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"TIL in 2015, a woman named Diana Airoldi only got her internet fixed after six full weeks after complaining to the CEO of Comcast's mother." | todayilearned |
"TIL Lonnie Johnson, the man who created the “Super Soaker” (the world’s best selling toy) was awarded $72.9M in a Hasbro Settlement for unpaid royalties." | todayilearned |
"TIL While rendering Toy Story, Pixar named each and every rendering server after an animal. When a server completed rendering a frame, it would play the sound of the animal, so their server farm will sound like an actual farm." | todayilearned |
"TIL Australian opium farmers found mysterious crop circles in their fields. The culprits were wallabies who got high and bounced around in circles" | todayilearned |
"TIL: In 2007, when Halo 3 released it broke records on video game sales, making $170 million on the first day. Film executives blamed Halo for a 27% drop in the box office for that week." | todayilearned |
"TIL about "paired kidney exchange", which allows you to donate your kidney that wasn't a match for your intended recipient (spouse, child, etc.) to a stranger but in turn receive a kidney that is a match for your loved one. Instead of two people going without a transplant, both get a transplant." | todayilearned |
"TIL of The Rolex Murder. On July 28, 1996, a man’s body washed up on a trawler in the UK seas. There was no identification on the body except a 25-year-old Rolex Oyster on his wrist. As Rolex maintains such meticulous service records, they were able to ID the victim and ultimately the murderer." | todayilearned |
"TIL a field of seagrass converts carbon dioxide to oxygen at over 8x the rate of a forest the same size." | todayilearned |
"TIL Carrie Fisher was a highly regarded Script Doctor; someone who does uncredited rewrites on screenplays. She did rewrites on Hook, Lethal Weapon 3 and The Wedding Singer among many others" | todayilearned |
"TIL a Florida man accidentally locked his 1 yr old daughter in his car, and 5 prisoners out on work detail used a coat hanger to break her out. The mother who took a video of it said: "Them prisoners bust that s*** right open, so thank god for the criminals in the world."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that Mythbusters got bullied out of airing an episode on how hackable and trackable RFID chips on credit cards are, when credit card companies threatened to boycott their TV network" | todayilearned |
"TIL that the scientists who first discovered the platypus thought it was fake. Although indigenous Aboriginal people already knew of the creature, European scientists assumed an egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, venomous mammal had to be an elaborate hoax." | todayilearned |
"TIL Due to casino distributions, every Seminole Indian child born is a multi millionaire when they turn 18 years old." | todayilearned |
"TIL during the Great Depression, a businessman convinced struggling families from a small town in Florida to buy Coca-Cola shares. The town is now filled with "secret Coke millionaires"" | todayilearned |
"TIL that even though he died in 1994, Kim Il-sung remains president of North Korea. The constitution was revised in 1998, declaring him 'Eternal President of the Republic', making North Korea the only necrocracy in the world - a government that still operates under the rules of a dead former leader." | todayilearned |
"TIL Taylor Swift was born into wealth. Her father is "a descendant of three generations of bank presidents" and worked for Merrill Lynch. At the age of 14 her family moved to Nashville where her father purchased a stake in Big Machine, the label to which Swift first signed." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the American Rock Band ‘The Postal Service’ was sent a cease and desist letter by the United States Postal Service for trademark infringement of their name. After negotiations, the USPS allowed the band to use their name in exchange for playing a free show at their national conference." | todayilearned |
"TIL that by letting a wolf population recover, traffic collisions caused by deer are reduced by nearly 25%; the reduction is not based as much on the decimation of the deer population but on the “landscape of fear” created by the wolves." | todayilearned |
"TIL That all of McDonalds’ delivery trucks in the UK, have been running on used cooking oil from their restaurants since 2007." | todayilearned |
"TIL that after Michael Jordan dunked over 6-foot-1 guard John Stockton, an angry fan yelled at him to “Pick on someone your own size”. The next play he dunked over 6-foot-11 Mel Turpin. As he ran back down the floor, Jordan turned to the heckler and said, “Was he big enough?”" | todayilearned |
"TIL when world champion boxer Joe Louis voluntarily joined the U.S. Army in 1942 he was asked about his decision to enter the (then) racially segregated organisation, he replied: "Lots of things wrong with America, but Hitler ain't going to fix them."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that out of the top 30 100m sprint times, only 9 were run by athletes not associated with doping, all 9 are by Usain Bolt." | todayilearned |
"TIL Andre Agassi won 10 of 11 matches after seeing a "tick" in Boris Becker's serve. Agassi could predict where Becker was serving based on whether Becker stuck his tongue out in the middle of his lip or to the left corner of his lip. Agassi told Becker over a pint of beer - after they retired." | todayilearned |
