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“Today I Learned”: 30 Interesting And Weird Facts To Satisfy Your Curiosity (New Facts)
Learning new things is important if we want to live a long and fulfilling life. Acquiring new skills and performing activities such as puzzles and other brain games strengthens our neurological pathways and makes our brains age slower, helps prevent memory loss, and generally maintains our brain's health.
We here at Bored Panda are huge proponents of lifelong learning. That's why we've gathered another collection of the most interesting and weird fun facts from the TIL community on Reddit. So, sink your curious teeth into these little nuggets of information that over 39M people on the subreddit deemed worthy for you to see.
More info: Reddit
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#1
TIL in 1978, a researcher played a deceased elephant’s calls from a hidden speaker. Her family responded by frantically searching and calling out for her, with the daughter continuing for days. Moved by their grief, the researcher decided never to repeat the experiment.
BrunoVI 11 months ago
Had to read it afew times to realize that "her family" and "the daughter" referred to the elephant's family, not the researcher.
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WindySwede 11 months ago
Is was almost 50 years ago, they didn't know better? Atleast they realised and stopped! Poor elephant though! 🐘
Load More Replies... Nitka Tsar 11 months ago
Kudis to the researcher that he immediatly stopped the experiment and never did it again! I‘m guessing this is at least partly the readon why we now know as much about Elephan emotions and such
Deborah 11 months ago
Didn't this researcher know that elephants have deep emotional lives? This was just cruel.
RELATED:
#2
TIL Using machine learning, researchers have been able to decode what fruit bats are saying--surprisingly, they mostly argue with one another.
WindySwede 11 months ago
"You humans complain about spending time together at Christmas, try hanging out with them for all of your life!"
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LonelyLittleLeafSheep 11 months ago
I had the opportunity to work with fruit bats at a zoo once, and they did seem to squabble with each other all the time.
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The Queen Of France 10 months ago (edited)
“I’m telling you - you have to take a bite out of EVERY banana! It’s the rules!”
#3
TIL that more than half the drop in America’s total fertility rate is explained by women under the age of 19 now having next to no children.
Nils Skirnir 11 months ago
Yeah but the Republicans hate it. Fewer servants.
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Kirsten Kerkhof 11 months ago
So in the past the US depended on teen mothers for population growth. Major ick.
ॐBoyGanesh 11 months ago (edited)
No, because the population growth is so high it depended on teen mothers for that quantity. Without teen pregnancy, there is still growth. Until 2030, when the amount of people dying from lack of healthcare access will level out with the growth in population.
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SlothyK8 11 months ago
The rules for when women should have children, as furnished by men, are stupid. An acquaintance of mine has been harping for MONTHS about how his adult children need to start having children now that they a) own a home, b) have worked in their field for a while, etc. The kids don't WANT children, but their old yt man father insists on telling them when to do it anyway.
Scott Sheehan 11 months ago
Did he say anything about the race of the acquaintance?
Load More Replies... Fat Harry (Oi / You) 11 months ago
Change from when? The 1950s or the 2010s? Or last year? Context is important.
Regina Holt 11 months ago
And here in 'murica, we have the governor of the state of Missouri complaining there are not enough teen pregnancies. https://missouriindependent.com/2024/10/22/missouri-mifepristone-lawsuit-andrew-bailey-teen-pregnancy/
Janelle Collard 11 months ago
They've seen the new America + it doesn't look good to them. *cough!* birth control, women's health, etc.
The members of the TIL community dish out cool and interesting facts daily, so let's take a more comprehensive look at some of them, shall we?
An intriguing fact about the declining fertility in America, as shared by user u/Plupsnup, has a surprising upside. The most obvious reason people think birth rates have stagnated stems from the fact that people just don't want to have kids anymore or postpone it to later in life.
More and more women are choosing to establish themselves in their careers first and then having children. However, the fact is that America also has way fewer teen moms than it had in the 1990s. The Economist reports that this trend is visible elsewhere, too: in Britain and the EU, teen pregnancy rates have fallen by 69% and 58%, respectively.
#4
TIL that legal poppy farmers in Tasmania couldn't figure out why they kept getting crop circles until it was revealed wallabies were breaking in to eat the bulbs to get high then running around in circles trampling the flowers.
digitalin 11 months ago
I think they mean bulbs as in bulb-shaped portion on the flower, not bulbs as in the part gardeners call bulbs, the portion buried.
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Nicole Weymann 11 months ago
Huh. TIL! I was wondering about Aussies being so much into poppy seed cake and buns, since I was under the impression it was more of a a niche product, globally speaking.
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#5
TIL after a local article highlighted the lavish lifestyle of Alan Ralsky in 2003 (known as the "spam king" for sending millions of bulk email solicitations), critics found his physical address & signed him up for so much junk mail that, at the peak, hundreds of pounds of it were delivered each day.
#6
TIL that not only do the terms 'glass ceiling' and 'glass escalator' exist, but also 'glass cliff', describing the tendency for companies to appoint women to leadership positions during times of crisis, when the likelihood of failure is highest.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 11 months ago
But who was voting for those women? And who were they up against? And who was the Tory PM to get routed at the last election? I don't think British politics is exactly public enemy number one in this respect.
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Andrew READ 11 months ago
Political parties often do this, particularly when they are on the way out. It makes them look egalitarian and they don’t want to sacrifice one of their inner sanctum of white middle aged men
Su Boddie 10 months ago
Yeah, just think of their chagrin when the company starts to turn around. With a woman at the helm. Uh, you fixed our company. Thanks. Here's your two-week notice, which said no suddenly successful company, ever. My mother did that, with the NYC Housing Authority. She was shifted from location to location and saved them all. Then, she appeared on the front page of the newspaper (I can't remember if it was the Times or the Tribune) helping then-Mayor Lindsey break ground on three new housing projects, which she managed, simultaneously, until they were built and tenanted. Then she retired; bought a farm and moved upstate.
The story of Masabumi Hosoto, the only Japanese Titanic survivor, is a fascinating one. Interestingly, Japan didn't celebrate his survival, as the local media condemned him for not complying with the "women and children first" rule. The Japanese praised those who perished heroically and criticized people like Hosoto, who, in their eyes, chose to live cowardly.
The poor man even lost his job and only found part-time work for the rest of his life. He lived as a recluse and in quiet shame and didn't want anyone to even mention the Titanic in his home. After his passing, evidence came out that he actually helped row the lifeboats and saved fellow passengers, restoring his good name.
#7
TIL that Stephen Hawking lived longer after diagnosis (55 years) than any other known individual with ALS.
Deborah 11 months ago
He was remarkable. He was the only person on Star Trek: The Next Generation to play himself, in a poker scene with Data and 2 others whose names sadly escape me as it is 4 am.
Jude Laskowski 11 months ago
I cared for a patient with ALS and it is a horrible disease. This man had been a very fit police officer who found himself unable to do anything except talk. His wife cared for him 24/7 except for a couple of hours each week when a caregiver came in to give her a break. It was heartbreaking.
