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"TIL that soon after Bill Gates had gone to start Microsoft, a Harvard professor who had worked with him recalled, "He had moved to Albuquerque... to run a small company writing code for microprocessors, of all things. I remember thinking: 'Such a brilliant kid. What a waste.'"" | todayilearned |
"TIL Many products are getting smaller due to 'shrinkflation', for example Mars shrank its Maltesers, M&Ms by up to 15%. In the past, companies blamed the rising price of raw materials. Recently, these prices dropped back, but the shrinkage continued as manufacturers try to stealthily boost profits" | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 2006 Bill Murray (56 at the time) accepted an invitation to a college party in the Scottish Town of St. Andrews after a round of golf. He showed up, drank their vodka, did all the dishes and left" | todayilearned |
"TIL Mark Twain traveled extensively and once said "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth..."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that the little boy known as Batkid who “saved” San Francisco while battling leukemia in 2013 is now cancer free." | todayilearned |
"TIL that British actress Emilia Clarke has survived two brain aneurysms and founded a charity called SameYou which helps provide treatment to people recovering from a brain injury or stroke" | todayilearned |
"TIL Mr. T had T-cell lymphoma. He said, “Can you imagine that? Cancer with my name on it—personalized cancer.” Fortunately he was able to beat it and is cancer free." | todayilearned |
"TIL: Patch Adams only agreed to the 1999 film of his namesake because they promised to help build his hospital. None of the profits from the film was ever given to his foundation, and the film was heavily criticised by Patch Adams himself, saying: "I hate that movie."" | todayilearned |
"TIL an Icelandic tradition called Jólabókaflóð exists, where books are exchanged as Christmas Eve presents and the rest of the night is spent reading them and eating chocolate." | todayilearned |
"TIL that five Lithuanian soldiers serving in a reconnaissance unit were declared missing during a military exercise. They thought the drill was ongoing and successfully evaded all forces sent to find them, including trained dogs and a helicopter" | todayilearned |
"TIL when Weird Al Yankovic asked Kurt Cobain to parody 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' that Kurt asked him if it would be about food, and Al said it would be about how no one could understand his lyrics. Kurt found that extremely funny, and said absolutely." | todayilearned |
"TIL Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, but announced it in Latin. One reporter got the scoop and broke the story because she understood Latin. Most other reporters waited for official translations." | todayilearned |
"TIL of the Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin that killed 13 people in 1875. None perished as a result of smoke inhalation or burns. All victims died of alcohol poisoning by drinking the whiskey flowing through the streets." | todayilearned |
"TIL Judge Judy earns $47 MILLION a year for taping 'Judge Judy.' In an interview she said that every 3 years she would present her salary request to the CBS TV Distribution President. Once, when he gave her a counter offer in an envelope, she refused to open it saying "This isn't a negotiation."" | todayilearned |
"TIL Nintendo pushed the term "videogame console" so people would stop calling competing products "Nintendos" and they wouldn't risk losing the valuable trademark." | todayilearned |
"TIL Grant Imahara from Mythbusters was one of three people who operated the R2-D2's in the Star Wars prequels and he updated all of the electronics on 12 R2 units." | todayilearned |
"TIL that as a schoolboy, JRR Tolkien felt "bitter disappointment and disgust" that the woods did not actually march on the villain's castle and Shakespeare’s prophecy was revealed as a rhetorical trick (Macbeth). Later, Tolkien made a point of writing a story where the trees performed as advertised." | todayilearned |
"TIL In 1988, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole called a studio at 3am and asked if he could record because he had a good idea. The studio owner said yes even though he already closed the studio. 15 minutes later he recorded Israel playing his ukelele and recorded "Over the Rainbow" in one take." | todayilearned |
"TIL that an Anti seat-belt advocate, Derek Kieper, once wrote that “Uncle Sam is not here to regulate every facet of life no matter the consequences.” He later died after being thrown from his vehicle while driving without a seat-belt." | todayilearned |
"TIL during 2005 in Glendale, CA a suicidal man parked his car in front of a commuter train. The train derailed and collided with two additional trains resulting in over a 100 casualties. The man survived and was sentenced to life without parole." | todayilearned |
"TIL Bill gates purchased the Leonardo da Vinci's Codex for $30,802,500. Three years later he had its pages scanned into digital image files, some of which were later distributed as screen saver and wallpaper files on a CD-ROM as part of a Microsoft Plus! for Windows so everyone could enjoy them." | todayilearned |
