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.

#1

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

Image credits: Str33twise84

#2

TIL There’s 3,200-Year-Old Egyptian Tablet Records Excuses for Why People Missed Work

Image credits: nixass

Discovering something novel is as easy as tapping on a few hyperlinks on our screens, right? But we should still remain skeptical and take things found online with a pinch of salt. After all, anyone can say anything on the internet, so we need to put our fact-checking caps on to understand whether the information we consume is genuinely true.

Luckily for us, moderators of the TIL subreddit make sure that the facts posted on the group are grounded in reality. Their rules state that the subreddit removes posts that are “inaccurate/unverifiable/not supported by source.” The moderators require to “link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title.” Moreover, the online group does not support personal opinions and subjective posts, as well as asks their community members to avoid sharing misleading claims: “Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.”

#3

TIL The Wright Brothers only flew together on the same flight one time, a six-minute flight on May 25th, 1910. They promised their father, Milton, they would never fly together to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their flight experiments

Image credits: literally12sofus

#4

TIL when you see actors smoking cigarettes in movies, they’re often smoking “Herbal Cigarettes” which contain other plants like lettuce or tea leaves instead of tobacco

Image credits: LazeLinez

To find out more about navigating the learning experience and the best practices to make new information stick, we reached out to Nate Kornell, Ph.D., a professor of cognitive psychology at Williams College. He has spent years researching students’ beliefs about how they should study and the learning strategies that actually work best.

While the TIL subreddit proves that the internet is a great tool to accelerate our critical thinking by always letting us uncover something new, we can feel overwhelmed by the never-ending collection of specific facts shared by people online. If you feel bombarded by immense amounts of information daily, he suggested focusing on things you want to learn more about. “Too often, we spend our time on things we already know a lot about. Mix it up!”

#5

TIL that 1996’s movie “Twister” was rated PG-13 for “intense depiction of very bad weather”

Image credits: SimeoneXXX

#6

TIL in 1908, the NYT reported a story on a dog that would push kids into the Seine in order to earn beefsteak treats for “rescuing” them

Image credits: atrailofdisasters

#7

TIL in 2011, a 29-year-old Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw way beyond his balance. In a bender that lasted four-and-half months, he managed to spend around $1.6 million of the bank’s money

Image credits: Str33twise84

We have long heard about the benefits of learning fascinating bits of information. According to the professor, “Learning new things doesn’t give your brain more horsepower, but it does make you smarter. The more you learn, the easier it becomes to learn more.”

“We build knowledge frameworks in our minds, and adding to them makes them stronger. For example, if you know the NBA well, learning a new fact about the NBA (Jokic was MVP again) is a lot easier than if you don’t,” Kornell told Bored Panda.

#8

TIL that the new Rolls-Royce Ghost soundproofing was so overengineered that occupants in the car found the near-total silence disorienting, and some felt sick. Acoustic engineers had to go back and work on “harmonizing” various sounds in the car to add a continuous soft whisper

Image credits: poyup

#9

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

Image credits: SunlitMeadows

#10

TIL that “Old Book Smell” is caused by lignin — a compound in wood-based paper — when it breaks down over time, it emits a faint vanilla scent

Image credits: lnhvtepn

Keeping our brains active can improve our memory, concentration, attention to detail, and can also fight against dementia, so it’s very important to get our minds going. “But your brain will be active if you’re working, going to school, having conversations, and so on,” the professor explained. “If you’re relatively isolated or bored — which can happen especially as we reach old age — scheduling activities to keep mentally active is a good idea.”

However, always coming across something exciting and unfamiliar can make us push our old interests to the side. But bringing back our rusty skills or engaging more in the already existing knowledge also keeps our brains healthy. “The best time to do a deep dive is whenever you get super interested in something and you don’t already know all about it. If you’re learning, then keep it up!”

#11

TIL that Toyota is headquartered in the city of Toyota, Japan and was founded there, but is not named after the city. In fact, the city (originally called Koromo) renamed itself after the company in 1959, because Toyota had become so famous

Image credits: ChiaraStellata

#12

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

Image credits: Ok-Video5299

#13

TIL Captain Robert Campbell whilst a prisoner of the Germans in WW1 asked the Kaiser to visit his dying mother in England. Surprisingly he was given permission, provided he returned to prison afterwards. He did

Image credits: Stotallytob3r

Moreover, if you consume too many facts at once, you may feel a bit swamped. This does beg the question, what’s the point in learning it all if we’re not going to remember it later? According to Kornell, the best way to make information stick is to revisit it multiple times. “And don’t do it all at once; if you can wait a few days before revisiting information, your memory strength will benefit a lot from looking at that information again,” he suggested.

