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There are hundreds of thousands of thoughts running through our minds every single minute. In such a busy world that we live in, we’re bombarded with information, whether from media or other people that we have to process somehow. And this is one hell of a task to do, yet it never ends.
So let’s all put a pause on whatever it is that our pacing minds and bodies are thinking and doing and sit back to enjoy the moment. While devouring so much content, voluntarily or not, we often forget to reflect on the things we see, read and hear.
This time we’re going to do just the opposite with our monthly collection of “Today I Learned” posts that spark the joys of curiosity and learning. Scroll down, upvote your favorite posts and let this break last longer with more TIL posts that we have prepared for you, here, here, and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL Norway sends The UK a christmas tree every year to thank UK for saving Norway in WW2
#2
TIL in the early 90s LL Cool J shared with his grandma that he couldn't survive as a rapper now that gangsta rap was popular. His grandma responded, "Oh baby, just knock them out!" which inspired him to write 'Mama Said Knock You Out' a grammy award winning certified platnum single.
#3
TIL that the Magic Eraser has no chemical solvents in it. Instead it is a special foam with super sharp microscopic edges that basically scrapes off dirt.
Dan Padgett 2 years ago
Aye, it's effectively a soft sanding pad. They rub off paint and smear it.
With so much information bombarding us every day, it may be challenging to separate valuable information from things that do nothing but waste our time. So Bored Panda reached out to Alex Wong, the “Hijack” Copywriter, who has been on a mission to help small and corporate businesses “hijack” their clients’ minds and help them to grow their businesses and sales.
"When it comes to learning something new, I always try to stick with reputable sources. Well-respected sites, books, journals, and academic papers are better than blogs or sites focused on getting the most attention and clicks," Wong said.
He added that if he's not sure, he always asks others who are more familiar with the topic what they recommend. "Reddit and Quora are great resources to get feedback on a wide variety of topics," Wong added.
#4
TIL Flowers exposed to the playback sound of a flying bee produce sweeter nectar within 3 minutes, with sugar concentration averaging 20% higher.
#5
TIL that the "Perfect Aryan" poster child that was widely used in Nazi propaganda was actually Jewish. The photo was selected from a Nazi-held contest, where the photographer of the baby had submitted the photo as an ironic joke.
#6
TIL The founder of Sony hired an outspoken critic of their products so they could make better products. 20 years later, he became the president of Sony.
It's no secret that when it comes to learning new things, many people don't know where to start or try to find excuses not to. Wong, however, believes that he's built differently than most people since he doesn't lack motivation.
"For me, once I found out that learning something is beneficial, even if I may not want to do it initially, I will still find a way to do it. For example, I’m currently learning how to run FB ads to market a book I published. Even though it would have been easier to hire someone to do it, I figured it would be beneficial for me to learn about the platform and how they work. That way, I will be able to run ads for any products in the future," he explained.
Wong argues that in the end, it all comes down to finding your "why". "Once you find a strong enough reason to do something, the next step is figuring out 'how' to do it. Most people don't want to put in the hard work to learn something new but still want the results," Wong concluded.
#7
TIL that in 1845 79 people died in a bridge collapse that happened because a large crowd had gathered to watch a clown in a bathtub be pulled up a river by four geese.
#8
TIL that Supai, AZ is the most remote community in the contiguous US. It is 8 miles from the nearest road and is only accessible by foot, mule, or helicopter. It is the only place in the United States where mail is still carried in and out by mules.
Skara Brae 2 years ago
It's a tribal community Inside the Grand Canyon. They don't want a road, because they would be drastically over-run with tourists. Also, people who are willing to hike 8 miles are far quieter than hundreds of vehicles.
#9
TIL in 1982, Byron Peiss wrote a book called the Secret. In it, there are clues to 12 treasure boxes hidden in various places all around the US and Canada. As of 2022, only 3 of the 12 boxes have ever been found. If a box is discovered, you can exchange it for bragging rights and a precious gem
Previously, we also spoke with Helen Marlo, a licensed clinical psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst who provides psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and consultation about how we can all become better at learning new things every day.
According to Marlo, “it helps to understand what messages we have internalized about curiosity as well as the responses received from others when we express curiosity.”
“For example, many internalize that being curious means they “do not know something” or are not intelligent. That inhibits curiosity and its negative effects are compounded because it limits further learning,” the professor explained.