"TIL of Chad Varah—a priest who started the first suicide hotline in 1953 after the first funeral he conducted early in his career was for a 14-year-old girl who took her own life after having no one to talk to when her first period came and believed she’d contracted an STD." | todayilearned |
"TIL about Tokyo's incredibly efficient recycling systems. All combustible trash is incinerated, the smoke and gasses cleaned before release, and then the left over ash is used as a replacement for clay in the cement used for construction." | todayilearned |
"TIL Princess Diana, on live TV, shook the hand of an AIDS patient without wearing gloves, challenging the belief that AIDS could be passed via contact. The act was seen as a huge moment for those suffering with the disease." | todayilearned |
"TIL no child has been harmed or killed by poisoned or dangerous Halloween candy." | todayilearned |
"TIL about "Phantom Vibration Syndrome" a condition in which people mistakenly think their mobile phone is vibrating in their pocket, it effects 9 out of 10 people." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Ernest Hemingway lived through anthrax, malaria, pneumonia, dysentery, skin cancer, hepatitis, anemia, diabetes, high blood pressure, two plane crashes, a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured liver, a crushed vertebra, and a fractured skull." | todayilearned |
"TIL of ablaut reduplication, an unwritten English rule that makes "tick-tock" sound normal, but not "tock-tick". When repeating words, the first vowel is always an I, then A or O. "Chit chat" not "chat chit"; "ping pong" not "pong ping", etc. It's unclear why this rule exists, but it's never broken" | todayilearned |
"TIL that an underachieving Princeton student wrote a term paper describing how to make a nuclear bomb. He got an A but his paper was taken away by the FBI." | todayilearned |
"TIL although Wayne’s World (1992) was released after Freddie Mercury died, he got to see the car headbanging scene featuring Bohemian Rhapsody shortly before he passed away on November 24, 1991. He loved it and foresaw how the use of the song would ignite a comeback for Queen in the United States." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 2013, after more than 20 years of soda being America's number one beverage, water has taken over as Americans' favorite drink." | todayilearned |
"TIL that at an Allied checkpoint during the Battle of the Bulge, US General Omar Bradley was detained as a possible spy when he correctly identified Springfield as the capital of Illinois. The American military police officer who questioned him mistakenly believed the capital was Chicago" | todayilearned |
"TIL a Harvard professor who had worked with Bill Gates called him shortly after he had left to start Microsoft. The professor 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: In 2010, Microsoft banned a user from Xbox Live for putting Fort Gay as his address. When he tried to tell them that Fort Gay actually exists in West Virginia, it took an appeal from the town’s mayor for it to be corrected." | todayilearned |
"TIL about the symbiotic relationship of wolves and ravens. Ravens will lead wolves to prey so that they can take a portion of the leftovers, play games of tail chasing with each other, and develop individual friendships." | todayilearned |
"TIL the reason why Tenet features a real Boeing 747 crash is that when the numbers were crunched, it turned out that it was more efficient to wreck a real plane rather than use miniatures or CGI." | todayilearned |
"TIL David Letterman created a scholarship for the average "C student," recognizing that it's not all about marks, some are extraordinary and amazing in other ways." | todayilearned |
"TIL that following the death of Nicole van den Hurk, her stepbrother falsely confessed to killing her to get her body exhumed for DNA testing, thus leading to the arrest and prosecution of her attacker." | todayilearned |
"TIL that a 5 year old called 911 after his mother collapsed in her bedroom. The operator hung on the kid saying he was fake calling 911 after 3 hours he called again and another operator said he should not play games and hung up him, Mother of 10 was found dead shortly after." | todayilearned |
"TIL of Walt Whitman's friend, Silas Soule. At 17, he was escorting slaves on the Underground Railroad. By 22, he'd staged two prison heists & become a blacksmith. At 26, he defied orders to participate in a massacre of Native Americans, testified against its architect, and was murdered for it." | todayilearned |
"TIL just before Live Aid, Freddie Mercury was told by his doctor not to do the show because of some vocal trouble. He of course, ignored it, and went on to deliver a 20 minutes show that, according to a BBC poll, is the greatest live performance of all time." | todayilearned |
"TIL John Krasinski wore a wig in season 3 of The Office so he could film Leatherheads. Krasinski pitched the idea to the producer who rejected it because it would be too obvious. John, who was wearing the wig during the meeting, told him it wouldn't be, took off the wig, and was granted approval." | todayilearned |
"TIL the iconic Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 was created by only 9 people.... and 8 of them had never once worked on a video game before!" | todayilearned |
"TIL that James K. Polk is the only US president who pledged to serve only one term during his campaign. He was known for fulfilling all his major promises and died 3 months after his term ended, making his retirement the shortest. He is also the only speaker of the house to be elected as president." | todayilearned |
