“Genetic quirk”, you say?
“What’s your mutation? Teleportation? Laser Eyes? Weaponized Tornadoes?”
“…I… I can smell ants… how about yours?”
“Oh… well… my mutation is that cilantro tastes like chalk to me.”
I was born with 2.5 kidneys, an extra ureter and 4 of my permanent teeth never showed up. Also mild colour vision deficiency.
I was talking about it with our first lieutenant in the army and he went “Corporal, you’re a mutant!”. “Yes, sir, I am sir.”
God soap cilantro just sucks. I really wish people knew it tastes like gross to like 3-21% of the world population.
I just wish it wasn’t automatically in anything Mexican. I just want to taste what other people taste. :(
The weirdest thing happened when I was recovering from covid. I couldn’t really taste much, but cilantro suddenly had a perfume-like scent. It eventually went back to normal after I recovered, but I definitely have a healthy level of sympathy for people who taste soapy cilantro now
Exposure therapy works for this. You can still detect the chemical that made it taste that way, but the brain can rewire to perceive it as pleasant. If you’re serious about fixing the problem, start by adding small amounts to dishes and work your way up as your tolerance changes.
Yes it works! I can eat soap now
That just sounds like brainwashing yourself to make something taste ‘good’ when it’s not. See Alcohol, black coffee, etc.
Right, but I legitimately love the taste of coffee now. Am I wrong? I know I didn’t like it as a kid, but does that mean I was correct to not like it then or correct to like it now?
I don’t know, but my instinct is that being able to enjoy the flavor of coffee is a real benefit. For instance, I can taste the nuance of coffee flavor in tiramisu. Without gaining an appreciation for coffee flavor, many foods that use that flavor would just taste bad.
There are no inherently good or bad flavours, it’s all just how our brains are wired to perceive them. Sometimes the wiring gets it wrong and warns us about a food that is harmless. I see no reason not to try fixing that.
There are no inherently good or bad flavours
X is in the eye of the beholders are the worst.
You can fool yourself into thinking shit tastes like sugar all you want but subjective reality and the reality your brain perceives should not be conflated lol.
Shit should taste bad though, given that it is bad for you to eat. This is not the case for cilantro, so why not retrain your brain to like it?
All I was offering is a strategy that has worked for me, and many other people. I used to hate cilantro and despised its omnipresence in certain cuisines. I can now enjoy these things and you possibly can as well, if you choose to do the work. If you’d prefer to whine instead of attempting to solve the problem you said you have, that’s on you.
Those are more like your eyes adjusting to brightness/darkness. You’re not tricking yourself into thinking the alcohol taste or coffee bitterness are good, you’re desensitizing yourself to them, which lets you sense other flavors.
Sometimes there’s no other strong flavors so you get “Huh, this cold brew concentrate tastes like water, I didn’t even add ice, try it” “wtf that is so bitter!!”
How do you know that cilantro tastes like soap and not soap tastes like cilantro.
All I’m saying is that cilantro doesn’t taste that good and some soaps smell amazing.
The mortality ratio of that school gives me pause.
Also, so many old white guys hanging on the wall.
What the hey? Let them down!
What is this… Xavier’s school for ANTS?!
My anime head sees „quirk” think MHA lmao
I have a friend who can smell cockroaches no joke. We always take her restaurant suggestions very seriously.
I can smell ants and cockroaches. I can also smell when someone has been in my house hours after they leave. Its annoying as hell to have this sense of smell since its considered rude to point out that someone stinks. To me its like they are screaming in a small room.
I recently had to close my store for an hour, because I was the only one working and couldn’t breath due to one customers bad hygiene. People treat me like I’m overly sensitive or making up my discomfort, but to me it feels like being suffocated.
Also I can totally smell roaches, they smell worse than any other thing in existence. Never smelled an ant though. Did not know that was possible.
Did not know that was possible.
Same, but I’m starting to think you need a pretty sizable infestation in a nearby wall for this to be a thing.
Bedbugs smell worse than roaches. Roaches will make me leave a place. Bedbugs make me run in terror.
I refuse to find this out.
Best way to get rid of bedbugs is by turning your house into a temporary sauna. Ensuring everywhere reaches some 50º Celsius will kill all the little fuckers.
No anime conventions for you unless you wear a gas mask!
In 95 I was staying at a hotel that had a D&D convention. I was with a group of union boilermakers and we got gripped at by the staff for refusing to allow some of those stinkers on the elevator with us.
I’ve never actually been to an anime convention and had no idea how common anime fans with poor hygiene actually existing was until I read some of the horror stories when this was posted before.
I would guess it’s just related to teenagers getting body odors and not knowing yet that they have to deal with them.
Maybe, but I don’t remember everyone stinking when I was a teen. Or teenagers in general stinking any more than anyone else now.
I can smell cockroaches and periods. It’s weird, but I can for some reason
I can smell when a woman has her period if I smell her skin, so not at any distance other than intimately. My best guess is all the hormonal changes alter pheromones from the normal and we can pick up on that.
