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"TIL that Opossums can survive up to 80 rattlesnake and coral snake bites. Thanks to them, there is a new and very inexpensive antidote for many different snake venom. In addition, they eat ticks and don't get rabies." | todayilearned |
"TIL the line of thinking 'If I Can't Have It, Neither Can You' is called 'Crab Mentality' because when a crab in a bucket is trying to escape, the others will pull it down" | todayilearned |
"TIL During World War II, an American lieutenant, realizing his position was inundated with enemy troops, called in an artillery barrage on himself. Following a US counterattack later that day, the lieutenant's body was found alongside approximately 100 German soldiers. His name was John R. Fox." | todayilearned |
"TIL comedian Hannibal Buress paid a man $500 to attend a movie premiere for him, even though he looked nothing like him. The man walked around, took selfies with fans, and did an interview on camera." | todayilearned |
"TIL termites are being researched as a possible renewable energy source as they can produce up to 2 litres of hydrogen from ingesting a single sheet of paper, making them one of the planet's most efficient bioreactors" | todayilearned |
"TIL to collect taxes, Christian IV of Denmark asked captains of ships crossing the Øresund to estimate the value of their cargo, which was applied as the tax base without further audit. But the king also claimed the right to buy the entire cargo at exactly that price." | todayilearned |
"TIL Chris Pratt stole his Peter Quill/Star-Lord costumes, including the jacket, from the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy” so that he could wear them to visit sick children at the hospital if the film was a hit." | todayilearned |
"TIL all "warranty void if removed" stickers are illegal in the US since 1975" | todayilearned |
"TIL The band blink-182 officially named their holding company Poo Poo Butt Inc. "We did it because it was the most immature, dumbest thing ever," DeLonge said. "We thought it would be funny to have our accountants, managers and attorneys having to say that over the phone every day.”" | todayilearned |
"TIL that residents in Surabaya, Indonesia can pay for the bus with plastic waste instead of money. Paying with plastic will grant you with 2 hours of travel. The aim is to reduce plastic waste whilst getting more people to use public transport, thus lowering the number of cars on the road." | todayilearned |
"TIL Tame Impala is a single person named Kevin Parker who writes, plays, and produces all the recorded music, but tours with a group of other musicians to form the full live band." | todayilearned |
"TIL Curry was introduced to Japan by the British. The British brought curry from India back to Britain and introduced it to Japan after it ended its policy of self-isolation. Curry in Japan is categorized as a Western dish" | todayilearned |
"TIL a 12-yr-old Canadian boy was caught after hacking multiple sites in order to trade pirated information to the hacktivist group Anonymous for video games. His lawyer said the boy who had been hacking since age 9 was not politically motivated; he merely saw it as a challenge." | todayilearned |
"TIL while Apple was buying rural land for a new building, one couple refused to sell their 1 acre plot of land they had originally purchased for $6,000. After rejecting every single offer, Apple just told them to name a price. They sold it for $1.7 million." | todayilearned |
"TIL When Eminem wanted to get clean he called Elton John who then helped him for 18 months to kick his addiction to Vicodin, Ambien and other prescription drugs." | todayilearned |
"TIL, when Germany surrendered at the end of WWII, huge celebrations broke out on the streets of London. Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and her sister secretly left Buckingham Palace to join the crowds outside, with Elizabeth describing it as "one of the most memorable nights of my life"" | todayilearned |
"TIL the Myers-Briggs has no scientific basis whatsoever." | todayilearned |
"TIL Ryan Reynolds paid $10,000 of his own money for the right to wear a shirt with The Golden Girl’s Bea Arthur on it in Deadpool. The estate agreed for a donation in that amount to a charity of their choosing. Ryan paid it himself because he felt you couldn’t have Deadpool without Bea Arthur." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 1983 the head of a woman was found in a peat bog in England. A man assumed it belonged to his wife, who he had murdered and dumped in the bog in 1961, and made a full confession. The remains were dated and discovered to be 1750 years old. The man was still convicted of his wife's murder." | todayilearned |
"TIL before the internet, Nintendo had "game counselors" - whom you could call if you were stuck in a game and they would coach you through it." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 1965, a morbidly obese man didn't eat food for over an entire year. The 27 year old was 456lbs and was put under an experimental fast by doctors. He ingested only multivitamins and potassium tablets for 382 days and defecated once every 40 to 50 days. He ended up losing 275lbs." | todayilearned |
