r/todayilearned
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u/ngtstkr
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9h ago
TIL Jethro Tull's album Thick as a Brick was created as satire, a jab at the 10+ minute songs from prog rock bands at the time. It's now considered one of the best prog-rock albums of all time.
r/todayilearned • u/theotherbogart • 1h ago
TIL: Tracy Chapman sued Nicki Minaj for copyright infringement. According to the complaint, Chapman repeatedly refused to give Minaj permission to sample one of her songs, but Minaj did it anyway. Minaj settled and agreed to pay Chapman $450K.
r/todayilearned • u/decafcovfefes • 3h ago
TIL the ‘70s fascination with truckers as anti-government modern cowboys started when an advertising executive invented C.W. McCall, a folksy trucker character, for a bread ad. He recorded country music using McCall as a stage name, and his #1 hit, “Convoy,” spawned a movie by the same name.
r/todayilearned • u/jamescookenotthatone • 15h ago
TIL The aardwolf knows not to destory its food sources. Aardwolves eat part of a termite mound, leaves it, and return a few months later when the colony has rebuilt so it can have another meal. An aardwolf keeps track of mounds it attacked and can eat 250,000 termites in a single night.
r/todayilearned • u/tossinthisshit1 • 5h ago
TIL Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States and the face of the US $100 bill, was the first person to write about tofu in English.
realtimecommunicationsworld.comr/todayilearned • u/AspireAgain • 9h ago
TIL that the Hemlock Water Dropwort is the most poisonous plant in the UK. Its poison constricts the muscles, causing death by asphyxia, which also causes a rictus like death grin. Use of this plant in Phoenician Sardinia for executions is the origin of the term "Sardonic Grin".
r/todayilearned • u/wrxie • 8h ago
TIL cockroaches can survive radiation because their cells don't divide constantly like human's. "Cells are most sensitive to radiation when they are dividing" and a cockroach molts at most once a week.
bio.umass.edur/todayilearned • u/jdward01 • 13h ago
TIL that Po Boy Sandwiches originated in New Orleans, and are derived from fried oyster sandwiches, called Oyster Loaves. A wide selection of fillings include roast beef, ham, shrimp, sausage, french fries and fried chicken. A "dressed" po' boy has shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo.
r/todayilearned • u/QuicklyThisWay • 12h ago
TIL about Ahimsa silk (or peace silk) which uses a nonviolent methods to breed and harvest silk worms where the pupa is allowed to hatch and the leftover cocoon is used.
wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/Greenman333 • 7h ago
TIL baby manta rays are born like little burritos, with their fins wrapped around their bodies.
wildrepublic.comr/todayilearned • u/triviafrenzy • 1d ago
TIL Prostitution was the biggest source of employment for women in Helena, Montana in the 1870’s and 80’s. In 1886 there were 52 prostitutes working the city. The madams became so wealthy they bought up blocks of downtown property and even started their own mortgage company.
helenahistory.orgr/todayilearned • u/AnthillOmbudsman • 8h ago
TIL the fade-out was rare in early music. One of the earliest examples is Haydn's No. 45 symphony (1772) where each musician exited, extinguishing their candle as they left. Gradually only two muted violins remained.
r/todayilearned • u/jdward01 • 13h ago
TIL about the Essex, an American whaling ship that was sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. The survivors made for land off the South American coast. Seven crew members were cannibalized before eight survivors were rescued. The tragedy gained international attention, inspiring the novel, Moby Dick.
r/todayilearned • u/Lol40fy • 9h ago
TIL The heat of the Earth's core has nothing to do with pressure. Rather, most of it is energy produced by radioactive decay and the rest is trapped heat remaining from when the planet formed.
earthobservatory.sgr/todayilearned • u/ranger_carn • 4h ago
TIL that Wheaties and other iron-fortified cereals will stick to magnets
r/todayilearned • u/MoistCoyote • 8h ago
TIL the US federal government captures and sells excess wild horses to the public
r/todayilearned • u/judiciousassign11 • 8h ago
TIL that a fire destroyed most of Harvard Library’s collection in 1764. Only a small number of books were spared, including 144 that were checked out at the time. One of these books was found and returned in 1997!
r/todayilearned • u/AspireAgain • 1d ago
TIL of "The Paradox of Choice." Research indicates that when we are given too many options to choose from, we tend to end up less satisfied than if we had fewer options to choose from. Increased choice leads to higher expectations, followed by regret and self-blame.
r/todayilearned • u/mankls3 • 1d ago
TIL On average, the United States has only eight public toilets per 100,000 people
r/todayilearned • u/golamas1999 • 48m ago
TIL IBM made the punch card systems the Nazi’s used to catalog people who were sent to the camps. Anyone who had a number tattoo was most likely assigned it from an IBM punch card system.
r/todayilearned • u/IntroductionOk5130 • 6h ago
TIL Paro international airport is one of the hardest airports to land it, and only 8 pilots are certified to land there.
r/todayilearned • u/theotherbogart • 24m ago
TIL: James Blunt gave Weird Al Yankovic permission to parody his single "You're Beautiful." But after Yankovic recorded "You're Pitiful," Blunt's record label refused to let it be commercially released. Yankovic didn't include it on his album. Instead, he released it as a free digital download.
r/todayilearned • u/War_Hymn • 1d ago
TIL that the Philippines is 1 out 2 countries in the world that still doesn't allow divorce. It also has the 10th highest number of child brides globally, with 100,000 women married before their 15th birthday.
girlsnotbrides.orgr/todayilearned • u/CoolGuess • 1h ago