From endless, scrollable feeds to high speed internet, these days, many of us might take it for granted that you can literally, at the push of a button, see a whole host of new information every single second of the day. If that sounds overwhelming, do not fear, helpful netizens are out there to filter and share the best bits.
We’ve gathered another dose of interesting and novel “today I learned” facts to impress at dinner parties and dominate at trivia games. So get comfortable as you scroll though, upvote the things you learned and be sure to comment your thoughts and experiences below.
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Image credits: Puzzleheaded-Cat4647
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Sometimes the world can seem like a pretty scary place. Other times, just the sheer volume of information is enough to make people resist casually searching for things or ideas. After all, most sites are unwaveringly aggressive in throwing words and provocative images at you, while other times things get lost in the deluge of “breaking news.”
So, to beat back the doldrums, here are some bits of good news just from this May (2024): firstly, for the first time perhaps ever, over 30% of all global electricity is made using renewable energy.
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If that’s not enough, an often understated part of constant medical improvements worldwide is the fact that more and more mothers survive childbirth. Over the last two decades, maternal mortality rates have been cut in half as medical knowledge and experience becomes better distributed across the globe.
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But wait, there’s more! While it might not be nearly as exciting, a group of Cambridge University scientists have developed a way to make carbon neutral cement. Maybe this is a bit, if you will pardon the pun, dry, but making even the act of building more sustainable is an important step for the future. After all, look around you, cement is everywhere!
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Last, but not least, again in the UK, scientists have developed a form of gene therapy that might be able to restore hearing to some forms of deafness. This comes after a trial of the treatment that helped return hearing to 18 month old UK toddler, Opal Sandy. Once perfected, this method could be applied to a great number of conditions.
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Humans are the "most sensitive" to the castor oil seeds: it takes 1 to [take out] a full grown human, 11 to [take out] a dog, and a massive dose of 80 to [take out] a duck. The seeds contain ricin which is roughly 6000 times more poisonous than cyanide.
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Spartan law forbade the marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s. The reasons were to ensure the birth of healthy children; and to spare women the risks and lifelong health damage associated with adolescent pregnancy.In 2020, five Lithuanian soldiers went missing during a graduation exam. Thinking the exercise was still ongoing, they successfully evaded all attempts to find them. A military spokesman said their performance was "exemplary."Disney cofounder Roy Disney spent time with his grandchildren every week at Disneyland. Roy greeted each employee by name and picked up garbage he saw on the ground to teach them "Nobody is too good to pick up trash”.John Krasinski fought for a deaf actress Millicent Simmonds to be cast in 'A Quiet Place'; she taught everyone sign language on set.Egyptian builders such as those of the pyramids were usually not slaves, and frequently took sick days from work. Popular excuses included “stung by scorpion”, “bleeding wife”, “trouble with eye”, and even “brewing beer”.Obelisk, a Queen's Guard horse, who used to lure pigeons to him by dropping oats from his mouth. When they came close, he would stomp them to death. He was eventually taken for additional 'psychological training'.Scientists have been communicating with apes via sign language since the 1960s; apes have never asked one question.Menstruation is actually very rare in mammals. Other than humans, only 9 primate species, 4 bat species, the elephant shrew, and one species of mouse menstruate. All other female mammals reabsorb their uterine lining, rather than shed it.When Arnold Schwarzenegger auditioned for the movie Hercules in New York (his film debut), his agent said he had years of "stage" experience, implying theater, when he had only appeared on bodybuilding stages.American composer Kevin MacLeod allows anyone to use his music for free, as long as he receives credit for the song. This has led to his music being used in thousands of films, millions of videos on YouTube.In Germany a driver's license costs over $2000 after a minimum of 25-45 hours of professional instruction plus 12 hours of theory.'Botanical sexism' refers to the practice of preferentially planting cloned male plants in urban areas to avoid the litter of fruits and flowers. However, since male plants produce pollen, this can lead to high pollen levels in the air, making the area inhospitable for people with allergies.In Bhutan, people do not recognize, and many do not know, their individual birthdays. Everyone in the country turns another year older together each January 1st.The common plastic garden chair is called a "Monobloc" chair, and was once banned in Switzerland for polluting the cityscape.Castrated men do not go bald. Balding is caused by sex hormones which castrated men do not produce.Multiple studies have found that an extra inch of height can be worth an extra $1,000 a year in wages both for men and women.Most people can see their own white blood cells moving through their retinas.A man died in the lighthouse he built. Henry Winstanley was so