"TIL: Tom Cruise is obsessed with sending his co-stars cakes, even ones he worked with decades ago. Louis Theroux, documentary maker, even went to his grandmother's 100th Birthday Party to find 100 cupcakes from Tom Cruise, after Tom worked with his cousin." | todayilearned |
"TIL Procrastination is not a result of laziness or poor time management. Scientific studies suggest procrastination is due to poor mood management." | todayilearned |
"TIL that it is illegal to trade onion futures in the United States due to the 1958 Onion Futures Act, after two traders in 1955 purchased 98% of the onions in Chicago and subsequently crashed onion prices while holding short positions on onion futures." | todayilearned |
"TIL of Dmitry Argarkov who scanned a credit card agreement, edited it, and returned it with a 0% interest rate and no limit in the new terms. The bank signed and approved without reading and a judge held them to it." | todayilearned |
"TIL when the inventors of Silly String were trying to sell their idea to Wham-O, one of them sprayed the can all over the person who was meeting with them and all over their office. They were asked to leave, however, a day later received a telegram asking them to send 24 cans for a test market." | todayilearned |
"TIL while waiting for his audition for 'The Office', John Krasinski was telling someone about how he was worried the producers were going to screw the show up because of how great the British version is. The person he was talking to was Greg Daniels, the shows executive producer." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Usain Bolt was offered a position as wide receiver in the NFL and rejected it due to the hits NFL players take." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the Mexican government sent around 500 of it's elite soldiers to be trained as commandos at Ft. Bragg(USA), in order to better combat the rising drug violence in the country. After training, many of the soldiers returned to Mexico, only to start the brutally violent drug cartel: Los Zetas." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1724 Margaret Dickson was hanged but later found still alive. She then was allowed to go free because under Scots Law her punishment had been carried out. Only later were the words "until dead" added to the sentence of hanging" | todayilearned |
"TIL that Kelly Clarkson didn't want to win American Idol because the winner was contractually bound to make a musical rom com." | todayilearned |
"TIL Prairie dog language is complex. They don’t just have a call for “danger”: their calls differentiate human, hawk, domesticated dog, coyote etc. and specify size & color. One study found that they can communicate “Here comes the short human in the yellow” (vs the tall human in blue) to each other" | todayilearned |
"TIL After Oprah's famous "You get a car" episode, where she gave away 276 cars at a total cost of $7.6 million, many of the recipients sent in complaints to the show as they had all been charged a $6-7k "gift tax"." | todayilearned |
"TIL a sloth's claws work the opposite way that human hand does. The default position is a tight strong grip, and sloths must exert effort to open them up. This is why sloths don't fall out of trees when they're asleep." | todayilearned |
"TIL that actress Tilda Swinton comes from an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the Middle Ages, & is one of only three British families that can trace their unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest" | todayilearned |
"TIL Frankie Muniz suffers from long term memory loss and doesn't even remember being on Malcolm in the Middle." | todayilearned |
"TIL that roundabouts reduce fatalities from accidents by 72-82%. They also lower wait times and save gas." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 2017, a dog named Odin refused to leave his flock of goats behind during the California Tubbs Fire as his owners fled to safety. Days later, the owners came back to their property to find Odin survived and managed to keep all the goats alive." | todayilearned |
"TIL the FBI followed Einstein, compiling a 1,400pg file, after branding him as a communist because he joined an anti-lynching civil rights group" | todayilearned |
"TIL Fender Guitars did a study and found that 90% of new guitar players abandon playing within 1 year. The 10% that don't quit spend an average of $10,000 on hardware over their lifetime, buying 5-7 guitars and multiple amps." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 2000, an art exhibition in Denmark featured ten functional blenders containing live goldfish. Visitors were given the option of pressing the “on” button. At least one visitor did, killing two goldfish. This led to the museum director being charged with and, later, acquitted of animal cruelty." | todayilearned |
"TIL that during the Danish Colonization of Greenland, missionary Hans Egede found that local Inuit had no concept for what bread was and so he changed the Lord’s Prayer to say “Give us this day our daily seal”." | todayilearned |
"TIL Phil Collins, composer of the soundtrack to Disney's 1999 animated film "Tarzan", performed all the songs not only in English, but French, German, Italian and Spanish as well." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in January 2014, seven-year-old Charlotte Benjamin sent a handwritten letter to Lego complaining there were "more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls". In June 2014, Lego announced a new "Research Institute" collection featuring female scientists which sold out within a week." | todayilearned |
