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35 Fascinating Facts You Might Not Know From The ‘Today I Learned’ Online Group
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, does learning new facts each day keep boredom at bay?
Alright, I promise I’m not writing a Doctor Seuss-esque story here. But if you’re interested in learning something new, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve got a brand new list of facts from the “Today I Learned” subreddit that will give you something fascinating to talk about at your next dinner party.
Be sure to upvote the facts that you learned from this article, and feel free to share anything else you've recently found out in the comments below. We’re never too old to learn something new, so if you’re interested in continuing your education after finishing this article, you can find some of Bored Panda’s previous “Today I Learned” pieces here, here and here!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL the pet food company Chewy sends flowers and a card when a customer's pet dies. They will reimburse the purchase of unopened food and suggest it be donated to a shelter. They also offer the option of talking to someone about the grief of losing a pet.
Annnnd We’re Officially In Reverse 3 years ago
I bought 2 cat carriers for my brother so he could take his cats to the vet, but when I gave them to him he said he didn't need them. Chewy sAid they just wanted me to donate them to shelter and fully refunded me. Love Chewy.
Fraxinus excelsior 3 years ago
This just made me cry again, I had to say goodbye to my little oap Yorkshire terrier this morning. We rescued her from a local dogs home only 4 months ago, but I know we gave her a good last few months. 💔
Cara G 3 years ago
I'm so very sorry for your loss. You certainly did give her the best four months she could have hoped for, your comment makes it very clear. Sending you all my love and gentlest hugs from NY ❤
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Cara G 3 years ago
When I worked in animal medicine, clinics would send a sympathy card for the loss of a pet. This was one of my responsibilities and if it was a particularly difficult loss, a regular patient, one who had a long and special history, I'd compose a special message for the owners to help them feel comforted. When someone was coming in for their pet's final visit, I took extra care to make the exam room cozier by putting down a soft blanket, giving them time to say goodbye, explaining the process, gently going over the paperwork and payment in advance, bringing tissues, and keeping the area quiet. In a way, this was one of the most rewarding parts of my job even though it was incredibly difficult. People say they'd never be able to work with animals for exactly this reason - the sadness. And it IS sad. But the opportunity to help others in their moment of tremendous pain, when you truly understand that pain, is a task I took very seriously. People always remember how you make them feel.
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
When our dog was put down, the vet sent flowers and a sympathy card. It was such a lovely gesture.
Anne Reid 3 years ago
They checked in on me & my doggo when Hurricane Ian hit Florida! Luckily, we were not affected.
Burnt Bagel 3 years ago (edited)
If you could only see the look in our German shepherds eyes when the UPS gal shows up with a Chewy box!
Bad Ass69 3 years ago
If it's anything like the look my Chihuahua gets if someone mentions Churches Chicken! I understand.
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#2
TIL that Steve McQueen had a habit of demanding free items, in bulk, from studios, when doing movies, it was later discovered that these items (like electric razors and jeans) went to Boys Republic reformatory school, where McQueen had been, as a teenager.
Hypoxia Smurf 3 years ago
Part of my (unjailed) youth was lived almost around the corner from Boys' Republic but I never knew McQueen was my neighbor. Now I'm almost around the corner from the high-security reformatory Merle Haggard occupied -- another neighbor!
Cara G 3 years ago
Anyone remember that episode of House M.D. where there was a rat named Steve McQueen?
Allison B 3 years ago
I'm embarrassed to admit I don't know who he is, but that's such a wonderfully kind thing for him to do. Also he looks very handsome in that suit! I love those kind of suits with vests and things
AxleMunshine001 3 years ago
A great actor. He made some iconic films in the late 60s and 70s, like Bullit, Get Carter and The Great Escape. He was great car stunt driver too
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Mary Lugo 3 years ago
His family still hosts a car show. It is one of the most amazing events.
Gémeaux jumeaux 3 years ago
Like Steve/ McQueen/ All I need's a fast machine 🎶🎶 (been in my head all day!)
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TIL since its premiere in 1987 the show Unsolved Mysteries has helped locate half of the wanted fugitives it has featured, reunited over 100 lost loves and freed 7 prisoners who were wrongfully convicted. An additional 260+ cases involving murder, missing persons and fraud have also been solved.
Niki A 3 years ago
"Perhaps YOU can help solve a mystery." (Cue that spooky music that gave 80s and 90s kids all know)
Rylosalex 3 years ago
Loved the show REALLY didnt like the spooky music that played during the credits
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$cagsy 3 years ago
I don't like being critical of the police - I think they have a tough job and most of them do it well. But if a TV show can achieve so much, why on earth can't the police do it?
Izzy Curer 3 years ago
There was this experiment where a bunch of people tried to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. None of them got the correct answer. But when they averaged all of the wrong guesses, it was exactly the correct number of jelly beans. I think it's like that. If you put it on television, suddenly the entire audience has their eyes out for bad guys, not just the police.
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ShellsBells 3 years ago
I watched Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack with my mom growing up. I was so sure I would help solve a case, so since 1987 I have had their number memorized. 1800-876-5353.
StrangeOne 3 years ago
I have the theme song as a ring tone on my phone for unknown callers. LOL.
Noname 3 years ago
Netflix France has been airing episodes, but I wish they'd buy the rights to the entire series and make all the episodes available because it's possible someone, somewhere has information that can help solve cold cases. Never give up hope.
Teresa Spanics 3 years ago
Same here! I also hope that the series is brought back as it can continue to help out people!
Load More Replies... Devon Archer 3 years ago (edited)
The show Americas most wanted started because of a terrible crime that happened to the hosts daughter. He didn’t want it to happen to other people. Essentially… televised Batman.
TheLadyMagic 3 years ago
The Host was John Walsh and the crime that was committed against his family was to his son Adam Walsh. He was kidnapped from Mall, and found decapitated about 10 days later.
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Here at Bored Panda, we’re big fans of the Today I Learned subreddit. And clearly, many other people are too. This online community that is dedicated to sharing “interesting and specific facts” about things that people recently learned has over 29 million members. With so many members sharing a wide variety of fascinating facts, there are no limits to the wealth of information we can harness from this page. We are dedicated to being lifelong learners, and if you are too, you’ll certainly enjoy this fun fact filled list.
While memorizing facts might not be the best way to learn if you want to master a subject or skill, it can be a great jumping off point. According to psychology teacher Marc Smith, “Knowing facts helps us to place other problems into context and access higher order thinking skills. If the facts we have memorized are accurate and accessible they can be used in order to give context to other situations, if we cannot recall these facts we are unable to place new problems into context.”
#4
TIL Oscar the Therapy Cat accurately predicted 25 deaths. After this the staff started notifying family members of residents to come say goodbye if Oscar was curled up next to them.
Auntriarch 3 years ago
At a hospice in Somerset they had a cat called Patrick who would do that
glowworm2 3 years ago
They couldn’t even provide us with Oscar’s actual photo? Cuz that’s not Oscar!
Sawdust 3 years ago (edited)
They set up a photo shoot for Oscar, but the photographer suddenly died before he could deliver the photos.
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#5
TIL some insomniacs may have nights of "sleep misperception", where it feels like you were awake all night but you actually slept for hours.
Brendan 3 years ago
Funnily enough, I have "food misperception" where it feels like I've eaten one cake, but I actually raided a bakery.
