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50 Delightfully Weird Facts About The World That People Learned This July
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!
This post may include affiliate links.
#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.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
I accidentally posted my above comment without attaching said photo, oops XD finding-go...87a6db.jpg 
🇳🇬 Asi Bassey 🇳🇬 5 months ago
What was the 5k for? I presume he already had a plan to get back to Scotland before he met the dog.
Verena 5 months ago (edited)
Flight ticket, quarantaine, vaccinations. Edit: And passport, all animals which are pets, enter competitions or slaughtered for food and crossing borders need a passport.
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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.
RELATED:
#2
TIL: Browser the librarian cat outlived the city councilor that tried to evict him from his position.
Tim Gearing 5 months ago
Talking of cats being evicted…read about the 15 yo old cat named ‘defib’ who was rescued as a kitten by paramedics https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rd617xe86o
The Majestic Opossum 5 months ago
Aww that gave me happy tears, thanks for sharing!
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Colleen Glim 5 months ago
City councillor deserved to go die in a hole. Kitty just doing his thing
Roni Stone 5 months ago
Browser has the last laugh. And tell me how you got all those extremities painted tabby and that beautiful body painted Siamese? It definitely works!
Maggie Fulton 5 months ago
If anything would get me to go to a physical library, it would be a kitty. You can’t download petting a furry little head.
#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”.
David Jeffery 5 months ago
It would be better if we could get rid of gambling ads entirely though. However, the government is too addicted to the money
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Michael Largey 5 months ago
In Nevada, the sign should say "The money you bring to Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas."
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 5 months ago
Very true. Anyone with half a brain running a half decent casino realizes it's a money making machine (unless you're an orange idiot and run several of them into bankruptcy). Casinos exist and thrive because if you gamble long enough, the house always wins.
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StPaul9 5 months ago
We still won't try and take down gambling ads on channels like Youtube. But we will ban Youtube for under-16s because that's Australia.
Zero Costa 5 months ago
exactly this! I agree with barring kids from certain aspects of online, but the amount of gambling ads that play is ridiculous.
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Huddo's sister 5 months ago
I'm not sure if that was on the ones considered or not. I think the companies try to select the one (out of a list of about 8) that they think is least negative.
Load More Replies... Tim Gearing 5 months ago
Now all they have to do is get rid of the Poker machines in clubs to stop pensioners wasting their money.
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
I was happy to hear that there are now a number of regional towns where the residents banded together to run the main pub in town, so they could refuse the inclusion of pokies. The more people we get opposing them, the more chance we have of government listening.
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Shark Lady 5 months ago
Same in the UK, all the adverts have gamble aware and the contact details of a helpline for those who are addicted. The number of adverts though is terrifying, particularly after about 10pm when it's the only kind you will see.
Zero Costa 5 months ago
this would work better if they had rules on how often these ads can pop up. sometimes they're ruthlessly replayed, and that isn't exactly helping the slogans cause.
Bree Davis 5 months ago
Yeah that would be because we have become a nation of gamblers.. the Governments allowed sports betting to develop unchecked and then next thing you know, 13 year olds are on the punt
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.
The Majestic Opossum 5 months ago
Aww this is lovely! While it's true most seizures are non lethal, many are not, especially if this person were to fall/hit their head/swallow their tongue. Kid made the right call and potentially saved a life, from across the country/world ♥️
Alex Bailey 5 months ago
You cannot swallow your tongue, but the tongue can block the airway. The tongue is attached to the bottom of the mouth by a piece of tissue called the lingual frenulum, preventing it from being swallowed.
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iseefractals 5 months ago
What a strange take. Seizures account for 1.9% of deaths for those suffering from epilepsy.....that's still a risk, and it's a risk that most people aren't qualified to differentiate on, least of all from 5000 miles away. Only 12% of heart attacks are fatal, should we all start downplaying their seriousness as well?
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#5
TIL: Some farmers in Bangladesh have switched to raising ducks instead of chickens, because during catastrophic floods, ducks float.
JK 5 months ago
Haven't tried eggs, but their meat is very succulent. Oily, but if it is prepared correctly it is amazing. If you see it on a menu, try the Duck Confit.
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Jeremy James 5 months ago
There is a charity called Heifer International that fights world poverty by donating livestock, like ducklings or honeybee hives, to families in need and providing resources and training to help them turn that into renewable income.
#6
TIL Female frogs fake death to avoid mating with male frogs they don’t find attractive.
Ellinor she/they/elle 5 months ago
Good for them if that work, some other species don't hesitate even faced with a corpse...
Tanya Mattson 5 months ago
I've seen videos of chickens doing this and apparently female dragonflies also do this as do a lot of actual human women.
"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 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.
Upstaged75 5 months ago
The guy's name was Ariel Castro and he was a real-life monster. I read Michelle Knight's (the 1st woman kidnapped) book. It made me sick. Sadly he took his life before he was punished. If there IS an afterlife I hope he's suffering enormously.
glowworm2 5 months ago
Ramsey knew something was wrong when, as he stated “ A pretty little white gurl runs into a black man’s arms”.
Angela Corvaia 5 months ago (edited)
I remember that clearly. Cleveland really screwed up. Many people alerted the authorities about him, including a residential home that overlooked his backyard telling them of the abuse he did to the girls and they ignored it.
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Verfin22 5 months ago
A man kidnapped 3 girls and kept them several years until one ran to freedom to this guy.
Leg less In Minneapolis 5 months ago
Yes, then he broke down the front door and got other 2 out and took them to safe place to call Police
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Binky Melnik 5 months ago (edited)
ETA: Ooops! Sorry: Was attempting to look this fellow up and accidentally posted insteada tapping “Look up.” (Actually, I’m surprised this is the first time I’m made this error.) As you were! McDonald's gave Charles Ramsey free food Hostages Ohio
Zero Costa 5 months ago
he deserves all the accolades, but maccas focusing on the "advertising" aspect is so gross. not surprising though
#8
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.
Howl's sleeping castle 5 months ago (edited)
Same ... Read in an article in Readers digest 😁
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Vanessa Panerosa 5 months ago
This vastly contradicts the rumor that Homer is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the Greek poet meant to juxtapose and illustrate his stupidity
Sally Moen 5 months ago
Funny! In my town, we have a park called Wiggums Park. It makes me giggle each time I hear the name
#9
TIL while suffering dementia near the end of her life, Harriet Beecher Stowe re-wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin nearly word-for-word believing it was a new book.
UKGrandad 5 months ago
Abraham Lincoln is known to have read the book several times and met Beecher Stowe during the Civil War. It helped shape his thinking on slavery to such a degree that on being introduced, his first words to her were 'So you're the little lady who caused all this fuss' (paraphrased, but as close as I recall).