"TIL Joseph Strauss, the engineer of the golden Gate Bridge, mandated that a net be installed under the bridge for safety while being built. This was revolutionary at the time. The net caught 19 men who fell, saving all of them from a certain death." | todayilearned |
"TIL Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and hundreds more, started smoking at the age of 9, changed his last name from Blank to Blanc, survived a car accident resulting in a two week coma, recorded The Flintstones in a full body cast, and died only a year after recording Who Framed Roger Rabbit." | todayilearned |
"TIL 48 hours before Deadpool was green lit by 20th Century Fox, the studio cut the film's budget by $7-8 million down to $58 million. Numerous changes were made as a result, such as having Deadpool forget his bag of guns before the final battle sequence to avoid a costly gun fight in the third act." | todayilearned |
"TIL After Michael Jackson's hair caught fire in 1984 he founded a burn center. “I wanted to do something because I was so moved by the other burn patients I met...” He suffered painful burns, but hospital staff remember him spending much of his time visiting and comforting other patients" | todayilearned |
"TIL the first word that Helen Keller learned was water. Her tutor took Helen’s hand, poured water over it, and then spelled out W-A-T-E-R in Helen’s palm. Helen made the association between the writing in her palm and the water. After this breakthrough, Helen learned 30 more words that day." | todayilearned |
"TIL That the term "Agnostic" was coined in 1869 by T.H. Huxley, and not as a description, but as a creed: "to follow reason as far as it can take you, but then, when you have established as much as you can, frankly and honestly to recognize the limits of your knowledge."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that in The Shawshank Redemption, when Morgan Freeman’s character is asked “why do they call you Red?” and he responds with “maybe it’s because I’m Irish”. It’s because the character in the novel was a red haired Irish man. They cast Freeman for the part but added the line as a joke." | todayilearned |
"TIL after Marcelo Bielsa became manager of Leeds United FC, he found out that the average fan had to work 3 hours to pay for a match ticket. He called his players together and made them pick up litter from around the training ground for 3 hours, to appreciate how the fans laboured for their passion" | todayilearned |
"TIL Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the film series was allergic to his own glasses. He had a nickel allergy and suffered for weeks with mysterious bumps around his eyes, where the glasses touched his face. The nickel glasses were quickly replaced with hypoallergenic specs." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 2012, the Walmart with the most Facebook likes would get a visit from Pitbull. Internet pranksters quickly made the most remote Walmart in the US (located in Kodiak, Alaska) the most liked Walmart page. Pitbull kept his promise and performed there." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Bill Murray once drove a taxi cab so that the cab driver could spend time playing saxophone in the backseat. The cab driver mentioned that he never had time to play his sax since he had to work 14 hours a day. Murray took the driver’s seat so that he could finally play some tunes." | todayilearned |
"TIL a Florida brewery created edible six-pack rings that feed animals instead of killing them" | todayilearned |
"TIL Titanic crew member William Murdoch who was portrayed as shooting a passenger and then commiting suicide in the movie, was in fact last seen trying to fill as many life boats as possible and heroically went down with the ship." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the Vatican has nominated St. Isidore of Seville to be the patron saint of the Internet, a seventh-century theologian and encyclopedist who tried to record everything ever known." | todayilearned |
"TIL about Jason Vukovich, known as the “Alaskan Avenger,” who was convicted of using the state’s sex offender registry to track down offenders, break into their homes, and beat them with a hammer." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Casey Kasem, the original voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, was a vegan and critic of factory farming. Kasem quit the show in 1995 when he was asked to voice Shaggy for a Burger King commercial. He would not agree to return until 2002 when producers agreed to have Shaggy become a vegetarian." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Joss Whedon wrote the Buffy episode "Hush" after hearing people say that the show was only successful because of the dialogue. Hush, with only 17 minutes of dialogue, became the only episode nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing and is considered to be one of the show's greatest." | todayilearned |
