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40 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn At School And Decided To Share Them In This Online Group (New Pics)
There's always something new you can learn. Something that can broaden your horizons. You just have to know where to look.
One of the places that offer a never-ending flow of knowledge is the subreddit 'Today I Learned' (or TIL for short). People go there to share all the interesting stuff they discover, and the fact that its members are the ones who produce its content is what makes TIL such an enjoyable encyclopedia. It's legit. It's unpredictable. And it's constantly getting new submissions. What more could one ask for?
Continue scrolling to check out some of its hottest new posts and if you want to continue your "studies", fire up our earlier pieces on the subreddit here, here, and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL Judith Love Cohen, who helped create the Abort-Guidance System which rescued the Apollo 13 astronauts, went to work on the day she was in labor. She took a printout of a problem she was working on to the hospital. She called her boss and said she finished the problem and gave birth to Jack Black
80 Van 4 years ago
Yes, THE Jack Black from Tenacious D and School of Rock. https://film.avclub.com/jack-black-s-mom-was-a-nasa-engineer-who-helped-bring-t-1846768439
denzoren 4 years ago
When you think you couldn't get cooler than Jack Black...his mom made her own level.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago (edited)
Are they talking about THE Jack Black, singer and actor? Good on her, I couldn't even concentrate on everything around me during labour, let alone working.
Louloubelle 4 years ago
Wow! Can you imagine being that famous, then telling people your mother is a rocket scientist?
Alex the awful German 4 years ago
wow....wondering they did not make a movie of that story yet...
Laura Mende (Human) 4 years ago
I googled it: "Thomas Jacob Black was born in Santa Monica, California, on August 28, 1969, the son of satellite engineers Thomas William Black and Judith Love Cohen." AMAZING! 😮
RELATED:
#2
TIL about the Great Green Wall, an effort to plant trees to stop desertification in the Sahara that began in 2007. Ethiopia has planted over 5.5 billion seedling since
Luther von Wolfen 4 years ago
Wow - imagine what an industrialized, technologically advanced nation could do to address the problem of climate change if they actually tried!
cassiushumanmother 4 years ago
I don't know the relation between Sahara and Ethiopia? Ethiopia has the Danakil desert and is boarded at north by Sahel, not Sahara. ?
Malwin Wellham 4 years ago
It is part of the great green wall, to stop Desertification that started in Sahara. So it started far away from Ethiopia. But The great green wall is 8,000km and it runs across multiple countries.
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Amanda Hunter 4 years ago
Thank goodness, it's good to hear that someone is doing something positive for our plantet.
#3
TIL Hours after being adopted from an animal shelter, 21-pound cat Pudding saved her owners life. While suffering a diabetic seizure, Amy Jung's newly acquired cat pounced his weight on her chest and began swatting her face and biting her nose until she gained consciousness.
Raine Soo 4 years ago
That's amazing! Pudding was returning the favour. Amy rescued him from the animal shelter, and he saved her life.
Jon S. 4 years ago
How did that save her life? Unless the cat physically put sugar in her mouth, I am skeptical. More likely, as happens when my mum has a seizure, it just takes a few minutes for the hypo to end.
Iggy 4 years ago
Maybe he woke her before she slipped too far into unconsciousness.
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Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
I have the suspicion that Pudding was just trying to murder her, but now he can't because he's the hero and he'll settle for being revered and waited upon. Not such a bad deal. (jk)
#4
TIL that ravens and wolves have formed a mutually beneficial relationship out in the wild. Ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals so that the wolves will then open up the carcass and leave the scraps for the ravens once they're finished.
Raine Soo 4 years ago
Symbiotic relationships occur throughout nature. One of which people are aware is the sea anemone and the clown fish. Thanks, "Finding Nemo".
WholesomeArmyweeb 4 years ago
“Oi, fatass! Dead venison at 14 o clock!” “Thanks beakface” “yeah yeah fûck you.” “Fück you!”
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Fyi in the state of Idaho the senate has out a bill to the governor to sign to remove 90% of the wolf population. Please call ore write or email the governor
Becky Samuel 4 years ago
For a detailed and fascinating account of this relationship I heartily recommend the book "Mind of the Raven" by Bernt Heimrich.
Wyatt Hatch 4 years ago
They also antagonize the wolves into chasing them when they're bored lol
#5
TIL that in 1995, a man received a "check" for $95,000 as junk mail. Jokingly, he deposited it into his account. The "check" met all of the legal criteria for a check and was cashed
Thomas Evans 4 years ago
Here is his story.... https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Playing-With-Money-How-a-95-093-35-junk-mail-2588766.php
Draperdorf 4 years ago
Cheque is how we write it in UK English. I believe check is US English.
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Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
I remember this when it happened. He posted daily messages about his ongoing battles with the bank
Footlong Cox 4 years ago
The company didn't put real info on the check. The bank was on the hook.
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#6
TIL of Elouise Cobell (“Yellow Bird Woman”) who founded the first Native American owned bank. As treasurer of the Blackfeet Nation she tried to resolve accounting discrepancies regarding leases on Indian Land which led to a $3.4 Billion dollar class action settlement against the US government.
Lydia Gichia-Black 4 years ago
Shame they have to fight to get back what is rightfully theirs.
Mike Crow 4 years ago
The USA will not acknowledge the genocide that happened, nor will they repay what they stole.
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Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago (edited)
The term "Native Americans" makes me nuts. People may disagree with me, but there was nothing American about them when the settlers decided to call the land they stole by that name. They are First Nations people because there were so many different established nations when the settlers arrived. Note: there is still the Navajo Nation, the Iroquois Nation and the Blackfeet Nation, and so on, all containg with in them different tribes. But it is a nation. Yes, they did wage war against each other but how unusual is that to this day? Nations warring with other nations. At least with this settlement they got some kind of compensation out of it for all of the MANY broken treaties. However, we should all acknowledge their immeasurably valuable contribution to America and Canada in art, spirituality, politically, socially and patriotism during wars. The Navajo Code Talkers were invaluable in protecting communications in WWII. It's about respect.
J-A Laine 3 years ago (edited)
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from Florence, from whose name the term "America" is derived. The name "America" has obviously got nothing to do with the settlers.
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CatWoman312 4 years ago
I think we can all agree $3.4 billion is nowhere near enough to make up for what we did to them.
Virgil Blue 4 years ago
I'm amazed people down voted this because its true. Just as a reality check: just Elon Musk is worth about 170 billion all in his lonesome. Pox blankets, forcefully re-education and adoption of kids, forced marches and more. Face it it is a very dark stain on U.S. history.
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Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Should change her name to "Golden Eagle Woman". . . fantastic sharp eyes to find the discrepancy and follow through to win!
#7
TIL NASA's longest serving female employee since January 1958, Sue Finley, has been an engineer and programmer for space missions since Explorer 1, for missions to the Moon, Sun, all the planets and many other solar system bodies, and recipient of NASA's Exceptional Public Service Medal.
Connie Martin 4 years ago
What a fabulous woman. I wish I could have been her, except in Medicine. Unfortunately I hit a wall with Calculus
#8
TIL the King's doctor Johann Struensee seized power for over a year in 18th century Denmark. He managed to abolish slavery, abolish censorship of the press, and have an affair with the Queen before being ousted and executed in 1772
Jon S. 4 years ago
Apparently there is a film about this guy, 'a royal affair'. I shall be looking it up.
ms Cabins 4 years ago
It is a very watchable movie, with Oscar winner Alicia Vikander as the Danish queen.
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Julia Atkinson 4 years ago
It's a truly horrific story. Struensee's right hand was severed with an axe immediately before he was beheaded and quartered! Queen Caroline Mathilde, the sister of King George III, died in exile at the age of 23.
the annoying theatre kid 4 years ago
his face says it all, “yeah i did that and what about it?”
Virgil Blue 4 years ago
I bet his last words were something like "And I'd do it again given the chance."
#9
TIL that the worlds rarest tree, Kaikōmako native to New Zealand, has been rescued from extinction after 40 years of trying to get the very last female tree in the world to fruit again
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I didn't know that either and it's where I live! We mostly hear about the endangered wildlife
Uchman 4 years ago (edited)
Wow, now TIL that there are people who don't know there are male and female plants!
Bender Bending Rodríguez 4 years ago (edited)
Just learned recently here on BP there are indeed male and female trees. In very dumbed down way (cause I am no expert) here's what up. Male trees are the one that produces pollen, that pollen goes to female and female trees produces fruits. Think about that when you get seasonal allergies.
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Xan Maranya 4 years ago
I just had to look it up.... "Geneticist and mycologist, Dr Ross Beever, noticed that the cutting-grown female plant had produced fruit on a cluster of flowers, however it withered, and no viable seeds were produced. He applied a plant hormone to the seed head, enabling it to produce mature seeds." -landcareresearch.co.nz
Chaotic_pansexual 4 years ago
Yup! Most plants have a male and a female (unless they’re the type of plant that reproduces asexually). In flowering plants, the male flower produces the pollen that, by pollinators, makes its way into the female plant and allows it to seed and make baby plants! I’m not sure precisely how this works with trees but I’m sure it works similarly! And the female tree will produce the fruit, which have seeds in them that make baby trees :))
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Ryan Kargel 4 years ago
May still be functionally extinct due to the genetic bottleneck, but cool to try.
#10
TIL Richard Simmons would wake up at 4AM to call up to 40 people who are isolated, alone, or needed empathy. Some credited Richard Simmons for saving their lives
DD 4 years ago
He was so caring on his workout shows that lonely people regularly sent him letters. Listen to the podcast Searching For Richard Simmons, it's worth it.
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Rai Grant 4 years ago
I really do wish, as an empath (bpd) that they'd stop using empathy when they mean sympathy. Empathy does not mean you care, it means that, like it or not, you feel someone else's emotions, it's like feeling heat from a fire if you like, and is not subject to whether or not you actually give a stuff about that person.... sorry, pandas, but I'm just so sick of this word being misrepresented :(
JessG 4 years ago
It is used wrong here, that's true. He gave them sympathy. However, had they said he had empathy for them, that would be correct to; he put himself in their shoes, which was something they needed.
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Sun Flower 4 years ago
He called my aunt. wasn't a quick hi and bye phone call, he took time to listen to her and they had a real conversation about what was going on in life.
BabaBizzle 4 years ago
Yet no one can seem to get through to help him. I miss Richard Simmons. I met him at work once, he was everything you’d think he’d be. A legend , kind decent bloke.
Karen Grace 4 years ago
He had a world wide following. At 4 am he would likely be calling overseas, not in the US.
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Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
Richard has spoken about his severe depression and believes that it was exercise that led him out of the darkness.
#11
TIL Friends Thomas Cook and Joseph Feeney shook hands in 1992, swearing if either one won the Powerball jackpot, they would split the winnings. Well the power of friendship and a handshake has paid off: 28 years later Tom won €22 million and split the winnings with his friend
Kenny Kulbiski 4 years ago
I'm not downplaying this but splitting a 22 million windfall is one thing, splitting your last 10 bucks is real friendship.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
Holy s**t. But yeah, having 11 million should be enough to live by, so it's not that horrible to split it. Then again, more money usually creates more greed, so I'm happy the two (four) are that good friends.
