We believe it's fair to say that there's always something new to learn for every person here on earth. This is why communities like Reddit's 'Today I Learned' (TIL) offer a trove of astonishing revelations that might have escaped our attention.
For instance, were you aware of the local Indonesian mythology bit that suggests Orangutans possess the capacity to communicate in human languages? However, they consciously decide not to, in fear they would be captured and obligated to work (fair on them, to be honest).
Or how about the captivating fact that Brazil holds the record for the most frequent showers? Statistics indicate that an average Brazilian takes a shower roughly every 12 hours. Oh, and if you're considering an investment, it might surprise you to learn that unopened Lego sets typically yield better returns than gold (the more you know, right?). These snippets from 'Today I Learned' are just a fraction of what we have in store for you today, Pandas.
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TIL that in the 60's the Italian Ministry of Education broadcasted a TV show titled "It’s Never Too Late", aimed to teach older people how to read and write. An estimate of 1.5 million people got their elementary school diploma thanks to it
TIL the Australian Navy formally enlisted a six-year-old girl in order to give her medical treatment onboard a navy ship; regulations did not allow for civilians to get medical treatment on navy ships. The girl's official rating was 'mascot', and she was 'discharged' after 8 days of 'service'.
TIL-WW1 had Mercy Dogs. Mercy dogs were dogs that would locate wounded men in no man's land and bring medicine, food, water and/or stay with the dying so no they wouldn't die alone. Each army had them
I thought they were "putting you out of your misery" mercy dogs. Like trained to snap your neck in one swift bite or something.
TIL Mr. Rogers answered every fan letter, starting his day at 5 AM to respond to 50-100 daily, including those from children dealing with personal issues like family deaths.
TIL DeForest Kelley, who played Dr McCoy in Star Trek, wanted to become a doctor, but couldn't afford medical school. He regularly received letters from fans who went into medicine because of him and said "to influence the youth of the country ... is an award that is not handed out by the industry"
TIL: Local Indonesian mythology says that Orangutans actually have the ability to speak human languages, but choose not to, fearing they would be forced to get jobs and work if were they ever caught.
TIL that the creator of Rocket Raccoon is institutionalized due to brain damage from a hit and run in 1992. When Marvel made "Guardians of the Galaxy," the compensation package they offered ensured care for the rest of his life.
TIL in 1973, a Harvard astrophysicist suggested that we won't discover more advanced civilizations because they don't want us to find them and have the technology to ensure we never do. They have also set aside our planet as a zoo wherein they can observe us. He coined this idea the Zoo Hypothesis.
TIL the United Nations declared drinking water as a human right...in July of 2010.
TIL The role of April Ludgate in Parks and Recreation was specifically created for Aubrey Plaza after the casting director met her and felt she was the weirdest girl she had ever met in her life.
TIL Unopened Lego sets have a higher return than gold.
Unopened boxes aren't any fun. You all soft can-openers know you need us to bat the Lego pieces under the sofa. Come on, admit it.
TIL elephants are the only wild animal that understands pointing without human training
This isn't exactly 100% true. It is the "training " part that makes it misleading. Many other animals point or understand it, but usually they have to be exposed to it, as in observe a human or their own species doing it. But all of them do not need, or are not "trained" to do it. It is a skill they pick up from observing and adapting to their environments. All primates have been observed point from infancy, without any specific training to do so. Dogs.and wolves understand pointing also without being trained to do so. There are also breeds of dogs that pont at game when hunting, which is an instinct. I can say that we bread dogs to have this particular instinct.
TIL an Austrian man was held for 18 days without food or water (the world record for surviving) because the police forgot about him. He lost 53 lbs (24 kg.)