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 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.
Nina 5 months ago
Sounds like a class act. Today I learned Norway has been independent since 1905
rorschach-penguin 5 months ago
Yeah... do a little more reading on the Norwegian royal family and I don't think you'll think that anymore.
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Major Harris 5 months ago
the current swedish dynasty started off french. jean bernadotte was a french soldier, first an enlisted man and then eventually a general under napoleon. in 1809, the swedish king's health began to go down hill and he had no heirs. the swedish parliament started throwing out names on who would sit the throne. jean bernadotte''s name came up. he had all the qualities they wanted, intelligent, a very good soldier, a good diplomat (dealing with napoleon's defeated enemies" etc... they offered and he accepted. that is his grandson a few times over on the throne right now. also, the late actor, rene' auberjenois, (star trek deep space 9, the chef who tried to cook sebastian in mermaid) was the great great nephew of napoleon through napoleon's younger sister.
S. Maxudov 5 months ago
Usually it's strange women lying in ponds distributing swords, if I learned anything in World Gov.
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 5 months ago
The orange toddler is not a king, yet. We are resisting. Plus his base is about to l***h him over his refusal to release the Epstein files.
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#11
TIL that Heath Ledger, in 2007, had refused to host the Oscars due to a request that he make explicit fun of the relationship he portrayed with Jake Gyllenhall in the movie "Brokeback Mountain".
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 5 months ago
BP never fact checks the threads they steal from Reddit or other social media.
Load More Replies... Roni Stone 5 months ago
The more I learn about this man the more I understand just what this world lost with his death.
Taylor's Ferry 5 months ago
He was asked to present an award at the OSCARS, not host the whole show.
Michael Largey 5 months ago
I might have accepted and then just not made the joke. Anything to shorten the Oscar ceremony.
#12
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.
Tiggy Darling 5 months ago
I'm a wannabe script writer. I understand not wanting to retype the thing totally.
TheReader19 5 months ago
That line used to drive me crazy 😱 Every time he said it; I envisage murdering him 🤣
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 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”.
Paul Donahue 5 months ago
NESTLE added $20 commissary and smuggled in a dime bag to a lifer to shiv him in the laundry room.
Load More Replies... tameson 5 months ago
His name was Warren George Briggs and the escape was in 1971. Nothing came of his invention.
April Pickett 5 months ago
Raiders of the Lost Ark - it's sitting in a Federal storage facility somewhere.
Tanya Mattson 5 months ago
And is his invention being used or was he paid for it then it was buried?
JkNuss 5 months ago
It was a DE- salination device meaning it removed salt
Load More Replies... #14
TIL that Stephen King was so obsessed with Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 that his wife threatened to divorce him over it.
Gaius214 5 months ago
However, during this period it was found that Stephen King was guilty of polygamy when Monica, Erica, Rita, Sandra, Tina, Mary & Jessica all also threatened him with Divorce.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Stephen King is my lifelong favorite author and is actually a very cool dude! He loves dogs (he currently has a Corgi!) and hates our Orange Julius POTUS. Some of SK's tweets on X are absolutely scathingly hilarious. And if you want to read a REALLY good story of his that isn't "horror", go with either The Green Mile or The Shawshank Redemption. (Most of SK's books are actually about the characters and their humanity and how they change and develop as people... just usually also with monsters or something running around, lol)
amy lee 5 months ago
I can imagine the horror scene... Darkened school corridor and mambo number 5 blaring.... Run
PeepPeep the duck 5 months ago
It was already enough as a kid when it was number 1 and played everywhere in Australia and on ads for a while 😂
Load More Replies... Lara Verne 5 months ago
Here, I fixed it for him: A little bit of Tabitha in my life, a little bit of Tabitha by my side, a little bit of Tabitha's all I need, a little bit of Tabitha's what I see, a little bit of Tabitha in the sun, a little bit of Tabitha all night long, a little bit of Tabitha, here I am, a little bit of you makes me your man.
Child of the Stars 5 months ago
I don't blame her. Any parent can tell you that even the most objectively good piece of music/tv/movie can drive you insane after the 145,897,546th repeat.
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
It did help my table come 2nd in a trivia night last weekend, so at least some good comes of it. One of my team members correctly guessed at least two of the songs after hearing 5 seconds of them, because his daughter had played them incessantly.
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#15
TIL that ravens in the wild play with wolf puppies. In the wholesome way, not the 'play with your food' way.
TotallyNOTAFox 5 months ago
Wolfpacks sometimes also work together with ravens when hunting - Ravens scout potential prey and get parts of it as reward
Tango Wox 5 months ago
I imagine in a similar way that wolves started to become domesticated interacting with humans
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Agfox 5 months ago
My wife & I lived in a semi-rural area in Tasmania for a few years & most early mornings we'd see crows & bandicoots playing together in the backyard. Their most common activity involved bandicoots running towards the crows that would then flutter up & over them. After that & few other interactions, they'd all just chill for a bit before disappearing
#16
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.
Uncle Panda 5 months ago (edited)
Boeing also noted that the potatoes were much better passengers and is actively seeking to expand its market into fleshy tuber transportation. There's money to be made from Flying the Friendly Fries.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
My body is pretty much a fleshy tuber at this point. I'm in.
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Yrral Spavit 5 months ago (edited)
Its official. Were each a sack of potatoes. I'll be a Yukon Gold :)
Trisec Tebeakesse 5 months ago
Potatoes don't get out of their seats immediately upon landing, and during emergency evacuations, they don't carry luggage down the slides. I'd fly with a potato.
My O My 5 months ago
And in case of a crash in the jungle there is enough food
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Toni Ahlgren 5 months ago
It is also a well documented fact that in all of the known universe everything is either a potato or not a potato.
#17
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.
TotallyNOTAFox 5 months ago (edited)
People with vietnamese migration backround are also the biggest non-native demographic in the eastern states nowadays due to mutural training and employement contracts between Vietnam and the GDR
azubi 5 months ago
The people from Vietnam were kept separate from the GDR population; getting to know each other and integration were not wanted. They were often insulted as ‘Fijis’ by the German population. It has been argued that the higher prevalence of racism in East Germany is also linked to this deliberate alienation.
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Huddo's sister 5 months ago
During WWII, many people used chicory in place of coffee because of shortages, at least in Australia. They still make a chicory essence which I love, though my stomach doesn't.
#18
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.
Uncle Panda 5 months ago (edited)
He used to be an Elite Courier but was accused of taking Pica sized packages. Wanting to go with the Times, and to Optimalize his next move, he remained Lucida, and called in a favor from an old Palatino in Helvetica. Fortunately, the guy turned out to be a Comic Sans the humor and nobody got hurt.