Noel Bovae 4 years ago
Splitting a $22mil win doesn't sound like a HUGE deal, but it really is when you think about how much each of them would have actually received. If they took a lump sum (which would be a good idea, considering their ages,) that would take the winnings down to about $11mil. The feds take 25% of lotto winnings, and the Wisconsin govt takes 7.6%. That only leaves a little over $3.5mil each. To anyone struggling (like myself) of course that's still a lot of money. But the difference between 3.5 and 7 million dollars, is substantial. To a younger person, that could mean the difference between being able to retire, and having to continue working. Even to an older person, that could mean the difference between living a modest life, and being able to live a life of luxury. Most people would say screw the friend, and choose to live in luxury for their remaining years.Tom was truly a good man, and a great friend!
#12
TIL About a 17 year old kid that was given an old iPhone for free, and using the "barter" section of Craigslist made 14 trades, ending with a Porsche. Along the way he traded for newer phones, computers, motorcycles, and eventually cars.
Christina Schulte 4 years ago
I want to have the level of commitment that kid has.
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Jo Choto 4 years ago
I try and figure out how to do this in my head, but it never works. Why is someone going to trade better for worse?
Ali H M Salehuddin 4 years ago
Most of those who participated, traded stolen goods they want to get rid off.
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Michael Sanders 4 years ago
I would’ve stopped at the ‘75 Ford Bronco he got, but hey people like a Porsche.
Royer Potts 4 years ago
Definitely, Broncos are now worth their weight in gold.
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Wasn't there something similar where someone started with a paper-clip and ended with a house?
pinkk-sugar 4 years ago
Yep https://instagram.com/trademeproject?igshid=6wl9yty0ry1s
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sylvanticx 4 years ago
ever heard of the game "trade up"? everyone starts with a marker or a paperclip or something. you trade up. at my camp we have a bit of a legend that someone traded up for an orange grove.
#13
TIL that Walter Breuning stopped smoking cigars at age 103 because they became too expensive. At age 108, he began smoking cigars again after receiving a lot of gifts of cigars. He ultimately ended up living to age 114.5 and was the second-last verified surviving man born in the 1800s
Paul Macdonell 4 years ago
Smoking an occasional cigar is personal health decision (risk) that should not be judged. Let's not read too much into this.
Bumblebee 4 years ago
I agree with you AND anonymousplease. It always comes with a risk that is not te be underestimated. I shared the story of my great-grandfather here in the comments, he lived up to 101, 5 months shy from his 102nd birthday. But at such an old age, I also agree: Just let them be. They have had such a long life. And with that comes a lot of tragedy/trauma too. Outliving so many loved ones, often including their children. Let them live how they want to! But also like you said: "Let's not read too much into this", I agree with. The stories of these people are very few exceptions. And because they are exceptions, I am truly for letting them live how they want to when they are that old. It is wonderful to hear these stories regardless. I will always remember him and he will always be missed!
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Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Wow. Think about it. He lived in three centuries? Born in the 19th, experienced the entire 20th, and saw well into the the beginning of the 21st. Born into the horse and buggy’s era, died in the beginning of the driverless car era. Born before air travel was possible, lived to see us land on the Moon, and to see the seeds of commercial space travel planted. It must’ve been fascinating to listen to his firsthand accounts of life in all the decades he lived. Wow. Just wow.
TheBlackPanda 4 years ago
A lot of people are gonna take this ONE case as confirmation that smoking won't kill you lol. One case.
tangy chip 4 years ago
why are the comments here downvoted? smoking is bad for the earth, your lungs, and people around you, but its your choice whether you decide to smoke or not!
Mark A Mathison 4 years ago
I interviewed Walter 3 days before his 113th birthday. He was very sweet! He was that last person I knew who was born in the 19th Century.
Sharon Ingram 4 years ago
I doubt he was “in the pubic” very much. And he probably enjoyed his cigar in HIS home for a few puffs at a time. He can do whatever he darn well pleases!
Demon Child 4 years ago
omg I read 1145 and i felt conflicted bc of how often I say this site is reputable.
#14
TIL in 1998, a 10-year-old girl in Austria was dragged into a car and kidnapped. The case remained unsolved until she knocked on someone's door in 2006 saying: "I am Natascha Kampusch." She had just escaped the secret cellar of a local technician that abused her for 8 years
Raine Soo 4 years ago
Natascha is the subject of a Netflix documentary. It's quite interesting. I won't give too much away. Outside of the documentary, her mother was later accused of sexually abusing Natascha, and orchestrating her abduction. Needless to say, the entire case was bizarre.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
So many f*****g sicko's out there. How awful that would have been for her, so glad she escaped.
Vicky Zar 4 years ago
Yes. I think because it is so rare that something like this happens. Thankfully.
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Sar-kei Scyence 4 years ago
Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated case, repeated many times all over the world.
#15
TIL that in the 70s, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tried creating its own artificial coral reef by dumping some 2 million used tires into the ocean. It became an environmental disaster, naturally, but also a military training exercise when divers had to retrieve the tires (almost one by one).
Láďa Durchánek 4 years ago (edited)
I am becoming more and more convinced that Florida is some kind of laboratory to test stupid ideas.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
It’s a state started and funded by greed. Interesting history. Now they’ve fùcked up the everglades and the one big lake in the south so badly. Yet no laws on busting people for their septic leaks, overfarming, routing water incorrectly etc. A mess
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Sill Marien 4 years ago
You actually can dump things in the ocean to attract corals. I guess they got so excited by this news that they stopped reading it halfway. Right before the point which specified what materials can be used (boats, ships, cars, clean, anchored and ridden of all paint and any other toxic stuff, some concrete etc.) :)
Alex the awful German 4 years ago
doing smth. good to the enviroment by dumping a few million tires into the ocean? Yeah...sounds like a very american solution. ;-)
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
The idea of creating artificial reefs isn't that dumb. Very dumb, though, is the idea of using car-tries, who are basically rubber with lots of tar and oil in and on them as the base. Try using concrete - that will work.
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Caroline Melzer 4 years ago
Well if someone has to test the stupid ideas. Otherwise there would be a stupidity surplus and it would spill over the rest of America......wait did that happen already?
Karri Berkowitz 4 years ago
Hey, it's not all our fault. 90% (not real stat.) of "Floridians" are transplants. You can't imagine how many times I've heard "well in New York..."
Lisa Chambers 4 years ago
People were pretty desperate to fix the oceans back then. They had a lot of old tires in landfills all over the place. I can see why they tried it. They have figured out how to recycle tires now, this site is cleaned up, and this time ushered in many clean water and land laws that to this day have kept the beaches in this area quite nice. I cannot even find any sea glass down there.
#16
TIL over 8,000 pieces of music were secretly created in Nazi concentration camps; including symphonies, operas, and songs scribbled on everything from food wrappings to potato sacks. One prisoner composed an entire symphony on toilet paper using the charcoal given to him as dysentery medicine
Katrina B. 4 years ago
You can hear Der Kaiser von Atlantis (which was written at a concentration camp) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1OfiRV5GJw&t=2434s
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Lydia Gichia-Black 4 years ago
The human soul wants to express itself no matter what. Powerful.
Katrina B. 4 years ago
You can hear Der Kaiser von Atlantis (which was written at a concentration camp) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1OfiRV5GJw&t=2434s
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Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago
It is overwhelming how purpose, no matter what that may be, can keep a person alive when it seems that there would be no way for them to continue on. To really understand that I highly recommend reading Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search For Meaning". He survived Aushwitz and being a psychiatrist decided his purpose would be to observe how people managed to survive, or not, in such a hell.
Xan Maranya 4 years ago (edited)
Frankl observed that suffering can become a means for finding meaning and value in life, which he wrote about and used in treating patients after the liberation. He found his meaning in the concentration camps through kindness to other prisoners, helping them to cope and survive.
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arienne libbrecht 4 years ago
I want someone to compose them, and make a musical or an album out of them. Would totally spend money on that.
Jackie Nettleton 3 years ago
Those must be some of the most haunting pieces of music and they might be the most beautiful
#17
TIL about Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete with a leg that was amputated due to cancer. He ran across Canada for about 143 days and ran about 5373 kilometers(3339 miles) in order to raise both money and awareness for cancer
Miss Frankfurter 4 years ago
As a fellow Canadian I can't up vote this enough. To this day, every September there is the Terry Fox Run that continues to raise money for cancer. His death was a los to all Canadians. Let's also give a recognition to Rick Hansen. Another Canadian who is a paraplegic who wheelchaired around the world for reaserch into spinalcord injuries. As a matter of fact, the song "St. Elmo's Fire" was written about him. The man in motion.
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Reese2906Hi 4 years ago
I've known this for years because it is basically school curriculum in Canada
soni w 4 years ago
Every night in Australia they would do an update. I don't think there wasn't one person on the planet who wasn't behind him. It was heartbreaking when he finally broke.
Agnes Jekyll 4 years ago
He was so young. Just a kid, and because of him, people around the world (and especially in Canada) run to raise money for cancer. I still cry thinking about his freckled face.
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Ann Coffman 4 years ago
Yes, these are the people who should be honored with a statue. Bless this man.
#18
TIL a new kind of artificial cornea successfully restored sight in a 78-year-old man. The surgery uses a lens which can more easily replace damaged tissue in a simpler surgery. Immediately after the surgery, the patient was able to recognize family members and read numbers on an eye chart.
𝖊𝖆 4 years ago
This warms my heart ❤️ Imagine being able to give someone the gift of having their sight back.
Sar-kei Scyence 4 years ago
Restoring someone’s eyesight is fantastic. But this description is incorrect, a lens cannot replace a damaged cornea.
Jackie Nettleton 3 years ago
This makes me hopeful, my eyes are terrible but not yet needing hospital intervention but I read so much and hate listening to audiobooks, that if my eyes get to the point I can’t read there is a solution for people and they will continue to get better technology to help
Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Is the colored part around the lens (in photo) included in the transplant?
#19
TIL that, in 2014, scientists found a giant 30,000 year old virus in Siberian permafrost. The virus, Pithovirus sibericum, was still infectious and began killing amoebas. This raised concerns that melting or drilling arctic ice could unearth previously undiscovered pathogenic viruses
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago (edited)
This is what concerns me re: the current 20yr plan to retrieve ice from mars! I've seen too many sci fi movies lol but goddamn they had better keep that ice on the space station
CatWoman312 4 years ago
But let’s keep drilling because oil is clearly more important than potentially killing off all humans with a 2 million year old virus.
#20
TIL Police in Finland believe they have caught a car thief with the help of a dead mosquito they noticed inside an abandoned vehicle. Police saw that the mosquito had recently sucked blood and decided to send the insect for analysis, and the DNA matched the man on the Police Register.
Aurelia! 4 years ago
This may be the one thing that mosquitos have ever done to actually help out humans
Anne 4 years ago
They are an extremely big part of the world's ecosystem too actually. And they help pollinate (if the bees die.. we need them!)
