Knowledge is power. And we’re aiming to have our power levels go over 9,000! One of the best infotainment features on Bored Panda is our biweekly article about the ‘Today I Learned’ online community that values education above everything else and puts the fun in learning. You know you’re on the right path when it’s not just your audience, but also you who’s expanding your mind as you work.
Go on, have a scroll down and check out the newest TIL posts. Don’t forget to upvote the ones that you found enlightening. Got an opinion that you think everyone should hear or a fun fact that you just can’t wait to share with all the other Pandas? Write us a comment below.
When you’re done absorbing all the new factoids in this list and if you’re still aiming for your PhD in cool trivia, then you should definitely check out Bored Panda’s latest posts about the TIL community right here, over here, as well as here.
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TIL that a cow escaped from a Polish farm and was spotted months later living with a herd of wild bison.
We choose our destiny. Thelma decided she is a bison and we should all accept her choices.
Yup, european bison. They were almost extinct but sciencists made a new population in Białowieża forest almost 100 years ago.
Load More Replies...All I can think of is a white middle aged housewife with a motorcycle gang
TIL Juice Company Dumped 12,000 Tonnes Of Orange Peels On Virtually Lifeless Soil, 16 Years Later, It Turned Into A Lush Forest
Well, if they dumped the peels in the ocean, it would have been a Navel catastrophe.
Load More Replies...I read about this earlier. 1997 in Costa Rica. Organic peels, used as experimental green fertilizer. Unfortunately they stopped this after other juice companies tried to sue them for "illegal waste disposal" and stuff (or more like "they dont have to pay for disposal, why do have we to?")
Composting is one of the few things humans can do to repair a small part of the damage we've done to the planet. We owe it to future generations and all the other life on this planet.
In 16 years it might have turned into a lush forest even without the orange peels.
I thought that too... maybe even sooner as the pH of an orange peel is 3-4 (fairly acidic) which causes problems with plant nutrient uptake.
Load More Replies...This is cool! Not the best idea, but at least there's now a forrest!
TIL that even though Edward Bannister won 1st prize for painting at the 1876 Philadelphia centennial international exhibition, after discovering Bannister's identity, the judge wanted to rescind his award because he was black. However this wasn't possible due to protests from the other competitors.
The judge's name should be known also. There should be some kind of a wall of shame (or walls) for these people too.
No, it shouldn't! Why should this person be remembered for anything? Best letting this person go down history into nothingness.
Load More Replies...Good for the other competitors who were obviously before their time.
This sort of chops down the people who defend their elderly relatives racism "because of the times" it was never the time it was always thr people
This was almost 150 years ago!!! And so many people want to judge him by 21st century mores! Grow up & get a life...a 21st century one!
Load More Replies...At the end of the day. The right person won the prize and nothing can take that away from him
The judge? I hope he was recalled. Competitors were honest and fair, that's not that usual.
The ‘Today I Learned’ community over on Reddit continues to grow daily. At the time of writing, it’s at over 25.4 million members, but if you’re betting smart, you know that this number will keep on climbing and climbing.
The community’s got over 12.5 years of experience documenting and sharing cool bits of information that you probably didn’t learn at school. While some of these facts will be useful no matter what stage of life you’re in, others are more niche and might only pop up in trivia competition lightning rounds.
TIL that when the Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire the some 200,000 bees that live in the roof were thought to be dead, but in fact they were still alive after the fire.
I was going to say a miracle, but the article said; European bees - unlike other species - stay by their hive after sensing danger, gorging on honey and working to protect their queen. High temperatures would have posed the biggest risk, but Mr Géant explained that any smoke would have simply intoxicated them. "Instead of killing them, the carbon dioxide makes them drunk, puts them to sleep," he told AP.
Load More Replies...Smoke makes them sleepy. As long as the fire avoids the hive itself they would be perfectly fine.
Doesn't actually make them sleepy - it makes them go into the hive and eat the honey so they have the energy to escape and rebuild. It's a response to a forest fire. As a beekeeper, I know that it actually agitates them quite a bit, and sometimes I don't use a smoker when I do an inspection.
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TIL that the Mississippi river was once five miles wide and whales swam up it from the gulf of Mexico. The remains of these whales have been found in Michigan
Most of the Plains states (from the Appalachians to the Rockies, Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean) used to part of a massive inland sea (Niobraran Sea) during the Cretaceous. I always have to remind myself that just because that land looks one way now, doesn't mean that it can't change again due to climate change or general tectonics.
The fossil record indicates all of the world has been underwater at some point or another... and, btw, not all at the same time. The midwestern plains were once an inland sea, which is probably where those whale skeletons came from.
So I don't think that at the time they are talking about it was a river: instead the North American continent was divided in two by a shallow sea that connected what was the Arctic ocean with what became the gulf of Mexico. This would explain the Michigan connection as the entire region that became the Great Lakes was underwater. After the sea closed due to the rising of the continent and merging of tectonic plates, there was an ice age and the entire northern region of the North America, including the Great Lakes was under ice. When the ice melted the Mississippi was born. Whoever posted this is conflating two epochs and drawing erroneous conclusions.
Lake Michigan is connected with the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois Waterway, which encompasses the Chicago River, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Des Plaines River, and the Illinois River.
Load More Replies...needs a little more facts since Michigan is several hundred miles from the Miss. River...... In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened to connect Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River through the Illinois River to promote commerce.
There are still whale species (and sharks!) that can travel and hunt in different bodies of water, including rivers. Certain whale species have several adaptations that enable them to live in brackish water (semi-saltwater), including producing a more diluted urine to maintain a stable level of internal salinity. :)
There also used to be an ocean in the middle of the U.S. In Kansas you'll find marine fossils everywhere.
TIL that all beaches in Mexico are property of the federal government. There are no privately owned beaches in the whole country, all of them are open to public use
We do need some private beaches and seas, not for the wealthy but for nature to be left in peace.
Load More Replies...Sadly, this is not totally true, hotels and parks have blocked the access to the beaches, and tthe goverment allow this, so you have to find a "public access" in order to go to the beach. Some hotels even put some barriers in the beach, so only their guest can use it.
That's why in my country, all hotels in those situations are obliged to allow pedestrian access to anyone going to the beach. Not only the beach but the access are considered public domain.
Load More Replies...There are no private beaches in Hawaii, either. NO ONE can stop people from using any beach at any time.
In Germany, all private land that is not connected to buildings (a shed won't do it, there are special criteria) or used for certain agricultural functions has to be open to pulic access. In Bavaria there's even a law requiring open access to lakes and other landmarks even if they are surrounded by fenced-off property.