Vicki Perizzolo 10 months ago
apparently since he got it when he was in his 20s not 40s he lived longer BUT the fact that he was able to keep upgrading his 'help' health situation, that probably also helped. Either way - he was an amazing man
Rebecca McManus 10 months ago
To be fair, they invested a lot of money in his continued survival. Nice chap though, met him at the cinema in Cambridge once, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy if I recall correctly.
#8
TIL in 2012 an 11-yr-old boy disappeared while shopping with his mom & then made his way to an airport. After he passed 5 security checks without a passport or boarding pass by tagging along with a family, he was able to board a flight from Manchester to Rome alone. He was discovered after takeoff.
Sir Richard Fiddler The LXIXth 11 months ago
Aww, who's my little terrorist and outlaw. They blow up so fast
HTakeover 11 months ago
Sure, he gets to go, but TSA wants to confiscate my toddler for being a biological weapon?
Verena 11 months ago
Even though this was pre-brexit, the English akways checked meticolously everybodies passports, especially those of children travelling out of country. Child abduction is a real problem, so they cross-checked every time who belonged to whom and if there was a letter of consent of the non-travelling parent. My friends and I are german, so no racist extra pressure here.
Bi.Felicia 11 months ago
Well this story proves that the English don't always meticulously check everyone's passports, even children travelling out of country. This kid made it past 5 security checkpoints, without any documentation and successfully boarded a plane, travelling from England to Italy.
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Nitka Tsar 11 months ago
I wonder why he did that. What was he thinking? Did he want to test something? Did he hate his Mom? Maybe his father was in Rome? Or something else he really wanted to see? Very interesting case
UKGrandad 11 months ago
He said that he was running away from home. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jul/25/11-year-old-flies-rome-manchester
Load More Replies... #9
TIL that after Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo won double gold at the Paris Olympics his gifts included a fully furnished three-bedroom home worth US$552,802, a lifetime supplies of free buffets, a lifetime supply of phone cases and free endoscopic procedures for when he turned 45.
Tiger 11 months ago (edited)
Lifetime free buffets actually sounds amazing. A lifetime supply of all you can eat food. 😍
Liz Siemens 11 months ago
At first I thought it say lifetime supply of bullets and I thought “what an odd gift?” Lol
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Joe Methuen 11 months ago
This couldn't happen in the USA... at least not the FREE endoscopic procedures.
🩶🩷Marvin HoG🩷🩶 11 months ago
If he's not using it could I get the lifetime of free buffets please?
Nicole Weymann 11 months ago
As opposed to the apartment and the free food? Not sure about the fun in those endoscopic procedures, though... 🤔😂
Load More Replies... If you've ever looked at the Japanese flag and thought it looked a little bit off-center, you might've been right. As the user u/QuietGanache pointed out, the sun symbol wasn't at the exact center until 1999, when the country officially adopted its flag and anthem.
But what's more interesting is that many deem the other variant of the rising sun flag with a red disc and 16 rays coming from it controversial. They associate the flag with Japan's wartime atrocities and imperialist tendencies. Some countries, like South Korea, even asked the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizers to ban it.
#10
TIL of Masabumi Hosono, who was the only Japanese passenger on the Titanic. While he survived, he was severely condemned in the United States and Japan. His account of the sinking of Titanic remains the only document to be written on Titanic stationery.
Heir of Durin 11 months ago
Found it! “ He survived the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912 but found himself condemned and ostracized by the Japanese public, press, and government because of a misconception that he decided to save himself rather than go down with the ship.”
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Cindy Brick 11 months ago
Just saw a special on this. Out of 8 Chinese passengers, 6 survived...all from third-class. So Hosono (bowing here) wasn't the only Asian on board.
Terry Fergusson 11 months ago
I guess he was small enough to be the second person to fit on a door.
Stef 10 months ago
"he survived the sinking, which was perceived as him not following the "women and children first" principle and choosing to save himself instead of going down with the ship, considered a dishonorable act in Japanese society at the time; this led to him being ostracized and facing social stigma. " wiki, probably
Doodles1983 11 months ago
Taking a spot that could have gone to a woman or child. Racial and gender motivation in US. Honour and gender culture in Japan.
#11
TIL that Woodrow Wilson is the only president of the United States to have earned a Ph.D.
Octopus Lasers 11 months ago (edited)
He was also racist, partially responsible for the KKK resurgence, and re segregated the White House. Having a Ph.D doesn’t equal being a good person or leader.
Michael Largey 11 months ago
Gee, glad that a racist pandering to white nationalism couldn't get elected today.
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Chris the Bobcat 11 months ago
The orange traitor loves the uneducated, likely because he is one of them. His numerous bankruptcies would argue this despite a degree in economics.
Janelle Collard 11 months ago
He or his dad paid people to go to school for him. :)
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Benoît Rainville 9 months ago
Not surprising giving the state of democracy going down since in the US.
Ralph Vanloton 10 months ago
His Presidential Policies were very suspect, many of them counter-productive.
#12
TIL in the 1990s a man gained an edge on a Spanish casino by recording roulette wheel results & analyzing them with a computer. He was able to predict certain numbers were more likely to hit next. After he won €600K, a legal case against him was unsuccessful; it ruled the casino should fix its wheel.
deejak 11 months ago
When the house "cheats" it's "just business"; when patrons find an edge, it's cheating.
Robert T 11 months ago
I am slightly puzzled by the order of the numbers in the above photo. I was watching an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man this morning and the numbers 17-34-6 were significant and it led them to a casino. In the above picture they are 17-20-7. Is the order of the numbers not fixed?
Sand Ers 11 months ago
17-34-6 is the order on a European Roulette wheel. The picture is of an American Roulette wheel, with a different sequence and two zero slots. IMG_2725-6...6-jpeg.jpg 
Only the best of the best should attend the world's best universities. However, Stanford University apparently rejected 69% of applicants with a perfect SAT score from 2008 to 2013. Why? As the university explains, academic excellence isn't the only component in the admissions process. They have a complicated and rigorous admissions process and look for "intellectual vitality" and not just academic credentials. The then-dean of admissions Richard Shaw simply said: "There is no formula."
#13
TIL that in 2002, two planes crashed into each other above a German town due to erroneous air traffic instructions, killing all passengers and crew. Then in 2004, a man who'd lost his family in the accident went to the home of the responsible air traffic controller and stabbed him to death.
AtMostAFabulist 11 months ago
I saw this on Air Disasters. I think he was the one to find his daughter (?) Very sad.
Nitka Tsar 11 months ago (edited)
This story is actually true. 49 kids died in this accident. While this did happen on German grounds, the passanger plane was Russian and the other one was DHL (German postal service) and the traffic controller was Swiss. I didn‘t read the whole article but I am guessing the fact that the father (who lost his wife and 2 kids) was from Russia might explain why it took him 2 years. Edit: this is the wikipedia article about him (note that only the english version has a negativ picture of him. In every other version he is smiling and looks nice): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaly_Kaloyev
Kaa 11 months ago
Never. Especially not 2 years later. It was also not the air traffic technician's sole fault. They were understaffed, the telephone system was faulty and so on.