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Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
The fact that crime is so low that they use DNA to catch a car thief is TIL to me...and hilarious
Aroha 4 years ago
You should watch the Finnish "Cops" show... The highlight of an episode is pretty much always asking some drunk guy to go home, and the drunk guy apologising and going home. No guns, no shootings, very few chases etc. It's brilliant :D.
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Matt Arn 4 years ago
INAL but I doubt that this will stand at court, unless they proove that the mosquito didnt sucked the blood before entering the vehicle
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
I hope it doesn't! Imagine them putting the wrong person behind bars - they might never get out even though they#re innocent.
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Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Ahhh. . . it's the little things that count! Great job done by the Police!
Carol Emory 4 years ago
That's how they caught Stucky on Law and Order SVU..Dead mosquito in the back seat of a murder victims car.
#21
TIL The actor who played Boss Hogg on Dukes of Hazard went to Columbia and Yale, spoke 5 languages, and was a counterintelligence officer during the Korean War
Sasy 4 years ago
You have to be smart to play that stupid, often the case thst those we look at as the dumb one in a show ends up being a genius or super talented in some other way.
Scagsy 4 years ago (edited)
Most politicians play it the other way around. Pretending to smart while in fact being very stupid.
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Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
Sacha Baron Cohen is another good example of genius playing dumb- Borat and Ali G
Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Proves you just never really know someone until you get to really know someone. :-)
Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
Ironic. Wonder if the show’s fans know and accept that he was highly educated, and what they think of him. That crowd seems to be very anti-education.
#22
TIL that each year, 22,000 pounds of dust from the Sahara Desert is carried by air currents to the Amazon Rainforest where it is an important source of phosphorus for tropical plants
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
I watched a doco on this, it was quite interesting and more too it. I can't remember the full details but it also talked about that process also helping produce a phytoplankton etc. Wish I remembered, that's gonna annoy me now lol.
Marisa Teodósio 4 years ago
One Strange Rock, episode 1 (https://www.natgeotv.com/za/shows/natgeo/one-strange-rock). :)
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troufaki13 4 years ago
The Sahara Desert dust can be very allergenic to people. It can cause many respiratory issues. A few years back when a heavy cloud of dust came over Greece, I had dermographism because of it, but luckily it didn't last long. So after that I started wearing a mask to avoid inhaling the dust way before covid!
Letisha Coward 4 years ago
This is the time of year I get an asthma attack because it passes over Barbados and the other Caribbean islands every year. We usually get advisories so that asthma and allergy sufferers can take the necessary precautions
Nishanth Vemula 4 years ago
Great. I genuinely have a doubt. How does Ethiopia's "The Great Green wall" program affect this phenomenon if it were to successfully afforest the Sahara Desert?
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
It will not be needed soon the rate the Amazon is being destroyed by man and his money greed
#23
TIL Jack Black desperately wanted to use a Led Zeppelin song in School Of Rock but the band was notoriously reluctant to let their music be used in films. The director suggested having Black record a personal plea to the band members, in front of a crowd of 1,000 extras. It worked
James016 4 years ago
He should have led with saying his mum helped rescue the Apollo13 astronauts
Friday 4 years ago
Jack Black singing The Immigrant Song with Foo Fighters & Slash is pure magic :)
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I am looking this up right now. Love the song, love all three, can't believe I didn't know this!
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sofacushionfort 4 years ago
Since Led Zeppelin themselves are famous for respecting the concept of consent.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
This is on the special features on the DVD: the wanted Immigrants Song, so they begged. Hence you have the scene in the van. Ask me anything about Led Zeppelin
#24
TIL when, in 1993, the US postal service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Elvis Presley's 58th birthday, fans mailed envelopes with first-day issues of the stamp to fictitious addresses so that they would receive their letters back, marked with the words "return to sender".
Troux 4 years ago
I had never heard of the song 'Return to Sender' until now but that's brilliant.
chi-wei shen 4 years ago
A lot of Elvis fans would feel sick after reading this comment.
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Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Yeah, and what are those marked envelopes worth now? A lot if those people actually kept them. . .
Steve Wilson 4 years ago
“Return to Sender” played on the car radio & I had to explain to my 30 yo nephew what a postal zone was after he heard the line “no such zone”.
Diane Aguilar 4 years ago
TIL Elvis Presley sang "no such zone" instead of "no such code"... wow. All this time I thought he was referring to zip codes but nope, apparently not. In my defense, by the time I was born zip codes were very much established. Now I have to go search for "postal zone" online.
Load More Replies... Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
No such number :) argh stuck in my head! TIL that Elvis sings that!
Steve Wilson 4 years ago
“Return to Sender” played on the car radio & I had to explain the line “no such zone “ to my 30 yo nephew.
#25
TIL when a chimpanzee that learns an effective method to crack nuts open is placed into a new group that uses a less effective strategy, it will eventually stop using the superior method just to blend in with the rest of the chimps
What's In Your Head? 4 years ago
This works the same with humans. The group, no matter how stupid, is always superior. You will have to crack eventually just to be able to live a pleasant life. Not cool.
Drive Bee 4 years ago
It's true, it's very hard to stand alone. I have a lot of respect for those who do.
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M Kate McCulloch 4 years ago
Chimpanzee in the picture - Chimpanzee...ekking.jpg 
gorillas look like this 89493.jpg 
Tom 4 years ago
I recall a documentary if I recall on conformity and how we may think we’d never participate in or condone anything we’d now consider morally wrong (eg slavery or joining the nazi party - if I recall the documentary was on why majority of ordinary Germans enabled Hitler and the nazi party). The documentary referred to experiments where a test subject was placed in a group. All participants were asked a basic question (eg 1+1=??? - obviously that wasn’t the question). The group were briefed to give answer “3” even though it was obviously incorrect. In the majority of cases, the test subject would begin by giving the correct answer (1+1=2) but after the question was posed several times and the group answering “3”, the subject began to doubt the correct answer and start also answering 1+1=3.
Katya Davidson 4 years ago
Such is the nature of socialization. Social animals including humans are hardwired by evolution to seek synchrony with one another
#26
TIL that Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, sold the series as a pure entertainment vehicle due to censorship he experienced with previous projects that would delve into controversial social/political issues. The Twilight Zone tackled the same issues but veiled in science fiction and fantasy
Raine Soo 4 years ago
I'm a big fan of Rod Serling's other series, 'The Night Gallery'. I have all the seasons on DVD. I should re-watch them.
Seabeast 4 years ago
Some of those Night Gallery episodes scared the *&$# out of me when I was a kid.
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Virgil Sanders 4 years ago
one great example of a twilight zone episode with deeper meaning behind it is Eye of the Beholder. it's a really great episode imao
Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
Gene Roddenberry was a Twilight Zone writer and used Star Trek town the same way.
Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Smart man knowing how to deal with those in control and yet getting his point across to the nation.
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
The original script for Sterling's 'Playhouse 90" teleplay "A Town Has Turned to Dust," about lynching, was initially turned down because of its outspoken stance on racism. The 1998 TV movie (which is brilliant, especially Stephen Lang's performance) finally reintroduced that element.
#27
TIL that James K. Polk is the only US president who pledged to serve only one term during his campaign. He was known for fulfilling all his major promises and died 3 months after his term ended, making his retirement the shortest. He is also the only speaker of the house to be elected as president
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Just listen to the They Might Be Giants song, "James K Polk", ending: In four short years he met his every goal/ He seized the whole southwest from Mexico/ Made sure the tariffs fell/ And made the English sell the Oregon territory/ He built an independent treasury/ Having done all this he sought no second term/ But precious few have mourned the passing of/ Mister James K. Polk, our eleventh president/ Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump
Shauna Clodfelter 4 years ago
My nephew was strangely obsessed with James K Polk as a young child and would introduce himself using his own full name followed by "To live at (name of his town) and James K Polk is totally my man." One day he asked me a question about his current life and I had to tell him President Polk was dead. He went into mourning and changed his introduction to "And James K Polk is totally dead."
Damon Tripodi 4 years ago
Regardless of how you feel about it, Trump actually fulfilled his promises too.
#28
TIL that over 200 bird species including the Northern Cardinals, wild turkeys and Baltimore Orioles use a method of pest control called "anting." They take an ant in their beak and wipe their tail feathers in order to deter lice. The ants release formic acid that the birds utilize routinely
Chewie Baron 4 years ago
Some birds will have 'ant bath' where they land near an ant nest, let the ants crawl over them and eat all the pests that are on their skin and feathers.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
I knew that blackbirds and others do that (some even put the ants into their feathers for a while) but I didn't know American birds do that, too. So - TIL that birds are clever all over the world.
Shirley Heyn 4 years ago (edited)
Many birds also lay in the ant hills and let the ants clean their feathers as they just sit there with all their feathers fluffed up! Many summers have I watched Purple Finches do this in my yard. :-)
Sandy Kavanaugh 4 years ago
Any birder could have told you that. Ask one- they're everywhere! (Happily.)
Nika Strokappe 4 years ago
Some birds actively out sigaret buds in their nests, as the nicotine in them also acts as a part control.
#29
TIL when your immune system fights an infection, it cranks up the mutation rate during antibody production by a factor of 1,000,000, and then has them compete with each other. This natural selection process creates highly specific antibodies for the virus
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
No one as we musnt talk about it, even if there was such a thing :)
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soni w 4 years ago
This generally happens when you have a temperature. When you suppress the temp for comfortability (like with Panadol) you drop the rate of mutation 10 fold. Some infections and viruses you need to turn down the temp to stop febrile convulsions, but with most simple viruses, drink water, eat if you can and sleep.
Shirley Heyn 4 years ago
Yet Anti-vaxxers don't know or believe this as the reason we try to vaccinate everyone. . .
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
It's the same idea as training an AI: You don't tell it "solve this problem", you just let it do its thing, and score the result ---- then the variants that scored highest are run again and again (each time the best, each time with further minor variations) until problem solved. That's just the way how evolution works (slightly more successful variants have slightly more offspring and thus overtake the rest), that's also why you have "evolutionary computing" where you try to let the computer write its own code.
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Markus Holstein 4 years ago
The business end of an antibody sports some kind of a building block concept. Different combinations are being randomly generated and then tested against your own proteins (to avoid autoimmune reactions) and against pathogen proteins that antigen-presenting cells collected and presented. Only those immune cells that randomly produced antibodies that are effective against the pathogen, but trigger no autoimmune response, are released into the bloodstream
Xan Maranya 4 years ago
I've been seriously disappointed that covid health experts haven't given out public information about how to strengthen your immune system. There are many ways.
Marco Hub-Dub 4 years ago
Somatic Hypermutation. It’s also what vaccines do. In a sense, a body’s inability to regulate this is what allows cancer to happen. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_hypermutation
#30
TIL in 1879 it was estimated the Oxford English Dictionary to take 10 years for completion, but in five years they'd only reached the word "Ant". After crowdsourcing readers to help it was completed 44 years later. The publishers now estimate it would take a single person 120 years to just type it
Amy Dodds 4 years ago
There's a movie about this 'the professor and the madman' for anyone interested
JessG 4 years ago
Yes! "The Professor and the Madman" is a fantastic movie, and true story. It's on Netflix.
