30 Random Facts People Shared On ‘Today I Learned’
Sometimes I just want to learn something weird and unnecessary. The internet is great for that.
I went down a little rabbit hole in the Today I Learned community and these facts were too interesting not to pass along.
1.
TIL after a man fell in the snow in his backyard & broke his neck, his dog helped save his life by keeping him warm and alert by lying on his body and licking his face & hands for 20 hours until a neighbor finally stopped by and rushed him to the hospital. After surgery, he was able to walk again.
2.
TIL Canadians sent 5 tonnes of maple syrup to thank a Norwegian coach who gave a Canadian skier a spare pole after she broke hers mid-race, which led to Canada winning a silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics
3.
TIL that the Switzerlands largest supermarket Migros, doesn’t sell alcohol or tobacco in stores, pays no dividends, caps profits by lowering prices if earnings exceeds 5%, is a cooperative with 2M+ members, and donates 1% of revenue to social projects, purely out of the founders moral philosophy.
4.
TIL In Portugal it’s illegal for your boss to call outside work hours. The employer must respect the privacy of the worker, including periods of rest and family time. Any violation, it constitutes a serious offense and could result in a fine.
5.
TIL that Kansai International Airport in Japan reached its 30th year of service without having ever lost a single piece of luggage.
6.
TIL that playing high-level chess causes players to burn calories at an athletic rate. For example, 21-year-old Grandmaster Mikhail Antipov was recorded burning 560 calories in just two hours of sitting—roughly what Roger Federer would burn in an hour of singles tennis.
7.
TIL that “black boxes” on airplanes are legally required to be orange.
8.
TIL a Dollar General employee who was told she couldn’t keep drinks at the cash register was fired after taking and drinking a $1.69 orange juice to stave off diabetic shock. Despite her paying for the orange juice afterward, the company said she was ‘grazing’. Later, a jury awarded her $277,565.
9.
TIL that the movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” was supposed to be rated NC-17 due to excessive profanity, with the f word being used 146 times alone. The MPAA said that 400 or more swear words would get the NC-17 rating, so Matt Stone and Trey Parker cut the number in script to 399
10.
TIL about the Matilda effect. It’s a phenomenon where the achievements of women scientists and inventors get attributed to men.
11.
TIL about Odin, a dog who refused to evacuate during the 2017 California wildfires. When his owners returned days later, they found him alive and still guarding his entire flock of 8 goats
12.
TIL a Burger King cook (who’d worked there for 24 years) was fired for taking home a sandwich, fries & a drink after her manager claimed she had only asked permission for a sandwich & accused her of stealing. However, a judge ruled that the cook did not intend to steal the food & awarded her $46,000
13.
TIL in “Cast Away”, none of the sound on the island scenes is real. The loudness of ocean waves on the actual unhabited island they were filming on was so overwhelming that every sound on the island and ocean scenes, including Tom Hanks’ monologues, were carefully recorded in a studio.
14.
TIL 7-year-old Bonnie Lohman went to the store with her stepdad & saw her own face on a milk carton. She asked to keep the image & was allowed to on the condition she kept it a secret. However after her neighbors saw the image & reported it, she learned that her mom had kidnapped her when she was 3.
15.
TIL about a soda machine offering ‘mystery’ drinks operated for nearly 20 years, but no one knew who operated it or kept it stocked.
16.
TIL before 9/11, US airports were public social hubs where you could walk to the gate, eat at food courts, and watch planes without a ticket or ID.
17.
TIL a man forgot that he had stashed $100,000 inside a 1980s TV set until the cash was returned to him 30 years later after a recycling plant worker dismantled the TV and found it. The man had forgotten the cash was inside the TV when he gave it away to a family friend many years earlier.
18.
TIL about the “McEmbassy.” Every McDonald’s in Austria has a 24-hour hotline to the US Embassy to help American travellers who are in distress or have lost their passports.
19.
TIL that in 2011, a woman drowned and remained at the bottom of a busy Massachusetts public pool for two days, hidden by cloudy water
20.
TIL … about the Rice Hypothesis which posits cultures that engaged in wet rice farming that requires coordinated irrigation and synchronized planting tend to be collectivist while wheat farming cultures evolved to be more individualistic.
21.
TIL the “Invisible Gorilla” experiment which fooled most people. In a famous 1999 study, participants watched a video of people passing a basketball and were asked to count passes. Midway through, a person in a gorilla suit walked through the scene and half of participants didn’t notice the gorilla.
22.
TIL that moon dust (lunar regolith) is electrically charged and will stick to anything it comes into contact with. It’s also likely toxic to humans. Apollo astronauts regularly complained of coughing, watery eyes, throat irritation and blurry vision after each foray onto the moon’s surface
23.
TIL The 2021 Razzie Awards had a special category for “Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie,” with all eight of his performances that year being nominated. Four days after the awards ceremony, Willis’ family announced his aphasia diagnosis.
24.
TIL a woman nicknamed the ‘Rooftop Ninja’ lived for about a year inside a sign on the roof of a Family Fare grocery store in Midland, Michigan. Inside the sign, she had a computer, printer, desk, and coffee maker. She was discovered by a contractor who noticed an extension cord running into the sign
25.
TIL that 44% of the world’s adult population has never consumed alcohol
26.
TIL the actor who played Furio in the Sopranos spotted an incorrectly labeled painting at an auction. He purchased it for $68,000 and later had it correctly appraised for $10 million.
27.
TIL Takeru Kobayashi retired from competitive eating because he says he no longer feels hunger or fullness.
28.
TIL we know where China’s first emperor is buried, but his 2,200-year-old tomb—described as containing a scale model of China with rivers of mercury—has never been opened.
29.
TIL that salted raw celery used to be the third most popular dish on New York menus and more expensive than caviar due to issues with growing it.
30.
TIL Apple recently paid $95 million because Siri was caught eavesdropping on private conversations, like doctor visits and illegal deals, then sending those recordings for human contractors to listen to. Siri was triggered not just by “Hey Siri,” but by phrases that sounded similar like “seriously.”
31.
TIL Christopher Columbus made significant errors in estimating the distance to Asia. If the Americas didn’t exist, then he’d have ran out of food and passed long before reaching Japan.