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#19
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.
Mimi M 5 months ago
Depression is a form of chronic pain/debilitation. It's natural to be more self-focused when one is in pain or chronically debilitated.
Nikole 5 months ago
I refer to myself as “we” a lot, because it’s comforting and also I sometimes feel like I have two sides. It’s not an angel vs devil on my shoulders. Hard to explain.
Mreoww 5 months ago
Same here. I talk to myself in my head a lot, and whenever I think about doing something, instead of thinking ‘Iet me go and do…’ I often think ‘let us go and do…’
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Paulina 5 months ago
It's not about how you call yourself, but about how you phrase your sentences.
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OneHappyPuppy 5 months ago
It's true. I was diagnosed with PPD and all I went on about was me me and me. It's because you're battling the hardest you've ever have to keep yourself afloat despite the daily difficulties, leaving next to no room for worrying about someone else.
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
I stopped using pronouns completely when I was depressed, I think. I still avoid using them or saying anything that indicates my own opinion when I'm feeling extremely anxious.
Senjo Krane 5 months ago
did you count how many times you used "I" in that comment? Just saying.
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AverageCommenter (she/they) 5 months ago
No!!!! Not PRONOUNS!!!! Somebody call Elon musk to buy this website and take the pronouns away from me!
Squirrel Chaser 5 months ago
No, depression makes you prone to being self-centered.
Load More Replies... #20
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.
The Darkest Timeline 5 months ago (edited)
And yet, we have many people who think the arts and arts education are “wasteful” or “frivolous” and would happily do away with those programs so we can “focus on more important things,” as if we can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
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Gavin Johnson 5 months ago
There’s a connection to being Jewish too, 0.2% of the population of the world are Jewish, 22% of Nobel Prize recipients are Jewish. So if you are a Jewish scientist who sings, paints, writes poetry and plays a musical instrument can you let me know? I’d like to place a bet!
Uncle Panda 5 months ago
Never trust a spiritual leader who cannot dance ~ Mr. Miyagi, Karate Kid
Mel in Georgia 5 months ago
This week I learned about Tom Leher, who performed hilarious songs in the 50s and 60s, who was also a professor of mathematics. I'm not surprised about the connection!
Roni Stone 5 months ago
And of course, Sir Brian May of Queen, is also Dr. Brian May the astrophysicist who helped NASA land on an asteroid.
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Pferdchen 5 months ago
Hey, I'd be dancing and singing too if I won a Nobel prize! 🤣 Seriously, though, I did track down the source of this but can't attest to its accuracy: As David Epstein has also reported in his recent book Range, influential scientists are much more likely to have diverse interests outside their primary area of research than the average scientist, for instance. Studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25 times more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17 times more likely to create visual art, 12 times more likely to write poetry and four times more likely to be a musician.
Dawn Marie 5 months ago
The creative gene must be in all scientists or their curiosity to delve deeper and discover would never spur them forward.
#21
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.
Mark Bayliss 5 months ago
It’s a terrible stain on the UK Post management.
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Gavin Johnson 5 months ago
Private Eye documented the whole sorry saga. As a PE reader I can tell you that it was common knowledge years before the ITV drama but politicians were able to ignore the pressure to deal with it. Only once the big media hitters got involved did anything change. Incidentally PE are still fighting on behalf of the staff. Fujitsu who messed up the software haven’t paid a penny in compensation yet and are still being awarded contracts by our government. It’s still an outrageous situation.
Cee Cee 5 months ago
Private Eye is easily the best journalism we have. I'm following MD's analysis of the Letby conviction.
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No Man 5 months ago
Actor Toby Jones starred in a 4 episode TV docu-drama about this called "Mr Bates vs. The Postoffice"
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
Fantastic show. I think it's still on 7plus, for those in Australia.
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Ronnie Beaton 5 months ago
And here we are ten years later, and the UK government and the Post Office are *still* dragging their feet over reparations.
Holly Herr 5 months ago
Watch Mr Bates and the Post Office. Truly scary how this happened AND continued for years!
Richard Pennington 5 months ago
Don't know why this story is illustrated with a very US-style post box...
#22
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.
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
All happened in Yorkshire. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/huddersfield-buried-alive-victim-michelina-4938079
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PrettyJoyBird 5 months ago
Maybe Princess Cut or Pear Shaped. The edges can cause some damage.
Load More Replies... #23
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.
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 5 months ago
10,000 micro naps disturbed a day equals grumpy penguins!
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ninjaTrashPandaBoom 5 months ago
Channel your inner potato (see above post about Boeing and WiFi)
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Cuppa tea? 5 months ago
Not surprised, I'll be ill-tempered too if had to wake up 10,000 times a day.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
How do you pay attention to egg-laying and swimming if you take mini-naps?
Jane Hower 4 months ago
Bad sleep patterns are known to do that - make you very irritable. hehe
#24
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.
karen snyder 5 months ago
This was the case in many densely populated ancient cities, for a very good reason, mainly fuel. If everyone lit an oven fire to make meals for just a few people, there wouldn't be anything left to burn. It takes the same amount of fuel to bake two loaves of bread as it does to bake 20. You can light a fire to cook one pork chop or a whole pig. Communal food preparation is more efficient in every way. I've read that many of the designs for "blue zone" and "smart city" communities are returning to this model of feeding the population.
Moonie Pinkslip 5 months ago
That's kinda how it was everywhere, duh...street vendors were a thing
Debby Keir 5 months ago
I remember living in Greece in the early 70's, and it was cheaper or similar price to eat out in the local Taverna than cooking at home.
Rich Black 5 months ago
i believe a lack of charcoal and other heat sources was the reason. it's more efficient to cook large batches at once.
#25
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.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
And dogs developed more mobile eyebrows and facial muscles literally to be able to make expressions/be more expressive to communicate with humans. They really are our perfect buddies :)
Ace 5 months ago
In both cases it would perhaps be better stated to say that those random mutations _allowed_ them to do those things - there's still a common misunderstanding about cause and effect in evolution, with many people thinking that genetic changes are driven by circumstances whereas they just appear to us to have worked when changing circumstances matched one set of genetic mutations over time while all the others dropped by the wayside.
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Janissary35680 5 months ago
The fact that humans were selecting and feeding wolves that were less fearful and aggressive towards humans helped a lot.
Becky Samuel 5 months ago
...and póop. Human féces would have contained a lot of undigested starch from the poorly processed grains we were eating. Groups of humans that were associated with wolfdogs would have benefitted from the improved hygiene provided by the clean-up service. Those groups would then have a lower rate of disease and parasites, and be able to outcompete their rivals.
