No matter how educated you might be, no matter how many books you’ve read, it’s impossible to know everything that there is to know about the world. Naturally, you’ll end up with quite a few knowledge gaps. Gaps that you might not even be aware of! However, if you keep an open mind and are humble enough to admit that you don’t know everything, the internet can be a fantastic place to learn new things.
That’s where the ‘Today I Learned’ Twitter account, @til_feed, comes in. It’s a page with 33.6k followers that has been collecting and sharing interesting facts about the world, from science and psychology to history and nature, since late 2020. We’ve chosen the most intriguing facts to pique your interest, Pandas, so put on your thinking hats as you scroll down.
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It might feel embarrassing to realize that you don’t know as much about the world as you thought you did, but there’s nothing wrong with that! Human beings are limited, and there are tons of other things to do throughout the day than read thick encyclopedias and memorize trivia. Things like work, meeting up with the people we care about, exercise, long walks on the beach, doing pesky chores, sharing cat memes, and much, much more.
They also made a movie about it, called Hidden Figures! Everybody should watch it, it’s so good!
In other words, we all have a finite amount of time. We can’t spend every minute of it for the sake of storing knowledge in our noggins. However, if we accidentally become aware of massive knowledge gaps that we’d like to somehow fill, then it’s an opportunity for growth! We don’t know what your experience was like at school or college, but we remember how excited we were when we started delving into a topic that we knew very little about but felt passion for.
Learning can be a ton of fun, especially if you believe that the knowledge you’re gaining is going to improve your life somehow or that information is likely to have a very practical use. For example, learning a random language might be fun, and good exercise for your mind, but if you’ll need the language for your job or an upcoming trip, then you have that added little bit of motivation to keep you going when things get tough. The same goes for all subjects, whether it’s history, psychology, management, or anything else, really.
Well TBF they wouldn't really have been offered a choice. Unlikely that they even knew the ship was sinking.
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One watches a movie, or reads a book about real life tragedy. One sees the characters, usually based on the real people, making their choices. I cannot fathom the choices the crew and passengers were forced to make. Who chose to be selfless? Who chose to survive at all costs? Who bowed to what was nearly inevitable, and just went on as best they could? I wonder how much of my beliefs, when it came to such a situation, would stand? It's easy from a soft couch with your feet up and a kitten in your lap. Facing that reality? Not so easy. I wonder then, if my faith is nothing more than window dressing. I also wonder if any choice was right or wrong. Take Ismay, who "should" have gone down with the ship. He disguised himself, and took a place on a lifeboat. Why? His duty was to the ship. His duty was to die. However, was what he did cowardly? Selfish? Did he panic? I think he probably heard the screams of the dying every day for the rest of his life. Is that not punishment enough? He was publicly shamed and made a pariah. Take Captain Smith. It was to be his last voyage. He was going to a well-earned retirement. Did his choice to go down with his ship save any lives? Noble, yes, but for what reasons? I think myself that he couldn't have lived with himself if he hadn't. Take John Astor, young, rich, with a beautiful pregnant wife. All his money couldn't save him. He asked if he could be on the lifeboat with his wife, but when he was told no, he just said he'd see her later. He surely knew then. The Strauss's chose to die together. How does one make such a decision? And if one chooses to live, how does one survive that choice? The band played on. The wireless men sent for help until the power was completely out. Two of the lifeboats returned. Maybe 15 were pulled from the sea. One of the collapsible boats was used by about 20 who went down with the ship. What about the many who tried to climb on, but were beaten back? I don't know how or why those who had the choice made the one they did, or how much it affected the lives of the survivors. I don't think I would have the courage or the strength to do what I (from the comfort of my living room) think would be the right thing. I hope none of the victims -- including the survivors -- suffered more than they could bear.
What a truly well thought out and thought provoking reply Shyla...thank you for the insights x
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Heroes they are, brave men to the fullest. They should’ve all been formally honored posthumously for what they did to help save as many lives as they could. Not quite similar as it didn’t save lives but a similar concept to the gentlemen who chose to stay on the boat and continue to play music in an effort to calm and bring ease to everyone on board panicking and trying to escape. Those men, those sweet sweet souls they were, deserve to be mentioned as well.
