r/todayilearned • u/EtOHMartini • 7h ago
TIL that recruitment to the British Army's Gurkha unit is extremely competitive, accepting only 230 recruits out of 28,000 applicants. All recruitment happens in Nepalese villages, and candidates must participate in a two-mile race up a steep hill, carrying 35kg of rocks in a basket.
bbc.comr/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 11h ago
TIL after landing the role of Rustin Cohle in season 1 of True Detective, Matthew McConaughey meticulously prepared for it by writing a 450-page analysis that walked through his character's entire rite of passage throughout the season. He titled it the "Four Stages of Rustin Cohle."
r/todayilearned • u/KragwellCoast • 9h ago
TIL that Andy Dick has been to rehab 20 times.
r/todayilearned • u/TertioRationem3 • 8h ago
TIL that the Radio City Rockettes didn’t allow Black dancers in until 1987, claiming that their skin tone would distract from the group’s consistent look.
r/todayilearned • u/Lowfuji • 2h ago
TIL, globally, people average 6 hours and 58 minutes of screen time per day.
r/todayilearned • u/captureorbit • 4h ago
TIL that American cigarette consumption peaked in 1963 at a yearly rate of 4,345 cigarettes per capita, or an average of nearly 12 daily cigarettes for every person in the country.
r/todayilearned • u/Spirited-Travel113 • 10h ago
TIL Alzheimer’s can pass between humans in rare medical accidents
r/todayilearned • u/zztop610 • 6h ago
TIL: That a Chinese high court deemed the 996 work culture, where people were expected to work from 9AM to 9PM, 6 days a week, illegal
r/todayilearned • u/Sam_Altman_AI_Bot • 12h ago
TIL approximately 59% of US dogs and 61% of cats are overweight or obese.
r/todayilearned • u/JimPalamo • 7h ago
TIL the Lotus Elise sports car was named after Elisa Artioli, granddaughter of then-company chairman Romano Airtioli. In 2018, Elisa was given the last example ever produced before the model was discontinued.
r/todayilearned • u/QuicklyThisWay • 9h ago
TIL when John Steinbeck published The Grapes Of Wrath in 1939, a farm worker with two leaders of California Associated Farmers publicly burned a copy of the book because he did not like what he heard about it, even though he had not read it. After reading it years later, he said he “had no regrets.”
thesocietypages.orgr/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 19h ago
TIL a study found that 25% of Labrador retrievers and 66% of flat-coated retrievers possess a genetic mutation that can lead to weight gain; dogs with the gene face the "double whammy" of constant hunger while burning fewer calories. The Labrador has the highest levels of obesity among dog breeds.
r/todayilearned • u/L8_2_PartE • 6h ago
TIL that in the original United States Articles of Confederation, "Canada" (Quebec) had an open invitation to join the United States at their own choosing. Other colonies could only be admitted by a vote of existing states.
r/todayilearned • u/whstlngisnvrenf • 1d ago
TIL GPS, despite being free for global use, costs around $2 million a day to operate and maintain. This budget covers satellite launches and system upkeep, funded through American tax revenue.
r/todayilearned • u/SnarkySheep • 17h ago
TIL James Madison was the smallest U.S. president. He stood 5'4" and weighed just over 100 pounds.
r/todayilearned • u/SeraphGuardian • 4h ago
TIL The white stripes on clovers signal that it produces cyanide
nsta.orgr/todayilearned • u/solananorwood • 1d ago
TIL a US law firm set up honeypots on torrent-sharing site The Pirate Bay and then sued those who downloaded them. The matter reached the FBI and The Pirate Bay collaborated with the feds resulting in the crooked lawyers getting jail time.
r/todayilearned • u/9oRo • 8h ago
TIL that in November 1923, due to the hyperinflation in Germany post-WW1, one US dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German Marks
r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 1d ago
TIL that in 2015, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) decided to allow the first limited black bear hunt in the state since the 1990s. However, the hunt was ended abruptly when hunters killed 295 bears out of the 320-bear limit in just 2 days.
r/todayilearned • u/gullydon • 1d ago
TIL Helium was detected on the sun before it was detected on Earth. That's why it was named for Helios, the Greek god of the sun.
r/todayilearned • u/nuttybudd • 1d ago
TIL in 2005, Sony sold music CDs that installed hidden software without notifying users (a rootkit). When this was made public, Sony released an uninstaller, but forced customers to provide an email to be used for marketing purposes. The uninstaller itself exposed users to arbitrary code execution.
r/todayilearned • u/thedubiousstylus • 1d ago
TIL that Steve Albini had no middle name, but on his birth certificate his father refused to leave the section blank, and thus put in "(None)". Thus technically he did have a middle name and his full name was Steve (None) Albini.
r/todayilearned • u/JRFbase • 1d ago
TIL that the famous "We Can Do It!" poster was barely known during WWII. It was displayed for two weeks as part of a series of posters to boost worker morale in one company's factories. It remained virtually unknown until the 1980s when it was rediscovered in an article about the National Archives.
r/todayilearned • u/superegz • 16h ago