“Today I Learned”: 30 Interesting Things About The World That People Have Only Recently Found Out (New Pics)
When we come across something intriguing, we often feel the urge to share our excitement and pass it along. But instead of interrupting our roommates with random tidbits of information in the middle of a TV show, we can now turn to the internet.
There's a subreddit called 'Today I Learned' (or TIL for short) and its 30.4 million members make it the fifth-largest community on the platform. People go there to share all the new and fascinating stuff that blows their minds, and since its inception in 2008, the place has become like an encyclopedia.
From cheating in professional sports to kids' gaming habits, here are the best recent posts from TIL.
(Additionally, for those who want to learn more, check out Bored Panda's previous articles on the subreddit, which can be found here, here, and here.)
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TIL of the lesbian Blood Sisters, who, starting in San Diego in 1983, gave their own blood and organised blood drives to make up the shortfall after gay men were banned from donating because of the AIDS crisis.
TIL about Brady Feigl and his doppelganger, Brady Feigl. In addition to sharing a name and extreme similarities in appearance, each was a minor league baseball pitcher and had the same elbow surgery performed by the same doctor. A DNA test confirmed no relation.
TIL Hirsoshima, Japan is one of the few places outside of the US that celebrates Martin Luther King Jr day, due to his outspoken views on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.
TIL To "protect the truth," a woman recorded hundreds of thousands of hours of TV news between 1977 and 2012. Her archives grew to about 71,000 VHS and Betamax tapes stacked in her home and apartments she rented to store them. Upon her death, the Internet Archive agreed to digitize the volumes.
TIL in Nome, Alaska in 1925, a diphtheria epidemic struck and there was no antitoxin left. Land, air, and sea routes were unavailable, so 20 mushers and 150 sled dogs relayed the serum across 674 miles in 5 1/2 days, in subzero temperatures, near-blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds.
TIL about "Terminal Lucidity." The unexpected return of mental clarity and memory shortly before the death of patients suffering from severe psychiatric and neurologic disorders.
TIL At the second Tour de France, the first four finishers were disqualified because they took the train.
TIL that in the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the total number of deaths, including deaths from cancer due to radiation exposure, is 1.
TIL of Baseball Hall of Famer Rube Waddell, who, despite his skill, showed various unpredictable behaviours including leaving midgame to go fishing, and was also incredibly easily distracted by shiny objects, puppies (who he would leave the field to play with), and fire trucks, which he would chase.
That was a dog spirit posession. That explains pretty much all the behavior and also why he was good with the ball.
TIL more than 1 in 10 Americans have no close friends. The share of Americans who have zero close friends has been steadily rising. From 3% of the population in 1991 to 12% in 2021. The share who have 10 or more close friends has also fallen - from 33% to 13%.
I couldn't agree more. I have 4 close friends who are like my family and my girlfriend. Between them and their families, that's more than enough to keep me entertained.
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Strange, but the fall in % of close friends seems to coincide with the rise of use of social media.... any coincidence ?
Probably many reasons. It's a lot easier to live independently now than in any point in history. You no longer have to have friends in order to survive. Plus as more of the population moves to cities, the fewer people who live in small communities where everyone knows everyone, and making friends is easier.
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I am in the 12%. I am sad every day. Cherish your friends. Being without friends slowly destroys a person.
Sadly but true, I think when you’ve been stabbed in the back multiple times from”friends “, every thing is meh
Easy! I have more than ten. We are close but we all live far from eachother. But when we talk or send gifts, it's very special and we care deeply about hearing about each other's lives and hobbies.
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*TRUE or FALSE?* They started a club for all those people without a friend. But they kept having to shut it down because the members made friends with each other, which meant that they were no longer eligible to be in the club.
I am part of that 12% since my husband passed February 22, 2022
I have one close friend and he's about to die of cancer. But before we met eleven years ago I had no close friends, and I was fine with that.
Social media and phones are to blame. No real personal touch to understand a person anymore. In those years, weet few people and made some real good number of close friends. Today we meet thousand people online but don't really make any true friends.
People also don't use introspection. When I go volunteer or go out to meet new people I ask them questions, get to know them and support them. But I meet a lot of people who just want to complain that they re bored. Those people are emotional vampires and I think social media makes emotional vampirism seem socially acceptable.
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I need no one. Been dead for yrs. Just a corpse in an old house in the woods.
Well, I have no friends at all, and realize those I counted weren't really. Of course I had only a few who seemed to be but are long lost-doubtful anyway. Almost surely not. It's fine, tho', and I don't care if I never have just one again. Won't most likely and would rather not, tbh. Disappointed too many times.
Ouch. Deep cut here for me. I have maybe 2 or 3 friends but none of them are close like they used to be. Adult friends are hard. Thankfully I married my best friend so I've got her at least.
My closest friend is the farthest away geographically. It is difficult to pop in for a cuppa when there's almost 10,000 miles between us. Thank heavens for the internet.
I have absolutely have no friends. Only my sister and we only c each other 3 times a year. She lives 30 mins away. It'll take several weeks In between texts. U beome numb
I am one of those Americans. I have friends, work buddies, folks I still keep in touch with from school but nobody I go out with or visit. Nobody that I call regularly. I have a "best friend " of 14 years but he lives in Pakistan so we don't hang out obviously
I'm in the 1% - but if you send me a message, we can become friends!!!
I have zero close friends. My cat. My kids. My dog…. So that’s kind of interesting to read.