"TIL: Ben Franklin was a slaveowner for much of his life, but after a friend took him to visit a school for black children. He wrote that African ignorance was not inherently natural but come from lack of education, slavery and negative environments. And petitioning Congress to end slavery." | todayilearned |
"TIL that former Prime Minister of Australia Bob Hawke had a serious accident at 17. This near-death experience acted as his catharsis, driving him to make the most of his talents and not let his abilities go to waste. Later he set a world record by drinking 1.4 liters of beer in 11 seconds." | todayilearned |
"TILIn 1984, a regular at a pizzeria asked his waitress for help choosing his lottery numbers. He won, came back, and tipped her $3 million." | todayilearned |
"TIL There is a group of wolves in British Columbia known as "sea wolves" and 90% of their food comes from the sea. They have distinct DNA that sets them apart from interior wolves and they're entirely dedicated to the sea, swimming several miles everyday in search of seafood." | todayilearned |
"TIL a father, John Crowley, was told his two infant children had an incurable genetic disorder that would kill them in less than a year. He refused to accept this, so he founded a biotech company (with no prior experience) which pioneered an experimental enzyme therapy that saved their lives." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1990, the high school dropout rate in Sevierville, Dolly Parton’s hometown, was over 30%. In 1991, she launched The Buddy Program, offering 7th and 8th graders $500 if they graduated. The dropout rate for those classes dropped to 6%, and has generally retained that average to this day." | todayilearned |
"TIL Scientists put slime mold onto a model of a map of Tokyo, with food representing urban centers. After a day, it created a network almost identical to Tokyo’s actual rail network. Human designers created that network to be as efficient as possible; slime mold did the same, but without a brain" | todayilearned |
"TIL In 1971 Fleetwood Mac had to cancel a sold out show booked at the Whiskey A Go Go when their guitarist Jeremy Spencer simply vanished into thin air. He was eventually found having cut off all his hair, dressed in shabby clothes, and joined a cult called The Children of God." | todayilearned |
"TIL a 60 years old Japanese Truck Driver found out he was accidentally switched at birth in 1953 at San Ikukai Hospital in Tokyo. His biological parents are rich family & the infant who took his place grew up to be the Head of a Real Estate company. Meanwhile he was raised by a poor single mother." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (zombie fungus) doesn't control ants by infecting their brain. Instead it destroys the motor neurons and connects directly to the muscles to control them. The brain is made into a prisoner in its own body" | todayilearned |
"TIL The Lord of the Rings films originally would have been released by Disney via Miramax but they chose not to fund it due to costs. They let New Line Cinema have it on the condition they pay $10M in "turnaround" costs. The LOTR trilogy will later on gross over $2.9B at the global box office." | todayilearned |
"TIL that roundabouts reduce fatalities from accidents by 90%. They also lower wait times and save on gas." | todayilearned |
"TIL The US Military still uses 8 inch floppy disks on outdated IBM computers to run the nuclear missile systems. It's because they are incredibly hard to hack. The computers are essentially air-gapped and the old IBM computers are reliable. They could run for another 40 years with spare parts." | todayilearned |
"TIL after the TV show Teletubbies ended, the owner of the land used had to dig out the hill and flood the field it was filmed in, due to the amount of people trespassing to see Teletubbieland." | todayilearned |
"TIL 71% of U.S. youth would not currently qualify for military service due to their heath, physical appearance, or educational background." | todayilearned |
"TIL the bishop of Orlando is also bishop of the moon, due to a canon law that says "any newly discovered territory would fall under the bishopric from whence the discovering expedition departed." His is therefore the largest Catholic diocese, at over 14,000,000 square miles." | todayilearned |
"TIL Kim Kardashian was paid to post a selfie on Instagram and Twitter advertising a pharmaceutical product. Sent to 42 million followers on Instagram and 32 million on Twitter, this illegal advertisement did not contain any risk information or language specifying that it was a paid endorsement." | todayilearned |
"TIL Eddie Murphy recorded "Party All The Time" following a $1 million bet with Richard Pryor that he couldn't sing. The album it appears on is dedicated to Pryor, with the liner notes reading "To Richard Pryor, my idol with whom I have a $1,000,000 bet. No Mother Fucker, I didn't forget."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that the new Rolls-Royce Ghost soundproofing was so overengineered that occupants in the car found the near-total silence disorienting, and some felt sick. Acoustic engineers had to go back and work on "harmonizing" various sounds in the car to add a continuous soft whisper." | todayilearned |
