Today I Learned 🎓

23 Jul 2025 10:49

TIL there used to be a “joke restaurant” in Japan that served curry specifically formulated to have similar taste and texture to human feces. The curry was served in toilet-shaped bowls. The restaurant was founded by Ken Shimizu, who is also one of Japan’s best-known adult media stars. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 Jul 2025 04:49

TIL that before Ozzy Osbourne famously bit the head off a bat he bit the head off of two live Doves that were meant to represent peace. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL about Lucille Ricksen, a child star from the silent film era. She was often cast playing adults opposite fully grown men and her age was concealed from the public. She died at only 14. It’s believed that her mother and agents overworking her caused to her illness and early death. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL Ozzy Osbourne gave up taking acid after talking to horse for an hour [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL In the 1950s Turkey (a member since 1949) rejected a Council of Europe proposal for a flag with a cross in golden circle over blue, citing religious concerns, despite suggestions to add a crescent to address Muslim objections. The circle of stars was adopted instead [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 19:49

TIL about Carl McGunn - Died in 1981 in Alaska when confusion about who was picking him up resulted in him being abandoned to starve [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 18:49

TIL In social psychology, the boomerang effect refers to the unintended consequences of an attempt to persuade resulting in the adoption of an opposing position instead. Typically, the more aggressively a position is presented to someone, the more likely they are to adopt an opposing view. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 14:49

TIL That Cop killer Donald Eugene Webb was on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list for longer than anyone else at the time, and never captured. Turns out the reason for that is his wife was secretly hiding him at her own house and after he died she buried him on her property. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 13:49

TIL that many WW2 aircraft used a radio system so secret that it was supplied with a self-destruct button to prevent it falling into enemy hands. It was so badly designed that pilots and radio operators often blew up their equipment when trying to turn it on. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 12:49

TIL papayas can naturally change sex while growing and scientists are working on methods to produce fruit-only plants [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 06:49

TIL a pesticide applicator applied it to the wrong trees and over 100k bumblebees were killed in Oregon in 2013. The streets were littered with bees. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 05:49

TIL that in 1860, 57% of South Carolina’s population was enslaved [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL that Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea, was raised in a Presbyterian Christian family, with his Grandfather being a minister, and his father being an elder in the Church. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL 7 of the 8 US Presidents that have died in office were all elected in years divisible by 20 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL when Marquis de Sade died in 1814, his son burned all of his unpublished manuscripts, and his descendants tried to suppress his work for over a century. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 Jul 2025 08:49

TIL a man from New Zealand tried to sell his “slightly-used soul” on TradeMe, the auction had received 32,000 hits and more than 100 bids. By 4pm someone had tracked him down and offered him $5001 for his soul, which he accepted. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 Jul 2025 04:49

TIL Rapper 50 Cent once dropped 54 pounds in order to better portray a cancer patient in a movie. The film, "All Things Fall Apart", was straight-to-video. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL that in 1985 the Mayors of the modern cities Rome and Carthage signed a ceremonial peace treaty, a mere 2131 years after the end of the Third Punic War [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL that Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was humiliated that the term "masochism" was named after him. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 19:49

TIL The sinking of the USS Panay and 3 Standard Oil tankers carrying 600 fleeing Chinese civilians ships during the battle of Nanking in 1937. 3 americans and an unknown number of Chinese civilians would die. FDR would order footage of the sinking edited to lower Japanese culpability and avoid war. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 18:49

TIL William Horatio Bates developed a (dangerous and ineffective) alternative therapy method of treating nearsightedness that involved using a lens to focus sunlight directly onto a patient's eyes [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 15:49

TIL The FBI has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Ruja Ignatova, a billionaire criminal, one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and the founder of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin, which The Times described as 'one of the biggest scams in history. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 13:49

TIL: In 1944, Polish POWs were granted permission by their German captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics in the Oflag II-C camp. An Olympic Flag was raised, made with a bed sheet and pieces of colored scarves. The event has been considered to be a demonstration of Olympic spirit during wartime. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 12:49

TIL There is a classification of lifeform called Endolith that can live inside rocks and have a life cycle of thousands of years, it is also speculated they may exist in interplanetary objects such as comets and meteors thus supporting the Panspermia theory. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 08:49

TIL there's a condition called "auto-brewery syndrome" where your body literally turns carbs into alcohol, and you can get drunk just by eating bread or pasta. Some people have been arrested for DUI without touching a drop of alcohol. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 06:49

TIL Roman Emperor Diocletian was the first to voluntarily retire in 305 AD to grow cabbages. When begged to return to power, he declined, saying "If you could see the vegetables I grow with my own hands, you wouldn’t talk to me about empire." He lived out his days gardening by the Dalmatian coast [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL the value of a taxi medallion (permit allowing a taxicab to operate) in New York City peaked in 2013 at over $1 million. By 2019, medallions were being sold for as low as $136,000. Since many cab drivers took out loans to buy when values were high, many have been forced to declare bankruptcy. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL rate of change in speed is "acceleration", but rate of change for acceleration is called a "jerk" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL Lew Ayres, who played Paul Bäumer in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), was a WWII conscientious objector which Erich Maria Remarque, the novel's author, disapproved of. He stated: “I am very sorry. I didn’t expect it to have an effect like this. I think we all should fight Hitlerism." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL a Catholic priest invented the Big Bang Theory. [Source]