#14

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

Image credits: SingLikeTinaTurner

#15

TIL about Jean Boulet who in 1972 set the world record for the highest altitude reached in a helicopter, 40,280ft. During descent his engines failed, and he landed the helicopter without power, setting another record in the process for the highest unpowered helicopter landing

Image credits: LongshanksAragon

#16

TIL when one adventurer drove a Jeep Wrangler to the world record altitude of 6,646 m, he left a sign saying “Jeep Parking Only: All others don’t make it up here anyway.”. The next record breakers, who had a Suzuki Samurai and climbed up to 6,688 m on the same volcano, removed that sign

Image credits: YourOwnBiggestFan

“I have published studies where we asked people to predict how much they could learn by studying. The results are quite clear and consistent: People underestimate how much they can learn. And how much they can improve in general,” the professor told Bored Panda.

“For example, if we asked participants how well they would do on a test if they got to study four times, they predicted a level of performance far worse than how they actually did on the test,” he continued. “Our data shows that it’s never too late to learn something new — and happily, learning new things is usually easier than you think!”

#17

TIL A turkish mother that read lecture notes for four years to her blind daughter in law school, has been awarded an honorary degree with the daughter

Image credits: Kaos2018

#18

TIL that one if the original ingredients for a Milkshake was Whiskey

Image credits: peligro2k

#19

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

Image credits: ShabtaiBenOron

#20

TIL a father, John Crowley, was told his two infant children had an incurable genetic disorder that would kill them in less than a year. He refused to accept this, so he founded a biotech company (with no prior experience) which pioneered an experimental enzyme therapy that saved their lives

Image credits: Die_Nameless_Bitch

#21

TIL The Tarzan Character Was Temporarily Removed From Disney Parks Because People Kept Pinching His Butt Cheeks

Image credits: EducationalCicada

#22

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

Image credits: Anarchiszt

#23

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

Image credits: WouldbeWanderer

#24

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

Image credits: keirawynn

#25

TIL every year at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the 1958 special ‘Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas’ is screened on Sweden’s main channel. Swedes are so compelled by the cartoon that last year during the program, cell data usage fell 28% and calls to emergency services dropped 16%

Image credits: Travellingjake

#26

TIL That the hair style Princess Leia wears in Star Wars, was inspired by women of the Mexican Revolution, most notably, guerrilla fighter Clara de la Rocha

Image credits: thesuavedog

#27

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

Image credits: derstherower

#28

TIL the reason why coffee makes you poop is because caffeine activates contractions in your colon and intestinal muscles

Image credits: Another1MitesTheDust

#29

TIL about the Horse, Sergeant Reckless. A Horse who served with the marines in Korea. She was able to haul ammunition by herself without a handler, would seek a bunker or lay down when under fire and received two purple hearts as well as other medals for her service in the Korean war

Image credits: SonofSanguinius87

#30

TIL that Alice Munro, co-founder of a bookstore with her then-husband Jim, started writing after reading some of the store’s stock and thinking “I can write better books than this.” In 2013, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature

Image credits: 1945BestYear

#31

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

Image credits: A_Disgruntled_Mule

#32

TIL Cato once believed he caught Caesar reading a note implicating himself in a conspiracy to assassinate Cicero during a session of the Senate. Forcing the note to be read to the Senate, it turned out to be a love letter from his own sister to Caesar who had slept w her the night before

Image credits: Darth_Kahuna

#33

TIL of the Experimental Lakes Area. A research station of 58 formerly pristine freshwater lakes in Canada purposely polluted with everything from fertilizers to anti-depressants to study the effects on aquatic life. It is the only such site in the world

Image credits: vortex_ring_state

#34

TIL that January is the first month of the Gregorian calendar because it is named after the roman god of all beginnings, Janus

