TIL Living Alone in Italy to Cook Baked Potatoes
#til #todayilearned
TIL The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) is a large seabird that ranges across the North Pacific. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are home to 99.7% of the population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laysan_albatross
#til #todayilearned
TIL: a man named Ranald MacDonald was the first native English speaker to teach the English language in Japan. Today, statues commemorate Ronald McDonald all throughout Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranald_MacDonald
#til #todayilearned
TIL the former king of Bhutan who advocated for the use of GNH (gross national happiness) rather than GDP (gross domestic product) is married to 4 of his sisters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigme_Singye_Wangchuck
#til #todayilearned
TIL that in the 1960s the BBC refused to play popular music for young people, which created the need for off-shore pirate radio stations
#til #todayilearned
TIL it's 30 years since the Eternal September.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
#til #todayilearned
TIL that there are cameramen for animated movies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK-OzkTm4lY
#til #todayilearned
TIL Native American traders travelled between the coasts of South America and Central America using rafts with sails since at least 100 BCE. Maritime trade between modern-day Peru and Mexico is theorized to have introduced metallurgy to Central American civilizations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_rafts
#til #todayilearned
TIL that in the first draft of The Shining, Jack beat Wendy to death with a roque mallet, but it was so terrible that Stephen King couldn't leave it that way
http://www.stephenkingrevisited.com/welcome-to-the-overlook-by-bev-vincent/
#til #todayilearned
TIL that Leonardo da Vinci did not begin working on the Mona Lisa until he was in his 50s.
https://artincontext.org/mona-lisa-by-leonardo-da-vinci/
#til #todayilearned
TIL Chinese ghost weddings marry one deceased person to a living person, or two deceased people. They exist to make it so your dead loved ones won't be lonely in the afterlife. Ceremonies can include typical customs like matchmakers to dowries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ghost_marriage
#til #todayilearned
TIL that -40 degrees is the only temperature that is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius
https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/conversions/fahrenheit-to-celsius.php
#til #todayilearned
TIL that from 1952 to 1956, Kent Micronite cigarettes were sold with a filter made from asbestos. The new filter was marketed as "the greatest health protection in cigarette history."
https://www.asbestos.com/products/cigarette-filters/
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/16joqkj/til_that_from_1952_to_1956_kent_micronite/
TIL the earliest recording of the word "F*ck" was made in the year 1885, of a technician at Volta laboratories reacting to a mechanical failure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq3RsJ35LKU
#til #todayilearned
TIL about Operation Gunnerside; Just when the fuses were about to be lit, the caretaker of the heavy-water electrolysis chambers asked the saboteurs if they could help him find his glasses. The saboteurs obliged. They found his glasses, blew up the chambers and the saboteurs all got out alive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage
#til #todayilearned
TIL that a quantum transition that lasts 1/1,000th of a second is at the root of genetic mutation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eM4KkIgLeM&t=945s
#til #todayilearned
TIL in the sitcom "The King of Queens", Carrie Heffernan had a sister named Sara that was in five of the first six episodes in Season 1 and then disappeared. She was mentioned in Season 3, but later plot lines and dialogue suggested that the sister never existed, and that Carrie is an only child.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Queens#Characters
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/16jjvha/til_in_the_sitcom_the_king_of_queens_carrie/
TIL that there was a man who survived the towers collapsing on 9/11, then after walking aimlessly through the city had a chance encounter with the entire cast of Everybody loves Raymond who then housed, fed, and clothed him until he could return home safely to Staten Island the next morning .
https://youtu.be/9BZWicCjZao?si=ijzZH5ADiK3Kh7GX
#til #todayilearned
TIL crickets actually use stridulation to create their chirp, a way of making sounds through the vibrations of their wings. Similar to running your finger down the teeth of a comb
https://www.kqed.org/science/1952589/crickets-chirp-to-flirt
#til #todayilearned
TIL that women are twice as likely than men to be Constipated. This finding is consistent across 11 different studies.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885392408004557#bib3
#til #todayilearned