TIL about Exploding Head Syndrome (EHS) a type of sleep disorder in which you hear a loud noise or explosive crashing sound in your head. The sound isn't real or heard by anyone else.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21907-exploding-head-syndrome-ehs
TIL in 1955, a unmanned plane took off from a small aerodrome near Sydney and flew for over 2 hours over the city. Two squadrons of Air Force planes were failed to shoot it down, including one with a guy hanging out of the cockpit with a Bren gun. It was finally shot down by a third RAAF squadron.
TIL that Calling football “soccer” originated in Britain 200 years ago. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Britain began to phase out the name because it was too American.
https://www.goal.com/en/news/football-or-soccer-name-game-explained/blt5502fa82bb1a4f17
TIL the London (UK) Fire Brigade receives calls for one e-scooter or e-bike fire every two days
TIL that pilots can clearly see the curvature of the earth, especially those flying at higher altitudes
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/seeing-the-curvature-of-the-earth/
TIL that Northeast Greenland National Park holds the title as the world's largest park. If it were a country, it would rank as the 29th largest by land area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Greenland_National_Park
TIL about the "resource curse", the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources having less economic growth, less democracy, and less development than countries with fewer resources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
TIL; Bayer knowingly sold AIDS Contaminated Hemophilia blood products worldwide because the financial investment in the product was considered too high to destroy the inventory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1557alx/til_bayer_knowingly_sold_aids_contaminated/
TIL mobile homes are not called mobile homes because they can be moved but because they were invented near Mobile Alabama
TIL a study on cocaine use challenged the belief that the drug induces weight loss by suppressing appetite. Cocaine users ate way more food than non-users yet this didn't increase their fat mass and they didn't gain weight. Researchers concluded that cocaine reduces the body’s ability to store fat.
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-skinny-on-cocaine
TiL that the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" was so controversial that the Vatican allegedly excommunicated the record executive who released it in Italy. Birkin said this led to Gainsbourg calling the Pope "our greatest PR man".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Je_t'aime_moi_non_plus#Reception
TIL that Brad Pitt's brother Doug Pitt reenacted a scene from Se7en for a local beer company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiyL-AAUnvA&t=5s
TIL a man in Thailand embedded magnetic plates in his fingertips in order to cheat at Hi-Lo, an Asian variant game of dice.
https://www.odditycentral.com/news/man-inserts-magnets-in-fingertips-to-cheat-at-dice-game.html
TIL that before the Gregorian calendar went into effect in 1582, leap years were created differently. Instead of adding an extra, separate day to the end of the month (February 29th), they doubled February 24th during leap years, resulting in two consecutive days with the same date.
TIL 'Tijuana Bibles' were print versions of Rule 34 comics from almost 100 years ago
TIL that after a farm accident the dying farmer scratched his last will and testament onto a tractor fender, the tractor he was pinned under, and that fender was removed and submitted to the courts and ultimately found to be a valid will.
https://niagaralaw.ca/the-tractor-fender-will/
TIL In 2007, investors had plans to build the tallest skyscraper in Latin America in Mexico City but had trouble with zoning. It was argued that Mexico City needs about 200,000 sq m of office space a year, or seven typical 25-floor office towers
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-skyscraper-idUSN2337525320070724
TIL the first European colonial outpost was the town of Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha) founded in 1462 by Portugal, six years after they discovered Cabo Verde.
TIl that the body of water Moses parts in the Bible is actually “The Reed Sea”. Scholars are unsure if this refers to the Red Sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_Suph
