues On Into The Woods. What's The Pool's Purpose?
Answer: Settling pond for erosion control and improving the downstream water for happier fish
Image credits: yourlocalpizzajoint
#8 Thin Slabs Of Ivory With Days Of The Week On The Top Found In My Closet. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Fabulous antique early Victorian chatelaine aide memoir from mid 1800s. Made of sheets of bone, it would have hung on a lady's chatalaine chain or been kept securely in her pocket and she would have used it to make note and appointments for the week to come. It has 6 pages for the days Monday to Saturday, of course a lady would never have made appointments on a Sunday
Image credits: mickbruh
#9 Found In A Crawlspace Of A House From The 80's Next To 3 Red Boxes Encased In Concrete. What Is This Thing?
Answer: This label is used for materials with gamma and neutron emissions This label was specifically used on containers shipped by aircraft, and that reference is from the late 50s/early 60s. Any red label is going to be Group I or II, which as stated above emits gamma rays, neutrons, or both, and is potentially harmful even with the box closed. OP's lid came from something shipped by air, but it's interesting to note that on ground shipments of the same class of materials (like with the label variant I found in my first edit), the trucks themselves were required to be marked "CAUTION" or "DANGEROUS - RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS" on the sides and rear of the vehicle just to haul this kind of material.
Post author update: As of today a 3 man team from the state of Utah department of environmental quality, division of waste management and radiation control, uranium Mills and radioactive materials section (holy [crap]) showed up at my friend's house around 10am and spent a few hours taking readings, swabbing samples and asking questions and after all of that, found nothing but natural trace amounts of radon. The "lid" they think was from the late 1950's and was unrelated to the "vault".
Image credits: mosaltedchipz
It’s not just the modern world that is full of mysteries: the further back into history we go, the more secretive things get because the purpose of some things has become lost in the fog of time. One of the most cliched and well-known examples of this is Stonehenge.
We all have our personal theories as to what it was used for (burial site, cosmic map, astronomical calendar, druidic circle, UFO landing site, etc.), but the real answer still eludes us. Researchers are still scratching their heads how the stones that weigh around 8,000 pounds (3,629 kilograms) were transported more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) to the place where Stonehenge still stands.
#10 What Are These For In An Outdoor Area Of A Hospital?
Answer: These are emergency showers. An affected person (chemical spills, laboratory mishaps, etc) will pull the level on the top and tepid water (OSHA defined between 60F and 100F) will douse the affected from the shower head (above) and boot sprayer (below). The duration of these showers is required to be 15 full minutes at approximately 20 PSI.
Source: I design these systems.
Image credits: chashaoballs
#11 When You Pull The Ring On This, Four Little Pins Come Out. What Is It Used For?
Answer: It's an anti-theft device for pocket watches.
Image credits: johnsinternetsales
#12 Found In The Wood In A Creek. It Was Under A Piece Of Wood. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Those look like midge eggs, an aquatic fly
Image credits: Ordralphabetix
Something else that has captured the imaginations of many individuals is a series of carvings in Peru made by the Nazca tribe. Nobody knows why exactly the Nazcas made these drawings of animals, plants, insects, and other things.
But two things are for sure: they are huge and they can be seen from the sky. But their true purpose is still shrouded in mystery. Perhaps, one day, we’ll figure out the answers to the secrets of the Nazcas, as well as solve the mysteries of Stonehenge.
#13 What Is This Fiber/Sand Ball? Found Among Thousands Like It On A Beach In Spain. It Weighs Almost Nothing
Answer: Sea grass ball
Image credits: ErikBech
#14 Found This Thing In The Woods. What Is This Thing?
Answer: It's stinkhorn egg.
Image credits: del_demo
#15 Poured A Glass Of Water Last Night From The Tap Left It Under The Light On The Night Stand, Next Morning I Found This Floating In It... What Could It Be?
