Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL about the fast food chain "Rax Roast Beef" which at one time operated a peak of 504 locations in the US in the 1980's, but due to continuous changes in its business model and shifting focus away from its core clientele eventually declined to just 8 locations today. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 15:49

TIL: In India, the Gulabi Gang is a female vigilante group whose purpose is to protect women of all castes using violent and nonviolent means where the law doesn't. They wield sticks and gang up to beat abusive husbands with a "100%" success rate. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 13:49

TIL that the man holding the American flag standing behind George Washington in the painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is 18 year old future president James Monroe [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 08:49

TIL that in Georgia HOV lanes can be used by pregnant people. Georgia DPS allows this because of a 2022 Georgia law that recognizes embryos and fetuses as person's with full rights. No documents are needed to prove pregnancy when using HOV lanes.
[Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 11:49

TIL about Nobel Disease aka Nobelitis - Tendency for Some Nobel Winners to Embrace Fringe Beliefs Later in Life [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 05:49

TIL the name "Chilean seabass" was invented by a fish wholesaler named Lee Lantz in 1977. He was looking for a name to make the Patagonian toothfish attractive to the American market. In 1994, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted "Chilean seabass" as an "alternative market name" for it. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 03:49

TIL that John Wilkes Booth was present at the hanging of John Brown. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 23:50

TIL that a study shows wearing a mask decreased the quality of chess players’ decisions—a measure of their cognitive performance. However, the disruptive effect of masks is relatively short-lived, gradually weakening so that there is no measurable disadvantage after roughly 4 hours of play. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 21:49

TIL the 'Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills' or Pretty Boy Floyd was a thief in the 1930's who was touted as a hero for destroying mortgage documents whenever he robbed a bank. His funeral had over 20,000 people attend to pay their respects. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 20:50

TIL Since 1950, the Catholic Church has recognized Darwinian evolution as being compatible with Christian beliefs. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 17:50

TIL that 1 out of every 8 Americans has worked at a McDonalds at some point in their life. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 16:50

TIL economists estimate that only 8 percent of the world's currency exists as physical cash [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 15:50

TIL that single men in 1900s Argentina paid "professional lady rejectors" to avoid bachelor tax [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 12:49

TIL "Bezoar stones", undigested matter in porcupines, proboscis monkeys, and other animal's intestines, were once prized in Europe and Asia as magical cure-all stones and worn by royalty on rings. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 05:49

TIL that at the end of the movie A League of Their Own, Dottie is not being played by Geena Davis in age makeup. She's played by actress Lynn Cartwright, who looks strikingly similar to Geena Davis, with Davis's voice dubbed over for the scenes. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 16:50

TIL Batman’s fascination for and attraction to bats is due to a unique psychological response to fear and anxiety called a“counterphobic attitude” which involves a person actively seeking out the sources of the things that frighten them in the hope of overcoming their fears and becoming stronger. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 14:49

TIL that Obsidian receives no royalties from Fallout: New Vegas because they signed a contract with Bethesda stipulating that they would only do so if the game matched or exceeded an 85 rating on Metacritic. Fallout: New Vegas received an 84 rating. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Nov 2024 12:49

TIL the leader of the Crips, Stanley “Tookie” Williams wrote a children’s book in prison about anti gang violence. He was nominated for 4 Nobel Prizes for what he did to stop gang violence and was nominated for the Nobel prize For Literature once for this book. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 12:49

TIL what we call a 9-to-5 workday, Chinese people have "996," which means they have to work from 9am to 9pm 6 days a week. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 07:49

TIL that only the Gospel of Matthew claims Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Luke and John suggest he was possessed by Satan, while Mark gives no motive. Mark is also the only book to claim he committed suicide, with Acts suggesting he felt no remorse and died accidentally. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 05:49

TIL Mozart, Lenin and Hitler were all regulars at the very same bar [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Nov 2024 00:49

TIL Amanita phalloides (also known as death cap) is the most poisonous of all known mushrooms. It is estimated that as little as half a mushroom contains enough toxin to kill an adult human. It is also the deadliest mushroom worldwide, responsible for 90% of mushroom-related fatalities every year. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 22:50

TIL that in 1962, NASA launched the Mariner 1 spacecraft to Venus, but it missed its target by over 100,000 miles. The failure was traced back to a single misplaced hyphen in the spacecraft’s software code, showing how even the smallest errors can have enormous consequences in space missions. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 21:49

TIL researchers studying nominative determinism found that orthopedic surgeons are more likely to have the surname "Limb" than is expected by chance (Limb, Limb, Limb, & Limb, 2015) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 17:50

TIL Lucy Liu does erotic lesbian art [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 16:50

TIL that in 1835, Richard Lawrence attempted to assassinate President Andrew Jackson, marking the first such attempt on a sitting U.S. president. Lawrence's two pistols both misfired, allowing Jackson who was 67 at the time to respond by beating him with his cane until he was restrained. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 15:50

TIL that the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, Alessandra Mussolini, was a J-Pop singer for a while and has an album which was sold for £4,500 GBP (£10,000,000 ITL) in 2000. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 13:49

TIL Japan railway platforms saw a 84 percent decrease in suicides at stations after they installed blue lights. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 08:49

TIL in 1982, 7 people in the Chicago area died after ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. James William Lewis sent an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson, demanding $1 million to "stop the killings." While he was convicted of extortion, he was never charged with the murders. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Nov 2024 04:49

TIL certain East Asian physical traits, like thicker hair, more sweat glands, distinct teeth, and smaller breasts, stem from a gene mutation about 35,000 years ago. Africans and Europeans usually carry the ancestral version of the gene, but in most East Asians, one of the DNA units has mutated. [Source]