"TIL not long before his death, Freddie Mercury, confined to his bed, got to see an advance copy of the "Wayne's World" scene with Wayne and Garth headbanging to "Bohemian Rhapsody". He loved it and approved of the song's use in the film. The movie, in part, helped launch Queen's comeback in the USA" | todayilearned |
"TIL that for four years, Hugh Grant pretended to be his own talent agent under the name James Howe Ealy. He communicated with people via a fake email account and even disguised his voice with a Scottish accent on the phone. “I saved myself an absolute fortune,” he said." | todayilearned |
"TIL Wrigley’s was originally a soap company that gifted baking powder with their soap. The baking powder became more popular than the soap so they switched to selling baking powder with chewing gum as a gift. The gum became more popular than the baking powder so the company switched to selling gum." | todayilearned |
"TIL when the territory of Wyoming applied to join the US, congress told them they'd have to stop letting women vote. Their response was "We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women”. In 1890 they joined as the first and only state to allow women to vote." | todayilearned |
"TIL that thanks to his Internet popularity, the child from the "Success Kid" meme made enough money to fund his dad's kidney transplant." | todayilearned |
"TIL Ryan Reynolds has openly spoken about his lifelong struggle with anxiety, noting in 2018 that he carried out many interviews in the character of Deadpool to alleviate his fears." | todayilearned |
"TIL in the months before his sudden death, former Mythbuster Grant Imahara built a fully animatronic Baby Yoda. Having spent 3 months of his personal time designing, programming, and 3D printing the project, he intended to bring it to hospitals to cheer up sick children." | todayilearned |
"TIL African elephants often bury dead or sleeping humans or aid them when they are hurt. One woman fell asleep under a tree and woke to find an elephant standing over her gently touching her. As other elephants arrived they buried her under branches. She was found the next morning unharmed." | todayilearned |
"TIL after his wife was denied water by upper caste people, Indian laborer Bapuro Tajne managed to dig her a well in under 40 days and ended up discovering a water source capable of sustaining his entire village." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Super Mario is named after real-life businessman Mario Segale, who was renting out a warehouse to Nintendo. After Nintendo fell far behind on rent, Segale did not evict them but gave them a second chance to come up with the money. Nintendo succeeded and named their main character after him." | todayilearned |
"TIL Norway hires sherpas from Nepal to build paths in the Norwegian mountains. They have completed over 300 projects, and their pay for one summer, equals 30 years of work in Nepal." | todayilearned |
"TIL that at the age of 17, Steven Spielberg directed a sci-fi film called "Firelight". The budget was $500, and it was shown at a local cinema, with 500 people coming, and tickets costing a dollar each. However, one person paid $2, so the movie made $1, making it Spielberg's first commercial success" | todayilearned |
"TIL the most successful Nazi interrogator in world war 2 never physically harmed an enemy soldier, but treated them all with respect and kindness, taking them for walks, letting them visit their comrades in the hospital, even letting one captured pilot test fly a plane. Virtually everybody talked." | todayilearned |
"TIL Jonah Hill was only paid $60,000 to appear in The Wolf of Wall Street, with the studio using his desire to work with Martin Scorsese as leverage to pay him the lowest fee possible. Whereas Leonard DiCaprio, who also produced the film, was paid $10m." | todayilearned |
"TIL: When former slave Jordan Anderson was asked to come back and work for his old master, he replied with a deadpan letter asking for 52 years' back pay as proof of good faith. The letter has been described as a rare example of documented "slave humor" of the period." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Sir Christopher Lee(who played Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings") read the trilogy every year from the year it was published to his death in 2015. He was also the only member of the cast and crew ever to have met J.R.R Tolkien himself." | todayilearned |
"TIL that, in the American West of the 1800s, up to one in four Texan cowboys was African American. The number of Mexican cowboys was even greater." | todayilearned |
"TIL in the early 90s LL Cool J shared with his grandma that he couldn't survive as a rapper now that gangsta rap was popular. His grandma responded, "Oh baby, just knock them out!" which inspired him to write 'Mama Said Knock You Out' a grammy award winning certified platnum single." | todayilearned |
"TIL the McDonald's corporation quietly phased out Ronald McDonald, the companies clown mascot, due to the 2016 clown scare video fad." | todayilearned |