Load More Replies... #14
TIL that Pandora didn't open a box - she opened a jar. (Pithos - the word in Greek for the thing she opened - is a large ceramic jar the size of a person.)
Bookworm 11 months ago
I knew this because of the Percy Jackson books. Turns out I can still quote the line from memory, too. Thanks, brain, for storing that useless bit of text for the last 15 years.
That_One_Harry_Potter_Nerd 11 months ago
OMG same!! I learned so much mythology from Rick's books!
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marianne eliza 11 months ago
When HMS Pandora caught up with 14 of the Bounty mutineers, they built a wooden box on deck to hold the prisoners. Forever remembered as... Pandora's Box. BTW... the Pandora sank on that voyage but most of the prisoners were able to survive, either by being unchained by sympathetic crew members or on their own.
mandy the capibara 11 months ago
And a lot if the earlier stories ( hesiod etc)don't even have a jar. In other- her husband opens the jar, some stories the jar is full of good things. The very uniform " Pandora is horrible l for willfully opening a box and releasing bad things is quite recent-the earlier stories were much more diverse.
Je souhaite 11 months ago
Pandoras box sounds cooler and has an unintentional dirty joke meaning to it.
#15
TIL James Madison wrote Washington’s 1st inaugural address, then he wrote Congress’s response to that address, and then he wrote Washington’s reply to the response.
Sprouted Tater 11 months ago
Hm, didn’t a reader respond something about the quality of USA’s president?
Andrew READ 11 months ago
He was a speech writer, not a politician. He just wrote down neatly what somebody else
How many times have you tried to decode what your dog or cat is telling you? Well, researchers finally decoded what Egyptian fruit bats are talking about with each other. Neuroecologist Yossi Yovel and his team recorded their calls and grouped them into four categories. The bats argued about food and their positions in the sleeping cluster. It was noted that there were different sounds for males making unwanted mating advances, which were distinct from sounds "telling" one bat to another that they were sitting too close.
#16
TIL,world's oldest emergency call service was started after a neighbour who wanted to report a house fire in Wimpole street telephoned the fire brigade and was so outraged at being held in a queue by the telephone exchange that he wrote a letter to the editor of The Times,which prompted an enquiry.
highwaycrossingfrog 11 months ago
The clue is in the sign. The phone is for 999 calls only. You pick up the phone and it connects you to the emergency services. You select police, ambulance, or fire, hence the 3 buttons
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#17
TIL about ELIZA, a 1960s chatbot created by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum that simulated a psychotherapist. It was so convincing that some users, including Weizenbaum's secretary, became emotionally attached to it. In 2023, ELIZA even outperformed GPT-3.5 in a Turing test study.
Nina 11 months ago
Because I thought 'a chatbot in the 1960s?' : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
mandy the capibara 11 months ago
I listened to an oldodcast yesterday where they tested Eliza, and in 2015 she was pretty terrible at being a therapist
Forrest Hobbs 11 months ago
The main problem with ELIZA is that it mimics a Rogerian psychotherapist - a form of psychotherapy that's really pretty poor. Here's an on-line version: https://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/eliza.htm
Load More Replies... deejak 11 months ago
Seems psychotherapy is a brilliant application for today's LLMs, so where are they? With the current need for mental health care increasing exponentially, seems now would be the time to roll these out! C'mon guys. And I mean well trained ones. Freely and widely accessible!
KittyGaming 11 months ago
Now I need to write this into my batim au, the game takes place in the 60s
#18
TIL A restaurant in Long Beach, CA, was found to be serving Popeye's chicken and passing it off as their own. They would buy the chicken at Popeyes and upcharge for their own chicken and waffles dish. Once found out the owner refused to apologize.
Nils Skirnir 11 months ago
I have heard of many places doing similar with Costco rotisserie chickens , but don’t have any links,
LuckyL 11 months ago
I have herad about one. And I have heard it here - stolen from reddit
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Oerff On Tour 11 months ago
Reminds me of the story of the French chef who bought cans of catfood and served it in his restaurant to people. Although he was doing an experiment with full cooperation from the authorities. European law states that all animal food must still adhere to food regulations for humans, and therefore legal. Surprisingly half the patrons liked the food, even after being told the truth.
Nitka Tsar 11 months ago
If one believes „gossip“ then the word goes that animal food production adheres to a better standard then human food in Germany. I‘m German. It‘s like a… running gag or meme or whatever. People really say that but I don‘t know ehen where and why it started and if it is true or not.
Load More Replies... ॐBoyGanesh 11 months ago
Popeyes partnered with them. Also, does anybody think the reheat food they get from ANY chain restaurant is actually “made” on-site? The vast majority of all food at your neighborhood garden restaurants are heated & assembled, but not made using recipes and (fresh) local sorted ingredients. Here’s the link to the partnership: - https://la.eater.com/2019/8/8/20792330/sweet-dixie-kitchen-long-beach-restaurant-popeyesgate-new-sandwich
Trophy Husband 11 months ago
There's a local pizza place near me that isn't very good. They listed on Uber under a new name that sounds fancy and upscale and didn't tell anyone. I didn't know this, saw a new local place and tried it. But when the pizza tasted just like the bad place I'd tried before, I started investigating and figured it out. I called fraud and Uber gave me a refund. The moral of the story is don't put up with bad pizza places!
Wang Zhuang 11 months ago
Damn, looking at this photo makes me want a Popeye's biscuit so bad. They don't have any in Beijing :-(
Janos Schumacher 11 months ago
As far as I'm concerned I'm paying for the service and the décor. If it comes from a commissary kitchen, it makes no nevermind to me. My MIL worked as a commissary cook for many years for the Omaha school system. Everything is made offsite and re-heated before service. What does it matter? It's food. You eat it. If it tastes good, that's a bonus.
Greenland has once again been in the press these past weeks because of someone's pretty questionable political rhetoric. However, as Reddit user u/ToodlesMcDoozle pointed out, it appears almost 14 times larger in maps than it actually is. That's due to Mercator projection, which tends to stretch out countries towards the poles. In reality, Greenland is roughly the size of The Democratic Republic of Kongo.
#19
TIL Lou Pai, one of Enron executives, resigned and sold his shares for $250 million to get divorced and marry a stripper. The company collapsed few months later.
Nicole Weymann 11 months ago
...know when to walk away, know when to run 🎶🎵
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 11 months ago (edited)
Imagine the pre-nup an Exxon exec would come up with.
Load More Replies... #20
TIL in N**i Germany, “whisper jokes” (Flüsterwitze) served as a means for citizens to express dissent & critique the regime. One joke involved Hitler visiting an asylum where patients greeted him “Heil Hitler!” except one man. When questioned, he said, “I’m not crazy; I am the head of the ward.”