Not like it is a bad smell, just her normal natural scent changes.
Oh yeah me as well. I can also smell when someone has a disease. I know cancer or at least the type my grandmother had but some of them I have no idea what is wrong with them. I can also differentiate different kinds of drugs.
I have a good sense of smell but…that sounds more like cripplingly good
I’m one of these people. I can smell an apartment roach infestation from the front door, every time.
And yes, restaurants always get the “sniff check” before we sit down. No-go odors are:
- bleach
- pine-sol (amonia)
- heavy perfume (think “Glade plugin-in”)
- insects (roaches, etc)
- pet odor (wet dog, litterbox)
- sewage (usually a dry floor drain but that’s still not okay)
- dingy carpet (think: “old movie theater”)
The first two are obvious attempts at covering up something worse with “clean” smells, and/or the staff has no idea what “clean” actually means. And they obviously don’t care what olfaction means to someone trying to enjoy a meal, which says heaps about what they think food service actually is. Everything else just speaks to the “I don’t care what you smell” part, or there’s something very wrong with how the kitchen is run. /rant
An example of a top-shelf dining odor experience? I once went to a Japanese restaurant at opening time. The only smell in the dining room was that of the specific kind of imported cedar in the cutting boards. This is traditionally cleaned with boiling hot water, and nothing else. This released a gentle woody and pine-y scent that just filled the space and invited the senses. I came hungry, but I sat down ravenous. The meal to follow was something I will never forget.
Edit: some clarification since this got some traction. I know that bleach and ammonia are s-tier disinfectants and absolutely necessary for food prep, health standards, and the rest. I use this stuff at home. My issue is with establishments that utterly fail at ventilating these odor and spoil the dining experience with strong chemical odors. Looking deeper I find very strong cleaning odors (long after opening hours) suspicious since it’s very easy to splash stuff around, giving the impression of cleanliness, but not actually clean anything. Strong chemical smells also make it impossible to detect sewage, rot, mold, soil, and other things that would easily flag a restaurant. I’d rather not take the chance.
Yeah no dude, I keep a ten percent mixture of bleach n water around to sanitize surfaces I use for food prep. This is standard practice. The dishes get soaked in a weak bleach mixture after washing. 3 sinks, wash, bleach, rinse. And there’s pinesol in the mop bucket.
There is a difference between standard bleach and pinesol usage and using it as a way to conceal other smells or problems. Or even worse, not knowing how to use those chemicals to clean. You know how to use a weak bleach solution for cooking surfaces, does your bartender? I’ve seen front of house employees over use cleaning chemicals because isn’t it better to use stronger chemicals to clean. My favorite was the hostess who didn’t want to clean the bathroom so she would just fill the soap and and paper products and fill a spray bottle with Lysol that she would spray around to give the smell of a clean bathroom.
It’s unlikely anyone will notice the smell of properly used cleaning products.
Yeah, I can see a place smelling like a public swimming pool being off-putting. 10% bleach is really common across the food industry, though. Making bread, jerky, kombucha, and various grains, each facility had the same bleach concentration for cleaning (among other cleaning and sanitizing solutions).
My favorite was the hostess who didn’t want to clean the bathroom so she would just fill the soap and and paper products and fill a spray bottle with Lysol that she would spray around to give the smell of a clean bathroom.
This is exactly the kind of BS I’m talking about. I once knew some pool lifeguards that had to rotate through bathroom cleaning duty. I overheard that their MO was to just get everything wet with a hose, splash pinesol on the floor, and call it a day.
and fill a spray bottle with Lysol that she would spray around to give the smell of a clean bathroom
Depending upon the formula of Lysol, that’s actually worse than not doing anything.
We’ve got a brand called Lyzol and that seems to be the same formula as Lysol, before it got regulated in the US. If this were to be sprayed, I’d consider the area poisoned.Lyzol
This contains some chemical that lingers even if you wash the floor with water afterwards and slowly produces volatile compounds, and stays for > a week. This gives me (and a few other people on quora) a headache. Again, from reports on quora, the smelly substance also tends to jump onto one’s hand, on touching the surface, making it disastrous for cooking.
Nowadays, I use Dettol disinfectant liquid, which stops smelling after about 1/2 hour of wind.I am my bartender. Also the janitor and cook. Yes, a ten percent bleach mixture does give an odor, it fades within minutes. I was just chopping raw chicken, sure, boiling water is an option, but awkward. Quick wipe down, spritz solution everywhere, wipe again 5 minutes later, better for all involved.
In some areas (depends on local health dept.) restaurant kitchens are required to have weak bleach solutions around for sanitizing food prep surfaces.
The first two are obvious attempts at covering up something worse with “clean” smells, and/or the staff has no idea what “clean” actually means.
Or they’re the cleanest places you’ve never eaten in.
Yeah this entire thread is filled with people who think they have superpowers but failing basic logic.
That’s entirely possible. The problem is that with chlorine or ammonia vapors savaging your nasal cavity, you’ll never really know.