All the people in this comment section didn't know that in different countries, continents are taught differently. Some teach there are five continents, some teach they are seven. In one of the systems, America is one out of five continents. In that same system, Mexico is in Americans and Mexicans are Americans as much as French are Europeans. Even the symbol of the Olympics, the five rings, depicts the five inhabited continents: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania/Australia. It does not say "North America and South America". The continents are divided geographically and politically, not by language. So to say that "in English America refer to the USA" is just wrong. It is a conventionalism of that country adopted by others as well, but it's not justified by geography or polítics. Go and Google "7 continents" and you might learn that the education you receive in the USA is not the only one in the planet
Learning new things is incredibly fun (and don’t roll your eyes and pretend that it’s not). But it doesn’t mean that it’s automatically easy. First of all, a lot depends on our motivation, why we want to learn something.
Whether we’re seeking education to help achieve some grand goal because we absolutely adore the topic, or because we simply want to keep our minds finely honed, having clear motivation helps keep us energized.
TIL British Parliament had an official discussion where they condemned the historical inaccuracies of the film U-571 and the rewriting of history to paint the Americans as heroes in an event they never even took part in. They felt it was unfair on the British sailors that lost their lives.
Well, what should the Japanese say about the Last Samurai (Tom Cruise) and best shogun (Keanu), the Africans about the British white 'king of the jungle' (Tarzan), the Chinese about their 'great' white reformer who never was that (Marco Polo), the great white liberator of Arabia (Lawrence)...the list of euro/race/American-(ego)centrism based on false assumptions, myths and Hollywood scenarios goes on. Let's not even get started with the blonde white Jesus. (I am a white European, for the record).
There is a wast difference, between how a story was original transcribed, like all of your examples. And then to a movie that says that it is a true story, and then turn out, 80% of the plot didn't happen. Also the british, has all the right in the world, to be mad at somebody trying to alter what the world remembers of its history.
Load More Replies...But isn't that what the American propaganda machine known as Hollywood does? win wars on TV?
it's like Leo Majors. A french-canadian military who deserve a freaking movie about his act in WW2. he freed the dutch city of Zwolle all by himself. he even go in korea too...but since he's not american nobody talk about him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9o_Major
Like the WWII Normandy Beach landing is this huge event in our memory, but there were more British and Canadian troops than Americans.
don't forget Argo. Canada do most of the job there. i guess producer knows that no american would want to watch a movie where they aren't the hero
Having spent quite a bit of time in the states, the narrative of 'we had to come in and save yay is pretty prevalent. No, we had to beg you yo get involved as you dithered and only got fully invested after Pearl Harbour when the Japanese bought the theatre of war to you.
Fun Fact: The Polish Intelligence services captured the first German enigma, and their decoders broke the code. They used the enigma to work out that the invasion was imminent and made it their priority to get the information to France and Brittan.
I have studied a lot of WWII history and I did not know that!! I am so glad to have that information now. I checked and they have a Polish Recognition Day every year at Bletchly Park. No one hears about it. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops. It's WAY more than a fun fact.
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TIL Two guys honored their dead friends dying wish by using his ashes as fish bait and caught an enormous 180lb Carp in his memory
I don't know why you were downvoted! I found scientific documents that back you up! Fish-evolu...f8ebd6.jpg
if they did I hope they didn't eat any of its guts, otherwise they'd be chowing down on their friend 0_o
Load More Replies...Downvoted for caring about an animal. So trashy.
Load More Replies..."We were gutted that Ron couldn't come on the trip because he was really looking forward to it, but he was definitely with us when we caught that fish,” Fairbrass told The Telegraph." https://www.foxnews.com/world/fishermen-use-dead-friends-ashes-as-bait-to-catch-180-pound-carp
TIL about FBI agent Robert Hanssen. He was tasked to find a mole within the FBI after the FBI's moles in the KGB were caught. Robert Hanssen was the mole and had been working with the KGB since 1979.
Well, now he's got 15 consecutive life sentences without parole so he probably can't be too smart.
I wonder - such task shouldn't be assigned to more than one agent just in case?
They asked him to find the mole because they knew he was or they caught them after? Or did he answer "yes, it's me :)"?
"Wow he found the mole so quickly! Give that man a promotion!"
Load More Replies...Literally the worst choice to carry out the investigation. What were the chances!
“A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge” as Tyrion Lannister said, after all. But it really helps if the information is interesting, relevant, or presented in an enticing way.
However, it’s not just our love of learning that sustains us. Our brains and bodies need fuel, too. And the right fuel helps keep us focused for longer stretches of time and healthy, to boot! Healthline points out that foods like berries can help improve academic performance due to compounds like anthocyanins being present in them. Meanwhile, citrus fruits are very nutritious and promote our brain health.
TIL that the Ginkgo Tree is unique, not obviously related to any living plant; a “living fossil,”unchanged in 200 million years.
I had one of these, had to leave her in Scotland where she grew well.
I had one of these which my late brother bought me. I had to leave it in Scotland when we moved as it was growing happily and at 12 foot could not really be uprooted.
TIL that giant panda is no longer 'endangered' species
and China owns every single panda and only loans them out to other countries
Well... they were upgraded to "vulnerable". Not exactly a flourishing species, just falling on a less dire rung on the WWFs arbitrary scale.
Ngl you ruined the moment for me. At least the panda isn't endangered anymore.
Load More Replies...Mostly thanks to one female - Bai Yun. She had 6 offspring, and her first daughter, Hua Mei, has had 5 sets of twins and 4 single births so far!
Artificial insemination thus an increasingly restricted gene pool; short profit long term dead species. It costs a million dollars a year to rent a panda from China.
TIL in Rwanda people go to milk bars to socialise and drink milk.
That would (eventually) make goat butter. Sounds tasty
Load More Replies...Moloko Vellocet will sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence!
Ha I knew someone was gonna beat me to the Clockwork Orange reference!
Load More Replies...interesting as most people of non-caucasian descent are lactose intolerant after infancy.
Most people full stop. There is a gradual evolutionary change taking place though and more and more people are retaining the ability to make the enzyme necessary.
Load More Replies...That's nice. much more wholesome than people gathering in bars/pubs to use drugs (alcohol)
Oat milk, coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk......no painful arthritis, no diabetes, no heart diseases, no cancers; yes clean, livable planet earth, no unconscionable animal suffering!!!! Only perverted humans drink mother's milk after weaning, from mothers which even are from another species. How sick is that? How cruel is that? The baby is stolen from her/his mother right after birth and brutally murdered; how delicious is that???
Load More Replies...Why else would one go to a milk bar. I'd like to find a chocolate bar.
What’s more, if you’re in the middle of a learning binge-fest and craving something sweet, consider going for healthier alternatives like dark chocolate and cocoa products instead of your run-of-the-mill candy bars.
Lots of us are guilty of snacking on way more junk food while studying than we’d ever honestly admit to anyone other than St. Peter, but changing habits doesn’t happen immediately. It’s a step-by-step process and even tiny shifts in our behavior can pay dividends in the long run.
TIL of Ian Manuel. A man who spent years in isolation after he was condemned to die in prison for a nonhomicide offense at age 13. He won his freedom in 2016 with the help of the woman he attacked. He is now an activist, motivational speaker, and published author.
