Two of the greatest upsides of the internet, in my opinion, are its ability to entertain us and put us right on track to learn something entirely new. We have the wealth of human wisdom at our fingertips, but we need constant reminders to hone our minds when we can just as easily spend the entire evening watching Netflix or reading about which celeb did what.
For me, the ‘Today I Learned’ community on Reddit is a constant reminder about how rich in information and full of knowledge our world really is. It is an online group that celebrates people learning something new every single day. So far, it has carved out a massive niche for its 26.3 million (soon to be 26.4 million) curious members who have a special place in their hearts for science and history. The TIL crowd helps keep me learning and, I hope, it’ll do the same for you, too, Pandas.
Scroll down for the newest TIL facts and trivia, upvote the ones that surprised you, and let us know in the comments about all the things that you recently learned.
Oh, and one of the best parts about these facts? We can totally repeat them during our lunch break and impress everyone with how brainy we are. Who doesn’t like random facts alongside their sandwich-and-tea combo, right? In case you need more interesting facts to fill your mind, you can always scroll through Bored Panda's earlier articles featuring the TIL community. You’ll find them here, here, and here.
I wanted to get to grips with whether the internet is a force for education or a tool for distraction, as well as talk about how we can choose the direction of our further studies if we feel completely lost, so I reached out to Steven Wooding. A member of the Institute of Physics in the UK, Steven is also part of the Omni Calculator Project and helped create the Weird Units Converter (it's a lot of fun for scientists and geeks alike). Read on for Bored Panda's interview to see what Steven had to say.
#21

TIL that silica gel packets aren't poisonous. They are labeled "do not eat" because they are a choking hazard.
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213points
#22

TIL that one town in Scotland celebrates Halloween on the last Friday of October instead of the 31st since there’s no school or work (for most) the next day.
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209points
#23
TIL that in 1859 a 2 hour telegraph conversation between Portland and Boston was able to be had without the use of any battery power. This was due to an aurora borealis generating enough electric current in the telegraph wires.
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200points
#24

TIL that corned beef is named for the large grains of rock salt (also called "corns" of salt) that are used to treat the meat.
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199points
#25

TIL there are 17 monarchies in the world ruled by a Queen, 16 of those are Queen Elizabeth II
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186points
#26

TIL Danish has about 40 different vowel sounds and is so hard to learn that Danish children on average know 30% fewer words at 15 months than Norwegian children and take two years longer to learn the past tense
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186points
#27

TIL that Brussels Sprouts have been selectively bred over the last few decades to taste less bitter, indirectly lessening their anti-cancer properties.
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178points
#28

TIL - The oldest wheel was discovered in Slovenia and is over 5,000 years old
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174points
#29
TIL jazz guitarist Pat Martino suffered a near-fatal seizure in 1980 which left him with amnesia and no recollection or knowledge of how to play the guitar. He re-learned how to play the instrument, and resumed his performing and recording career in 1987 until his death in 2021.
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168points
#30

TIL until 1971, the Government of Canada assigned all Inuit people a number in lieu of a surname and issued each a leather disc with the number that had to be carried at all times or sewn into clothing
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165points
#31

TIL that Cinderella isn't a real name but was just a nickname for Ella who would be covered in cinders due to having to sleep by the fireplace to keep warm or clean ashes. Most other versions have different variations on a name relating to ashes.
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165points
#32
TIL in the midst of Greenland's pristine landscape lies a U.S. Air Force base which was abandoned in 1947 and everything was left behind; dilapidated vehicles, asbestos-laden structures, and 10,000 leaking fuel barrels. The Inuits who live in the region call the rusted remains "American Flowers".
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161points
#33

TIL: when St. Jerome translated the Bible to common Latin, he made the forbidden fruit an apple as a pun.
155points
#34
TIL that when Leslie Nielsen died, ESPN published an obituary for Enrico Pallazzo, the umpire he played in The Naked Gun
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152points
#35
TIL that during World War 1, the American Expeditionary Forces tried to make the French treat Black soldiers in accordance with Jim Crow laws ''due to concerns that black soldiers and officers working with the French were being treated with too much “familiarity and indulgence.”
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143points
#36

TIL that "No Country For Old Men" had to suspend production because the crew for "There Will Be Blood" was testing pyrotechnics in the same area and created too much smoke.
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130points
#37
TIL that in No Time to Die, the cobbled streets of Matera, Italy did not have sufficient grip for the film's opening car chase. The crew got around this by pouring Coca-Cola all over the road, making it sticky, and allowing the drivers to perform the stunts.
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130points
#38
TIL in 1972, The Los Alamos National Laboratories patented a nuclear tunnel boring machine, claiming it could reach depths of 18+ miles. It uses molten lithium to melt through rock, leaving behind a tunnel with a glass-like finish.
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129points
#39

TIL that in 1952, Stalin proposed German reunification under a "neutral and democratic" government, but was turned down by the West. It is still debated whether the offer was a bluff, a trick, or a genuine missed opportunity for reunification.
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115points
#40
TIL that when Niccolo Tartaglia found a formula to solve certain types of cubic equations, he did not publish his findings. However, Tartaglia wrote a 25 line poem explaining the formula and shared it with another mathematician, Girolama Cardano, who went ahead and published it himself.
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112points


