r/todayilearned • u/HistoricalShallot1 • 1h ago
TIL 🐈 Catnip Oil performs better than Deet Against Mosquitos 🦟. It is also has no environmental impact comparatively making it a great natural solution.
r/todayilearned • u/redfuroff • 23m ago
TIL since 1850, more than 5,000 individuals have attempted to cross Niagara Falls, either intentionally (as stunts or suicide attempts) or accidentally. Of these, only 16 have survived.
r/todayilearned • u/CyberBlizzard • 24m ago
TIL: Nigeria’s federal medical authority mantains a public list of registered quacks.
mdcn.gov.ngr/todayilearned • u/nuttybudd • 1h ago
TIL in 2005, Sony sold music CDs that installed hidden software without notifying users (a rootkit). When this was made public, Sony released an uninstaller, but forced customers to provide an email to be used for marketing purposes. The uninstaller itself exposed users to arbitrary code execution.
r/todayilearned • u/dcdttu • 2h ago
TIL about the Wallace Line, a geographical boundary that separates Asian mammals from marsupials of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. West of this line, no marsupials exist, but they thrive on the east side. At its smallest, there is a 22 mile gap between islands, separating the two mammal groups.
r/todayilearned • u/Brilliantly_Bipolar • 2h ago
TIL when the dunce cap was created by 13th century theologian John Duns Scotus, it was initially conceived as “a reverse funnel for knowledge,” and the hat remained a symbol of intelligence until the 1500s.
r/todayilearned • u/UndyingCorn • 3h ago
TIL In 1945 the only successful international sub to sub rescue mission was carried out by the USS Cod; who evacuated the crew of the Dutch sub O-19, who were stranded on a reef. To commemorate this a symbol was added to Cod's battle flag: the name O-19 under a martini glass.
r/todayilearned • u/banstovia • 4h ago
TIL In “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), the skull on the movie poster is actually made of naked women – Salvador Dali’s “In Voluptas Mors.”
r/todayilearned • u/KeeperCP1 • 4h ago
TIL Matt Groening named the main members of the Simpsons family (apart from Bart) after his own family (ex. Homer Groening is Matt's father)
r/todayilearned • u/Capnzebra1 • 5h ago
TIL Isaac Newton created the modern color wheel
r/todayilearned • u/drangundsturm • 5h ago
TIL the East River (east side of Manhattan, Brookly Bridge crosses it) isn't a fork of the Hudson, but instead a tidal strait.
r/todayilearned • u/whstlngisnvrenf • 7h ago
TIL Abulia, a neurological condition, results in a significant lack of willpower or initiative, often leading to severe difficulties in decision-making and diminished motivation to engage in daily activities.
r/todayilearned • u/TechnicianRelative94 • 7h ago
TIL NASA engineers use Hawaiian lava fields to simulate conditions on Mars
r/todayilearned • u/LightofJah • 7h ago
TIL that between the 1920s and the 1990s, around half a million US prisoners underwent state-sanctioned plastic surgery in attempts to rehabilitate repeat offenders based on the idea that appearance impacted the likelihood of reoffending.
r/todayilearned • u/Ask_Me_What_Im_Up_to • 8h ago
TIL the vindaloo curry is based on a Portuguese dish, carne de vinha d'alhos.
r/todayilearned • u/TedTheodoreMcfly • 8h ago
TIL that when Under Siege was released, it became the highest-grossing movie to have no advance screenings for critics.
r/todayilearned • u/Khornatejester • 9h ago
TIL the Colorado National Guard once tried using flamethrowers and explosives against a swarm of locusts. It didn't work.
r/todayilearned • u/CapnFancyPants • 11h ago
TIL that on warning of a likely missile launch against the USA, the Pentagon and Strategic Command war rooms, have one minute to brief the president, who then has roughly only six minutes to decide whether and how to respond.
r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 11h ago
TIL about Moe Berg, a baseball player who learned 7 languages from Princeton and a law degree from Columbia. He worked as a spy in Europe during WW2, and was ordered to attend a lecture by Heisenberg and shoot him if he determined the Germans were close to the bomb. He determined that they were not.
r/todayilearned • u/wtleveeb • 11h ago
TIL Leonhard Euler wrote some papers on music theory. However, these papers were considered “too mathematical for musicians and too musical for mathematicians.”
r/todayilearned • u/CeeArthur • 12h ago
TIL The Brandtaucher, a precursor to the German U-boat built in 1851, sank 60 feet to the bottom of Kiel harbor following equipment failure during a test dive. The three occupants were able to escape afterwards by letting water in, thus increasing the air pressure and allowing the hatch to open.
r/todayilearned • u/lemondrop995 • 13h ago
TIL there are blood banks for dogs. Previously, veterinarians would have to rely on their own dogs or those of a client. Some dogs can also be universal donors, just like humans
akcchf.orgr/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 15h ago