Answer: If it actually did come out the tap with the water, my guess is some sort of flocculant/coagulant used in tap-water treatment, that somehow made it past the system and was still dissolved/in suspension in the water. Then settled out during the night.
These chemicals are used to attract particle in the water and clump them together for easier removal. Some of those "concoctions" looks similar to this after settling out.
Image credits: John5671
#16 Growing From The Basement Ceiling At A Very Rapid Rate. It Is Also Leaving On The Table Below It, Grayish Particles. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Those are the studs from your walls -- redistributed by your termites.
Image credits: FallAwayAlways
#17 What Is This Thing That You Always See On An Escalator?
Answer: They help keep shoes, dresses, handbags, etc. from getting snagged in the tiny gap at the side. I use them as a little shoe shine, too.
Image credits: kristhecadet
#18 What Are These Swirly Things? Found On Google Maps - Located In Cogdell, Georgia, USA
Answer: Checked the tax records... It is or was an alligator farm.
Image credits: stephi-
#19 What Are These Things I Keep Seeing On Nearly All The London Bus Stops In My Area?
Answer: It's potato art... And I'm not even kidding... The artist is unknown (some say by an artist called NoNose), if you look for 'London bus stop potato art' you can find many more articles written about it.
Image credits: 4tunabrix
#20 Found On The Beach After Hurricane Dorian Wreaked Havoc On The Maritimes.. Curious To Know What It Is?
Answer: rat tailed sea cucumber.
Image credits: islanderpei
#21 What Are These Are What Are They For? The Girl Sitting Across From Me Had Them On All Fingers On Both Hands
Answer: Oval finger splints for treating: Arthritis, Boutonniere Deformities, Crooked Finger, Fractures, Hypermobility (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome), Lateral Deviation, Mallet Finger, Swan Neck, Trigger Finger, Trigger Thumb
Image credits: aniwrack
#22 Was Walking By A Cabin When I Saw This Thing. But I Struggle To Imagine How This Would Be Used Effectively?
Answer: This specific configuration is used while skating to create a human “Zamboni” and clean the ice when there is a lot of powder
Image credits: ralleruud
#23 Weird Looking Thing Found In A Rockpool. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Hilti 500 epoxy, it sets under water
Image credits: gf-free-since-94
#24 Found On The Norfolk (UK) Coast. Very Soft And Floppy, Pale Pink But Not Rotten Or Water Bloated. What Is This?
Answer: A hairless seal flipper
Image credits: poetry-divided
#25 Found Near The Water In Newport Rhode Island. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Conch egg cases
Image credits: easternshore85
#26 Washed Up On A Beach In Florida. What Is This Thing?
Answer: "It is a wave-powered desalinator that is owned by Oneka Technologies, a firm in Quebec. It takes seawater and turns it into fresh water. It is powered by the motion of the waves."
Image credits: New_Fry
#27 Saw This Rusty Thing On My Walk In A Forest. The Forest Belong To A Estate Wedellsborg, Vestfyn, Denmark. What Is This Thing?
Answer: It is an underwater mine
Image credits: Damadamas
#28 Doll Found In A River. Could Be Something From A Haunted Attraction But If It's Not I'd Like To Know What This Is
Answer: Old marionette. Could have been used in one of those "fortune teller" vending boxes at a fair
Image credits: User99699
#29 My Grandfather Told Us To Not Remove This When Renovating. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Aztec calendar. Funny thing, I remember a bunch of these a while ago being smuggled over the border and they were made of meth.
Image credits: CloudiaNYT
#30 My Boss Just Got Married, And Due To A Combination Of Indian Tradition And Him Being A Bro, He Brought Us These Little Snackboxes. He Left Before I Could Ask Him Much About Them. What Are They Called And What Are They Made Out Of?
Answer: The white block to the left is made with cashew nuts and sugar : It is called kaju barfi. The yellow block looks like it is mango flavored barfi. The circular one looks like dried fig with nuts stuffed in it. The shiny ones have edible silver foil and are also made from almonds, cashews and pistachio nuts. They are all made with clarified butter and are delicious desserts.
