Today I Learned 🎓

02 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL Colorado’s Department of Transportation regularly shuts down one of its major interstates on sunny mornings due to extreme sun glare [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 Nov 2024 16:49

TIL that Jed, the dog who played the "villain" dog in the 1982 film The Thing was the same dog that played White Fang in the 1991 Disney movie [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 22:49

TIL that Bullerby syndrome is a term referring to an idealization of Sweden, which may occur in German-speaking Europe. It consists of a stereotypical image of Sweden, usually with positive associations, including wooden houses, clear lakes, green forests, elk, happy people, and midsummer sunshine. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 20:50

TIL humans cannot actually feel wetness; we only perceive it through temperature and pressure. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 19:50

TIL ChatGPT outsourced Kenyan workers to help train its AI by labeling harmful content such as abuse, violence, and gore; one worker called the assignment "torture". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 17:50

TIL the 11-pointed foundation of the Statue of Liberty is actually a coastal defense fort (Fort Wood) that predates the rest of the pedestal by 73 years. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 16:49

TIL Dr. No, not James Bond, was the first character to say "Shaken, not stirred" onscreen [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 14:49

TIL that election silence is a thing in many countries around the world. There is a time period before the election that the media and campaigns must stop talking about the election. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 11:49

TIL Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts) was initially hesitant to perform the title song in Beauty and the Beast (1991) because of its unfamiliar rock style & was especially concerned that her "aging singing voice" wasn't strong enough to sustain its longer notes. Ultimately, she recorded it in one take. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 10:49

TIL Taiwan has one of the highest oral cancer rates in the world. The cause is mainly a culturally consumed nut called Betel. Betel nuts are carcinogenic and cause a stimulating high when chewed. Mainly consumed by blue-collar and indigenous Taiwanese, the practice remains legal but discouraged. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 02:49

TIL that China began developing nuclear weapons and nuclear submarines before they even had the infrastructure to mine uranium [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 01:49

Today I learned about Mike Rowe, who in 2003 bought MikeRoweSoft.com, which caused a legal kerfuffle at first but the case was later settled in exchange for an XBOX & an all-expense paid trip for him to Microsoft HQ. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 23:49

TIL that the actor who played the “master” and the actress who played his wife in ‘Hocus Pocus’ were siblings in real life [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 21:50

TIL that the official inventor of the fire hydrant remains unknown because the patent was lost in a fire. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 19:49

TIL Chicago's last Republican mayor, Big Bill, was elected 97 years ago and held an open alliance with Al Capone. Following his 1927 victory, Big Bill's supporters flooded onto his floating Speakeasy and it sank under their weight. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL that during a single Senate term from 1949 to 1955, Nebraska's Class 2 seat was occupied by six different senators due to two deaths, three appointments, two special elections, and one resignation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 22:49

TIL in 2023, the Iowa Pork Producers Assn. launched an ad campaign featuring the Iowa State College football players Myles Purchase, Tyler Moore, Tommy Hamann, and Caleb Bacon. The four men have their backs to the camera, so their jerseys read: "PURCHASE MOORE HAMANN BACON" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 22:49

TIL that there are no longer any significant scientific barriers to a form of human cloning. In 2018 Chinese scientists successfully cloned two crab-eating macaques named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua--the first primates to ever be successfully cloned. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 19:50

TIL about how psilocybin resets neural networks, essentially ‘rebooting’ your brain’s connections when on shrooms. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 18:49

TIL of Frederick Fleet who survived the sinking of the Titanic, WW1 and WW2, to die by suicide in 1965 at the age of 77. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 16:50

TIL that the beehive hairstyle was also called the B-52 for its resemblance to the Boeing B-52 bomber’s nose. And the band the B-52’s chose that name because two of its members wore that hairstyle (Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson). [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 14:49

TIL of Lise Meitner, a physicist who was nominated 19 times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry between 1924 and 1948, and 30 times for the Nobel Prize in Physics between 1937 and 1967. She was never awarded the Nobel Prize and was instrumental in the discoveries of nuclear fission. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 13:49

TIL Baldur's Gate 3 is the first video game ever to win all five major Game of the Year awards (Golden Joystick, The Game, D.I.C.E., Game Developers Choice, & British Academy Games). [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 11:49

TIL in 1991 a warehouse in Wisconsin holding over 4,000 tonnes of butter caught on fire. After five hours the melted butter flooded and formed a "butter river" that was 2-3 feet deep and as much as 5 feet deep in some places. The fire lasted for 8 days. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 04:49

TIL "once in a blue moon" is around every 2.7172 years and is coincidentally close to the number e. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 Nov 2024 02:49

TIL that the CIA tried to bribe Egypt’s president Abdelnasser to join a proposed ME defence org but he took the bribe ($3 Million) then refused to join. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 23:49

TIL that in 2008, Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker survived a plane crash in which four of the six passengers were killed [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 22:50

TIL Mary Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the U.S Federal Government after being convicted for her alleged involvement in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 21:50

TIL about the Great British Dog and Cat Massacre of 1939. In which Londoners, to prepare for war with Nazi Germany, voluntarily killed over 400,000 of their home pets in a one month period so as to ease the strain on resources. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 19:49

TIL that the Suez Canal closed for eight years from 1967-1975, costing billions in trade [Source]