worldschool
TIL The crucial reason why manholes are round is because a round lid cannot fall into a round opening whereas a square lid can fall into a square opening diagonally
Read More submitted by /u/LocusStandi [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL a woman told an auto shop she had to cancel her service appt. as her car was stolen. One of the 3 Tulsa men who own the auto shop called her back the next day to tell her he & his buddies are chasing her stolen car. With TPD dispatch, they got her car back after after a 15 min chase.
Read More submitted by /u/Miskatonica [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL during the meltdown, Chernobyl electrician Oleksander Lelechenko saved his younger colleagues from radiation exposure by walking through radioactive water three times to effect emergency repairs alone. He died in Kiev hospital less than 2 weeks after the disaster
Read More submitted by /u/HydrolicKrane [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that a new microbe called a hemimastigote was found in Nova Scotia. The Hemimastix kukwesjijk is not a plant, animal, fungus, or protozoa — it constitutes an entirely new kingdom.
Read More submitted by /u/sykate [link] [comments]
worldschool
worldschool
TIL of Jackie Coogan, a child actor in the silent film era who earned millions of dollars, only to find out in his 20s that his parents spent it all on jewelry and cars. He sued and the litigation resulted in the passage of the Coogan Act, which protects child actors
Read More submitted by /u/L1ghtf1ghter [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that there was a test several years ago where 70 undercover agents tried to sneak bombs or guns through US airport security; 67 succeeded
Read More submitted by /u/mollygk [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that in July 2012, Tim Curry suffered a major stroke which left him wheelchair bound. He has continued to work as a voice actor
Read More submitted by /u/Slats7 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that Joss Whedon wrote the Buffy episode "Hush" after hearing people say that the show was only successful because of the dialogue. Hush, with only 17 minutes of dialogue, became the only episode nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing and is considered to be one of the show's greatest.
Read More submitted by /u/derstherower [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the Hungarian Army, officially fighting on the German side, secretly assisted the Polish resistance, launching "ambushes" on the Poles and then "retreating" immediately, leaving behind massive amounts of weapons and supplies for the Poles to "capture."
Read More submitted by /u/should-stop-posting [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that Spirited Away is the only anime ever to have won an Oscar.
Read More submitted by /u/HooPyDood [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Agatha Christie described the symptoms of thallium poisoning so well in her novel, The Pale Horse, a nurse who read the novel recognized the symptoms in a baby that was dying, and saved it’s life.
Read More submitted by /u/Fmorrison42 [link] [comments]
worldschool
worldschool
TIL Syphilis used to be treated by infecting people with malaria to induce a fever. While about 15% of patients died from malaria, this was preferable to the almost-certain death from syphilis
Read More submitted by /u/The_Old_Huntress [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Dogs can understand upto a 1000 human words. They can differentiate between nouns. and verbs. More importantly Dogs also feel emotions love, jealousy etc which was previously thought to be only present in primates. They can even read people better than chimps one of our closest genetic neighbour
Read More submitted by /u/Jelegend [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Adam Walker was protected from a great white shark by a pod of dolphins while swimming to raise money for dolphin conservation. About 10 dolphins surrounded him for about 1 hr in Cook Strait, 6th leg of the Oceans Seven: a marathon of 7 long-distance open water channel swims around the world.
Read More submitted by /u/Miskatonica [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that the Mexican government sent around 500 of it's elite soldiers to be trained as commandos at Ft. Bragg(USA), in order to better combat the rising drug violence in the country. After training, many of the soldiers returned to Mexico, only to start the brutally violent drug cartel: Los Zetas.
Read More submitted by /u/XiJingPoo [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Michael Caine legally changed his name because he got sick of airport security delays caused by his passport bearing his birth name, Maurice Micklewhite. It took him until he was 83 years old to get wound up enough.
Read More submitted by /u/essentialatom [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL the line of thinking 'If I Can't Have It, Neither Can You' is called 'Crab Mentality' because when a crab in a bucket is trying to escape, the others will pull it down
Read More submitted by /u/TheWbarletta [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that some farmers in Bangladesh are now raising ducks instead of chicken because ducks can float during floods.
Read More submitted by /u/Dev-98 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that the music artist Prince had enough unreleased music written in his vault that he could make an album every year for the next century.
