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“Today I Learned”: 40 Lesser-Known Things About The World That Should Be Common Knowledge (New Pics)
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what about pandas? We believe that, regardless of your age, you can always learn something new. Just ask the members of Reddit’s ‘Today I Learned’ community! This group, which has an impressive 31 million members, is a wealth of information that’s constantly changing and updating, so below, we’ve gathered some of our favorite recent posts from TIL.
Keep reading to also find an interview with Alison Winfield-Chislett, founder and director of The Goodlife Centre in the UK, and be sure to share the tidbits of information you find most fascinating with your friends. I’m sure they’d like to learn more about why dishwashers were invented and why there are hundreds of raccoons wreaking havoc in Japan!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL about Don Ritchie, an Australian who intervened and prevented at least 180 suicide attempts at a notable suicide destination called The Gap. He lived nearby and would approach and ask “Can I help you in some way?”
OneSoulHero 2 years ago (edited)
And apparently he didn't specifically stop them. Just started a conversation. And he said it was just enough of an interaction sometimes to make people feel compassion and change their minds. A hero among men.
RELATED:
#2
TIL One of the largest charitable donations made by a lottery winner came from a man in Canada. Two years after his wife died from cancer, Tom Crist won the lotto and donated everything to organizations fighting the disease. Canada doesn't tax winnings, so Crist donated $40 million.
To learn more about why it's important to be a lifelong learner, we reached out to Alison Winfield-Chislett, founder and director of The Goodlife Centre in the UK, and she was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. The Goodlife Centre is an independent learning space in London that offers practical boutique workshops in DIY, Home Maintenance, Decorating, Upholstery, Woodwork & Carpentry, Furniture Upcycling & Restoration and various traditional hand Crafts. It's the perfect place to go to learn something new, which Alison says is important to "help us feel vital and part of life. We can continue to grow until the day we die."
#3
TIL in 1952, Jimmy Carter led a team of nuclear scientists in disassembling a Canadian nuclear reactor undergoing meltdown. To accomplish this, Carter, alongside other American military personnel, personally lowered himself into the reactor to disassemble it by hand.
Susan Robinson 2 years ago
Jimmy Carter is an amazing man. It will be a shame when he eventually passes away (he entered hospice a few weeks ago).
#4
TIL of castaway huts (or depots) which are deliberately placed on isolated islands by governments. They contain supplies and tools which can help people who become stranded there. Most were built by the New Zealand government in the 19th and 20th centuries.
When it comes to the benefits of learning something new, Alison says, "As we get older we can challenge any belief system that has held us back. ‘I don’t know how to…’ becomes ‘I’m learning how to…’"
Alison also shared with Bored Panda that there's no end to what she's curious about. "I love all materials and processes. The practical methods of making your world personalised leads on forever. There’s always a way to improve what you make."
#5
TIL the ancient Nazca got water in the middle of the desert through an engineered series of 46 aqueducts running 12 m underground. They were built around 200-500 AD, and 32 of them are still used by local farmers today.
Susan Robinson 2 years ago
This is awesome! I continue to be amazed at the ancient feats of engineering! And then we learn that some of these feats are still practiced to this very day!
#6
TIL about Josephine Cochrane, who invented the dishwasher because she was fed up of China breaking whilst being hand washed.
Blurryface 2 years ago
I too, detest the feeling of Asian nations shattering as I clean my food platters. (Sarcasm, lol)
Alison also noted that we can find inspiration for learning anywhere. "I asked myself ‘Why is it called that?’ A little tool known as a ‘Gent’s saw’ led me to learn about the 19th century craft revolution when ‘gentlemen’ tried using their hands like ‘artisans’."
"When we are using our hands to make something, we connect with a part of ourselves that feels like we are home," she added. "There’s no place like it."
If you'd like to learn a new skill, particular one that involves working with your hands, be sure to check out The Goodlife Centre's website right here.
#7
TIL by passing a law requiring pharmacies to be owned by a licensed pharmacist, North Dakota has essentially done away with corporate chain pharmacies. Corporations that own pharmacies must be majority owned by licensed pharmacists.
Paul Macdonell 2 years ago
same in Ontario but chains "franchise" each location. certainly doesn't save us any money.