(Manuel)... described shooting Debbie Baigrie, a mother of two, in the face - in the mouth, to be precise, during a robbery attempt in 1990. For those who are interested.
Omg I just googled it, made me tear up. Poor boy and what a wonderful woman to forgive him and advocate for him
I' d like to know more about the woman in this story. She is the one worth the applause
Solitary confinement for all those years. It's a miracle he didn't permanently completely lose his mind. This is cruel and unusual punishment and actually I believe it was torture.
THIRTEEN. The american for profit prison system needs to be abolished.
TIL the band UB40 is named after Unemployment Benefit, Form 40 - a form issued to people claiming unemployment benefits. The name was suggested by a friend of the band because all the members were unemployed.
I'm down voting you because you put that horrible song back into my head
Load More Replies...I'm forty, from near Birmingham, and I never knew this (guess I never really thought about it)
Load More Replies..."One in ten", listen to this one. Single released in 1981, when one in ten people in UK was unemployed.
Hearing the awesomeness of "One In Ten" back then was why I bothered to find out what their name meant. "Nobody knows me but I'm always there, a statistical reminder of a world that doesn't care ..."
Load More Replies...Which is why their first album was named "Signing Off" as in "signing off the dole" which you do when you get a job.
TIL that England experiences large spikes in power demand during half-time at football games due to widespread use of electric kettles
I think what people don't understand is how to make great tea (and I'll admit that I'm one of them)
Load More Replies...And the National grid expects it and is prepared. They also know in advance of any "powerful" storylines in the three most popular soaps so they can be ready at either the ad break (not for 'Enders) and/or the closing credits.
Also half time in international football matches. Tea is awesome
Load More Replies...There is a hydroelectric power station in Wales specifically for this time where they release the water for the ad breaks then pump it back up in between XD
They used to use electricity output to measure TV ratings. A sudden surge when there is an add break on channel 3 means people were watching Coronation Street, Power surge at the end of EastEnders was bigger, More people were watching it. Some maths helped them estimate the number of viewers.
"Pop the kettle on and let's have a cuppa" should be in our national anthem XD
Also when Corrie and Eastenders is on ... When the breaks come on in Coronation Street , that’s when the kettle goes on .
How funny, all those cuppa's at half time.. imagine if they were all lined up around the ovals. Guess they would fill them all..and then some.
So if you’re munching on a chocolate croissant with caramel filling and almonds, like I am, while you’re reading this, consider eating only half of it. Or substitute it for a handful of delicious berries, nuts, or an assortment of fruits. That way, your brain and your body can both be happy, you’ll be absorbing new knowledge like a pro, and soon, lots of your friends will be figuring out all the neat things you learned about today.
TIL that a study from the University of Connecticut found that cholesterol in egg yolks does not raise the LDL cholesterol particles that are associated with the development of cardiovascular disease.
My friends r going to b so happy! egg-addiction may just b a thing.
What are you going to do with all the time you saved by leaving out the vowels?
Load More Replies...I thought the "egg causes high cholesterol"-myth died out in the 90's?
Some people get all their wisdom from old books. Sadly it kills a lot of people around the world.
Load More Replies...For the majority of people dietary cholesterol has little, if any, affect on blood cholesterol levels
Don't know why people downvoted you. That's totally true. Your liver makes cholesterol and your body uses it for all sorts of things -- hormones for one.
Load More Replies...However the saturated fats do, so you still need to eat eggs in moderation.
Saturated fats by themselves do not cause high cholesterol. No one food or nutrient is solely responsible for anything. Diets need to be looked at as a whole.
Load More Replies...Yeah that's been known for a while. Eat as many eggs as you want, they are lean and packed with protein!
Who funded that study, the egg industry? Do not scramble the real science, please.
TIL about the rarest blood type. Named SARAS, only 2 families in the world have it and is officially recognised as an entirely new blood group.
Wtf why is everyone so rude because of this comment?what's wrong with you jeez....
Load More Replies...The blood group AB only appeared about the 16th century, so it isnt completely strange to think that others will evolve...
Don’t be. If they ever need blood or a transplant, they’re screwed.
Load More Replies...Well, this is half true. There are in total 50 different antigens blood can have. So technically there are 2^50 different blood types. Technically much more different blood types than man on earth. So most combinations of antigens don't occur. Furthermore usually only three (maximum 5) of these antigens are tested, as the others are all quite rare. What makes SARA (not SARAS - named after Sarah Culhane) popular: It misses ALL of that 50 antigens.
Solving rare blood type mysteries Your blood type is more complicated than you think, with hundreds of possible variations apart from the commonly known ABO and Rhesus blood groups. Modern genetic techniques allow rare blood variants to be characterised with pinpoint accuracy, and researchers at Lifeblood have used them to solve the medical mystery of a Canadian baby who nearly died at birth. In 1990, researchers at the National Blood Group Reference Laboratory found a novel antigen on the red cells of a single, very dedicated blood donor named Sarah. The new antigen was named after her: ‘SARA’. SARA didn’t fit into any of the known families of blood group antigens, and a vial of Sarah’s unusual blood was stored, frozen, in a blood type archive. Around 20 years later, Lifeblood received blood samples from collaborators at Canadian Blood Service which came from a family whose baby had needed a massive blood transfusion at birth. The Canadians thought that this case could be related
TIL of a "Kotatsu", A traditional japanese table with attached blanket. You can use it to relax, nap, eat/drink/hangout with friends and even has a built in heater underneath.
They are still very popular in Japan due to the lack of central heating or rather fixed heating systems at all in most Japanese houses. Portable space heaters are very common and houses are often not insulated. This is often portrayed as traditional, but some Japanese researchers rather blame lobbying of the construction industry and their lack of innovation when marketing directly to the consumer.
Because they're not very practical in places with central heating or radiators.
Load More Replies...This looks both extremely comfy and an extreme pain in the ass to clean if you spill anything on it
The blankets are separate, but can be added. The main part of a Kotatsu is the heater that is attached underneath. The blankets are bought to keep the heat in. Japanese people often call them dangerous for two reasons: 1) the heat inside the blanket and the cold outside can often lead to you catching a cold; and 2) they're just so damn comfortable, you never want to leave it, and you get really lazy. I never really believed that second one until I had a week off from work during winter, and I basically spent the entire week under that blanket, night and day. No sleeping in my bed. I only left it to cook, shower, or use the toilet. I totally get the danger now, and I never used it again (as a heater. Still a great coffee table).
No, we already can't get past the credits of a film without falling asleep, that won't help.
TIL the Boeing 787 needs to be rebooted every 51 days to stop rounding errors causing it to crash
Not really...It seems pretty much common sense to reboot any kind of computer more than once every two months.
Load More Replies...Source? How do you reboot a plane? Do you mean rebooting the software? All of it? Because there sure is a lot of it to make a pane work... this one is sus
planes are just big computers with wings. I'm sure it's a fairly simple process to reboot them, if it has to be done with EVERY 787 7 times a year.