Firefly 3 years ago
This must be what my daughter has. After complaints of insomnia, she had a sleep study in the hospital. The next morning, she told us about how she kept waking up and different, specific things that disturbed her sleep. The computer read out showed she had slept well.
Bryn 3 years ago
That's so weird! I have a Fitbit, so it tracks my sleep. And I can swear I remember waking up in the middle of the night... but my Fitbit says I was asleep!
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Deborah B 3 years ago
I took part in a study related to this about 20 years ago, and I swear I was awake at the same time as the researcher said the monitor registered sleep. Still not sure whether I was dreaming or if I was gaslit by the researcher as part of the study.
Brittany Howard 3 years ago
I wonder if it could be both. I wonder if in some cases part of you could be awake and part be asleep? Sort of like lucid dreaming where you're asleep but partially aware?
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StrangeOne 3 years ago
I always have that. And it feels like you haven't gotten much sleep at all.
#6
TIL In 36BCE, Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote about germs, describing "minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which enter the body through the mouth & nose & there cause serious diseases". The germ theory of disease would not be widely accepted for another 1,900 years.
Whitehart 3 years ago
It's thought, based on medical papyri, that the Egyptians developed a preliminary germ theory as well.
Mona Stevenson 3 years ago
So maybe 1,900 years from now, people will discover that vaccines work.
Virgil Blue 3 years ago
I often wonder how much knowledge ancient people had that was lost. F.i. it took us many decades to re invent Roman concrete, a concrete that is very durable and absolutely watertight.
Khara Mei 3 years ago (edited)
That was a case of not writing down that it was specifically seawater that was used, because duh everyone knows you use seawater! We tend to not note down things we consider stating the obvious, because everyone knows that already, so that just gets forgotten. Also why we have lost where Punt was, because no one wrote down where it was, since everyone knows where Punt is!
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David H 3 years ago
the Talmud cites a Jewish text from the 3rd century describing "Invisible insects" that lives in the water, and on items and that some can cause negative effects. There was a lot ancients peoples discovered but were not accepted at the time for various reasons.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
That 1900s is about right. Germ theory had been argued since Varro proposed it but in 1854 Paccini was able to prove cholera was caused by a bacteria and in 1859, Pasteur did his famous swan neck flask experiment. This definitively proved that germs caused disease. The US Civil War and Franco-Mexican War 2 years later with people following the germ theory not dying then the Franco-Prussian War where the army that was vaccinated didn't get smallpox and the one that didn't died made it irrefutable. There is always some crackpots who refuse to believe science (see flat earth) but germ theory has almost universal acceptance.
Surfing Panda 3 years ago
Bacteria existance proven in 1675! Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a cloth merchant from Belgium, afforded humanity a glimpse into a new world: using microscopes he had built himself, he studied pond and rainwater in 1675, discovering what he described as little animals (“animalcula”) – protozoa and bacteria.
Marc notes that not all learning should be centered around simply memorizing facts, but it should not be completely disregarded either. “Memorizing facts can build the foundations for higher thinking and problem solving,” he notes. “Constant recitation of times tables might not help children understand mathematical concepts, but it may allow them to draw on what they have memorized in order to succeed in more complex mental arithmetic. Memorization, therefore, produces a more efficient memory, taking it beyond its limitations of capacity and duration.”
We all know that it would be impossible to learn everything there is to know about the world, or even most subjects. But our brains are hungry for knowledge, and the more that we soak up, the better off we will be. We can better relate to more people and better understand this complex world we live in if we know even a tiny bit about a wide variety of things.
#7
TIL Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children. This myth is based on a single 1978 study; no subsequent study has shown a relationship.
Boreddd🇺🇦 3 years ago
I once saw someone here, on bp, say that the hyperactivity is caused rather by the excitement of getting sugar than the sugar itself, and that is more believable, if you ask me
Monday 3 years ago
Exactly. Kids are hyper because of the experience of getting to eat the sugar, rather than the sugar itself. Also they're kids....kids are just hyper sometimes. So combine kids just being naturally hyper and the excitement of enjoying something delicious and BAM, good ol' sugar rush.
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Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago (edited)
The subsequent studies show that kids get sugar when we want them to feel happy. Here's a candy bar - go play outside. I'm sorry your dog died - here's some ice cream. No one gives a kid a Hershey bar then spanks them for stealing it. The hyperactivity is kids feeling good and its the permission to feel that way, not the sugar that causes the actions.
Joe Reaves 3 years ago
They've done studies which prove the 'hyperactivity' is in the mind of the parents. If the parents were told the children had had sugar then they rated the children's behaviour as being hyper. If they were told they hadn't had sugar, they rated it just as normal.
Frank Brewster 3 years ago
Sugar is literally a stimulant and has been studied extensively in regards to impacting kids/people with ADHD.
Hugo Farr 3 years ago
The idea of sugar causing hyperactivity contradicts human physiology. Sugar is the energy source for body cells (in the form of glucose. If you eat another type of sugar, your body will convert it to glucose). Glucose only feeds cells. It does not hyper-excite the nervous system.
Jaymi Leigh 3 years ago
Okay but then isn't it that the glucose has fed the cells and gives us energy, which might seem like hyper activity? Or am I off base here?
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Seth 3 years ago
There's more evidence supporting that than there is for sugar. We probably shouldn't eat things derived from fossil fuels anyway.
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#8
TIL During the 2000's, Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel, and several other mega corporations had a mutual agreement not to hire each other's employees in order to keep salaries low. This led to a 400 mil class action lawsuit.
WindySwede 3 years ago
I first missed the "," which led me to thinking you commented that these buissines where good 🤭
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Michael Largey 3 years ago
So much for "free market forces" determining everything, like the rich people (and their stooges) tell us.
A. Starhawk Hunt 3 years ago
It’s still out there. I worked in call center work, through a contractor, for one of the absolute most technically important companies in the world. Have not worked for that contractor for 18 months. Paperwork I was required to sign states that I cannot take a job that in any way where I’m working for that technological leader, including taking the training in their processes to them is an offense that can be prospectively could see me in court. I had a choice about signing that paperwork. If I didn’t sign it, I didn’t get the job. Still there. I often feel like a hostage, even though I like what I do.
Joshua David 3 years ago
Companies can still make employees sign a non compete claused with thier employment agreement paperwork. Former HR Business Partner here.
#9
TIL Teddy roosevelt, who is thought of as the national park man, is actually the National forest man. During his presidency he founded 5 of 63 US national parks. As for national forests, he founded 150 of the 154 US national forests!
Den Ver 3 years ago
"Teddy Bears" were named after President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt in 1902, after he refused to shoot a bear in an unsportsmanlike way.
Mobey Drunk 3 years ago
The bear in question was actually a cub. He refused to shoot him because he was so young.
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Den Ver 3 years ago (edited)
US Republicans like to claim Presidents Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt as one of their own, but when President Obama designated Bears Ears as a National Monument, they accused him of presidential overreach and said it was a “federal land grab.”
Wick E. Scratch 3 years ago
One of the reasons, even as a native speaker, English is confusing.... Bear - rhymes with Care. Ear - part of the word Bear - does not rhyme with Bear.