Image credits: mstarrbrannigan
#31 Found In Deep Creek Md. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Stonefly larvae. Good sign for the water quality.
Image credits: GumAddict5947
#32 Spotted On The Train In Copenhagen This Morning. Rolling White Light Across The Buttons, The Colour Lights Flashed Sporadically. Headphones Jack Connected And The User Was Wearing Headphones. Ladybug Appears On The Top Left. What Is This Thing?
Answer: It is an OP-Z by Teenage Engineering - A synthesizer and sequencer.
Image credits: ollieollie14
#33 Someone In Town Found This On The Beach Today And Wanted To Know What It Was So I Offered To Ask Here. She Said It Was Squishy, Very Large, And Had No Smell. We're In Southeastern Nc So Dorian Swooped By Yesterday If That Helps At All. What Is This Thing?
Answer: It looks like it might be a tunicate called sea pork or sea liver.
Image credits: dollarstorevodka
#34 Found While Clearing Yard. Weighs About 6 Lbs. Area Has Ww2 History. Should I Call Eod?
Answer: Always call local police when it comes to an uxo. They’ll call EOD for you.
As for the round it looks like a MK 1 shrapnel round. WWI projectile made by the French, and used by allies.
Image credits: sixhundred71
#35 Found In The Middle Of Asian Desert, In Google Earth At 40°26'37"N 90°48'00"E. What Is This Thing?
Answer: They are the evaporation ponds for the Xinjiang Lop Nur Potash Co., Ltd. one of the world's largest potassium sulfate production mines
Image credits: StopLookingAtMyName-
#36 So I Found This Key In With A Bunch Of Things I Was Given Decades Ago When My Grandfather Died. Anyone Ever Seen A Key Like This Before? It’s About 2cm Long An I Have No Clue Where It Came From
Answer: The swastika was one of Britain's favourite lucky charms during WW1, e.g. this swastika key charm from the war. There were swastika cushions in British homes & the Scouts had a swastika badge. There must have been a mass domestic clear out in the 1930s/40s, as such items now rare.
Image credits: hugosp0ps
#37 My Mom And Dad Were Doing Some Landscaping In The Backyard And Found This Weird Slate With Writing Etched Into It. The Months Are Spelled Out And The Year States 1827 But That’s All The Information Here. I Can Send More Pics In Pm. Also, This Was Located In Southern Missouri
Answer: a practice gravestone scrap. Someone who carved gravestones would practice engraving lettering and drawings on this broken piece of stone.
Image credits: AppleTangoMike
#38 Found This When I Opened The Gas Lid Cover Of My Car. I've Never Seen It Before, Any Help?
Answer: A carpule of anesthetic
Image credits: s1mer2k
#39 An Opening In The Bottom Floor Of An 1850s Home In Charleston, Sc. What Is This Thing?
Answer: A way to access your crawlspace, there’s usually plumbing, wiring and potentially ductwork that periodically may need maintenance
Image credits: bikematt7109
#40 What Are Those Things Called? I Think They're Typical Of Gothic Architecture?
Answer: Flying buttresses. They’re there to transfer the weight of the roof outwards to stop the walls bowing and collapsing.
Image credits: whita_019
#41 Taken Out The Window Of An Airplane Flying Over Europe. What Is This Thing?
Answer: It's the emissions from a smoke stack or steam stack rising above the cloud level.
Image credits: eater_of_universe
#42 IKEA Coffee Mug, What Is The Thing At The Bottom?
Answer: So water doesn't stay on the bottom if you put the mug in the dishwasher and stops wet mugs suctioning themselves to coasters.
Pretty clever design actually.
Image credits: HR_92
#43 Found This In My House. I Bet My Wife It Has Something To Do With A Tie. Do I Win?