Chris the Bobcat 11 months ago
Stop censoring the word N@zi. To censor history is to forget history. People need to be offended to affirm their own values.
Ian Webling 11 months ago
Hitler, believing he was not popular, disguised himself and went to a public park to ask people their feelings about him. The first man he spoke to signalled Hitler to follow him, led him into the depths of a secluded stand of trees, looked around nervously to make sure no one could overhear and whispered. "I know it's not likely to make me popular but I quite like him."
Awkward lady 11 months ago
Why do you censor Nazis?! This is so stupid! Don't encourage the deniers.
#21
TIL Greenland is portrayed about 14x larger than its actual size on most maps.
Michael None 11 months ago
Nah, he is used to things being smaller than what he believes.
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WindySwede 11 months ago
https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTc5NjQ5NTI.MTI5NjgxMw*Mjg5OTg4MzU(MTk5ODgzNQ~!CONTIGUOUS_US*NTE1NzA0NA.Mjc0ODE5NzQ(MTc1)MQ~!IN*NTI2NDA1MQ.Nzg2MzQyMQ)MA~!CN*OTkyMTY5Nw.NzMxNDcwNQ(MjI1)Mg~!GL*MA.MTgwMDAwMDA)Mw
Load More Replies... Scott Rackley 11 months ago
I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down. - Mitch
ॐBoyGanesh 11 months ago
Is this really new news people had never learned about projecting a sphere onto a flat surface?
WindySwede 11 months ago
(some) People belive the earth is flat.. 🤷♂️ so there are lots of nissunderstanding, distrust, and brainwashing going on.. 😕
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Nitka Tsar 11 months ago (edited)
Yes it is portayed smaller then it really is. I think the downvoter misunderstood your comment. Have an upvote. Edit: sorry, I was wrong
Load More Replies... Nitka Tsar 11 months ago
As is everything on the northern hesisphere…. Or rather the closer you get to the poles
Brian Droste 11 months ago
Isn't Russia portrayed as much larger on maps as well? Any land mass that is closer to the poles and you spread them out, wouldn't they appear much larger?
Roland Nijveld 11 months ago
Yeah. The width is only 1600km more than Africa at it widest. 9000 Vs 7400
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User u/Blackraven2007 shared that Woodrow Wilson was the only U.S. president with a Ph.D. Interestingly, some U.S. presidents didn't attend college at all. They were mostly the early presidents, including George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, and Harry S. Truman.
#22
TIL: Sally Hemings was 16 years old when she gave birth to her first child with 51 year old Thomas Jefferson.
Dusty's mom 11 months ago
She was a half sister to Jefferson's wife, and his slave. It was so dreadfully wrong. People can do great things and still be despicable people.
Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 11 months ago
Like Lyndon B. Johnson, who was an absolutely horrible person but still managed to bring the vote to black people
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Monica Hess 10 months ago
It's also just as likely (more likely, really) that the child was fathered by Jefferson's brother who often frequented the slave quarters. The TJ theory wouldn't hold up in a court of law. The genetics isn't specific enough to remove brothers.
GlitterPanda 11 months ago
No, slavery & rape were never good things. Just because people looked the other way doesn't make those things okay.
Load More Replies... Nicole Weymann 11 months ago
Two caveats: 1) what she may have wanted was secondary at best, as she was his slave, 2) people might have questioned the marriage, as he was white and she wasn't - IF they had ever married. They never did, despite six children.
Load More Replies... #23
TIL of shell cordovan, a rare "leather" that isn't made from animal skin, but connective tissue from a horse's buttocks. Shoes made from them are waterproof, don't crease, don't require polishing, and can last indefinitely. Only two major tanneries make them.
Robert Millar 11 months ago
It's called cordovan and was used for high quality riding boots and "city" type shoes. The natural colour is dark red. There are a couple of British shoemakers where you can still order them.
#24
TIL The U.S. Navy estimates that heavy barnacle growth on ships increases weight and drag by as much as 60 percent, resulting in as much as a 40 percent increase in fuel consumption.
Owen 11 months ago
It does. Source - It used to be part of my job to scrape them off. They smell bad.
Scribbles & Scares 11 months ago
What is used to remove them? It must be very hard work to shift the buggers
Load More Replies... Oerff On Tour 11 months ago
Anti fouling paint reduces growth considerably. But it is poison that pollutes the sea. A double edged sword
Owen 11 months ago
Yes, you're right. I antifouled hundreds of boats in my time in the industry. Mostly small ones. I think that not enough attention is put onto how boats pollute our waters. Massively.
Load More Replies... Andrew READ 11 months ago
So, you’ve never heard of careening? This goes way back to before Roman times.
Many restaurant owners think of getting a Michelin star as a major achievement. But, apparently, it can be more of a curse, as 40% of Michelin-awarded restaurants closed by the end of 2019. Daniel B. Sands of University College London, who examined this phenomenon, said that it depends on how restaurants respond to such third-party rankings. "If there are positive effects—capture value from them. And if there are negative effects or potential negative consequences, [be sure] that you're able to mitigate them."
#25
TIL of Kyle Plush, a 16 year-old teen who died a slow death while being crushed by the third-row seat of a Honda Odyssey. While in that position, he managed to call 911 twice using SIRI, but emergency dispatchers couldn't locate him, and he was found dead by his dad 6 hours later.
Scribbles & Scares 11 months ago
Is this the young lad who fell/got stuck upside down trying to retrieve something in the back of the car? So heartbreaking for his family, such a freak accident
Bookworm 11 months ago
The follow up is that the city ended up settling with the family for $6 million, and agreements to improve both training and increase staffing at the 911 center. From what I've read the biggest issues were understaffing at 911 and lack of training. This means when Kyle gave more information about his car to the operator in the second call it wasn't passed along to the officers who were searching the parking lot. They were unable to find him and went back into service. If you want to see how he got trapped there's a good video explaining it here: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2018/04/12/honda-minivan-seven-hills-teens-death-may-have-been-subject-national-recall/510074002/
Michael None 11 months ago
The 911 call is available to hear or was. It kept me up at night for several days thinking about it. I think it was probably the saddest thing I've ever heard. At one point the boy said to the dispatcher "Tell them to hurry, I'm almost dead". It haunts me to think of that poor boy so desperate for help and knowing he was going to die alone. His car was the only one in the parking lot and the cops drove right by it thinking it was a prank call.
Bookworm 11 months ago
Not accurate. They did search the parking lot, however, it wasn't until the second call that Kyle was able to provide more details like make, model, and color of his vehicle. This was while they were in the parking lot. Unfortunately the details weren't passed along to the officers. When they couldn't find anyone needing help they went back into service.
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Brian Droste 11 months ago
I thought he was much younger than this. I seen a news report about this. When he called 911 the dispatcher didn't give the police the right information so they could not locate him. So he died. If I remember right she end up going to jail for this. Somebody correct me if this information is not quite correct. I don't know if there is some link out there for this story..
