"Today I Learned", often shortened as TIL, is an online expression typically used in the title of a post or thread when introducing an interesting fact or trivia that had been previously unknown to the poster, in a similar way to the phrase "did you know?".
Bored Panda already introduced you to the concept when we covered the "Today I Learned" subreddit with nearly 24 million members. But TIL posts are all over the Internet not just Reddit, so why stop there? This time, we put together a list of some of the best "Today I Learned" trivia gems we could find online, so get your notebooks out and enjoy.
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TIL that in 1920, the town of Jackson, Wyoming elected an all-female town council by a margin of 2-1 over the men, drawing the most voters the town had ever seen. Known as the "pettycoat rulers," the women served for 3 years and did a great deal to clean up the notoriously lawless town.
TIL there’s a cemetery in the Netherlands consisting of 8,300 US veterans who died in WWII. For the past 70 years, Dutch families have come to the cemetery every Sunday to care for a grave they adopted. Hundreds of people are currently on a waiting list to become caretakers.
TIL that in during WW2, an American bomber -*ye olde pub*- was nearly shot down. A German fighter gave chase and once in range, he noticed the dead and injured crew and the terror in the pilots face. He didn’t attack and escorted the plane. Both pilots survived the war and finally met in 1990
Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown. They became good friends and passed away months apart in 2008.
TIL Prairie dog language is complex. They don’t just have a call for “danger”: their calls differentiate human, hawk, domesticated dog, coyote etc. and specify size & color. One study found that they can communicate “Here comes the short human in the yellow” (vs the tall human in blue) to each other
TIL that Bill Murray once drove a taxi cab so that the cab driver could spend time playing saxophone in the backseat. The cab driver mentioned that he never had time to play his sax since he had to work 14 hours a day. Murray took the driver’s seat so that he could finally play some tunes.
TIL of Ken Allen, a Borneo orangutan in the San Diego Zoo who escaped his enclosure three times. He never acted aggressively towards anyone during his escapes, and generally wandered around the zoo looking at other animals.
TIL the founder of Hyundai was born to an impoverished family of peasants in what is now North Korea. In 1998, he sent 1001 cows to his hometown in North Korea as a repayment 1000 times over for a cow that he stole in the early 1930s to afford his train ticket to Seoul and escape from poverty.
TIL That Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge child soldier has personally found and/or destroyed over 50,000 land mines. He now trains bomb experts, curates a mine museum, and advocates for demining and the victims of mines.
TIL in the 1790s, an Oxford student introduced using guano (bird poop) as fertiliser. He spread guano across the university lawn, using it to spell G U A N O. The lawn was soon scrubbed, but when spring came, the word GUANO was clearly visible, growing higher and thicker than the rest of the grass
I thought it was always weird to have a paper airplane for sent since those things never end up where you throw them
TIL that elephants are tremendous distance swimmers. They can swim for up to six hours and 25 miles (48km). They are so buoyant that if they tire in the water, they can just rest by floating and will not sink. They can also use their trunk as a snorkel and dive.
TIL in 1980 the FBI formed a fake company and attempted to bribe members of congress. Nearly 25% of those tested accepted the bribe, and were convicted.
TIL scientists used 2,000 year old seeds to regrow an extinct species of date tree. The tree long disappeared from the Judean desert but archeologists found seeds on digs. Surprisingly, the seeds worked and grew a male and female of the species. They hope to use them to produce biblical era dates.
TIL that in the Falklands, an abandoned minefield has accidentally become a penguin sanctuary. The mines were set in the Falklands conflict and have remained there since, keeping humans away. The local Magellanic penguins are too small to set them off and have thrived in the area.
The only time landmines have contributed something positive to the world.
TIL The holes in honeycombs don't actually start out as hexagons. Bees create circular tubes staggered with one another. The heat formed by the activity of the bees softens the wax, which connects the gaps between the holes. Then the wax hardens into the the most energy efficient shape, the hexagon.
TIL that when Eli Wallach, who played "The Ugly" in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," arrived in Madrid to shoot the movie, all hotels were full. He ended up having to sleep in the same bed as Clint Eastwood and later often bragged that he was the only man who ever slept with Clint Eastwood.