#10
TIL Ladybugs are extremely promiscuous, and as a result have rampant STD'S
Aunt Riarch 2 years ago (edited)
I'm going to be thinking about this all day now.... A row of ladybirds lined up outside the clinic, not looking eachother in the face
#11
TIL that the disability with the highest unemployment rate is actually schizophrenia, at 70-90%
#12
TIL there's an unexplained global effect called "The Hum" only heard by about 2-4% of the world's population. The phenomenon was recorded as early as the 1970s, and its possible causes range from industrial environments, to neurological reasons, to tinnitus, to fish.
Research suggests that “individuals who feel secure in relationships are more likely to feel and express curiosity including feeling free and confident to explore others’ viewpoints; pursue a new hobby, or learn a new subject area,” Marlo noted.
Among many new things we can learn every day, language is one of the most beneficial ones. She explained that learning a new language has many benefits including improving cultural awareness and increasing empathy.
There has been an argument that learning languages have the ability to prevent diseases like dementia, but Helen warns that data on that is still unclear. “However, very generally speaking, there is a “use it or lose it” principle when it comes to our brain health. We are less likely to “lose it” when we “use it."
#13
TIL A 2017 study found that the introduction of iodized salt in 1924 raised the IQ for the one-quarter of the population most deficient in iodine.
Nadine Debard 2 years ago
In France, in those days, there was a slur which said 'crétin des Alpes', basically mountain (Alps) idiot, because of the intellectual deficiency due to the lack of iodine in this area.
#14
TIL that breast cancer used to be known as "Nun's disease" due to the higher prevalence amongst nuns, who were at increased risk due to their celibate lifestyle. An association between reproductive history and cancer risk wasn't proven for about 250 years after it was associated with nuns.
Aunt Riarch 2 years ago
So they lived long enough to die of cancer, unlike their reproducing sisters
#15
TIL Queen Sophie of the Netherlands’ marriage with King William was so turbulent that when she died, she was buried in her wedding dress because she viewed her life ended on the day she got married.
Demi Zwaan 2 years ago
Turbulent? He raped her, abused her (physically), cheated on her with many women and was an unstable, sick man.
#16
TIL In the 1990s Marvel released their financial reports in comic book form. The comics featured characters like Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk discussing revenue sources and future business plans.
#17
TIL Certain types of fly larvae are ideal for treating gangrene because they feed on dead and infected tissue but leave healthy tissue alone. However, because of the nature of this type of treatment, many people are reluctant to try it.
Emerald Joanna 2 years ago
Maggots clean wounds up beautifully! I treated a festering skin cancer infected with maggots & they had made the skin as clean as a whistle. Was amazing to see.
#18
TIL The Xerox 914, the first commercially successful photocopier, came equipped with a 'scorch eliminator'. The scorch eliminator was actually just a fire extinguisher, which was required as the device commonly caught fire.
Waite Forit 2 years ago (edited)
Ah yes, Xerox. The company that invented the computer business and then gave it away.
#19
TIL Lucky Charms were invented by a General Mills employee who chopped Circus Peanut candies into a bowl of Cheerios.
#20
TIL a Berlin-based artist tricked Google Maps into thinking that a completely empty street was bursting with traffic by filling a wagon with 99 smartphones, opening Maps navigation on all of them, and then slowly pulling the wagon along Berlin streets.
#21
TIL there is a species of mushroom that infects and zombifies carpenter ants. The mushroom slowly takes control of the ant’s motor functions and leads them away from the colony to die in a place ideal for growing. Then the mushroom grows out of the ant’s head.
Kookamunga 2 years ago
I looked this up - Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis is the name of the fungi/mushroom. Attached picture of infected ant. Whoa. zombie-ant...d65c5f.jpg 
TotallyNOTaFox 2 years ago
Not uncommon, even for us humans - the most common behaviour changing parasite for us would be Toxoplasma Gondii: It infects mice and makes them unafraid of cats to reach their intestines to reproduce. Can infect us as well and makes people more daring.