Paulina 5 months ago
That's one theory. And only a party of it. It's still unclear which was the chicken & which was the egg. Were wolves following humans and eating their leftover, therefore developed the altered digestion? Or the mutation occurred for some other reason, prompting the wolves to start following humans? :)
Peter Bear 5 months ago
I love dogs. They're proof not only that evolution works and that we can control it with great skill, but by extension they prove that if there is a god(s), He/She/It/They must necessarily be even better at it than we are. And we're really, really good at it.
Ace 5 months ago
It does not. Evidence of wolves around human settlements goes back 30,000 years or more, with the most docile gradually becoming more and more accepted into the Human society. Digestion changes are more difficult to identify over time, but modern dogs certainly can digest some things better than wolves.
Load More Replies... #26
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.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
He had damage to his frontal lobes and had issues processing and storing new memories (basically he had anterograde amnesia.) He also had other disabilities that were the result of the initial traumatic brain injury and he remained fully disabled. He developed pneumonia in 2022 and d!ed aged 57.
#27
TIL Craigslist generated $302 million of revenue in 2024 with no spending on marketing or advertising and no sales team.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Two of my cats are Craigslist kitties! XD (I adopted them from a Craigslist ad)
#28
TIL that Timothy Dexter (a wealthy but eccentric businessman) faked his death to see how many people would attend his funeral. Over 3,000 mourners showed up, but he revealed the ruse after berating his wife for not mourning enough.
Michael Largey 5 months ago
It was in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" a long time before that.
Load More Replies... #29
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.
FlamingZombies 5 months ago
Here in MN, we have what are known as Whiskey plates. Instead of the typical 3 letter/3 number combination, they have a white background with black lettering and start with the letter W. EX:WA0000 instead of ABC-123 or 123-ABC.
JK 5 months ago
Character limit. Second reply. I did a stint in the legislature early this year. They meet for two months. I was assigned to Transportation, et. al. committee. They got ripped for only introducing novelty license plates and I'm going to contact him next week to see if this model is something he can do for next year. Thank you.
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shg stewart 5 months ago
That's a great idea. My sister was hit by a drunk driver and seriously injured. It took her over a year to recover, and she lost a year of high school.
Rednose 5 months ago
Is no one going to comment on the contents of the image? (It's the opening lines of the preamble to the United States Constitution, cobbled together out of license plates.)
Holly Herr 5 months ago
COOL!!! I didn’t realize , tho I did keep looking at it for some reason.
Load More Replies... iseefractals 5 months ago
Yeah, because drunk drivers are just filled with self awareness and shame. F**k that noise, there should be zero tolerance for that kind of nonsense. You get caught once, you spend the rest of your life taking the bus. Maybe some period of years where convicted DD are required to wear d***e cap style head adornment disclosing their selfish, reckless stupidity.
Sue User 5 months ago
I know someone who was mentally ill. They self medicated with alcohol. They were caught once. There was no bus or taxi service wgere they lived. To make their early morning parole hearing , tgey wouldd start at 11 pm and walk the 14 miles. Rain, shine, winter even. Today that person is 17 years sober and has their own business. Zero tolerance is just intolerance.
Load More Replies... #30
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.
Roni Stone 5 months ago
What a mistake! I want to know if he still talks to them. I know it was unintentional, but still...
Rich Black 5 months ago
somebody conned Jensen's parents out of their life savings this way? the school itself?
Kris 5 months ago
Nvidia is one of the worlds largest companies that make graphics processing units (GPUs), system on a chips (SoCs), and application programming interfaces (APIs) There is a chance the GPU in your computer is Nvidia.
Load More Replies... #31
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.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
There's a guy who survived on a small boat adrift in the Pacific ocean by eating birds and drinking their bl00d
Motivated sloth 5 months ago
I think turtles too. I’ve heard they’re actually good. (I’ll never know)
Load More Replies... Paulina 5 months ago
The most horrible part of their story to me it's the fact that they saw at least 5 (I don't remember how many exactly) ships and boats during that time, but were never successful in flagging them down. The crushed hope of each one must've been worse than hunger & thirst. Also: The husband credits their survival entirely to his wife's resilience. He was ready to give up in less than half the total time, but she kept encouraging him and coming up with new ideas. All while also making quite detailed notes/diary entries on whatever paper she found :)
#32
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.
amy lee 5 months ago (edited)
Such a messed up situation. He was already in love but Camilla wasn't deemed good enough. Resulting in 4 unhappy people.
Eastendbird 5 months ago
Charles wouldn't commit to Camilla, she refused to hang around and wait for him to make up his mind, took herself off and met and married someone else.
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Deborah B 5 months ago
They got engaged when he was 32, and she was 19, and he told her he didn't love her the night before the wedding so he could have a clear conscience about having decieved her into thinking it was a love match. It was the same month she turned 20, the night before the royal wedding, a massive spectacle that had cost millions, had diplomatic guests from many countries already present, and was scheduled to be televised world-wide. She was a nursery school helper, he was the literal crown prince, and she was carrying the weight of the expectations of millions. It was effectively impossible for her to back out. She was pregnant within 3 months of the wedding.
Bartlet for world domination 5 months ago
She may have been a nursery school helper but she was of higher nobility than he is.
Load More Replies... Mimi M 5 months ago
I interviewed an Iraqi general who had four wives. I asked him if he wanted that for his children. He said 'no'. Surprised, I asked him why? He revealed that he had been in love with one woman when he was young, but his parents refused to give him permission to marry her. He took four wives to try and make up for the one woman he could not have.
Huddo's sister 5 months ago (edited)
I recently watched a doco where a family were escaping from one of the polygamous cults in America. He took a second wife (his first wife's sister) because it was expected. He then saw the pain it was causing his wife and knew he didn't want that for his daughters. They (him, both wives and their children) escaped and now live together in another state. Both wives now love him and vice versa so will stay together, but make sure the kids know it isn't normal or what they want for them.
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Nils Skirnir 5 months ago
No system is anywhere near perfect, but monarchies are extra messed up
Maggie Fulton 5 months ago
Or thought she did. It would be easy for a 19 year old to be dazzled by the romantic attention of the heir to the throne of England.
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
In this case, I can't say it was entirely on him or entirely his fault. There was still a lot of expectations regarding marriages in the royal family, ESPECIALLY when one is the Crown Prince. At least he was decent enough to be honest to Diana that he didn't truly romantically love her and didn't lie to her that he did.