I’ve tried to push through in these situations and it’s never good.
Bro, bleach is literally how you are supposed to sanitize restaurant surfaces. This thread is wild.
Agreed! But “smells like cleanser” does not mean “is clean”. It jams up my radar (sense of smell) so it’s tough to figure out if anything else is up. I’d rather detect no off odors or cleansers at all to be sure.
heavy perfume …
“I don’t care what you smell”
This is one reason I stopped eating lunch with other people. Some people use so much of Deodorant (oh the irony in the name) that the volatile compounds get adsorbed onto the surface of fluids in the mouth and then get tasted and also go into the stomach. All I’d say is - They taste bad.
I don’t think those chemicals are supposed to be edible.
I can smell roaches and bedbugs. One is annoying. The second will cause me to flee a building in horror.
I’ve also informed several friends that they were pregnant. They never believe me the first time.
I assume people just can’t identify the smell of cockroaches until they learned it? Similar to people being oblivious to the smell of marijuana when not familiar with it.
I’m not sure I would recognize the smell of roaches if I didn’t keep them as food for other animals. Stinky little buggers.
Weird. Marijuana has an iconic, skunk-like / rotten bologna smell to me. I can smell someone smoking up to maybe 500 feet away, sometimes from the inside of my car. It’s a deeply repugnant smell.
The strange thing being, I’ve smelled the actual flowers and the plant up close, and it just smells like grass. It only smells like shit when it’s burning, oddly enough.
No idea why. Everything about the “natural smell” up close screams “this is a plant and can’t harm you in any way shape or form”. That specific experience made me in favor of decriminalization.
You should be able to smell a female plant in full (oily) bloom. I’ve read that smell is one of the problems that illegal farms/grow box owners have when tyring to stay undetected.
Similar to people being oblivious to the smell of marijuana when not familiar with it.
I can’t smell certain types of marijuana, I can smell the more home grown type. Now I have to be next to 6 people smoking to smell it. I don’t smoke it either, so it’s not that. I think they’ve crop engineered it to take the smell out maybe? It could be just me.
TBF, there are lots of things with a smell similar to cockroaches. Some of them wouldn’t be a red flag to be found at a restaurant. Also, smells are very localized, and I doubt your friend walks through the kitchen.
But yeah, I’ve gone away from restaurants because they smelled like cockroaches.
I thought everyone could. Is that something only some people can smell as well?
Roaches do have a smell. Yuck. Ants though? There are so many different kinds of them, I can’t smell them, or I haven’t noticed if so.
My lunatic ex had a nose like a bloodhound. He could smell anything.
I don’t question your friend’s ability to smell cockroaches, but I gotta tell you, there is no restaurant without them. The best you can do is minimize.
Roaches go where there’s food. That’s just a fact of life.
Wait, is that true? Is someone able to smell ants?
There are lots of weird genetic traits. Sneezing triggered by sunlight is another funny one.
Veritasium video on that one:
I got the “cilantro tastes like soap” gene personally. Would much rather have gotten the, “Always remember where I left my car keys” gene, or maybe the, “Come up with witty retorts on the spot instead of two hours later in the shower” one.
I love cilantro, but I got the celery tastes bitter and spicy gene. So many people tell me it’s tasteless but it has a strong, terrible taste to me.
Celery man. Everyone tells me it has no taste, but to me it tastes like an entire lawn’s worth of grass clippings compressed into a stick. Extremely pungent.
Same with cucumbers. They taste awfully strong and bitter to me.
Look up the “TAS2R bitter taste receptor gene family”. It’s a fun little group of genes that control how well bitterness is detected.
I am a moderate bitter taster. So I do not like celery (mildly unpleasant flavor) and prefer cucumbers that contain the recessive bi gene that stops the production of cucubitacin in the plant. The ones that contain the bt gene, the skin gets too bitter for me. This gene mostly stops the cucubitacin production in the fruit but not the plant.
Yeah I really don’t like celery. Cucumbers are pretty good if they’re peeled, but yeah they have a very strong taste to me, and the peel is very bitter
Your celery description seems apt to me, but for me it’s much less pungent. It’s actually super mild for me, so I don’t mind it. I actually quite like celery.
Just to signal boost the other guy that sounds a lot like a food allergy friend
Any time someone tells you something is “tasteless” you should feel free to discard all of their food opinions or give them a covid test
I think I have half of that gene (2/3, cilantro is nice), fresh celery tastes salty and spicy. If it’s old, then it tastes like water.
Cilantro tasted like soap to me until my wife described it as lemony, and it suddenly tasted different and now I like cilantro. Senses are weird
Cognitive Modulation of Olfactory Processing: Neuron
We showed how cognitive, semantic information modulates olfactory representations in the brain by providing a visual word descriptor, “cheddar cheese” or “body odor,” during the delivery of a test odor (isovaleric acid with cheddar cheese flavor) and also during the delivery of clean air. Clean air labeled “air” was used as a control. Subjects rated the affective value of the test odor as significantly more unpleasant when labeled “body odor” than when labeled “cheddar cheese.” In an event-related fMRI design, we showed that the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)/medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was significantly more activated by the test stimulus and by clean air when labeled “cheddar cheese” than when labeled “body odor,” and the activations were correlated with the pleasantness ratings. This cognitive modulation was also found for the test odor (but not for the clean air) in the amygdala bilaterally.
