30 Facts From The "Today I Learned" Subreddit, That Will Blow Your Mind

Here are some random facts from random people shared on the subreddit.

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• Published in Interesting
• January 18, 2022

Life is full of wonder. And even if we were all geniuses, we'd still discover plenty of things about the world.

If you look at it with eyes of curiosity, you'll realize that there's so much to learn. Our minds are always looking for new things.

And you don't have to be an adventurer to learn more about the world. You can do it from the comfort of your own room while surfing the internet.

We're looking at the "Today I Learned" subreddit, where people post interesting facts they discovered. From science and historical facts to anything random, you'll always find something you never knew before.

Reddit's TIL may not be an encyclopedia, but the facts posted by the people are true. In fact, among the rules of the subreddit is to provide a reliable source for the fact people want to share.

It is a community of 21.6 million people. Since it's well moderated, you don't have to worry about reading something that's made-up.

The members are even nice enough to share related photos to make the fact easier to remember. Today, we're looking at the 30 of those facts.

So get your minds ready as we're about to learn new stuff. Enjoy the brand-new knowledge!

1. Nefertiti, also known as the jumping spider, was launched to the International Space Station to determine if it could capture prey in microgravity.

The creature indeed caught its prey by walking slowly instead of leaping. It was able to survive after reentry and readjusted to the normal gravity prior to its natural death.

2. The politician who holds the record for history's most fraudulent election is Charles D. B. King.

He became Liberia's president in 1927. At the time, the country only had 15,000 registered voters.

3. Every year for Christmas, Steve Harvey would send a television to his teacher who said that he'd never be on TV.

4. Hammond's Jurrassic Park's entrance fee was initially priced at $550.

5. Air conditioners were invented by Willis Carrier.

But he didn't do it to cool people. It was for lessening the damaging humidity of a print shop.

6. A ten-hour movie that shows drying paint on the wall was created by director Charlie Lyne.

Its duration was 10 hours and seven minutes. This was made to troll the British Board of Film Classification (B.B.F.C.) who had to sit for the entire movie.

7. The Arizona town Why, was originally named Y.

This was because of the Y-shaped intersection of two roads. It only changed to Why because of a law that requires town names to be three letters minimum.

8. Fossil words are words that have fallen out of everyday use.

They are still being used as idioms, though. These include fro and lo.

9. Astronauts have to sleep near air vents.

It's risky if they don't do so. The carbon dioxide coming from their lungs might bubble around their head from the weightlessness.

10. A thirteen-year-old girl who was a fan of the Harry Potter series wrote a 365k-word fanfiction from 2003 to 2005.

She passed away after six days of completing the work. With the notes she left, her father used them for the second book.

11. Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

This is because they need to watch out for predators. Periodically, they need to rise up for some air too.

12. Former pro basketball player Lisa Leslie scored 101 in 16 minutes as a high school athlete.

From the floor, she shot 37 of 56 and from the line, it was 27 of 35. She wasn't able to break the record for women's points at a high school basketball game because the opposing team's coach declined to play in the second half.

13. Burkitshi are Mongolia's eagle hunters.

The nomadic tribe will hunt with eagles, which are typically female because they are larger and known to be fiercer. They capture the eagles at the age of four and release them in the wild after 10 years.

14. Yale psychologists found out in a 2018 study that introverts prone to melancholy seemed to be better at comprehending how people behave in a group than their outgoing peers.

15. The Tag brothers started playing tag in 1990.

It is a group of 10 men who chase each other around the USA, traveling by car, plane, and more. They were still at it in 2018.

16. Brisbane was first founded as a penal colony for prisoners who committed new crimes after they arrived in Australia.

17. Christoper Lee sent Peter Jackson a picture of him donning a wizard's costume, as he wanted to play Gandalf. However, Jackson decided he's be great as Saruman, instead.

18. McDonald's had to phase out Ronald McDonald quietly after the 2016 clown scare video fad.

19. Research says that 94% of Brits have used weather in their conversations for the past six hours.

Thirty-eight percent of these people admitted that they have done so in the past hour. In other words, about one-third of the people in the UK are either talking about the weather, have done so, or are about to do so.

20. Charles-Michel de l'Épée, the very first educator of the deaf, was taught sign language on a chance encounter.

21. Centuries after the death of Alexander the Great, his final resting place became a tourist attraction.

Roman emperors left him with souvenirs. In one account, Augustus Ceasar tried touching the mummy, but accidentally broke its nose.

22. Dr. Edwin Chandross was the one who uncovered the chemical reaction happening in glowsticks.

He discovered it in 1962. Sadly, he never knew that "chemiluminescent" objects were well known at concerts until a 2013 Vice interview.

23. A lawyer in California filed for a restraining order to halt his neighbor's kids from playing basketball.

He claimed that their game was the reason why his property dropped $100k in value. The court denied him, stating that reasonable people can expect a number of annoyances and inconveniences from neighbors.

24. The SEGA/SNES game The Lion King was deliberately made hard by the developers.

Disney told them to do it so people are kept from beating the game amid a rental period at Blockbuster. A number of those devs apologized to the fans at a later time.

25. It was Kodak that discovered the first atomic bomb test. The customers complaining about the black spots in their photos became their way of uncovering it.

26. After an earthquake destroyed Egypt's Colossi of Memnon, the shattered statue started to sing during sunrise.

Modern scientists believe early morning heat caused dew trapped within the statue’s crack to evaporate, creating a series of vibrations that echoed through the thin desert air.

27. Scientists no longer paint the big orange fuel tanks connected to the space shuttles to save 600 pounds.

28. Los Angeles is the world's first city to synchronize all traffic lights.

29. Seventy-one South Korean teenagers, who were also students, were assigned to protect the country's headquarters.

Despite having no battle and firearms experience held back a sudden attack from North Korean soldiers for 11 hours. They were still wearing uniforms at the time of the attack.

30. After the destructive Hurricane Andrew, South Florida building codes required external doors to swing outwards. This provides better hurricane protection.

These random facts are eye-opening and amazing!

It's always exciting to know about new things. So if you want to have extra knowledge while killing some time, why not head over to the TIL subreddit?

Interesting trivia is best discussed over a conversation. So share this page with your family and friends too!

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