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Frank Miller 3 years ago
Teddy was a very special man. One tough son of a b***h. I think "alpha males" are the antithesis of a man, based on the douchebaggery they ooze, but if ever there was an alpha male, Teddy was it.
2WheelTravlr 3 years ago
Yes, very much so. National Forest Land can still be mixed use including hiking, horseback riders, mountain bikes, motorcycles, ATVs, and 4x4s. It can also be leased for lumber extraction, grazing, and other resource management. None of these is true of National Parks.
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Evelyn Haskins 3 years ago
Any "sportsmanlike shooting" is unforgivable'. Killing animals should NEVER be a sport!!
We are naturally curious beings. As children, we seek to soak up as much information as we possibly can, but somewhere along the way, we sometimes lose this spark. Negative experiences at school or having teachers that suck the life out of every lesson can make us believe that learning is boring. But that’s simply not true. Learning can be about anything! So if you are passionate about playing guitar, writing poetry or woodworking, you still have to dedicate time to learn about those things. But I bet you don’t dread the hours you get to spend educating yourself on those topics because you do it by choice. That’s why “Today I Learned” is so great. Nobody is forcing members to be there or share facts; everyone just genuinely wants to. And when we’re interested in learning, we are much more likely to retain what we’ve read.
#10
TIL that Ben & Jerry's employees are entitled to 3 free pints of ice cream every day.
waddles 3 years ago
mom: what do you wanna be when you grow up? doctor? police officer? me: …mmm ice cream
funkybluegirl 3 years ago (edited)
Knowing how progressive they are, I'll bet they do. Edited to add-I just googled it. They do provide health benefits (including dental and visual). Plus other perks and benefits.
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TheHalloweenTeen 3 years ago
My aunt used to work at am icecream making factory thing, she'd make flavors and stuff. Once we went on a tour and we're allowed to take flavors that hadn't been approved or hadn't been released yet, they were pretty neat. And her freezer was always full of icecream. And then she became a orthodontist.
Veronica Rambo 3 years ago
Ha ha, I wondered why she became an orthodontist!?
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Eat Dirt Crow 3 years ago
The pints they get are from the "oops" pile. Any ice cream that doesn't meet the standards of the company. The local economy actually uses these pints as currency.
funkybluegirl 3 years ago
That's pretty cool. Nothing wrong with the "oops" pile. 🙂
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#11
TIL David Copperfield was once robbed at gunpoint -- but successfully performed an illusion to convince the robbers his pockets were empty when they weren't.
Cold Contagious 3 years ago
David Copperfield is a spectacular illusionist! So glad he conned the con.
#12
TIL traffic roundabouts, compared to intersections with stop signs or signals, have 37% fewer overall collisions, 75% fewer injury collisions, and 90% fewer fatal collisions.
RockSteady 3 years ago
Except if you are in the US because no one knows how to drive around them properly.
Luna Crow 3 years ago
They don't even know how to install them properly. There are some that have stop signs at every entrance, defeating the purpose
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Gavin Johnson 3 years ago
The lower levels of serious injury are due to the fact that the impacts are not at 90° or head on. They are normally at an angle and are glancing blows. Roundabouts are far safer thanks to wider sight lines and you only have to concentrate on the oncoming traffic from one side.
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
So that's why they keep installing more of the things around here. It certainly benefited a local breeding pair of plovers, which are insanely aggressive and territorial birds who nest on the ground. Now they have a nice grassy turning circle to raise their chicks where those pesky pedestrians never set foot. It's good for us humans too, because the bastards have *spikes* on their wings. (Yes, really).
Susan Bosse 3 years ago
I grew up in a small suburb (Wake Village TX) with roundabout but we have always called it "The Circle." That's how it's known. I didn't even know "roundabout" was the actual name of it until about two years ago thanks to Apple Maps. I'm 53. The town was built to support an army base & ammunition plant during the 40s. Supposedly all of the original streets were designed in a rose shape so that if enemy planes flew over they wouldn't think it was a town. The Circle was the center of the rose.
CA3 3 years ago
Well, "circle" is also the "actual name" here in the USA. Early examples are Monument Circle in Indianapolis and Columbus Circle in NYC. We adopted "roundabout" from the British. For the most part, that began in the '90s when "modern roundabouts" were introduced here. (As similar as they appear, there's a technical difference in their design.)
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Fester Sixonesixonethree 3 years ago
Except in the US where laws for roundabouts differ FROM STATE TO STATE. In New York the people IN the circle of the right of way. In New Jersey, the people ENTERING the circle have the right of way.
Jorie 3 years ago
I don't know what the stats are on the one in Warwick, RI, where I live, but it is like driving through a maze. There are yield signs everywhere and more arrows in the roadway than you can possibly pay attention to and still drive safely. I'll sit through a red light any day compared to driving through that thing!
If you need some motivation to help you understand why we should never end our education, we’ve consulted this article from Genashtim. The first reason they note for how learning continuously benefits us is that it helps us generate new ideas. A body in motion stays in motion, and a brain in motion does just the same thing. When we stimulate our brains with new ideas and new information, we are hungry for even more. It is great for us to be exposed to new ideas and new facts all the time. Even if you don’t realize it while reading through this list, you’re giving your brain an even bigger appetite for knowledge!
#13
TIL in 1912 4 yr-old Bobby Dunbar disappeared, was found eight months later in Mississippi with a couple that refuted that it was him. Courts ordered the boy to live with the Dunbars. 100 years later DNA verified that the boy was Bruce Anderson and had been wrongly identified by Dunbar's parents.
Monday 3 years ago
Especially since his biological mother torn apart by the press at the time.
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Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
Reminds me of the other case where a boy went missing and the authorities found another kid the same age and told the mother "good news, here's your son back!" And when she kept insisting that no, it wasn't her kid, they had her thrown in a mental hospital. There's a movie about it, actually. I've been meaning to watch it.
Jesus Ortiz 3 years ago
The way this is written is slightly misleading. Basically the Dunbars used their money, powerful lawyers, and their reputation to legally kidnap the boy Bruce Anderson from his mother, and rename him. This was all revealed by a modern day relative in the Dunbar side of the family, and as a result, she has essentially been ostracized from the family. Look up the video about it in the YouTube channel Decoding the Unknown.
EP 3 years ago
I had a feeling the rich parents were so bereaved over the loss of their son that they were easily convinced any similar kid was theirs bc their brain and hearts latched on. But it would be more twisted if they plotted the whole thing knowingly to fill the hole in their heart. Wow
Load More Replies... Jesus Ortiz 3 years ago
Yup, the Dunbars were very rich, petty, and cartoonists evil in court.
Load More Replies... Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago (edited)
Two families who had their child stolen and never returned. Total aside, but the modern FBI became what it is because of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. First, it was the straw that broke the camel's back on kidnapping. It had become an epidemic (in 1930 had over 2000 cases nationwide in one day)during the late 20s where it was used for both moneymaking schemes and people just wanting a kid and the feds decided the FBI would take over since it crossed state lines so often. The FBI hired over 500 new agents the month after it happened. Second, it was the case that allowed Hoover to finally form the world's first official forensics lab. They'd been doing fingerprints already but the buried baby in NJ required modern science to investigate.
Courtney Christelle 3 years ago
I heard the kidnapping story had inconsistencies and it was suspected the family had something to do with his disappearance.