#26
TIL that 1 in 20 people who take commercial DNA tests like those offered by ancestry.com discover that one of the people they thought was their biological parent is actually not their biological parent.
Bookworm 11 months ago
Probably a little skewed because people who already suspect something's fishy are more likely to take a test.
Terry Fergusson 11 months ago
I agree with you that people doing paternity tests would already suspect something and that's why there is a 30% not the parent rate. However, people using DNA tests just to find their regional makeup are not predisposed to find something. In fact, a lot of the tests are gifts given at Christmas and birthdays just for fun.
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Wang Zhuang 11 months ago
One of the big downsides of these tests is that that they may reveal information you can't unsee
#27
TIL Stanford University rejected 69% of the applicants with a perfect SAT score between 2008-2013.
BrunoVI 11 months ago
Anti-Asian discrimination, actually. Most of America's top universities have admission policies proven to discriminate against Asians.
Load More Replies... highwaycrossingfrog 11 months ago
Guys it's not a conspiracy... Statistically most of those with a perfect SAT score are going to apply to Stanford, and they have limited places, so they have to reject many of them. What would be more damning is if this post has statistics on how many low-scoring students were accepted instead. However, there is still the factor that colleges accept students on consideration of other factors than SAT scores...
Charles McChristy 11 months ago
Can I assume that these students all shared a darker complexion?
ॐBoyGanesh 11 months ago (edited)
Is a private school and at the time had more legacy evident than SAT enrollments. CA passed a new law this year indicated by private schools doing this. Namely Stanford and USC. Quit jumping to your racism dog whistling conclusions.
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Crop circles inspire many conspiracy theories, but who would've thought that they're the result of s****d wallabies running around? Interestingly, people have reported seeing sheep walk around in circles as well after they've accidentally eaten poppies. And here's another fun fact about these mini kangaroos: although they are super cute, they are considered invasive pests in New Zealand, and the Department of Conservation is working hard to eradicate them.
#28
TIL when Jimi Hendrix’s mom died (when Jimmy was 16) his dad did not allow him and his brother to go to the funeral, instead giving them shots of whiskey and telling them that was how men should deal with loss.
Brian Droste 11 months ago
That is so sad. I wonder if his life or his songs would have turned out different if he could have gone to his mother funneral?
#29
TIL Presiden Lyndon B. Johnson called his big johnson “Jumbo” and would show it to journalists and members of congress to show he was bigger than them. He also peed on a Secret Service agent just to prove he could get away with it.
Sara Shamsabadi 11 months ago
an insult to pigs but I get your point & agree.
Load More Replies... Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 11 months ago
He was an evil gross sexist bastard and at the same time one of the most reform oriented US politicians of the 20th century. Because of Johnson, black people could finally vote. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/aug/11/biography.highereducation
Chris the Bobcat 11 months ago
If Stormi Daniels is to be believed, the traitor trump's member should be called "Little Mushroom".
#30
TIL that in 2007 on a trip to Paris, Prince Harry had his driver go through the same tunnel his mother Princess Diana died in at the same speed her car was going at the time, in an attempt to find closure for her death. He described the attempt as ill-conceived, saying it only brought him more pain.
Colin Matthews 11 months ago (edited)
Hmm I doubt this happened. Drivers are part of the security detail and not "under orders" . I cannot conceive of a driver willing to do this. That said most of the reason Diana died was her driver was drunk and she WASNT wearing a seat belt. Sad but true
Spidercat 11 months ago
The drivers are members of RASP (Royal and Specialist Protection). They are assigned to a principal and tend to stay with them for years building close relationships and friendships. This is totally plausible and not at all unrealistic. When Prince William began riding motorcycles he bought another unmarked bike for his CP (close protection officer) so they could ride together meaning William could ride anywhere hidden from public view by his helmet. Don't judge what you don't know.
Load More Replies... Well, that's it for this iteration of interesting and fun facts, Pandas. Which ones intrigued you the most? Tell us in the comments! And if you have a fun fact of your own or know more interesting info about one from our list, share your knowledge with us below. And if you're looking for more weird and cool facts, head over here, here, or here!
#31
TIL After becoming deaf, Beethoven found that by connecting a metal rod to a piano and biting it, he could sense the instruments vibrations through his jawbone, enabling him to 'hear' his music.
Annik Perrot 11 months ago
"Beethoven was so deaf that all his life, he believed he was a painter." Pierre Dac, French humorist.
#32
TIL several MTV Cribs episodes faked lavish celebrity lifestyles. Robbie Williams rented Jane Seymour’s house, 50 Cent borrowed Ferraris, and Kim Kardashian filmed at her mom’s place. Ja Rule’s episode led to a lawsuit after the real homeowner claimed unauthorized filming and property damage.
Charles McChristy 11 months ago (edited)
And all of them have more money and better houses than you :)
Load More Replies... Pollywog 11 months ago
Redman was about the only real one. He showed them around his home in Staten Island, New York.
Ian Day 11 months ago
Instead of a doorbell he had two wires that had to be touched together for it to ring.
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Wang Zhuang 11 months ago
Yeah, it's really lame how so many rented houses that they passed off as theirs
#33
TIL Judy Garland was very close with the dog who played Toto, even letting the pup stay at her house while healing from an on-set accident. She attempted to purchase Toto but the owner wouldn’t sell.
HTakeover 11 months ago
Wasn't because the owner loved the dog. The dog was paid more than she was. Seriously.
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WalterWhiteSavannah 11 months ago
There's damn near nothing I wouldn't do for enough money, but even Elon gates and bezos comined don't have enough money to buy my cat.
#34
TIL the reason many naval mines have spikes on them is because each spike contains a glass vial of battery acid. When shattered, the battery acid then energizes a lead-acid battery (which doesn't have acid inside), which then powers the detonator.
JB 11 months ago
And on magnetic mines, the same tech was adapted to trigger stoplights! Those are the rubber lines and circles embedded in the asphalt!
Ace 11 months ago
They use electronic sensors though, not single-use breakable phials of acid. So no, they do not use the same tech.
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Forrest Hobbs 11 months ago
This technology was developed in the 1870s and has long been superseded. "Hertz horns": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine#Contact_mines
#35
TIL Tania Head faked being a 9/11 survivor and led a survivors' group. She also faked her s**cide after getting caught.
#36
TIL With the outbreak of the French Revolution, many chefs working for the aristocracy found themselves out of work. Those who escaped the guillotine opened their own restaurants, popularizing them over traditional food establishments like taverns and inns.