Answer: Hoof pick for cleaning horses hooves.
Image credits: Ymmy805
#44 Mini Harpoon Thing Found When Changing Bedding In A Hospital Room
Answer: Patient had been tased. It's a taser dart.
Image credits: feickuss
#45 This Cylindrical Container My Wife Bought. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Royal Navy cordite bucket.
Image credits: dbstanley
#46 This Rainbow Effect?
Answer: A rainbow is a rainbow. The cause is refraction/dispersion of light due to water in the air.
Looks like it’s raining over there. The shape is just a matter of angles and height.
Image credits: idontdislikeoranges
#47 What Is This Thing In My Classroom? Makes Subtle Fan-Like Sounds And Changes Colour On Top
Answer: AV1 is a personal avatar for children suffering from long-term illness, helping them to continue their education and maintain the normality of daily life despite no longer being able to access mainstream education. Through an app, the user can remotely log into the class from their home or hospital. Looking through the robots eyes, the child can watch the lesson, through the robot’s ears they can hear greetings from their friends and they can speak through the robot to interact with the rest of the class.
Image credits: Potetbror
#48 For Context: It's In A Dentists Office
Answer: A very old dental drill.
Image credits: bnfvd
#49 Saw It At A Brewery. Some Sort Of Game, Maybe?
Answer: Pachinko machine, a gambling game in Japan.
Image credits: DudleyStokes
#50 Do Workers Mom Found This In A Box In The Attic. What Is This Thing?
Answer: The kīla or phurba is a three-sided peg, stake, knife, or nail-like ritual implement traditionally associated with Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Bön, and Indian Vedic traditions
Image credits: edjogo2
#51 I Found This Hanging From The Basement Rafters Of My 100 Year Old House. It Appears To Be Two Marbles Or Something Similar In A Hanger Of Some Sort. Any One Have A Clue What This Could Be?
Answer: It's a razor blade sharpener. A 1930s salesman's special and it doesn't even sharpen the blades just realigns the edge and gets you a few more shaves.
Image credits: debo3883
#52 Glass Vials? In A Glass Bowl
Answer: It's a vodka set. Ice goes in the bowl, glasses go in the ice to keep the drinks cold.
Image credits: VictoryIsARoad
#53 Spotted On Top Of A Small Rv. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Its an old type areal antenna for TV. Its design is indeed a Yagi array
Image credits: a3s4d5f6
#54 Small Booklets Of Gibberish Found In A Vacant Home, Appears To Possibly Be Military Related
Answer: A ritual book for the Independent Order of the Oddfellows
Image credits: BrillTread
#55 A Specific Type Of Hammer, From My Work At A College In Scotland
Answer: Blacksmith hammers have different style of peens depending on the task you want to accomplish. There are straight peen (if you held the hammer by the handle the peen would be paralell to the ground), cross peen (perpendicular to the ground) and diagonal peen (the one you have taken an image of).
Image credits: sedhig
#56 Family Heirloom, Very Skillfully Hand Made, Roughly 7.5’ X 9.5’
Answer: It is likely an embroidered napkin that is used to cover the bread (challah) on the jewish sabbath. It is just for decorative purposes, and helps make the table look festive for the Friday night meal . The embroidery has not been completed. The unfinished design appears to be leaves and flowers, with a stylized tree of life around a colorful star of David. The 12 oval areas recall the 12 tribes, a common motif. When finished it might have been bigger, with fringe or a fabric border placed around the main piece. It is a charming piece of Judaica.
In reply to some comments below, it is possible, but I think unlikely, that it is a passover matzoh cover. Pretty much every matzoh cover I've seen refers (has a motif) in some way to the seder, or matzoh, or passover. It is unlikely that it is a tfillin bag. I've made a study of them, and this does not conform in style, fabric, or motifs to any I have ever seen.
This is most definitely not Celtic, or masonic, or demonic, it's a piece of domestic Jewish needlework from the first half of the 20th century.