Load More Replies... JENNI HUNT 3 years ago
This American Life has an interesting podcast about it. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunbar
Catpawsarethebest 3 years ago
This is horrible! I cant imagine if anybody would claim my kids as theirs! I wish the parents stole him back!
Ozymandias73 3 years ago
Another story I saw on Trvl Channel. The Dunbars and gone fishing/camping and when it was time for dinner, that was when the parents noticed Bobby was gone. What happened to Bobby is still a mystery.Sad story.
#14
TIL NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar agreed to appear in the movie "Airplane!" on the condition he be paid $35,000.. the exact price of a rug he wanted to purchase.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
All I know is it really tied the cockpit together.
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Caroline Driver 3 years ago
Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up sniffing glue
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#15
TIL about Giles Corey, who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem trials. He used a legal loophole and refused to plea, which meant he couldn't be tried. He was then tortured to death, but still refused to plea, allowing his children to claim their inheritance.
alias D. 3 years ago
In the almost words of Sam o nella academy this dude was bad a*s
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Norah Bell 3 years ago
Fun fact, Giles is actually my 10th great-grandfather! I always find it so cool that I'm related to such a bada*s
v 3 years ago
Interesting legal loophole tied to the family receiving the inheritance. Makes me wonder is a driver behind the trials had to do with confiscating property?
BluEyedSeoulite 3 years ago
It's widely accepted nowadays that neighbors were trying to steal property from each other
Load More Replies... Hugo Farr 3 years ago
He wasn't killed for being a witch. It was for refusing to provide information.
Khara Mei 3 years ago
The peine forte et dure - a torture of pressing until the defendant enters a plea or dies - was for refusing to enter a plea for the crime of witchcraft. If the defendant doesn't plea to a capital crime (such as witchcraft was), then they can avoid having their property taken. If he had pled then they would have executed him for witchcraft.
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Jean Thompson 3 years ago
Exactly the same situation occurred in York, England, where a lady was "pressed" to death without making a confession. Thus, her children could inherit her estate. It's said that the "kind" executioner placed a sharp rock under her backbone, which soon severed her spinal chord, giving her a quick death. If you should visit York, you can still see the shop she owned in a street called "the Shambles".
Learning also helps keep our passions alive. It can be easy to become stagnant or forget how much you enjoy certain hobbies or activities, but there is always more to be learned! It is silly to assume that we know all there is to know about anything, and especially when it comes to topics we are captivated by, we should never want to stop learning. This also helps us in our social lives, as we’ll never run out of things to discuss. If you meet someone who has very different interests than you, you can still find common ground if you know even a tiny bit about their passions. The more you know about, the better you can relate to others and find ways to connect and relate to them. So in a way, today you're also learning how to be a better friend!
#16
TIL that the geologist Michel Siffre spent 2 months underground without time cues to study how his body clock adapted, repeated the experiment for even longer on himself and more subjects, and discovered that their bodies tended to switch to a 48-hour clock. In one case, one even slept 34 hours.
Sawdust 3 years ago
Beware, they won't let you read Bored Panda while you're in the cave.
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Luna Crow 3 years ago
I believe it. Left to my own whims when I don't have a schedule to follow I tend to both stay up and get up later and later
Marie 3 years ago
They've recently redone the same test. 14 people underground for 40 days. (look for "Deep time") Done by a French team... again.
Tamara 3 years ago
Thank you. I googled, but apparently i have to buy the book. Maybe you can tell me more? Where they in the dark all the time? Did they experiment with lihts on and off? Where they not influenced by eachother and eachothers sleeping habits? It seems easy to corrupt the result, you know, a selffullfilling prophecy kind of thing
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Danielle Edwards 3 years ago
Assuming they were seeking to study the impact of human imposed 'time ordering", I wonder if there are other drivers related to being underground that could play in? Lack of vit D springs to mind. They probably thought of this, I'd love to read the paper!
Stephanie Barr 3 years ago
Ha! I did this in a book where my planet had a day ~37 hours and everyone adapted pretty quickly.
LizzieBoredom 3 years ago
Did anyone measure oxygen levels cuz repeatedly passing out tends to look like a really long nap.
Marie 3 years ago
These experiments were done in large cave system, they have regular air flow, there's no risk of oxygen levels dropping.
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Artsy Bookworm 3 years ago
I love to sleep and always tell my mom that she should not wake me up first day of holidays. Sometimes, I do sleep till 12-12:30. However recently I have noticed that even if I want to I can't sleep past 9-9:30 unless Im that tired. In fact I just finished studying about Circadian rhythm and body clock and this is definitely interesting
BluEyedSeoulite 3 years ago
It depends on age a lot of the time too. I'm curious how much had to do with having young kids. I'll wake up before my kids now, always before 10am when I used to easily sleep until 1pm before having kids. Going to bed at the same time too
Load More Replies... #17
TIL Marjoe Gortner is an Evangelical preacher who decided to pull the curtain back on the scams he and other preachers used. He invited a crew to film behind the scenes as he revealed tricks of the trade and the sacks full of cash he earned nightly. It won the '72 Academy Award Best Documentary.
Karen Jones 3 years ago
They (crooks and the gullible) will always be with us.
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Tiny Dancer 3 years ago
The movie was called simply, "Marjoe", and was released in 1972. It won the Oscar the following year, 1973: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/
Khara Mei 3 years ago
Note that Marjoe specifically took advantage of his charisma purposely on the Revivalist Pentecostal front to specifically scam believers out of their money. It is even explicitly stated on his wiki page. One con artist does not make everyone else a con artist.
Tuna Beach 3 years ago
Certainly one sucker doesn't make the rest of us suckers.
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Alaina Moon 3 years ago
What is this movie I do not see any such movie on the wiki article for that years winners.
Data1001 3 years ago
The year of the award was wrong. It won best documentary feature in 1973.
Load More Replies... Hugo Farr 3 years ago
No. The 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary went to “The Hellstrom Chronicle”, a depiction of the struggle for survival between humans and insects.
Hugh Cookson 3 years ago
There's also a fascinating series on BBC Sounds about Lamar Keene called 'Fake Psychic', he made a shed load of money out of believers in the 'afterlife', eventually being adopted by an elderly lady when he was in his 40's having convinced her that he could communicate with her dead son. He eventually got very disillusioned and turned whistleblower. Look up the podcast, it's well worth a listen.
#18
TIL certain species of wild oats are able to walk. They have a pair of 'legs' called awns which flex and make the seeds crawl around, to find an ideal place to plant itself.
Marie Dahme 3 years ago
Now I know I need to live by the ocean! Sea water kills the triffids! Lol
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WindySwede 3 years ago
Yes! This is really cool! My dad showed me this when I was little. Mind blown! And definitely the wrong picture here.. barley, not Avena fatua as it should have. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avena_fatua
Don't even 3 years ago
Iirc from my first job, barley has a mechanism that when moisture is introduced a 'hair' starts to kind of do a corkscrew maneuver giving the seed a higher chance of getting under the soil.
GoldfishCrackers 3 years ago
Visuals with narration by Sir David Attenborough (of course)- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NlUparIDfzE
We should never underestimate the power of learning, even when it comes to how it can benefit our health. Learning new skills has been linked to various mental health benefits, including lower rates of depression and anxiety, higher levels of optimism, self-esteem and life satisfaction and greater abilities to cope with stress. It can also help prevent or delay age-related mental decline, such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Perhaps learning a new fact a day can actually keep the doctor away after all.