"TIL a Brazilian priest strapped himself to 1000 balloons as a fundraising event for truckers. He set off into the sky and then disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. His body was recovered months later." | todayilearned |
"TIL that James Doohan (Scotty on 'Star Trek') received an honorary doctorate from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The university gave him the degree after half of its students said in a survey that his character had inspired them to choose engineering as a career." | todayilearned |
"TIL a Florida man heard purring coming from his parked truck; he ended up using sheet metal cutters to peel back a portion of his truck to reveal a kitten. The Humane Society helped him coax the kitten out. When the public heard about it, several people offered to help pay to repair his truck." | todayilearned |
"TIL Serial killer Ed Kemper befriended the very police officers investigating his murders, and would socialize with them at a bar called the “Jury Room”. They called him “Big Ed” and never suspected him. When he initially confessed, they thought he was pulling a prank." | todayilearned |
"TIL 1.5 yrs after Norm Macdonald was fired from Saturday Night Live, he was asked back to host. In his opening monologue he asked "How did I go from not being funny enough, to being so funny I'm hosting the damn show? Then it occured to me. I haven't gotten funnier - the show has gotten really bad."" | todayilearned |
"TIL Ernest Hemingway had often complained the FBI was tracking him, but was dismissed by friends and family as paranoid. Years after his death released FBI files showed he had been on heavy surveillance, with the FBI following him and bugging his phones for nearly the final 20 years of his life" | todayilearned |
"TIL "Libations," the practice of pouring out alcohol in memory of those who have "passed on" was common in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. "Pouring one out for the homies" is a custom over 3,000 years old and is mentioned in the Bible, the The Iliad, and The Odyssey." | todayilearned |
"TIL human procrastination is considered a complex psychological behavior because of the wide variety of reasons people do it. Although often attributed to "laziness", research shows it is more likely to be caused by anxiety, depression, a fear of failure, or a reliance on abstract goals." | todayilearned |
"TIL: During the time of the Great Depression, a banker convinced struggling families in Quincy, Florida to buy Coca-Cola shares which traded at $19. Later, the town became the single richest town per capita in the US with at least 67 millionaires." | todayilearned |
"TIL in the 1920's newly hired engineers at General Electric would be told, as a joke, to develop a frosted lightbulb. The experienced engineers believed this to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment not realizing it was a joke and succeeded." | todayilearned |
"TIL America's oldest, unbroken treaty relationship is with Morocco, which was the first nation to recognize the US. The treaty was signed by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Sultan Muhammad III. It has lasted 232 years and is called the "Treaty of Friendship"." | todayilearned |
"TIL during a charitable auction in Kiev, Ukraine, Wladimir Klitschko auctioned off his 1996 Olympic gold medal to a buyer who bid $1 million. After the sale, the buyer immediately returned the medal out of respect for Klitschko." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the CDC has urged that schools open later because two-thirds of teenagers suffer chronic sleep deprivation." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Norman Mineta's baseball bat was confiscated when he was sent to a Japanese American internment camp as a boy. As a Congressman, he was sent a $1500 bat, which he had to send back, as it exceeded a price limit on gifts. He was quoted as saying, "The damn government's taken my bat again."" | todayilearned |
"TIL George Clooney once gave 14 of his closest friends each $1M in cash, and even paid the taxes on it for them - with one condition: they all had to take it or none of them got it." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 2015, a British woman began receiving threatening emails from a stalker that included pictures of her in public she had no idea were being taken. When she contacted authorities, they told her the emails were coming from inside her house. It turned out to be her husband." | todayilearned |
"TIL Mexico passed a law that requires food packages to display large black octagonal "warnings" if the product is high in sugar, sodium, calories, or unhealthy fats." | todayilearned |
"TIL that an Alabama bloodhound joined a half marathon after her owner let her out to go pee. She ran the entire 13.1 miles and finished 7th." | todayilearned |
"TIL The company Samsung accounts for 15% of South Korea's entire economy, and that South Koreans often live in Samsung owned apartment buildings, can get treatment from Samsung-owned medical centers, go to Samsung universities, and even end up at a Samsung funeral parlor when they die." | todayilearned |
"TIL that when humans domesticated wolves, we basically bred Williams syndrome into dogs, which is characterized by "cognitive difficulties and a tendency to love everyone"" | todayilearned |
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