39 Mind-Blowing Facts That Will Change Everything You Thought You Knew
However, underneath all the fact-checking lies something even more important—the desire to learn, no matter how young or old the person might be. TIL is all about sparking curiosity in people, helping educate them, and proving that the world is far more complex, bizarre, and interesting than we tend to give it credit for in our day-to-day lives.
Recently, Alan Castel, Ph.D., a UCLA psychology professor and the author of ‘Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging,’ spoke to Bored Panda about people’s curiosity, cognition, and how to maintain the sharpness of our minds as we age.
“Our awareness of our own cognitive ability and knowledge is called metacognition. Often as we get older, we are more aware of what we know, what we don’t know, and also what we are most interested in. I think being selective can be important so that we can focus on remembering and being curious about what interests us,” he told us.
TIL that 26 of the 36 missing children featured in the original music videos for Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train have been found. Most recently, the remains of Aundria Bowman were identified in 2020, 31 years after she was reported missing
TIL A Canadian makeup developer helped Crayola create “Colors of the World” crayons that are meant to accurately reflect human skin tones. He pared down the 40 shades he had created for Cover FX to 24 distinct colors that kids can use to draw themselves
TIL to collect taxes, Christian IV of Denmark asked captains of ships crossing the Øresund to estimate the value of their cargo, which was applied as the tax base without further audit. But the king also claimed the right to buy the entire cargo at exactly that price
“Research shows that physical exercise such as walking can improve brain function and memory, and being socially connected has widespread benefits for the brain,” he noted that moving lots and having an active social life helps our minds.
“Thus, it is likely a combination of things that keep us sharp, such as being physically active, talking to people, reading, being connected, and remaining curious about things that are important.”
TIL the iconic Einstein-sticking-his-tongue-out photo was his annoyed reaction to paparazzi goading him to smile on his 72nd birthday. It achieved cult status mostly because Einstein himself asked for a cropped version, ordered many prints and proceeded to send them to friends
TIL figure skating competitions in the 1800s involved the act of skating pictures into the ice. This required precision and wasn’t as fast-paced as modern figure skating
TIL Joseph Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile after his son died of appendicitis when a blizzard prevented him from getting him to a hospital in time
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
TIL about unisexual mole salamanders which are an all-female complex of salamanders that ‘steal’ sperm from up to five different species of salamanders in the genus Ambystoma and recombine it to produce female hybrid offspring. This method of reproduction is called kleptogenesis
TIL that American ice cream company Häagen-Dazs sued American ice cream company Frusen Glädjé to stop them from using a “Scandinavian marketing theme”. The court ruled against Häagen-Dazs as they had also marketed themselves as Scandinavian without having any real connection to the region
TIL the 7 year rule for dog aging is incorrect – compared to humans, dogs age faster when young and slower as they age
TIL after the TV show Teletubbies ended, the owner of the land used had to dig out the hill and flood the field it was filmed in, due to the amount of people trespassing to see Teletubbieland
TIL Florence Nightingale was not only a nurse but a statistician who created one of the first pie charts and authored 150 books, pamphlets and reports
TIL that a suicidal teen from the UK used several fake online personas to convince his best mate to [end] him, he survived the attack but became the first person in UK history to be charged with inciting their own [end]
TIL that a fire destroyed most of Harvard Library’s collection in 1764. Only a small number of books were spared, including 144 that were checked out at the time. One of these books was found and returned in 1997
TIL that the first commercial airliner shot down by hostile forces was refurbished, returned to service, and later became the third commercial airliner to be shot down by hostile forces
TIL Mr. T’s trademark gold neck chains and jewelry was the result of customers losing the items or leaving them after a fight at the nightclub where Mr T. worked as a bouncer. A banned customer could return to claim his property from Mr. T wearing it conspicuously right out front
TIL there’s a gene that controls how long you sleep. “Short sleepers” function the same off of 4-6 hours of sleep as a typical individual getting 8
TIL the last king of Egypt, Faud II, is still alive and ascended to the throne when he was just 192 days old. He was deposed a year later after his father was exiled and Egypt declared a republic
TIL about Alexis St. Martin who, after not properly healing after being shot in the stomach, was used in experiments for 12 years as doctors could view his digestion in real time through his wound. He lived another 58 years
TIL Frank Dixon, author of the Hardy Boys books and Carolyn Keene author of the Nancy Drew Series don’t exist. They are actually pseudonyms for a variety of writers who wrote those stories
TIL that the Animals broke up because, while touring in Japan in 1968, their manager was kidnapped by the tour promoters, who were Yakuza, and put him up for ransom. After the manager escaped, the band was forced to flee the country or be killed by the Yakuza, leaving all of their tour gear behind
TIL amidst early concerns about leaded gas, the engineer who discovered tetraethyllead as an additive demonstrated its ‘safety’ by pouring it over his hands and inhaling its vapor, stating he could do this every day without issue. He later took a leave of absence due to lead poisoning
TIL About “Judas goats”, which are trained to associate with herds and gain their trust so that other animals follow them – to a slaughter. The Judas goat is rewarded by not being killed, and used to lead other herds to the same fate
TIL that when deaf people experience stroke-related brain damage, they often lose the ability to sign in remarkably similar ways to the different forms of linguistic aphasia (difficulty speaking, forming words, sentences being nonsensical)
TIL Alexander Fleming’s mold that produced the first antibiotic, penicillin, was kept frozen since 1945 and its genomes are used for regrowing nowadays
TIL that a Wall Street restaurant, The Exchange Buffet, operated on the honour system, where customers would tally their own bills. It ran successfully from 1885 to 1963
TIL the energy released by turning just one kilogram of hydrogen into helium is the same as burning 20,000 metric tons of coal. The sun is doing this constantly through nuclear fusion
TIL The national anthem of Italy mentiones Poland and the national anthem of Poland mentions Italy, both in a positive way
TIL about Kriegspiel, a chess variant where each player can see their own pieces, but not those of their opponent. Players attempt to move on their turns, and the umpire declares their attempts ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’. If the move is illegal, the player tries again; if it is legal, that move stands
TIL Weird Al’s biggest problem with services that illegally distributed his music was that they would misattribute songs to him. Al was especially annoyed by profane songs like, “Baby Got Jack” or “Ugly Girl”
TIL Bach wrote the Brandenburg Concertos in 1721 as part of a job application to the Margrave, which he never received a reply. The concertos were unpublished until 1850 and almost lost again during WWII
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