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44 Delightfully Weird Facts About The World That People Learned
Stephen King is well-known for writing some of the best horror novels of all time. As expected, a lot goes into King's creative process. He's previously said that he listens to music while writing. But if you think his go-to soundtracks are creepy, there's a plot twist...
King has admitted that he actually loves disco or techno playing in the background while he works. He also revealed that one song almost cost him his marriage... The author reportedly played Lou Bega's Mambo No.5 so many times while penning 11/22/63 that his wife threatened to throw in the towel if she heard it one more time.
That's just one of the interesting things netizens confessed to only learning this past July. And there were many. Bored Panda has put together the ultimate list of "Today I Learned" facts for you to scroll through while you should be doing something else. Don't forget to upvote your favorites, and let us know in the comments below what interesting tidbits you learned last month!
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#1
TIL a stray dog followed Dion Leonard, who was running in a week-long ultramarathon in the Gobi Desert, for 77 miles of the 155-mile race. At night the dog even started to join him in his tent. He named her Gobi, & after the race, he crowdfunded the £5K needed to bring her back to Scotland with him.
Not sure about you, but we love burrowing down an interesting and deep rabbit hole. And often, Today I Learned listicles are the perfect prompt to get us digging. Even a short one or two-liner fact can open a door to a larger story, sparking our curiosity and encouraging us to wonder a little, or a lot, more.
Many of the TIL facts on this list sent us searching for more context, background, or related facts. And next thing you know, it's 1am and you're still reading about the stray dog that followed a man during marathon, and found a happy ending.
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#2
TIL: Browser the librarian cat outlived the city councilor that tried to evict him from his position.
#3
TIL that Australia has forced gambling companies to display slogans in their ads like “You win some. You lose more” and “What's gambling really costing you?” instead of the standard “Gamble Responsibly”.
The extreme runner has actually written a book about the dog he met while running the 4 Desert Race in the Tian Shan mountain range in China. Gobi, the chihuahua appeared at Dion Leonard's side. The little dog stuck around for each step of the gruelling, seven-day, 250-kilometer route.
Leonard could have left Gobi at the finishing line but decided not to. Instead, he launched a crowdfunding campaign to take his new best friend back home to Edinburgh, Scotland.
#4
TIL that in 2020, a teenage boy was playing video games with an online friend when he began having a seizure. Despite being over 5,000 miles away, his friend managed to alert the emergency services in his area, saving his life.
#5
TIL: Some farmers in Bangladesh have switched to raising ducks instead of chickens, because during catastrophic floods, ducks float.
#6
TIL in 2013 McDonald's gave Charles Ramsey free food for a year after he helped rescue 3 women, who had been held hostage for years, while carrying a "half-eaten Big Mac." In addition, 14 local Ohio restaurants also gave Ramsey free burgers for life.
"Basically on day two she decided to run with me on one of the stages, which was around 25-30 kilometers over the Tian Shan mountain range," the runner told the BBC. "She'd actually been with us the day before running through one of the largest sand dunes in China, so she was well-versed in running with all the competitors there, but on day two she decided to stick with me.
Leonard added that the dog would run ahead of him and wait for 20 or 30 meters down the road, waiting for him to catch up with her... Talk about a master motivator. "She's such a small dog but had a massive heart," he said at the time.
#7
TIL Simpsons creator Matt Groening was born to Homer and Marge Groening (neé Wiggum) and two of his siblings are called Maggie and Lisa. His grandfather is Abram A. Groening.
#8
TIL that Norway, after gaining independence from Sweden in 1905, offered the throne to Prince Carl of Denmark - but he refused to accept unless the people voted for a monarchy over a republic. 79% said yes, and he became King Haakon VII, the only known king ever to be elected by popular vote.
#9
TIL Columbo's signature catchphrase "Just one more thing" originated because a scene was too short, and the writers didn't want to retype the script on a typewriter, so they just had him return and add the line at the end as if he'd forgotten something.