TIL Not only do bats make high-pitched sounds for echolocation, many bat species also sing. A team of scientists that analyzed one species’ song translated it as a sequence that opens with a hello, then a gender identification, then some geographic information, & then a "let's talk" section.
TIL that the founder of Old Bay seafood seasoning founded his own company after being fired by McCormick after two days on the job after they found out he was Jewish
There are a lot of things in Sponge Bob Square pants like this because Stephen Hillenburg creator of Sponge Bod was a Marine Biologist.
TIL that Alan Alda met his wife of over 60 years at a dinner party when they were the only two guests who ate the rum cake after it fell on the kitchen floor.
TIL Harry Houdini wanted to prevent people from copying his "Chinese water torture cell" trick, but didn't want to patent it, as that would require explaining how it works. So he gave a performance of the trick as a one-act play before an audience of one, and then filed for a copyright on the play
TIL The formal clothing of the Roman Citizen was the Toga. During Roman elections, those running for political office would rub their Toga with a dazzling white chalk to stand out. Called Toga Candida (pure-white) this clothing was the origin of the word "candidate".
TIL Chris Evans turned down the Captain America role multiple times because of Anxiety, fear of a 10-movie commitment and the public spotlight. He went to therapy before taking the role
TIL: 44% of adults have held on to their childhood teddies and dolls, and as many as 34% of adults still sleep with a soft toy every night
TIL wild orangutans use medicinal plants to sooth joint and muscle inflammation. The apes chew leaves of the Dracaena cantleyi plant to create a white lather, which they then rub onto their bodies. Local indigenous people also use the plant for the same purpose.
Please don't use anything containing palm oil, plantations are the main reason for the extinction of these amazing creatures.
TIL the red stuff dropped from airplanes to put out forest fires also acts as a fertilizer.
A guy on a fire crew left his truck up on the bush during the fight during fire season in British Columbia (early 90's when I heard since my Father was on one of the crews) Buddy was new and didn't know about the retardant and what was in it or cared. The others on the crew told him to move his truck before the bomber came by with a sweep in the areathey were in. He ignored them and continued on his way. The other firefighters shrugged and went back to the line. The bomber flew over right where he left his truck. It dropped its cargo. The guys truck and interior was a fresh new red color that couldn't come out of the original white upholstery.
TIL of Miguel Wattson, an electric eel from Tennessee with its own Twitter account. Whenever he discharges a large enough jolt, a tweet will be automatically send out to his account EelectricMiguel. Apart from sending tweets, he also helps power up Christmas trees at the aquarium.
TIL in 1506, a 1000+ year old statue was unearthed. The main figure, Laocoön, was missing an arm. The pope commissioned a contest to find who would recreate the missing arm best. Michelangelo's version lost. In 1906 the original arm was found and in nearly the exact pose Michelangelo had sculpted.
It has been suggested that Michelangelo earned a living as an art forger before he became famous (Laocoön was found in the back yard of the art dealer who declared it an authentic antique). This would indeed explain how M. knew exactly where to position the arm.
TIL in 2007, 33-year-old Steve Way weighed over 100kg, smoked 20 cigarettes a day & ate junk food regularly. In order to overcome lifestyle-related health issues, he started taking running seriously. In 2008, he ran the London Marathon in under 3 hours and, in 2014, he set the British 100 km record
Some sharks bear live young. And in some of those species, the sharklets battle each other for survival, loser gets eaten--before they're even born!
It doesn't, though I found that skid marks are much more likely. Anyway, as a German I mostly know these as "old-fashioned" toilets... never seen one like that that wasn't installed several decades ago. They are still around in older buildings because there is no point in throwing out something that works, but I'm not aware of them being installed these days - certainly not in any significant quantity.
Load More Replies...It's also so a person can examine their feces before flushing.
yup - same reason for the shape of Japanese trough toilets
Load More Replies...This is called a Flachspüler. It is not very common these days and found only in older homes. One perk is that it is very easy to get stool samples. The stench is hard to endure though.
