It’s the holiday season, and we understand that your brain might already be on vacation mode, pandas. But it’s still a great time to learn some fun facts!
Below, you’ll find a new batch of interesting information that’s recently been shared in the Today I Learned subreddit. From how long it takes to make a jellybean to which university has banned rock music, you’re sure to find something on this list that you’ve never heard before. So enjoy scrolling through, and don't forget to upvote the facts you’ll be sure to remember the next time you need to strike up a conversation at a party!
#41
TIL that The Simpsons episode where they go to Japan is banned in Japan.
101points
#42
TIL that although it's commonly believed that we can feel stares, studies on the Psychic Staring Effect have repeatedly produced results no better than random chance.
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100points
#43
TIL America was almost named “Amerige” meaning “Land of Amerigo”, but was changed to the feminine form America, following the naming convention of Asia and Europe.
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93points
#44
TIL: To stop cannibalism among poultry in the 1940s thought to be due to natural instinct, "Anti-Pix" sunglasses were developed to prevent birds from seeing "raw flesh or blood" due to their rose color. They worked!
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92points
#45
TIL Japan has several "Nose Tombs" which contain tens of thousands of severed noses from Korea.
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92points
#46
TIL while filming the scene in 1983’s “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie is dressed as a sheriff, a prop man gave actor Peter Billingsley real Red Man chewing tobacco. Peter, who was 12, didn’t know the difference and ingested it. Production then had to be shut down until Billingsley recovered.
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87points
#47
TIL that Mao Zedong gave out a box of mangoes gifted to him by Pakistan. A cult formed in China for the unfamiliar fruit. Replicas were made and publicly displayed. One man said that the fruit didn't look like anything special, and was shamefully paraded around his town and then publicly executed.
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85points
#48
TIL director Michel Gondry found Jim Carrey's emotional state after a breakup "so beautiful, so broken" that he asked him to stay that way for one year to fit his character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
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85points
#49
TIL it's not possible to watch every film ever nominated for Best Picture. Only 2/3 of 1928's The Patriot still exists, and the only complete prints of 1931's East Lynne and 1934's The White Parade are in the UCLA film archive
83points
#50
TIL that for several years Mick Jagger believed he was the father of Liv Tyler.
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66points