I Heart Dogs reports that at night, while other competitors rested in their tents, Gobi would follow Dion into his tent and sleep by his side.
"Dion realized that this little dog had become more than just a stray running alongside him—she had become his companion," reads the site. "He made the decision to care for her, providing her with food and water from his own limited supply, despite the risk to his own performance in the race."
#10
TIL a man escaped from a federal prison in Illinois after jumping over two 15 foot fences only to turn himself in to the FBI 4 days later to show them his desalination invention.
No-Environment6103:
“He reportedly did this so he could draw attention to his invention, a water desalination process that would enable mankind to purify water at a reasonable cost”.
#11
TIL that Stephen King was so obsessed with Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 that his wife threatened to divorce him over it.
#12
TIL that ravens in the wild play with wolf puppies. In the wholesome way, not the 'play with your food' way.
After quite a mission to get Gobi to his hometown, the doggo finally made it. The process took five months of waiting and preparation, including quarantine.
"Gobi lives a happy life in her forever home, surrounded by love and care," reports IHeartDogs.com. "She went from being a stray dog in the harsh Gobi Desert to a cherished member of Dion’s family."
#13
TIL Boeing once filled an airplane with potatoes to test its in-flight Wi-Fi because potatoes mimic the way humans absorb and reflect wireless signals.
#14
TIL that in the 1980s East Germany tried to resolve a major coffee shortage by building coffee-production infrastructure in Vietnam, its close ally. By the time any coffee was harvested, East Germany had ceased to exist. Meanwhile, today Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world.
#15
TIL the Calibri font caused the Pakistani Prime Minister to be disqualified from office in 2017. Forged documents about the PM's income that claimed to be from 2006 used the font, but the font was not publicly released until 2007.
#16
TIL People with depression use language differently. They use significantly more first person singular pronouns – such as “me”, “myself” and “I”. Researchers have reported that pronouns are actually more reliable in identifying depression than negative emotion words.
#17
TIL studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25x more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17x more likely to create visual art, 12x more likely to write poetry, and 4x more likely to be a musician.
#18
TIL between 1999 and 2015, 736 UK Post Office workers were wrongly convicted for stealing money due to faulty accounting software. Workers were forced to pay back nonexistent losses with their own money and some were even sent to jail for a crime they did not commit.
#19
TIL in 2011 a woman was buried alive in a cardboard box by her fiancé after he attacked her with a stun gun then bound & gagged her with tape because he was "bored" with her & wanted custody of their son. She used her engagement ring to cut herself free & pull the box apart before flagging down help.
#20
TIL A 2023 study found that Chinstrap penguins take over 10,000 micro-naps a day, each lasting 4 seconds. When combined, that totals more than 11 hours of sleep daily. They are also generally considered to be the most aggressive and ill-tempered species of penguin.
#21
TIL most living areas in ancient Roman Cities lacked any kitchen area, with most citizens either getting food from from a communal kitchen or buying prepared foods from street vendors.
#22
TIL dogs began to diverge from wolves when random genetic mutations gave some wolves the ability to much more effectively digest starches and fats, causing them to follow nomadic humans and eat the leftovers of the food they ate.
#23
TIL about Terry Wallis, who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state following a 1984 car accident, suddenly spoke “Mom” on June 11, 2003, making him the longest documented coma‑like recovery with regained consciousness.
#24
TIL Craigslist generated $302 million of revenue in 2024 with no spending on marketing or advertising and no sales team.
#25
TIL in Ohio, convicted drunk drivers are mandated to drive with “Party Plates”, special red-on-yellow license plates in exchange for limited driving privileges such as work.
#26
TIL that Nvidia founder Jensen Huang's parents sold nearly everything they owned to send him to what they thought was a prestigious boarding school but which was in fact a reformatory for troubled kids. He taught his 17-year-old roommate how to read in exchange for help working out.
#27
TIL that a British married couple survived almost 4 months adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a rubber raft. They survived drinking rainwater and eating raw fish and birds.