"TIL psychologist László Polgár theorized that any child could become a genius in a chosen field with early training. As an experiment, he trained his daughters in chess from age 4. All three went on to become chess prodigies, and the youngest, Judit, is considered the best female player in history." | todayilearned |
"TIL when Southwest Airlines tried to change their motto to “Just Plane Smart” in the 1990s, they found out a much smaller company was already using it. To settle the issue, the CEOs of each company engaged in an arm wrestling match and the smaller company, Steven’s Aviation, ended up winning." | todayilearned |
"TIL that a man named Oswald can be heard only at Embankment station saying "mind the gap". In 2012 they were planning on changing all voiceovers but decided not to at this station when Oswalds wife told them that he had passed away in 2007. She loved listening to him when on the way to work." | todayilearned |
"TIL a Japanese man noticed food disappearing in his fridge so he set up a security camera and found out there was a homeless woman living in the top compartment of his closet and been there for more than a year." | todayilearned |
"TIL of patient AB - "the first and only instance in which hallucinatory voices sought to reassure the patient, offered her a specific diagnosis, directed her to the hospital, expressed pleasure that she was well again, bid her farewell, and thereafter disappeared."" | todayilearned |
"TIL after a student failed the math portion of Minnesota’s Basic Standards Tests her father demanded to see the exam, threatening to sue for it. A series of scoring errors were found meaning math scores for 45,739 Minnesota students were wrong and 7,935 students who were told they failed had passed." | todayilearned |
"TIL that after Lance Armstrong was stripped of his wins, seven successive Tour de France races (1999-2005) were officially declared without winners because so many riders who finished behind Armstrong were also associated with doping offences." | todayilearned |
"TIL according to Matt Groening, FOX was never supportive of Futurama, as they moved the show around from time slot to time slot unpredictably for four years, which resulted in poor ratings and its cancellation in 2003. This move left many Futurama fans and production crew shocked and angry." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Sodium Citrate is the secret ingredient to make any cheese into smooth, creamy nacho cheese sauce. Coincidentally, Sodium Citrate's chemical formula is Na3C6H5O7 (NaCHO)." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1506, a 1000+ year old statue was unearthed. The main figure, Laocoön, was missing an arm. The pope commissioned a contest to find who would recreate the missing arm best. Michelangelo's version lost. In 1906 the original arm was found and in nearly the exact pose Michelangelo had sculpted." | todayilearned |
"TIL that there is a monument in Georgia which gives instructions in 8 languages on how to rebuild society after an unknown apocalyptic event, whilst also functioning as a compass, calendar and clock" | todayilearned |
"TIL that the Sony PlayStation was never meant to be a product. It was intended to be a new console that would play exclusively Nintendo games on CDs. Instead Nintendo backed out of the deal at the last minute. Sony went ahead and launched what would become the most successful console of all time." | todayilearned |
"TIL that George Washington declined to run for a third term of office because he believed his death in office would create an image of a lifetime appointment. The precedent of a two-term limit was created by his retirement from office." | todayilearned |
"TIL that a Texas state representative introduced a bill honouring Albert DeSalvo, widely thought to be the Boston Strangler, for his work in "population control." He wanted to prove that his colleagues passed legislation without due diligence. They passed the bill unanimously." | todayilearned |
"TIL That Avatar: The Last Airbender won a Peabody Award for “multi-dimensional characters, unusually complicated personal relationships for a cartoon serial, and a healthy respect for the consequences of warfare”" | todayilearned |
"TIL that despite a diet of up to 7,000 calories per day and weighing up to 400 lbs, sumo wrestlers typically do not suffer from symptoms of obesity due to their intense workout regimens. Upon retirement, however, they must seriously cut calories or become at risk for cardiovascular disease." | todayilearned |
"TIL that elephants are tremendous distance swimmers. They can swim for up to six hours and 25 miles (48km). They are so buoyant that if they tire in the water, they can just rest by floating and will not sink. They can also use their trunk as a snorkel and dive." | todayilearned |
"TIL Less than a quarter of U.S. workers report using math any more complicated than basic fractions and percentages during the course of their jobs. Blue-collar workers generally do more advanced math than their white-collar friends" | todayilearned |
"TIL when former NFL safety Dave Duerson took his life he left a note that read, “Please see that my brain is given to the NFL’s brain bank.” He shot himself in the chest rather than his head so as to preserve his brain. Doctors confirmed that he was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy." | todayilearned |