Read More submitted by /u/ukshj [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL OJ Simpson has paid less than 1% of the $33.5 million civil judgment against him for the wrongful death of Ron Goldman
Read More submitted by /u/therealjohnfreeman [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Charlie Chaplin was one of the planned assassination targets during a May 15, 1932 coup attempt by Japanese naval officers. While the prime minister was killed at home, Chaplin survived as he was at a sumo event with the prime minister's son.
Read More submitted by /u/Nukemarine [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL a Georgia teacher who bought a $400 travel insurance policy was rewarded $10,000 because she read the fine print of the contract. After reading to page 7, she saw a “Pays to Read” bit that said the first to email and mention the fine print contest would win 10K.
Read More submitted by /u/Miskatonica [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL there's a debate about whether math was invented or discovered. Even though math is used to measure and predict and model, it's debated whether math is inherent to the universe or if math is just something we came up with to describe/measure/predict natural phenomenon.
Read More submitted by /u/_MikePossibly_ [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that pop music has been getting increasingly repetitive, no matter the genre, and that this trend correlates most strongly with the billboard top 10.
Read More submitted by /u/SnoopDrug [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that Thomas Jefferson made his own version of the Bible, called The Jefferson Bible, by literally cutting and pasting passages from Greek, Latin, French, and English bibles that referenced Jesus' moral teachings, but left out his miracles.
Read More submitted by /u/TwoTheVictor [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL the human brain remains half awake when sleeping in a new environment for the first time.
Read More submitted by /u/Cosmogally [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that in 1999, multinational cigarette company Philip Morris attempted to convince the Czech Republic that smoking was highly beneficial to the country's economy, as more people would die earlier, hence allowing the government to save millions on health-care, pension and public-housing.
Read More submitted by /u/sykate [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived president, the longest-retired president, the first president to live forty years after their inauguration, and the first to reach the age of 95.
Read More submitted by /u/GuacaHoly [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL there was a Butt Hole Road in England but residents of Butt Hole Road had the name of the street changed to stop tourists from visiting the street
Read More submitted by /u/Joshsaw [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that during a prisoner revolt at Auschwitz in 1944, an SS guard was burned alive by prisoners in a crematorium oven
Read More submitted by /u/haroldas194 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL After losing a drunken bet with his bandmates, Sabaton singer Joakim Broden had to walk to the band's next gig. Broden walked from Falun, Sweden to Trondheim, Norway, over ~700km, staying at fans' houses and accepting food/beer donations along the way to complete the journey.
Read More submitted by /u/jamescookenotthatone [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Shoveling snow is a known trigger for heart attacks. Some hospitals even prepare for more cardiac related visits after a large snowfall.
Read More submitted by /u/NOT_A_JABRONI [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL about the Spotlight Effect, due to which people constantly believe that they are being noticed much more than they really are. Since the centre of one's own world is oneself, and not others, you cannot correctly evaluate how others feel about you.
Read More submitted by /u/rb2008 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Author Robert Howard created Conan the Barbarian and invented the entire 'sword and sorcery' genre. He took care of his sickly mother his entire adult life, never married and barely dated. The day his mother finally died, he he walked out to his car, grabbed a gun, and shot himself in the head.
Read More submitted by /u/Bluest_waters [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL in the mandrill species, if a beta male wins a fight, then it gradually transforms into an alpha male - gaining larger testicles, more colorful skin, and the ability to produce offspring with females. If an alpha male loses a fight, then the reverse happens.
Read More submitted by /u/Keagu99 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL in 1054, Chinese astronomers noted a bright "guest star" in Taurus that was visible in the daytime for 3 weeks and didn't completely fade out for almost two years. The "guest star" was actually the supernova explosion that created the Crab Nebula, which is located some 6,500 light-years away.
Read More submitted by /u/pprithamm [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL In 1965, a Ukrainian farmer dug up the lower jawbone of a mammoth. Further excavations revealed the presence of 4 huts, made up of a total of 149 mammoth bones. These dwellings, dating back some 15,000 years, were determined to have been some of the oldest shelters ever built
Read More submitted by /u/HydrolicKrane [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Milk Duds were intended to be candy spheres but the machines produced less-than-round candies which the workers called "duds". The "milk" part of the name refers to the large amount of milk in the candy.
Read More submitted by /u/sdgfunk [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL for over 70 years, allied navy ships in the Pacific fought over a photo of actress Esther Williams. Ships officers would steal or take it by force, and display it in their ship’s officers mess. It was retired in 2013 after Esther Williams died.