Zaach 11 months ago
Which is why French restaurants have long multi-coarse meals, that was how the aristocracy did it. Russian soldiers entered a restaurant and started pounding on tables yelling 'bistro, bistro' Russian for 'fast'
Ace 11 months ago
Much as it sounds feasible, this is another myth. https://www.rbth.com/history/330820-french-bistrot-is-not-russian
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#37
TIL the Eiffel Tower was repainted for the Paris Olympics. It cost an estimated $60 million dollars. 25 painters a day for 18 months straight. It’s the 20th time it’s been repainted.
elmortero 11 months ago
Funny to see that there are people having fantasies about the Eiffel Tower stripping. But then again: if something exists, there are people into it. :-)
Load More Replies... Oerff On Tour 11 months ago
The repaint is not just for the Olympics. It's a daily thing. They just added 20 extra painters. Even today 5 painters are hard at work, every day. It takes 5 men 10 years to get a full coat on everything, and the paint has a "service life" of 10 years,so they keep going, eventhough they just finished
#38
TIL: Gary Dahl, who invented the pet rock in 1975 came up with the idea at a bar with friends as a joke. He later began selling rocks. Within 2 months he was selling 10k rocks a day within half a year he was a millionaire. His later ideas of "Sand Breeding Kits" and "Red China Dirt" failed.
#39
TIL there is no evidence that Victorian doctors gave women orgasms to cure hysteria or that they invented the vibrator to help with this task.
#40
TIL about "Nobel Disease", a tendency for some Nobel Prize winners to adopt unfounded, pseudoscientific beliefs, often outside their areas of expertise.
BrunoVI 11 months ago
It's not known that Nobel laureates are more likely to get this disease, or simply that the authority they claim due to their Nobel Prize makes their unorthodox beliefs better known. From what I see, celebrity alone can do this. Bill Nye is a stand-up comic, not a scientist! Noam Chmoski is a linguist, not a political scientist. And so on...
Load More Replies... General Anaesthesia 11 months ago
Many billionaires and pretend-billionaires have the same problem.
Matthew Savestheworld 11 months ago
Always a problem amongst academics... The big bad expert oin one field gets a big head and starts talking nonsense in other fields
#41
TIL: The father of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved concubine, Sally, was also the father to Jefferson's wife, Martha.
Jeremy Klaxon 11 months ago
In other words, his wife and concubine were sisters, or half-sisters
BrunoVI 11 months ago
... which is part of why it's hard to know whether Sally [Hemming]'s descendants are Jefferson's. I think I read that Jefferson's brother also had a sexual relationship with Sally.
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Sara Shamsabadi 11 months ago
let's collectively stop calling her his concubine & instead call him her rapist & enslaver
catastrophegirl 11 months ago
yep, they do state that at monticello these days. there's a bunch of really interesting info about her here. she was also 25 years younger than martha and had her first child by jefferson at 17. and was legally free in france and negotiated the terms of her return to enslavement when she was 16. https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/
#42
TIL about a 1986 arcade game called Chiller in which the player uses a light gun to activate torture devices to maim and kill restrained characters who are incapable of fighting back. It was a commercial failure in the United States because arcade owners refused to purchase it due to the content.
#43
TIL that after astronauts arrive in space they lose their sense of smell. As a result, they end up craving foods that have spicy, sweet and/or sour flavours.
#44
TIL Henry V, while still prince, was hit by an arrow near his left nostril during the Battle of Shrewsbury. The arrow shaft broke leaving the arrow point buried six inches deep in his head. Court surgeon John Bradmore devised a special tool to extract the arrow point and saved the prince's life.
#45
TIL: John Paul Scott is the only inmate from Alcatraz to escape the prison by swimming all the way to San Francisco. However, he was found unconscious by teenagers beneath the Golden Gate Bridge and recaptured. It was thought impossible due to sharks, cold water, sharp rocks, and distance.
#46
TIL a man was sentenced to two years in jail after being caught cheating at poker by wearing infrared contact lenses that enabled him to see cards that were premarked with invisible ink. Security noticed his $95K winning streak because he twice folded hands that suggested he knew the d****r's cards.
Skogsrået 11 months ago
Wait, they were cheating themselves but sence he outsmarted them and won then he's the cheater and gets punished!?
Owen 11 months ago
That's how casinos work. And people actually fall for it.
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Auntriarch 11 months ago
Oh my, so that's what the word was, I was expecting something bad. I suppose because the algorithm associates dealing with illegal drügs.
Load More Replies... Maggie Fulton 11 months ago
I thought dealers used fresh decks of cards. How did they get marked with invisible ink?
Bugoy-420 11 months ago
Two corrupt casino workers gave the cheaters decks of cards, which were then marked with invisible ink, resealed and returned to the cupboard. (Looked it up).
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Serena Myers 11 months ago
For the love of your god, BP, no sensible adult is going to clutch pearls and be offended by d r u g s, k i l l, a s s, d e a l e r etc. Grow up!
Khavrinen 11 months ago
They're not worried about sensible adults, they're worried about advertisers. They don't want the tiniest chance that someone will pull an advertisement after seeing an "offensive" word.
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#47
TIL your metabolism doesn’t really slow down until after age 60.
Chocolate llama 11 months ago
Does it really, though? Considering that a huge part of our metabolism is done by bacteria in the gut and they start eating you as soon as you die, it kinda goes up for a while technically...
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Fellfromthemoon 11 months ago
It may be true for men. However, during/after the female menopause, we tend to gain a significant amount of weight if we maintain our lifestyle. Ask me how I know this.
sturmwesen 11 months ago
huu? now tell me why I weigh 82kg at 37 and not 58kg like at 18 while eating the same or healthier?
KittyGaming 11 months ago
Edit: my metabolism is so fast whenever I get full my body makes me cold so I shiver and burn the calories, I'm not even joking
Load More Replies... #48
TIL The Solar System is surrounded by colossal spherical shell of trillions of icy objects called the Oort Cloud.
#49
TIL that Edgar Allan Poe wrote his first detective stories after trying to debunk a famous chess-playing "robot" called The Mechanical Turk in 1836. Poe asserted that a mechanical chess player would play perfectly, but noticed that the Turk occasionally erred, and therefore suspected its creation.
Cindy Brick 11 months ago
Missed the whole point here! The Mechanical Turk had a real person inside, calling the shots. https://www.chess.com/news/view/play-chess-against-the-mechanical-turk
WindySwede 11 months ago
But wasn't it portrayed as a robot but they scammed and had a person controlled it. Similar to Můsks robots on the show? I can't see any difference in these two statements? /gen asking, 👍
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Tim Fawcett 11 months ago
As everyone knows, it was a damaged cyberman from a crashed scout ship and ultimately defeated by the 8th Doctor
#50
TIL Cockroach farming in China is a growing industry, with millions of insects raised for food, animal feed, and pharmaceuticals.
Oerff On Tour 11 months ago (edited)
Thank God. My lease is up, and I have to leave the apartment in the same condition as I got it. They can sell me 243,809 cockroaches.
Maggie Fulton 11 months ago
I could have lived my entire life without having to know that. Ew.
#51
TIL that until the late nineteenth century, approximately half of all humans born died from infections before the age of fifteen.
