Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL Madonna turned down a role in The Matrix, one of the biggest regrets of her career (www.billboard.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

39 comments fedilink

177

48

TIL Richard Simmons has never actually publicly discussed his sexuality (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

24 comments fedilink

178

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TIL that between 2008 and 2010, the Iraqi government were scammed into spending over $40 million on fake bomb detectors - the ADE 651 (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

2 comments fedilink

179

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TIL a 2017 study found that 73 attacks by wild polar bears on humans occurred between 1870-2014, which resulted in 20 human deaths and 63 human injuries. (www.cnn.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

4 comments fedilink

180

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TIL that 3.6% of all current cancer cases worldwide are attributable to drinking alcohol (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

0 comments fedilink

181

74

TIL of the Vadoma, a tribe in Zimbabwe in which a substantial minority have two toes on each feet which may have evolved as a trait to assist in tree climbing (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

7 comments fedilink

182

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TIL that Will Smith turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix to star in Wild, Wild West (ew.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

23 comments fedilink

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TIL that a juvenile orca started a fashion trend of wearing dead salmon as a hat and the whole group started wearing them. (www.yahoo.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

6 comments fedilink

184

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TIL Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel wrote off 10% of their money annually due to soilage because it would lie untouched for so long that rats would eat it or it would become water damaged. (www.dailyrecord.co.uk)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

1 comments fedilink

185

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TIL that Apple designs and tests its product boxes so that they open at just the right speed (www.fastcompany.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

0 comments fedilink

186

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TIL that in 1968, students at the University of Colorado named their new cafeteria after Alfred Packer, a notorious self-confessed cannibal in Colorado history. (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

4 comments fedilink

187

28

TIL Metallica released a video in 2012 appealing for help to solve the 2009 murder of a 20yo fan, Morgan Harrington, who disappeared after their show. They offered $50K on top of the $100K by police. (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

8 comments fedilink

188

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TIL A big reason men don’t wear hats like they did in the early 20th century is due to the advent of cars! (www.lornagillies.com)

submitted 5 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

13 comments fedilink

189

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TIL that the ruby-throated hummingbird flies non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico as part of its spring migration and has a VO2 max that is about 10 times higher than elite human athletes. (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 6 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

2 comments fedilink

190

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TIL that the RMS Carpathia, the ship that picked up the Titanic survivors, was sunk by a German submarine six years later. (oceanlinersmagazine.com)

submitted 6 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

0 comments fedilink

191

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TIL the South Park WoW "guy" is based off a real person (youtube.com)

submitted 6 months ago by lobut@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

12 comments fedilink

192

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TIL about spider number 16, the longest lived spider on record, and the decades long study by researcher Barbara York Main (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 6 months ago by otter@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

6 comments fedilink

The article is short so I recommend reading it. I started adding the key points below, but ended up including almost the entire article:

Number 16 (c. 1974 – 2016), also known as #16, was a wild female trapdoor spider (Gaius villosus, family Idiopidae) that lived in North Bungulla Reserve near Tammin, Western Australia. She lived an estimated 43 years and became the longest-lived spider on record, beating a 28-year-old tarantula who previously held the title. When Number 16 finally died in 2016, it was not of old age but from a parasitic wasp sting.

On March 1974, Australian arachnologist Barbara York Main began a long-term study of spider families. [...] Main returned to the site annually, sometimes more frequently, for more than four decades.

Like other trapdoor spiders, Number 16 spent her entire life in the same burrow, subsisting off the edible insects that walked on her burrow's trapdoor-like silk roof.

For her 40th birthday, research assistant Leanda Mason wanted to give the spider a mealworm, but Main denied the request since it would interfere with the study

Because of Number 16, Main's project took far longer than she had expected. She continued to work into her late 80s, but she "began to look forward to the project's end," The Washington Post reported. Finally, when Main's own health declined before the spider's, she passed the project on to Leanda Mason.

On 31 October 2016, researcher Leanda Mason discovered Number 16's burrow in disrepair. The spider was gone. Evidence suggested she was killed by a parasitic spider wasp

“She was cut down in her prime [...] It took a while to sink in, to be honest," said Mason

After retiring, Barbara York Main moved to a care facility for Alzheimer's. Leanda Mason, who kept in contact with her mentor, said in 2018 that Barbara "remembers No. 16" but "forgets that she’s died."

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TIL the song "Summer of '69" is a reference to the sex position, not the year, according to the artist. But the song's lyricist has stated otherwise. (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 6 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

3 comments fedilink

194

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TIL taking fish supplements daily for the past 15 years might not have been a good idea after all (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by partybot@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

20 comments fedilink

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