I think it’s great how a screenshot of comment about a tiktok video is leading to some pretty great discussion.
If I eat cilantro by itself and focus on the idea of it tasting like soap, I can kinds taste it. It still tastes good to me, just with a hint of soapiness. It’s not enough to ruin it for me, and I have to be looking for it.
I love cilantro but one time I tasted the soap flavor. I had done a stir fry with cilantro and left the spoon in the still hot pot and there had been some cilantro stuck to the bottom of the spoon that sat there and cooked for as long as it took for the big pot to cool down. Then when I was doing dishes I picked up the spoon and I saw big bunch of cilantro so I ate it and it was horribly nasty and tasted like straight up hand soap. I thought for sure that some soap fell or splashed onto it but no it was just the cilantro. Never happened again either.
I believe that’s all on the same gene
The Frech have this good phrase, L’esprit de l’escalier
I have that! Sneezed twice today because of bright sunlight. It can sometimes also be triggered voluntarily by looking at a bright light. You can’t trigger it multiple times in a row though. I suspect this is because sinuses need to recover from the shock of the sneeze.
I can sneeze several times in a row if a light is bright enough. I’ve even triggered it just thinking of the sun, a few times.
Yep same here! It’s nice when you feel a sneeze coming on and then it stops, you can kinda force it to happen!
Still can’t believe that some people are unable to smell rain coming in the summer!
I honestly love that smell. It’s relaxing.
Is that petrichor, or is that after rain?
Petrichor is after the rain, also an amazing smell! But sometimes there’s also a distinct note before summer rain starts. Similar to petrichor, but different.
People used to make fun of me all the time for sniffing and saying “smells like it’s going to rain soon”. Couldn’t even tell you what it smells like… It just smells like the concept of it starting to rain
I’ve met others who knew exactly what I was talking about, but not many
wait, not everyone gets that?
Nope, i dont remember the occurence rate tho. Just watch the video if u wanna know more lol
I have sunlight-sneezing, my thoughts are spoken word, I can read in dreams, the dress is gold, and I alway hear “laurel.”
What others are there?
Wait, you can read in dreams? The letters don’t constantly change?
I have a slightly different version of this. I get sneezing fits when too full. It’s genetic and happens to most people on one side of my family. Thanksgiving is always fun.
I sneeze from sunlight, luckily it’s only the first time for the day or very bright light.
I have the sunlight sneeze. I would much rather be able to smell ants.
This feels like a shitty superpower what-if.
That’d be me. Nobody else I know does it, either. I try to explain it and they’re like “yeah, I try to look up at a light to help sneeze” and that’s just not it.
Maybe not genetically, but fun fact about sneezing-quirks: There exists "Sneezing induced by sexual ideation or orgasm. Source: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=2084455232396039941&hl=de&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&t=1716906331494&u=%23p%3D-Y8j_fJVLLsJ
Wait, I’m not the only one?? Amazing!
Me: – Seeing bright light – coughing – thinking certain sexy thoughts
Brain: “Make her sneeze!”
Wait I have that one! My dad has it too, but my brother doesn’t. All three of us are colorblind too lol.
The sneezing one must be an extreme case of our normal reactions, because I read years ago that if you’re on the verge of a sneeze, and it’s not happening, you should look at a bright light. 50% of the time, it works every time.
I have this. Mildly annoying.
I have the sun sneezes
Actually it also triggers if go from really dark to really bright like turning on the bathroom light at night
Smell is how ants communicate with one another so maybe these ant sniffers will be the first humans who can speak ant.
Ants part of a super-organism often compared to a computer, so probably these people are sniffing their information packets.
https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/61/2/85/1756864
https://www.livescience.com/why-ants-smell-weird
However, the sense of smell in humans is far less developed, and there has been recent controversy over what, exactly, the odorous house ant smells like. This species belongs to a large group of ants whose members are thought to smell like blue cheese (Forney and Markovetz 1971) [link is direct 3.0 mb .pdf download from elsevier], yet numerous online sources report their odor as “rancid butter,” “cleaning solution,” or, most commonly, “rotten coconuts.”
Specifically, the house
hippoant.*The actual factual paper was actually literally published in 2015, no cap.
At the same time, Penick had people rate what they thought the ant smelled like. Most people said blue cheese, but some thought it smelled like rotted coconut. So Penick rotted a coconut in his backyard and found a mold growing on it that, sure enough, is the same mold (Penicillium roqueforti) that’s used to produce blue cheese. Another mystery, solved.
So American house ants, rotten coconuts and blue cheese all smell the same. Life is weird.