Lou Cam 2 years ago (edited)
It's rats it infects. Normally rats naturally avoid cat inhabited areas. Domestic cats being excellent at keeping rat colonies and their diseases away from humans even if they couldnt catch a wet leaf. However when infected by the toxoplasmosis gondii parasite, the rat is attracted to the cat smell instead. The poor creature walks right up to any cat it can find. This is because the parasite needs to finish it's life cycle in the cat, the eggs of the parasite being contained within the cat poop ready to infect rats directly or indirectly. Unfortunately humans can be exposed to the eggs in the cat poop and are then infected by the parasite. In healthy humans it has been shown to inhabit the brain and increase risk taking behaviour but not be otherwise harmful. However, in the unborn and those with immune deficiencies it can be deadly so pregnant women and the immunosuppressed are advised to avoid changing cat litter and to wear gloves when gardening to avoid infection.
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Java Addict 2 years ago
Cordyceps. The same thing that ravages the world in the The Last of Us video games.
Omiyaru 2 years ago (edited)
There are other mushroom doesnt do just ants I do think that it was the inspiration behindthe pokemon Paras and Parasect
Markus Holstein 2 years ago (edited)
There is also a parasite (forgot the name, unfortuantely) who resides in the digestive tract of cows, but starts its life cycle inside ants, manipulating them to climb to the tips of blades of grass so they'd get swallowed my grazing cows
AxleMunshine001 2 years ago
Before falling into oblivion, the ant thought: ...the last of us...
Randy Klefbeck 2 years ago
It also infects spiders, grubs, beetles, larvae. The spores float on the wind. On their final destination the infected subject will bite down on whatever is the closest ideal growth area for the fungus and then finally die.
Kurtis Karr 2 years ago
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a fungus but not a mushroom. The novel Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey was about a mutated form of this fungus.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 2 years ago
They were the inspiration for the zombies in "The Last of Us".
Robert B 2 years ago
Even better for those of us with diseased brains: researchers thought that the fungus took over the ant’s nervous system, essentially killing and zombifying the ant. Recent research has shown that the fungus does not kill the ant, it actually moves into the muscle tissue and even into the cells, thus controlling the ant like a living puppet. So, nightmares.
Grace Smith 1 year ago
I believe this is part of the inspiration for the video game “The last of us”
Vicki Perizzolo 2 years ago
fungus vs 'mushroom' per se -- it's on a variety of GOOD Nature shows and a truly horrific end for the ant. Pretty much anything with Sir David has something about these..definitely doesn't have a stem or umbrella shape.. more like strings and phylla
DaveR38 2 years ago
Cordyceps. You can buy in Hong Kong and China, some cost more than their weight in gold and are claimed to have great healing powers
TotallyNOTaFox 2 years ago
*Looks back to 2019* - Could China please stop consuming wierd things?
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The Shark 2 years ago
There's another type of fungi I've seen in the northeast US that infects common flies. They eventually die in place with stripes of fungus visible on their bodies. The brilliance of the fungi's strategy is it's spores attract mates. Male flies repeatedly copulate with dead zombie females more frequently than healthy ones. The fungi life cycle continues! (And the evil, biting flies do not!)
Courtney Christelle 2 years ago
I heard their buddies drag them away to die so they can't infect the colony.
Misty-Dawn Amayi 2 years ago (edited)
This fungus is called Cordyceps, and while it's devastating to ants, it's beneficial for human consumption. It's also being incorporated into "Green" pest control products, because it's selective of it's hosts, and leaves most beneficial insects alone.
#22
TIL Charles Darwin spent 6 months in South America looking for a lesser rhea (an ostrich-like bird) only to have one served to him for dinner. Halfway through the meal, Darwin realized what he was eating, gathered the parts and sent them to England for taxidermy and formal classification.
#23
TIL of "Target Fixation": a phenomenon where an individual becomes so focused on an observed object (be it a target, or hazard to be avoided) that they inadvertently increase their risk of colliding with the object.
#24
TIL Michelangelo created a sleeping Cupid figure and treated it with acidic earth to appear ancient. He then sold it to a dealer who then sold it to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio who later learned of the fraud and demanded his money back. Michelangelo was permitted to keep his share of the money.
#25
TIL about the lia radiological accident, where three Georgians discovered two abandoned radioactive sources in the forest around which "there was no snow for about a 1 m (3.3 ft) radius, and the ground was steaming", they then decided to use them as heat sources for the night. One died.
#26
TIL that nearly all mammals, from mice to giraffes, have exactly 7 cervical vertebrae in their necks; the only exceptions are sloths and manatees.