"TIL Of Billy Ray Harris, a beggar who was accidentally given a $4,000 engagement ring by a passing woman when she dropped it into his cup. He never sold it. Two days later the woman came back for her ring and he gave it to her. In thanks, she set up a fund that raised over $185,000 for him" | todayilearned |
"TIL that organ donation is on an opt-out basis in Singapore. Citizens who opt-out have a lower priority of receiving an organ should they need one." | todayilearned |
"TIL a Comcast customer who was constantly dissatisfied with his internet speeds set up a Raspberry Pi to automatically send an hourly tweet to @Comcast when his bandwidth was lower than advertised." | todayilearned |
"TIL on the set of The Princess Bride, André the Giant once "let out a 16 second fart and brought production to a standstill." Nobody said anything except director Rob Reiner, who said "Are you OK, André?" to which André replied, "I am now boss."" | todayilearned |
"TIL on the set of Blade: Trinity, Jessica Biel was supposed to fire an arrow directly at the camera, so the camera was surrounded by Plexiglass except for a 2" x 2" square in front of the camera lens. Biel managed to shoot the arrow through the hole and destroy the $300,000 camera." | todayilearned |
"TIL a principal once punished a mischievous student by making him read the U.S. Constitution in a basement until he could recite it. The student, Thurgood Marshall, would go on to become the first black associate Justice of the Supreme Court" | todayilearned |
"TIL as a prank, a man once climbed Mount Hood in the middle of the night and surreptitiously left a morning newspaper and a quart of milk for his friends, who were spending the night on the summit" | todayilearned |
"TIL Pearl Jam discovered Ticketmaster was adding a service charge to all their concert tickets without informing the band. The band then created their own outdoor stadiums for the fans and testified against Ticketmaster to the United States Department of Justice" | todayilearned |
"TIL that "All Along the Watchtower" was a Bob Dylan Song. Dylan said he was so "overwhelmed" by the more famous Jimi Hendrix version, that he started playing it that way. After Hendrix died, Dylan said playing the song felt like a tribute to Hendrix." | todayilearned |
"TIL James Earl Jones decided to go uncredited for his role of voicing Darth Vader because he considered David Prowse’s performance inside the Vader costume to be the more defining of the two performances." | todayilearned |
"TIL the Nazis ordered 2 Auschwitz prisoners to destroy thousands of inmate mugshot photographs as the camp was evacuated in 1945. The inmates recognized the importance of that evidence and sabotaged the furnace thus saving 38,916 photos." | todayilearned |
"TIL Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title, had his passport revoked and faced a five-year prison term for refusing to serve in the U.S. Armed Services at the height of the Vietnam War. "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong," he said. "They never called me n****r."" | todayilearned |
"TIL Shrek was originally given a thick Canadian accent by actor Mike Meyers. However, after animation had begun and the dialogue almost finished, Meyers decided the character would be better portrayed with a Scottish accent. The film had to be re-animated and cost over $4 million" | todayilearned |
"TIL George Clooney purchased a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named Max as a gift for then girlfriend, actress Kelly Preston. When their relationship ended, Clooney kept the pig for an additional 18 years until Max died in 2006. He has jokingly referred to Max as the longest relationship he had ever had" | todayilearned |
"TIL then 13 year-old Danielle Lei, a Girl Scout in San Francisco, was the first Girl Scout to make news by selling cookies outside a marijuana dispensary. She sold 117 boxes in 2 hours." | todayilearned |
"TIL when Charlie Sheen came out as HIV positive, it led to a 95 percent increase in over the counter HIV home testing kits and 2.75 million searches on the topic, dubbed "The Charlie Sheen Effect." Some said that Sheen did more for awareness of HIV than most UN events." | todayilearned |
"TIL Apple's policy of refusing to repair phones that have undergone "unauthorized" repairs is illegal in Australia due to their right to repair law." | todayilearned |
"TIL dogs "play sneeze" when they're feeling excited or playful. "Play sneezes" mean your dog is having a good time and indicate to other dogs that their behavior is only play." | todayilearned |
"TIL a woman named Glenda Blackwell brought a scratch off lottery ticket to prove to her husband that buying lottery tickets was a waster of money and accidentally ended up winning $1 million." | todayilearned |
"TIL that since Uber was introduced in New York City in 2011, drinking-related car wrecks decreased by 25–35 percent in all boroughs." | todayilearned |
"TIL Guns and Roses guitarist Slash did not allow the TV show Glee to use any of Guns and Roses' music despite many attempts from producers. He stated “Glee is worse than Grease and Grease is bad enough.”" | todayilearned |