I cant find any reference to this, but i was told this when i was training for merchant navy that they were honoured. Before the Titanic engineers were just that and not granted any particular rank since at the time it was linked to the upper classes of British society. After the sinking they and all future marine engineers were granted the rank of Officers to recognise the sacrifice.
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Same with the guy running the new Marconi system. He kept sending out the SOS signals until the power cut out and he couldn’t. I can’t remember if he survived or not. Then there are the famous musicians giving what they had, their music, to try to calm passengers as they tried to get off the ship. Even though humans can be total worthless s**t sometimes, at other times we can be very selfless, noble, and downright angelic.
He didn’t survive, Jack Philips sent both CQD and SOS messages until the system failed. His junior, Harold Bride suggested using the new SOS code and said that he joked about the fact it might be Philips last ever chance to use the new emergency code. Sadly he was right, Bride survived the disaster, Philips died that night.
Load More Replies... There were crew who went down with R.M.S. Titanic whose families were sent the bill for the uniforms / musical instruments / workwear they had been issued with because they hadn’t completed enough journeys with the White Star Line to have paid off the costs. Imagine getting that bill, you’d be pretty angry!
I hope eventually their loved ones were let off the hook.
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There's another movie called the Titanic. It was produced in the '50's, I believe. The special effects are laughable, compared to todays, but I liked it a lot better. The characters seemed more fitting with the social norms of the time. I recommend it, if you haven't seen it.
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Real hero's - I really hope there is somewhere with their names commemorating their absolute sacrifice
It was a decision each made, with almost no warning or time to prepare. In many cases, the choice was an illusion, since not making that choice would not have saved them either. Knowing they were going to die either way, they chose to save the few who could still be saved. That is what a hero does.
At the time there was a distinction between the engineering crew and what was called the 'black gang'. Engineering crew was headed by a chief engineer and several junior officers. The chief engineer was essentially an executive, directly answerable for tonthe captain and acted as a manager. There were 1,2,3rd engineers who each had their juniors. These were responsible for managing the ships systems. There were also electrical engineers managing power generation, lighting, nd mechanical ventilators. The lowest engineer crew were the greasers"- those responsible for maintaining the machinery. This was all very separate from the black gang- those responsible for firing the boilers. This consisted of chief firemen (responsible for managing the supply of steam in each boiler room), the firemen (responsible for stoking the boilers) and the trimmers (those who trimmed the coal bunkers and brought the coal to the firemen). The latter was one of the least desirable working class jobs at sea!
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But then there was Freddy, who was smoking on the fan tail and almost missed the whole thing. Those sticks will kill you.
Death is the North wind that we cannot resist. When it comes face it as bravely as you can.
... the engineers alltogether were close to or below the water line, when the water came in the very most didn't even had the chance to escape. They just died first. Nothing more nothing less.
The scene in the movie where the musicians were playing while everyone was trying to get off the ship, actually happened too. They knew they were going to die so the just kept playing.
I was a merchant marine and fisherman for 13+ years. There was, and still is to a degree, an understanding that our job comes with accepting a responsibility. I was on a boat in Alaska in 2005 that had a massive fire($4.5mil in 45 mins) in the engine room and the only 3 of 147 (mostly seafood processors) that stayed down there fighting it were the Chief Engineer, myself and another deckhand. Spent 2 days without power before USCG towed us to town. Fun times.
Junior 2nd engineer John Shepherd was probably thr first person to die in the Titanic disaster. Right after the collision he was overseeing the setting up of pumps in a boiler room and someone had opened up a hatch in the floor grating to connect a hose. The room was full of steam and there was a foot of water trickling in from a ruptured coal bunker. Shepherd fell down the hatch and broke his leg. He was carried back to a store room, but not long later the coal bunker holding back the tonnes of water burst and those tending him escaped up the emergency escape. Shepherd was drowned.
Not at all. Don't you realize that most people couldn't leave the ship even if they tried to because there were not enough lifeboats? Only a few women and children could be saved. If you can't leave, then you might as well stay at your post and make your sacrifice worthwhile by helping others! Either way, you are going to die, so you can either die as a man, or die as a coward. I guess we know which one you would choose.