#8
TIL that mature bull elephants play a pivotal role in elephant society. The absence of mature bulls creates juvenile delinquency in younger bulls, who will soon enter musth. When mature bulls were introduced into areas with a high concentration of delinquents, they soon put a stop to this behavior.
Mr. Cinder 2 years ago
Sometimes big brother needs to correct little brothers behaviour. My older brother did when I stepped out of line
#9
TIL of Movile Cave, which has been completely sealed off from the outside world for 5.5 million years and evolved dozens of animal species found nowhere else, sustained only by toxic chemicals in the air and water, not photosynthesis.
#10
TIL Roman concrete structures such as the Pantheon and aqueducts are ultra durable because of lime clasts. While many modern concrete structures crumble after a few decades, Roman concrete has self-healing functionality from lime clasts which allow their structures to survive millennia.
#11
TIL in 1993 Mattel's Barbie division accidentally released a Gay Ken doll. Despite being quickly recalled, it remains the best selling Ken doll of all time.
The Problem With Censorship Is ******* 2 years ago
How do you accidentally release a gay Ken doll?
#12
TIL that in 2014, Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without using a shark cage. She endured a 104-mile swim through jellyfish and shark-infested waters, taking approximately 53 hours. Amazingly, she was 64 years old when she made this swim.
#13
TIL of Dr. Jochem Hoyer, a German transplantation surgeon who argued in favour of altruistic organ donations. After a colleague criticized him for praising "living donors as long as it is NOT you who has to donate" Hoyer donated a kidney to an unknown stranger to make a quote "very strong statement".
#14
TIL in 1974 the band Ace had their only hit, How Long (has this been going on). The song is not about a cheating girlfriend - it’s about the band’s bass player, who was moonlighting with another band.
Susan Robinson 2 years ago
I immediately started singing this in my head. Definitely not out loud though…nobody wants that!
#15
TIL that Nikola Tesla once worked for Thomas Edison but left due to a disagreement over payment for his work on improving Edison's DC power systems. Tesla went on to develop AC power systems, which became the basis for modern electrical grids.
#16
TIL A slave couple escaped to the North in 1848 by disguising her, a light-skinned black woman, as his owner, and him, darker-skinned, as her valet. She was illiterate at the time, so they put her arm in a sling against signatures and pretended she was sick. An acquaintance nearly recognized them.
A person with a problem 2 years ago
This slave couple was Ellen and William Craft. They went on to form a school to educate emancipated blacks after starting a family in Boston.
#17
TIL that scientists created a 60 year long experiment in Siberia, selectively breeding wild foxes who showed friendly traits. 40 generations later they were as friendly as dogs!
David Paterson 2 years ago
The really interesting thing about the experiment is that selecting solely for friendliness resulted in a major change in colouring of the foxes involved. Scientists are still debating whether the change in coat colour is genetically linked to friendliness or not. In dogs it is, domestic dogs are not usually the same colours as wild wolves.
#18
TIL Impressed with his energy and ability to do the splits, the owner of the Oakland A's hired an 11-year old named Stanley Burrell as a batboy and personal play-by-play announcer. A's player Reggie Jackson gave the kid a nickname, Hammer, who would later become MC Hammer.
#19
TIL Sperm whales use babysitters. Sperm whale youths cannot dive as deep as their mothers so when the mother needs to forage in the deep the youth is kept safe by swimming with other adult whales.
#20
TIL A repairman wanted to get out of work early and intentionally started a fire, causing $700,000,000 in damages to the USS Miami submarine.
#21
TIL Robin Williams improv was so good in FernGully the director tripled his character’s screen time for the final cut.
Susan Robinson 2 years ago
Didn’t the same thing happen for Aladdin? Gosh, I miss Robin Williams!
#22
TIL that we start forgetting early childhood memories at around age 7.
#23
TIL Japan has become infested with North American raccoons after an anime based on the book Rascal aired in 1977 and caused thousands of raccoons to be imported as pets only to be released into the wild.
#24
TIL the Myers-Briggs has no scientific basis whatsoever.
BigFish Artwire 2 years ago
Nor the zodiac signs and yet people seriously believe in them. Same with religions. I'm not surprised, but in a world where not everyone cares about whether science backs up their believes I don't think knowing this would change I thing
Ace Girl 2 years ago
I think about this sometimes and my unprofessional conclusion is that people want a sense of control in the greater scheme of things and this is one way to get that feeling.
