50 Fascinating “Today I Learned” Posts That Might Leave You Questioning Reality (June Edition)

TIL A village in India decided that they would not switch on the street lights at night for 35 days since an Oriental Magpie Robin had made the switch box her home. The villagers decided to not disturb the bird as long as she was there. She laid three tiny eggs, two of which hatched.

Today I learned that in 1666, the English village of Eyam made an extraordinary sacrifice. After the bubonic plague reached their community, the villagers chose to quarantine themselves rather than flee. An estimated 260 villagers died, however, this decision likely saved thousands.

TIL Jason Brown, former NFL player, walked away from a 5-year, $37m deal to become a farmer. He maintains a 1,000-acre farm where he grows produce such as sweet potatoes and cucumbers. He donates these crops to local food pantries in need.

TIL The ancient Egyptian calendar had 12 months of 30 days each, with five days of partying thrown in at the end of the year to make a total of 365

TIL: West African populations carry “ghost” DNA from an unknown archaic human species that doesn’t match Neanderthals or Denisovans. Hinting at mysterious lineage.

TIL that Margaret Atwood based The Handmaid’s Tale entirely on real historical events with every element of oppression in the book having already happened somewhere

TIL in 2017 a 4-yr-old girl in Siberia awoke to find her grandmother was sick and not moving. After talking to her blind grandfather, she decided to walk 5 miles alone in temperatures as low as -34°C (-29°F) over several hours to the next homestead in order to find help, which she successfullly did.

TIL that the producers of "The X-Files" TV show originally wanted Pamela Anderson for the role of Dana Scully. Luckily for the then-unknown Gillian Anderson, executive producer Chris Carter went to bat for her, saying she was the only actress fit for the role as he imagined it.

TIL that an Australian man had his car broke down in the Outback, 150km away from the nearest town. He walked for the next 120km knowing help would not come, until he finally brushed past a search team looking for him, who found him in "remarkably good spirits"

TIL that the shopping cart debuted in 1937. Shoppers hated it. Men thought them unmanly and women found them suggestive of a baby carriage. Inventor Sylvan Goldman hired models to demonstrate it in stores. His "Basket Carriage for Self-Service Stores" soon caught on, making him a multimillionaire.

TIL that dogs can smell your stress, and make decisions accordingly

TIL a 9-yr-old boy lived alone for 2 years after he was abandoned by his mom who lived with her partner 5 km away & only visited from "time to time". He survived on cake & canned goods and didn't have hot water or heating. However, during this time he continued to attend school & was a good student.

TIL that in the late 1600s, a pirate named Henry Every led the most profitable pirate raid of all time, stealing £600,000 in precious metals and jewels (worth around $141 million today) from a convoy belonging to the Mughal Empire. This led to the first worldwide manhunt. He was never found.

TIL of the Satanic Panic, a moral panic that spread throughout the United States in the 1980s and early 90s. Despite over 12,000 claims of ritualistic Satanic a**se, investigators never found convincing evidence that any such groups existed, much less committed the claimed crimes

TIL English-speaking officials in Wales put up a bilingual sign reading "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only", but the Welsh part translated to "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated"... which was just the email response from their translator.

TIL while a woman was mowing the lawn, a 4-ft snake fell out of the sky from nowhere & wrapped around her arm. As she tried to get it off, it tried to bite her face. Then chaos ensued when a hawk swooped down & tried take it off her arm 4 times before succeeding. She then got help for her bloody arm

TIL of 'normalcy bias', a cognitive distortion that convinces people nothing is wrong during a crisis. One author said that during a tornado warning, people 'would try to shame him into denial so they could remain calm'

TIL that so many Chinese women get plastic surgery in South Korea that China now warns them to get a doctor’s note since their appearance no longer matches their passport

TIL that Italian operas used to include an unimportant song sung by a side character to give the audience a last chance to get up a buy snacks while they were singing. These songs were called sorbet arias since sorbet was commonly sold at opera houses.

TIL in the early 2000s, schools in Perth, Australia gave teenage girls infant simulator dolls that cried and fussed like real babies. The goal was to show how hard motherhood is and reduce teen pregnancy. Surprisingly, girls who got the dolls had higher pregnancy rates than those who didn’t.