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Cranky Pants 4 years ago
The Professor and the Madman The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Farhad Safinia (under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran), from a screenplay by Safinia and Todd Komarnicki based on the 1998 book The Surgeon of Crowthorne (published in the United States as The Professor and the Madman) by Simon Winchester.
Robin Childers 4 years ago
One of the guys that helped write it was actually an American in an insane asylum. Crazy story.
Daniel Gilroy 4 years ago
The made a surprisingly captivating movie about this, The Professor and the Madman.
Cranky Pants 4 years ago
The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Farhad Safinia (under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran), from a screenplay by Safinia and Todd Komarnicki based on the 1998 book The Surgeon of Crowthorne (published in the United States as The Professor and the Madman) by Simon Winchester. was a good movie
Markus Holstein 4 years ago
Finishing the "Deutsches Wörterbuch", also known as "The Grimm", as it was started by the brothers Grimm in 1838, took 123 years
#31
TIL that Gaddafi had a serious obsession with Condoleezza Rice, showering her with over $200,000 in gifts and having a famous local composer write a song for her called “Black Flower in the White House”
Kim Lionessa 4 years ago
He didn't have an obsession on her. It was a political move, as the US along with France would later steal the entire country's gold reserve, turning his people into literal slaves on an auction block. He saw what was coming and was trying to plea with the only person of color in a conservative whitehouse.
Donna Lynch 4 years ago
This is exactly it. I don't understand why this whole narrative of him being so terrible came from. He was assassinated for putting Libya on a gold reserve, and France didn't want them to have a strong currency. The US jumped on that bandwagon with lightning speed. And the US facilitated the genocide/ethnic cleansing, by providing the weapons to do so. Hillary Clinton was the head of the state department that did so, and why I have detested her. And she thought she would be President, with that much blood on her hands.
Load More Replies... King Joffrey 4 years ago
To be honest, I've always secretly fancied her as well even though she could easily be my mum...
Nathan Pogorzala 4 years ago
Accepting those gifts is against the Federal employee ethics code. But who am I?
#32
TIL Thomas Midgley Jr, who helped invent leaded petrol, once poured the lead additive over his hands and inhaled its fumes to prove it was safe. He was later diagnosed with lead poisoning... for the second time.
Manny_Flawz 4 years ago
Probably like the Republicans that brought snowballs into the Senate to "prove" that was no such thing as global warming.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
He was trying to prove the workers wrong as they were finally realising why they were always getting sick and dying.
Vicki Perizzolo 4 years ago
and he's responsible for millions of other people's health problems too..not to mention what it did to our only planet
Caroline Melzer 4 years ago
Didn't he also find that dichlorodifluoromethane could be used as a refrigerant gas in residential refrigerators and air conditioners. These are also called CFC and are responsible for the hole in the ozone.
#33
TIL that in 1999, a group of hackers discovered that they could enter any Hotmail account by simply entering “eh” as a password. It was fixed by Microsoft within two hours.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
To distinguish it from the dozen other Great MS Bugs of 1999, yes.
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#34
TIL that Beverly Hills, California is named after Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, which was named after the town Beverley in Yorkshire England, which came from the name "Beverlac" in the 10th century, meaning "beaver lake," because of all the beavers in the nearby river
Sum Guy 4 years ago
Doesn't surprise me, a lot of places in the US and around the world are named after the colonisers and their lands
Bettie-Jean Neal 4 years ago
So true. I live in an area heavily populated by the Welsh and we have the same town names as in Wales. It's cool.
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tmw 4 years ago
This prompted me to look this up. I didn't know beavers were indigenous to Europe. They are castor fiber and have acient roots in europe. I thought N. America beavers were the only beavers in the world which is why european fur traders wanted them so badly. But I guess it was to help with europes dwindling supply of beaver furs. btw. the beavers are genetically distinct and cannot interbreed. https://europepmc.org/article/med/24795996
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
A river now drained dry before it reaches the sea and is surrounded by cement
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
A lot of places around the world are named after the town/villages their first settlers came form
#35
TIL that in 1967 the Soviet cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov died in an accident on the Soyuz 1 mission, making him the first human to die in a space flight. Komarov was aware of the faulty design of the shuttle and specifically asked the authorities to give him an open casket funeral after the mission
Mystery Egg 4 years ago
I read about this recently. He knew about the faults and refused to go but was told if he didn't his colleague (and best friend) would have to go in his place. He went, knowing he would die so that his best friend wouldn't go in his place (and ultimately die). He requested the open casket in order to show the Russian authorities what they had done to him.
Susan Stead 4 years ago
He also stayed on communication as long as he could, telling off everyone and crying in rage. He made sure that his last words held them accountable. He wanted them to hear his screams of agony.
Telmo Belo 4 years ago
He was the first to get the percentage of people dying on earth to under 100%
Kira Okah 4 years ago
There were 203 known faults with the Soyuz 1 brought to the party authorities. Thy were all ignored and overruled due to wanting a spectacular display of space feats to mark Lenin's birthday. Both Komarov and his backup pilot Gagarin knew of the faults and that the flight was pretty much doomed, trying to stop each other making the flight to save the other's life.
Vicky Zar 4 years ago
Gagarin was his backup? Imagine if he had died instead.
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Katie Lutesinger 4 years ago
I've seen a picture of the contents of that casket. There... wasn't much left of him, and what was left was no longer recognisable as human. God, what a hideous way to die. :(
Izzabelle Mendiola 4 years ago
I just looked it up and can confirm he was no longer recognizable. Just a charred figure.
Load More Replies... King Joffrey 4 years ago
Also interesting is the fact that only 19 people died during space flight and 14 of them were the crews of Challenger and Columbia.
Katya Davidson 4 years ago (edited)
I worked on the Columbia Shuttle Recovery Incident back in my firefighting days. It was brutal - my crew walked more than 800 miles in three months and my arches fell permanently, as well as all the snakebites and injuries from the unfriendly vegetation in that area (Google "mesquite needle"). But we recovered the majority of the shuttle in the first three months, in addition to remains of all seven astronauts and something like 16 other bodies found in the woods of East Texas. Opened and reopened a bunch of homicide and missing persons cases. Some justice was done. It's probably the thing I'm most proud of doing in my whole life
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Richard Nenoff 4 years ago
Oh, it gets worse. Aware of the flaw in the design, he initially refused to go, but his best friend was his replacement. He sacrificed himself to save his friend. As the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere and Komarov slowly burned to death, he screamed curses and obscenities at the mission control team for failing to fix the flaw he'd pointed out before launch. The entire thing was recorded. You can hear it on YouTube.
Thomas Stead 4 years ago
he was the guy who that photo is off, with the charred chunk of flesh being held on a strecher.
#36
TIL that in 2005 a Russian private was forced to squat for four hours as part of a brutal army hazing ritual and the lack of blood flow resulted in his genitals and legs requiring amputation sparking public outcry in Russia
Hannah Edwards 4 years ago
I remember this being reported at the time and I often think of him when I see Russian soldiers who are only teenagers. It’s an outrage, I hope he was compensated in some way so that he and his family are taken care of. Not that anything can compensate for this being done to him.
Vicky Z 4 years ago
A guy in Philippines recently died after 300 squats! He was forced to do that as punishment for walking outside during lockdown
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Portlandgirl X0X0 4 years ago
That is no surprise since folks on airplanes & such have to get up to get the blood flowing. I didn't think much of that till seeing this story! I hope hazing is illegal now. Have not enough people died or been changed for life?
#37
TIL that limping was a fad in Victorian England. Young women admired the genuine limp of Alexandra of Denmark, bride of the Prince of Wales. So, women went around fake limping, dubbed the "Alexandra Limp." Shopkeepers at the time sold pairs of shoes with one high heel and one low.
Lydia Gichia-Black 4 years ago
So the “Alexandra Limp” was a Victorian TikTok. Guess things haven’t changed much.
Vicky Z 4 years ago
Some years from now people will see photos with duck faces and find them as bizarre as we find the limp now!
Load More Replies... tuzdayschild 4 years ago
So basically, people aren't getting more stupid. They've always been stupid. Got it.
Royer Potts 4 years ago
We’ll probably look back on people who emulate the Kardashians the same way a century from now…
Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
men used to wear high heels to ride horseback long before women thought to cripple their toes in these vile shoes
Franc Esca 4 years ago
Yes stupid "tik tok trend behaviour" is not limited to modern day people have always been this ridiculous
#38
TIL scientists "hacked" the genetic code of brewer's yeast to produce cannabis compounds. They inserted genes from cannabis plants into the yeast's genetic code which allowed it to produce CBD and THC. Their end goal is to allow large scale cannabinoid production without cultivation.
Lydia Gichia-Black 4 years ago
I wonder… if “hacked” yeast were used to make bread, would it make the dough rise higher?
Lance d'Boyle 4 years ago
In essence they will be brewing pot. So along side trendy micro pubs, we'll start seeing trendy micro buds! Thanks Obama.
Damon Tripodi 4 years ago
and you're still afraid of genetically modified organisms? oh, but they called it a "hack"...
#39
TIL According to a survey, 43% of American Cardiologists are overweight to obese.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
But irony is treated by psychologists (only 40% obese).
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cassiushumanmother 4 years ago
In France we have a say for that. "les cordonniers sont toujours les plus mal chaussés" "shoemakers are always the worst shod" from a thought in a Montaigne essay.
s. vitkovitsky 4 years ago
In English-speaking countries, it's 'the cobbler's children have no shoes' but yours is more apt to this.
Load More Replies... Rei 4 years ago
And apparently many doctors are addicted to narcotics and/or other drugs. Some childhood educators hit their children in a fit of rage and previously poor now rich people are exploiting poor people. Our profession is just a piece of paper. Our education is seen in our behaviour.
Pezor Zass 4 years ago
I imagine Plastic Surgeons have to make a real effort to look as perfect as possible for their clients to buy into their schtick.
H Edwards 4 years ago
BMI of 25+ is defined as overweight, so I imagine that's what they are using. My own BMI is in the lower end of the 'normal' range, and I am still not super slim. I actually think BMI is a pretty generous metric for weight, unless you are an outlier like a body builder.
Load More Replies... #40
TIL Jane Stanford, founder of Stanford University, was murdered by strychnine poisoning. The president of the university at the time, David Starr Jordan, was suspected of covering up the murder. The killer was never found.
#41
TIL that while filming Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole found riding camels so uncomfortable that he bought a piece of foam rubber at a local market in Jordan and added it to his saddle. Extras began to do the same, and local Bedouins nicknamed O'Toole "Father of the Sponge"
#42
TIL in 2010 a gunman took people hostage inside the Discovery Channel HQ. His reasoning was because he hated the company's shows such as "Kate Plus 8" because they promote population growth and its environmental programming because it did little to save the planet.
Freya the Wanderer 4 years ago
However the end doesn't justify the means.