Load More Replies...If people actually knew all the scary s**t Boeing has pulled throughout the years, they'd opt to never fly again. My grandma was an electrical wire inspector for Boeing and she told me some crazy stories about employees AND superiors and the insane mistakes that were made pretty routinely.
Might be a good idea to ask at the check in desk when was the last time they rebooted the planes computer before boarding a 787.
That’s exactly why I only fly in an auto-gyro wearing a cape, scarf and goggles. Better to be safe than sorry.
TIL of the $23 million dollar toilets designed by NASA for deep space missions. With odor control being a serious issue, NASA pays certified sniffers to smell the toilets after they've been used to evaluate odor-control measures. The lead engineer calls them the "unsung heroes of the space program".
Somebody: farts Certified sniffer: “Stand back everybody! I’m a certified sniffer!”
Load More Replies...Certified sniffers do so much more than that. Yes, they smell every new component being used in space missions, both for odor control and to help pass tests on any hazardous biproducts the material could be emitting, but they're also used to smell if anything is wrong pre-flight and under other circumstances. For example, a gas leak that's currently too small to be registered by sensors. It's fascinating, really, and they detected a lot of things that, whether they were listed to or overruled, have changed astronomical history
I live 5 miles from JSC in Houston. When I was in high school my dad got me a job where we literally sat around drinking water while watching movies. Whenever we had to go we went downstairs into the lab, peed in a beaker, took a ph reading, poured it through a device that sterilized your pee back into water and then took a ph reading again. It works and they use it. I did that, me. That's my major contribution to society.
Oh, the worse part was when you're done you poured it into a huge 55gl drum that smelled so so so bad.
Load More Replies...Imagine telling people you work for NASA and them, all impressed, saying, "Really? What do you do there?"
Certified pong sniffers.. must be a wonderful nurses or care persons in the total care health professions or nursing homes.
TIL Auto-Tune, introduced in 1997, which uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances was named one of the 50 worst inventions by Time magazine.
While most people associate auto-tune (or other vocal tuning hardware/software) with the Cher believe-style effect, most of the time it's used much more subtly, and is unnoticeable. There are plenty of records by "natural" singers which have hidden pitch correction going on.
Auto-Tune was invented by Dr. Andy Hildebrand, a research engineer employed in the oil industry. One of his big breakthroughs was developing auto-correlation, an algorithm that uses seismic waves to create detailed subsurface maps that oil companies use to find potential drill sites. The next, surprisingly even bigger breakthrough, came when he tweaked auto-correlation to pitch-correct music. In 1996, Antares Audio Technologies and their Auto-Tune software were born.
Dude, thank God autotune wasn't a thing in the 60s or 70s. Classic rock needs that natural variation.
Auto tune can preserve natural variation. Just needs to be used subtly
Load More Replies...And there you have it, reason today's - I hesitate to even call it music - sucks.
People be saying that for decades. Probably centuries.
Load More Replies...People have a pretty negative opinion autotune in general. I think in reality, music is just the end result. Autotune is a tool, just like a photographer edits their pictures.
TIL the UK Women’s Institute invited Colin Darch, a former hostage of Somali pirates, to give a speech on his experiences. However due to a mix up many elder members of the WI attended wearing pirate fancy dress. Darch took it well, ultimately judging a “best pirate costume” competition.
Probably not, as pirates don't look like dressed up pirates
Load More Replies...Since Somali pirates don't dress like Long John Silver, I guess it wasn't all that triggering.
Also, never underestimate the WI. Tony Blair gave a speech at their annual conference after he green lit the UK's involve t in the invasion of Iraq. He got a very slow handclap at the end. His shirt was drenched in sweat as they gave him absolutely nothing back.
One would need to have a unsung sense of humour. I am sure he did not mind one bit. A piece of the good life'
TIL curry has a longer history of being served in Britain than fish and chips, with the first Indian restaurant opening in 1809 and fish and chips only served from 1858 at the earliest
Apparently, there are only three stock photographs that show Britain. If this item was about modern British policing, there would be a picture of a Beefeater at the Tower of London.
Load More Replies...factually incorrect. Fish and Chips are first documented being eaten in the UK in the 1740's, first Fish and Chips shop was in the 1830's. It was a dish eaten by British Jews, and that style of fried fish was brought the UK by Jews who came in by Cromwell's invitation. The in the 1740's we have the first time chips were added. However until the mid 1800's it was only eaten by British Jews before it went mainstream.
And yet, what has england done for india, after it raped that country for so long
Fish and chips was born after the railways made it possible to transport fish to cities before they spoiled.
Remember El Dee, we English are referred to by the French, as 'le rosbifs' !
I'm not even British, but even I recognized that is Yorkshire pudding & roast beef.
That does not look like a curry anything why not a pic of fish'n chips?
TIL that sharks smell in "stereo," that is, they can detect the tiny delays in the time it takes for a scent to reach one nostril compared to the other and use it to determine the direction from where the scent is coming. This helps them in tracking their prey.
So can all animals that 'smell' Humans don't usually know about it until they are exposed to a strong enough smell. I had this happen when I worked with someone whose odour was sickening and you could smell the direction and speed he was moving before you could see him - really!
How do the clever people know this? I cannot fathom their methods
You're more likely to be killed by cows, horses, other mammals or insects, though.
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TIL by using a man in the middle, two brothers hacked the French optical telegraph system to gain advance information on the stock market. When they got caught two years later, they walked away as free men because in 1836 there were no laws against hacking
The original 'man-in-middle' attack. SSH warns me about that from time to time.
Load More Replies...I don't get it. What do they mean they hacked in to something? What is optical telegraph system?
TIL that Christopher Lee always wanted to play Gandalf in LOTR and even discussed it with Tolkien himself. Peter Jackson wanted Lee to play Saruman instead, much to Lee's disappointment. Saruman's death scene was a surprise homage to Christopher Lee's, Dracula, with a wooden stake through his chest.
He read LOTR annually and apparently used to correct Jackson about certain details during filming because of how well he knew the material and his personal connection with Tolkien. Whether or not he was thrilled with every choice made in the films, his performance was a wonderful homage to the works of the author he respected.
If I were Jackson, I wouldn't argue with Lee. He was a true Tolkien fan as well as a 6'4" WWII vet who sings heavy metal and is also a Sith-Vampire-Bond Villain.
Load More Replies...I heard that he declined the role as Gandalf since he felt he was too old to ride a horse? And also, he edited the death scene (which is in the book and is not an homage), since Lee knew how a human sounds when stabbed with a knife...
Actually, Jackson asked Lee to play Gandalf, but Lee felt he was too old for the part, and requested the role of Saruman instead. And @Miriam L is right - a friend of mine worked at Lee's country club, and said the same thing.
Christopher Lee was a certified bad ass having served in Churchill's ministry of ungentelmenly warfare the founders of the saa
He was the Drac icon of the time too even speaking with Tolkien would have been a thrill.