Read More submitted by /u/02K30C1 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that in the 2018 Hawaii false missle alert, PornHub offered an unusual sociological report. After the alert was sent, traffic on PornHub dropped 77%. Nearly an hour after people were informed of a false alarm, PornHub traffic jumped to 48% more than normal from people relieving themselves.
Read More submitted by /u/SpeedieWeenie [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL “Decimation” was a form of punishment within the Roman Army in which every tenth man was executed by his fellow troops. It was used to punish offenses such as mutiny, desertion, and cowardice. The word “decimation” is derived from Latin meaning “removal of a tenth.”
Read More submitted by /u/TomBombadilio242 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL famous chemist and lifelong bachelor Robert Bunsen once proposed to a girl who said yes, but he then lost himself in his work for a few weeks. When he finally emerged from his lab, he couldn't remember if he ever proposed or not, so he did it again, only to have her turn him down.
Read More submitted by /u/MinisterCinder [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that men and women speak different dialects of the Yanyuwa language. The only time that men use the women's dialect is if they are quoting someone of the opposite sex and vice versa.
Read More submitted by /u/emilylikesredditalot [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that alchemist Hennig Brand is thought to have used upwards of 1500 gallons of human urine in his quest to make gold. After he evaporated, boiled and distilled it multiple times, it started to glow in the dark and burst into flames. He had instead discovered the element phosphorus.
Read More submitted by /u/seascarlet11 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL of Ruth Coker Burks. During the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, she used her salary as a real estate agent to provide support, medication and palliative care for more than 1000 AIDS patients whose families had abandoned them, and for some, burying them in her own family cemetery in Arkansas.
Read More submitted by /u/P_U_K_E_K_O [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Scientists believe that younger Sand Dollars sift through sand and ingest small grains Magnetite, an iron-rich deposit found in the ocean. These Sand Dollars will then take these grains and store them in chambers inside their body to help weigh them down and keep them from floating away.
Read More submitted by /u/Kdot22 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that in the 1900s Argentina had a tax on unmarried men that included an exemption for single men who had proposed to a woman for marriage but were rejected. Women then started proposals rejection businesses where they would charge to turn down proposals from bachelors seeking to evade the tax.
Read More submitted by /u/fishy_biz [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Lithuania could not afford to send its men's basketball team to the 1992 Olympics, so the Grateful Dead sent the team colorful, free-flowing tie-dye warm-up jerseys with a flying, dunking skeleton, and the team took the bronze medal.
Read More submitted by /u/sisyphushaditsoeasy [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that in the 1920s, a man convinced his wife to pull out all her teeth and then refused to buy her dentures because it was ‘cheaper to feed her soup than solid food’. The wife took him to court and the man was told to get her two new sets of teeth and at least a beef steak a week.
Read More submitted by /u/LosTerminators [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL some Californian red and white wines went up against French wines in a 1976 blind competition judged by the top wine experts in the world. It was considered a non-event... until the American wines won. And it changed the wine industry forever.
Read More submitted by /u/the_original_Retro [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL At age 113, Bernando LaPallo continued to shop for himself, cook, bathe, shave without any assistance from anyone to help him in and out of the shower. He generally slept by 9:30 and got up at 3:30 or 4 am
Read More submitted by /u/vannybros [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that roundabouts reduce fatalities from accidents by 72-82%. They also lower wait times and save gas.
Read More submitted by /u/VictorJ45 [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL: In 1775, Mass. farmer Samuel Whittemore, 78 and alone, fired upon British soldiers killing 3. Now out of ammo, he drew his sword to continue the fight. He was shot in the face, bayoneted multiple times, and left for dead. When found, he was trying to reload his musket. He died 18 years later.
Read More submitted by /u/nickbmd [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL: Attending Harvard is free if your household income is below 65K a year. Harvard’s financial aid programs pay 100 percent of tuition, fees, room, and board for students from families earning less than $65,000 a year.
Read More submitted by /u/Jedi_Lucky [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL that in 2012 an 11 year old boy accidentally flew to Rome alone without any money, passports, or boarding passes while running away from his mom in a mall. No one realized until the plane was already halfway to Italy.
Read More submitted by /u/imscaredofostriches [link] [comments]
worldschool
TIL Romans were known to create tombs for their dogs and gave them epitaphs to remember them by. One such inscription read, “I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home with my own hands 15 years ago.”
Read More submitted by /u/unnaturalorder [link] [comments]