Load More Replies... Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Past History Channel: *actual history* Present History Channel: *pawning alien truckers* Future History Channel: alternate-...41c917.png 
#43
TIL that Sonny and Cher at the lowest point of their career started a lounge act that was so depressing the audience would heckle them. Cher started heckling them back. Sonny would reprimand her and then Cher would heckle and berate Sonny. This became the basis for their TV variety show years later.
Stephanie Did It 4 years ago (edited)
The Smothers Brothers did something similar. Tom, the guitarist, would say something random and ridiculously wrong. His brother D**k, the base violin player, would try to correct him and they'd have these seriously silly arguments, then segue into a song. I always thought Tom was the dummy but it turned out that he wrote most of the material, he was just good at trolling Dickie. They sang beautifully too, folk songs & traditional tunes. They were the George and Gracie Burns of music.
#44
TIL flies find it hard to land on striped surfaces, & zebras suffer far less from flies, which carry deadly diseases. Zebra stripes are more pronounced in environments that favour horseflies
chi-wei shen 4 years ago
There was an experiment with such stripes painted on cows and the number of flies on these painted cows went down by 90%.
DC 4 years ago
I saw a nice animation about this, which depicted how flies are thought to see the surface of a group of Zebras ... which is a blurry mess of stripes that isn't hard to imagine is not inviting to them. OTOH, a Leopard will spot a Zebra in a mile distance, but will only be able to catch one at once, and likely doesn't hunt for such large a prey if he doesn't have to ... hunting down a bunch of smaller animals bears a lot less risk of potentially deadly injuries than such a big one like a horse, with or without stripes.
niki.bordeaux 4 years ago
I once saw a video on YouTube claiming all zebras are painted horses. The girl was serious about it. Must've been the weirdest conspiracy theory I ever heard of.
#45
TIL that not everyone can unfocus their eyes whenever they want to. It's accomplished by having the ability to relax the ciliary muscles in your eyes, which causes them to lose their focusing powers
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I couldn't help it I did it while reading the fact! I can't roll my tongue though, don't have the right genes for that, it can't be learned
Jo Johannsen 4 years ago
Me, too! Couldn't resist trying. Can you whistle? I can't.
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JuJu 4 years ago
Cool. I can roll my tongue, unfocus my eyes, have a narrator in my head...I'm halfway of being a superhero :D
Fluffy Griffin 4 years ago
This would explain why some people can't see the picture in the "Magic Eye" books.
Stephanie Did It 4 years ago
Yes! I love those things and quickly trained my eyes to unfocus which made the images so real that I could tilt the picture this way and that to see more detail. Can still do it.
Load More Replies... crazy_cat_notAlady 4 years ago
ooh, ooh. i have finally found my "superpower". i used to do this and still do this during lectures when I'm super bored and don't want to read what's on the presentation.
Emerald 4 years ago
I can't whistle. I'm 13 years old. Tried all my life. Just don't have the right mouth shape
Mer☕️🧭☕️ 4 years ago
I'm...blessed?...in that I can unfocus my eyes at will, roll my tongue, rumble my ear drums at will, whistle (apparently some people can't?) and have internal monologues. My dad could wiggle his ears, lol. And yet not a single one of this "skills" has brought me or my dad any fame or fortune...
#46
TIL about one in every 1500 people have something called Voluntarily Piloerection - the ability to consciously give themselves goosebumps. The phenomenon both perplexes and intrigues neurophysiologists by defying conventional understanding of how the unconscious nervous system operates
Rick 4 years ago
Me too! Can you also create the feeling of a ki/psi ball in your hands?
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Tomáš Houdek 4 years ago
I can do that to an extent. Its like convincing yourself you are being cold
ZombieGirl 4 years ago
I can do this, and I didn't know it was a thing people could or couldn't do!
#47
TIL that, in 2017, the British band Muse invited ticket-holders for an upcoming gig in London to vote online for 10 songs that they wanted to be added to the set list. Fans immediately flooded the poll with votes for 15-year-old B-sides and tracks that the band had never played live before
DC 4 years ago
I'd do the same! The rarities are what really makes a concert special ... I mean, as tired as I am of "Satisfaction" or "Paranoid" in the too-well-known studio versions, when the Stones or Sabbath played it live, it was cool of course, just happening in that exact moment and I am there and all, but "Can't you hear me knocking" was THE Highlight of my first Stones Gig Ex Utero (The one in Utero I don't remember too well - two months prior, my parents went).
Diane Aguilar 3 years ago
No, that's a different musical artist from Britain.
Load More Replies... #48
TIL that Vietnam War medics formed the core of early EMS. Their training and experience were needed, as many first responders in the 60s were undertrained funeral home workers. So, those wounded in combat actually had a better chance of survival than those getting into car accidents in the US.
KatHat 4 years ago
This is just a teaser - the rest of the story is FASCINATING and explains how "paramedics" became a thing, being unheard of before the 1960s. And as an aside, if we can add an entirely new profession and change up how we respond to medical emergencies, to the point that we can't imagine doing without it, think what might be possible with the police... https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/freedom-house-ambulance-service/
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Undertrained home workers just helping to create new business. Just saying.
Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
Let’s give credit where credit is due: black people https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2020/02/12/all-black-ambulance-service-inspired-todays-ems-system/ https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/03/01/389798498/how-pittsburghs-freedom-house-pioneered-paramedic-treatment
Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/03/01/389798498/how-pittsburghs-freedom-house-pioneered-paramedic-treatment
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Asi Bassey 4 years ago
Quite a lot of surgical care practices today, especially in trauma, are directly or indirectly derived from war time experiences.
#49
Til a CIA intelligence officer working undercover in Uganda became a minor celebrity as the lead singer of a popular local band known as the "Kampala Jazz All-Stars"
Bill 4 years ago (edited)
No. An operative wants to be "grey man". The less attention the better
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Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
There was me thinking all those annoying flower salesmen pestering you in restaurants were undercover spies; it turns out it was the equally annoying pianoman all along.
#50
TIL that Facebook conducted a study where they intentionally manipulated almost 700,000 users’ emotions without their knowledge or permission
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago (edited)
Exactly. Who says they ever stopped experimenting? I'll bet they still do
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Lunar Bicycle 4 years ago
Today I learned that deleting all my social media accounts several years ago still feels pretty damn good.
Jazzy Mc. Jaz 4 years ago (edited)
And look what your on now.. lol this one feels good
Load More Replies... Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
"Intentionally manipulated"? You mean like advertising? Which as been going on for centuries? Whoever posted this idiotic message did for exactly the same reason
Terd Fergison 4 years ago
Sure dude, just make excuses for experimenting on 700,000 people without their permission. Sales, and advertising are usually very bad too, but 2 wrongs don't make a right. Stop downplaying the evils of facebook and Zuck. Don't be an apologist for evil.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
The fun part is that despite the numerous stories of grossly invading your privacy, selling your data, monitoring your life and manipulating emotions, the number of people using fakebook only grows.
#51
TIL that famous anarchist Peter Kropotkin once escaped from a Russian prison, evading searchers by going to one of St. Petersburg's fanciest restaurants with his friends, where the authorities wouldn't think to look for an anarchist
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
Was that before or after he shot Potemkin in the Botkin? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pBxhpcGq4Jg
King Joffrey 4 years ago
And the interesting thing, for an anarchist, is that he actually came from an aristocratic family.
#52
TIL that a study conducted in 195 countries, over a 26-year period, concluded that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. The researchers admitted that moderate drinking may protect against heart disease, but found that the risk of cancer and other diseases outweighs these protections
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Isn't it strange that they only have recommended levels for things that spark joy, but there are no recommended limits for things like working hours or school meetings?
Dynein 4 years ago
There are, actually, but people keep thinking that more work/longer meetings -> more output, which... isn't true, and most people know it's not true, but still they make the same mistake over and over again. In that sense it's like with alcohol, I guess.
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Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Wine percentage has been creeping up and up, 12 for red and 11 for white was ''standard" say 20y ago, now it's more like 14 and 12.5...
Richard Henderson 4 years ago
Funny that the stronger the alcohol the more glasses of if you can have.
Lynn Morello 4 years ago
Yet they still tell us to ditch the alcohol and look at you as if you are an alcoholic.
#53
Today i learned Gadaffi invited 500 Italian models to a party, only to give them an hour lecture on Islam and a copy of the Qur'an each
Freya the Wanderer 4 years ago
Mumm-Ra Gadaffi was a serious nut job. A lot of people with absolute power just cannot resist indulging their eccentric whims.
Chewie Baron 4 years ago
Bizarrely, the only woman who is named in the Qur'an is Mary, Mother of Jesus.
Liu Fuxi 4 years ago
Not a native English speaker here, any hints on the censored word? :P
Load More Replies... DC 4 years ago
If he hadn't been in so much power, I wouldn't even believe a guy like him could ever achieve that. He prefered tents over houses, and that didn't change when he actually owned palaces he himself had designed or supervised the designers ... he went camping in the garden quite often. And was a weirdo who regularly got obsessed with different things. religion being among them every few years. He would have made an excellent butt of many jokes in high school movies I think...
Terd Fergison 4 years ago
F-u-c-k islam. Their main prophet, the guy they love more than christians love jesus, muhammed was a pedophile and slave owner. He had multiple wives, slaves, and sex slaves. He got with his youngest wife Aisha when she was 6 years old and married her at 9 years old. People should learn about islam: how disgusting and abhorrent it is.
Selina Ali 4 years ago
This man was seriously messed up in the head, glad his own people dealt with him accordingly.
#54
TIL Nearly 70% of icelanders has costco membership and there's only one costco in the country
Gin. No tonic 4 years ago
24% of iclanders are children, which means that only 6% of total population are adults without Costco's card.
King Joffrey 4 years ago
Yes but let's not forget the whole population of Iceland is 300k so it's like having once Costco in a small city.
Lunar Bicycle 4 years ago
I’m gonna guess it’s in Reykjavik, since something like a third of Icelanders live there.
#55
TIL that over the last decade, there have been at least 15 cases of athletes who have died from over-hydration during sporting events. Too much fluid consumption can cause serious health issues by diluting the sodium in the blood, which creates a swelling of the brain and lungs
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
A person died a few years back from this during a radio contest. They were drinking water and trying not to wee etc, and a woman got water toxicity :(
James016 4 years ago
I read a story in the papers about someone who drank so much water they literally drowned. 😟
Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
Do you mean they vomited all the water and they aspirated it and died? Wounds and stomach are different organs.
Load More Replies... Ava Lasley 4 years ago
This actually happened to a high schooler, I read about it a while back.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Read an article in a biking mag about a competitor who pre-hydrated. Was found in his hotel room pretty sick.