Sorry, Hans, that's not completely correct. ;) Yes, this is called a "Flachsplüler" - literally something like "flat flusher" - contrary to the much more common "Tiefspüler" = "deep flusher". And yes, they are not very common: You will hardly ever find these at public restrooms. But: You can find Flachspüler not only in older homes, but also in modern homes (like mine, built 2020). Main advantage: Avoid Poseidon's kiss - main reason for me! Minor advantage: The thing about stool samples (which is nothing you need often). Disadvantages: Skid marks are more obvious after happening. ;) But thanks to modern surfaces (lotos effect etc.) this is not a real problem, and those happen with a Tiefspüler, too. Also the thing with the stench... Yeah, there's more surface with air contact than when half of it is under water. But if you don't tend to have endless sessions it's not significantly worse that it is anyway - in my opinion.
Load More Replies...I read a lot of comments pointing out that it's convenient for stool samples... Excuse me but how often do you people have to collect stool samples?!
I heard, and it might not be true, that those were installed for simple reason. Checking for worms. Worms were real problem in Europe and this kind of toilet helped a lot to get rid of it.
Load More Replies...You know how doctors keep saying you should look at your poop? I think this is for that
That’s common here, too, in NL. Who wants to splash their butts when pooping? You just flush it when you’re done, it doesn’t smell any more than drowning it immediatly. Also good for checking if everything is ok. Skid marks only happen when your poop is unhealthy (sticky or not solid), and that’s why toiletbrushes exist.
I agree, basically. But puking into one of these is the absolute worst.
Load More Replies...I've heard someone call it "inspection deck". And that's kind of true I'd say. We know how to take care of our bodies 😆
Yes, that's what the Dutch do. A GP friend had an illustrated chart of poo colours & consistencies and what disorder it points to.
Load More Replies...We don't have those anymore, except sometimes in hospitals because it makes it easier to examine the poop.
To support the Germans there is a potential health benefit to examining your poop for traces of blood, worms etc. Watch animals, many of them will turn around and inspect their poop after, erm, depositing it (of course they may just like the smell ;).
This is common in The Netherlands and when I was living there I was told that in the past, people used them to check their stools for worms. The design has since become standard. I guess the same was true for Germany.
I heard the design was originally intended for hospitals only, but the company that invented them just sold them to the public anyway.
Load More Replies...Same in Austria. You get a whole different point of view of the masterpiece your butt produces. It's like on a pedestal and you can admire it.
These are standard for Dutch as well. It's for health reasons (no seriously, humor me) They are designed so your stool won't flush right away. You will automatically look before you flush. Even if you don't pay attention you'll register sort of whatever it was you just dumped (pun intended). Even for pee, you will see the color. Very light is allright, brown for a frown (dehydration) Not getting splashed is a mere bonus. The whole thing is for you to know if your excrements are as they should be. And, if not, to tell you what might be wrong with you Edit: A difference in bowel movements/stools while you haven't been dieting or anything else could indicate serious health problems. Including consistancy and/or color Also you would notice if there's blood in your stool (you might not when you plunge and flush) If you drank lots of guinness for several days it will be black. If you ate lots of spinach for a couple days it will be a (very dark) green. Food coloring and many other things will influence it With a Dutch toilet you'll always know
This is exactly how Dutch people explained it to me. Also I think the Dutch are a bit obsessed with their excretions. I once saw a kids TV program where they showed a kid peeing in a special toilet so they could examine the quantity and, as you said, the color, etc. It cracked me up. I trained myself to flush with my eyes looking up at the wall.
Load More Replies...I have a legit question for the fellas: If you don't have a urinal, and you have to use one of these for a wee, does it splash a lot? I imagine it's hard to aim for the hole in the night too.
I just wanna know why they keep making toilets with short seats. I'm not particularly well-endowed but I've got enough that the tip touches the bowl unless I drape some toilet paper first. It would seem the luckier guys would end up with theirs in the water. Or do guys just tuck it to the side? I thought most people peed when they make a doodie.
And on the flip side, regarding the toilet design above: that wouldn't work for me because sometimes my doodie piles pretty high and I can't stand a taint smeared with s**t.