Quora just did a story on how Chris. Lee told Peter Jackson how a man REALLY sounds after getting stabbed IN THE BACK (Lee was a spy in WWII). They showed the scene in video. So...not the same - but...
TIL Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, endured many tragedies. Her mother died after giving birth to her, she was in constant debt, her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd children all died, while her husband drowned on his sailing boat. She herself passed away at 53.
Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the first feminists who wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" (1792). She was a super interesting woman.
She also kept her husband's preserved heart in a box on her desk wrapped in a manuscript of one of his poems. Mary Shelley is more goth than you'll ever be.
The story came about because of a bet between herself, her husband Percy Shelly and their guest, Lord Byron. They had to write the most frightening horror story. But she was unable to think of anything. Months later, she woke up from having an horrific nightmare. Her nightmare was the plot to Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was born of all the crap she went through and I don't blame her
And, When her husband Percy died, his father forbade her to use the Shelley name in any further writings! He forced her to sign a contract to that affect and in return he would provide a measly stipend for her and her surviving child. Mary continued to write, but her books were published under the name "The Author of Frankenstein". And have mostly been lost to history.
TIL that in 1506 Louis II of Hungary was born prematurely and doctors kept him alive by slaying animals and wrapping him in their warm carcasses as a primitive incubator
A fire doesn't warm you equally on all sides. If you stand faced to a fire, the front of you will get hot, while your back won't get nearly as warm as your front. And a fire can easily overheat you if you are a little bit too close. Besides that, animal carcasses that are still warm are not warm enough to roast someone, so that option is safer and probably works much better than lighting a fire
Load More Replies..."Ugh! And I thought.... they smelled bad... on the outside!" - Han Solo, after stuffing Luke Skywalker into the steaming carcass of a Taun-Taun in The Empire Strikes Back.
Wtf? They couldn't just heat some towels or stones over a fire? how about skin to skin contact? How long would a dead animals body stay warm anyway?
Yes; I ask again: How warm is a dead body????
Load More Replies...Blankets and close human body contact not used, lucky child no infections poor animals sacrificed to emulate the woman's insides?....Some practises were so strange even in that misguided logic ..
TIL Michael Jackson was terrified of the real-life fan who inspired the song Billie Jean, after she sent him a letter with a weapon and instructions to kill himself. He kept her photograph to memorize her face, “in case she ever turns up someplace.”
TIL that the French revolution gave us the metric system and almost gave us metric clocks, too. They had 10 hours in the day, 10 days in the week, and an even 30 days each month.
When? Historical records of a ten-day week and it's societal impact would be really interesting. I'll admit I'm a little skeptical Edited to add: I looked at the Reddit post and the original article, and decimal time was only legally in effect for about two years, although it remained a popular theory before and afterwards
They tried to enforce it for a while, until Napoléon's rise to power IIRC. But it was going a bit too far into revolutionary changes in people's life. Metric system is efficient, accurate, easy to understand and can be applied universally. Sweeping away a calendar involving millenia of daily habits is something else....
Load More Replies...but if it had been adopted you would think it the most natural thing in the world.
Load More Replies...How would you convince the sun that it had to go through the earth's 24 hours orbit in just 20 hours?
And we would never even know.. perhaps metric would have better results..
The ancient Greeks divided the day into 20 hours (half for daylight, half for nighttime). The 24-hour day, along with the 60-minute hour and 60-second minute, is a legacy of the ancient Sumerians. I suppose that if this system was good enough 5000 years ago it's good enough for us.
TIL American Football is the 9th most popular sport in the world. It is beaten by both Volleyball and Table Tennis.
Hahahaha... I think American's don't know that hardly anyone watches their brand of football outside north America
Of course they know, that's why it's called the National Football League, it's not called the American Football League because its not expected to be referred to outside of the States.
Load More Replies...Why is this surprising?? Not everyone in the WORLD watches AMERICAN football!
Apparently there's at least one American on this site who was surprised by this haha
Load More Replies...I'd like to know how this was calculated. It would only rank high due to population and even then I don't imagine it would be that high.
Due to politics and the fact that most of the former players are walking around with deterioration of their brain tissue, the game is slowly falling out of favor in America as well. I used to be a big fan, but now I won't even go to a pee-wee league game.
That's because it is only popular in the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Poland, Israel, South Korea and Japan. Though it is rising in China which should give a huge boost in popularity. But remember it is a sport limited by popularity by contact with the US and US Influence in their culture, and of course Poland as the outlier.
Americans think their country is the center of the universe. It isn’t! ( I am an American)
The British version of this game involves no protective gear and less clothing
Stop calling rugby the British version... Rugby is just that, rugby
Load More Replies...This is only because there are a lot of people in the USA. They're pretty much the only people who find it interesting to watch someone run across a line holding a ball.
There's Rugby which is the grand-cousin of Football and Aussie Rules as well.
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TIL of the 'Banksy of Grammar', who at night would correct punctuation on shop fronts in the city of Bristol
There is another graffiti artist in England who in protest to large potholes would draw penises around them. He's nicknamed "Wanksy". wanksy-609...9a476e.jpg
My mother is so strict with grammar, she once joined a (short-lived) political party called The Apostrophe Party!
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TIL In 2018 the Cornish Language Board said that singer Gwenno's album Le Kov, which features entirely Cornish lyrics, had led to a 15% increase in the number of people taking Cornish language exams
Is it just me, or does she look like a combination of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift?
TIL that Casey Kasem, the original voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, was a vegan and critic of factory farming. Kasem quit the show in 1995 when he was asked to voice Shaggy for a Burger King commercial. He would not agree to return until 2002 when producers agreed to have Shaggy become a vegetarian.
Why? Being a vegan doesn't mean you won't feed a carnivore a meat based diet. What a bizarre idea.
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TIL Nearly 70% of the Steel used in the US is recycled from scrap. Steel used in construction has a 90% recycling Rate.
Good. We should recycle old scrap, less mining and less dump sites. Win Win
I guess there wouldn't be enough iron left in mines to meet the demand of industry anyway.
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TIL In 1939, a woman tried to assassinate 11 year old Shirley Temple while she was singing “Silent Night” on a live radio show, under the logic that the star had swiped her daughter's soul and shooting her would unleash it.
True, but most murders are not particularly rational and well thought out.
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TIL citizens of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau may enter, reside, study, and work in the United States indefinitely without a visa.
They are all free associates of the United States, that is part of the agreement.
They also use the US dollar, the US Navy and Coast Guard is their military. In return the US has shared control over their fishing rights and waters, as well as US tourists dont need any visa either. It is a mutually beneficial deal for those small countries
Load More Replies...I guess Marshall Islands earned the right after the US bombed the hell out of its atols, testing nuclear weapons there 🙁
TIL of Mark Roberts, a man from England who has streaked at more than 565 international events. He has his own set of 'rules' for streaking: don't interrupt the play of a game, be prepared to spend an evening in jail, have a good lawyer on hand, and don't eat spicy food the night before a streak
TIL that English Parliament was conducted entirely in French until the 1400s. Even today, bills are formally passed into law with a French phrase: "Le Reyne le veult", meaning "The queen wills it."