Uh oh. They smell like blue cheese? That means they smell delicious!
Thats what i was thinking, i love bluecheese!
Especially Blue Stilton. By far my favorite cheese!
Uhh… Wait. I may be able to smell them. Those descriptions are making me realize some things.
cant say for ant. but i can smell cockroaches
spoiler
asdfasfasfasfas
Me who spent months taking Tupperware boxes full of cockroaches out of the freezer and separating them by hand because our ants were picky eaters: I still smell them, to this day.
Thanks ants. Thants.
I have questions.
just bio major things
🤢 i dont envy you
yikes. how do you react when you get a whiff? is it already too late and you don’t smell them until they are next to you, or is it a general “oh wow you have a roach prob in this house”
if its in my room, that shitling better gtfo my place. if they just arrived i can usually smell them when theyre around 1m off me. but if they been chilling in the room i can smell them once i enter the room. imagine like walking little turd. the more they are the worse the smell.
wow that is crazy thank you for expanding.
The smell like pepper to me. Well, you know how when you crush bricks or rocks it kinda has a peppery smell? It’s that pepper scent.
what bricks are you crushing mon
maybe it’s smell of dust, like what you can smell on dusty unpaved road in summer
Nah it’s specifically when they’re crushed. Not gravel smells, that smells different. You never crushed a rock or a brick?
I have, many times, and I don’t think I would describe the smell as “pepper.” It is sharp though.
100%
I can smell them to the point I know when an area has an abundance of ant hills.
I can, they also taste absolutely abhorrent and ruin food they are in for me. It’s a very bitter chemical taste and smell.
I suggest not eating them, but I don’t want to tell you what to do.
Who the fuck is out here censoring fuck?
You can’t say shit or dead or suicide or fuck anymore because the internet has become C O R P O R A T E
I am already petitioning for a de-federalization with any instance that allows those swears. Not in my good Christian Fediverse!
Please spoiler your comment
Stop fucking cussing you goddamn asshole.
because its a fucking swear word
Holy shit I thought I was either full of shit or a mutant freak. I’m happy to be a mutant freak.
I feel so validated right now you guys have no idea.
Congratulations on your mutation. This one sucks less than the cilantro one.
Haha get rekt sucks to suck!
/s
This! I used to tell people all the time I could smell some ant hills from several yards away. Fire ants smell like death. The larger and more aggressive species in my area smell more than the more benign ants. I’m sure it’s a warning to other animals to stay away.
This just tells me ant particles are constantly flying into my nose and mouth and I don’t have receptors for them. Gross
Wait are you telling me y’all actually don’t smell ants? They’re a weird and kinda smell like blue cheese. Definitely the smellier of insects.
I’ve never heard of insects having a smell, other than like stinkbugs!
Wait are u telling me bugs don’t smell to you?
neither to me, I think. Truth is, I never tried sniffing an ant, I’ll sniff them up.
I don’t remember ever smelling a bug either, unless it was a stink bug
I can smell roaches but that’s it.
I don’t smell stinkbugs, either… Apparently that’s also genetic.
But have you smelled ladybugs? Absolutely foul.
I’ve never actually smelled a stinkbug, now that I think of it. I catch and release by hand for my house without issue. Never noticed a ladybug smell either. Interesting!
The only time I’ve smelt ants is when they get crushed. Are you telling me you could smell an ant trail just by walking into a room?
Are you telling me that if you step on an ant and crush it, you can smell it?! Wtf is going on in this thread??
Science.
My mind is being blown so much ITT. I don’t recall any insect ever having a smell, crushed or otherwise.
Ladybugs have a weird smell when you handle them. Smells a bit like earwax.
Also, from the time when I hatched flies as food animals, flies really stink but you don’t normally notice because you don’t smell it when it’s just one. Put 100 flies in a bucket and they STINK.
No idea what’s going on with the ants though. I’m still not convinced this isn’t a hoax.You can smell earwax?!
Yeah, it’s a weird bitter smell. Can’t really compare it to anything else. Except for the deterrent that ladybugs spray, I suppose.
I mean, I don’t think I can smell them as described, but crushed I can clearly smell the formic acid.
I don’t mean just stepping on an ant. I mean when you were little and climbing a tree or playing on the ground and crushed some ants, smelled your hand to figure out what it was, and it smelled like ants…
I smell them outdoors from quite a long distance.
What a shitty superpower
No doubt… It certainly seems useless so far but when the ant wars start you’ll all want me on your team.
Never in my life has an ant had any smell whatsoever. I was today years old when I realized people could smell ants.
In fact, I’ll go one step further. I grew up on a farm, tons of bugs. The only bug that I can ever remember smelling are those stupid Asian stink bugs invasive thingies that seem to have proliferated in the northeast US recently. When you squish them, they smell like green apples.
I can’t think of any other bug that smells at all - even when they are squished.
I’m convinced these people are just making it up, I’ve been alive nearly 40 years and not once heard of this being a thing.