#19
TIL in an effort to protect her son and daughter from falling under the sinister charms of Charles Manson, Angela Lansbury relocated her family from LA to Ireland. Describing Ireland as “free from bad influences”, she then refused work to better support their recovery from heroin addiction.
Missy Corron 3 years ago
That headline is poorly written. AL upped stakes AFTER her addict daughter was swept up in charismatic cult lead by Charles M. And moved her two heroin addicted young adult children to Cork, Ireland and then stuck by them refusing to work until both her offspring were safely in recovery!!! Frankly BP that tagline is misleading to the point of making AL sound silly and selfish!
Louie 3 years ago
Thanks for the explanation! I really couldn’t make sense of BP’s text
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tuzdayschild 3 years ago
She stopped acting for a while to take care of her kids.
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Wick E. Scratch 3 years ago
I initially read the last line to mean she didn't do anything to support their recovery, but it appears that was the incorrect interpretation
v 3 years ago
The ability to write well is a fantastic, yet underrated, life skill. Based only on the above, her children were young enough that they had no choice in moving to Ireland yet were heroin addicts all the same.
MaryAnn Ryan 3 years ago
Poorly worded. Should say, "she turned down work in Hollywood in order to care for her child/children who struggled with heroin addiction."
Yeah, okay. 3 years ago
Good grief that paragraph was terribly written. Her children were not small, they were teens. They were both addicted to heroin when she moved, because her daughter was IN Mansons cult at the time, and she TURNED DOWN movie roles until they recovered. Sheesh.
#20
TIL Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating the Secret Service on April 14, 1865, the day he was assassinated.
Telepathetic 3 years ago
At the time they were to investigate counterfeiting. Protecting the President was not their duty until after the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley
OwenHasADHD 3 years ago
The guy who actually helped set it up was George B. McClellan, the same guy who Lincoln fired two times and ran for office against.
BisexualBaddie 3 years ago (edited)
Wait are you talking about Lincoln? bc Abraham Lincoln actually didn't free the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. He wasn't even against slavery, either. But if you were talking about McClellan, then sorry carry on idk enough about him lol
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Sawdust 3 years ago
"🎵🎶 _You create the Secret Service, but one day too late._ 🎵🎶"
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Sage Gusano 3 years ago
"When's this go into effect?" "The first agents will be on duty tomorrow, Mr. President."
Spooky Scary Skeletons 3 years ago
The Secret Service was originally created to go after counterfeiters.
The Forgotten Loser 2 years ago
I remember reading something about Abe actually "knowing" about his assassination because he had continuous dreams about it. His butler even said he thought it was strange that Abe said "Goodbye" instead of "Goodnight" like he always did before leaving the house. (I don't know how accurate this is, it's just what I read in some article a few years ago.)
#21
TIL about bank robber and kidnapper Vassilis Palaiokostas who is known as the "Greek Robin Hood" for giving away most of his stolen millions to the poor. He escaped by helicopter from the same maximum security prison twice while serving a 25 year sentence and remains at large despite a €1m bounty.
Ryner 3 years ago
More kidnappers! What an astonishingly amazing brilliant idea.
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𝖊𝖆 3 years ago
It would probably be easier to set up a network of Robin hoods to rob insurance companies in America blind and help the every day people get proper medical care, than reform their broken system
PandaRave 3 years ago
Yeah, that way he sounds have to muddy his legacy by doing kidnapping to get the extra cash.
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Dimitris Kolozakis 3 years ago
There are so many stories of poor villagers that this guy helped in central Greece. Most of the times they didn't even know who he was, when they were giving shelter to him
No Name 3 years ago
Ok, but what about the kids who were napped? Were they taken from abusive homes or something?
Sina 3 years ago
He didn't kidnap children, rather he and his brother kidnapped a rich CEO of a food manufacturing company and held him hostage until the family paid a ransom of 260000000 drachmas. The link about Palaiokostas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassilis_Palaiokostas The link about the company whose CEO got kidnapped: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitoglou_Bros
Load More Replies...As kids, many of us tried to rush through our education to move onto the next stage of life, but the reality is that life itself is a constant form of schooling. Iulian Ionescu wrote in his blog post “The Simple Answer To Why You Should Never Stop Learning”, “Everyone wants to be finished with school so that they can start their ‘real’ life. I think that’s a distorted view. Life doesn’t consist exclusively of your skills, knowledge, and wisdom. There are vast parts of your character that you don’t even touch in school. For all intents and purposes, you are not a fixed person. No matter how much you’d like to think that you are finished growing, time will change you. Events will change you. The world will change and evolve around you.”
#22
TIL the car coordinator of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood managed to locate the exact 1959 Ford driven by the Manson Family, but a replica was used instead because the idea of having the real Manson car was considered too creepy.
#23
TIL Wheat and Barley were ancient Egyptian pregnancy tests. A woman would urinate on bags of barley and wheat and if they sprouted, she was likely pregnant. A 1963 study found that this was accurate ~70% of the time.
Debby Keir 3 years ago
But if you wee'd on them and weren't pregnant, presumably it only sprouted less than 60%, so you had to avoid getting water one them.....
Load More Replies... Monday 3 years ago
It works every time, except the times when it doesn't!
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Eris Kallisti 3 years ago
Oh, Halsey did this in the "If I Can't Have Love I Want Power" video and I was not sure what was happening
Missy Corron 3 years ago
Sadly probably self-selection bias. If you go pee on grain it's because you think you could be pregnant!!!
#24
TIL that Pope Innocent VIII was breastfed while he was on his deathbed, as that was the only thing he could eat or drink.
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
"You know what, screw it. I'm dying anyway - might as well live out that secret fantasy before I go."
BluEyedSeoulite 3 years ago
I'm still wondering why they didn't just hand express the milk and give it to him in a cup... It isn't that difficult. I'd rather not have to hand express but I'd rather hand express than have an elderly man on my boob
Fester Sixonesixonethree 3 years ago
Goat milk seems more appropriate... "could" or "would" being the difference...
As my mother used to ask me every afternoon upon getting home from school, “What did you learn today?” Hopefully many things already! Keep upvoting the fun facts that blow your mind, and feel free to share even more in the comments. We can never truly be bored, pandas, if we’re always expanding our knowledge. And if you want to read some more articles featuring fun facts from “Today I Learned”, you can find several more here, here and here!
#25
TIL the vocals for the Gnarls Barley song "Crazy" (2006) were recorded in one take. Not only that, it was the first time singer CeeLo Green ever tried singing the lyrics. The song topped the charts in many countries and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
Philipp Bubmann 3 years ago
that's great. was the one with the line "it's only rape if she is conscious"?
Brocken Blue 3 years ago
That song always sounds so light and freewheeling— crazy it’s a first take
beeker 3 years ago
When they performed it at the Grammys, I was blown away. That was an awesome performance and only one of a few that I actually remember out of all the Grammys.
Philipp Bubmann 3 years ago
that's great. was that the one with the line "it's only rape if she is conscious"?
#26
TIL Boeing built an entire fake town on top of their Seattle area factory during WW2.