Load More Replies... #33
TIL of Janet Parker from the University of Birmingham Medical School. She likely contracted smallpox via air ducts in her office via a lab where researchers kept samples. Within 4 weeks she was dead, her father died of a heart attack visiting her in the hospital and her boss cut his own throat.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
When I was a kid, I was terrified of smallpox. My dad had told me that it had been eradicated, so I didn't need to be vaccinated. However, he said that there were samples of it in a few laboratories. I tried to express to him how terrifying that was: there was a HORRIBLE DISEASE that no one got vaccinated for any more, just hanging out in some laboratories, one of those labs being in RUSSIA. I asked him what would stop anyone from using smallpox as a weapon during a war. He said "No one would do that any more." This was back in the 1980s. I'm STILL terrified of smallpox being used for evil someday :(
Nils Skirnir 5 months ago
For those of us born in the forties, the stories of small pox in the previous generation were frightening, so it’s understandable. It killed half a billion people and blinded/scarred/crippled 5 times more in the first two thirds of the 20th century
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Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
More on this sad tale of inadequate safety precautions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_smallpox_outbreak_in_the_United_Kingdom#Janet_Parker
Sally Moen 5 months ago
Its wierd to understand smallpox. Strange to think about all those people in years past who survived it but had deep round pits on their faces afterwards.
#34
TIL Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, is considered one of the greatest female professional boxers of all time.
Major Harris 5 months ago
look up lucia ryiker. she was the "villain fighter" in "million dollar baby". she was the fight co ordinator for the film. she has studied judo since 5, women's fencing champion at 17 for the netherlands, 39 wins, one loss, kickboxing champion. her only loss was against the male middle weight thai kickboxing champion who outweighed her by 15 pounds. she knocked him down in the first. and as a profession boxer, 19 wins, o losses, 17 knock outs. retired due to injuries.
Rich Black 5 months ago
stuff like this should be televised. it would draw higher ratings than MMA
#35
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.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
I got poked by a boy with a sharp pencil in 5th grade, freaked out and was sure I was going to die. Teacher calmly told me that, even though we call it a pencil lead, its actually graphite, which is harmless. I still have a pencil point scar
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
England refused to export the stuff because it was great for making cannonball moulds. I jest not: "Borrowdale graphite was used as a refractory material to line molds for cannonballs, resulting in rounder, smoother balls that could be fired farther, contributing to the strength of the English navy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphite#History_of_use
Lin Andrews 5 months ago
Sounds boring but I bet it is absolutely intriguing!
Load More Replies... Barbara Wilcock 5 months ago
Seen the world's biggest pencil in Keswick! Now thats a fun family day out 😄
T'Mar of Vulcan 5 months ago
Get enough of them and you can use them as moderators in an RBMK nuclear reactor. (I've watched way too many videos about them.)
Hugo 3 months ago
Cutting graphite into slabs was very wasteful. It was Lothar von Faber (in Bavaria) who hit on the idea of grinding it to a powder, mixing it with damp clay, extruding it into thin rods, and baking them before encasing them in wood. The proportion of clay determines the hardness of the lead.
Rich Black 5 months ago
china read about this, and is trying to manage their "rare earth" minerals the same way
#36
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.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Attached is a photo of him! He started out life as a pet dog named Pal. "Pal accidentally scratched a child's face with his paw. Worried that he would be forced to have Pal put down, the original owner gave the large dog to the Royal Rifles of Canada, a regiment of the Canadian Army stationed at Gander International Airport, Newfoundland and Labrador. The soldiers quickly renamed him Gander and 'promoted' him to sergeant. When the unit was shipped to Hong Kong in the fall of 1941, Gander went along." gander2-68...b657c3.jpg 
Claire Collymore 5 months ago
Thank you for attaching a photo of the dog - very kind of you!
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Tiny Dancer 5 months ago
Statues of Sgt. Gander and his handler by the legendary Canadian sculptor Morgan MacDonald were unveiled in Gander Heritage Memorial Park in Gander, Newfoundland in July of 2015. Via the Valour Canada website. Sgt-Gander...50186.jpeg 
WalterWhiteSavannah 5 months ago
The historicaly factual gooodest boy. Sad as hell though. "You guys are great but imma play fetch with them for a second, be right back!" 😢
Chaos Pandas Unite 5 months ago
So he didn’t like throw the grenade, and survive? Unlikely but still hopin…
glowworm2 5 months ago
Sadly no. He died in the ensuing explosion. A good boy and a hero though.
Load More Replies... 웅장한 거북이 🇰🇷🇰🇭 5 months ago
That sounds to me like what a typical dog does. He fetched and retrieved it
The_Nicest_Misanthrope 5 months ago (edited)
I'm confused. Did the grenade explode? Did Gander die, or survive? Or was it a dud?
Tiny Dancer 5 months ago
It exploded, taking out both the enemy and the dog, I'm afraid.
Load More Replies... #37
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.
Ronnie Beaton 5 months ago
My mother was a talker, didn't like silence. My father was the opposite. Occasionally he'd suddenly announce that he was going for a walk around the block, or that he was going to put petrol in the car. It was only in his later years that I realised it was a polite excuse to go and get some peace and quiet from mum's chatter. At the time of my father's passing in 2013, he and mum had been married for 51 years.
Jaya 5 months ago
It took me years to realize that my mother in law didn't actually needed a smoke or needed to check some stuff on her computer, but that she just found it emotionally exhausting to have company over for a whole day and just used this as an excuse to have some time to herself. I wished she had felt comfortable to just say it, or that I would have realized sooner. Because I often thought "poor MIL is sitting all by herself outside while smoking, I'll go keep her company", probably making it harder for her.
Load More Replies... UKGrandad 5 months ago
I assume it was the COVID curfew. A funnier story was the man in England (I don't recall exactly where) who had a warrant out for his arrest when lockdown began. He was hiding out at his estranged wife's house, but a couple of months in he walked into a police station and handed himself in. He explained that he'd rather be in prison than be shut up with his wife for another day.
Rich Black 5 months ago
wait . . . italy has a curfew (2020) and you can't be outside after that? WTH !!!!!
#38
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.
DeShotz 5 months ago
Unfortunately, when BP lifted this content from Reddit, they did not include the OP’s link to Clare Hollingworth‘s obituary.
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
Clare Hollingworth: "Hollingworth had been working as a Telegraph journalist for less than a week when she was sent to Poland to report on worsening tensions in Europe." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Hollingworth
Tanya Mattson 5 months ago
The British journalist who first reported the outbreak of the Second World War was Clare Hollingworth. She was working for The Daily Telegraph in Poland in 1939 when she witnessed the German invasion and reported on the events, according to multiple news sources. Her reporting is often described as "the scoop of the century".