"TIL Michael Jackson was a virtuoso composer, despite being unable to read music or play instruments well. He wrote the the parts to his songs by singing and beatboxing into a tape recorder. "“He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything."" | todayilearned |
"TIL during the 1938 Berlin Olympics, two Japanese pole vaulters who tied for second place refused to participate in a tie-breaker. Upon returning to Japan, they cut their medals in half and fused them to one another so each athlete ended up with a half-silver, half-bronze medal." | todayilearned |
"TIL Honeybee venom rapidly kills aggressive breast cancer cells and when the venom's main component is combined with existing chemotherapy drugs, it is extremely efficient at reducing tumour growth in mice" | todayilearned |
"TIL flow is the mental state in which a person is completely absorbed in an activity, resulting in a loss of their sense of space and time." | todayilearned |
"TIL of Heart Attack Grill, a Las Vegas restaurant where people over 350 lbs. eat free. 3 people have died while eating there, and the only vegan option on their menu is cigarettes." | todayilearned |
"TIL under Arizona's "Stupid Motorist Law," if you become stranded after driving through barricades to enter a flooded road, you will be charged for your emergency rescue." | todayilearned |
"TIL Ben Franklin left the cities of Boston and Philadelphia $2,000 in his will, but they could not draw the full balance for 200 years. In 1990, the cities received $6.5 million." | todayilearned |
"TIL Adam Sandler's movie "50 First Dates" inspired a real therapy program in which patients with early dementia watch every morning a video message of support from their loved ones." | todayilearned |
"TIL that reindeer are the only mammals that can see ultraviolet light. This means that they can easily tell the difference between white fur and snow because white fur has much higher contrast. It helps them discover predators early in snowy landscapes." | todayilearned |
"TIL Chris Pratt stole his costume after filming Guardians of the Galaxy so he could visit sick kids in the hospital who want to meet Star-Lord" | todayilearned |
"TIL That if My Name Is Earl had not been prematurely canceled the creator planned to end it with Earl being unable to finish his list but realizing that his original list had started a chain reaction of good in the world" | todayilearned |
"TIL that when a man had a heart attack at a grocery story in rural Minnesota, 20 people lined up and performed CPR on him for over an hour and a half until paramedics arrived - and he survived" | todayilearned |
"TIL that the CIA recruited one of Fidel Castro's mistresses to kill him in 1960, giving her poison pills, but he found out. Handing her his gun, he dared her to shoot, but her nerves failed and they had sex instead." | todayilearned |
"TIL The star wars theme was written purposely on the same key as the 20th Century Fox fanfare (that used to appear before the movie started) so that there will be a continuous feeling and a smooth entry to the film for the viewers." | todayilearned |
"TIL Bill Burr repeatedly mocked the Star Wars franchise and its fans before accepting the role of Mayfeld in The Mandalorian - he was cast because it was believed his past criticism of the franchise would make his casting more amusing." | todayilearned |
"TIL In 2014, black taxi cab drivers brought parts of London to a standstill, protesting against Uber. This led to an 850% increase in downloads of Uber." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Nike had conditions before giving rookie Michael Jordan a record contract: Either be rookie of the year, or average 20 ppg, or be an all star, or sell $4 mill worth shoes in a year. Jordan was rookie of the year, scored 28.2 ppg, named all star, and Nike sold $100 mill of shoes in 1984-85." | todayilearned |
"TIL The Wright Brothers only flew together on the same flight one time, a six-minute flight on May 25th, 1910. They promised their father, Milton, they would never fly together to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their flight experiments." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1928, the founder of Juilliard overheard an audition of someone improvising on a Rachmaninoff classic. Appalled, he went to confront the blasphemer, but found an 8yo Black girl (Hazel Scott), whose hands were too small to hit all the right keys. She was deemed a prodigy & accepted immediately" | todayilearned |
"TIL Los Angeles is the first major city in the world to synchronize all its traffic lights. Nearly 4,400 lights across 469 miles receive real-time updates about traffic flow to make second-by-second adjustments. The system limits congestion by up to 16% while also dramatically reducing idling time." | todayilearned |
"TIL brussels sprouts used to have a bitter taste until breeders in the 90s started to cross-pollinate different varieties in order to remove the chemicals that caused the bitterness. The result of their work has lead to brussels sprouts's recent culinary popularity." | todayilearned |
"TIL the movie "Paranormal Activity" had a budget of only $15,000 but made $194 million. During the screening, people were walking out that one studio executive thought the film was bombing. They later learned that the viewers were actually leaving because they were too frightened." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Mircosoft included Solitaire in their operating systems to "to soothe people intimidated by the operating system" and introduce users to graphic user interfaces and taught them how to use a mouse." | todayilearned |