Spidercat 11 months ago
Mmmm... essentially this is what nature intended. The population of Earth was a steady 1 Billion until the invention of antibiotics. Now we are facing overpopulation and a fight for resources. The idea that all human life should be preserved at all costs is derived from the Abrahamic religions. The Romans didn't even have a crime of murder. People got killed. Move on.
Ace 11 months ago (edited)
Wrong. On several levels, I'm sure, but in particular the suggestion that killing people was not a punishable crime in Roman times is a nonsense. And the "as nature intended" sounds like the sort of garbage spouted by rabid anti-vaxxers.
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#52
TIL that serial killer Richard Ramirez was out of state when his identity was publicly revealed and published by the news. Not knowing that he was now wanted, he was beaten by an angry mob once he returned to LA.
#53
TIL ~31% of Pakistani people aged 20-79 have diabetes.
Bookworm 11 months ago
I'm guessing transition from mostly rural to more industrialized, which usually comes with a higher salt/fat/sugar diet and less activity, plus not having the healthcare access that most higher-income countries do.
Load More Replies... #54
TIL researchers have observed that every culture has a word for black and white. When a culture has a third word for a color, it is always red. If it has a fourth word, it is either yellow or green.
Owen 11 months ago
I find this hard to believe, considering so many people live around lots of green things.
Ace 11 months ago
They don't necessarily need to have invented names for the colours though. Green could be considered the normal 'background' colour of most things, so it makes some sense to think that they would seek to identify other colours first, like red flowers that stand out from the background green
Load More Replies... Fellfromthemoon 11 months ago
I believe in Lakota the word "green" is a combination of two words: "yellow" and "blue". Therefore, I assume, the color blue was first named.
Jeremy Klaxon 11 months ago
So there are cultures with only black and white, and no word for any color?
Spidercat 11 months ago
Language is a very odd thing. There is a tribe in south America that cannot hold conversations in the dark because hand gestures are a major part of the language.
Load More Replies... Zaach 11 months ago
This is true of the Incas - they learned about the different colors from the Spanish but recycled words from their language rather than use the Spanish words
Maggie Fulton 11 months ago
How could they function as a cultural without being able to use words for colors? How could they tell people what color of plant to use, what dye lot to use for weaving, etc.? They were pretty advanced-$how could this have worked? I can’t find info online.
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#55
TIL in 2016, a man who had been stalking “iCarly” actress Miranda Cosgrove shot at a woman in a car near Cosgrove's home before lighting himself on fire and fatally shooting himself in Cosgrove's yard. Two years prior, she was granted a restraining order against a different stalker.
Earonn - 11 months ago
No, there's just that many f*****g shytes out there.
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#56
TIL that, until 1999, the disc on the Japanese flag was shifted 1% off-centre to the left.
#57
TIL that New York restaurants that opened between 2000 and 2014, and earned a Michelin star, were more likely to close than those that didn't earn one. By the end of 2019, 40% of the restaurants awarded Michelin stars had closed.
Tiger 11 months ago
I once went to a multi-Michelin starred restaurant for a work thing (I love food but do not frequent violently gourmet restaurants so idk where I was or what I was doing.) The duck sandwich was $80. Some salmon dish was $65. The steaks ranged from $80-$100. The appetizers were like 4 scallops a famous guy sneezed on for $40. I was terrified, it was awful. I think I ordered like 2 Brussels sprouts with gold flakes and ancient Egyptian mummies sprinkled on top served inside a piece of extinct mammoth tonsil sculpted into a toilet shape. When I got home I ate Kraft Dinner with wieners and hot sauce and cradled my bong while huddled on the kitchen floor rewatching 2010s Jersey Shore like the traumatized millennial peasant I am.
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#58
TIL Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital.
#59
TIL During one battle, George Washington had two horses shot out from under him and four bullet holes shot through his coat. He walked away without a single injury.
#60
TIL: There was a former warlord and cannibal, now preacher known as General Butt Naked. He led the Naked Base Commandos, comprised of child soldiers, to commit child sacrifices and cannibalism in war. He admitted to killing at least 20k, but was not prosecuted. He now assists former child soldiers.
Maggie Fulton 11 months ago
I had to check to be sure this is true. It is. Truth is weirder than fiction.
#61
TIL that in Roman legions, the legion's banker also had the dangerous responsibility of being the standard bearer on the battlefield.
#62
TIL: After Hurricane Katrina, the first strip reopened after only 3 weeks to entertain first responders and waved the cover charge. The manager said reopening was a public service. Drinks were $3 and a lap dance was $1.
#63
TIL there were different variations of The Simpsons opening theme because starting with season 2 they made 3 versions: the full 1-minute-15-second-long version, a 45-second and a 25-second. This gave editors a little extra flexibility to pad shorter episodes or add as much footage as possible.
Deta Rossiter 11 months ago
I thought this was obvious, you know if you have the long intro, you have a short episode, and if you have a short into, you have a long episode
Spidercat 11 months ago
One person's obvious is another person's mystery.
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#64
TIL due to decreased air pressure on airplane cabins you are more prone to fart on an airplane.
#65
TIL the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish was only possible because of support from the Tlaxcaltecs, Totonac, and other native peoples.
Daniel Gómez 11 months ago
Actually called Mexica empire. The Aztecs didn't exist by then. The rest is true, however.
TappyBanceDare 11 months ago
To clarify, the Native tribes were willing to work with the Spanish to take the Aztecs down because of how terribly the Aztecs treated them.
Bookworm 11 months ago
Just saw this discussion this morning on falling into the trap of thinking that all colonialism was Euro-centric. From the perspective of those natives, the Aztecs were just as much invaders as the Spanish. Also some possible relevance to the parts of the conversation pointing out that, given a choice between two colonizing powers where 'none' is not an option, people tend to prefer the more distant, 'we just want all your resources' kind over a local power with a personal grudge to settle. https://becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys.tumblr.com/post/772822542736146432
#66
TIL that although The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed over 80% of the city - only six deaths were officially recorded.
#67
TIL: Walking Corpse Syndrome is a mental disorder where the person thinks they are dead, do not exist, or exist without organs or blood. Denial of self existence is present in about half of cases, while the other half think they’re immortal.
WalterWhiteSavannah 11 months ago
Did a report on cotards once. Made sure to include references to mayhem and former lead singer dead (who is believed to have suffered from cotards).
#68
TIL By law, each person in Switzerland is entitled to a place of shelter underground.
Oerff On Tour 11 months ago
The Swiss neutrality is even embedded in the UN Charter. Every member has ratified it. Eventhough it's main office is in New York, it's officially based in Geneva,
#69
TIL of room 641A- a secret room in an AT&T building that held secret equipment used to spy on citizens.
#70
TIL Rudy Kurniawan sold an estimated $150 million worth of fraudulent wine between 2002-2012, which he produced himself in his California home. His scheme started to unravel when wine producer Domaine Ponsot caught him selling Ponsot wines that were never made. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Fellfromthemoon 11 months ago
Can you counterfeit a nonexistent product? /jk, I understand that Rudy abused the trust earned by Ponsot.