#27
TIL: According to Guinness World Records, PATH, a mostly underground pedestrian walkway network in downtown Toronto, is the largest underground shopping complex in the world. PATH spans more than 30 kilometres of restaurants, shopping, services and entertainment.
#28
TIL one of the moons of Mars (Phobos) orbits Mars much faster than Mars rotates, and completes an orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. From the surface of Mars it appears to rise in the west, move across the sky in 4 hours and 15 minutes, and set in the east, twice each Martian day.
#29
TIL about a Brazilian Con artist called Carlos Kaiser, who had a decade long career as a Football player, and managed to sign for multiple teams, without player even one regular game. The one time he almost had to play, he started a fight during, to get a Red Card, avoiding to actually play.
#30
TIL Pope John Paul II forgave his attempted assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca who shot him four times in 1981. At the Pope's request, the Italian President pardoned Ağca of the crime and he was deported back to Turkey. Ağca requested to meet Pope Francis in 2014 but Francis chose to decline.
#31
TIL of a plane who made a forced landing on a Greenland ice cap in Nov. 1942. In attempting their rescue, 6 more planes either also stranded or crashed and it would take the survivors 5 and a half months of sheltering on the glacier until they were all rescued.
#32
TIL that a politician from the United Kingdom, John Bell, believed that he was a bird, stating that he could fly much better than a bird, because he kept his shoulders oiled. Despite his state of mind, he remained a Member of Parliament until his death in 1851.
#33
TIL that consumption of the Australian aquatic fern called Nardoo can cause you to starve if improperly prepared. The plant contains vast quantities of an enzyme that obliterates thiamine (vitamin B1), making your body unable to unlock energy from food, even if eating a full nutritious diet.
#34
TIL: Prior to the D-Day landings, men were covertly sent ashore from submarines to collect samples of the sand to see whether it could support the weight of the tanks, trucks and other vehicles.
UKGrandad 2 years ago
Also, in preparation for the landings, the Allied forces ran practice landings on the Welsh coast. The boats carried no ammunition for their guns. Unfortunately, a German U-boat patrol spotted the exercise and sank many ships, killing a lot of servicemen at no risk to the German crews..
#35
TIL about Narbacular Drop, a puzzle game made by students at DigiPen University of Technology, which emphasized the usage of portals to solve puzzles; the entire team was later hired by Valve Software and would go on to make Portal
I can't think of a good name 2 years ago (edited)
And portal 2( plz don't tell me the end) Edit: I have now.
#36
TIL it took around 3 billion years for the very first single-celled organisms to eventually evolve into basic animal life forms. For comparison, dinosaurs were around for about 165 million years, modern humans have been around for 300,000 years.
Demi Zwaan 2 years ago
And still some people think that a cat not turning into a dog means evolution doesn't exist.
#37
TIL the US Navy has a 'Fleet Admiral' rank which only four people have ever achieved. It includes the unique benefit of active duty pay for life.
#38
TIL in 1981 Chicago mayor Jane Byrne moved into the crime ridden Cabrini–Green public housing project in an attempt to improve its reputation. Despite having bodyguards she left just a few weeks later, furthering the public perception of Cabrini–Green as the "worst of the worst" in the city.
#39
TIL Throughout much of the 20th century, a majority of states once required a blood test (mostly for STIs) before issuing a couple a marriage license.
kraftmacaroniandbeez 2 years ago
in my country it's still required (to prove couple isn't related and to inform them about rh factor compatibility)
#40
TIL Some flying insects have biologic versions of gyroscopes. The haltere is a small bell like structure that vibrates and can account for changes in rotation using the Coriolis effect, so the insect knows its position and can make corrections.
What do you think ?
VM37 2 years ago
TIL Snoopy is a beagle. Saw it on a little boy tshirt at the doctors waiting room.
tuzdayschild 2 years ago
I used to have a beagle that slept on top of her dog house. I thought that was something Charles Schultz made up but I guess it's a beagle trait.
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VM37 2 years ago
TIL Snoopy is a beagle. Saw it on a little boy tshirt at the doctors waiting room.
tuzdayschild 2 years ago
I used to have a beagle that slept on top of her dog house. I thought that was something Charles Schultz made up but I guess it's a beagle trait.
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