"TIL that while filming ”The Wire”, Andre Royo, who played Bubbles, a drug addict, was approached by a Baltimore resident who handed him a package of heroin and said he looked like he needed a fix. Royo calls this his "street Oscar."" | todayilearned |
"TIL director Peter Weir wanted to have cameras installed in behind every theater showing ‘The Truman Show’ and have the projectionist cut the power at some point during the film, cut to the viewers so they'd be watching themeselves, and then cut back to the movie." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in Japan, Hiroshima Peace Flame has been burned continuously since it was lit in 1964, and will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation" | todayilearned |
"TIL, in the 1928 Olympics, Australian sculler Bobby Pearce stopped rowing to let a family of ducks pass. His opponent ended up with a 5 length lead. In the final 1,000 meters Pearce pulled ahead by 30 seconds, not only winning the gold but setting a Games record." | todayilearned |
"TIL On September 8, 2009, Sgt. Dakota Meyer disobeyed a direct order to pull back from his position so he could rescue wounded soldiers from a firefight a mile away. He ended up going back five times, saving the lives of 36 soldiers, saying “That’s what you do for a brother”." | todayilearned |
"TIL In 2001,Kenny Waters, a man who was wrongly imprisoned 18 years for murder, was finally freed after his high-school dropout sister went to law school to prove his innocence" | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 2013 a French businessman died of a heart attack while having sex with a stranger while on a business trip. A French court subsequently ruled that this was an industrial accident and that his wife and family were entitled to compensation" | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 1734, a Chinese official was sentenced to death by "waist chopping". After being cut in two at the waist, he remained alive long enough to write the Chinese character 慘 ("horrible") 7 times with his own blood before dying. After hearing this, the Emperor abolished this form of execution" | todayilearned |
"TIL Socrates was very worried that the increasing use of books in education would have the effect of ruining students' ability to memorise things. We only remember this now because Plato wrote it down." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1719 prisoners in Paris were offered freedom at the condition they would marry a prostitute and move to Louisiana." | todayilearned |
"TIL boxer Jack Johnson was once pulled over for a $50 speeding ticket and gave the officer a $100 bill. When the officer said he couldn't provide change, Johnson told him to keep it as he was going to make his return trip at the same speed." | todayilearned |
"TIL In the '80s, the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 nationally because Reagan passed a bill in 1984 that required states to raise their drinking age to 21. They don't have to make it 21 per se, but if they chose to opt-out, they would simply be ineligible for federal highway funding." | todayilearned |
"TIL that tigers can, and will, take revenge on those who have wronged them. They are one of the most vengeful animals on the planet." | todayilearned |
"TIL when Julie Andrews won the Oscar for Mary Poppins, she thanked Jack Warner, the producer of the competing movie, My Fair Lady. Andrews had starred in My Fair Lady on Broadway but Warner refused to cast her in the movie, leaving Andrews open to play Mary Poppins." | todayilearned |
"TIL Jesse James once paid off a widow's mortgage and saved her from foreclosure because she gave him food. He made sure she got a receipt from the banker and then robbed the man a mile down the road." | todayilearned |
"TIL the creator of the TV show Archer became bored with the show and wrote a Country music career for Cheryl in season 5. The shows producers went so far as record a full country album. That album surprised music fans with its quality and reached #68 on iTunes." | todayilearned |
"TIL that when a jury convicted Jane Wenham of witchcraft in 1712, due to witnesses accusing her of flying on a broomstick and bewitching servants, the sceptical judge refused to execute her and instead sought a royal pardon, noting that there was “no law against flying.”" | todayilearned |
"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 of Eliahu Itzkovitz, a Romanian Jew who witnessed a guard kill his family in a concentration camp. After the war, he enlisted in the same battalion of the French Foreign Legion as the guard and murdered him while deployed in present-day Vietnam." | 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 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 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 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 all "warranty void if removed" stickers are illegal in the US since 1975" | 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 27% of Americans 18 and older have cut off contact with a family member" | 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 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 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 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 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 |
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