We learn something new every day. Sometimes completely by chance. For example, did you know that French newborns cry with a rising melody, while German newborns cry with a falling melody? Or that people living within one mile of a golf course have a 126% higher risk of a Parkinson's Disease diagnosis than those living further away?
If you're looking for some new gems to add to your wealth of knowledge, you might want to join a community of like-minded individuals over at the Today I Learned page. More than 5.2 million people pop in every week to devour and share fascinating and fun facts. Every now and again, Bored Panda compiles a list of the page's best posts and we're giving you another round right now...
#21
TIL only a fraction of Isaac Newton's total written output was dedicated to science and math. 60% of his surviving written works were dedicated to Biblical prophecy and alchemy.
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39points
#22
TIL when a woman preparing to move was going to throw out a painting that had hung in her kitchen for years, her family called in an expert to appraise it. This led to a specialist authenticating it as a 13th-century work by Cimabue, who had only 15 known works in the world. The work sold for $26.8m
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39points
#23
TIL that in 2021, 11-year-old Laney Perdue became the sole survivor of a plane crash thanks to her father, who wrapped her in a bear hug as the plane was going down. When she was recovered alive from the crash, all her injuries were on the opposite side of her body from where her father was sitting.
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38points
#24
TIL in 2001 Sharon Stone arranged a private visit to the LA Zoo's komodo dragon pen for her then-husband, who'd always wanted to see one up close. However, the dragon attacked him by biting his foot and attempting to eat it by jerking back & forth. He survived, but the top half of his foot was gone.
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38points
#25
TIL that as a research chemist at Oxford University, Margaret Thatcher co-authored a 1951 paper on the “saponification of α-monostearin”; she later said she was prouder of her science degree than becoming the first female Prime Minister.
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38points
#26
TIL that Nigeria is the second largest consumer of Guinness beer, ahead of its native Ireland. Nigerian Guinness is also almost twice as strong (7.5% ABV) as the Irish version (4.2% ABV).
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38points
#27
TIL hikers in the Alps discovered Otzi in 1991, a 5,300-year-old man naturally preserved in ice. Scientists identified his last meal as ibex meat and grains, found over 60 soot tattoos around his joints and spine, and recovered his copper axe, flint knife, a fire-starting kit and grass cloak.
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37points
#28
TIL : Cold temperatures weaken nasal immunity, making us more vulnerable to viruses. A mere 5°C drop in nasal tissue temperature reduces immune response by nearly half.
37points
#29
TIL of the knight William Marshal, who rose from obscurity to win 500 tournaments, saved Eleanor of Aquitaine from capture, unhorsed Richard the Lionheart in combat, journeyed to the Holy Land, redrafted Magna Carta and saved England from a French invasion by personally leading a charge at age 70
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35points
#30
TIL that since 2014, a group of activists have been slowly expanding a decentralized network of routers that allow residents of New York City to access the internet completely for free
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35points
#31
TIL Krakatoa's eruption was estimated to be at 310 dB, the loudest sound ever. Well above the typical max sound limit of 194 dB
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34points
#32
TIL the City of London has paid the Crown rent on a parcel of land in Shropshire since 1211, but the exact location of the land has been lost to history. The annual payment is a billhook (a knife-like agricultural tool) and an axe.
34points
#33
TIL author Chuck Palahniuk came up with the idea to write Fight Club after getting beat up on a camping trip when he asked other campers to turn their music down. When he returned to work bruised and swollen, his co-workers avoided asking him what had happened on the camping trip.
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33points
#34
TIL Obi-Wan Kenobi's home planet is named "Stewjon" a play on the name of "Daily Show" host John Stewart. During an interview about Star Wars, John asked Lucas the name of Obi-Wan's home planet, and he answered Stewjon, jokingly. It was then made canon, after being mentioned in several guide books.
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32points
#35
TIL that since 1993, there have been 47 incidents of Sri Lankan sports teams disappearing during overseas trips. The most famous was in 2004, when a 23-man "national handball team" vanished in Germany; it was later found that Sri Lanka didn't even have a handball federation
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32points
#36
TIL that the Iliad and the Odyssey are part of a cycle of eight ancient Greek epic poems, the other six of which are lost and of which only fragments survive
31points
#37
TIL Mayo Clinic data found that individuals living within one mile of a golf course have a 126% higher risk (more than double the odds) of a Parkinson's diagnosis compared to those living six or more miles away
30points
#38
TIL that China consumes 46% of cigarettes in the entire world at a rate of 2.4 trillion a year.
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30points
#39
TIL most people in France did not speak French as recently as 1794, when only 11% of the population of France spoke fluent French. Instead, most people spoke regional languages like Occitan, Breton, Alsatian etc. French only became the majority language later on due to heavy assimilation efforts.
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30points
#40
TIL Prince was the original choice to play the role of Ruby Rhod in The Fifth Element, which Chris Tucker ended up playing, but he backed out because Jean Paul Gaultier’s costumes were ‘too effeminate.’
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30points