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At the same time, if a specific subject doesn’t interest you at all or you might not think that it’ll prove to be much useful to you in the future, feel free to ignore it. We all have limited free time, so learning about biology or chemistry just to flex to your friends by dropping random fact bombs on them during dinner isn’t worth it. At the end of the day, you have to embrace the fact that you won’t know, well, everything.
Geoff Gourley, writing on Medium, suggests bridging your knowledge gaps by considering taking web courses on a specific subject. According to him, it’s important to use the knowledge you gain proactively, with hands-on activities if possible. Teaching someone else, once you’ve built up a decent knowledge base, can also help cement the information in your mind.
Meanwhile, there are tons of free resources out there on the internet, all it takes is some patience to find them and filter out the best from the fluff.
I learned from reading an unrelated book that Marie Curie’s documents are also said to be radioactive as well.
If you’re ever in a situation where someone publicly points out that you’re wrong about something, the first step is to try and stay calm. Don’t panic! Embrace the fact that everyone makes mistakes. You could, for instance, thank the person for correcting you. And if you show some signs of mild embarrassment, it can make you seem more down-to-earth and likable as a result. The important thing here is not to make a mountain out of a molehill: your mistake definitely wasn’t as big as you thought, and you shouldn’t let that embarrassment turn into shame.
The way that people consume news and information has changed very much with the spread of the internet and the rise of social media.
"People consume news from a much broader variety of sources, on a much wider set of platforms. We are awash in information and we are used to seeing it in small chunks," Lisa McLendon, Ph.D., the William Allen White Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, previously explained to Bored Panda.
I live in Los Angeles. Traffic is terrible. Can't imagine what it would be like if it were 16% worse.
I remember living in Hanna Wyoming was it was -40F. Walking home from the bus stop after school, it started to get dark and we had double scarves wrapped around our mouths. Breathing in that ice cold air really hurts your lungs. I can’t imagine what -83F is like ! But I did read Coldfoot, Alaska got that cold before ! Forget that c**p…I’m going back to Las Cruces New Mexico next summer lol
As a result the format of the news changes, as audiences begin to appreciate brevity more. As a result, some outlets might prioritize engagement over in-depth reporting.
"News outlets know this and have adapted headlines to catch people’s eyes and presentation to keep the audiences engaged. For example, if you look at how news is presented on a platform like Instagram, it’s presented visually in a short video or series of images so people can quickly get the main point. Most of these changes have happened to optimize speed and engagement, not depth," the professor told us via email earlier.
But on the bright side, you planted more trees and helped the environment!
“Depth is crucial for certain types of news stories, ones that aren’t easily summarized in a quick-hit format but nonetheless have great impact on people’s lives. Questions and creativity can help journalists stay motivated to delve deeper on a longer, more time-consuming story," the communications expert told Bored Panda.
She stressed that how the information or news is presented can drastically affect how engaged the audience is. "Usually this is not one big, long block of text—it may include photos, videos, maps, graphics, even interactive elements like a quiz,” she said that reporters are challenged to find more and more creative ways to present their stories.
I grew up calling them Lego bricks and Lego parts. The US plural use as a noun sounds weird and strangely childish to me. I've never corrected it though. It seems like it's engrained in the US psyche.
Had a Danish exchange student here in US. They burn most garbage(some kind of stack cleaning tech to reduce pollutants), and use the heat to power steam boilers for home heat.
Kinda old news this one. It's very well known the national grid vary productivity around TV viewing habits, especially sport. It used to be the soap operas as well until online streaming meant you can catch up whenever.
So did they start this after the movie Airplane came out or before?
So what did I’m you think their official title is? Space Olfactory Specialist . Come on give us your ideas.
I was reading about this, it's amazing how potent the smell is, they put very little in there and it still smells strong.
They made a short film in 2013 using atoms as well https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0
No, no no! Canada saved the hostages, our US embassy workers. The CIA had very little to do with it. The movie Argo assigns all the heroics done by Canada to Americans. It's wrong.
Note: this post originally had 93 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
They're all true, I read them on the internet. [ /s because it's needed too often ]
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They're all true, I read them on the internet. [ /s because it's needed too often ]
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