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VodkaInMySweetTea 2 years ago
I think the point isn't to scientifically categorize humans. The point is to think about how you take in information, process it and put it back out in communication. There are many ways people do that, and it's good to understand the differences. It's like saying my husband is an external processor (like many extroverts), he talks through things out loud before making a decision. I’m an internal processor. So, I tend to ponder things for weeks in my head & tell my husband about it only once I've come to a conclusion. This used to cause so much confusion early in our marriage - he would say something off the cuff & I would assume it was already well thought out (and vice versa). Understanding how we process information & communicate is important for relationships. I know people take personality tests too far, but they’re just meant to be a tool for understanding our thought processes better.
XenoMurph 2 years ago
Had to Google myers brings. Personality types, if anyone else doesn't know.
Taibhse Sealgair 2 years ago
Complete history and why it's BS: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4221
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LokisLilButterknife 2 years ago (edited)
Even when I was younger I knew something was up with the Myers-Briggs personality test as my results would change based on my mood that day, and whether I said yes or no to a specific question depending on how I felt. I've been everything form an INFJ (supposedly the rarest personality type in the world according to our friendly psuedo-scientist at Meyers-Briggs) to a warm and fuzzy ENFP.
Casey McAlister 2 years ago
Same lol. I took a few tests out of curiosity and every time ended up with a different result.
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BlueEyesWhiteDragon 2 years ago (edited)
The individual components of the Myers-Briggs personality test (introversion vs. extroversion, intuition vs. sensing, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. perceiving) correlate with the Big 5 -- the personality traits psychologists use in scientific analyses (extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.) The issue is that Myers-Briggs personality tests combine these traits into functional stacks, making it difficult to control for variables and parse things out the way the scientific method requires. Myers-Briggs enthusiasts also insist that everyone falls into one of 16 personality types, even if the person only has a weak affinity for any given trait. The truth is most people are average and fall somewhere in the middle. For instance, someone who tests as an INFJ one day and an ESTP the next is probably just in the ~50th percentile on all these traits. While some people do have these 16 personalities to varying degrees; they are far less universal than Myers-Briggs would have you believe. I'd be very interested to read a research paper that examines individuals with strong vs. weak Myers-Briggs trait affinities and if that changes any scientific findings.
Mere Cat 2 years ago
I find that one of the big faults of M-B is putting Thinking and Feeling as opposites, when in fact, they are completely on different scales. Same as putting eye color on one end and liking bananas on the opposite... And with thinking and feeling, not only they are NOT opposites, but in many cases, they go TOGETHER. An intellectual, rational person can be (and often is) extremely emotional and empathetic, and someone more irrational can well be emotionally cold, selfish etc. (Not to mention that they put all "feeling" in the same category, for instance, empathy is largely different from "hot temper".)
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RandomEpiBioPerson 2 years ago
It's the same issue with IQ tests. IQ tests show a potential aptitude, not an actual measurable level of intelligence, and reverb further, can be EXTREMELY biased and unreliable, yet people still try to take some and use their scores as reasons as to why they might know more about something they've never truly studied, than an expert with many years of study in the field.
Michelle C 2 years ago
Yup. Carl Jung stated that the way the mother-daughter duo used his work was the exact opposite of the way he had intended it to be used, as I recall.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
Myers-Briggs is, like many IQ tests and similar, based on the biases of old white dudes from certain lofty socioeconomic (pretenses) positions. One of my near ancestors basically "flunked" an IQ test b/c he'd never seen a tennis racket. So how could he pass the test when it had questions about such things? Dude was a peasant from Podunk. Didn't even speak English.
Shane S 2 years ago
Old white dudes? I read it was a mother-daughter team who set out to try to explain why their in-law was an outcast in the family and didn’t fit in. The latter may be exaggerating but I’m pretty sure that two women devised this.
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Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
More *used* in eugenics. They were horrible people, influenced by the worst Old White Dude philosophies of their time, without really understanding any of it, all to justify why they disliked an in-law.
Load More Replies... Jake Lewis 2 years ago
Super irritating when people ask you for your Myers Briggs, and it's happened to me a bunch for some reason
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
I got different results every time and realised that it was BS at that point.
