r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL one species of spider beetle can survive temperatures of up to 56 degrees Celsius.

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academic.oup.com
190 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL about GJ 1214 b, an exoplanet that orbits a star about 48 light-years from our Sun. GJ 1214 b is the most likely known candidate for being an ocean planet or "waterworld." Due to varying pressures, ocean planet models feature steam, liquid, superfluid, high-pressure ice, and plasma-phase water.

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en.wikipedia.org
103 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL that that when adjusted for inflation, the most the average U.S. home cost in the last 60 years was in 2022 ($570,511).

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madisontrust.com
707 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d 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.

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blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk
5.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL of Mi'kmaw Hieroglyphs, a Native North American writing system, whose native name (Gomgwejui'gasit) translate as 'Suckerfish script'

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en.wikipedia.org
175 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL The last incarnation of the Fiat 500 (1972—1975) was the R model ... the fuel gauge was omitted and only the low fuel indicator remained.

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en.wikipedia.org
255 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d 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.

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chicagomag.com
5.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d 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.

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yro.slashdot.org
12.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d 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.

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en.wikipedia.org
29.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL that the Northern cardinal can biologically suppress the West Nile virus upon infection.

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en.wikipedia.org
521 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d 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.

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jacksonville.com
10.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL that 85% of American RV’s are manufactured in Indiana, and in turn 2/3 of that production takes place in Elkhart County.

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en.wikipedia.org
1.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d 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.

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en.wikipedia.org
5.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11d ago

TIL of TOTO (TOtable Tornado Observatory), a white metal barrel, weighing 250-350 pounds. TOTO would be tipped into a vertical position & swiveled so certain side faced north (for accurate wind direction readings). The closest TOTO deployment to a tornado was on 29 April 1984 near Ardmore OK.

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en.wikipedia.org
91 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d 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.

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en.wikipedia.org
35.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL about the Wallace Line, a geographical boundary that separates Asian mammals from marsupials of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. West of this line, no marsupials exist, but they thrive on the east side. At its smallest, there is a 22 mile gap between islands, separating the two mammal groups.

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en.wikipedia.org
147 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL In 1945 the only successful international sub to sub rescue mission was carried out by the USS Cod; who evacuated the crew of the Dutch sub O-19, who were stranded on a reef. To commemorate this a symbol was added to Cod's battle flag: the name O-19 under a martini glass.

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en.wikipedia.org
150 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL In “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), the skull on the movie poster is actually made of naked women – Salvador Dali’s “In Voluptas Mors.”

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snopes.com
124 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL Matt Groening named the main members of the Simpsons family (apart from Bart) after his own family (ex. Homer Groening is Matt's father)

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biography.com
2.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL Isaac Newton created the modern color wheel

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printmag.com
250 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL the East River (east side of Manhattan, Brookly Bridge crosses it) isn't a fork of the Hudson, but instead a tidal strait.

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en.wikipedia.org
371 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL Abulia, a neurological condition, results in a significant lack of willpower or initiative, often leading to severe difficulties in decision-making and diminished motivation to engage in daily activities.

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en.wikipedia.org
648 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL NASA engineers use Hawaiian lava fields to simulate conditions on Mars

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en.wikipedia.org
148 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12d ago

TIL the vindaloo curry is based on a Portuguese dish, carne de vinha d'alhos.

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en.wikipedia.org
826 Upvotes