"TIL of Martin Pistorius, a man who fell into a coma at age twelve. He was trapped in his body for 12 years. When he showed signs of recovery, his mum quit her job and worked with him for two years, teaching him to speak with a computer. He went on to get a degree, learn to drive, and get married." | todayilearned |
"TIL During the 2000's, Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel, and several other mega corporations had a mutual agreement not to hire each other's employees in order to keep salaries low. This led to a 400 mil class action lawsuit." | todayilearned |
"TIL: You were more likely to get a job if you had smallpox scars in the 18th century. The scars proved that you already had smallpox and could not pass it on to your employers." | todayilearned |
"TIL about an orangutan named Ken who escaped from his enclosure at the San Diego Zoo multiple times in the 80's. His apparent goals were visiting other animals, throwing rocks at a despised orangutan rival and taking photos with tourists." | todayilearned |
"TIL Physical attractiveness has a significant influence on judges sentencing. The more unattractive the criminal, the higher the sentence. Results of three studies show a minimum increase of 119.25% and a maximum increase of 304.88%." | todayilearned |
"TIL MRI of dog's brains show that they see owners as family and prioretize the smell of humans over everything" | todayilearned |
"TIL that some fish eggs can survive being digested by waterfowl and remain viable after being pooped out. This provides one explanation as to how fish ‘miraculously’ appear in bodies of water where they otherwise never existed." | todayilearned |
"TIL NYPD officer John Perry was turning in his retirement papers on 9/11 when the first plane struck. He asked for his badge back and ran to help. He was killed while assisting a woman in the south tower as it collapsed." | todayilearned |
"TIL Norway discovered oil in its country 40 years ago. Knowing the oil would eventually run out, they chose to invest it in a sovereign wealth fund. It is one of the most profitable funds in the world - valued at over $1.3 trillion - enough to self sustain the county for many years." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in the 1830s the Swedish Navy planted 300 000 oak trees to be used for ship production in the far future. When they received word that the trees were fully grown in 1975 they had little use of them as modern warships are built with metal." | todayilearned |
"TIL the second officer of the Titanic, who survived by swimming from the sinking ship to a capsized raft, later in life sailed his civilian craft to Dunkirk and helped evacuate over 130 men." | todayilearned |
"TIL Tchaikovsky had a patron who gave him enough money to quit his job and become a full-time composer, on the condition that they never meet in person." | todayilearned |
"TIL that astronauts Mark Lee and Jan Davis married in secret 9 months before their joint flight to the ISS and didn't tell NASA until it was too late to train replacements. They are the only married couple to have ever flown in space together." | todayilearned |
"TIL that an Orca killed a Great White Shark near California’s Farallon Islands in 2000. The smell of the dead shark's carcass caused all nearby great whites to vanish. A great white with a satellite tag in the area was seen to immediately dive to a depth of 500 meters and then swam to Hawaii." | todayilearned |
"TIL on 2009 Stephen Hawking held a party open to all, but only publicized the party after it was over so that only time-travellers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party." | todayilearned |
"TIL of Raphael Gray, a hacker who posted stolen data of over 6.5k credit cards, claiming that the law enforcement was too incompetent to stop him. Gray's arrogance annoyed ex-hacker Chris Davis so much that he found Gray's information and informed the FBI about the crime, leading to Gray's arrest." | todayilearned |
"TIL A boy dying of an incurable illness wanted to meet Luke Skywalker (in character). His mental state devolved to the point where he did not realise Luke was fictional. Mark Hamill agreed to dress up in character and meet the boy. He spent hours answering questions." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in Hinduism, atheism is considered to be a valid path to spirituality, as it can be argued that God can manifest in several forms with "no form" being one of them." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Robert Downey Jr. only got clean because his girlfriend (now wife) saw him on drugs, then gave him an ultimatum of quitting or losing her. He stopped at a Burger King on the coast and threw his drugs in the ocean. She is now known around Hollywood as "the Miracle That Saved Robert Downey."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that physicist Heinrich Hertz, upon proving the existence of radio waves, stated that "It's of no use whatsoever." When asked about the applications of his discovery: "Nothing, I guess."" | todayilearned |
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