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What’s on the agenda today, pandas? Perhaps you’re working, doing some laundry, going for a run and calling your parents to check in on them. And while you’re being so productive, you might as well squeeze in some time for learning too!
Below, we’ve gathered a list of fun facts that have recently been shared on the Today I Learned subreddit. 5 minutes from now, you’ll have plenty more information to share with friends and family members, and you’ll know even more about the world. Keep reading to also find a conversation with Jake Olefsky, CEO of Braingle.com, and be sure to upvote the facts you’re glad to have learned today!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
That Wimbledon umpires learn a vast array of swear words in many different languages in order to flag, and subsequently fine, any athlete to break the no swearing rule.
Yettichild 1 year ago
So my collection of swear words in different languages might actually come in handy?
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#2
Of Alice Kober, who helped decipher an ancient script known as Linear B. Over 20 years, she meticulously recorded her research in a collection of 180,000 index cards. The script was deciphered in 1952, shortly after her death. It remains the only Bronze Age Aegean script that is readable now.
Betsy Knox 1 year ago (edited)
It was a great intellectual feat. It is one of several bronze age scripts that have been deciphered.
#3
Irish Supreme Court doesn't classify Subway bread as bread, but instead as cake because of its sugar content.
To learn more about the wonderful world of fun facts, we reached out to the CEO of Braingle.com, Jake Olefsky, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. "Sharing fun facts is amazing because you can surprise someone and teach them something new at the same time," he shared. "They are good conversation starters!"
We were also curious about Jake's favorite fun facts. "My favorite is the one that I have most recently learned, so it changes constantly," he revealed. "Today, I learned that a stadium-sized comet is going to whizz past the earth this week! Hopefully it won't hit us."
#4
About Deborah Sampson. She disguised herself as a man so she could join the Continental Army and fight in the Revolutionary war. She was shot twice but fearing someone would find out her secret she removed one of the balls with a penknife and carried the other bullet in her leg her whole life.
#5
The name of Ishi, known as the 'last wild indian' is an adopted name. In the Yahi culture, he one cannot speak his own name until introduced by another Yahi. When asked his name, he said: "I have none, because there were no people to name me".
#6
William Wrigley initially offered free baking powder as a gift for his soap but the powder turned out to be more popular. He switched to selling the powder and added sticks of gum as a gift. The gum became incredibly popular thus forcing him to switch and became the world's leading gum company.
As for the trivia and fun facts you'll find on Braingle, Jake says it's supplied by the site's users. "Anyone can create their own trivia quiz on any topic that they are interested in," he told Bored Panda.
"Of course, we have a review process where editors fact-check each question and proofread it for errors," Jake added. "If you are an expert in some subject, please come and make a quiz on it to share with the world."
#7
A 2013 survey, involving 1,081 doctors regarding advance end-of-life directives, found that 88.3% said they would choose do-not-resuscitate or "no code" orders for themselves.
#8
That the "dumb" in dumbbells originally meant "mute". A "dumb" bell was a contraption used to train church bell ringers in the fine art of bell ringing without annoying the entire neighborhood. Later, because of the similarities in shape, the name was applied to certain exercise equipment.
#9
About 100,000 people died each year in India due to the collapse of vulture populations. Vultures were crucial to the ecosystem & their near extinction due to accidental poisoning extended the presence of animal carcasses in the local environment, increasing rabies & reducing water quality.
Jake also says it's important to be a lifelong learner "because it keeps your brain in shape, so you can stay sharp as you age."
"It also makes you a more interesting person to be around, so you'll make more friends. Just remain curious and try to learn something new every day," he added. "Come to Braingle.com to take a trivia quiz on a wide range of topics, or create your own quiz on anything that you are interested in."
#10
There is a excerpt from John Adam's diary where he describes the time he had to share a tiny bed with Benjamin Franklin and, instead of sleeping, they had an argument about whether to keep the windows open or closed. Franklin eventually won the argument when Adams got too tired and fell asleep.
#11
That 55% of YA readers are actually adults.
UndertaleLover (She/Her) 1 year ago
A lot of adults also watch Bluey, so I can't say I'm surprised.
#12
Many people hear voices and music in white noise. This is known as auditory pareidolia or “musical ear syndrome.”
María Hermida 1 year ago
Yes,the nose is strange,and there's no eye. It's weird
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Data1001 1 year ago
Yes, and if I concentrate on a perceived pattern that I hear in the white noise, it can start to develop into more complex rhythms, and often melodies. My theory is that just because others can't hear these things, doesn't mean they're not actually there. Haha.
