TIL of the Red Ghost, a legend about a demonic figure roaming Arizona in the late 1800's and once killed a woman. It turned out to be a feral camel with the decaying corpse of a man strapped on its back, likely a result of Jefferson Davis' attempt to create a camel division in the US army
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore)
#til #todayilearned
TIL: There is a $10 Quintillion asteroid between Mars and Jupiter
#til #todayilearned
TIL although the film is only 1 hour and 37 minutes, the word Michael was said 114 times in the 1987 film the lost boys
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3404570/the-lost-boys-ever-notice-many-times-say-michael/
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1h7v16n/til_although_the_film_is_only_1_hour_and_37/
TIL the current Spanish-language World Champion for Scrabble has previously also won the French-language and English-language championships. A New Zealander, he only speaks English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Richards_(Scrabble_player)
#til #todayilearned
TIL that Ernest, Jim Varney's Character, was originally dreamed up to star in advertising commercials for years before his first movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1G7KQZpP3c
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1h6yfls/til_that_ernest_jim_varneys_character_was/
Today I Learned that there is a myth in Iceland about the Yule Cat. He eats people that don't get new clothes for Christmas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_cat
#til #todayilearned
TIL Due to their genes, redheads may need about 20% more anesthesia than non-redheads.
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/natural-redheads-may-need-more-anesthesia
#til #todayilearned
TIL: Tyromancy is divination or fortune telling using cheese, which was used from 200 AD to the Middle Ages. It is achieved by observing a cheese's smell, patterns, texture, shape, and holes. A heart shape means love, for example. The "best" type of cheese to use was blue cheese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyromancy
#til #todayilearned
TIL that the average 30-something couple has sex 86 times per year
#til #todayilearned
TIL about the unsolved 1922 Hinterkaifeck murders in Bavaria, where six family members were killed with a mattock, and the murderer(s) lived on the farm with the corpses for days, feeding animals and lighting fires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterkaifeck_murders
#til #todayilearned
TIL George Washington prevented a military coup over unpaid back wages by putting on a pair of glasses to read a letter from Congress, explaining he was "almost blind in the service of my country.” Moved to tears, his officers compromised.
https://explorethearchive.com/george-washington-prevented-military-coup-glasses
#til #todayilearned
TIL In January 1944 the Australian 9th Division found the Japanese 20th Division’s entire cryptographic library in New Guinea. The codes were buried in a steel trunk during a retreat and found by engineers looking for mines. This find lead to around 36,000 messages being decrypted in March alone.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/436784/japanese-code-library-found-new-guinea
#til #todayilearned
TIL Nigel Richards recently won the 2024 Spanish World Scrabble Championship by going 21-0 despite not speaking Spanish.
#til #todayilearned
TIL of the pumpkin toadlet, a tiny frog the size of a Tic Tac that has trouble landing after a jump because their semicircular canals have gotten so small that they're not sensitive enough to be used to detect angular acceleration. They often end up flopping backwards or doing backflips instead.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-tuesday-edition-1.649…
#til #todayilearned
TIL you can get killed from fermented food (by a bacterium that contaminates it)
https://www.poison.org/articles/bongkrekic-acid-poisoning-fermented-food-204
#til #todayilearned
TIL in 1991, the US killed over 400 Iraqis taking cover in a civilian bomb shelter with Raytheon “Bunker Busters”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiriyah_shelter_bombing
#til #todayilearned
TIL The Strauss–Howe Generational Theory. The Theory states that a crisis recurs in American history after every saeculum (85 years), which is followed by a recovery. 85 years ago was the invasion of Poland and the beginning of WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1h0ilom/til_the_strausshowe_generational_theory_the/
TIL about seasteading, the creation of permanent dwellings in international waters (seasteads) that are independent of governments. No one has yet created a structure recognized as a state. Proposed structures have included modified cruise ships, refitted oil platforms, and custom floating islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasteading
#til #todayilearned
TIL about Dick Stevenson, the legendary Canadian bartender who invented the “sour toe” cocktail. The drink contains a mummified human toe and in when Dick died 5 years ago, his will stated that all 10 of his toes be used in making sour toe cocktails.
#til #todayilearned
TIL FATCA effectively bans Americans from opening bank accounts abroad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act
#til #todayilearned