#28
TIL Prince Charles & Princess Diana only met in person 13x before getting engaged and when they were asked if they were in love, Charles said "whatever in love means". Then on the night before their wedding, he reportedly told her that he didn't love her in order to get everything out in the open.
#29
TIL Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, is considered one of the greatest female professional boxers of all time.
#30
TIL that pencils were invented after a massive deposit of solid graphite was discovered in England, being the only place in the world with pieces large enough to cut into solid rods. England's monopolies over these lead other countries to smuggle graphite and recycle graphite powder.
#31
TIL about Sargeant Gander, a Newfoundland dog that fought alongside Canadian troops in the Battle of Hong Kong. He saved several wounded soldiers when he grabbed grenade thrown into their midst and ran towards the enemy with it. He was awarded the doggy equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
#32
TIL in 2020 a man in Como, Italy stepped outside to cool off after fighting with his wife and ended up walking 450km. His walk eventually ended a week later when he was stopped in Fano and fined €400 for breaking the curfew. His wife, who had reported him missing, travelled to Fano to collect him.
The man told police "I came here on foot, I didn't use any transport". He said "along the way I met people who offered me food and drink". "I'm OK, just a bit tired," he said, having averaged 60km daily.
Police found him wandering aimlessly and cold at night on a coastal highway.
After checking his ID in their database they found that his wife had reported him missing, so they contacted her and she travelled to Fano to collect him.
The Italian reports did not say how she reacted upon learning that he had picked up a €400 fine.
#33
TIL that the first journalist to report the outbreak of the Second World War was a rookie British reporter on her very first week on the job. While travelling along the German–Polish border, she spotted thousands of troops, tanks, and artillery massed for invasion.
#34
TIL in 1967, Singapore experienced a mass panic over shrinking [private parts]; hundreds of men ran to hospitals convinced their penises were retracting into their bodies due to “genital retraction syndrome”.
#35
TIL that Samoa is the country with the highest obesity rate in the world. More than 81% of the adults in the nation are obese.
#36
TIL New York City used eminent domain to tear down a landlord's building but accidentally left his family with a small triangle of land. The city asked the family to donate the land, but the family instead made a small plaque to commemorate the tiny chunk of land they still owned, the Hess Triangle.
#37
TIL that the bacterium devastating millions of olive trees in Italy, causing over €5.5 billion in annual damages, has been traced back to a single infected coffee plant imported from Costa Rica in 2008.
#38
TIL that in 1964, performance artist Dorothy Podber asked to “shoot” Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe paintings. Believing she wanted to photograph them, Warhol agreed - until she drew a gun and fired. One damaged “Shot Marilyn” sold in 2022 for $195M, a 20th-century art auction record.
#39
TIL the Navy built a 300-foot ice cream barge in WW2 that made 10 gallons every 7 minutes to boost morale in the Pacific.
#40
TIL the oldest bones found in Antarctica belonged to an indigenous woman from Chile who died in her early 20s. Found on a beach, it's estimated she came to Antarctica between 1819 and 1825. There are no surviving documents explaining how or why a young woman came to be in Antarctica during this era.
#41
TIL that James H. Salisbury, the inventor of Salisbury steak, was an early proponent of germ theory and invented his steak to prevent diarrhea.
“He believed vegetables and starchy foods produced poisonous substances in the digestive system which were responsible for heart disease, tumors, mental illness and tuberculosis.”
#42
TIL that Josephine Baker adopted 12 children of all skin colors, creating what she referred to as her “rainbow tribe” and her “experiment in brotherhood.” The children were all brought up in accordance with their heritage and the religions that Baker assigned to them.
#43
TIL 12-14% of people are thought to have borderline intellectual function, somewhere between disabled and average.
#44
TIL that before secret ballots were introduced in 1872, the UK kept publicly-available 'poll books' for each election which recorded how each man voted. This information was not only used by politicians to identify swing voters, but also by bosses and landlords to influence their employees/tenants.
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