I mean, they probably DO smell - but like I’ve never gotten on my hands and knees and sniffed any bug up close. Maybe these people are more sensitive to smells and can pick them up yards away - or a whole colony?
But ya it’s weird that I’ve never heard of this at all. I had heard of people born with tails or horns, females with beards, color blindness, tiger stripes on skin, the asparagus thing, rain man, hemaphrodites, on and on…
But today I learned ants smell ;)
I can smell them from many many yards away.
There is definitely no need to get close or try to smell them.
So weird! Ants are everywhere. It must get annoying if they stink…
Can you smell them on the floor if you’re standing up? How close do you have to be?
Ya on the floor, outside smells like bugs a bit too (and dirty and a million other things).
I can smell ant hills that are far enough that I can’t see them from an open car window.
Blue cheese? They smell like blood and iron to me.
Formic acid does really smells like steel tastes. But I’d blame the nickel for the taste, iron tastes differently.
deleted by creator
Ant smell is for communicating with other ants. These are ant smellers not human. The ant-people have been controlling our governments. It’s true! Look it up!
Mine has always been vision and hearing hard sounds, like doors closing. I can hear all the stupid little sounds like that. And I’m just weirdly good at deciphering shadows at night as long as there’s some light.
I’m sure in ancient times this variation of who has good senses for what served a purpose.
I am oddly good at hearing engine noises. If a motor or piece of machinery starts doing something different I usually hear it. I worked in manufacturing and I could usually call out a machine that was about to breakdown. Also when a part has been replaced I usually hear the difference in noise.
Now you’ve got me wondering if your super hearing stops at machinery or if you could hear the human body doing it’s thing, provided a stethoscope and test subject- I mean willing participant.
Sounds gross lol
I have really annoying hearing. I’m not sure how to fully describe it but my ears are super tuned into sounds. Very often I will be sitting with my wife or somebody else and I am like “do you hear that?” and they are like “wtf are you talking about?” and I have to be like “Shhh… That! Did you hear it?” and they are like “no wtf” and then I’m like “Wait no no… Wait… That! Did you hear it?” and they are like “Wait yeah… How tf did you hear that while we were talking? Were you paying attention?” and I’m like “No, I wasn’t because I kept hearing this noise”…
Like… Sometimes people’s voices just sound like noises and I can’t hear them unless I focus because my ears are listening to the noises around me. It can be really frustrating.
Oh yeah, I get that too, where my brain just decides not to decipher spoken words suddenly. At any rate, noise cancelling headphones are awesome.
Have you ever been tested for Sensory Processing Disorder
No, they probably just rolled all of that into the ADHD diagnosis.
I don’t think the shadows at night thing is genetics. Think that’s more of a paying attention lol. People say they can’t see and that’s because they’re looking for details and colour. In the dark you’re looking for outlines and shadows. I learned this from my flight instructor. But it’s a skill more people need to learn. This isn’t to say night blindness doesn’t exist.
Nah, I figured this out in the military. I was always the last guy to start using my night vision device. Now, to be fair this was 20+ years ago and night vision devices have come a long way since then. Even in my years we got an upgrade that was much better and I used it a lot more. But I was also the one guy hitting all the night fire targets. So there was definitely something there before I went and got old.
Likely red/green colour blind, less cones but more rods (better resolution, also night vision). Your ancestors may have done night watch in the village or been hunters.
duping above so you read.
Yes, I do have severe deuteranomaly. Diagnosed when I was 6 years old.
I’ve read quite a lot about this, there are many cases where red/green blind people have exhibited above average night vision.
I was also very good at spotting camouflage, since the patterns were designed to fool people with normal colour vision. The only time my colour blindness was a disadvantage was in a contest between regiments, I had to direct artillery fire as fast as possible and the targets were big red boxes in front of the treeline.
Our lieutenant lost his shit when he realized that he had a colour blind forward observer. We still won the contest, my squad handled the measurements impeccably and I verified them on the map. There was discussion of transfering me to other duties after this, but when I asked “Sir, how many big red box targets are there are in real war?” they quickly dropped the issue.
During my military service I also discovered that I had exceptional night vision. I never stumbled in the dark forest and I could even read maps when others couldn’t see shit. I didn’t pay much attention to this quirk, but my commanding officer realized this and put it to good use. The following overnight recon patrols on foot and skis felt endless.
Likely red/green colour blind, less cones but more rods (better resolution, also night vision). Your ancestors may have done night watch in the village or been hunters.
You would hate this goddamn bird outside my window that doesn’t shut up from 5:30-10:30 every morning
I think I’ve read the latter is due to a higher concentration of rods in your eye.
Probably similar to that “bitterness” test that a lot of kids got to do in science class where you taste that little strip of paper. To some it’s nothing, to others it’s very bitter. Genetics has given some the extra “taste”, supposedly that might allow people to avoid eating poisonous things containing oxalates or glucosinates. Unfortunately it also means you probably dislike things lie IPA beers or other foods that have bitter compounds that don’t bother others.
