TIL there have been MANY cases of "elephant lynching", or the killing of an elephants for spectacle with pseudo-legal or performative aspects, in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_execution_in_the_United_States
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1gm6uv3/til_there_have_been_many_cases_of_elephant/
TIL that in 2018, during a local election for mayor in Makassar, Indonesia, a man ran unopposed and received more than 260,000 votes. He lost to a blank ballot, which received over 300,000 votes.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Makassar_mayoral_election
#til #todayilearned
TIL that while preparing for the American citizenship test in 1947, famous mathematician Kurt Gödel found an until today unresolved loophole in the constitution to legally turn the US into a dictatorship. It has been dubbed "Gödel's Loophole"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_Loophole
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1gm0z9l/til_that_while_preparing_for_the_american/
TIL that the Association of German National Jews was a group of Jewish Germans who supported Hitler in the early 1930s hoping for assimilation, but its members were later persecuted and sent to concentration camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_National_Jews
#til #todayilearned
TIL: Nábrók or Necropants, are pants made from human skin. According to Icelandic superstition, the pants can produce endless money. For it to work, your friends needs to consent, die, then you must flay the skin without any holes then wear it. Then you must enchant it by stealing from a widow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1br%C3%B3k
#til #todayilearned
TIL the interesting number paradox, which suggests that if we classify natural numbers as "interesting" or "uninteresting," a contradiction arises: the smallest uninteresting number becomes interesting simply by being the smallest in its set. This implies that every natural number is interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interesting_number_paradox
#til #todayilearned
TIL Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1gk6yrj/til_experimental_replication_shows_knives/
TIL that Hisaishi Joe, the composer on Studio Ghibli films, is a stage name that he based off of "Quincy Jones"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi#Early_life
#til #todayilearned
TIL that scientists at Stanford University have developed a smart toilet that reads your anus like a fingerprint and monitors the health of your poop and pee. The lead researcher said, "We know it seems weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique."
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/04/smart-toilet-monitors-for-signs-of-disease.html
#til #todayilearned
TIL that a Chinese man, years after being dumped by girlfriend, bought every ticket at several IMAX screenings of her favourite movie ‘Transformers’ to demonstrate his affluence.
#til #todayilearned
TIL a U.S. presidential candidate can win the Electoral College with only 23% of the popular vote. It’s unlikely but possible and it’s time to abolish the EC.
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1gi8nc1/til_a_us_presidential_candidate_can_win_the/
TIL the Diving Bell Spider spends almost all it's life underwater, it survives by spinning a web between underwater plants and then carries air from the surface down to its web via its body hairs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_bell_spider#Uniqueness_of_aquatic_behavior
#til #todayilearned
TIL that The Official Register Of Color Names (ORCN) includes many colors including piss yellow
https://color-register.org/color/piss-yellow
#til #todayilearned
TIL there is still no scientific consensus for why "the dress" appears as either white-and-gold or black-and-blue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress#Scientific_explanations
#til #todayilearned
TIL Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1ggto0q/til_harry_houdini_died_on_halloween_in_1926/
TIL of the death of Rudolf Rupp. His wife, two daughters, and one of their boyfriends falsely confessed to and were sentenced to jail for killing, dismembering, and feeding Rupp to dogs on the family farm. They were all later acquitted when his body was found intact in his car in the Danube.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/20/rudolf-rupp-farmer-family-trial
#til #todayilearned
TIL NoFap was created by a known Pseudoscience peddler.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/NoFap
#til #todayilearned
TIL Joe Metheny, serial only cooked his victims to eat himself, he also made burgers with their remains and sold them to unsuspecting customers from a roadside food stand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Metheny
#til #todayilearned
TIL - that Larry Silverstein owner of the twin towers received $4.6 billion insurance money following the 9/11 attacks. Settlement was reached in 2007 after a long legal battle whether there was 1 or 2 separate attacks. It was ruled as 2 attacks significantly increasing the insurance payout.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Silverstein
#til #todayilearned
TIL in 2021 a woman who ran out of her regular hair spray used Gorilla Glue Spray instead, believing it to also be hair spray. This resulted in her hair becoming stuck to her scalp. Eventually, a plastic surgeon performed a 4-hour long surgical procedure on her for free to remove the adhesive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessica_Brown
#til #todayilearned