r/todayilearned 3h ago

TIL Cold water has negative calories since your body needs to spend energy to heat it up. By drinking a glass of ice water you'll burn about eight calories.

Thumbnail
uamshealth.com
4.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 6h ago

TIL hippos have a reflex mechanism that allows them to pop up, take a breath, and go back down without waking up so they can sleep underwater.

Thumbnail
nathab.com
1.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago All-Seeing Upvote

TIL that Hawaii was a sovereign self-governing kingdom all the way up until 1893, totally unassociated with the U.S., until a coup d'état that year by 13 businessmen and 162 U.S. troops, with the openly stated goal of annexing the islands. (They succeeded.)

Thumbnail
nvlchawaii.org
19.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

Today I learned that genuine wasabi is rare and likely not even served in most high-end sushi restaurants. Apparently the real deal is difficult to grow as it’s quite picky and takes approx. three years to mature.

Thumbnail
mashed.com
4.6k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago Burning Cash Gold Wearing is Caring

TIL Elvis Presley craved the Fool's Gold Loaf, which consists of a hollowed-out loaf of French bread filled with one 1-lb. jar each of creamy peanut and grape jelly and a pound of fried bacon. It packs ~8,000 calories. He and friends once flew from Memphis to Denver to eat 30 of them.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
40.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL Whale falls are a major source of nutrients for the ocean's bathyal or abyssal zones. The remains of an estimated 690,000 whales are being broken down on the ocean floor, with the bodies being picked clean, the skeletons dissolved, and ultimately a reef formed.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
771 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL That Elvis Presley's manager sold "I Hate Elvis" badges as a way to make money from people who weren't buying Elvis merchandise

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
3.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL of Caratacus who held off the Romans for ten years, using hit and run tactics. Finally he was betrayed and taken prisoner by the Romans, but gave such an eloquent speech, that Emperor Claudius set him free.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
312 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1h ago

TIL about an obscure Egyptian god named Medjed. The only god depicted as forward facing and having 2 eyes. He also bizarrely gained popularity on the Japanese internet shortly after his discovery.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
Upvotes

r/todayilearned 21h ago

TIL the longest recorded sniper kill was in June 2017, by an unnamed Canadian sniper with a 3,540 m (3,871 yd) shot in the Iraqi Civil War, surpassing a 2009 record by over 1,000 m (1,100 yd).

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
5.6k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL Some of the reasons people drive aggressively include a sense of anonymity while driving, feeling more empowered driving than in the rest of their lives, and a feeling that other drivers have previously driven aggressively around them.

Thumbnail unece.org
448 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 17h ago

TIL Disney World had its own airport that had a runway that featured a set of grooves, like rumble strips on the side of a highway, that played “When You Wish Upon a Star” when driven over at roughly 45 miles per hour to surprise the airplane passengers.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
1.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL that Stephen III of Moldavia handed the Ottoman Empire one of its greatest losses in 1475, despite being heavily outnumbered. After the battle, Stephen fasted for forty days and banned people from praising him for his success, saying that it belonged to God alone.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
274 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL A casino can just kick you out if you win to much even if you are not cheating or doing anything wrong.

Thumbnail shouselaw.com
42.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL Copyleft is a thing - It's the legal name for a license allowing free use and modification of work. And yes, it has a symbol that is a rotated copyright mark.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
186 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL: The 62 books in the mainline Goosebumps series were published in only 53 months. RL Stine published more than a book a month for almost five years.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
16.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL the reason why the Declaration of Independence is so faded isn't solely its age. In the 1800s, it was placed in front of a large window in the US Patent Office for 35 years.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
906 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 3h ago

TIL, that because Mars father is Jupiter and Jupiters father is Saturn, Johann Bode proposed that the 7th planet should be named after Jupiters father. Bode was unaware of the fact that Uranus was the greek and not roman god. There are now 6 planets named after roman gods and 1 named after a greek.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
86 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL about the void that forms under certain trees when it snows, called tree wells. The upper branches of the tree prevents snow from falling below it, creating a pocket that is a serious peril for skiers & snow boarders. Several die every year from falling head first into these voids.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL that limelight is a type of lighting once used for stages. Intense illumination is created when a flame fed by oxygen and hydrogen is directed at a cylinder of quicklime. Long since replaced by electric lighting, the term has survived; someone in the public eye is said to be "in the limelight."

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
66 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL baby giraffes fall 6 feet to the ground they are born. The fall doesn’t hurt them, but snaps the umbilical cord and tears the amniotic sack, with the shock of the fall stimulating the baby to take its first breath.

Thumbnail
monartosafari.com.au
1.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL The Aristocrats joke gained public attention when Gilbert Gottfried told it in an attempt to win back the audience after his 9/11 joke at the Friar’s Club was poorly received. For context, this happened 18 days after the attack.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
6.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 23h ago

TIL: honeycombs start out circular, and the surface tension of the beeswax pulls them into hexagons as it solidifies, because it is the most energetically favorable conformation.

Thumbnail
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
2.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL The Loch Ness Monster has a scientific name, Nessiteras rhombopteryx. Proposed by Sir Peter Scott, it's Greek for "the Ness monster with diamond fin" but also an anagram of "monster hoax by Sir Peter S"

Thumbnail
daily.jstor.org
56 Upvotes