#56
TIL Independent filmmakers fled New Jersey around 1915 to California, both for the advantageous climate and to get away from Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patent Company, who's heavy handed demands included the use of Mob thugs to demand payments on cameras, projectors and the films themselves
PandaMonium 4 years ago
There is an awesome Drunk History segment about this - one of my favorites. In general, DH is a goldmine of TIL. Here's that Edison movie segment. So good! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27CiI-zMsRA&t=47s
#57
TIL Both Mozart and Michael Jackson were born the seventh child in a very musical family. Both missed out on a normal childhood, spending the entire time immersed in a punishing regime of practicing, touring and performing, all imposed by a strict father
cassiushumanmother 4 years ago (edited)
Good pun. I don't know why you were downvoted but You are not alone.
Load More Replies... JessG 4 years ago
Neither of them were. There is absolutely no proof that MJ did that, and he was cleared of it. The accusers lied in order to extort him and his money. This man never had a childhood, and as a result was emotionally and psychologically stunted, and did his best to relive his childhood.
Load More Replies... Terd Fergison 4 years ago (edited)
Joe Jackson was more than strict, he was physically and verbally abusive. The Jacksons were also part of the abusive cult, Jehova Witnesses.
#58
TIL that between 1978 and 1980, Michel Lotito ate an entire Cessna 150 airplane piece by piece. He is estimated to have eaten nine tons of metal over his lifetime, for which he was awarded a brass plaque by the Guinness Book of World Records. (He also ate the award.)
Half-Jewish-Doggo 4 years ago
"Thank you so much for this award, I'm so gratef- OM NOM NOM"
Load More Replies... Raine Soo 4 years ago
How do people have pica, and not have serious health repercussions? I am certain that they do, but this still blows my mind.
Katie Lutesinger 4 years ago
I think in this guy's case it turned out he had abnormally thick stomach lining, so this stuff just went straight through him.
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Moondrop 4 years ago
Wikipedia says he had a disorder that made him have really strong stomach walls and really strong digestive juices.
DoomsdayDuck555 4 years ago
even normal digestive juices can go through metal, I think
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Biana Vacker 4 years ago
*this dude walking through a metal detector in the airport* BEEEEP!! sir, It appears that you have metal on you, I need to do a search.... Oh, no. It's fine. I just ate a plane, that's all. *Shocked pickachu face*
#59
TIL of the Comanche medicine man Kwihnai Tosabitu (White Eagle), who told his warriors that his medicine made them invincible to the white man's bullets. When this medicine failed and they were massacred in the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874, he was renamed Isatai'i (Coyote Vagina)
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Imagine being such a crap person that everyone you know starts calling you "P*ssy".
Aurelia! 4 years ago
I think it's sad that being called a p*ssy/vagina is supposed to be an insult, that we automatically associate it with being a crap person or a failure. Vaginas are awesome! Why can't it be a compliment, like when somebody says you've got balls? It's really quite sexist...(the whole concept, this isn't directed at you, Bacony Cakes)
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sofacushionfort 4 years ago
In his defense, he had warned them that if they ate skunk they would remove the medicine. Yet they encountered a skunk on their way to the attack and yielded to their desire. (Apparently, skunk was a Comanche delicacy).
#60
TIL Despite his scientific background and immeasurable contributions to promoting science to the public, Carl Sagan's nomination was rejected from the National Academy of Sciences leading to the Sagan Effect where popular scientists in the media are seen as less knowledgeable than their peers.
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Sad. And ridiculous. You spend decades amazing knowledge of a subject, and just because you opt to share that knowledge with the masses, in laymen’s terms (language the average person can understand), instead of hogging it to yourself and your professional cohorts, you’re seen as less knowledgeable. I see it as part of the reason people start to doubt science. Knowledge is to be shared, not hoarded.
Dave P 4 years ago
Also a big part was he was caught fabricated data to support the nuclear winter hoax to serve his political agenda and was caught willing to sell out his integrity to push a political agenda. It also later came out much of his fake data was part of a Kremlin disinformation campaign to undermine the US, but no one knows if he knew the KGB was using him or he was easily manipulated.
Terd Fergison 4 years ago
He also loved marijuana. Cool, amazing individual. I love Carl Sagan. The world is a more ignorant place without him. We need more celebrity scientists. Many modern celebrities are so vapid.
#61
TIL in 1920, candy store owner Christian Kent Nelson, unable to decide between ice cream and chocolate bars, invented an ice cream brick with chocolate coating. He secured an agreement with local chocolate producer Russell C. Stover to mass-produce them under the new trademarked name "Eskimo Pie"
Donkey boi 4 years ago
He discovered that by adding fat to the warm chocolate would set faster without melting the ice cream. A process still used today. The chocolate on ice creams is usually between 70-90% fat.
cassiushumanmother 4 years ago
"Eskimau" is still a common word to call this kind of ice creams in France. I hope that the use of this word will eventually stop, like we stopped using "nïggër head" to call a dark chocolate dipped meringue few years ago.
#62
TIL that Bill Hamilton developed modern jetboats since no existing boats could navigate the shallow, fast flowing rivers of New Zealand. He took his boats to the USA for demonstrations amidst criticism from the media. In 1960 his boats became the first and only boats to travel up the grand canyon.
Lydia Gichia-Black 4 years ago
Necessity is the mother of invention. And sometimes you don’t even know you need something until it’s invented.
Colin Matthews 4 years ago
My father worked for Hamilton's in Chch for years, we used to go swimming in the jet testing pool.
#63
TIL Spiders Eat Up to 800 Million Tons of Prey Each Year, nearly twice the amount by weight of meat humans consume each year.
Ian Koch 4 years ago
hey, at least spiders eat mosquitoes and other small nuisances that want to bite us!
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Downunderdude 4 years ago
I keep reading that my eating meat is contributing to global warming. Turns out it's not me, it's the bloody spiders! I'll stop when they stop.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
by keeping your habits out of sheer stubbornness, you're actually 'helping' since the spiders won't find enough food if the insects die out and they are already dying due to modern mass-agriculture. So - WILL you stop eating so much meat when they're all dead?
Load More Replies... Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
It's extrapolation (I think that's the term for it?) You know how much the average spiders eat (you study many species and get the average) and when you know how many spiders there are on earth (estimated, of course), you can make a projection on how much they would all eat.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
It's not one spider eating 800 million tons, it's all spiders in the entire world combined. American, I presume?
Load More Replies... #64
TIL Marvel used to issue paychecks to their creatives with vouchers on the back saying that the one signing it renounced all rights to whatever they created. They couldn't sign the paycheck without also signing the voucher.
Gin. No tonic 4 years ago
Intellectual property rights and monetary rights are not the same. By signing, the creatives gave away their monetary rights, which is usual practice, as they got paid for the job and signed away monetary rights meaning that they will not require more payments for the same job later on. However they can not sign away intellectual rights - that would be illegal. Intellectual rights mean the creators are still the creators - their names should be included as authors if their contract says so. But having intellectual rights ((published) name as the author) does not mean having monetary rights (receiving more payment than already received).
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Yes, they could if they crossed out the renouncement. I had a check from an insurance company once, stating that this amount was the one and only settlement and I gave up the right to make any further claims. I just crossed that out, cashed my check and made a few claims in the same matter which were all paid.
Claudia Gotthardt 4 years ago
This is a fairly common clause in employment contracts if you work in design agencies. I wonder why they would have chosen this way to trick their creatives into signing it every month.
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Sounds slightly illegal. Nope at least one of them had a good lawyer.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
That's bullshit and surely can't be legal. Wouldn't that kind of be like bribery.
Paul Macdonell 4 years ago
Harsh but they paid for the creation of those ideas. It was their property.
#65
TIL about "Token Suckers" - Back when the NYC subway system used tokens people called "token suckers" would jam token slots with paper and suck out the tokens with their mouth. to prevent this, some attendants would sprinkle chili powder in the slots
Lance d'Boyle 4 years ago
If the token slots were jammed up, how did they suck out the tokens?
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Surely the germs they sucked down and the choking risk was natural selection at work?
#66
TIL that in 1978 Alice Cooper donated $27,000 to help restore the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. He sponsored an O in memory of his friend, Groucho Marx.
Raine Soo 4 years ago (edited)
Kudos to Alice Cooper, but that's a photo of Hugh Hefner, who bought the 'H' in the sign.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Alice is interesting, he was deeply Christian at times when the US Christian right (well, the US right) was very much demonizing all metal music. I'm guessing he didn't speak up against them as he'd lose much audience for being 'one of them'?
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Theoretical Empiricist 4 years ago
I think it was the most accessible photo showing how badly the sign needed restoration.
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Ffaelan Condragh 4 years ago
Huge Hefner led the effort to restore the sign since it had fallen into disrepair and was going to be demolished. Alice Cooper chipped in with his donation for the O in the name of his friend.
#67
TIL that the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" were inspired by the CPR doll Resusci Anne, a dummy used to teach people how to properly perform CPR. Trainees are taught to ask "Annie, are you OK?" while performing CPR on the dummy.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Has anyone seen the old Dr Phil ep about the woman who is so convinced he wrote it about her she continuously tries to sue for royalties etc? It always made me wonder what the song was truly about! Annie is also the face of the woman, I forgot her name, who killed herself in roughly Victorian times, and had such a peaceful face her death mask was very popular
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago (edited)
It was a unknown French girl, who had drowned in the Seine in Paris. https://www.livescience.com/cpr-doll-resusci-annie-face.html
Load More Replies... soni w 4 years ago
The story behind Annie is creepy. About 100 years ago a 16 year old girls body was found drowned in the Seine River. The pathologist who performed her autopsy was was so taken with her serene expression that he had a model maker create a plaster "death mask" of her face. The mask was replicated and sold. In fact, the Lorenzi model makers, who, according to the paper authors made the original death mask, still sell copies of it today under the title "Noyée [Drowned Woman] de la Seine."
Jon S. 4 years ago
I can't help but hear Smooth Criminal when I am practicing CPR, so it is good to know they are actually related.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I always think of 'stayin alive' by the begees :D
Load More Replies... #68
TIL: Before he was caught, Charles Ponzi the namesake of the Ponzi scheme successfully sued a newspaper for libel and won $500,000 in damages after it suggested there was no way Ponzi could legally deliver such high returns in a short period of time
Lydia Gichia-Black 4 years ago
And after he was caught pretty sure the newspaper headline read: Told you so.
Gemma 4 years ago
Eponymous might have been better, but they do still share the same name, so it's not wrong.
Load More Replies... #69
TIL in 1851 because it was too expensive to import ice from the United States and Norway, an Australian man invented an ice-making machine and its first application, aside from making ice, was to cool beer. He was James Harrison, "the father of refrigeration"
#70
TIL REM's song "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" is about the mugging of Dan Rather. His attacker kept repeating "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" as he kicked Rather. The case was solved when the attacker stormed NBC studios 11 years later to find out the frequency used to "beam signals to his brain".
#71
TIL of the Chinese submarine Changcheng 361. After disappearing while submerged, she was later found when fishermen spotted a periscope above the surface. An engine failure had suffocated the entire crew; the ghost submarine had spent ten days drifting aimlessly below the waves.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Why is there just a random photo of a guided missile destroyer, then?