It was related to the Pleading in English Act 1362 that eventually led to English becoming the official language of England. The Lords were French, so all legal stuff including parliament was in Law French, but the lay didn't understand it. Ah, the intricacies of the Norman Conquest.
And French was the language of diplomacy and business until WWI.
Load More Replies...Since the Norman conquest, English monarchs considered themselves French lords on foreign land, and for many centuries didn't officially give up on their claim on the French Throne (which was legit somehow, to be fair). Hence the lasting commitment to French language in politics. Even nowadays it is still part of the royal duty of the Queen to speak French fluently.
Henry the 5th was the first Plantagenet to speak English in his court.
Let's not forget that French was widely (and is still) used as diplomatic language for it's precision. And England used to be a French (Normand) colony.
TIL Adidas bought the iconic three stripe design from Finnish sportswear company Karhu for two bottles of whiskey and equivalent of 1600 euros
Hey Mikka, these suckers want to give us money for the plain three lines? - Haha, just sell it to the traditionally bad German economists and businessmen!
Karhu was founded in 1916 and Adidas (a German company at the time) in 1949. They say that Adidas most likely become interested in the design during the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. So they invited Karhu's owner Arno Hohenthal to Germany for negotiations. Sounds like such a bad deal to be honest 😂
TIL that in 1918 the federal government tried to find the geographical center of the United States by balancing a US-shaped cardboard cutout on the head of a pin. They were accurate to within 20 miles.
Always trust the government to use the most refined scientific methods!
While this was cheap and simple, it was also a perfectly reasonable and fairly accurate approach to the problem. Complex and difficult solutions don't necessarily lead to better results. I WISH governments used more solutions like this, just imagine if government funds were used efficiently!
Load More Replies...This isn't correct anymore though. "1931 U.S. Geological Survey, the geographic center of the North American continent is located approximately 6 miles west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota. The approximate coordinates are given as latitude 48* 10' North, 100* 10' West. "
They used a flat piece of cardboard to establish the centre of a curved landmass and it was accurate??? Flat earthers are gonna love this!
What does the geographical centre mean? What parameters are they using to define the centre (length and width, overall landmass, density of UFO's?)
The gravity center asuming density and heith are constant.
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TIL about pinball prohibition, pinball was banned in most major cities from the early 1940s to the mid 1970s because it was considered a game of chance and therefore gambling.
Because the machines ran through large amounts of small-denomination cash from anonymous players, they and jukeboxes were ideal for the mafia to launder money made from speakeasies and numbers rackets. Bar and diner owners would be forced to install them and pay taxes on the bags of coins, then pay back the mafia.
TIL *how* that ban was overturned. In 1976, writer Roger Sharpe thought to do it by demonstrating that it was a game that required skill, not luck. He did this by playing pinball in the courtroom, ending when he announced that he would launch his next ball through the center lane at the top of the playfield, then proceeded to do just that. (Only later did Sharpe admit that his success was based on luck!)
TIL The ‘Batman Effect’. Adopting an alter ego is an extreme form of ‘self-distancing’, which involves taking a step back from our immediate feelings to allow us to view a situation more dispassionately. It can help control anxiety, and help the subject pursue exercise and healthy diet
TIL in 1935 "Happy Birthday to You" was copyrighted with a value of 5M making it illegal to sing. In 2016 a federal judge ruled that the copyright was not valid and the song had no other claim to copyright, placing it in the public domain, and making it free to sing for all.
One of my beginner piano books has a song entitled "Happy Weekend to you" with an uncannily similar tune. ;) It actually took me a few goes to recognize it because I didn't think it was a familiar tune and my piano skills needed a lot of work. Now it's my one party trick, at the right party
It wasn't illegal - you just couldn't perform it in a public place without paying royalties. It's not illegal for me to sing Blank Space by Taylor Swift, but I'd get into trouble going on stage to do it (not least because I don't know the words or half the tune - it's just the last song I heard on the shower radio this morning!)
This is wholly inaccurate. The song was originally written by a nursery teacher and her sister, they wrote a song 'Good morning to all' that the kids used to sing every morning. The melody, along with amended lyrics (now 'Happy birthday to you') were published in a newspaper. About 20 years later, popularity of the song grew a company filed for copyright claiming another singer/songwriter under their employ had written it. They were granted the recording rights to the song. About 50 years later Warner/Chappell bought the company outright and made a ridiculous amount of money from recording royalties. They tried to extend the copyright to include 'paid public performances' and got away with it for around 30 years. In the early 2010's The family of the nursery teachers sued Warner/Chappell for false copyright (apparently they didn't do it sooner because they didn't know that someone had actually claimed copyright). A judge ruled that the claim was invalid and they settled out of court.
TIL a former Google employee bought the Google domain for $12 from Google's very own domain registrar. He owned the domain for one minute before the purchase was rescinded, and he was later offered $6006.13 due to the incident.
TIL The Lord of the Rings films originally would have been released by Disney via Miramax but they chose not to fund it due to costs. They let New Line Cinema have it on the condition they pay $10M in "turnaround" costs. The LOTR trilogy will later on gross over $2.9B at the global box office.
Disney said: You shall not pass, and now it's New Line Cinema's precious.
J.R.R. Tolkien actually said he would never let Disney make movies of his books because they make everything for kids. He said fairytales are for everyone
TIL that William Shatner played a prank on the set of the Twilight Zone while shooting the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet episode. Shatner staged a fake fight on the plane, and had a dummy fall off the wing to the concrete below. Richard Donner, the episode's director, thought Shatner had died.
TIL that ‘smell dispensers’ mimicking the smell of lion shit is used to scare off deer and wild boar despite these animals having never met a lion.
Technically there were once lions in Europe, but then you guys killed them all,
You're right, I remember when all us kids would go strangle lions in Europe. So weird never knew why we did that.
Load More Replies...Christopher Lee was once a member of Britain's Special Operations Executive, aka the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The group was an A-Team-esque crack commando unit tasked by Winston Churchill himself to "set Europe ablaze." The team included Christopher Lee, Ian Fleming and no freaking joke, the entire James Bond universe. The full extent of Lee's "ungentlemanly" actions remain classified to this day, and perhaps for good reason. Christopher Lee on the set of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" revealing to Jackson the actual sound a human makes when you lodge a knife in the person's unsuspecting back. Ah, classic Lee. According to the video, Jackson was blocking a scene in which Wormtongue (Brad Dourif) stabs Saruman (Lee) in the back. Jackson goes into a long explanation about how he wants Lee to react and Lee says, "Have you any idea what kind of noise happens when somebody’s stabbed in the back? Because I do.” This was from Lee's experiences in World War II.