Ben Stubbs 2 years ago
My former department in the UK government would jump on any bandwagon proposed by any snake oil salesman. Trim/Prince 2/Briggs Meyer/Lighthouse/Lean etc. We were a marine science agency
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
I feel you. We still get handed these type sof personality tests, when realistically, complexity means that *none* are fully accurate, and serial killers often pass them as "perfectly wonderful" /s/ individuals. Bad science is always gonna be BS.
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Mitchell 2 years ago
I didn’t know this, but I do believe in the concept of introversion and extraversion. When I’m tired, I need time alone to recharge. When my friend is tired, she looks for people to go out with in order to recharge. That is the fundamental difference between Is and Es and I see it out in the world all the time.
BlueEyesWhiteDragon 2 years ago (edited)
For people who might be interested. This is a Big 5 assessment often used in psychology research (https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM/). This is the Hexaco, another research-backed assessment that takes into account a sixth factor: honesty/humility. (http://hexaco.org/) And this is a version of the Myers-Briggs unscientific personality test. It's not exactly the same as the official MBTI test, but this one is free. (https://www.16personalities.com/) The questions will be virtually the same across all three tests. The primary difference is how the results are compiled at the end (percentiles vs letters) and the ridiculous dogma surrounding Myes-Briggs. (You have to be one of the 16 personalities! There's no such thing as being between types.)
Jane Hower 2 years ago
Sorry, I do think it makes sense. My son and I took the 'tests' and came out totally opposite on all 4 sections and it's so very true for us!!!!!!!!!!!!
Baali Venomax 2 years ago
which makes me feel better since I've tried to do the test and I cant answer most of the questions because they dont have options that I've actually experienced or think about thus I am invalid as far as the test is considered. So many take that as PROOF of behaviour, and yet it isnt complex enough to take in all the possible ways you can think or behave in a given scenario.
Sara Harvilla 2 years ago
I'd like to ask Mrs. Briggs and Mrs. Myers why a useless test has to be so tediously long. If you're going to make a 'fake' test, at least make it short and pleasurable. LOL
Llama_flower93 2 years ago
I don't think Myers Briggs should be used for anything official. However, I did relate heavily to the results, but I understand that others may not. It's not an exact science. For me I found it a gateway to exploring sides of my personality that I may not have given enough thought to. They are basically boxes that you may or may not fit into. If you fit, perhaps you can learn a lot about yourself, but if you don't, it's probably not useful for you. Enneagrams are a fun one too.
Mr Old School Cool 2 years ago
It is a social science, and it is stunningly accurate. I am INFP naturally, but can be ENFJ at work on a good day
Cold Eagle 2 years ago
I do not think I have heard of this. I must be living under a rock if I take the comments below as a judge. 🤷♀️
Peter 2 years ago (edited)
So what? The extended guides on '16personalities' web for INTP were probably the best money spent. Helped navigate the life much better than other tests or therapy. In my case the test and results are super accurate and reading the guides is almost funny! Please don't compare with zodiac signs...
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
I have to pop in here with this. Years ago, I took the full Myers-Briggs test, 200 questions. It was sent out to be analysed. The next week I went to see my therapist and before she could tell me what it said, I asked her how reliable this test was. I said it sounded like hocus pocus to me and I really wouldn't trust anything that came of it. So my therapist handed the paper to me and on the first line, after it had my letters, it said "People with this combination tend to be suspicious and question authority...
Alun Jones 2 years ago
We're all different. Doesn't need a scientist to tell us. Why companies do these is beyond me.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
Myers was influenced by a mentor, who was a businessman.
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David 2 years ago
I feel like this one needs more explanation. Personality types are definitely a thing. BP even posts threads about them like introverts and such. So it seems more like someone is saying the Myer-Briggs method of determining personality types is not properly tested.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
It isn't tested, it's about as valid as the horoscopes in the newspaper, and hard science regards it as an insult. An AH businessman teaches Myers some BS, then she and Briggs team up to use Old White Guy Carl Jung to justify why they hate an in-law, and then they *make money off it*. To make matters worse, these classifications from M-B are still used to "place" people somewhere.... It's social Darwinism, like manyother personality tests and, also, IQ tests.
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Michael Largey 2 years ago
I went in for a personality test, but they told me that they hadn't thought to bring a microscope.
Adam Jeff 2 years ago
I think you've just summed up what 'no scientific basis' means. Random chance is somewhat accurate, some of the time.