Gotta love how they see a video talking about it, with comments talking about it, and their first step is to post on Facebook asking about it before doing a simple search on their own.
TikTok isn’t a great place for conversation. But then again, neither is Facebook any more. Public posts on Facebook have commentary that makes the old YouTube comments look downright intelligent and engaging.
It’s seem to be the same as with cilantro a genetic trait that some people have and other don’t
https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/61/2/85/1756864?login=false
Dunno if that a good source as everything i found about that exept for thos page talked about the tiktok post and not science
Tldr : ( i did not read the article in full ) the smell is described as a moldy pina colada
I’d say it’s more like a blend of vinegar and soap.
You never stop learning something about yourself and why others couldn’t comprehend what I tasted there.
Some as with truffles, and marihuana. I can’t smell either.
You can’t smell marijuana? What?
I’ve had people call it “strong” and even “overwhelming”, while to me it smelled like some weak dead grass. People smoking it, I barely register, unless they mix it with tobacco. Even freshly cut, it just smelled like cut grass, nothing more. CBD oil smells like grass sap.
You’re weird. I like that.
Ty 😊
I have an (untested) hypothesis that people who get the “soapy” taste of cilantro also smell stinkbugs. When I squish a stinkbug it reeks of cilantro’s “soapy” taste. I remember reading somewhere that they’re the same type of chemicals.
I love cilantro and don’t smell any bug so maybe
Some people wipe standing up…
Some people can see images and hear voices inside their heads…
It really fucked me up when I realized that “picture this” wasn’t an entirely figurative saying, and everyone else does actually see stuff in their “mind’s eye.”
had you ever heard of artists drawing with their eyes clothes
Are those like sunglasses?
I can do that too. You’re misunderstanding the concept. I’m perfectly capable of drawing, eyes closed or not (though it’s much harder eyes closed, obviously). I do digital art. I just conceptualize things differently. I don’t have a mental image, it’s more like a knowledge of what shapes go together to make certain forms. I build things piece by piece from fundamental shapes that I analytically know make certain objects or creatures, but I don’t have an image of what it is until I have actually put it down in paper.
I don’t know if I worded that in a way that makes sense, as I’ve always struggled with explaining how I conceptualize to people that have an ability I don’t. I know what shapes make up a dog, but I can’t see the dog, if that makes any sense.
Your “eyes clothes” typo was so unexpected it got me good. I couldn’t stop giggling for a solid minute. My partner asked me what was so funny and I gasped out “eyes clothes” and she just sighed and walked away.
I’m actually really glad my mistake brought joy to you :3
Do you think you could learn how to see in your head? I remember learning how to see 3d in drafting class, I bet you could learn how to see in your thoughts. Like maybe look at something, like a t-shirt, and closing your eyes, then opening them and see if you can continue picturing it? Just a thought, because like I said, I learned how to see 3d.
No, certainly not. It’s a condition known as aphantasia, and isn’t something that can be cured with practice. I have a lifetime of practice in conceptualizing in a different way though. I don’t feel that I’m missing out on anything really, just experiencing the world differently. I didn’t even know that I was any different than most until I was an adult, and a friend of mine made me realize it.
Someone with aphantasia might be able to learn how to conceptualize in a different way, but I don’t think you can train what’s not there, any more than a blind person could train themselves to see. There isn’t a lot of study into it though, and I’ve found it difficult to get solid information on my condition, so perhaps there’s more to learn. Why, for example, do I have a very vivid imagination of sounds? I can imagine an entire song in all of its different instruments as if I could hear it, but I can’t even conceive even a little bit of what it means to see something in my head.
I’ve had it explained to me very often by people with varying degrees of sincerity or understanding, and I still don’t quite get it. Is it like dreaming, or like a hallucination, or like an image you can’t really see but still know is there? It’s foreign to me, and no description I’ve heard makes it clear. I dream quite clearly and in color, but that’s like I’m there experiencing it in person. I’d love to learn more about aphantasia, especially since my fiancée has the opposite, hyperphantasia, and it would be nice to more easily collaborate as artists.
What others have found interesting in the past is how I conceptualize spaces around me, especially when imagining things like my DnD campaign that I run. I don’t see things in my head visually, but more have a general special sense of them. I don’t need to visualize my foot or my hand to know where it is. I don’t need to visualize the wall of my room that I’m very familiar with; even with my eyes closed I know my relative position in the space and can find the light switch in the dark, or the fan. It’s the same for my spacial reasoning. I can navigate the world perfectly fine, or conceptualize a fictional DnD battle, not visually, but more like through touch, though that’s not exactly the sensation. I cannot rotate the proverbial cube in my mind, but I can conceive of what another face might feel like, and, if it’s not too TMI, I have a very good mental map of my fiancée’s body, and could draw her accurately, even if I can’t see her.