Russ Kincade 3 years ago
With the help of a handful of GIs and Hollywood prop gurus, the US army created a "ghost army" to trick the Germans in WW2. Facinating movie by the same name - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2649274/
Carol Emory 3 years ago (edited)
My Grandfather was an air raid warden in Seattle at the time. Wearing his white hat and yelling "lights out" through their neighborhood in the University District. He took that job very seriously and my Grandmother saved the helmet he wore as well as all the headlines from all the major newspapers.
Barong 3 years ago
Lockheed (Burbank) was also camouflaged, prior to Boing. We took a page brim the British playbook. In fact the same man Col. John F Ohmer Who pioneered camouflaging in the Battle of Britain oversaw this along with help from the movie studios.Disney, Metro-Goldwyn Mayor, Paramount, 21st Century Fox, and the likes. They disguised the factory as countryside alfalfa fields and suburbs. Roth hundreds of fake trees and shrubs, disguising the runway lines with an alfalfa field painted on it. At 5,000 ft it was pretty much invisible. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/12/how-military-hid-lockheed-burbank.html?m=1
G'ma B 3 years ago
My mom worked in the Lockheed (Burbank) cafeteria during that time. I was little and SO fascinated by the farm and all the animals just "floating" over the factory on a big net.
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Stephanie Hatton 3 years ago
No, it was all just a facade. Think of it kind of like a movie set. But they took a lot of time and effort to line up the "streets" with the real streets and make it look like the surrounding neighborhood. Boeing employees would go up there during their breaks and walk around and turn on/off lights to make it look more realistic.
Load More Replies... #27
TIL TGI Fridays stopped requiring employees to wear flair after Office Space came out and customers began making jokes about the flair.
JustinTime 3 years ago
When restaurant workers have to wear flashy buttons, pins, etc. to make the work atmosphere seem fun. Office Space does a good job of mocking the fake fun work environment.
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Plenty Pineapples 3 years ago
I worked at TGIF Australia. Pretty much the most toxic workplace I've ever worked for. Bullying and trauma, racism, disgusting behaviour backed by management. The exact opposite of the fun facades 🤮🤮
AK to LV 3 years ago
Yikes!! I hope you are in a better working situation now🤞
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CD King 3 years ago
That is so great. I love it when movies influence things, for the better, in real life. I'm sure every TGIF server HATED that flair. It was like being a walking billboard.... OK, I know people do it everyday wearing Nike And Abercrombie and Finch T-shirts, but that is by choice not because your job depends on it.
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
Colourful badges and such worn by employees to create a fun, family friendly environment for customers, apparently.
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2picklesinabun 3 years ago
Haha I had no idea that the flair was real pre Office Space (great movie btw). "TF is a PC load letter?!!"
Mary Jeffries 3 years ago
Every time I felt like I couldn’t finish nursing school, I’d watch Office Space and then double down on my studies. Love that movie.
#28
TIL that US Navy sailor's love of ice cream in world war II was so great that in 1943 the navy purchased an 'ice cream barge' to act as a mobile ice cream making factory for sailors and marines. The barge was capable of producing 10 gallons of ice cream every 7 minutes.
harpling 3 years ago
But did the ice cream barge broadcast tinny mariachi music on a loop as it sailed around? Otherwise, how would the sailors know to beg money off their commanders and go running down to the shore to meet it?
Tiny Dancer 3 years ago
It's a real shame that the only surviving picture of soldiers eating ice cream has to include the slogan, "LEAD THAT J*P". Seems jokes about genocide slip right past BP's stringent censors.
TotallyNOTaFox 3 years ago
Summer on an island in the Pacific must be hot, so it's not surprising that they liked ice cream
#29
TIL that Ticketmaster was caught recruiting resellers to scalp its own tickets.
Cold Contagious 3 years ago
Isn't Live Nation just as bad? I haven't cared that much for them but with my short term memory problems, I can't remember all of them. I do know that one of the incidents was during a VIP ticket concert and meet and greet that cost over $275 and the seating doesn't always have numbers for VIP sections. We did the swag bags and photos first and I was expecting us to have a section for ourselves as most do when you get finished with the photos, but we were told to go out the way we came in and out to the venue with no other direction. When all of the VIP's went back outside the venue was packed up to the stage and no space for anyone to squeeze in. A couple of guys strong armed people to get up there but if you're 5ft tall like me, you're just fûcked, hence paying extra money for a special seat. I called and spoke with them about it but they didn't care at all. So I put them on blast on Twitter and they sent dm's but still did nothing. I'm also disabled or I probs wouldn't care as much.
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Dennis Stanley 3 years ago
This is one of multiple reasons they're referred to as Ticketbastard.
aurelia grey 3 years ago
I worked for this company. I'd rather have five root canals, no Novocain, then ever work for them again.
Missy Corron 3 years ago
It is now practically impossible to buy tickets directly from any live event!!! Even Broadway outsourced (with markup) ticket sales! Hence Hamilton tix costing upwards of $500!!!
Anthony Villoria 3 years ago (edited)
What does scalping tickets mean? Is it like when some people buy tons of tickets and then resell them for a profit? Why would they do this?
Solidhog 3 years ago
Ticket master in their termsof sale tell you it is illegal to resell tickets, but.....they own the reselling site "Getmein"! Even worse, they have people on the payroll that allow them to use their name and address to "buy" tickets and put them on the site for increased cost without even having to purchase them. You then buy the tickets and they arrive in somebody elses name. Company should of been closed down a long time ago.
#30
TIL that during the looting of the Chinese imperial palace at the end of the 2nd Opium War, the British soldiers took a Pekingese dog to gift to Queen Victoria. She named it "Looty".
lauralett50 3 years ago
In 1953 the Communist party of China rounded up all Pekingese Shih tzu,& Lahsa Ahpso 's . They were exterminated. The reasoning for this is the pets of the Empirical family. Fortunately, 13 breeding pairs were given to ambassador's from other countries,by the Emperor. That is where all those moderns dogs came from. This is from the A.K.C. bios.
Missy Corron 3 years ago
And non of the loot has been returned to their original homes.... Looking at You Elgin!!
Jing Yi Xu 3 years ago
So, so many priceless artefacts and items were stolen or destroyed from countless cities in China but especially Beijing and Nanjing, and hidden away in foreigners homes and museums. China isn't blameless in their looting either but such a large chunk was taken out it makes me sad to this day. When foreigners visit yuamingyuan in Beijing, I have heard they are struck down by sadness as the British and French looted and destroyed so much. During the Second Opium War, French and British troops captured the palace on 6 October 1860, looting and destroying the imperial collections over the next few days. As news emerged that an Anglo-French delegation had been imprisoned and tortured by the Qing government, with 19 delegation members being killed,the British High Commissioner to China, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, retaliated by ordering the complete destruction of the palace on 18 October, which was then carried out by troops under his command. It took 4000 men 3 days to destroy it.
Jing Yi Xu 3 years ago
The looted goods are now ilplaced in at least 47 museums around the world.
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Farid Red 3 years ago
So looting is legal? Brit still hold the possession of other country treasure.
Adam Jeff 3 years ago
Yes, under the legal principle of 'finders keepers, loosers weepers, nya nya nya nyah' on which the British Empire was based.