Image credits: DrJamesMoore

#35

TIL that by letting a wolf population recover, traffic collisions caused by deer are reduced by nearly 25%; the reduction is not based as much on the decimation of the deer population but on the “landscape of fear” created by the wolves

Image credits: sunkid

#36

TIL about “mundane science fiction,” a sci-fi literary movement driven by creating plausible extensions of existing science and technology; situating stories on Earth or within the Solar System, thereby lacking the use of interstellar or intergalactic travel; and not considering contact with aliens

Image credits: ralphbernardo

#37

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

Image credits: ShabtaiBenOron

#38

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

Image credits: PikesPique

#39

TIL that in 1946, the Argentinian government imported 50 beavers in an attempt to start a fur trade. There are now 200,000 and they are threatening over 39 million acres of forest

Image credits: Ganesha811

#40

TIL the reason why many 90s cartoons had a shoe horned educational message for kids is because of the introduction of the 1991 “Children’s Television Act” which required kids TV programs to serve the “educational and informational” needs of childen

Image credits: radkoolaid

#41

TIL If you are blind in the UK, you can get 50% off your TV license (£79.50). Also, you can have a black and white licence which is only £53.50

Image credits: Philosofred

#42

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

Image credits: Krank33

#43

TIL – Tapeworms can live inside you for up to 30 years and grow 80ft long

Image credits: Professional_Fox_409

#44

TIL That philosopher Voltaire got rich by exploiting the French state bond lottery with the help of a mathematician Charles Marie de la Condamine by forming a syndicate that bought huge number of low value lottery tickets (connected with state bonds) effectively ensuring constant payouts

Image credits: milosmisic89

#45

TIL that the Dutch secret service set up a fake pro-China communist party to gather information on the Chinese government. The party’s leader, secret agent Pieter Boevé, developed warm relations with the Chinese government and even met Mao Zedong himself

Image credits: Hambgex

#46

TIL of “Nobel Disease”, a tendency for Nobel Prize winners to adopt pseudoscientific ideas later in life

Image credits: Rob-With-One-B

#47

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

Image credits: LPercepts

#48

TIL that in 1914, 17 year old Princess Mary decided to distribute tin boxes containing small Christmas gifts to British Empire troops at the frontlines in WW1. After trying to finance it from her own allowance she set up a fund, appealed to the public and raised the equivalent of £17M today

Image credits: saad1121

#49

TIL in 2017, a Pittsburgh restaurant hosted an event with French-Canadian chefs serving horse tartare. The event sparked public outrage, USDA investigation, and a petition to ban horse meat in Pennsylvania. Horse meat is a delicacy and staple throughout much of French-Canada, Europe, and Asia

Image credits: deathpony43

#50

TIL That there was a plot to kill or kidnap George Washington early in the Revolutionary War – the traitors were from Washington’s Life Guards, similar to today’s Secret Service. One of the traitors was the first person to be put to death for treason, Thomas Hickey, in front of 20,000 people

Image credits: ForthWorldTraveler

#51

TIL Sanrio, the company responsible for Hello Kitty, started out selling silk in the 1960s. When they started to sell sandals, the founder noticed that sandals with cuter designs sold better. This caused him to hire cartoonists to create cute characters for his company

Image credits: dilettantedebrah

#52

TIL that a 1959 archeological expedition attempted to re-enact Hannibal’s route through the Alps with an actual Elephant. After 10 days of travel, they successfully led the former circus elephant Juno from France into Italy

Image credits: Jacknerik

#53

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

Image credits: MIkeR1988

#54

TIL that the Red Cell, a team led by the original commander of SEAL Team 6 (Richard Marcinko) to test the security of government installations. Red Cell would sneak into military bases, steal classified information, kidnap high ranking officers and admirals, and even plant bombs near Air Force One

Image credits: Professional-Rich406

#55

TIL that a small part of southern Florida is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators coexist

Image credits: derstherower

#56

TIL that the Pope is the head of two separate and distinct sovereign entities. Vatican City, A Sovereign City State, and the Holy See, a sovereign juridical entity that acts as the Universal Catholic Central Government

Image credits: TheMadhopper

#57

TIL that Muhammad Ali painted his friend Joe Frazier as an uncle tom, turning many against Frazier. Frazier’s children were bullied and he received threats. Ali promised that he would crawl across the ring and call Frazier the greatest if he beat him, which he refused to do after losing to Frazier