Load More Replies...Less backsplash, less use of toilet paper to prevent backsplash. So, it´s more eco friendly! BTW it´s called a Flchspüler in opposite to the "normal" toilet, which is a Tiefspüler ;)
It s to watch your Poop and also don' t get splashed, I know because in Austria we have the same toilets, very 60ties
We had the same (in Russia) when I was a kid. I always thought it was to take poop samples lol
In case you need to take some stool to the DR. Poo on the shelf and take a sample. als Undercooked pork, Bear, walrus or horse meat can give you Trichinosis roundworm. No poo scuba in germany :)
its a worm inspection shelf because a lot of raw meat is in the diet they used to have to be able to inspect for worms
Poop could be "read" for vital clues of body or gut ailments or diseases
It is intended to be able to take a look whether there are any health issues: parasites, blood and other conditions that manifest in change of stool appearance. In countries with so-called 'deep flushers', those symptoms are easily neglected and conditions are only treated in a much later stage of the condition, when it can be too late to intervene. Plus: one stays dry because there is never a splash when anything drops. It is not only a German phenomenon. Many European countries have that. Speaking about 'normal' toilets (and not speaking about their water efficiency which is low). The US is only one part of the world, you know.
Just imagine how useful that would be when it came time to do the bowel screening tests! I'm absolutely dreading hitting the bowel screening age lol! Of course I WILL do it, obviously! They save lives! My uncle did his earlier this year and it had traces of blood in it and he was waiting for a hospital appointment for it when we had to take him into hospital. Had to get the Dr out to him as he was having problems going to the toilet and was in agony, Dr suspected a blockage in his bowels and arranged for him to go to hospital. They did a scan, found it was a huge tumour and operated within a couple of days of him going into hospital! At the height of the pandemic as well! These screenings really do save lives! I will DEFINITELY be getting all of them done when I'm eligible for them! (on a separate note - a few weeks after my uncle got home from hospital, my man landed in hospital as well and was diagnosed with heart failure, on top of his existing rare blood cancer Myelofibrosis!)
I'm confused? Unless you are taking a mammoth s**t, hence why the regular toilets may splash back I can see your s**t sticking to the top and or smearing when flushed. Just saying....
I read something - apparently some people like to examine their "stuff" to see if they're eating right (or whatever) and this lets them do it with a minimum of mess...then they flush and it's gone. Personally, I think that it's "too much information" on something that even my doctor doesn't want a sample of "every day".
Used to live in Germany. These toilets have a "water closet" hanging on the wall above your head. The force of the water removes all.
It was designed that way in order to enable the examination of faeces to make sure the digestive system was working as it should.
Gives you a chance to look at your poop and identify any signals of illness
They were right to have designed them this way as it is very important to examine your feces everytime. It says a lot about your gastric and other health problems. Also to spot blood spotting that might not be noticable if it went straight into the water. The smell is a very small price to pay for the early warning signs. Also if you have a tablespoon of the plantago ovata husk, (ispagul) morning and night, there will be no smell. In an emergency, you would not need to even wipe yourself as the feces comes out so well lubricated. And by the way, it is not a laxative as people think....been having it for years. Very high fiber content. Also emitted gasses will not smell. You are welcome !!
I'm German and I own one of these, newly installed. You can easily take stool samples, and there are many people who have to check it for medical purposes (colour, consistence, containing blood or not). It's not so unusual.
This style of toilet can also be found throughout Europe.
Not more than you usually should, which is after each time you pooped... The stronger flush actually prevents skids.
Load More Replies...Toilets in older buildings in my homeland (The Netherlands) were also of this design: good for scrutinising your faeces for health reasons before you flush... :D
German? Western-European, I suppose? I like them, and I've never known anything else. And I'm not German (just born 20km from the border :P).
I was given a molded piece to fix into my toilet that was a "poop shelf" to collect poop for a stool sample to take back to the doctor. OMG, what a stench! How in the world would you design a toilet this way?
we had a new bathroom and a new toiletroom installed 2 years ago.. and we specifically ordered the "german"toilet.. because i hate buttsplashed so much. very comman in the netherlands
I would rather by balls and d**k to be in the water than laying on the porcelain.
You see what comes out before it's flushed. This can help diagnose a disease at a very early stage.
Remember when granny said that you could eat of the toilet bowl in her house?