I would also like to join the squiddy friend group but I'm a human
I have no friends anymore...just acquaintances. Thanks pandemic. I'm just a recluse now.
I would think this would depend on one's definition of the term, "close friends", no?
Makes sense to me. After my fiancé past away in June 2021, I absolutely knew no one …not even my neighbors. Just my caregiver who got paid to clock in and sit with me while they put him in body bag and wheeled him away. Had to leave New Mexico after that, so hello to Iowa now !
Because there is no more pressure to be social. The stigma of the loner is gone. Ppl can be alone and hapoy
At least now I know I'm not alone. I've tried making friends. Have never figured out why it never happens.
I remember in some college class we learned that there has also been a remarkable decline in things likes bowling leagues and bridge clubs post 1950 (rise in TV maybe?).
I lost a lot of my friends when I quit religion. I know a lot of them would still have me but 1) they'd constantly be trying to evangelize me, and 2) I don't like they way they talk and think about LGBT+ folks, minorities, the less fortunate, etc. It's sad really, I know no stronger, more cohesive community than certain church groups.
I can't say this surprises me. The rise of social media = the fall of social life...
I have zero close friends, and haven't for a long time :( I used to have so many, but life happens...marriage, kids, moving for work, etc
The average age gets older, and people are reluctant to make friends as they get older. Jobs require relocation, and this is a barrier too. Plenty of other factors, not to exclude the current political situation in the US.
That's a lot of people with no friends. Don't wanna be friends together ?
TIL In 1971, the Texas legislature unanimously passed a resolution honoring "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo for his work in "population control." Representative Tom Moore Jr. introduced the bill to prove that they pass legislation with no due diligence given to researching the issues beforehand.
You know what else is population control... Abortion and birth control
TIL Zhang Zongchang, a Chinese warlord, had proclaimed that he would return only in a coffin if he was defeated in battle. When his forces were pushed back in a campaign, he was true to his word—he was paraded through the streets, sitting in his coffin and smoking a cigar.
TIL The "shower effect" of having more creative ideas in the shower or doing moderately boring activities is a real thing. Physicists and authors reported 20% of their most creative ideas and solutions to problems came with a wandering mind. Later papers termed this "the shower effect".
My better ideas seem to turn up when dozing off, the time between disappearing beneath blanket and sleeping. Have to keep a notebook between pillows.
TIL onions are toxic to dogs. They can cause hemolytic anemia and result in death. A 45-lb. dog would only have to eat one medium to large onion to experience dangerous toxicity levels.
TIL Hans Gruber, the villain of Die Hard who appears on numerous “greatest movie villains of all time” lists (AFI, Empire, etc.), was theater actor Alan Rickman's first film role.
TIL that to get the pear or apple into a bottle of brandy, they place the empty bottles over the budding fruit at the start of the season, and allow it to grow into the bottle all summer.
TIL Caligula, the third emperor of Rome, once declared war on the sea itself, commanding his men to collect seashells as proof of victory.
That is nothing. The US once had a President that wanted to nuke hurricanes.
TIL most so-Called “Medieval Torture Devices” are fake actually made up by hoaxers, showmen, and con artists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
TIL that Frank Prentice a survivor of the Titanic, stated that the scent of the iceberg was detectable before the collision occurred.
TIL that an achene is a single-seeded fruit, and that strawberry "seeds" are achenes. Each little strawberry achene is its own tiny fruit, and the entire rest of the strawberry is an accessory fruit. A single strawberry is actually approximately 200 little fruits attached to a big fruit.
My Dad is allergic to the seeds on a strawberry. He can eat them if they've been taken out
TIL Bill Watterson used to sneak signed Calvin & Hobbes collections onto the shelves of his hometown bookstore, but stopped doing so when he discovered they were being sold online for high prices.
TIL The ~1mm large animal known as Trichoplax can regenerate from just a handfull of cells and if its chopped up, the individual pieces will try to find each other and join back together.
TIL that when Weird Al wrote I Want A New Duck in 1985, he went to the library and researched ducks for a week.
TIL that a Dutch woman was denied Swiss naturalization despite having lived there for 39 years, because her 'neighbours' deemed her too annoying and not integrated into Swiss society since she often critized Swiss tradition of hanging large bells on cows' necks.
TIL that an 84-year-old man named Park Byeong-gu has eaten nothing but instant ramen for over 41 years.
TIL that a Kia/Hyundai whistleblower was awarded $24 million USD for reporting the companies' failure to recall unsafe cars and share accurate recall information with the government.
TIL that the record for longest time without sleep was set in 1963 when 17 year-old Randy Gardner stayed awake on purpose for 11 straight days.
My panic attacks once kept me awake three days a few years ago, I was having trouble stringing thoughts together and hallucinating by that point. Eesh, 11 days...
TIL that in the early 90's Bart Simpson T shirts were banned at many schools across the country (United States).
In 1992 George HW Bush said he wanted to make the American family "less like The Simpsons and more like The Waltons". Writers on the programme had Bart comment "We're just like The Waltons, we're praying for the end of the depression too."
TIL Canadian artist Michael Snow sued the Toronto Eaton Centre mall in 1982 after they put Christmas bows on an art installation of flying geese which he had sculptured. This led to a landmark court case, and a leading Canadian decision on artists moral rights. Snow ultimately ended up winning.
TIL the average minor spends about 7 hours per week with their father, but about 15 hours a week on video games.
Note: this post originally had 75 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
