Article created by: Rugilė Žemaitytė
We believe it's fair to say that there's always something new to learn for every person here on earth. This is why communities like Reddit's 'Today I Learned' (TIL) offer a trove of astonishing revelations that might have escaped our attention.
For instance, were you aware of the local Indonesian mythology bit that suggests Orangutans possess the capacity to communicate in human languages? However, they consciously decide not to, in fear they would be captured and obligated to work (fair on them, to be honest).
TIL that in the 60's the Italian Ministry of Education broadcasted a TV show titled "It’s Never Too Late", aimed to teach older people how to read and write. An estimate of 1.5 million people got their elementary school diploma thanks to it
TIL the Australian Navy formally enlisted a six-year-old girl in order to give her medical treatment onboard a navy ship; regulations did not allow for civilians to get medical treatment on navy ships. The girl's official rating was 'mascot', and she was 'discharged' after 8 days of 'service'.
TIL-WW1 had Mercy Dogs. Mercy dogs were dogs that would locate wounded men in no man's land and bring medicine, food, water and/or stay with the dying so no they wouldn't die alone. Each army had them
TIL Mr. Rogers answered every fan letter, starting his day at 5 AM to respond to 50-100 daily, including those from children dealing with personal issues like family deaths.
TIL DeForest Kelley, who played Dr McCoy in Star Trek, wanted to become a doctor, but couldn't afford medical school. He regularly received letters from fans who went into medicine because of him and said "to influence the youth of the country ... is an award that is not handed out by the industry"
TIL: Local Indonesian mythology says that Orangutans actually have the ability to speak human languages, but choose not to, fearing they would be forced to get jobs and work if were they ever caught.
TIL that the creator of Rocket Raccoon is institutionalized due to brain damage from a hit and run in 1992. When Marvel made "Guardians of the Galaxy," the compensation package they offered ensured care for the rest of his life.
TIL in 1973, a Harvard astrophysicist suggested that we won't discover more advanced civilizations because they don't want us to find them and have the technology to ensure we never do. They have also set aside our planet as a zoo wherein they can observe us. He coined this idea the Zoo Hypothesis.
TIL The role of April Ludgate in Parks and Recreation was specifically created for Aubrey Plaza after the casting director met her and felt she was the weirdest girl she had ever met in her life.
TIL Unopened Lego sets have a higher return than gold.
TIL elephants are the only wild animal that understands pointing without human training
TIL an Austrian man was held for 18 days without food or water (the world record for surviving) because the police forgot about him. He lost 53 lbs (24 kg.)
TIL By the 1700s, aristocrats started eating tomatoes, but they were convinced the fruits were poisonous because people would die after eating them. In reality, the acidity from the tomatoes brought out the lead in their pewter plates, and they actually died of lead poisoning
TIL Great White Sharks have poison resistance that defies logic. Samples of shark blood showed levels of arsenic and mercury that should be harmful if not deadly but the sharks were unaffected. Additionally Great Whites' have impressive self-healing abilities
TIL that the Pythagorean theorem must have been known before Pythagoras, because it is used in a proof on a Babylonian clay tablet dated about 12 centuries before the birth of Pythagoras.
TIL Louis Braille faced resistance towards and doubts about his writing system for the blind, called Braille. His school burned books he and his classmates had transcribed into Braille, since the school thought that the effectiveness of Braille was a threat to their revenue.
TIL that instead of taking their usual salaries for ''Twins'', Schwarzenegger and DeVito both agreed with the studio to take 20% of the film's box office returns which resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their film careers ( movie made $216 million worldwide)
TIL that If two pieces of similar metals touch in a vacuum, and if both pieces are perfectly flat and polished, they will indeed fuse to effectively make one new piece. This is called cold welding.
TIL that after large animals went extinct, such as the mammoth, avocados had no method of seed dispersal, which would have lead to their extinction without early human farmers.
TIL when US President Harding died unexpectedly in 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office at 2:47 AM, and promptly returned to bed.
TIL The firm who repaired seat covers on San Francisco's BART trains started paying people to slash the fabric, eventually accounting for 85% of vandalism reports
TIL there are no bridges across the Amazon River
TIL space stations smell like “combinations of antiseptic, garbage, and body odor.”
TIL Bed bugs were all but eradicated in the developed world in the 1950s but had a resurgence in the 1990s due to factors including increased international travel, lack of public awareness
TIL that our voice has a considerable influence on how we are perceived by other people. A single spoken word is enough to obtain personality ratings that are highly consistent across independent listeners. Based on voice samples, AI can predict how a speaker tends to be perceived by other people
TIL Brazil is, by far, the country that takes the most showers. On average, a Brazilian showers every 12 hours.
TIL the US Navy sold 2 obsolete aircraft carriers to scrap dealers for a cent each because they were very expensive to dismantle and recycle.
TIL in the United States, obesity rates decline the higher above sea level an area is.
TIL Freshwater snails carry a parasitic disease, which infects nearly 250 million people and causes over 200,000 deaths a year. The parasites exit the snails into waters, they seek you, penetrate right through your skin, migrate through your body, end up in your blood and remain there for years.
TIL: During the filming of 'Dexter,' actor Jimmy Smits accidentally grabbed a real knife and stabbed a stuntman in the chest; the stuntman survived unharmed due to the blade hitting a post-it note sized piece of plastic covering his heart.