And why is it in OP's non-jewish family? Someone who liked needlework could have picked it up at a garage sale or a thrift shop decades ago and it becomes a piece of family folklore.
Image credits: Lime_Green_Teddy
#57 Plaque With Numbers Inscribed On It. Found On The Sidewalk Outside A Building At My University
Answer: Magic square. It's a popular sort of decoration to put outside math departments
Image credits: hadsecks
#58 On The Underside Of Our Cabinet In The House We Recently Bought, Built In The 70s. Plastic With Metal Teeth On One Side, Very Dull. Each Side Is ~4 Inches Long. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Jar opener
Image credits: dwarfstar3434
#59 Saw This In A Forest In Germany. What Is This Thing?
Answer: It's a fridge, or a old time cold room. Basically a room covered with dirt for insulation
Image credits: V-by-V
#60 What Are These Circular Metal Things On These Stairs? I Just Hit My Knee And Goddamn Did It Hurt
Answer: Skateboard prevention device. Keeps em from grinding on edges.
Image credits: JjzMerheb
#61 Landlord Found It In The Basement. Heavy Metal. Google Isn't Responding Well To "Scary Wand" Or "Aggressive Pleasure Instrument". What Is This Thing?
Answer: Soldering iron. The end you are holding is the head, and is usually copper. The other end would normally have a wood handle.
Image credits: CornStarchEnema
#62 Found In The Muck In Ohio. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Teeth of Grass Carp.
Image credits: the_roaster_roaster
#63 What Car Make/Model Is This? This Car Was Involved In A Fatal Hit And Run Of A 15 Y/O Girl Yesterday And Police Haven’t Identified The Car Yet. This Is The Only Picture Available.
Answer: A white Chevy Equinox.
Image credits: Beastrupter
#64 Found This In A Coffeshop. What Is This Game? How Do You Play It?
Answer: Mancala as a family of games is over 1300 years old. This is one of the oldest known games. It was played with seeds and was a way to teach children counting and planting.
A fun way to play is using M&Ms!
Image credits: xelky
#65 Found This Inside A Snowboard Boot I Bought Off This Guy On Craigslist. What Is This Thing?
Answer: That's a dugout. Skiers best friend. Holds your hitter and a stash.
Image credits: andrei_stoleru
#66 Found Outside My University. Seems To Have Some Sort Of Laser Apparatus Inside. I Can Take It For Free. Should I?
Answer: That is a vacuum chamber used for material science research. You read up on "Molecular Beam Epitaxy". I have used these systems. Though they look cool, A lot of exotic materials like Gallium, Cadmium, Indium are typically used. It is not a good idea to move to your house were you might be tempted to touch the inside of it. If you can cut plexi glass circle so close out all the vents, it could make a cool decoration. There is a metal shroud on the inside through which water or liquid nitrogen could be circulated to cool down the system. If that shroud develops a leak, then usually the system is discarded. Also due to cross contamination issues, when a project is closed/abandoned the chamber used also gets thrown out.
Image credits: longboard_building
#67 What Is This? It Was At My Grandfather’s House
Answer: Native American here, the term most associated with these are "peace pipes or peace pipe tomahawks". Natives call them Calumet's as a holdover from the french days.
Image credits: Originalname57
#68 A Pre-1950 Book That Appears To Be Made Up Of Dialogues And Monologues, Maybe Made Up Of The First Letter Of Each Word In The Series? Anyone Know What It Is?
Answer: It's a cipher.
The masons use this cipher, especially in their book, apparently the current F.M book is censored, not only with this cipher but with blank spaces that no one is allowed to know, only the real top lodges have the originals from the 16-17 century that are not censored or encrypted but no one is allowed to handle them.
Image credits: Catulli
#69 Found Inside Cremated Remains. Triangular Less Than An Inch Tall And Wide. C And T At Bottom. Did Not Burn So Possibly Metallic. Felt Flexible
Answer: Part of chemo port.
