“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!
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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?”
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.
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."
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.
Jimmy Carter is an amazing man. It will be a shame when he eventually passes away (he entered hospice a few weeks ago).
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."
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.
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!
TIL about Josephine Cochrane, who invented the dishwasher because she was fed up of China breaking whilst being hand washed.
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.
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.
same in Ontario but chains "franchise" each location. certainly doesn't save us any money.
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.
Sometimes big brother needs to correct little brothers behaviour. My older brother did when I stepped out of line
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.
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.
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.
How do you accidentally release a gay Ken doll?
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.
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".
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.
I immediately started singing this in my head. Definitely not out loud though…nobody wants that!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
TIL Robin Williams improv was so good in FernGully the director tripled his character’s screen time for the final cut.
Didn’t the same thing happen for Aladdin? Gosh, I miss Robin Williams!
TIL that we start forgetting early childhood memories at around age 7.
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.
TIL the Myers-Briggs has no scientific basis whatsoever.
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
TIL that bioluminescence in fireflies is nearly 100 percent efficient, meaning little energy is wasted to produce their light.
I remember the very first time i saw one, we were on holiday on Kefalonia, I thought it was a magic fairy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Oh, they’re going to be so smug. Even though Celsius makes way more sense imo.
I'm all for switching to metric, but I disagree that the Celsius scale makes more sense. Fahrenheit describes how ambient temperature feels to humans. Celsius describes how ambient temperature feels to water. 45ºC will fry your brain, but 45ºF will prompt you to put on a coat. At 0ºC, it's a tossup whether it'll snow or rain. At 0ºF, it's bloody freezing out. More than half the Celsius scale from 0º to 100º doesn't even apply to humans. Celsius is great for science because it makes the math easier, but it kind of sucks to describe weather.
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It had nothing to do with the British Empire. The UK didn't adopt Celsius until the 1960's (and even then not fully), and some British over seas territories still use Fahrenheit. The change was made because Celsius was proven to be easier and better to work with. Bear in mind that the concept of Fahrenheit is based on frozen Brine and body temperature, 2 things that have a lot of variables.
Yep 0ºB - is temperature a banana freezes, 100ºB when a totally dry banana catches fire
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Feet and inches was standardised before the metric system too. It doesn't mean it is a better system. The same applies to Fahrenheit. I wish the world would ditch Imperial Units and commit to metric. It would make so many areas a great deal easier.
The vast majority of the world has ditched Imperial, and those of us who haven't, don't realize that almost everything we use is held together by metric fasteners
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Regarding imperial versus metric in general. An inch is the length of a joint of the human thumb. A feet is the length of the human foot. A furlong is the distance oxen can plough with resting. An acre is the area that can be sloughed by one man using 8 oxen in one day. The metric system is born from the French revolution 1789-99, which was a rebellion against old traditions and archaic systems. Instead measurements would be based on nature, the eternal laws of nature, not the whims of human rulers. Some of the ideas were too different to get accepted, such as 10 hours instead of 12, or the new calendar and month names. french-rev...784e77.jpg 
*without resting, *ploughed. Sorry for the misspellings. I don't think you can edit when there's an image attached.
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The American accent is actually the original English accent, the English changed it to be different.
I expect almost no one sounds exactly like people did 400 years ago, and then there's the question of which American accent. The are at least dozens. Likewise with British accents
Load More Replies... The US was due to receive the tools needed to implement the metric system from England in the early 1800s and the ship capsized on the way, iirc.
That doesn't explain why I had a unit on the metric system every year in school while Carter was president, or why the owner's manual for my '89 Ford RV calls my 351 Windsor a 5.8l
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Fahrenheit, miles, gauges are one thing. But who is such a proud advocate of his system of the units of measurement, should not use seconds, minutes etc.! Time has probably no longer been enough to create something of their own?
Oh, it's THIS discussion again. Look, both have their uses. I know and use both. Celsius has it's uses for sure but Fahrenheit has finer increments. 212 degrees between freezing and boiling water compared to 100.
It’s a bit tricky to understand what the OP means but if they think the world switched from Fahrenheit to Celsius because of the British empire then they’ve got the wrong end of the stick. ( Invading countries and taking them over is bad whoever’s doing it but that’s a different topic) but Britain was teaching Fahrenheit in schools in the 70s & 80s.
I think it depends on what you want to use it for. Celsius is great for the science side of things, but I like Fahrenheit better for describing everyday temperatures. I can be more specific without having to use decimals.
The "tabloids" in the UK use fahrenheit in their weather "forecasts" during summer to make it *sound* hotter, and celsius during winter so that it *sounds* colder.
As an American I think they are both trash. I prefer the hot as hell or cold as balls scale of temperature gages
No happy medium huh. Are you Canadian too?
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If we go that route the Roemer scale is the first one and nobody is using that these days
I have invented a fairly simple "cheat" for converting from F to C in your head: take the degreees F, subtract 30, divide by 2. (accurate within a couple of degrees - enough to know whether you need a bikini or a parka ... ) - to Reverse, take degrees C, multiply x 2, add 30. (You're welcome!)
The trouble with metric is there are so many zeroes its easy to forget one. (how may square millimetres in a square hectometre? 100000 x 100000 - 10000000000). Whereas Imperial square inches in a square mile (63360 x 63360 = 401448960).
yes! switching is hard if you are math Challenged, as I am
I wish USA used Celsius just because everywhere else I travel uses it and my brain still hasn't gotten it memorized. Sometimes it's good to conform to what the rest of the world does! And don't even get me started on the merits of the 24 hour clock! It's far superior to 12 hour!
Every single piece of electronic device like smart watch, smart phone, tablet what have you has the ability to instantly convert from one system to another. What is so hard about this?
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I am so glad we are on Fahrenheit... Celsius is dumb. I get the metric system being better though.
Celsius just makes more sense. Boiling point of water is 100° and freezing point is 0°. Why in the world would the freezing point be 32°f???
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.
The only way to not repeat history is learn from past mistakes, so they don't hide theirs
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.
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.
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.
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".
Note: this post originally had 80 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
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.
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.