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Teresa Hale 2 years ago
Not true. I refer you to the article J Best Pract Healch Prof Divers (Spring, 2017), 10(1), 1-27. Establishes adequate reliability and validity. The test is based on the theories and work of Carl Jung.
#26
TIL that bioluminescence in fireflies is nearly 100 percent efficient, meaning little energy is wasted to produce their light.
Shark Lady 2 years ago
I remember the very first time i saw one, we were on holiday on Kefalonia, I thought it was a magic fairy.
#27
TIL that the actor who played Darth Vader, David Prowse, was banned from attending official Star Wars events because he leaked too many plot details.
#28
TIL the crews of Apollo 11, 12, and 14 had to spend 3 weeks in quarantine after returning to Earth because of the possibility that they might spread contagions from the moon.
#29
TIL That in case of emergency in a railroad crossing, instead of dialing 911, we should first look out for a blue and white sign that has a phone number that will get you in touch with the railroad dispatcher, who can radio the engineers of nearby trains to immediately stop short of that crossing.
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
There is supposed to be such a number at every grade crossing (in the USA), but people still try to get their vehicle loose until it is too late to stop the train.
#30
TIL The prototype of the Rolls Royce Ghost was so quiet inside that it made test drivers sick. The engineers had to remove some of the noise-isolating material, and create seats that vibrated at specific frequencies to introduce some noise into the interior.
The Accidental Cat Thief 2 years ago
I get this! European super speed trains are so fast and smooth that I get sick. I need me a little shake and rattle occasionally to remind me I'm on the ground.
#31
TIL about Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, a medicine used in the early 1900s to quiet infants and teething children. Popular in the US and UK it took twenty years of doctors' complaints before it was withdrawn from the market for being a "baby killer." The main ingredient was morphine.
#32
TIL as a research student, Lawrence Bragg figured out how to use X-ray to study the atomic structure. His breakthrough discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics at age 25.
Adam Jeff 2 years ago
It's actually not that unusual for Nobel-winning discoveries to happen in early life. The average age for publication of Nobel physicists' major work is 42. What is unusual is that Bragg was recognised so quickly: on average, the Nobel prize is granted 20 years after the discovery. https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/the-age-at-which-noble-prize-research-is-conducted
#33
TIL the Japanese turned the third of their superbattleships (after Yamato and Musashi) into the largest aircraft carrier ever built at the time. After four years of construction and enormous cost, she left the shipyard and was immediately sunk by a submarine.
Gavin Johnson 2 years ago
Shinano was handed over to the Japanese Navy on the 19th November and torpedoed by U.S. submarine Archerfish on 28th November. Shinano had put to sea with inadequate support from other vessels, she was underpowered as her boilers weren’t up to full power (some weren’t even working) and she made an easy target for Archerfish. At a shade under 70,000 tons she remains the largest vessel sunk by a submarine. Of a crew of 2,400 only 1,080 survived, they were then kept isolated on an island in order to stop the news of such a devastating loss from being broadcast through Japan.
#34
TIL Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip, who terrorized his dog, buried valuables in the yard, and died eating "a pound or two" of lead paint. As a character in one of his novels, Grip is believed to have inspired Poe's famous poem, and is on display in a Philadelphia public library.
#35
TIL that South Korea's CIA recruited a suicide squad to kill North Korea's dictator, Kim Il Sung. The squad mutinied, killed their commanders, hijacked a bus to Seoul, and were blown up by their own military. The survivors were then executed.
#36
TIL that the Fahrenheit scale was standardized 18 years before Celsius. The world switch due to the British Empire. The United States is actually using the earlier standard.
#37
TIL Japan has used history textbook that contained references to the Nanjing Massacre, anti-Japanese resistance movements in Korea, forced suicide in Okinawa, comfort women, and Unit 731 since the mid 1990s.
Maya Baggins 2 years ago
The only way to not repeat history is learn from past mistakes, so they don't hide theirs
#38
TIL beneath the Puerto Rico Trench is a mass so dense it has a gravitational pull on the surface of the ocean, causing it to dip somewhat. The Trench is also associated with the most negative gravity anomaly on earth, -380 milliGal, which indicates the presence of an active downward force.