#39
TIL in 1967, Singapore experienced a mass panic over shrinking genitals; hundreds of men ran to hospitals convinced their penises were retracting into their bodies due to “genital retraction syndrome”.
keyboardtek 5 months ago (edited)
Went ice fishing once with the guys. Taking a leak in the freezing cold is the great equalizer.
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General Anaesthesia 5 months ago
There's not mushroom for debate about that.
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Rika 5 months ago
It's called Koro, it's a disease that near exclusively affects men, cases in women are very rare. It's recognized as a psychological disease although it's mainly referred to as a "cultural disease" because there have been very few cases outside of Asia and Africa. But yes, men think their d*ck is shrinking, can't be convinced otherwise, and it might lead to death in extreme cases.
Joanne Hudson 5 months ago
Would it be safe to say few women get it because few women have penises?
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#40
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.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
Attributed to western food imports starting when colonization started in Samoa and other islands
Vanessa Panerosa 5 months ago
I learned this in 11th grade. Never forget my Marine Biology telling us how we erected McDonald’s there and it not only was responsible for the obesity but also a huge hike in pollution. American Samoa (US territory) is unsurprisingly one of the worst cases.
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Robin Roper 5 months ago
https://source.colostate.edu/strange-story-turkey-tails-speaks-volumes-globalized-food-system/
Roni Stone 5 months ago
Not just white, but we've arguably had the very worst impact on our planet.
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Hugo 3 months ago (edited)
I have read elsewhere that three countries in the Middle East -- emirates, sheikdoms, or whatever -- have the highest rates, and the cause is said to be aggressive marketing of US fast foods and sugary drinks. The USA comes next in the list, with over 50%. However, 81% is much higher. Possibly the other survey included children (or just forgot Samoa, or lumped it together with all small Pacific islands).
#41
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.
aubergine10003 5 months ago
Yup, it's in the West Village at the corner of Christopher and 7th Avenue
#42
TIL that medical students dissected the donated body of a 78-year-old man only to discover that he had three p*nises. The two extra p*nises were small, nonfunctional, and completely concealed within his scrotum, so it’s possible he lived his entire life without knowing his anatomy was different.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
Similar to the rare women with 2 uteruses. There's a good chance they didn't know about the second uterus until they became pregnant
Lupita Nyong'heaux 5 months ago
i am one of those rare women. it was discovered during an ultrasound checking for fibroids.
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#43
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.
#44
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.
Plentyofoomph 5 months ago
So glad we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a painting instead of something silly like cancer research.
Peter Bear 5 months ago
Thus forshadowing the eventual creation of NFTs. The art world has always been an insane waste of money.
Hugo 3 months ago (edited)
One Easter vac some fellow students and I volunteered to help with the selection process for the Royal Academy's summer exhibition. Our job was to parade the pictures in front of a panel of academicians. We pretty soon had the system sussed out. Anything with any talent would cross the stage and land on the reject pile without a murmur. Mere daub would be met with cries of rapture as soon as it appeared. Boderline cases were just disappearing into the wings when a cultured voice would call out "Oh, can we have another look at that one, please? One of my colleagues used (pehaps coined?) the phrase "Art with a capital F".
Load More Replies... Uncle Panda 5 months ago (edited)
A critic of the highest caliber but with a tendency to go off half-caulked.
Lady Eowyn 5 months ago
Was going to reply until I realized why you spelled it "caulked".
Load More Replies... David Jeffery 5 months ago
Yes, but the paintings were done and shot in the 20th century, which is what I believe the above sentence means
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#45
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.
Khavrinen 5 months ago
The story, on "Tasting History": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qiyo8D0nH70
Scott Rackley 5 months ago
There are stories of downed pilots being rescued by other ships and being "ransomed" back to their carrier for ice cream.
Trisec Tebeakesse 5 months ago
Battleship Massachusetts rebuilt the gedunk bar on board so they could serve ice cream at the museum.
Slapdash1 5 months ago
Really hard to make icecream on the bottom of the sea.
Load More Replies... #46
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.
#47
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.”
Lotekguy 5 months ago
The Brain is poisoned. Main symptom is smugness in vegans.
Load More Replies... Dawn Marie 5 months ago
Prevent?????? This dish would send me straight to the bathroom for the duration of the night. Those who have had a right hemi-colectomy and/or severe IBSD (I have both) will understand this.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
If you believe certain toddlers and small children, vegetables ABSOLUTELY produce poisonous substances in the body XD This wolf, however, loves vegetables. Raw Brussel sprouts are the best!
WalterWhiteSavannah 5 months ago
I have never in my life eaten, or even considered eating, Brussel sprouts raw. Gonna have to try now.
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#48
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.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago (edited)
"Baker wanted to prove that "children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers." She often took the children with her cross-country, and when they were at Château des Milandes, she arranged tours so visitors could walk the grounds and see how natural and happy the children were in the Rainbow Tribe. Her estate featured hotels, a farm, rides, and the children singing and dancing for the audience. She charged an admission fee to visitors who entered and partook in the activities, which included watching the children play. She created dramatic backstories for them, picking them with clear intent in mind: at one point, she wanted and planned to adopt a Jewish baby, but she settled for a non-Jewish French one. She also raised them in different religions in order to further her model for the world, taking two children from Algeria and raising one child as a Muslim and raising the other child as a Catholic. One member of the Tribe, Jean-Claude Baker, said: "She wanted a doll".
Sue User 5 months ago (edited)
Great in theory, horrible in e*******n. Edit: ok BP. Horrible in implementation.
Load More Replies... Nimitz 5 months ago
Do you really think that people AREN'T assigned religions?
Load More Replies... Rich Black 5 months ago
this is one of those things that . . . if you honestly disclosed your intentions to the orphanage . . . they'd say "nope"
Woof Yo 5 months ago
Pretty neat: https://theconversation.com/josephine-bakers-rainbow-tribe-and-the-pursuit-of-universal-brotherhood-172714
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#49
TIL 12-14% of people are thought to have borderline intellectual function, somewhere between disabled and average.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
I believe it. And they probably aren't bunched together in certain professions, but blend in with the rest of us. Of course, being low in intellect is not an indicator of success. There's alot of folks who have good emotional regulation and empathy, and make friends easily.
Debby Keir 5 months ago
That's what the Bell Curve means - for every genius there's someone intellectually disabled.
Hugo 3 months ago
Are they talking about the lowest 12 to 14%, or is it a slice somewhere below the point one standard deviation below average?
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KnightOwl86 5 months ago (edited)
This doesn't surprise me at all in fact I'd have assumed the number was higher
#50
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.