#71
TIL that Mussolini's regime used castor oil as a form of torture, forcing victims to drink large amounts, causing severe diarrhea, dehydration, and humiliation.
#72
TIL 46 BC was 445 days long and is the longest year in human history.
Ty Stratton-Quirk 11 months ago
I guarantee that this year and the following three will seem just as long.
Ace 11 months ago
Well yes, but no. It was only the Roman calendar that was wrong, the actual year was the same length as normal, they just added in all the extra days to get the seasons back into whack and only then started using the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar, the incumbent, indeed the first, Emperor).
#73
TIL The 1964 Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer TV special is in a grey area of copyright due to the fact that the studio mistakenly spelled out the copyright date as 1164 in roman numerals and haven't corrected it since.
#74
TIL that despite being a NATO member, Iceland has not had a standing army since 1869. They have had a defense agreement with the United States since 1951, though the US has not had soldiers stationed there since 2006, and they have defense agreements with other NATO countries.
Owen 11 months ago
In China, an old insult is 'May you live in interesting times'. I like that one.
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Geoffrey Scott 11 months ago
May I suggest they begin pulling all their couch cushions? Gotta pay Trump somehow.
#75
TIL: Fourteen children have suffocated to death inside cedar chests between 1977 and 2015. In 1996, The Lane Company recalled 12 million cedar chests with latches that automatically locked the lid when it was closed.
Ace 11 months ago (edited)
Never heard the term "cedar chest" before, but apparently it's a US term for a chest used for a prospective bride's trousseau, what we in the UK (used to?) call the "bottom drawer".
Bookworm 11 months ago
They were actually made of cedar a lot of the time, which has a pleasant smell to it, and I believe the oil is a natural insecticide so it protects the contents.
Load More Replies... #76
TIL that the 1963 movie Charade starring Audrey Hepburn, immediately entered the public domain upon release because Universal failed to properly display the copyright notice. The film notice omitted the word 'Copyright', 'Copr.', and the symbol '©'.
#77
TIL Cathode-ray tubes, the technology behind old TVs and monitors, were in fact particle accelerators that beamed electrons into screens to generate light and then images.
Thom Randolph 11 months ago
the tv-radiation link was thoroughly debunked in the late 60s. The intensity of the electromagnetic field isn't strong enough to generate x-rays, which was their primary concern. If anything, the worst part would be if the TV case/console were opened and you touched the anode wire, which was typically at about 20-24 thousand volts!
#78
TIL Thomas Jefferson included a passage attacking slavery in the Declaration of Independence, but South Carolina, Georgia, and Northern delegates who represented merchants who were actively involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade blocked it.
#79
TIL “most stars we see in the night sky have already died” is a popular myth. In fact, nearly all stars we see in the night sky are alive and well.
LonelyLittleLeafSheep 11 months ago
Most stars in the night sky aren't stars at all, but galaxies.
#80
TIL Japan’s “proof of parking” rule is a regulation requiring car owners to provide proof of a designated parking space before registering or purchasing a car.
Amy Lee 11 months ago
This should be a rule on all major cities and suburbs. This would make for a good public transport system too.
Oerff On Tour 11 months ago
Japan has the best and most efficient public transport system in the world. As well as the most punctual
Load More Replies... #81
TIL that Ancient Greeks and Romans purchased the sweat and body grime of famous athletes and champions in the hope of absorbing the strength and health associated with their idols.
Anonymouse 11 months ago
And the Romans imported urine from portugal to use as a mouthwash/rinse
#82
TIL the average high-school graduate will earn about $1 million less over their lifetime than the average four-year-college graduate.
Cindy Brick 11 months ago
...if you don't count plumbers, electricians and other skilled labor.
#83
TIL that Yemenis spend an estimated 14.6 million man-hours per day chewing khat.
#84
TIL: In March 2000, MicroStrategy announced that it had significantly overstated its revenue, causing a 62% stock drop in one day, in what is regarded as the bursting of the dot-com bubble.
#85
Today I learned that Goku from the anime Dragon Ball has been voiced by the same voice actress, Masako Nozawa, since the first show started in 1986. She has voiced him in all the tv shows, video games and movies and also voices his sons. She is currently 88.
#86
TIL that the PNG format was developed because the GIF compression algorithm (LZW) was patented by Unisys, which required a usage fee. The patent expired in 2003 in the USA and in 2004 in Europe.
#87
TIL about Sweating Sickness, a virus in 1500s Europe that’s since vanished. Death could occur within hours of the first symptoms.
Scribbles & Scares 11 months ago
Not technically true - nobody knows what the cause of it was 100%. It may have even been a collection of different illnesses and effects of poison all blamed on the same thing. Most believe it was a type of hantavirus possibly spread by rat droppings though. Here's a great article that gives a bit of an introduction: https://theconversation.com/what-was-sweating-sickness-the-mysterious-tudor-plague-of-wolf-hall-37194
#88
TIL that Robert E Lee’s prewar family home, the Custis-Lee Mansion, was seized by Union forces during the Civil War and turned into Arlington National Cemetery. His family was not compensated until more than a decade after his death.
Robert Trebor 11 months ago
The compensatio suit went all the way to the Supreme Court. Technically the estate was not REL's property, but his wife's, a step-granddaughter of George Washington.
#89
TIL Paul Bettany was in blue makeup for many scenes in WandaVision because red makeup appeared too dark in black and white.
#90
TIL The Boston Globe was bought by the New York Times in 1993 for $1.1 billion, one of the most expensive print purchases in history, then was sold for $70 million in 2013 to the Red Sox/Liverpool owner. It lost 90% of its value in 20 years.
#91
TIL: in 2014, physicists were hired to calculate what a black hole would actually look like to the human eye for the movie Interstellar.
#92
TIL In 2020, the wine market was expected to be worth $418 billion with experts estimating that around 20% of all the wines sold around the world are counterfeit.
Oerff On Tour 11 months ago
Italy produces more wine than France, but France exports 10 times as much of it than Italy. Italians like their wine. The French don't
#93
TIL that since 1967, every temporary transfer of power from a US president to the vice president under the 25th Amendment was due to the president's colon treatment.
Mike F 11 months ago
IIRC in 1981, when Reagan was shot there was a transfer while he was in surgery.
Pedro 11 months ago
If someone popped a cap in his a*s, it's still colon related, I guess 😃
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TIL Jaleel White only auditioned for the role of Steve Urkel so he could buy a Sega Genesis.
Ty Stratton-Quirk 11 months ago
I don't know if it's true, but I read somewhere that he was originally only going to be in the first couple episodes.
#95
TIL about Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a woman misidentified as ‘Tokyo Rose’ and the only American citizen to be convicted of and pardoned for the crime of treason against the United States of America.
#97
TIL Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin invented the beverage cart after refusing to play without cocktails.
Cindy Brick 11 months ago
Uh huh... sure. We're supposed to believe that carts like this weren't used before??
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