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago (edited)
Because BP isn't very good at searching for images of submarines? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=submarine&t=lmddgtfy&kae=-1&iax=images&ia=images
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Bobby 4 years ago
There has to be more to this story? If they're at periscope depth they should have a snorkel they could raise to vent the ship, or even do an emergency blow and surface ventilate. I may only have experience with US subs, but the snorkel and EMBT blow are pretty standard across all countries
Fluffy Griffin 4 years ago
Maybe no one noticed? Carbon monoxide is a "silent killer".
Load More Replies... #72
TIL That in the 1930s, the US spent $300.000 ($5,5 million adjusted for inflation) to built massive car with the goal to cross Antarctica. Only to discover upon arrival that the tyres didn't work in the snow, and the whole thing was abandoned after 140 km (driven in reverse)
M O'Connell 4 years ago
It did, however, work appropriately where they tested it... on soft snow in Canada. The Antarctic hard ice was (surprisingly) not planned-for.
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Seabeast 4 years ago
Should have used Joseph Armand Bombardier's original snowmobiles. snowmobile...b89b7c.jpg 
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Or a tractor. Tractors also work. tractor_to...83a116.jpg 
Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
Reminds me of that town on Long Island which thought it had an innovative way to get rid of its garbage. They built a mountain, alternating layers of trash with layers of dirt. The plan was to cover it with snow and establish a ski resort. Unfortunately, they failed to consult an engineer, and the friction of the trash settling caused the mountain to burst into flame...creating a stench that took ages to go away. A town that was downwind of the trash mountain sued.
CatWoman312 4 years ago
Ahh the US and throwing away taxpayers money. We’re the best in the world at that
Data1001 4 years ago
Okay, here's a dumb question unrelated to the topic: why do I see some posts with numbers where periods are used in large numbers (as above, "$300.000") and commas instead of periods for rational numbers (as above, "5,5 million")? I assume it's a European vs. American thing, because I've seen it elsewhere occasionally, but I've always been puzzled by it.
Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
The Russians built something similar but with tracks called Kharkovchanka. They are still in use.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6R-h06IsJw
#73
TIL more than six billion different knot types have been identified by mathematicians and scientists since the 1800s.
Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
I believe a tangle would qualify as a Gordian Knot. ;-)
Load More Replies... Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
That six billion number is misleading/misquoted. THere's an infinite number that's been identified since you can arbitrarily extend many knots (e.g. in the image: trefoil=3, pentafoil=5, ... think think... any odd number you can make one like that: draw odd number of dots along a circle now start somewhere [choose clock or anticlockwise] and skip your neighbour but visit their next neighbour; all way around as it's odd... Each line crosses two, so choose whether every first is "over" and second "under" or vice versa: Done. It's the same as drawing an N-pointed star (for odd N) without lifting pen off paper; e.g. the trefoil was drawn (starting anywhere) clockwise "first over then under" --- or anticlockwise "first under then over".)
#74
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
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Poor girl. I think she's living a much better life these days :) I remember her on Barney when I used to babysit
InfectedVoice 4 years ago (edited)
Poor girl? She is a multi-millionaire who was doing drugs and having fun, I wouldn't feel too sorry for her, sounds like a great time.
Load More Replies... #75
TIL There is an exact scale replica of the Parthenon of Athens. Located in Nashville, the building was originally constructed of brick, plaster and wood slats in 1897 as part of an exhibition celebrating 100 years of Tennessee. In 1920, it was rebuilt with durable materials becoming an exact copy.
Final score:
38points
M O'Connell 4 years ago
It was part of hundreds of temporary buildings which were constructed for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Centennial_and_International_Exposition Similarly, the Beaux-Arts style Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Science and Industry buildings (in Chicago) were built for the World's Columbian Exposition.
Load More Replies... King Joffrey 4 years ago
It also has the 'Elgin' marbles where they should be... and I say that as a Brit.
#76
TIL that our own stomach has to constantly secrete mucus to stop itself from being digested by our own stomach acid. Without that mucus, our stomach acid would eat through our stomach’s lining.
CatWoman312 4 years ago
Well most of us took 6th grade science 20+ years ago so it’s not like we remember every bit of information
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Kendra Miller 4 years ago
I love how stomach acid doesn't start as an acid because it would eat and damage the cells making it. It changes from a weak base to a strong acid the instant it comes in contact with other acids. Which makes you wonder in an infant, was the first acid provided by mom? What gets that acid ball rolling??
King Joffrey 4 years ago
To be honest, I didn't know that but was often wondering how come the stomach doesn't digest itself...
#77
TIL that the most mass a planet can have is ~10-13x the mass of Jupiter. After this point, it's own sheer gravity begins to cause nuclear fusion and the body is classified as a brown dwarf (also called a failed star).
chi-wei shen 4 years ago
That's nuclear fusion on a very low level, much lower than in a red dwarf.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
It would experience Deuterium and Lithium fusion, not the Hydrogen fusion of a full-on star. I'm having Deja vu, like I've made this exact comment here recently...
Load More Replies... #78
TIL that France's second-most popular sandwich is just ham, slices of butter and a baguette
JuJu 4 years ago
And it's delicious, because fantastic baguette, delicious ham and gread real butter.
cassiushumanmother 4 years ago (edited)
And it often have some french cornichon pickles (cucumber much more vinegary than British or US pickles). DELICIOUS! edit: there are some in the "rosette" (a kind of saucisson) sandwich behind, it add crunch and acidity.
Load More Replies... Katie Lutesinger 4 years ago
French butter is *delicious*. It's got this creamy flavour unlike anything I've tasted before or since.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Wait till you hear of Italians eating spaghetti with only oil and garlic.
cassiushumanmother 4 years ago
The best! Sometimes i would just add oil. Because really good dry pasta have already a perfect taste. You just have to buy pasta dried slowly at low temperature, made from great durum wheat and with a bronze mold. The taste is wonderful so no need to add anything.
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Stephanie Did It 4 years ago
Lived in France when I was age 7 thru 9. Big thrill as a kid, to walk into the bakery alone and put down the coins for a loaf. To this day I still dream of that delicious bread. There is nothing else like it on Earth.
Nuage de Celda 4 years ago
Yes le jambon-beurre ! Add some gruyere slices or brie and enjoy le jambon-fromage !
#79
TIL when Japan's first railway was introduced, the USA, France, and the UK bid to build the system, with the UK winning. The railways they set up were left-side running, and that was later adopted by Japanese cars. Today, Japan is one of the only non-Commonwealth countries with left-side driving
Eddie Fawcett 4 years ago
Thailand Non-Commonwealth, Indonesia Non-Commonwealth both drive Left Side
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Belgium has left-side trains for the same reason (but right-side cars) --- it built the first railway outside of the UK.
Wilf 4 years ago
Same with Argentina- the whole railway infrastructure there was once owned by British companies until nationalised.
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#80
TIL a young Tina Fey provided voices for a pinball machine called Medieval Madness in 1997 as two princesses, the dialogue for the game was written by future 30 Rock co-star Scott Adsit
Ffaelan Condragh 4 years ago
I did not know this was a thing until your comment. But I knew it had to be. :) https://pinballmap.com/
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#81
TIL William Wrigley, founder of Wrigley’s Gum, invented direct mail marketing. In 1915 he mailed a pack of gum to every person in the phone directory in the United States.
Chenandoa 4 years ago
Enough to spread the word of the taste to their neighbors....back when we knew our neighbors :)
Load More Replies... Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Smart, you'd know they were trendy, well-off and well-connected.
sofacushionfort 4 years ago
"Now if there was only a way to purge this list of people without teeth." and the science of data refinement was born
#82
TIL in 1985, Takahashi Meijin (real name Takahashi Toshiyuki) became a celebrity in Japan when he managed the feat of pressing a button on a video game controller 16 times in one second on television. It's still a world record.
Sum Guy 4 years ago
That's very impressive... try clicking your mouse even 5 times in a second
Pazuzu 4 years ago
seems impossible.i,m a gamer and can barely press it once a second
Load More Replies... No. 4 years ago
(all were done in a 1 second test) i can normal click at max 8cps, jitter click at max 11cps, butterfly click at max 13 cps, and double butterfly click at max 19 cps. But what hes doing is basically jitter clicking with a very bad and small mouse at 16 cps which is absolutely crazy
Joseph OReilly 4 years ago (edited)
Windwaker speed runners would like to object that(look up "zombie hover")
Niall Mac Iomera 4 years ago
With the recent developments in competitive tetris, it might not be the records for much longer.
Gonzalo Terán 4 years ago
He also became the main character on a Wonder Boy clone for the MSX home computer system, instead of the main blonde protagonist. Can´t remember the title, ´cos it was in japanese...
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
It must be like a tic action he can actually control, maybe? It seems like it would have to bypass the conscious mind to move the finger so fast
#83
TIL that Henry VIII was sometimes called "Old Coppernose." He issued debased coins to fund wars and one coin was mostly copper with a thin layer of silver on top. The coin had a portrait of Henry and his projecting nose caused the silver to wear off first exposing the copper underneath.
Y T 4 years ago
Oh, I thought he HAD a copper nose! That was not that uncommon back then, if your nose fell off due to syphilis etc. Google it!
#84
TIL as a result of M. Rust flying a Cessna from Finland through the USSR's most secure airspace and landing in Red Square, the soviet military had its largest purge of officers since Stalin's Great Purge. As a result, Gorbachev was able to implement reforms easier, with much of the old guard gone
Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
Rust was a bit of a d**k https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/28-may-1987/
Seabeast 4 years ago
"In November 1989, while performing community service (in place of military service) at a hospital in Hamburg, Germany, Mathias Rust attacked an 18-year-old student nurse with a switchblade knife after she rejected his attempts to kiss her." Sounds like an incel, alright.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Just goes to show once again that a regime based on nepotism, backstabbing and fear can easily be destroyed. Putin knew what he was doing back in 2016.
#85
TIL that in 1949, Gallup polled Americans on what scientific advances they thought would happen by the year 1999. 88% believed cancer would be cured, and 63% believed planes would be nuclear powered. Only 15% thought a man would walk on the moon
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
What boggles me that people still think (and Gallup polls) in terms of "the disease, cancer". It's like asking "do you think mammals will go extinct the next decade?" --- yes clearly some species of mammal will, but overall humans and sheep and pigs will persist. Cancer is so clearly a family of hundreds of different diseases (with some shared mechanisms --- like mammals are!), some will get cured but not all.
Ray Martin 4 years ago
You're exactly correct, and I don't know why some dipstick down-voted you for saying that. At least my vote brought you up to zero again ;-)
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aleksandra 4 years ago
oh gosh... it is profitable because people would buy the cure. however, more and more people will get sick from cancer and that's a fact. a cure won't stop the disease.
Load More Replies... #86
TIL an Australian beer company had to change the design of its beer bootle because male jewel beetles were mating with the bottle thinking it was a female. This odd behaviour was observed in 1983 by two biologists
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
Would it have mattered so much if the bottles were disposed of correctly.
janel jones 4 years ago
This still happens with the beetles. People litter their beer bottles or "stubbies" so to make one company change was not helpful. People shouldn't litter.