TotallyNOTAFox 5 months ago (edited)
Connections to current developments regarding online identification laws are purely coincidental....
iseefractals 5 months ago
When the US was still colonies, yes that was the standard (along with over 21 and being a protestant . When the constitution was written in 1787 it granted states the power to set voting eligibility with most maintaining the 1776 standard, by 1830 most (not all) states had dropped the property/religion requirement, giving way to the rise of the formation of political parties. By the time the 14th and 15th amendments were ratified (1868 and 1870) all men were able to vote. Wyoming became the first state to grant women the vote in 1890, including it in their state constitution, with women being granted the vote nationwide in 1920. Native americans were deemed citizens in 1940, but were not granted the vote until 1947, and the voting rights act of 1965 removed "poll taxes" (good) and literacy tests (bad) and in 1970 the voting age was lowered to 18.
Load More Replies... Cath Flack 5 months ago
My great great grandfather worked in a farm and his employer always told him to vote for the right man Joe.
#51
TIL after hearing her employer and lover who admired the Marquis de Sade claim that a woman couldn't write an erotic novel; writer Anne Desclos wrote one that was both massively successful and caused the government to pursue obscenity charges because of the sadomasochistic themes therein.
#52
TIL Bloom was a secretary for 67 years who had amassed a secret fortune of $9 million by copying boss' investments.
#53
TIL When Kentucky Fried Chicken first entered the Chinese market in the 1980s, its slogan "It's finger lickin' good!" was mistranslated as "Eat your fingers off." The error was later corrected.
Toothless Feline 5 months ago
A lot of Western businesses moving into China in that era had poorly translated slogans, because they went cheap on translators. Context? What’s “context”?
nottheactualphoto 5 months ago
Coca-Cola brings your ancestors back from the dead.
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#54
TIL Surpassing his father's liking for alcohol and cigars, Randolph Churchill consumed 80–100 cigarettes and up to two bottles of whisky per day for 20 years. He died aged 57.
sofacushionfort 5 months ago
After Randolph had a benign tumor removed, Evelyn Waugh said “Leave it to modern medical science to cut out of Randolph the only thing that was not malignant.”
UKGrandad 5 months ago
Randolph once told his friend, the writer Alastair Cooke, that the only time he (Churchill) would make the front pages would be the day after he díed. Unfortunately for his prediction he had the bad luck to die on the day Robert Kennedy was assassinated, so the front pages were somewhat tied up.
Glix Drap 5 months ago
Yes, but what did he die of - bit of a non-argument if it was a plane crash or something he had no control over.
UKGrandad 5 months ago
He'd been in poor health for several years and was finished off by a heart attack.
Load More Replies... #55
TIL in The Office the characters Toby, Ryan and Kelly were located in “the annex” because those actors were also head writers for the show. Not requiring them in the background for scenes that did not directly involve their characters allowed them to attend to other off-camera responsibilities.
#56
TIL that men stop buying underwear during tough economic times, making it a nifty leading indicator for recession.
UKGrandad 5 months ago
There is also something informally known as the 'skirt length index', which is a seeming correlation between the economy and the length of skirts. It's probably just coincidence but throughout the 20th. Century, women tended to wear longer skirts in times of a good economy, and they got shorter when times were bad. The opposite is also true of men's hair length - shorter styles in a good economy, longer when it's bad.
#57
TIL that in 2008 humans sent a message to the planet Gilese 581c. It will arrive in 2029. If life on the planet responds, we would first hear back from them in 2050.
WalterWhiteSavannah 5 months ago
Or they may have technology far superior to ours and be able to respond much more quickly... or just show up, see what a s**t show earth is, and blow us all into space dust.
Captain Kakapo 5 months ago
If they can travel with half the speed of light, we may expect invasion fleet in 2071
#58
TIL in 1994 Jim Carrey became first actor to headline three number one movies at the box office in the same year with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.
#59
TIL that the abandoned Central State Hospital, formerly known as the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum, is surrounded by 25,000 unmarked graves.
Sally Moen 5 months ago
There was a state mental hospital north of Seattle, in Sedro-Woolley, that has a dedicated volunteer group who are working to find unmarked graves and identify who is buried there. The number isn't so many, but its a work of love regardless
#60
TIL deaf British and deaf Americans can't understand each other's signs.
StPaul9 5 months ago
American Sign Language was based on French Sign Language, so they are quite remarkably similar.
Rick Murray 5 months ago
Yup. The Americans went to the Brits first but they were all exclusive and protective and didn't want to help, so the Americans then went to the French who were happy to share what they knew. So, thanks to that, one of the largest communities of English-speaking deaf people communicate in a way that is largely incomprehensible to BSL users. Gotta give 'em a slow hand clap for that.
Load More Replies... keyboardtek 5 months ago
Good question. Do sign readers from different countries have different accents when signing the same language? Like how the Spanish language in Spain is different for the Spanish language in Mexico?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Not accents, per se, but each country has its own separate sign language that is literally a different language. ASL (American Sign Language) is different from British Sign Language even though they're both "English". I imagine Spanish sign language would be very different from Mexican sign language even though they're both "Spanish".
Load More Replies... Rick Murray 5 months ago
There's also Makaton which isn't strictly a sign language (like ASL/BSL), but looks a lot like it is.
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
True. Although Australia has their own sign language, Auslan, the special school my brothers attended used Makaton a lot.
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Just off the Goat 5 months ago
What a missed opportunity! One universal sign language. Wow! Imagine being able to "talk" to anyone in the world. The American Indian tribes who could not understand each others spoken words communicated by sign language among many tribes. So much for calling them savages' they were smart peoples.
#61
TIL that in the 1900 Summer Olympics, the Dutch team recruited a young boy from the crowd to be their coxswain. He ran off after the team won and his identity remains unknown.
Khavrinen 5 months ago (edited)
Here's a video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2RiyuCFARI ) about how bonkers the 1900 Olympics was, including the story of this boy ( at around 9 1/2 minutes in ). In the comments, someone says that in 2016 he was identified as Giorgi Nikoladze, and there's an article about him on the Olympic World Library website.
#62
TIL in 2023 a teenager attending a Danish prince's birthday party at the palace intentionally left her shoe behind, hoping for an ending à la Cinderella. Later, the palace posted a picture of the shoe on Instagram. Part of the caption translates to: "Is it Cinderella who forgot her shoe last night?"
#63
TIL the founder of McDonald's Japan, Den Fujita, stated "if we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white, and our hair blonde" as part of his strategy to sell McDonald's in Japan.
The statement he used:
"The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years... if we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white, and our hair blonde."