David Paterson 2 years ago
The acceleration due to gravity varies quite a lot from place to place on the Earth's surface. The famous 9.81 m/s^2 is only an approximation. Since Britain has a high acceleration due to gravity and Australia has a low acceleration due to gravity, you can actually lose weight by travelling from Britain to Australia.
#39
TIL Crypto.com mistakenly sent a customer $10.5 million instead of an $100 refund by typing the account number as the refund amount. It took Crypto.com 7 months to notice the mistake, they are now suing the customer.
#40
TIL that King Alfonso XIII of Spain,was known as "the Playboy king"and considered the pioneer of pornographic cinema in Spain.He commissioned pornographic films considered immoral and degenerate, including sexual relationships involving Catholic priests, and his passion "women with enormous breasts".
#41
TIL there is an official IRS guide for: What to Do When the Taxpayer Threatens Suicide.
Donkey boi 2 years ago
'Tell them not to be so concerned, explain to them that all their problems will go away once they pay their money. Appeal to their family nature by suggesting that their spouse would likely inherit their debt and their children would be homeless with only one parent.' - Probably...
#42
TIL In his book The Descent Of Man, Charles Darwin wondered whether human language abilities had started with singing. By studying fossils of hyoid bone in the throat, humans would have had the ability to sing over 530,000 years ago.
David Paterson 2 years ago
Humans have had a remarkable ability to mimic the calls of animals and songs of birds for an exceedingly long time. It's been very useful in hunting.
#43
TIL Feral cats on Guadalupe Island have been observed stealing milk from Elephant seals. The cats sneak up on a nursing pup and and bat at them until the pup retreats, atwhich point the cat licks up the milk from the mother's teat. Some cats have been chased off by elephant seals.
Upstaged75 2 years ago
Elephant seals creep me out. Especially the males. They look like they want to murder everyone.
#44
TIL In 1953, Swanson had 260 tons of frozen turkey leftover after Thanksgiving, so they packaged them into trays with peas and potatoes, and the TV Dinner was born.
Amanda Rose 2 years ago
I'm reminded of the Golden Girls episode where Dorothy wanted to buy her parents a television set. Sophia claims that television is just a fad. Dorothy then quips "Ma, TV is not a fad otherwise Swanson would have called those radio dinners!"
#45
TIL that shining lasers at aircraft is a criminal offense and can impose civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation.
#46
TIL the ending of "The Bourne Supremacy" was reshot just two weeks before its release. Director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon came up with a new idea that would cost $200,000 and involve pulling Damon from the set of Ocean's 12. The movie tested 10 points higher with the new ending and made $176m.
#47
TIL the famous Hollywood sign was in a state of disrepair and ultimately torn down for three months in 1978. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner helped rebuild it via a $250K fundraising campaign. He then donated $900K to save it again in 2010.
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
It originally said HOLLYWOODLAND but the last four letters fell down and were never replaced.
#48
TIL that when Buddy Holly died 6 months after being married, his widow inherited everything but signed 50% over to his family.
Peppermallow 2 years ago
In Terry Pratchetts Soul music, there is a character named Flowery Mistletoe. This is a direct parody of the name Buddy Holly
#49
TIL the word dumpster wasn't added to the Scrabble dictionary until 2022 due to it being a trademark before.
#50
TIL President Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon named Rebecca. He got it as a gift in place of a turkey for Thanksgiving and Coolidge had no interest in eating it so he kept Rebecca as a pet and had a “White House Raccoon” tag made for her.
#52
TIL that bed bugs have no courtship rituals. What they have, instead, is a type of mating behavior called traumatic insemination. That is, a male will simply climb onto a female, stab her in the side of her body with his hypodermic penis, and release his sperm into her body cavity.
#53
TIL that Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has bred nearly 8,000 chicks annually (around 20 a day) as part of a Chicken Hatchery exhibit since 1956. The chicks are kept on exhibit for Museum Visitors to view for a week. After that, most are fed to animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
#54
TIL that a man blew a hole in his colon by attempting to treat severe constipation with a toilet plunger.
#55
TIL just like in the Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Sharon Tate really did have a habit of going barefoot in Los Angeles. When she went to restaurants with a "No Shoes, No Service" rule, she would frequently put rubber bands around her ankles to pretend that she was wearing sandals.
