Today I Learned (TIL)
- TIL John Krasinski fought for a deaf actress Millicent Simmonds to be cast in 'A Quiet Place'; she taught everyone sign language on set.www.huffpost.com John Krasinski Insisted Deaf Actress Be Cast In 'A Quiet Place'
The film's star and director wanted the character, played by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, to be authentic.
- TIL there once was a footballer who got shot because of a prankwww.gentlemanultra.com The tragic story of Lazio's Luciano Re Cecconi -
Luciano Re Cecconi was part of Lazio’s historic 1974 Scudetto winning side. It was the clubs first top flight title in their history as Tommaso Maestrelli’s side pipped Juventus toRead More
- TIL the most infamous form of the lobotomy was not the original technique.www.britannica.com Lobotomy | Definition, Procedure, History, Effects, & Facts
Lobotomy, surgical procedure in which the nerve pathways in a lobe or lobes of the brain are severed from those in other areas. The procedure was formerly used as a radical therapeutic measure to help patients with severe mental illness. It has since been superseded by medications and other therapie...
- TIL that NASA lost a $330m Mars Orbiter in 1999, immediately before mars orbit was achieved, because one of the contracted US companies used imperial units instead of metric.everydayastronaut.com Metric vs Imperial Units: How NASA lost a 327 Million Dollar Mission to Mars
Imagine a simple conversion error caused a multi-million dollar mission to go puff! We explore how the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in 1999.
- TIL Australia is the lowest and flattest continent in the world with an average elevation of only 1000 feet due to being near the centre of a tectonic platewww.jpl.nasa.gov Australia, Shaded Relief and Colored Height
NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission shows Australia, the world's smallest, flattest, and (after Antarctica) driest continent, but at 7.7 million square kilometers (3.0 million square miles) it is also the sixth largest country.
- TIL William Howard Taft, the heaviest ever US President, eventually lost much of his excess weightwww.history.com New Research Reveals President Taft’s Modern, Low-Carb Diet | HISTORY
New research has revealed that the portliest of American presidents shed 60 pounds on a modern, low-carb diet.
- TIL The first vending machine was invented in 1st century CE Egypt to dispense holy water. The next widely known vending machine was invented 1,800 years later in Victorian England.www.atlasobscura.com The History of Vending Machines Goes Back to the 1st Century
Vending machines are one of the few things keeping us away from the dream of a cashless society. The devices, which offer up an array of items for a little...
- TIL that DC refused to let the TV show "Harley Quinn" air a scene of Batman giving oral to Catwoman because they said "Heroes don't do that"www.hollywoodreporter.com Batman, Catwoman Oral Sex Scene Blocked From Series: “Heroes Don’t Do That”
'Harley Quinn' co-creator Justin Halpern claims this scene was nixed by DC, and the internet has thoughts – including 'Justice League' director Zack Snyder.
- TIL About King Kahekili of Maui, and about how he Tatooed half his body black and nearly beat Kamehameha at Uniting the Hawaiian islandswww.shakaguide.com Chief Kahekili Nearly Beat Kamehameha to Uniting Hawaii
before Kamehameha, there was a great chief on Maui, named chief Kahekili, who indirectly laid the groundwork for Kamehameha to unite the islands and become king.
- TIL Benjamin Franklin used to sit around naked for extended periods to take air bathswww.historyoasis.com Benjamin Franklin's Air Baths
Benjamin Franklin's air baths, an unconventional wellness approach that championed the power of fresh air and natural elements for overall health.
- TIL that until 1973, it was legal in Texas for a husband to kill someone caught having sex with his wife, "provided that the killing takes place before the parties to the act have separated".www.sll.texas.gov Can you shoot a person caught having sex with your spouse?
Can you shoot a person caught having sex with your spouse? Find answers to frequently asked questions about Texas law.
- TIL that male dolphins are sexually attracted to female humans... this is so disturbing lolwww.nydailynews.com Woman reveals she had sex with dolphin during 1960s NASA experiment (VIDEO)
A female animal researcher has admitted to sex with a male dolphin during a 1960s NASA-funded experiment. Margaret Howe Lovatt was stationed on the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of a NASA experiment …
- TIL of the burials of Hawaiian chiefs and Sacred burial Practices of the Ancient Native Hawaiianswww.hawaiianburials.com Hawaiian Burials
Hawaiian burials are KAPU and sacred in Hawai'i. Hawaiian burial sites needs to be protected and preserved for the future generation of Hawai'i.
- TIL That a small cloud (1 Cubic Kilometer) weighs about 1.1 million lbs!www.usgs.gov How Much Does a Cloud Weigh? | U.S. Geological Survey
I don't know anyone who is afraid to walk underneath a cumulus cloud because they are afraid it might fall on them. We don't think of clouds even having weight because they are floating. But, clouds are made up of a physical substance, water, and water is quite heavy, so clouds must have weight. We ...
- TIL that Nabokov saw each letter as a color. It's called grapheme-color synesthesiaaeon.co Are we all born with a talent for synaesthesia? | Aeon Essays
It makes letters colourised and numbers pulsate with cosmic time: a rare gift, or are we all on the synaesthetic spectrum?
- TIL Box turtles evolved from water to land, then back to the water, then back to the land againwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Palaeoecology of triassic stem turtles sheds new light on turtle origins.
Competing hypotheses of early turtle evolution contrast sharply in implying very different ecological settings-aquatic versus terrestrial-for the origin of turtles. We investigate the palaeoecology of extinct turtles by first demonstrating that the forelimbs ...