Image credits: PjSnarkles
#70 This Weird Machine I Saw On Gilmore Girls. What Is This Thing?
Answer: A scale.
Image credits: beepboopsoup
#71 Found On A Ranch In Texas. Usually Found In Groups Of Several. Very Heavy & Dense. Close To Round
Answer: Barite roses. Gypsum would be lightweight, barite is dense thus heavy.
Image credits: AsianVoodoo
#72 Bought These In A Second Hand Store In Japan. They Have Hallowed Our Stomachs I Thought Maybe For Incense But They Don’t Have A Flat Back To Lay Down. They Do Have Ropes To Hang Them Up Though.
Answer: They’re called a Slit Drum or Slit Gong. ) Yours are just missing the strikers and you don’t see them painted often because it can affects the sounds.
Image credits: Incarnasean
#73 Ceramic Jug With Holes In The Opening; What Is This Used For?
Answer: A "thingy" to help hold flowers straight or in the design you desire.
Image credits: Avocadoavenger
#74 What Is This Red Hat That I See This Student Wearing All The Time?
Answer: It's a type of turban worn by Naqshbandi Sufi Muslims. Naqshbandi Taj
Image credits: KQYBullets
#75 Fell From The Sky - Made 15ft Hole - Metal Object About 3ft Long, 30kg. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Going to bet it's a locking pawl from a windlass, the winch that raises and lowers they anchor chain
Image credits: 0resutidder
#76 Mystery Ceramic Or Porcelain Piece Found On Beach In Cancale, France
Answer: When you hold it up to a bright light, is it translucent? Porcelain will be translucent, while other types of ceramic earthenware will not be.
When you run your fingers or a nail over the blue detailing, does it feel noticeably raised or like you could scratch it (as opposed to a relatively smooth surface)? If so, it is likely blue transferware, a later style which developed to more efficiently replace hand painting by transferring a design onto the piece. If instead it’s smooth and not translucent, then it likely is faience ware (Delftware).
Based on the image, color, and size, I would say it’s more likely to be transferware than Delftware.
Additionally, even if it was Delftware, that doesn’t necessarily indicate Dutch origin, as similar styles of delftware were also produced in England and other places (known as English delftware)
Image credits: oonikitaxx
#77 Translucent Gelatinous Matter With Black/White Spots, Found In Local Woodlands (UK). What Is This Thing?
Answer: Frogspawn
Image credits: why-patterns
#78 A Miniature Mask I Found In Nz. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Balinese ‘yawning’ dance mask. It looks like a miniature version of the actual masks used in Balinese dance performances
Image credits: Maitre-de-la-Folie
#79 My Grandfather Recently Passed, And This Was His Favorite Plane He Flew. I Believe It Was Korea, And He Was Navy, Retired In The Late 70s As A Major. What Kind Of Plane Is This?
Answer: That looks like a C-5 Galaxy.
Image credits: darkneo86
#80 This Pole Suddenly Popped Up In My Local Park, Anyone Know What It Is?
Answer: Surveillance system. The round thing with the cooling fins is a LiDAR a laser sensor, made by a company called Ouster. Probably used for detecting people, objects etc. also in the dark.
Image credits: missnumbers
#81 This Thing Was In My Colleagues Kfc Drink. Sorry For The Blurry Image!
Answer: It's the nozzle from the soda machine. It must have fallen off.
Image credits: BowlerBoys
#82 What Is This Thing On The Top Of The Suv ? Part Of A Motorcade Of A High Ranking Government Official
Answer: The term I've seen used is "roadrunner". It's a radio platform to coordinate communications among the convoy and with outside agencies. I'd wager the short, wide cylinder at the rear is a dome for a satcom antenna, and the rest being various FM antennas.
Image credits: dgiaku
#83 Bag Of Water With What Looks Like A Penny Nailed Above A Shop Door In California. What Is This Thing?