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#31
TIL Emperor Hirohito of Japan was given the original print of the Disney short Lambert the Sheepish Lion, after it was learned it was his favourite Disney film.
Melissa 3 years ago
I saw it on Disney + recently. They have many of their old cartoons, just not the really racist ones.
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#32
TIL World War II codebreaker Dilly Knox used to solve coded enemy messages in the bathtub and persuaded his superiors to have a bathtub installed in his office in the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty.
RandomFrog(He/They️️) 3 years ago
I started reading in the bath and now when I have a bath it’s the only time I can focus on a book.
Šimon Špaček 3 years ago
If you have an amazing codebreaker who need to work in hot water... Well, why not give him bath in his office?
A. Starhawk Hunt 3 years ago
And Jean-Paul Marat was murdered in his bathtub…..tubs may not be good for some….
#33
TIL Physiologist Giles Brindley, in 1983 presented his treatment for erectile disfunction by injecting himself before his talk and dropping his pants to show the crowd of urologists.
Kel_how 3 years ago
Are you giving a talk on erectile dysfunction or are you just happy to see me?
The crushinator 3 years ago
There's a joke about a standing ovation in here somewhere, but i'm not gonna make it..
RJ 3 years ago
Hello sir! You look like a man who can't maintain an erection, try our new injection. Guaranteed to put wowzers in your trousers!
Gémeaux jumeaux 3 years ago
Gives a whole new meaning to snake oil salesman
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Ruben Sanchez Gonzalez 3 years ago
Talk about visualizing everyone in the audience being naked...
Jill Hojnacki 3 years ago
How did he prove an initial dysfunction if the first time he, um, displayed himself, it was, uh “working”? I mean, maybe it was the injection, or, maybe it was the excitement of getting away with displaying himself in public. How could they know which was the case? How could they know it was in any way dysfunctional to start with? They just took his word for it?
Brittany Howard 3 years ago
I suppose he didn't need to prove dysfunction. If he started flaccid and used no other method to become erect, then the injection proved effective.
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#34
TIL Mel Gibson originally intended for The Passion of the Christ to have no subtitles, despite the film being entirely in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic.
Izzy Curer 3 years ago (edited)
Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to film Star Trek in Esperanto, with subtitles.
Data1001 3 years ago
Roddenberry, or Shatner? Because I know Shatner did a film in Esperanto.
Load More Replies... AffenpinscherMom 3 years ago
Even though Mel doesn't have some of the best ideas and comes across like an a-hole, I still think this movie and especially Apocalyptica were extremely well directed and very well done. They both were very intense and left me feeling some sort of way after watching them.
Mario Strada 3 years ago
Funny story. When I watched the movie and heard the Roman Guards speak Latin, I could tell immediately by their accent if they were from Rome or not. Most were (those that spoke). The Roman dialect has disappeared, but the accent is very persistent and very easy to discern.
Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano 3 years ago
My Latin teacher told my class that the other day!!
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Fester Sixonesixonethree 3 years ago
No one should, IMO, ever watch this horrible snuff movie - the only reason it wasn't banned was because it's "religious".
BluEyedSeoulite 3 years ago
I saw it in theaters. I think my dad wanted to watch it. There were a lot of church ladies in their Sunday best in the showing. It was a very quiet and awkward exit at the end
Load More Replies... Hugo Farr 3 years ago
Steven Spielberg did not use subtitles in the Spanish language portions of his West Side Story remake because he believes subtitles are “racist”.
BluEyedSeoulite 3 years ago
Wouldn't a clever solution be to use Spanish subtitles for the English parts, English subs for the Spanish parts? I saw D-War in Korea (don't unless you turn it into a drinking game, it's terrible) and they didn't add subs for the Korean part in the beginning. It was kinda annoying since I understood about half of what they were saying
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Jp@nda 3 years ago
Have you looked into Jim Caviezel? That guy makes Mel look like Mr. Rogers
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#35
TIL that there was a 60s band named Nirvana that tried to sue the 90s band for having the same name as them. They wanted to cover them after that, but the project was scrapped due to Kurt Cobains death.
Michael Largey 3 years ago
I have several albums by the first Nirvana, and they are quite good and very original.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
This is a gray area but traditionally you can have the same trademarked band name as long as it doesn't cause confusion. No one is going to confuse the Dove bar (soap) with the Dove bar (ice cream). Once you try to make money off of the other one's success, then you get in trouble.
Rigor Moreno 3 years ago
Naming your band is like naming a person, surely there's one with same...
#36
TIL When the printing press made its debut in Europe in the 15th century, thousands of old texts were 'recycled' for use as binding material for newer books. In 2015, researchers at Leiden University started using an x-ray technique to reveal these texts. Some are up to 1,300 years old.
#37
TIL The Fairey Swordfish biplane was considered out of date by 1939 but was effective throughout WW2. Swordfish sunk more enemy tonnage than any other plane, sunk numerous U-boats, disabled the Bismarck, and remained in use into 1945.
TotallyNOTaFox 3 years ago
"Those believed dead live longer" is a saying that applies especially for planes - the A-10 for example was planned to be put to rest a long time ago, same for the B-52 and yet they are still in service
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
Sometimes a perfect tool is perfect for a job. There's a reason the ballpoint pen perfected by Biro in 1938 refuses to go away in an internet age. Its not perfect for every job but nothing invented since then is better for this specific application.
Load More Replies... #38
TIL that in 2005 burglars stole $71.6 million from a bank in Fortaleza, Brazil by setting up a fake landscaping company near the bank and digging a 256ft tunnel beneath two city blocks to the bank over 3 months. Neighbors noticed vanloads of soil removed daily but assumed it was business-related.
harpling 3 years ago
"The League of Red-Headed Gentlemen" by Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes foiled a group of bank robbers using this exact plan!
#39
TIL the British had a secret WW2 plan called Operation Tracer to leave behind an observation post if the Germans captured Gibraltar. Six men were to be sealed inside a hidden chamber to observer the harbor and Strait of Gibraltar. They would have had 7 years of supplies and bicycle-powered radios.
Izzy Curer 3 years ago
It's fine, they would have just reverted to 48 hour days and slept for 36 hours at a time.
#40
TIL After traveling more than 1 billion miles, a Japanese spacecraft brought 1,500 grains from an asteroid back to Earth in 2010. It was the first time samples from an asteroid had been brought back to Earth.
Telepathetic 3 years ago
How much is a "Grain"? Is it like a grain of Sand ? Need Banana for scale
#41
TIL that Nosferatu plagiarized Bram Stoker's book Dracula. Stoker's estate sued them and attempted to destroy all copies of the film, but at least one copy made its way to the US where Stoker's book had already become public domain. For this reason, it survived and circulated as a cult classic.
Synsepalum 3 years ago
Check out In the Shadow of the Vampire. Great Film. Malkovich and Dafoe, produced by Nick Cage.
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#42
TIL that the dogs in competitive agility don’t rehearse the course ahead of time. The courses are randomized at each competition, and the trainers (without their dogs) only see the layout beforehand on the same day. When the dog runs the course they are literally seeing it for the first time.
harpling 3 years ago
My dog runs an agility course every time she tries to jump on the bed, neatly avoiding all the barriers I've put up to try to stop her.
