Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 10:49

TIL that the human brain matures at 25 is a myth [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 07:49

TIL of OMP decarboxylase, an an extraordinarily efficient catalyst capable of accelerating the uncatalyzed reaction rate by a factor of 10^17. The uncatalyzed reaction which would take 78 million years to convert half the reactants into products is accelerated to 18 milliseconds. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 03:49

TIL that before time zones, towns kept “local solar time,” where noon was set when the Sun was highest overhead in each place. This caused clocks to differ by minutes, forcing trains to use timetables that accounted for multiple local times and prompting railroads to push for standardized time. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 00:49

TIL of 22 year old Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing, who held back a Confederate attack with his artillery during the Battle of Gettysburg. His abdomen was ripped open by shrapnel, but he continued directing fire until he died. He was awarded the Medal of Honor 151 years later. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 22:49

TIL the Teletubbies were about 2m tall in real life because of oversized costumes and scaled down sets. Also the original hill set in Wimpstone UK, was later flooded to stop fans from trespassing. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 19:49

TIL an 18th century French glutton was hired as a spy to swallow and smuggle military intel in a wooden box. After being captured by the Prussians, he was forced to "pass" the box, only for his captors to find a useless test message inside. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 19:49

TIL The rise in colon cancer in adults under 50 has been strongly and directly linked to exposure to certain strains of E.Coli in the first ten years of life [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 17:49

TIL the "Donation of Constantine"—a Roman imperial decree giving the Pope authority over the western Roman Empire—was used by medieval popes for centuries until scholars exposed it as a forgery, partly because its Latin contained "fief," a term that didn't exist in Constantine's time. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 15:49

TIL International passport control was a temporary measure introduced during WWI that became permanent. Before then borders were largely open. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 13:49

TIL that actor Cliff Robertson was involved in an embezzlement investigation in the 1970s when he reported the head of Columbia Pictures for forging his signature on a check payable to him for work he did not perform. Columbia then blacklisted him from working with them until 2002's Spider-Man. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 11:49

TIL It is estimated that a quarter of the population of Britain was killed around 6200 BC by tsunamis triggered by underwater landslides in Storegga, Norway. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 06:49

TIL about Nzou, a female elephant in a Zimbabwean reserve who shuns other elephants and has been the leader of a buffalo herd for decades. Along the years she has killed many male buffaloes who challenged her leadership. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 05:49

TIL The most successful Nazi Interrogator of allied POWS during WWII, Hanns Scharff, created the mosaics for Cinderella's Castle at Disney World [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 04:49

TIL on September 14th, 2015, the entirety of Earth was simultaneously stretched and compressed by a factor of 10^-21 because of a distortion in spacetime, which itself was caused by two black holes merging 1.4 billion years ago. A 1.8 meter human would've strained 1.8*10^-21 meters for 0.2 seconds. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 02:49

TIL about the devils footprints a 40-100 miles continuous line of cloven footprints that appeared in a single night across England [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 09:49

TIL Robert Ripley visited 200 countries hunting for the weird and was obsessed most with China. Ripley believed he was a Chinese reincarnated as an American. Ripley adopted Chinese dress and customs, filled his homes with Chinese artworks, Chinese junk, and signed his cartoons “Rip Li” for a time [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 05:49

TIL some pitcher plants evolved into shrew toilets, getting 57% to 100% of their nitrogen from tree shrew feces [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

02 May 2026 02:49

TIL that during the recording of the 1993 album “Siamese Dream,” the Smashing Pumpkins’ drummer Jimmy Chamberlin would go on extended heroin benders. After vanishing for three days, frontman Billy Corgan “put the hammer down” and made Chamberlin perform the song “Cherub Rock” until his hands bled. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 23:49

TIL about "Pastagate", an incident which occurred in Canada in 2013, where Quebec's French language regulator issued a warning to a restaurant that using the word "pasta" on its menus instead of the French "pâtes" was against the law. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 22:49

TIL during the 1970s the Church of Scientology infiltrated and stole from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies, consulates, and private organizations who were critical of its teachings. The operation was carried out by church members in more than 30 countries. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 19:49

TIL that North Korea's biggest export is fake hair amounting to 46.5% ($188M) of all exports of North Korea [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 17:49

TIL Hawaii is the only US state that has never had a temperature higher than 100F (37.8C). Alaska has reached that inland. Hawaii is also the only state to never had a lower than 0F (-17.8C) temperature. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 17:49

TIL that a doctor named Richard Jarecki recorded over 20,000 roulette spins by hand across European casinos, identified biased wheels, won the equivalent of $8 million, and was banned from every major casino in Europe — but was never charged with a crime because no law prohibited what he did. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 14:49

TIL that the state of Minnesota possesses a confederate flag captured by Union soldiers from Minnesota during the Battle of Gettysburg. The state has repeatedly refused to return the flag to the state of Virginia. Former Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura said “Why? I mean, we won.” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 13:49

TIL about "orphaned negatives"—words like disgruntled, nonchalant, and innocent whose positive counterparts (gruntled, chalant, and nocent) have completely vanished from common usage. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 10:49

TIL the human cornea is the only part of the body without blood vessels. To stay clear, it literally "breathes" by absorbing oxygen directly from the air through your tear film. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 05:49

TIL LA's landmark First National Bank building on Hollywood Blvd has been completely vacant since 2008 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 04:49

TIL the Japan Self-Defense Forces publishes an official magazine which usually features a model in a military uniform on its cover and as its centerfold. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 03:49

TIL all octopuses are programmed to die after reproducing, as an optic gland hormone triggers rapid self destruction, with males declining within days to weeks after mating and females starving while guarding eggs until death, and none of the octopus live longer than 5 years even in ideal conditions [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

01 May 2026 01:49

TIL there has been a confirmed case of a human killed by a giant anteater. [Source]