Learning doesn’t stop the moment you get your diploma. Finishing kindergarten with flying colors? Acing middle school? Graduating high school? Finishing college? Getting your mitts on that coveted PhD that proves you always had it in you? They’re all amazing accomplishments, but they pale in comparison to what matters the most: keeping the spark of curiosity alive as you grow up and get older.
The ‘Today I Learned’ online group on Reddit is a community that celebrates lifelong learning, knowledge, and showing off our collective curiosity about the world. In short, for any Harry Potter fans out there (probably most of you Pandas, right?), it’s probably the most Ravenclaw place on the internet. A whopping 26.3 million fact-loving redditors call it their home and help make the internet a more enlightened place.
We’ve collected some of the most interesting and intriguing facts for you to enjoy today, as featured on TIL. Make sure you’ve got your thinking caps on before scrolling down, Pandas! Upvote your fave facts and don’t forget to share the best ones with your friends. Knowing stuff is great, but it becomes brilliant the moment you share the wisdom with others, whether it’s via social media or at a fancy dinner party.
Author and child independence expert Lenore Skenazy helped Bored Panda understand how to fall in love with learning and how it’s related to the things we’re most interested in. Lenore is the president of Let Grow and the founder of the Free-Range Kids movement. You’ll find her brilliant insights about how we’ve all “narrowed down our idea of what learning” and how “our species is built to learn” below, Pandas, so be sure to read on.
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#21
TIL that the Luna Moth only survives 6-7 days once reaching adulthood because it has no mouth and dies of starvation.
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161points
#22
TIL Mice do not have a special appetite for cheese, and will eat it only for lack of better options; they actually favor sweet, sugary foods. It is unclear where the myth came from.
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159points
#23
TIL Stephen Hawking found his Undergraduate work 'ridiculously easy' to the point where he was able to solve problems without looking at how others did it. Even his examiners realised that "they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves".
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153points
#24
TIL that Velociraptors were the size of a turkey in real life, not 2m (6 1⁄2 ft) tall as they were portrayed in Jurassic Park movie.
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148points
#25
TIL in 1978 Emilio Palma was the first person born on Antarctica, making them the only currently living person that was the first person born on a continent
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146points
#26
TIL the lyrics at the end of 'Sweet Child of Mine' were literal. Axel Rose and his music producer were discussing what to do with the end of the song and Rose started saying to himself "Where do we go? Where do we go now?" The producer suggested singing that and that's how it made it in the song.
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144points
#27
TIL Italy, France, and Brazil are not even in the top ten highest consumers of coffee. The Nordic countries dominate coffee consumption and are all within the top ten countries worldwide. Further, Finland (the highest consumer in the world) more than doubles the annual consumption of Italy.
143points
#28
TIL that the actor who played Charlie Bucket in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory never acted again, and grew up to be a veterinarian.
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143points
#29
TIL: That most of the fake snow used in the 1980 Movie "The Shining" was repurposed from the ice planet Hoth scenes in "The Empire Strikes Back".
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141points
#30
TIL the watch made its migration from the pocket to the wrist during World War I, when soldiers were obligated to attach them to their arms for coordinated attacks, instead of fumbling in their pockets. Before then, the "bracelet watch" had mostly been regarded as a joke and "silly-a*s fad".
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135points
#31
TIL Psychologists found that interrogative self-talk, asking yourself a question about a future action increases the likelihood of it happening. For example, rather than saying "I'm going to the gym later." You would say, "Will I go to the gym later?" It triggers more goal-oriented behavior.
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131points
#32
TIL Desert sand is effectively useless for construction. Saudi Arabia imports sand from Australia.
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128points
#33
TIL that in 2004 at the Smithsonian, Walnut, a rare female White-Naped Crane, fell in love with a zoologist named Chris Crowe, who was able to rear her eggs without Walnut hurting other males. White-Naped Cranes are monogamous and stress easily so Chris must stay until he, or Walnut, dies.
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128points
#34
TIL in 1950 airlines didn’t serve alcohol when flying over dry states.
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127points
#35
TIL that the transformation of common metals into gold, a seemingly impossible goal attempted by alchemists for centuries, is now entirely possible using either a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator. However, the process is so expensive that it is functionally useless.
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123points
#36
TIL When Assyrian priests saw a bad omen aimed at the King they used a ritual called The Substitute King. A commoner was found to replace the king while he went in hiding. The man lived as the king absorbing the evil spirits. When the omen passed the commoner was killed and the king returned.
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117points
#37
TIL the International Space Station is the most expensive thing ever built by humanity at over 150 billion dollars over the course of its construction
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117points
#38
TIL that drinking Coca-Cola is prescribed as an effective treatment for certain types of bowel obstructions
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116points
#39
TIL Texas A&M University offers a class on Texas Barbecue that teaches the history of BBQ, cooking methodology, flavorings and seasonings, and different types of BBQ. The class is offered in the fall and is held on Friday afternoons.
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113points
#40
TIL about the highly lethal, hallucinogenic and terrifying effects from consuming the attractive flowers of the Brugmansia (aka angel tears) plant, including a documented case of a young man who amputated his own penis and tongue after drinking only one cup of Brugmansia tea
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105points