Happy to be a wallflower 1 year ago
It’s because your brain tries to fill in the “gaps” of white noise, and it ends up sounding like music
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Lunaofthenest (She/they) 1 year ago
I hear music that isn't playing. It started in my 20s & I genuinely had no idea it wasn't something everyone experienced until very recently. Usually classical or very heavy metal and I don't typically listen to either one.
Lauren S 1 year ago
I don’t know when mine started but I’ll hear various songs. Sometimes I don’t recognize them well enough so I have to wait until it gets to the chorus to trigger than memory. They can often be songs I swear I don’t know the words too. Figure that one out!
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Barong 1 year ago
Not so much from white noise but sometime if the shower is running I think might hear someone saying something from another room. I just carry on and wait and see if anyone repeats or tries to get my attention to see if it’s real or mistaking shower drain noises.
Pandapoo 1 year ago
I also hear strange things when in the shower. I think it’s from water in the pipes, but can’t help thinking of Psycho.
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Astro 1 year ago
I hear music when the fan’s on, from the white noise it produces! I don’t mind it though
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CanadianDimes 1 year ago
I read something about this awhile ago in regards to ghost hunting and the first reported instance of “hearing” ghostly voices in audiotape static. IIRC, the guy who made the recordings was Norwegian and spoke multiple languages - he only “heard” voices in the languages he spoke. It makes sense, because our brains are adapted to find patterns. It also reminds me of people claiming they can hear satanic messages in heavy metal songs played backwards. I had to listen to this once in high school (went to a catholic school - ugh) and all I could hear was garbled English because, y’know, it was being played backwards.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
Sometimes I hear voices when the shower is going and I'm not thinking about much. So, now I make sure I have something going on in my head or I'll think the resident ghost is perving on me. XD
Bewitched One 1 year ago
This is similar I believe. A shower sound is similar to white noise. Someone else commented the same thing and I often hear things when there's complete silence. Lol I'll say "huh?" To my kids, and they're like "what?! We didn't say anything" I also have over 70% conductive hearing loss in my right ear, though and have had tympanoplasties on both, which can cause tinnitus. I constantly hear my heart beating in the left ear and what sounds like blood rushing. Similar to the sound when you put a sea shell up to your ear. So that is fun
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Phil 1 year ago
I have this, though I hear music in total silence, not white noise. I live in a fairly built up area so there is traffic/neighbor noise all the time. My parents, however, live outside a small town so their house gets really, really quiet at night and the "music" make it hard for me to fall asleep. For me, it sounds like I'm hearing music coming from another room.
Lee Banks 1 year ago
This is so validating. My air conditioner always sounds like classical, and the heater sounds like jazz. I've never told anyone, because I'd sound crazy. If I knew how to write sheet music for more than one instrument, it would be beautiful. It keeps me up at night. Can't believe this is a thing! There have been so many compositions.
Hevskitronic 1 year ago
Omg I thought I was losing my mind and having auditory hallucinations! I'm so glad I saw this!
Riley Quinn 1 year ago
White noise is too similar to my tinnitus, so I prefer lower ranged brown noise (can be found on YouTube).
Mya Lugar 1 year ago
My son and I used to hear conversations when, in turn, we stayed at my moms house in the guest room. It came from the vent, and we couldn't tell what they were saying, only the conversational tone. One day, couple of decades later I was sleeping on her living room couch early one Sunday morning, and I DISTINCTLY heard the voice of an Evangelist I was familiar with! No -one had a TV on in her house...but it was picking up! She has a Dish network in a large city outskirts.
Mickie Shea 1 year ago
I sometimes hear a radio station, of unknown origins, when the electric heater is on.
Vicki Perizzolo 1 year ago
And then they run for president and make other people try to hear their noise
Gracie Mae 1 year ago
never knew it was a 'thing' but found out a few yrs ago when i realized no one else was hearing it!
Janet Graham 1 year ago
I get that. My husband has fans going all night because of tinnitus. It causes me to hear weird stuff - hard to sleep.
EJN 1 year ago
I have this and it is amusing as well as a "pain in the ear". Like tinnitus, constant music is interference, albeit better than high-pitched noises. I sometimes hear rock music, and sometimes classical. It is like being in a movie where all the events of daily life have a background score playing. I've found that increasing vitamin B helps control it, to a certain extent. Otherwise, psychiatrists recommend drugs for psychotics, and that is a NO THANKS. It is NOT the same as voices heard by schizophrenics.
Rahb in Oz 1 year ago
I hear voices and music in my tinnitus; I don't need to generate white noise.