When I was arrested, I weighed 550 lbs. They put me in the suicide watch cell, as my mom thought I might try to kill myself. They gave me a mat and something that resembled a bullet proof vest. I sat on the toilet until it hurt too badly, then I sat on the mat. I could not get up. They brought food and drinks to the hole in the door. I couldn't get up to get it. I couldn't use the toilet I was leaning against. After a couple of days, the trustee serving meals begged the guards to let her come in and give the food trays to me. They said no. For four days, I had no access to food, water, or toileting. It took three big burley men to pull me to my feet the fourth day, when I was taken to the psychiatrist for evaluation. He asked me why I thought they were torturing me.
TIL By the 1700s, aristocrats started eating tomatoes, but they were convinced the fruits were poisonous because people would die after eating them. In reality, the acidity from the tomatoes brought out the lead in their pewter plates, and they actually died of lead poisoning
The reason tomatoes were thought to be poisonous, as well as potatoes, is because they are solanaceae and members of that family in Europe are mostly poisonous - Belladonna, Mandragora, etc. And most of the tomato plant is poisonous. The fruits are not.
TIL about "Terminal Lucidity." The unexpected return of mental clarity and memory shortly before the death of patients suffering from severe psychiatric and neurologic disorders
TIL Great White Sharks have poison resistance that defies logic. Samples of shark blood showed levels of arsenic and mercury that should be harmful if not deadly but the sharks were unaffected. Additionally Great Whites' have impressive self-healing abilities
TIL that the Pythagorean theorem must have been known before Pythagoras, because it is used in a proof on a Babylonian clay tablet dated about 12 centuries before the birth of Pythagoras.
In places like India, China and Egypt, people had been using the theorem centuries before Pythagoras was born
TIL Louis Braille faced resistance towards and doubts about his writing system for the blind, called Braille. His school burned books he and his classmates had transcribed into Braille, since the school thought that the effectiveness of Braille was a threat to their revenue.
TIL that instead of taking their usual salaries for ''Twins'', Schwarzenegger and DeVito both agreed with the studio to take 20% of the film's box office returns which resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their film careers ( movie made $216 million worldwide)
TIL that If two pieces of similar metals touch in a vacuum, and if both pieces are perfectly flat and polished, they will indeed fuse to effectively make one new piece. This is called cold welding.
This is what happens to me when I sit down on a comfy couch and someone tosses a blanket over me
TIL that after large animals went extinct, such as the mammoth, avocados had no method of seed dispersal, which would have lead to their extinction without early human farmers.
TIL when US President Harding died unexpectedly in 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office at 2:47 AM, and promptly returned to bed.
TIL The firm who repaired seat covers on San Francisco's BART trains started paying people to slash the fabric, eventually accounting for 85% of vandalism reports
TIL there are no bridges across the Amazon River
This has nothing to do with the width changes. The reason is much simpler : the river IS the main transport route. There is no road networks that need to be connected, only a few local roads. Everything is done on the Amazon by boats, why would you need a very expensive bridge at a specific location when you need and can cross the river everywhere.
TIL space stations smell like “combinations of antiseptic, garbage, and body odor.”
TIL Bed bugs were all but eradicated in the developed world in the 1950s but had a resurgence in the 1990s due to factors including increased international travel, lack of public awareness
TIL that some pirate codes forbid the crew from seducing a woman, sneaking her on board the ship and taking her out to sea. This offense was punishable by death.
Pirates founded the first contemporary democratic state in Nassau. They would elect and depose their leaders based on a majority vote of both men and women (not a case with many modern democracies until the 20th century). No one objected and all followed the rule. Not a single pirate ever tried to say the elections were rigged 🙄
TIL that our voice has a considerable influence on how we are perceived by other people. A single spoken word is enough to obtain personality ratings that are highly consistent across independent listeners. Based on voice samples, AI can predict how a speaker tends to be perceived by other people
TIL giraffes only sleep about 4 hours a day in 5-15 minute power nap sessions (because lions)
I wonder if that's also true of giraffes in captivity since lions aren't preying on them.
TIL Brazil is, by far, the country that takes the most showers. On average, a Brazilian showers every 12 hours.