I wish they will release the info on that group of men and their WWII exploits!
I think about this, then picture him in "The Wicker Man" running around in his Converse sneakers with his hair all blown around and it just makes me smile.
I thought a lot of this was debunked after his death? He was a Liaison Officer with the RAF attached to the SOE, which is very different.
TIL avocados evolved alongside extinct megafauna like giant ground sloths whose digestive system could pass the intact pit. Human cultivation saved the avocado.
I just learned about that too on the podcast Every Little Thing :) As they said above, the avocado evolved to bait the giant ground sloth to eat it (with it's delicious flesh) and then the pit would grow where ever the sloth pooped. Without the sloth (and us) the orphan seed would just fall and rot. Currently elephants are filling the niche market of spreading such seeds, but they are endangered. It's amazing how interconnected the world is and frightening how our web is falling apart faster than we can learn about it, let alone save it.
TIL that, in July 2020, marine biologists studying the seafloor in the South Pacific Gyre ("the deadest spot in the ocean") discovered aerobic microorganisms in "quasi-suspended animation." At 101.5 million years old, they are the longest-living life forms ever found.
Suspended animation is understood as the pausing of life processes by exogenous or endogenous means without terminating life itself. Breathing, heartbeat and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Quasi means that they were "partially" in the suspended animation state. Basically these microorganisms have been alive while only partially functioning for 101.5 million years which makes them the oldest know lifeforms.
Load More Replies...This should be higher up. The microscopic organisms have paused their life and are using just enough energy to keep them alive.... for 101.5 million years. It’s like in the sci fi movies where ppl go into a sleep chamber.
Creatures tend to die when humans get involved...
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TIL on Nov 22, 1963 while watching TV reports of JFK's death, Annie Shapiro had a stroke and slipped into a coma. 29 years later she awoke in bed as a 79 year old grandmother still married to her husband. Her first words upon sitting up were "Turn on the television. I want to watch I Love Lucy"
His name is Terry O’Reilly and he is a Canadian broadcaster. Not sure why his photo is linked with the story.
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TIL in 1911, physicist George de Hevesy suspected his landlady was bulking up his meals with leftovers; he proved it by sprinkling radioactive material over his dinner and detecting it in the next day’s portion
TIL that Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Joe Walsh of The Eagles and Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis of Devo were all eyewitnesses to the Kent State Massacre.
The Washington Post recently had a great article about the iconic photo of the girl kneeling over the body during the Kent State Massacre. The girl in the photo was a 14 year old runaway - not a college student - and her life changed drastically after that day. It's a great article and I'm still blown away that she was so young - https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/04/19/girl-kent-state-photo-lifelong-burden-being-national-symbol/
Wow. That was intense. Thank you for sharing that.
Load More Replies...That's right folks, the Kent State Massacre has faded from common knowledge. It only means you've lived long enough to see the inevitable. And your descendants will hear arguments to put that empty real estate in lower Manhattan back into the tax base.
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TIL Vitali Kaloyev, a Russian Architect who lost his family when the airliner they were flying in collided mid air with a cargo plane. He stalked and later murdered an air traffic controller he blamed for the incident.
That's the 2002 Überlingen air collision. It happened because the two planes were on the same path. The second plane listened to the air traffic controller's panicked cries to descend instead of the plane's Traffic Collision Avoidance System which told him to climb and both planes descended into each other. If the pilot listened to the TCAS warnings instead of the controller the planes would have missed each other.
He did less than two years in prison in Switzerland before being released on parole. With some diplomatic chaos, he jumped bail and didn't pay the fine that he still owed. Back in his home country, he was recieved as a hero and "real man", got an award and a ministeral post. It kind of tells you a little bit about how things work in Russia nowadays.
TIL Fruit flies are considered model organisms to understand human alcoholism. Also, after extensive binge drinking males are known to engage in homosexual behavior
Buzz had a drink too many, and the next thing you know, he woke up next to Fred. What a fruit fly!
TIL The short-time memory of fruit flies declines over time, and older flies may experience a total loss of short-time memories.
TIL all beaches in Hawaii, outside of military bases, are public. Landowners are even required to maintain public access paths to the beach in front of their property.
George Harrison, understandably skittish after being stabbed by a deranged intruder at his home in the UK, was very unhappy to discover this fact after he'd purchased a beach property on Maui.
There are military only "public beaches" right on Waikiki. Only active duty, veterans, and dependents can be on that lovely prime beach.
TIL that Cinco De Mayo's popularity as a holiday in the US is largely due to a marketing campaign launched by Corona's importer in 1989.
Reminds me of how the iconic red joly Santa is based on coca-cola advertisements.
Aha! Now I understand why I don't remember Cinco de Mayo celebrations in high school but fondly remember fundraisers with green bagels for St. Patrick's Day.
Kind of how Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was a marketing campaign by Montgomery Ward in the 20's....
And the worldwide export of corona in recent years has largely effected the business of Corona the beer factory.
Yes. Consumer sales went down in the US and rose in Europe. However, sales to business customers like caterers, bars and restaurants plummeted due to worldwide lockdowns, making the consumer sales irrelevant.
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TIL Bill Gates had an arrangement with Melinda that he and his ex-girlfriend, Ann Winblad, could keep one vacation tradition alive. Every spring, as they have for more than a decade, Gates spends a long weekend with Winblad at her beach cottage.
I doubt that would be a problem after almost 3 decades of marriage
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TIL the claim on Cheerios' box that it could lower cholesterol by 4% was removed after the FDA warned General Mills that it was false advertising. GM fought back but eventually changed the box to read the cereal could lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet.
There was a butter brand in Europe that could actually claim to lower cholesterol in its advertisments because it did. However, many experts commented that it's not a good idea to market something like that to consumers because you are basicly self-medicating a condition you might not have at all. I don't know what became of it.
TIL Although considered a contemporary classic, the original Back to the Future script was rejected more than 40 times, was going to be titled Space Man From Pluto, & had a refrigerator as the time machine, not the DeLorean.
So they had Marty going into a refrigerator? I'm glad they rethought that idea!
they were afraid kid would trapped themself in refrigerator. anyway a car it's much more cool!
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TIL that in 1977, the FBI started to build a tunnel under the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C to eavesdrop on the Soviets; the construction took years, was riddled with complications, and worse yet - the Soviets knew about the tunnel because of a tip-off
TIL in 1967, hippies attempted a ritual to levitate the Pentagon in the air to end the Vietnam War.
The top US military brass looking out the window: *laughing*. That One general in charge of psy-ops: Don't worry guys, they won't succeed *Stares intensely*
TIL: When merging two lanes of traffic, a zipper merge is recommended because leaving a lane unoccupied as a result of early merging is inefficient. It only makes traffic heavier.
It's so easy, and yet, no one does it. At every merge (sometimes, there are multiple ones), everyone lets in exyctly one vehicle and then proceeds. This isn't about being kind to one other person, but about efficiency, which is kind to all persons behind you.