Sally Moen 5 months ago
And its a good thing he established the fast-food chain BEFORE the film Supersize Me. Because knowing how McDs food can negatively affect your cholesterol levels would work against the supposed benefits
Bruce Mardle 3 months ago
I wonder if there's a connection to Frank Chickens: 🎵One million hamburgers, that's all I want to eat for a thousand years 🎵
#64
TIL that “Shanghaiing” was the practice in the 18th and 19th centuries of kidnapping men to become sailors on board ships, due to laws that imprisoned people for leaving a ship before the voyage was done.
Michael Largey 5 months ago (edited)
Press ganging was done by governments to staff their navies, and was legal. Shanghaiing was done by private commercial lines, and was not.
Load More Replies... Sally Moen 5 months ago
In San Francisco during the mid-1800s, the Gold Rush years, ships would come into the harbor, drop anchor, get ready to off-load cargo, and the crew would all jump ship to go off to seek their fortunes. The harbor was filled with sailing ships with no crews. They could have had some involuntary recruiting I'm sure
#65
TIL about Dudeism. A modern form of Taoism, stripped of its metaphysical and medical doctrines, that emerged from the cult classic The Big Lebowski. It advocates for “going with the flow”, “being cool headed”, & “taking it easy” in the face of life’s difficulties.
Yrral Spavit 5 months ago
I was going to comment earlier but had to y'know, have a little nap man
#66
TIL that a man broke into the Buckingham Palace twice in a month and the alarm was set off but dismissed as false alarm both times.
Chaos Pandas Unite 5 months ago
Do we know what he did in there? Steal stuff or something more whimsical, like hold a pretend tea party for himself while enjoying his favorite paintings?
UKGrandad 5 months ago
No, he let himself into the Queen's bedroom and waited until she woke up to talk with her. And no, I'm not making it up.
Load More Replies... T'Mar of Vulcan 5 months ago
Michael Fagin? He's still alive AFAIK. Unlike what was shown in "The Crown", he didn't complain about the same things.
#67
TIL "It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy was one of Michael Jackson's favorite songs. When he met Shaggy, he told him it sounded like a song he would write, which prompted Shaggy to quip, "So you be bangin', huh?"
#68
TIL in August 2007, 17-year-old George Hotz became the first person to remove the SIM lock on an iPhone. He then proceeded to trade the second (8GB) iPhone that he unlocked to Terry Daidone, the founder of CertiCell, for a Nissan 350Z and three more 8GB iPhones.
#69
TIL about “Christine”, a mysterious person who repeatedly calls hairdressers across New Zealand and Australia and sets up appointments, which are always no-shows. “Christine” asks the hairdresser to describe, in great detail, various scenarios involving women getting their hair shaved or styled.
#70
TIL in 2011 a man survived an accident where he fell on the nozzle of a high pressure air hose, which pierced his left buttock & rushed air into his body at 100 pounds per square inch. He was inflated to twice his normal size with the air separating his fat from his muscles & compressing his heart.
Auntriarch 5 months ago (edited)
I thought this was going to turn into one of those ER stories about things found in people's bütts
Huddo's sister 5 months ago
There was a short story we read in Literature in school where a boy inflated his parents because they had starved him as a child. Ever since then I've been trying to remember the title or author but had no luck.
Debby Keir 5 months ago
Some while ago, hazing of new apprentices used to be a thing. There were several cases of engineering apprentices having a high pressure nozzle inserted where it shouldn't be.....
#71
TIL in 2016 the first adult great white shark (an 11.5-foot male) to ever be exhibited by an aquarium died after spending just 3 days in captivity.
#72
TIL There was a naked man living in the crawl space of a 93 year old woman’s house for up to 6 months. He was discovered after the family kept hearing weird noises. He refused to come out for hours so the police finally had to use tear gas to get the man out from under the house.
#73
TIL the owner of the WTC argued that the 9-11 attacks were 2 separate occurrences, and so therefore based on the contract terms, he deserved twice the insurance payout - the courts partially agreed and 9 of the 20 insurers had to pay double.
iseefractals 5 months ago
Right, i mean two different buildings, and two different planes....how dare someone be objective and observant of reality.
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#74
TIL the idea for Staples was born on July 4th, 1985 when its founder ran out of printer ribbon on the 4th of July and couldn’t find a single store open to buy any.
Woof Yo 5 months ago
Can't have a proper 4th of July without a mass print project. We (Americans) are so stupid. Today, we brace for violence on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving, another American holiday) - and it's people going out to buy presents for Christmas (for Christ's sake)!
Saltypepper 5 months ago
My grandma co&cocked a lady on black Friday that tried to rip a cabbage patch kid doll out of her hands she was buying me for Christmas that year ..
Load More Replies... #75
TIL a study followed thousands of people, both with & without OCD, from 1973-2020 & found that those with OCD died at an earlier average age than those without it by 9 years (69 v 78). People with OCD were 230% more likely to die earlier from unnatual causes & nearly 5x more likely to die by s**cide.
#76
TIL after being signed to a record label at the age of 12, Aaliyah's uncle introduced her to R. Kelly who ended up being lead songwriter and producer of her debut album; Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.
#77
TIL a California serial k**ler dubbed the “Tipster K**ler” would anonymously call a crime‑tip hotline after each of his m**ders—providing directions to his victims’ bodies so he could collect the reward.
Debby Keir 5 months ago
There are 'crime' hotlines in the UK - you used to phone in and they'd give you a code. If the crime was solved then you send in the code and a cheque is arranged. No idea how it's done now, as most phone numbers are easliy traceable.
Load More Replies... #78
TIL before becoming the first Xiongnu emperor, to be sure of his men's loyalty, Modu Chanyu commanded them first to shoot his favourite horse and one of his favourite wives. Any who refused were summarily e**cuted. He became emperor by ordering his men to m**der his father with arrows while hunting.
Yrral Spavit 5 months ago
Why do people put up with massive d***s being in power? What is the attraction?
Mimi M 5 months ago
Power belongs to the one willing to use it with the least restraint.
Load More Replies... #79
TIL: Enrique Iglesias's grandfather conceived a child who was born 7 months after he died, at age 90.
#80
TIL Walt Disney’s last words were “Kurt Russell”.
Otto Katz 5 months ago
Wrong - https://mouseplanet.com/walts-last-words-not-kurt-russell/3411/
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
That article does get one thing incorrect, though - Bryan Russell was not Kurt Russell's brother. They were actually not related. Kurt Russell has three siblings, but they're all sisters (Jill, Jamie, and Jody.)
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What do you think ?
Mel in Georgia 5 months ago
TIL a lot of things, not only from the post but from the commenters, too!
Mel in Georgia 5 months ago
TIL a lot of things, not only from the post but from the commenters, too!
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