Learning is a lifelong process. And it can bring so much joy. But schools, workplaces, and all the compliance drills that come with them can make us associate it with arbitrary pass/fail cut-offs and other sinister consequences.
Luckily, you can still acquire new information just for the sake of it.
There's a subreddit called r/TodayILearned. This online community has 24.9 million members, constantly sharing the most interesting random facts they have stumbled upon, and it has become such a vast catalog of trivia, it's easily one of the best "encyclopedias" online.
So dust off your brain cells and keep scrolling—below are some of the posts that recently went viral on the subreddit. And if you're like Tai Lopez and can't get enough of knowledge, check out Bored Panda's earliest articles on r/TodayILearned here, here, and here.
#41
Koi carps bred outside of Japan live on average 15 years, while the average age of Japanese koi is 40 years and the oldest recorded lifespan is 226 years (the Koi named Hanako lived from 1751 to 1977).
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152points
#42
Charlie no-face is an urban legend of a monster who takes walks during the nights of Pennsylvania, in reality the man (named Raymond Robinson) had a severely disfigured face because of a childhood accident that he couldn't go in public without causing a panic, so he took night walks.
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151points
#43
South Park co-creator Trey Parker begged his show's executive producer not to air one South Park episode because he was afraid it would ruin South Park. That episode was "Make Love, Not Warcraft" which received critical acclaim and earned a Primetime Emmy Award
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146points
#44
The Python programming language is named after the BBC show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and has nothing to do with reptiles.
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137points
#45
When Ratatouille was being animated, one of the Pixar employees jumped into a pool in a cook's uniform and apron so that the team could see how the clothing looked when wet.
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136points
#46
There's a spy themed restaurant called the SafeHouse. It was founded in 1966 and it has a hidden location with a secret entrance. A password is needed to enter and if it's not given, patrons will have to do silly tasks that are broadcasted to people inside the restaurant in order to enter.
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130points
#47
The former CEO of Coca-Cola, Roberto Goizueta, was the first person to become a billionaire by being an employee and not a company founder (or heir).
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128points
#48
The movie Independence Day still holds the record for most miniature models to appear in one film. Approximately 95% of the movie's special effects were shot using miniatures and due to the advances in digital technology this record may stand forever.
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126points
#49
When Don Cheadle was first offered the role of War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was told he only had an hour to decide on the 12-year commitment. When Cheadle responded that he was at his kid's birthday party, the Marvel rep said, "Oh! Oh, take two hours"
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124points
#50
To clean out the sewer pipes that tended to block, the mayor of the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe instituted a synchronized flush. Residents who did not comply were fined.
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118points