Thanks for explaining so clearly. I hope someone does their thesis on this stuff, it really is fascinating.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with drafting, but when you draw elevations, it’s a flat version of 3d objects. I couldn’t really read a map until after I learned how to read elevations. You’re sort of pushing through and bringing forward objects from a flat drawing. It’s also a section, so it’s cut through a certain point of a floor plan. I could understand floor plans easily for some reason, but elevations and details were super hard. Then something clicked and I could read maps and all of the different types of drawings. I even remember where I was. Our brains are wild.
Someone with aphantasia might be able to learn how to conceptualize in a different way, but I don’t think you can train what’s not there, any more than a blind person could train themselves to see. There isn’t a lot of study into it though, and I’ve found it difficult to get solid information on my condition, so perhaps there’s more to learn. Why, for example, do I have a very vivid imagination of sounds? I can imagine an entire song in all of its different instruments as if I could hear it, but I can’t even conceive even a little bit of what it means to see something in my head.
That is so fascinating. I think I understand now, I probably couldn’t train myself to do the sound thing. I asked a friend with what you have to tell me what his home looked like growing up and he said it was white. I asked him if he could picture that home when he said it and he told me that no, it was like memorizing times tables, it’s just a fact. It blows my mind how our brains work.
As far as collaborating on the art, don’t discount the sounds, you could focus on that and your fiance could focus on the visuals. What a cool blend of talents.
Thank you for your genuine curiosity! I like talking about things like this, and it’s nice to not be confronted by people telling me I’m wrong about my own mind. As far as my fiancée, we do collaborate using music as well! I’m a musician and play dozens of instruments, all of which I hang around our house among her drawings and paintings. We like to mix her animation and my music.
There are so many quirky things about humans, I would never tell you you’re wrong. I want your sound thing and to keep my visual thing, lol. I was hoping we could learn like that guy who went blind and learned echo location.
There were some recent studies that early childhood trauma can cause it, which would explain why I suffer from aphantasia. Or I’m “lucky” to just inherit the bad genes.
And funny enough, my partner also has hyperphantasia.
A random thought, one thing that recently occurred to me, I often forget were I’ve placed things, that’s because usually people just picture where they’ve seen them. At least my partner does that.
Fascinating. I do have a lot of childhood trauma, though I wouldn’t consider it “early” childhood. And I do misplace things often, though that might be more due to ADHD or my general scatterbrained forgetfulness.
Realizing that made me hate books even more.
Books are fine. You just need to find authors who don’t spend two pages describing someone’s clothes, as you won’t remember anything past “pretty tall and dark haired”
Exactly that! Wish I knew I had this condition in high school when I was forced to read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. It was a torture I’d happily pass.
I love reading, and I love writing and storytelling. I think books can be for anyone. I wouldn’t let a difference in perception preclude you from enjoying an entire form of media, entertainment, and information. For me, audiobooks work best to hold my attention, as I struggle to sit and read words in front of me without keeping myself busy. It’s not a fit for everyone, and not everyone will like reading, but I think it’s a very simple joy that so many people have had hammered out of them by bad parents, bad teachers, or bad education systems that taught them to dread or hate books and reading. I got back into reading as an adult, and it’s one of the most fulfilling parts of my day.
It’s okay homie… there are dozens of us ;-)
I used to, until it was pointed out that wiping while sitting is better so I switched
Why did you do it that way to begin with? I’m just curious.
Leftovers from when your parents did it for you as a kid that was able to use the toilet but not necessarily able to wipe properly?
That’s my hypothesis anyway
How is it “better”?
Keeps your cheeks spread so you don’t mush the poop when you stand up.
I switched from wiping from the back, to wiping from the front, to dabbing the bidet water off a little bit because bidets are absolutely incredible.
It has never occurred to me to sit while wiping
So you stand up and let the shit spread further?
Eat more fiber.
More of a squat, I don’t stand up straight or anything.
So the popular option is to continue sitting and put your hand under to wipe?
Lift just one side so your buttocks spread, then reach from the side to wipe. All the while, the seat carries (most of) your weight.
I tilt one way.
Then wash my hands.
Same, thinking about it the idea of putting my hand in the bowl to do that is grossing me out too. Do you go in from the front or the back or do you kind of lean over?
I do a lean over, and I’ll usually >!hold my cheeks apart so it doesn’t mush the poop into my crack!<
Interesting. I’m gonna go load up on taco bell for lunch so I can try this later.
You’re already sitting though…
That link is staying blue. Also, gross.
Some people don’t wipe at all. Bidet gang represent!
I can smell wasps nests. The queen odor is very strong to me. But other smells people notice are lost on me.
And I hear everything. Autism I guess.
Same as asparagus wee. Man, when anyone has eaten asparagus I can smell it before I enter the door to the bathroom. When I have eaten it myself, I’m partly horrified and partly morbidly fascinated. What the fuck is up with only some people being able to smell it.
My record for pee smelling after eating asparagus is under 20 minutes.
That’s the same record I have for you!
Glad you’re keeping up on me 😊
I have this and coffee pee. I guess I’m a super small minority that can smell both.
Are there people who can’t smell a coffee wee? You’re blowing my mind.