And people look at me madly when I drive to the end of the lane to merge there while they took the first possible space to merge. It always makes me mad. (and there was a comment down voted if people don't learn that in driving school. I did, and I always wonder if most people didn't pay attention)
Load More Replies...By my experience we do that in uk in my region, hopefully everywhere is like that too.
TIL that since 2012, 6 people have choked to death during competitive eating contests.
TIL about the 1991 "Great Butter Fire" which burned for 8 days (due to water having little effect on the fire), had flames 300ft high, and destroyed 50 million pounds of food.
TIL Christian radio host Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. Followers gave up their jobs, sold their homes, and stopped investing in their children's college funds. On May 22, his office had a paper note in the window stating, "This office is closed. Sorry we missed you!"
There's a LONG history of cult leaders doing this. The Jehovah's Witnesses did this for their entire history. I think they predicted the end of the world half a dozen times before they gave it up. Don't bother expecting to be "saved" though. Only 144,000 people are allowed to go to heaven.
Every generation of Christians have been convinced that they were close to the End Times. This is what comes of taking prophecy literally. The Jews were/are expecting a mighty conqueror, Jesus was a peace-loving hippie. If Jesus is the Messiah, then it shows that God loves to fulfill prophecy in unexpected ways.
I remember this. My friends and I were all over the memes and kept sending each other the "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" song over and over...and over...
TIL Hall & Oates never really liked to be referred to as "Hall & Oates". In an interview with Esquire, Oates said, "There isn't one album that says Hall and Oates. It's always Daryl Hall and John Oates, from the very beginning. People never note that"
TIL When Bill Gates got married, he bought out all the available hotel rooms in Lanai to keep media from staying there & hired all the helicopters on Maui to keep photographers from flying over the wedding
Paying money for the anonymity we ordinary people get for free.
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TIL American country music is one of the most popular music genres in Nigeria
Is it? I've never heard it played in any bar or restaurant there!!
TIL in 2012, Demi Lovato did an MTV documentary about her sobriety and how she overcame addiction. 5 years later, she admitted she was on cocaine while filming it.
TIL that when Apple ads claimed the iPhone X took “studio quality photos” there were complaints to the UK’s advertising standards about misleading statements. These were was rejected because there isn’t a technical definition of what “studio quality photos” is: it’s completely subjective.
Except for the rising price, there is also no definition of the difference between iPhone 5, 6, 7...12. it's completely subjective.
TIL that in the original "Wayne's World" script, the T-1000 simply told Wayne "you're speeding". The line was changed at the last second when a producer's son said it wasn't funny.
TIL the average Philadelphian consumes twelve times as many pretzels as the national average
Because Pennsylvania has about 50 large pretzel manufacturers and a high Germanic ethnicity rate.
I bet dentists are very profitable there. Salty food getting stuck in your teeth is the worst for causing cavities.
Got to a car rental office right after landing in Philly and the office staff immediately offered me delicious, salty soft pretzels. Thank you, Philly!
TIL In 1985, an F-15A launched an anti-satellite missile from a 65-degree climb at 38,100 feet, knocking out an orbiting satellite 345 miles above the Earth; the missile traveled at 11,000 mph when it hit the satellite, which was orbiting at 17,000 mph
Thereby making a massive contribution to the amount of deadly pieces of junk in Earth orbit. A small matter, of course, in the eternal U.S military d**k measuring contest.
TIL: That there's a North Korean embassy in South Africa
They have 14 embassies on the African continent, 13 in Europe, 18 in Asia, 5 in Americas and 3 permanent missions in Europe and 1 in America, more or less
This is the North Korean Embassy in SA DPRKE-60a3...293f70.jpg
There are currently 53 North Korean 'missions', 48 of those are from official embassies. The Embassy in London is my favourite. Pic replied to Nelsonricardo's comment.
TIL that even though it is bed time, I could manage to fit in another TIL post and it was worth it.
This is the best comment for someone like me, who has thought with nearly every post in this list "I should stop and go to bed now" - but here I am, made it to the end. Good night everyone, see you tomorrow
Load More Replies...George Washington Carver didn't invent Peanut Butter. He got peanut butter from a doctor in Missouri who used it for patients with dental problems. Carver's life is a good insane, the man was a slave, went to school, went to college, taught at the college he went to, and revolutionized so much of the botanical knowledge. He moved to the south and was a professor down there when he revolutionized how they re-treated the soil that was almost barren of nutrients after Cotton production. Part of all those uses for Peanuts that he found was in part to sell the Idea of Peanuts to the farmers planting cotton. Show how versitle and profitable it was. The peanut plants re-introduced vital nutrients into the soil that Cotton leached. The man was a genuinely good man who still has programs he implemented in place today at schools in the south he worked with. Seriously go read up on him, his story is amazing.
That was an enjoyable read. Good article BP. Makes a nice change from the constant "Isn't America rubbish" and "Aren't men crap" articles that seem to be published twice weekly!
my sentiments exactly... i'm almost ready to junk this site, but i scroll thru to find these posts. can't even question things without getting 'yelled" at here
Load More Replies...recently I learned that TIL meant Today I Learned and was not some character error or something like that.
TIL that the chips in fish and chips arent American chips, but french fries!
ah, so much better than French fries, which are mean, skinny little things. Chips are thick cut, crispy and soft at the same time, yum.
Load More Replies...TIL that even though it is bed time, I could manage to fit in another TIL post and it was worth it.
This is the best comment for someone like me, who has thought with nearly every post in this list "I should stop and go to bed now" - but here I am, made it to the end. Good night everyone, see you tomorrow
Load More Replies...George Washington Carver didn't invent Peanut Butter. He got peanut butter from a doctor in Missouri who used it for patients with dental problems. Carver's life is a good insane, the man was a slave, went to school, went to college, taught at the college he went to, and revolutionized so much of the botanical knowledge. He moved to the south and was a professor down there when he revolutionized how they re-treated the soil that was almost barren of nutrients after Cotton production. Part of all those uses for Peanuts that he found was in part to sell the Idea of Peanuts to the farmers planting cotton. Show how versitle and profitable it was. The peanut plants re-introduced vital nutrients into the soil that Cotton leached. The man was a genuinely good man who still has programs he implemented in place today at schools in the south he worked with. Seriously go read up on him, his story is amazing.
That was an enjoyable read. Good article BP. Makes a nice change from the constant "Isn't America rubbish" and "Aren't men crap" articles that seem to be published twice weekly!
my sentiments exactly... i'm almost ready to junk this site, but i scroll thru to find these posts. can't even question things without getting 'yelled" at here
Load More Replies...recently I learned that TIL meant Today I Learned and was not some character error or something like that.
TIL that the chips in fish and chips arent American chips, but french fries!
ah, so much better than French fries, which are mean, skinny little things. Chips are thick cut, crispy and soft at the same time, yum.
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