"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts)

TIL that using recycled glass to make new glass requires 40% less energy than making it from all new materials. It saves energy because crushed glass melts at a lower temp than the raw materials. Glass is sometimes recycled into "glassphault" or is used as a landfill covering over waste materials.

TIL Ronald Reagan started eating Jelly Belly's to quit smoking and kept it up so much that during his terms as President he would have more than 300 thousand jelly beans shipped to the White House each month

TIL after tigers escaped from a zoo in Georgia and killed a man, advice was issued on what to do if you meet a tiger, including: don’t approach it, don’t run away, and don’t urinate

TIL that Ben Franklin's invention of the lightning rod was blamed by church leaders for the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake off the coast of Colonial Massachusetts — as his "heretical rods" interfered with the "artillery of Heaven" & deprived God of using lightning as "tokens of His displeasure."

TIL Tasmanian Devils bear up to 50 babies, but only have four nipples. The first four babies that successfully make it from the birth canal into the pouch stand a chance of surviving, while the rest die and are eaten by the mother.

TIL a "Chernobyl necklace" is a horizontal scar at the base of the throat from surgery to remove thyroid cancer caused by fallout from a nuclear accident

TIL in 2013 in Florida, a sink hole unexpectedly opened up beneath a sleeping man’s bedroom and swallowed him whole. He is presumed dead.

TIL that maggot therapy is an FDA approved treatment option for ulcers and wounds to promote healing. Live maggots are placed at the site of injury and eat the necrotic tissue, while also secreting anti-microbial chemicals.

TIL that due to ADA standards, elevators going up ding once and elevators going down ding twice to help those with disabilities

TIL actor Matt Doherty, who played Les Averman in the Mighty Ducks films, didn't know how to skate or play hockey at all when he was cast in the first movie. By the time they shot the 3rd movie, he was captain of his high school hockey team and had been offered a scholarship to play in college.

TIL animal “zoomies” have a technical name: Frenetic Random Activity Periods, or “FRAPs”

TIL about the 1936 presidential election in which Roosevelt received 98.49% of the electoral vote total, which remains the highest percentage of the electoral vote won by any candidate since 1820.

TIL in 2018, a 34-year-old man blew a hole in his throat by holding his nose and closing his mouth while sneezing. The expulsion of air from a sneeze can propel mucous droplets at a rate of 100 mph. He was given antibiotics and put on a feeding tube for 7 days and recovered with no permanent damage.

TIL the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster was Valery Khodemchuk who died as the reactor exploded, his body was never found and is entombed in the wreckage of the Chernobyl power plant

TIL that there's something called the "preparedness paradox." Preparation for a danger (an epidemic, natural disaster, etc.) can keep people from being harmed by that danger. Since people didn't see negative consequences from the danger, they wrongly conclude that the danger wasn't bad to start with

Til wolverine was created because Marvel's then editor in chief Roy Thomas wanted a Canadian hero to boost north-of-the-border sales

TIL that the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft has a replica of Nábrók (or necropants), a pair of pants made from the skin of a dead man or woman, which are believed in Icelandic witchcraft to be capable of producing an endless supply of money.

TIL of the museum infested with the Chilean Recluse spider (Loxosceles laeta), widely considered to be the most venomous of its kind. The museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, is located in Helsinki & no one is sure how the spider, native to South & Central America, came into the museum.

TIL in 1994, the family of 13-year-old Chris Kirkland made a bet that one day their son would play for Team England, with a bookie giving them 100-1 odds. The bet paid off in 2006, when the goalkeeper played for England in a match against Greece, with the family making £10,000

TIL of Puppy Pregnancy Syndrome, a psychosomatic illness found only in parts of India, where individuals who have been bitten by a dog believe that a puppy is conceived in their abdomen. Sufferers often report seeing the puppy in their reflection, or hearing it growl in their belly.