Kirsten Kerkhof 1 year ago
Oh, I know. I have a permanent inner sound track, which can range from commercial jingles to any song by the Backstreet Boys.
vintage_one 1 year ago
I always hear music, have since I was in my teens. I used to listen at the top of the stairs because it sounded like a party going on in the living room, music and voices.
Happy to be a wallflower 1 year ago
This is probably why ghost stories about people singing in the woods at night start. The sound of wind in the trees, insects, and leaves rustling probably sound like music to someone with this condition
Paul Brown 1 year ago
I have a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and I go sit in my recliner in the living room in the dark. I almost always think I hear music and singing. But, could not find the source. Now I know what it is!
The Other Guest 1 year ago
I get this pretty often. One of the "triggers" for me is the shower running; pretty creepy to be showering alone in the house, and hearing voices in the living room. I just know that the one time I ignore it & don't stick my head out to check, will be the time it really is a homicidal maniac that broke into the house.
Rostit.. . 1 year ago (edited)
This is why people think those silly spirit box radios are doing anything other than making white noise.
Happy Homemaker 1 year ago
I swear I hear a radio playing in my apartment when there’s nothing on. I have tried tracking the sound to nearby apartments with no luck so I think this might be what it is. I’d never heard of it before.
PeepPeep the duck 1 year ago
I remember doing it a lot when I started smoking weed in a super quiet room
Anna Meyers 1 year ago
I am not bothered by it. It just is. Unless I have a high fever, then I can't stand it, because it stops being music and starts being something I can't describe, a mushy sprechgesang that lies just at the edge of the sleep threshold.
#13
The USA federal witness protection program has a 100% success rate for those who follow their guidelines.
The other-other David Wong 1 year ago
And if they “lose” you they just claim that you didn’t follow their guidelines;)
#14
That birds can get divorced. Over 90% of avian species form socially monogamous pair bonds, but they may end the bonds by 're-mating' with a different partner after so-called 'divorce'. Divorce rate increases with male promiscuity and migration distance.
UndertaleLover (She/Her) 1 year ago
So humans aren't the only ones...I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad about this.
#15
Horses went extinct in North America about 10,000 years ago. They were then reintroduced to the continent by the Spanish as early as the 1550s.
Lunaofthenest (She/they) 1 year ago
Which is funny because I know several Americans who act like they invented horses from scratch. Yellowstone culture is real.
#16
The first and last fatalities of building the Hoover Dam were a father and his son. They died on the same day, 14 years apart.
#17
Of the 5 known assassination attempts on Queen Elizabeth II, the one that came closest to succeeding was attempted by a 17-year-old New Zealander, who shot at her with a .22 calibre rifle, but missed so badly that nobody even realised shots were fired.
Lunaofthenest (She/they) 1 year ago
I know people have a lot of strong opinions on the monarchy but I think QE2 was a boss & was always impressed by her quiet fortitude.
#18
That due to very poor consumer reviews and negative media attention in 2014, Haribo discontinued sugar free gummy bears. The gummy bears contained maltitol, a sugar alcohol that is not fully digestible and that ferments in the gut. It can cause increased flatulence, loose stools, and diarrhea.
#19
North American porcupines love salt and are known to eat backpackers’ road salt-covered boots left outside tents.
#20
Over 98% of Korean households have a special kimchi fridge
Sexual Harassment Panda 1 year ago
According to Google: They're specially designed to keep different kinds of kimchi at optimal temperatures and humidities without mixing their unique flavors and odors.
#21
Grasshopper are nearly 200 million years older than grass.
#22
That WHAM-O's Slip N' Slide is not supposed to be used by persons over the age of 12. There have been rare instances (and lawsuits) of adults breaking their necks while using it and in 1993, the U.S. CPSC warned that the slide might cause permanent spinal cord injury to teens and adults.
Sexual Harassment Panda 1 year ago (edited)
Gee, who would have thought throwing yourself on the ground at a dead run could cause spinal cord and neck injuries? 🤔
#23
That famed scientist George Washington Carver had a respiratory infection in his youth which him with an unusually high pitched voice that “startled all who met him.”
MontanaMariner 1 year ago
Incredible guy. Invented and patented several things that we us today. The most popular being peanut butter.
#25
Until 2001 workers at Disneyland had to wear "communal underwear" while in character because normal undies would bunch up and become visible. After several outbreaks of pubic lice, the performers got the Teamsters Union involved and Disney finally agreed to employees wearing their own underpants.
#26
From the 1950s to 1970s, attempts were made at running bus services between London and India. The trip took about 50 days, cost about $100, and buses are said to have included private bunks and even a kitchen.