Answer: That's to stop flys from entering.
Doesn't work, but people still believe it.
Image credits: ivanpomedorov
#84 The Apartment I’m Staying At In Granada, Spain Have These All Over By The Baseboards, Like Where There Would Be Outlets In The Us. My Friends From Madrid Had Also Never Seen Them. What Is This Thing?
Answer: Double heating pipe trim. Ideal to cover the tubes seen from the radiators. They are to cover tubes in the wall where you would plug a towel dryer radiator for example.
Image credits: bearable_bears
#85 I Found This Old Pencil Like Thing. It's One Solid Piece Of Metal Though!!
Answer: Solid graphite pencil.
Image credits: Drdoomsalot
#86 What Is This Mark On This Grey Seal (UK), I Observe Them On A Regular Basis And Never Seen Anything Like It?
Answer: Asked a seal rescue worker friend, it's branding from pre tagging days, they can live up to 40 years so there's still going to be a few about.
Image credits: krakenunleashed
#87 Spin The Handle And The Fingers Click, What Is This?
Answer: It's a wooden tapping hand toy. Not very common, but not rare.
Image credits: iHateRunning36
#88 Someone Found This Thing In The Garage Of A Family Member. No Clue What It Is.
Answer: Fistula arm clamp.
Image credits: thatguyoverthere323
#89 In My School We Have These Bins. There Is A Plate A Sandwich A Chicken/Turkey Leg And Then What?
Answer: Ecotensil paper spoon
Image credits: trollems121
#90 Came Across This On My Way To Work. No Identifying Marks On Any Side, No Wording Or Numbers Anywhere. Came To A Point At The Top. My Guess Is A Booster?
Answer: Pershing II missile
Image credits: jonno2222
#91 Friend Bought A New (To Him) House, There’s One Of These In Each Bathroom. Don’t Appear To Be Connected To Anything
Answer: It’s an umbra illuzine magazine rack. I worked at a store that used to sell them. They also came in stainless steel. You hang the magazine by the spine over the rails
Image credits: will592
#92 Went Hiking In Massachusetts. Found This Huge “Staircase” About 20 Feet Tall. Completely Flat On The Other Side. What Could It Be?
Answer: an old mill building from the 1870s that still operates as residential housing
Image credits: terpykitty
#93 Have Never Seen One Of These Before. 28uk Wondering If This Was Us Thing?
Answer: It's a Hitclip
Image credits: gBADsrg
#94 Found This In My Honda Crv. Gonna Leave It In Until The Police Arrive. It Unlocked The Door But The Alarm Still Went Off.
Answer: It's the blade from a pair of scissors, can be filed into a bump key or used for brute force.
Image credits: dino-dic-hella-thicc
#95 My Daughter Is Convinced She Found A Shark Tooth, Picked Up At The Beach In Castelldefels, Spain
Answer: Geologist here, it’s definitely a quartz vein. You can see the host rock at the tip of the ‘tooth’. It looks like it’s hosted in jasper.
Image credits: FX2000
#96 Found On An Iwo Jima Landing Beach. What Is This Thing?
Answer: a cable spool
Image credits: Jt3151
#97 I Have Only This Photo. What Kind Of A Device Is This?
Answer: Blaupunkt made a gooseneck equalizer in the 80s.
When car audio really took off in the early-mid 80s a lot of vehicles still had the old stereos with two shafts that stuck through the dash, one for volume and one for tuning. A separate equalizer was pretty much a requirement for a more sophisticated system, but there just wasn't anywhere to mount a typical half DIN EQ in a lot of vehicles. This was one solution to that problem. The EQ functions were on the face, and the sliders on the right side let you control balance and fade.
Image credits: ElvisQuiquio
#98 What Are These Dollar Signs On My Level For?
Answer: That is an electrician level. An S with a line through it is the electricians symbol for switch
Image credits: _That_One_Fellow_
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