Image credits: Dr_Lecter1623

#58

TIL there’s a fake American Wild West town in England, called Laredo, built by re-enactors, who bring it to life every other weekend

Image credits: sisyphushaditsoeasy

#59

TIL Mazda had to issue at least *two* recalls because spiders could cause their vehicles to catch on fire

Image credits: deepthaw

#60

TIL James Cameron was refused permission by the Picasso Estate to use Les Demoiselles d’Avignon but he used it anyways. Its depiction in Titanic suggested the painting sank to the bottom of the ocean did not please the Picasso estate

Image credits: vancouver_reader

#61

TIL in 2013, JCPenney sold a stainless steel tea kettle that attracted controversy due to its perceived resemblance to Adolf Hitler

Image credits: Giantsgiants

#62

TIL of Samuel Upham, a Philadelphia merchant who printed over $15 million Confederate dollars from 1862-63. The fake notes widely circulated in the South. When investigated by the US Government, his case was dismissed as it’s not illegal to counterfeit currency of a country not recognized by the US

Image credits: blueberrisorbet

#63

TIL that the Host of the famous tv show America’s Most Wanted, John Walsh, became an advocate for missing children after his 6 year old son was abducted and brutally murdered in 1981

Image credits: SSJCleveland

#64

TIL that the 1970s disco mega-hit “More, More, More” was recorded in Jamaica by American porn star Andrea True. She was there to film some commercials, but a diplomatic dispute with the USA forced her to choose between spending her pay there or forfeiting it. She decided to pay for a demo record

Image credits: p38-lightning

#65

TIL golf champion Ben Hogan was in a near-fatal car crash. Hit head on by a bus, Hogan threw himself in front of his wife to protect her, that saved him from being impaled by the steering wheel. After 2 month in the hospital and multiple surgeries, Hogan won 6 more majors, including 3 in one year

Image credits: marmorset

#66

TIL The Halifax Explosion was the largest man made explosion in recorded history up until that point. Explosives were measured in “Halifaxes” afterward. The first atomic explosion was 10 Halifaxes

Image credits: BeligerantPasta

#67

Til that during Vietnam soldiers often grafitied their helmets as a form of indivual expression or protest. “Born to Kill” “War is Hell” and many other phrases were often overlooked by officers even though they were against military code of conduct and dress code

Image credits: TheMadhopper

#68

TIL in 1991 As a Captain HR McMaster lead a legendary tank battle in Iraq that destroyed a much larger Iraqi tank force. He defeated 28 Iraqi Republican Guard tanks in 23 minutes with no loses. This earned him a Silver Star for valor

Image credits: maddog_walby

#69

TIL Carl’s Drive-In Barbecue became Carl’s Jr. when the owner opened a smaller version of the restaurant geared to faster service, which eventually outsold and replaced the original

Image credits: pshurman42wallabyway

#70

TIL that the reason Hawaii has the union jack on the top of its flag isnt because they were colonized by the UK, but rather because the king at the time liked the design of the flag when the British arrived

Image credits: SCPMemes

#71

TIL that the Empire State Building, built in 1930 was designed with the ability for an Airship/Zeppelin to dock at the very top of the skyscraper, overlooking all of NYC

Image credits: TheMadhopper

#72

TIL that in 1879 Alabama dissolved the debt-ridden city of Mobile and simultaneously incorporated the ‘Port of Mobile’, with most of Mobile’s land and population but none of its debt. The Supreme Court ruled in 1886 that the new city was the successor to the old and still owned the debts

Image credits: squareabbey

#73

TIL about the 1st Minnesota Infantry who lost 82% of their fighting strength on July 2nd 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg. This stands as the largest loss by any surviving US military unit in a single days engagement

Image credits: oWallis

#74

TIL that in the original novel of “The Silence of the Lambs”, Hannibal Lecter doesn’t drink Chianti with the Census taker’s liver, but instead Amarone. Amarone is frequently paired with offal, such as Liver, and also with Hunted game

Image credits: AspireAgain

#75

TIL that In-N-Out Burger food containers include Bible verses. Since at least 1987, the soda cups, milkshake cups, burger wrappers, and french fry holders all have references to Bible verses inscribed on the packaging

Image credits: DarthBog

Source: boredpanda.com