Amy Taylor 2 years ago
Her sister Debra told a story in her book about how they would make fake sandals out of leather necklace strings popular at the time :)
#56
TIL Napolean, who was famous for being short, was actually 5 foot 6 (1.686 meters).
#57
TIL Coca-Cola's Simply Orange Juice is made by an algorithm known as the Black Book. Oranges are divided by source, type, sweetness, acidity, etc. flash pasteurised and then combined with flavour packages according to the black book algorithm to have a consistent taste countrywide and year round.
Jeremy James 2 years ago
Simply Orange has also been found to contain high levels of PFAS, and there is a class-action lawsuit going about it.
#58
TIL An estimated 50.000 Irish were made into indentured servants by Cromwell after he took Ireland in 1653.
#59
TIL of the 1991 Downing Street mortar attack, in which IRA members launched three mortars at No. 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting, attempting to kill John Major. One hit the lawn 30 yards away, and it is believed that if this mortar had hit the building the entire cabinet would have died.
#60
TIL Mikio Okuda , a farmer in Japan, carefully grows a type of strawberry, Bijin-Hime, and sells just one for $500.
#61
TIL in 1990 Marge Simpson wrote a letter to First Lady Barbara Bush after Barbara said The Simpsons was ‘the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen’.
Ed Brandon 2 years ago
How can that be true? Surely George W. had been born by the time The Simpsons aired? 🤔
#62
TIL that First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, disliked the Kennedys. Mamie did not inform Jacqueline of a wheelchair available for her during a White House tour. Kennedy remained composed during the tour but collapsed once home. When questioned, Eisenhower's reply was simply, "Because she never asked."
#63
TIL in 2001, Disneyland tried to re-theme their aging "Submarine Voyage" attraction around Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but the movie flopped. They tried again with Treasure Planet, but that was a flop too. They finally succeeded with Finding Nemo in 2005.
#64
TIL if you're unmarried when you turn 25 in Denmark, it is customary for your friends and family to cover you in cinnamon.
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
If you are married, it's probably whipped cream applied by your spouse.
#65
TIL it is dangerous to blow air into a pregnant women's vagina. The increased air pressure can pass beneath the fetal membranes and into the circulation causing a venous air embolism that can kill within minutes.
#66
TIL actor James Marsters took the role of Zamasu in the Dragon Ball Super anime for zero pay, as he felt he had to redeem himself to fans after appearing as Piccolo in the infamous critical disaster Dragonball Evolution (2009).
#67
TIL that in WW2, a Marine Corps Corsair pilot used his propeller to chew off the tail of an enemy aircraft after his guns jammed, while under fire from the enemy plane's tailgunner. The enemy plane crashed but the Corsair pilot made it back to base, receiving the Navy Cross for his actions.
#68
TIL Dr. Sigmund Freud was addicted to smoking and failed to quit for good throughout a 45 years long battle that included 33 operations for cancer of the jaw, an artificial jaw replacement, and attacks of "tobacco angina" exacerbated by nicotine . He was known to smoke up to twenty cigars a day.
#69
TIL the Girl Scouts sell 200 million boxes each year, surpassing sales of Oreos, not to mention sales of all Chips Ahoy and Milano cookies combined.
#70
TIL "Cute aggression" or the urge to squeeze cute animals or babies is the brain’s coping mechanism to temper the onslaught of positive feelings. Because if you find yourself incapacitated by how cute a baby is—so much so that you simply can't take care of it—that baby is going to starve.
#71
TIL that Roman gladiators were overweight (NOT muscle-bound) and ate mostly vegetarian diets.
#72
TIL that the only sound recordings in existence of someone born in the 18th century speaking, are of Helmuth Von Moltke the German field commander.
M O'Connell 2 years ago
This is sort of a technicality. The recording was made in 1889, and Helmuth was born in 1800. Slightly more remarkable would be the oldest known sound recording (by recording date) made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1860, which was first played back by scientists in 2008.
#73
TIL that in medieval Japan, monks attempting to gain Nirvana would put themselves through 3000 days of eating nothing but tree byproducts, followed by drinking a tea that contains poison ivy, and eventually being buried while posing in a meditative state.
#74
TIL Douglas MacArthur wanted to use atomic bombs to contain China and ultimately win the Korean War.
