With unlimited access to the digital world at our fingertips, it’s virtually impossible to avoid learning new information every day. And why should we? We're well aware of the evidence that discovering something new is an incredible way to improve our life. From stretching our thinking in different directions to keeping our minds sharp, exercising our brains lets us make sense of ourselves and our surroundings.
But if you feel that the amount of information floating around makes it hard to know where to start, then you’re in luck. There’s an impressive corner on Reddit aptly titled 'Today I Learned' where people do the heavy lifting and scour the internet for the most fascinating and captivating facts.
This subreddit is home to 27.6 million curious members who waste no time in sharing tasty bites of knowledge they recently found with everyone online. To celebrate their efforts, we at Bored Panda compiled a new TIL selection right below, so continue scrolling and let us know which ones you enjoyed most! And if you’re ready to gain even more precious wisdom, check out our previous TIL posts right here, here, and here.
#21
TIL: The Coconut Monk was a pacifist mystic who founded the Coconut Religion in Vietnam. He lived on an island, meditated in a palm tree for hours every day, had a cat and mouse as his companions, made shards of bombs into a gong, and went to prison for his opposition to the Vietnam War
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125points
#22
TIL in 2013, JCPenney sold a stainless steel tea kettle that attracted controversy due to its perceived resemblance to Adolf Hitler
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124points
#23
TIL 12% of the world's total languages are found in Papua New Guinea, which has over 820 indigenous languages. There are more languages on this island than in any other country
123points
#24
TIL in 2000, an art exhibition in Denmark featured ten functional blenders containing live goldfish. Visitors were given the option of pressing the “on” button. At least one visitor did, killing two goldfish. This led to the museum director being charged with and, later, acquitted of animal cruelty
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123points
#25
TIL A killing committed on an iceberg outside of any country's territorial waters led to such a massive kerfuffle over the questions of jurisdiction and who had the right to try the defendant that it is being examined as a possible case study in the event murder occurs in outer space
121points
#26
TIL The Tarzan Character Was Temporarily Removed From Disney Parks Because People Kept Pinching His Butt Cheeks
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121points
#27
TIL that one if the original ingredients for a Milkshake was Whiskey
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120points
#28
TIL that Hans Zimmer deliberately used a broken piano for the score of Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" to make it sound like something you would hear in a pub
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119points
#29
TIL that Daniel Inouye, who served 50 years in the U.S. Senate, destroyed three German machine gun nests in a single assault in the WWII Italian Campaign. The third nest was destroyed after Inouye grabbed a live grenade from his severed right hand and threw it through the firing slit with his left
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117points
#30
TIL Mini pigs aka Teacup pigs are a hoax. They are just potbellied pigs that have been underfed to stunt their growth and will eventually grow to weigh 100-150 pounds
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115points
#31
TIL about Jon Lech Johansen, a self-trained software engineer who created software that decoded DVD copy protection. Johansen defended himself against computer hacking charges, arguing he didn't access anyone else's information: he owned the DVDs. He was acquitted in 2003
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108points
#32
TIL the first reality show was 1973’s An American Family documenting the life of a family, but ended up breaking it up – 10 million people watched as mom Pat complained about husband Bill’s cheating, moaned about their sex life and then, midway through filming, asked him for a divorce on camera
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107points
#33
TIL about the Financial Modeling World Cup, which is essentially the World Cup for Competitive excel users. Participants solve real-life case studies by building financial models in Microsoft Excel. $25,000 prize fund
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103points
#34
TIL that January is the first month of the Gregorian calendar because it is named after the roman god of all beginnings, Janus
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99points
#35
TIL that after 5 Tamil chiefs defeated the Sri Lankan king Valagamba, one of them became king but was eventually slain by another, who also became king before being slain by another, and so on until only one remained, then Valagamba returned, slew the last one and took back his throne
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97points
#36
TIL the reason why coffee makes you poop is because caffeine activates contractions in your colon and intestinal muscles
95points
#37
TIL it took an Iowa man named Otto Frederick Rohwedder some 16 years to perfect and sell the first bread-slicing machine. A prototype made in 1912 was destroyed in a fire, and he didn't sell his first slicing machine until 1928. Within 5 years, 80% of bread sold in the U.S. was pre-sliced
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92points
#38
TIL that one of the earliest recorded variations of classic dad phrase "Women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" is found in a speech from 102 B.C. by Roman Censor Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus, in a speech that would be repeated by Caesar Augustus nearly a century later
85points
#39
TIL that the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to the three men who invented the blue LED. Until their discovery in the 90s, white LED lights couldn't be produced
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80points
#40
TIL that when his film Uncut Gems began to receive critical acclaim, Adam Sandler threatened the world with making "the worst movie ever" if he did not receive a nomination for Best Actor at the Oscars. He was not nominated
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71points