#87
TIL the FBI has a very specific definition for 'serial killer': someone who has intentionally killed at least 3 people, but not all at once. There must be so-called ‘cooling off’ periods between each murder.
Donkey boi 4 years ago
The original definition of a serial killer was a man that kills for sexual release. It was believed that all serial killers reached orgasm at the time of extinguishing a life. A few women reported their attacker reacting as thought they had climaxed, which gave them the chance to escape. The reason for the cooling off period was because the sexual frustration had to build up again. Serial killers would kill more frequently the more they killed, in the same way that the more you have sex, the more you want it. The whole definition was changed over time.
chuck.dont.surf 4 years ago
3 people does not constitute a "mass" of anything...
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KrabbyGramps666 4 years ago
@Y T why r u like this nobody cares if u know this but obviously some people dont so stop trying to make yourself seem smarter and superior to everyone else
Richard Henderson 4 years ago
No “cooling off” period makes them a spree killer. The other kind, as America is seeing regularly, is a mass murderer.
InfectedVoice 4 years ago
And always have 3 childhood traits. Late age bed-wetting, obsession with fire and torture of small animals.
#88
TIL every current European monarch is descended from John William Friso, Dutch Prince of Orange from 1702 to 1711
Kristin Ingersoll 4 years ago
That makes zero sense. Monarchies go way farther back than the 1700s. So I looked it up. All monarchs are not DESCENDED from him. He is the most recent common ancestor. "John William Friso became the Prince of Orange in 1702. He was the Stadtholder of Friesland and Groningen in the Dutch Republic until his death by accidental drowning in the Hollands Diep in 1711. Friso and his wife, Marie Louise, are the most recent common ancestors of all current European monarchs."
Scott 4 years ago
While yes, monarchies are much older than the early 1700s, your quoted source even confirms the fact listed, the key word in the fact is CURRENT.
Load More Replies... Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Well, not every day you learn something that's true. This wasn't your day.
#89
TIL that in 1970, a sniper shot a semi-trailer carrying 20 tons of TNT creating a 30' deep and 50' wide crater in the middle of the interstate
Dennis Stanley 4 years ago
https://www.ozarksfirst.com/top-stories/50-years-later-man-remembers-events-of-the-1970-dynamite-blast/
PandaMonium 4 years ago
Thanks for the link, Dennis. Interesting / Sad story
Load More Replies... #90
TIL a married couple was hired by the MLB from 1981-2004 to draw up each season's baseball schedule. They were responsible for scheduling 2,430 games played by 30 teams.
Monday 4 years ago
They were really good at it. It took a whole team of professionals several seasons to finally outbid the couple for the task.
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Elemintent 4 years ago
People assuming they are old. It just says married couple. Wonder who they were, as it could be a young couple who are both pro baseball players?
#91
TIL cannabis is invasive in North America, referred to as 'feral cannabis,' 'wild marijuana,' and 'ditch weed' when it grows in the wild. Seeds can lie dormant for 7-10 years and the wild plant can damage farm equipment. Feral cannabis is cultivated in North Korea
Kathryn Baylis 4 years ago
Well, I can’t blame them. You gotta have SOME escape from life in an Uber-repressive regime.
Load More Replies... M O'Connell 4 years ago
"Feral cannabis" is hemp! It was a valuable industrial commodity until its cultivation was banned in 1970. My state finally got some of that industry back in 2017. Hemp has the potential to displace significant amounts of petroleum plastic in textile applications.
sofacushionfort 4 years ago
It was grown in the US Midwest during WWII to replace the SE Asian rope-hemp supply cut off by the Japanese invasions. Thirty years later it was Midwestern teens' buzz of last resort.
Chrissy Neibarger 4 years ago
A relative has ditch weed all over their land. It's horrible. It grows fast and gets icky sticky. VERY hard to mow down. Tried to smoke it when I was a teen but it had almost no THC.
#92
TIL The intensity of sound is measured in decibels (dB), the decibel scale is logarithmic. Basically a 40dB sound is not twice as loud as 20dB one, but a hundred times louder. Also one alarm clock ringing at 70dB, two alarm clocks ringing together don’t hit 140dB on scale but measure 73dB
Luttjetrut 4 years ago (edited)
I have a very loud cat, so I measured his meowing with a dB-meter. TIL he scales between a medium and a heavy truck. The Guiness Book of Records is very welcome to contact us ;)
Kay blue 4 years ago
I might have to try this, my cat spends most of her awake time,.shouting at me.
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Isabel Care 4 years ago
The loudest human was a female teacher shouting "Be quiet" about 110dB, louder than Slipknot. (QI)
over it already 4 years ago
Quiet rural setting seems very vague... and clearly not referring to anywhere with cicadas in the evening.
Jennifer Brown 4 years ago
I'm sorry but my suburban residential neighborhood is not 50dB!! It's more like 100 when the neighbor's children are shrieking at the top of their lungs in the parking lot because they don't want to take a nap!
Idaaoyama 4 years ago
OP skipped a couple of high school physics classes?
Load More Replies... #93
TIL Tchaikovsky hated to conduct by his own admission. He became obsessed with the fear that his head was going to fall off while he conducted. In 1868, when Tchaikovsky conducted his own Dances of the Hay Maidens, he held his head in place with his left hand while he conducted with his right
#94
TIL that Santa Fe, New Mexico is the oldest capital city in North America, founded (1607) over a decade before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock (1620)
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
That's cool and all, but i think Tenochtitlan just MIGHT have been built a bit earlier.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
It's the oldest colonial capitol. People keep forgetting that there was a vast and vibrant population here before Europeans arrived.
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Acrab MacNutt 4 years ago
St. Johns Newfoundland Canada was founded in 1583. Which happens to also be in North America. It is a capital city of Newfoundland Canada.
Dave van Es 4 years ago
The Mayflower was a ship, not a plane. So wouldn't it have docked, instead of landed?
Vetus Vespertilio 4 years ago
There has to be a dock before you can dock your boat.
Load More Replies... Carol Emory 4 years ago
Every year there is a pilgrimage from Santa Fe to El Santuario de Chimayo..a church that has a hole in the floor by the altar where people can reach in and gather Holy Soil. It's believed that a cross mystically appeared in the same spot several times. The church was built on the site with the hole exposing the area where the cross was found. The soil is believed to have healing properties.
#95
TIL a school teacher named Jeff Kirby competed on Jeopardy in 1999, and then again in 2009. This is a violation of Jeopardy rules, and any winnings he earned in 2009 were nullified. He even wore the same tie
#96
TIL the disclaimer "the characters depicted here are fictitious and any similarity to actual persons is purely coincidental" originates from a lawsuit brought on by the wife of the man that killed Rasputin, after MGM made a movie insinuating she, the Princess of Russia, had been seduced by Rasputin
Downunderdude 4 years ago
Ra-ra-rasputin, lover of the Russian queen. Earworm, anyone? Heh heh heh.
Random Person 4 years ago
"All characters and events in this show — even those based on real people — are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…. poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone."
Baby Jenks 4 years ago
To Downunderdude, it's not BS: https://www.cbr.com/movie-disclaimer-fiction-mgm-lawsuit-rasputin-empress/
Ray Martin 4 years ago
Hey, YT, you might want to learn a bit more before making these kinds of stupid comment. Rasputin was killed in 1916, and movies most definitely already existed at that time. A movie about those events would have come some time after that, obviously.
Chewie Baron 4 years ago
It did, in 1932, and the Princess in question died in the 1970s.
Load More Replies... sofacushionfort 4 years ago
Not seduced, but they used her as bait. Trivia point: the gramophone was playing "Yankee Doddle" during the murder.
Lunar Bicycle 4 years ago
Motion pictures had been around for around 20 years before Rasputin died in 1918. For instance, the landmark (but disgustingly racist movie) The Birth of a Nation came out in 1915 in the US. Heck, the short George’s Méliès film, A Trip to the Moon, came out in 1902.
Load More Replies... #97
TIL Flea and Dave Navarro from RHCP played bass and guitar for Alanis Morrisette’s song “You Oughta Know”
Luther von Wolfen 4 years ago
Dave Navarro is the only member of RHCP who hasn't been convicted of sexual assault and/or rape.
Becky Samuel 4 years ago
That's not true. Charges were brought but they were *not* convicted. Fact checking is *important* .
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Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
TIL that the Chili Peppers are shortened to RHCP. (not my kind of music)
#98
TIL DMX avoided a maximum jail term for tax fraud when his lawyer played his song "Slippin'" for the judge in order to show X's struggles and how bad his upbringing was.
Eslamala 4 years ago
He's dead now so who cares? Btw, lots of people have horrible upbringing and most of them don't become criminals.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 4 years ago
I still think it's interesting, no matter if he died or not. So to your question: I care
Load More Replies... Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
So to get out of fraud all I have to do is break out into song.
Glenn Zoontjens 4 years ago
Yep, despite the fact that he made millions and tax fraud is a purely white-collar crime, he doesn't have to serve the maximum term because he had a bad upbringing....
#99
TIL that Breaking Bad character Mike Ehrmantraut was created because Bob Odenkirk (Saul Goodman) was unavailable for one of the episodes of Breaking Bad as he had to shoot for How I met your mother
T'Mar of Vulcan 3 years ago
Jonathan Banks is awesome. From his stint in BB to starring in Wiseguy to chasing fugitives from an alternate Earth in Otherworld to getting killed by John Lithgow in Buckaroo Banzai. I love him!
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Footlong Cox 4 years ago
Just go to Reddit and read these in TIL and other subreddits that make the front page. All of these were on the front page two weeks ago.
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Theater Kid 4 years ago
Yay! Back to annoying the living hell out of anyone who happens to start a conversation with me.
Nuage de Celda 4 years ago
I love the facts and the comments underneath for more details ! Can't wait for the next !
Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
There’s at least two “facts” missing, the one about Gadaffi and the 500 Italian models he lectured on Islam, and the one about the origins of EMS service, in which I posted a comment giving credit to Freedom House. I know these move position as they’re voted on, which is confusing but fine I guess (even though the post is labeled a list, not a poll). I don’t like that they edit and cut articles after posting them, update the headline and don’t add a disclaimer that it was edited. If they fact check after the fact, they should mention that, not just delete and hide it like it never happened.
Footlong Cox 4 years ago
Just go to Reddit and read these in TIL and other subreddits that make the front page. All of these were on the front page two weeks ago.
Load More Replies... Theater Kid 4 years ago
Yay! Back to annoying the living hell out of anyone who happens to start a conversation with me.
Nuage de Celda 4 years ago
I love the facts and the comments underneath for more details ! Can't wait for the next !
Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
There’s at least two “facts” missing, the one about Gadaffi and the 500 Italian models he lectured on Islam, and the one about the origins of EMS service, in which I posted a comment giving credit to Freedom House. I know these move position as they’re voted on, which is confusing but fine I guess (even though the post is labeled a list, not a poll). I don’t like that they edit and cut articles after posting them, update the headline and don’t add a disclaimer that it was edited. If they fact check after the fact, they should mention that, not just delete and hide it like it never happened.
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