M O'Connell 2 years ago
The long-term consequences of nuclear weapons were not fully realized in the early 1950s. Plenty of military brass expected them to be a regular part of warfare moving forward, and devised tactics for how they might be used. Thankfully (and also painfully) testing and careful study of their effects stopped any from being used in this way. For some reason development of artillery-based nuclear weapon delivery systems continued all the way until the end of the Cold War.
#75
TIL that several people have been caught cheating on game shows throughout history. One of the most notable cases involved Charles Ingram, who cheated his way to winning the jackpot on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" by having an accomplice cough to indicate the correct answer.
Tucker Cahooter 2 years ago
"Quiz Show" (great movie) covers the scandal surrounding the 1950s quiz program "Twenty One" where the whole thing was rigged by the people running the quiz itself i.e. contestants fed the questions and answers in advance
#76
TIL in 2004, Linda Ronstadt was booted and banned from the Aladdin hotel for dedicating a song to Michael Moore in support of his documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11." Along with this, bedlam began and Ronstadt was immediately booted, not allowed to return to her suite.
Corwin 02 2 years ago
She was booted from the show she was giving at the hotel there since after the dedication HALF the audience walked out. The hotel stated that "“Ms. Ronstadt was hired to entertain the guests of the Aladdin, not to espouse her political views." to which I cannot really disagree
#77
TIL John Wilkes Booth father, Junius Brutus Booth, wrote many letters in fits of drunken anger and madness to President Andrew Jackson threatening assassination.
Susan Robinson 2 years ago
I recently found out that JWB’s brother saved Robert Todd Lincoln from dying when he fell on a railroad platform.
#78
TIL on 1991, when he surrended, Pablo Escobar was allowed to build his own prison. Called "La Catedral", it was built like a fortress, had a football pitch, giant doll house, bar, jacuzzi and waterfall. The guards were chosen by Escobar.
Kate Jones 2 years ago
If you ever want to read something that proves how people with money are treated differently when it comes to punishment, there ya go. I was reading about how Donald Trump might get indicted and they were going to arrest him and there was all this talk about whether they were going to put cuffs on him or perp walk him out. Political views completely aside-- I find it hilarious that rich people get the option of knowing when they'll be arrested and the option of getting handcuffs when the regular public would never get the choice for either. Pablo Escobar laughed at the idea of going to prison- he just bought the prison. He bought the guards. Marth Stewart called it 'going to Yale' as if it was she was 'slumming' it for a while but it was a breeze to do because she was treated like a celebrity. She was given a separate cell. She got special treatment. And it's because they have so much money that prison becomes just a minor inconvenience. It's infuriating.
#79
TIL the 'Puckle Gun', considered to be one of the first machine guns (1718), had a specialized square shaped bullet to be used against Turks as a means to "convince the Turks of the benefits of Christian civilization".
#80
TIL Studies show that the risk of dying from an injury is far less in the city than in the country.
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Shana Hay 2 years ago
He actually set a few small fires and kept pulling the fire alarm and it always happened on my husband's duty days (every 3rd day he was on the boat for 24 hrs). They had some cameras that looked like a guy in uniform could be doing it but they did not get a face. We had an upside down mortgage and 2 toddlers in CT, so when the boat when to do the overhaul in Portsmouth, it was only 18 months, the kids and I stayed in CT. Nobody was happy about that, so hubs was 'the angry guy' in the division. We had the house and a car so 'tons' of debt, enough that he might have sold out to 'enemies'. It was crazy. In reality, we had less than $235,000 in debt all in the car and house. They had him and one other guy in being questioned every single day. The other guy left the Navy after that because of all the stress.
Shana Hay 2 years ago
He actually set a few small fires and kept pulling the fire alarm and it always happened on my husband's duty days (every 3rd day he was on the boat for 24 hrs). They had some cameras that looked like a guy in uniform could be doing it but they did not get a face. We had an upside down mortgage and 2 toddlers in CT, so when the boat when to do the overhaul in Portsmouth, it was only 18 months, the kids and I stayed in CT. Nobody was happy about that, so hubs was 'the angry guy' in the division. We had the house and a car so 'tons' of debt, enough that he might have sold out to 'enemies'. It was crazy. In reality, we had less than $235,000 in debt all in the car and house. They had him and one other guy in being questioned every single day. The other guy left the Navy after that because of all the stress.
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