17 points vesterde 2 hours ago 15 comments

vesterde 2 hours ago | parent

When I was about 11 years old, my best friend and I were playing during recess at school, and I was carrying him around on my back, presumably pretending to be a multipart attack robot. All of a sudden, my heart started hurting, and I collapsed to my knees, and the robot was no more. Every time I inhaled, it would feel like a spike was being driven into my heart, and my breathing got completely shallow. I was sure I was done for, when all of a sudden, after an exhale, it disappeared.

It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I learned this was called Precordial catch syndrome and it happens to most everyone. Every friend I've told about it was surprised, and also most knew the feeling.

I collected a growing list of strange things bodies do ever since. And now finally I made it into a little page for others to see:

https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/

It includes a form to tell me about new things, if you think they belong on the page. Feedback welcome!

treetalker 1 hour ago | parent

When I see someone else jump or fall from a height, I sense the fall in the bottoms of my feet and my lower legs. I feel both the drop and the landing. It also happens if I approach a ledge or dropoff.

vesterde 1 hour ago | parent

Lovely! I mean odd… I will look into it, thanks!

treetalker 33 minutes ago | parent

Is this not something everybody feels?

vesterde 31 minutes ago | parent

I keep being surprised at both which feelings are universal, as well as which aren't. I think I know the one your'e talking about but from being kicked in the balls... For jumping I might have experienced it playing video games and falling further than I expected.

yzydserd 42 minutes ago | parent

Only 30-40% of people encounter brain freeze?

Fabulous site.

vesterde 38 minutes ago | parent

So it seems, it just happens to include everyone I've ever talked to about it

pixl97 13 minutes ago | parent

I have to be so careful eating cold things, it's like freeze++, brain glaciation.

java-man 35 minutes ago | parent

This should be taught in school.

xnx 31 minutes ago | parent

How is supertasting considered "rare" if it is 25% of people? https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/kinds/rare-ability/

vesterde 25 minutes ago | parent

You're right, I moved it

IncreasePosts 30 minutes ago | parent

I wonder about these sites that appear to be vibe coded from a simple prompt. Has the author even looked at the data or just did a little sample and figured that looks about right and hit publish

vesterde 27 minutes ago | parent

To either my credit or against it, wikipedia provides a lot of the raw data. However that makes you feel.

I've been making this list for years as markdown files with a few sentences and links to wikipedia (or xkcd for his visual field comic), but the site is indeed made with the help of AI.

SA9G 8 minutes ago | parent

They left out "autoheadslap", the sharp pain you get whenever anyone mentions Nvidia and you smack your forehead as you remember cancelling your massive buy order back when it was $110 and had not split yet!! It is often accompanied by uncontrolled twitching and repeatedly saying "fuuuuuuuuu" as you bite your tongue.

Yes, a rare but real human affliction.

vesterde 7 minutes ago | parent

I'll... uh... add it to my list to research :D