#27
The Old London Bridge was crowded with houses and shops, some of them reaching up to 6 storeys in height.
#28
Americans have a distinctive lean and it’s one of the first things the CIA trains operatives to fix.
#29
That there are over two dozen universities in the U.S. that have their own nuclear reactors.
#30
That the world’s largest kidney stone, removed from a patient in Sri Lanka, weighed 1.67 lbs (757.5g) and broke 2 world records.
#31
That Titan’s surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth. Saturn’s moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to Cassini data.
Lunaofthenest (She/they) 1 year ago
Surprised B.P., ExxonMobil & Nestlé haven't found a way to monetize this. I'm sure they're working on it.
#32
There's a rare disorder called Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis, turning people's skin into tree-like bark with wart growths due to HPV. Also known as "Tree Man Illness," the disorder is inherited when an individual inherits one copy, from each parent, of a defective gene.
#33
That the Beijing Weather Modification Office were enlisted by the Chinese government to ensure that the 2008 Summer Olympics were free of rain, by breaking up clouds headed towards the capital and forcing them to drop rain on outlying areas instead.
#34
Alexander Hamilton was the first major American politician publicly involved in a sex scandal. He had an affair with 23-year-old Maria Reynolds, whose husband was aware of the infidelity and likely orchestrated the whole thing to regularly extort blackmail money from Hamilton.
#35
That when Charles Guiteau bought the gun he would use to assassinate President Garfield, he chose one with a more expensive ivory handle, thinking it would look better in a museum. Though the gun was given to the Smithsonian, it has since been lost.
3 Otters 🦦 1 year ago
He and all those like home should have their name list and just be known as twenty alpha numeric identifiers. So they get no notoriety or remembrance.
#36
That China, by a large margin, consumes the most salt per citizen.
#37
Sigmund Freud dissected hundreds of eels in search of the male sex organs. He had to concede failure in his first major published research paper, and turned to other issues in frustration.
#38
That Tex-Mex has surpassed Italian as the most popular food genre in the United States.
Keil Oberlander 1 year ago
Ironic granted the xenophobia of immigrants either from Mexico or coming through Mexico. “Love their food! Hate them.”
#39
About Kitty Fisher, who was famous for simply for being famous. In one incident, she fell off her horse while riding and exposed herself. Broadsheets & prints mocked her, but she seized the attention for herself by having her portrait painted by England's most prominent painter.
#40
That the Rambo lunchbox by Thermos in 1985 marked the end of the metal lunchbox era. Manufacturers switched to making lunchboxes with plastic because it was cheaper and because a group of mothers in Florida complained that metal lunchboxes were being used by children as weapons.
#41
About "Cool Japan", a Japanese government initiative since 2010 that aims to promote Japan's attractiveness abroad. It does this by focusing on the aspects of Japanese culture that non-Japanese people find "cool" such as anime, games, cuisine etc.
Delta Dawn 1 year ago
I’m just saying why don’t we have vending machines for everything yet??? Let’s import that stat.
#42
That Otto Von Bismarck managed a posthumous snub of Wilhelm II, by having his own sarcophagus inscribed with the words, “A loyal German servant of Emperor Wilhelm I”.
#43
During his Flight School basketball camp in 2016, Michael Jordan was challenged by Chris Paul to a shooting drill where if Jordan missed three shots, the campers would all receive free Air Jordans. Jordan accepted and made every shot.
#44
The psychiatrist Henry Cotton would sometimes extract all of a patient's teeth as he believed infected teeth to be the cause of psychiatric disorders. If that didn't work, he'd remove testicles, ovaries, gall bladders, stomachs, spleens, cervixes and colons.
#45
That pro bowling balls have specially shaped "weight blocks" inside them to change how the ball curves.
#46
That among all civilian jobs in in the US, workers spend on average more than 60% of their workday standing.
#47
The NASA plans to decomission the ISS by 2031, via controlled re-entry on the pacific ocean.
#48
That "The Iodine State" was South Carolina's nickname in the 1930s and even on license plates, in an effort to promote the state's vegetables as having more healthy iodine than other other state's vegetables.
#49
George Washington prevented a military coup over unpaid back wages by putting on a pair of glasses to read a letter from Congress, explaining he was "almost blind in the service of my country.” Moved to tears, his officers compromised.
#50
Former NBA Star Dwight Howard Ate 5,500 Calories in Candy Every Day for a Decade. Howard was consuming the amount of sugar equivalent to 24 chocolate bars every day.
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