If someone takes a shower, I sure hope they put it back again.
TIL the US Navy sold 2 obsolete aircraft carriers to scrap dealers for a cent each because they were very expensive to dismantle and recycle.
TIL in the United States, obesity rates decline the higher above sea level an area is.
TIL Freshwater snails carry a parasitic disease, which infects nearly 250 million people and causes over 200,000 deaths a year. The parasites exit the snails into waters, they seek you, penetrate right through your skin, migrate through your body, end up in your blood and remain there for years.
TIL about Tim Friede, the Venom Man. Tim flatlined from two back to back cobra bites in 2001. He was revived and decided to become immune to snake venom in hope of creating a universal antivenom. He has taken 200+ fang bites and 500+ needle injections from lethal cobras, mambas, kraits and taipans.
TIL wild blueberry farming in Maine traditionally involved burning the fields every year, a technique learned from the Passamaquoddy tribe, since most of the plant mass is underground
Interesting. Was this to beat back other competing growth? I live in an area that grows a LOT of blueberries and they let the bushes grow. It actually takes a few years for the bushes to be full size. Not sure how long but like at least 2 or 3. I've watched a couple of fields near me get planted and then slowly grow to their 'normal' size.
TIL: During the filming of 'Dexter,' actor Jimmy Smits accidentally grabbed a real knife and stabbed a stuntman in the chest; the stuntman survived unharmed due to the blade hitting a post-it note sized piece of plastic covering his heart.
TIL 601 Lexington Avenue—once the 7th-tallest building in the world—was in danger of being toppled over by high winds due to a structural error. It was secretly fixed and the public had no idea anything was wrong until an article about it came out decades later.
TIL that Shattered was a British TV series where ten contestants were challenged with going without sleep for seven days. Due to sleep deprivation contestants became hostile and irrational and one believed himself to be the Prime Minister of Australia. The winner was awake for 178 hours
TIL in 1815 B.C. it took about a year for Sumerian scribes to learn how to multiply. They also signed and dated their homework.
Do Sumerian scribes multiply in a different way than other people? I mean it took me just few biology classes to figure that...
TIL 1 out of every 8 Americans is Californian.
Note: this post originally had 51 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I have a fact to share: There is a village in China called Hongcun (宏村) that was way ahead of its time in terms of women’s rights. For example: 600 years ago, a village chief had to do all his work in another province, so his 24 year old wife replaced him as the acting chief in the village. She did the job splendidly for over 23 years, installing dams and rerouting a nearby river to provide fresh water for the village. Mind you, she was also disabled and had trouble walking. Her name was Hu Chong. Absolute badass. Also, not only was education heavily encouraged for both boys AND girls, it was free too (looks at the US). And here’s the really good part: the punishment for assaulting or harassing a woman was getting beaten with a board 20 times and kneeling in front of your ancestor’s grave for three days to think about what a disappointment you were. I love that village so much.
Oops, something went wrong... AGAIN!! This is getting really frustrating. Fix this BP!!
Mine suddenly decided to fix itself but not it's only letting me look at the first 10
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I have a fact to share: There is a village in China called Hongcun (宏村) that was way ahead of its time in terms of women’s rights. For example: 600 years ago, a village chief had to do all his work in another province, so his 24 year old wife replaced him as the acting chief in the village. She did the job splendidly for over 23 years, installing dams and rerouting a nearby river to provide fresh water for the village. Mind you, she was also disabled and had trouble walking. Her name was Hu Chong. Absolute badass. Also, not only was education heavily encouraged for both boys AND girls, it was free too (looks at the US). And here’s the really good part: the punishment for assaulting or harassing a woman was getting beaten with a board 20 times and kneeling in front of your ancestor’s grave for three days to think about what a disappointment you were. I love that village so much.
Oops, something went wrong... AGAIN!! This is getting really frustrating. Fix this BP!!
Mine suddenly decided to fix itself but not it's only letting me look at the first 10
Load More Replies... 