confident in the lighthouse's design that he wished to be inside during "the greatest storm there ever was". The lighthouse was completely destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703, killing Winstanley.Yellowstone’s famed thermal pools can melt flesh and bone. In 2016, a tourist illegally searching for a swimmable hot spring fell into a portion of the Norris Geyser Basin, where his body was dissolved by the boiling, highly acidic water. His wallet and shoes were all that remained of him.Helium was detected on the sun before it was detected on Earth. That's why it was named for Helios, the Greek god of the sun.Sylvester Stallone asked Survivor to write the song Eye of the Tiger because Queen wouldn't let him use Another One Bites the Dust.Benjamin Franklin used to sit around naked for extended periods to take air baths.A 2022 survey of 3,000 adults & children found that just 27% of children (ages 6-16) said they regularly play outside their homes, whereas, 71% of the baby boomer generation said they did when they were children (80% for those ages 55-64).In 2008, Tesla took the TV series Top Gear to court for libel and malicious falsehood after it suggested one of its vehicles had run out of power after only 55 miles. The High Court of Justice in London rejected Tesla's libel claim in 2011.Cars must have at least three-quarters of a tank in order to leave Singapore, in order to stop them from buying cheaper gas in Malaysia and circumventing Singapore's gas tax.Recruitment to the British Army's Gurkha unit is extremely competitive, accepting only 230 recruits out of 28,000 applicants. All recruitment happens in Nepalese villages, and candidates must participate in a two-mile race up a steep hill, carrying 35kg of rocks in a basket.The Nuremberg Trials executioner lied to the US Military about his prior experience. He botched a number of hangings prior to Nuremberg. The Nuremberg criminals had their faces battered bloody against the too-small trapdoor and were hung from short ropes, with many taking over 10 minutes to die.There have been multiple attempts to privatize the National Weather Service and charge for weather data that is currently in the public domain.The famous "We Can Do It!" poster was barely known during WWII. It was displayed for two weeks as part of a series of posters to boost worker morale in one company's factories. It remained virtually unknown until the 1980s when it was rediscovered in an article about the National Archives.Amelia Earhart had a copilot when she disappeared, his name was Fred Noonan.GPS, despite being free for global use, costs around $2 million a day to operate and maintain. This budget covers satellite launches and system upkeep, funded through American tax revenue.Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill. There are specific techniques and tips, like learning to check your reality, that can increase chances of having a lucid dream.Charlize Theron's mother shot and killed her father in self defense in front of her. Charlize would later go on to be the first person born in Africa to win an Oscar for acting.Ben Stiller developed the premise for Tropic Thunder while shooting Empire of the Sun. He wanted to make a film based on the actors he knew who became "self-important" & appeared to believe they had been part of a real military unit after taking part in boot camps to prepare for war film roles.There were 12 confirmed dogs on the Titanic and 3 of them survived.In 2020 Cambridge University Library announced that two notebooks written by Charles Darwin, "worth many millions of pounds", had been missing for 20 years & had likely been stolen. One of the notebooks contains Darwin's famous Tree of Life sketch that explores the relationship between species.A Chinese man was thought to have died from a lightning strike until his body exploded at his cremation. A piece of metal was found leading to the discovery that a weather rocket, meant to break up hail, had failed to explode & had fallen through the man's roof acting like a bullet, killing him.“Smiley Face Theory,” which alleges that from 1990–2010, 45 young men found dead in bodies of water across the Midwest did not accidentally drown but were rather victims of a serial killer. The only known connection is grafiti depicting a “smiley face” found near at least a dozen bodies.A number of people, including a group of Swedish researchers, tried to replicate the experiment shown in the documentary Super Size Me(2004). None of them were able to get the same results as the documentary creator.Steller’s sea cows were massive, docile animals that were exterminated less than 30 years after the species was first discovered.Only three objects have ever been found inside the Great Pyramid of Giza- pieces of wood, a ball made of diorite, and a copper hook. They were found in 1872 in a shaft leading from the Queen's Chamber.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.Celine Dion represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Contest and won, even through she was a French-Canadian.In 2013, a man tried to dribble a football from Seattle to Brazil to promote a charity. He was run over and killed by a truck just 250 miles into his 10,000-mile trip.Aztecs had 18 festivities each year, 17 of which included human sacrifices. Apart from extraction of the heart, they used variety of other methods; drowning, starvation, decapitation, burning, bludgeoning, throwing from heights, forced gladiatorial combat and shooting with arrows.No one has seen a newborn great white shark pup or birth in the wild.US airlines are legally required to refund a ticket within 24 hours of purchase, no matter if the ticket type was refundable or not.EA makes $420 millon/year off of the Sims 4.James Cameron offered Matt Damon 10% of "Avatar," which would've earned the actor over $250 million.