My granny definitely never said that. Not that she wasn't clean or anything but you did not talk about bodily functions or things related to them! Gracious no. 😆
Load More Replies...Yeah, not a toilet I would like to use. I can imagine the smell, the skid marks and honestly I don’t want to be so up close and personal to my s**t.
No more skids than the Tiefspüler toilets. Actually the flush is stronger. Plus that you actually use the toilet brush anyways every times you pooped, right? I cannot confirm a nastier smell, though. So, Eventhough it seems to make sense, but this is a myth.
Load More Replies...TIL - A man suffering from gastrointestinal distress in a Kansas Home Depot mens room provided a friendly warning to other bathroom goers by saying: “You need to get out of here because I’m fixin’ to blow it up.” Police were called on suspicion of a bomb threat. No charges were laid.
TIL The Tollund Man, who lived during the 4th Century BC, was so well preserved on discovery that that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim. His internal organs were intact; it was concluded that his last meal was porridge consisting of 40 kinds of seeds, eaten 12 to 24 hours before his death.
I've always heard that porridge was a meal that would stick to your ribs.
Fifteen states have a population of less than two million, of these there are seven states with less than one million people. The smallest is Wyoming with about 580,000 residents. Each state is represented by two senators in the Senate. This means that one senator from Wyoming represents 290.000 people and that one senator from California represents almost 19 million people. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? If the scales were tilted the other way around, (19.000.000X1,53%=290.700) this would give us 290.000X1.53%=4.437 which is about the population of the small town of Portola Valley in California.
TIL that when future US President Lyndon B. Johnson was Senate majority leader, he instructed his staff to make his scotch and soda significantly weaker than his guest’s, so that he could keep a clearer head
Note: this post originally had 111 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I'm still fascinated by the life story of Hark Olufs, who was born in Amrum (small German island in the North Sea). As a teen he was abducted on a voyage and sold as a slave in Algeria, where he made a MASSIVE career, constantly gaining in responsibilities, which culminated in taking part in a military conquest (in a leadership role). As a reward for his efforts (and success) he was released - and chose to go back to Amrum, where he married a local woman and remained for the rest of his life... with everyone else there being highly suspicious of him. I feel incredibly sorry for that guy. He managed to turn around misfortune into success, and after his release he likely could have had a successful life in a more cosmopolitan city like Hamburg... but all he wanted was to live a "normal" life back home, when his adventurous life made it pretty much impossible to be truly accepted and trusted by the people there.
Today you learned: Mary, Queen of Scots, had a croquet mallet made from the horn of a Narwhal. The "horn" of the Narwhal isn't a horn at all, it's actually a weird, twisted tooth. You're welcome.
in the old days that's what they use to do for movie soundtrack ,household items
I thought Gutenberg's contribution was the use of moveable type to form words.
Title: "People Are Posting The Most Interesting Things They’ve Learned (123 Facts)" Last fact = #112. Question: What happened with the other facts? LOL. Facts are very hurtful to some people.
I'm still fascinated by the life story of Hark Olufs, who was born in Amrum (small German island in the North Sea). As a teen he was abducted on a voyage and sold as a slave in Algeria, where he made a MASSIVE career, constantly gaining in responsibilities, which culminated in taking part in a military conquest (in a leadership role). As a reward for his efforts (and success) he was released - and chose to go back to Amrum, where he married a local woman and remained for the rest of his life... with everyone else there being highly suspicious of him. I feel incredibly sorry for that guy. He managed to turn around misfortune into success, and after his release he likely could have had a successful life in a more cosmopolitan city like Hamburg... but all he wanted was to live a "normal" life back home, when his adventurous life made it pretty much impossible to be truly accepted and trusted by the people there.
Today you learned: Mary, Queen of Scots, had a croquet mallet made from the horn of a Narwhal. The "horn" of the Narwhal isn't a horn at all, it's actually a weird, twisted tooth. You're welcome.
in the old days that's what they use to do for movie soundtrack ,household items
I thought Gutenberg's contribution was the use of moveable type to form words.
Title: "People Are Posting The Most Interesting Things They’ve Learned (123 Facts)" Last fact = #112. Question: What happened with the other facts? LOL. Facts are very hurtful to some people.