3 Owls In A Coat 3 years ago
I used to do agility with my dogs! It was so much fun 😊 especially because they were really dorky and sucked at it, it was always a laugh
#43
TIL the US didn’t have the $15m to pay France for Louisiana, so they financed it through banks in London. Napoleon had made the deal with the US to fund his war against Great Britain and Europe. Britain allowed this deal to go through only because they didn’t want France to have their NA territory.
#44
TIL that the line "You gotta keep 'em separated" in The Offspring's song "Come Out and Play" came from when singer Dexter Holland worked in a biology lab. He had two steaming flasks of liquid that weren't cooling off when placed next to each other, so he thought, "I've got to keep 'em separated."
StrangeOne 3 years ago (edited)
LOL I just learned this this weekend while watching an interview. Much of their songs are not based on their own personal experiences. More like inspired by what they've heard from other people. Or just completely made up.
Olivia Dean 3 years ago
Nope. It came from an exasperated mother when discussing what you need to do when kids are fighting and it's bucketing down with rain outside...
#45
TIL that the Watergate scandal began when burglars acting on behalf of the Nixon administration broke into Democratic campaign headquarters. They were caught because their lookout (posted in a hotel next door) was watching "Attack of the Puppet People" on TV and didn't notice the police arriving.
Powerful Katrinka 3 years ago
Given what's gone on in the last couple of years, the Watergate break-in feels almost quaint.
David H 3 years ago
people forget the head of the break in team was a former CIA agent who, while active in the CIA in 1964, under illegal orders from President Johnson, bugged the Goldwater campaign HQ. When Nixon became president, he kept secret that Johnson had done that and later in 1972 hired the same person to do the same job, though this time, after the persons retirement.
#46
TIL Throughout its history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
Per the Mormons, the garden of eden is just a bit north in Jackson County, Missouri. I'm sure we could convince the Muslims to move the Dome of the Rock, the Jews to move Solomon's Temple, and the Christians to move the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to New Orleans to have everything close to where it all began.
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#47
TIL Caffeine is a banned substance by the NCAA. A urinary caffeine concentration exceeding 15 micrograms per milliliter (corresponding to ingesting about 500 milligrams, roughly 6 to 8 cups of brewed coffee, two to three hours before competition) results in a positive drug test.
Colin Matthews 3 years ago
Its especially effective if you abstain for several days then chow down before a contest
Dodomaster Lord of chickens 3 years ago
National college athletics association I believe
Load More Replies... #48
TIL In the 18-1900s dueling scars were a prominent feature of German officers and academics. The scars were symbols of courage and also showed one was "good husband material". Some would even make their own scars by cutting themselves.
Ray Heap 3 years ago
Still get them in the “Schlagende Verbindungen” in some universities and they are called: “Schmiß” Beats frat house keg parties hands down.
Dee 3 years ago
Only the middle is a part Ola Pe, the barrettes and the sheen of her hair do look like additional parts but aren’t.
Load More Replies... #49
TIL about the McTrain, McDonald’s attempt in the '90s to turn dining service cars on German trains into mini restaurants. The cars had deep fryers, coffee machines, soda fountains, water heaters, and a 269-square-foot kitchen.
#50
TIL The night before Emperor Hirohito's surrender broadcast army officers launched a coup. The officers occupied the Imperial Palace trying to destroy the Emporer's surrender record and assassinate officials. The plan failed when the record was smuggled out and the military didn't support the coup.
Whitehart 3 years ago
The record was targeted not only because it was a surrender, but also because it's broadcast would be the first time than an Emperor of Japan spoke directly to the common people. It literally broke thousands of years of tradition.
#51
TIL Sonora Carver, one of the first female horse divers, went blind from retinal detachment while diving with her horse, Red Lips, at an Atlantic City show in 1931. Despite her permanent injury, she continued horse diving for another 11 years.
#52
TIL in 2014 a drum of radioactive nuclear waste burst when workers used organic kitty litter to absorb the volatile chemicals. The cleanup cost was estimated to be $600mil+.
Phendrena 3 years ago
Cat litter has been used for years to dispose of nuclear waste. Dump it into a drum of sludge and it will stabilize volatile radioactive chemicals. The litter prevents it from reacting with the environment..... .... .... "It was the wrong kitty litter," says James Conca, a geochemist in Richland, Wash., who has spent decades in the nuclear waste business.... .... .... ... ... Here is the article with details : https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/05/23/315279895/organic-kitty-litter-chief-suspect-in-nuclear-waste-accident
harpling 3 years ago
They should have used the fresh-step kind instead of the clumping kind, obviously.
Load More Replies... Phendrena 3 years ago
Here : https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/05/23/315279895/organic-kitty-litter-chief-suspect-in-nuclear-waste-accident
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#53
TIL about Melanie Martinez, a Louisiana native who had five separate houses destroyed by five separate hurricanes: Betsy (1965), Juan (1985), George (1998), Katrina (2005) and Isaac (2012).
TotallyNOTaFox 3 years ago (edited)
Maybe it's time to move somewhere where no hurricanes happen?
3 Owls In A Coat 3 years ago
I just heard a podcast about her - when asked why she didn’t move, she said that this was her home where all her family and friends are and she doesn’t want to leave them!
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Ranger Kanootsen 3 years ago
yeah,. im sure I've heard her music before...
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#54
TIL about the famous American novelist Winston Churchill who was the reason why the British prime minister referred to himself as Winston Spencer Churchill. They met on occasion, but gradually Spencer Churchill’s rise to power steamrolled the American into obscurity.
Adam Jeff 3 years ago
you know that just makes people look for it, right?
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the bean master 3 years ago
Uh oh, controversial opinion, don't you know to not make fun of Churchill, the brits will skin you alive.
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#55
TIL that Michael Jackson's Thriller album was the best-selling album in the U.S. for 2 years straight, sold 32 million copies worldwide by 1983, and was certified 34x Platinum by the RIAA in 2021, making it one of only two albums to ever get more than 3x Diamond certified.
Wick E. Scratch 3 years ago
Fun fact: the lead guitar part in 'Beat It' was written by and performed by Eddie Van Halen
Sans Serif 3 years ago
The guitar work on "Thriller" was performed by Steve Lukather. EVH only (re)arranged and played the "Beat It" solo.
Load More Replies... Tiny Dancer 3 years ago (edited)
The only album to beat it (see what I did there?) was 1976's "Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)" by the Eagles (38X Platinum). Ironically, the next highest-selling album after "Thriller" is another one from the Eagles, 1976's "Hotel California" (26X Platinum).
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Tiny Dancer 3 years ago
He's listed as the writer and co-producer with Quincy Jones for, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "The Girl Is Mine", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean", so that's not too shabby.
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#56
TIL General Hancock chose to sacrifice an entire regiment to save the Union Army during the Civil War. The 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, 250 men, was ordered to charge a brigade of roughly 1200 men. They suffered a staggering 82% casualties; the largest loss by any surviving U.S unit in a day.
Kathryn Baylis 3 years ago
I could not either give or execute an order like that. It’s why I never joined the military, even for the free college. Then again, I’m someone who would rather exhaust every possible diplomatic option long before putting boots on the ground. The person whose first action is a violent one is a person who is incapable of thinking of a better, and less lethal, way to mediate their disputes.
I'm.Just.A.Girl 3 years ago
This is a very well written comment and a very intelligent one. I completely agree
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