Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 15:49

TIL Humans are not the only species that has discovered agriculture. Ants have been practicing agriculture for at least 50 million years. The domestication of plant, fungus, and animal species by ants is well documented. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 11:49

TIL Freddy Krueger was named after a guy who bullied Wes Craven when he was a kid [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 06:49

TIL Sony Pictures failed to adapt Michael Lewis' best-selling book Flash Boys into a movie because of their apprehension with having an Asian lead actor, as revealed in private emails leaked in the 2014 Sony Pictures hack. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 04:49

TIL about Helen Hulick Beebe, who was called as a witness in the trial of two men accused of burgling her home. The judge disapproved of her wearing trousers instead of a dress, and ordered her to return 'properly attired'. When she returned still wearing pants, the judge jailed her for contempt. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 01:49

TIL during WWII, the USS Shark torpedoed and sank a Japanese freighter carrying 1,781 POWs. Only nine survived. A Japanese destroyer dropped depth charges and destroyed the Shark in the same battle. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 23:49

TIL that the nation of Ghana offers a Right of Abode, which grants anyone from the African diaspora a right to move to, and live in, Ghana indefinitely. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 21:50

TIL of Hitobashira, the cultural practice of burying people alive under buildings before construction [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 19:49

TIL that Tom Selleck was almost cast as Indiana Jones instead of Harrison Ford. He only lost out because CBS wouldn't let him out of his contract for Magnum PI. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 18:49

TIL that the reason alarm clocks and phones use a 9 minute snooze is a throwback to mechanical clocks. Setting a ten minute snooze would have required more complicated mechanisms, so a 9 minute snooze was implemented instead [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 16:49

TIL solar storms can affect our circadian rhythms, nervous systems, heart rate, blood pressure, mental health, and cognitive function. There is also an increase in adverse pregnancy outcomes. Some people are more sensative than others. This is according to Harvard School of Public Health research. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 15:50

TIL that mosquitoes find humans by sniffing out two specific skin chemicals, decanal and undecanal, released in our natural skin oils. These trigger a human-only scent response, making us nearly impossible for them to ignore. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 14:49

TIL that the composers of the Amen Break, which is one the most sampled track in history, received no royalties because the statute of limitations for copyright infringement had passed. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 11:49

TIL of the 85 known drugs that interact with grapefruit, 43 can have serious side-effects including sudden death, acute kidney failure, respiratory failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and bone marrow suppression in people with weakened immune systems. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 07:49

TIL of the Dugway sheep incident. March 13, 1968 A military jet leaked nerve agent over Utah's Skull Valley where it killed 6,000 sheep. It took 30 years for the military to admit it happened. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 05:49

TIL that a snowflake takes 1 hour to fall from a cloud to the ground [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 14:49

TIL producer Christopher Nolan initially opposed & tried to change director Zack Snyder & writer David Goyer's idea to have Superman kill Zod at the end of Man of Steel. He told them "There's no way you can do this". However, Goyer convinced him with a scene where Superman killing Zod saves a family [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 06:49

TIL in 1976, Jaime Sin was appointed a Cardinal in the Catholic Church, being formally known as "Cardinal Sin". He would greet guests to his home with "Welcome to the house of Sin". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 05:49

TIL a human brain uses 12 watts to think while, if it could, an AI system doing the same processing could use 2.7 billion watts [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 04:49

TIL After British Airways Flight 9 flew through volcanic ash, the Captain announced "We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 June 2025 00:49

TIL Brian Wilson was deaf in his right ear, and thus mixed the Beach Boys' albums in mono because that was the only way he could hear them. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 22:49

TIL of Merv, a now unpopulated oasis in the Central Asian desert. It may have been the largest city in the world by population in the 12th and 13th centuries, before being massacred during the Mongol conquests, and later forcibly depopulated in 1789 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 20:49

TIL Marcus Aurelius' decision to waive the imperial tax on the sale of gladiators was so popular that the transcript of the entire senate debate on the law was carved in stone across the empire, an expensive and thus unique undertaking. The tax break was estimated at 30-20 million sesterces a year [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 18:49

TIL chewing gum influences appetite and leads to a decrease in the feeling of hunger, desire to eat, and desire to eat a sweet snack [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 17:49

TIL cats meow primarily to communicate with humans [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 16:49

TIL that Bir Tawil is the only land on Earth that no country claims. Egypt and Sudan both refuse to take it, because claiming it means giving up a much nicer piece of land. So it just… sits there. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 15:50

TIL: the Vestal Virgins held unique and extraordinary rights and privileges in Roman society, including some that no other had, male or female. They were sovereign and sacrosanct, answerable only to the emperor. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 11:49

TIL about Hysterical Strength - situations, most often of extreme danger, when people who were not known for their strength display physical strength beyond their apparent ability [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 10:49

TIL Nixon sabotaged Vietnam peace talks to get elected, causing the war to continue for 5 additional years. President Lyndon B Johnson chose not to go public with this to avoid dividing the country [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 06:49

TIL that the last Emperor of Bulgaria returned after the fall of Communism, ran a political party, and served as prime minister of the Bulgarian Republic from 2001-2005 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 04:49

TIL the British Navy had an entire department in WWII devoted to inventing ridiculous and unconventional weapons. They came up with ideas like exploding rats, rocket-powered wheels, and even using bird poop to blind U-BOAT periscopes. [Source]