227 words TIL dowsing is considered a pseudoscience. I was taught how to find gopher tunnels, water and electric lines as a child and found out when googling for ideal lengths for single L copper rods!
105 words TIL American Football is the 9th most popular sport in the world. It is beaten by both Volleyball and Table Tennis.
259 words TIL that the Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona was named by white settlers who assumed the Aztecs were responsible for all archeological sites but it turns out the monument has nothing to do with Montezuma or the Aztecs and yet no one bothered to rename it.
125 words TIL Auto-Tune, introduced in 1997, which uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances was named one of the 50 worst inventions by Time magazine.
180 words TIL when professional wrestler Brian Pillman was to be "fired" by the WCW as part of a wrestling storyline, he asked that he be faxed a real release form to increase the realism. Since all the proper signatures were on it, he used the document to escape his contract and wrestle in the WWE instead
232 words TIL that For several years, up until 2018, Sweden’s official Twitter account was given to a random citizen every week to manage.
145 words TIL Jack Black desperately wanted to use a Led Zeppelin song in School Of Rock but the band was notoriously reluctant to let their music be used in films. The director suggested having Black record a personal plea to the band members, in front of a crowd of 1,000 extras. It worked.
135 words TIL in the early 90s John Travolta's career was over until director Quentin Tarantino asked to meet. Quentin made John play board games from his past movies and had him recite famous lines to his past films. At the end of the evening Quentin offered the part of Vincent in Pulp Fiction.
143 words TIL there is no evidence outside of the gospels that Jesus ever actually existed and what is commonly believed to be the original gospel written about him reads as an allegorical story instead of a historical account heavily implying that he was not an actual person.
266 words TIL that Angela White, an adult film actress, holds a first-class honours degree in gender studies from the University of Melbourne. Her thesis is titled "The Porn Performer: The Radical Potential of Pleasure in Pornography."
127 words TIL Contrary to the publicized image of the upbeat patient joking with surgeons, Ronald Reagan lost half his blood and came within seconds of dying in 1981 when he was gunned down. His true condition was concealed from the public for nearly 30 years.
285 words TIL Mozart had a sister who was also considered a music prodigy. They toured together, and she even sometimes received top billing. Her father forced her to abandon her career once she became a 'marriageable age'. She is believed to have written some compositions, but none have survived
329 words TIL: That a Japanese ice cream company created a commercial to publicly apologize about needing to raise the price of their ice cream bars for the first time in 25 years from 60 yen to 70 yen
124 words TIL In the Modern German Army, Any Order That Is Not “of any use for service” Becomes Non-Binding, Even In the Midst of Combat or If Given by a High-Ranking Official
169 words TIL ADHD doesn't always mean 'short attention span'. 'Hyperfocusing' on a task for hours on end is also a known symptom of ADHD, where the inability to stop is considered to be the problem.
117 words TIL that Walt Disney accidentally "kidnapped" Richard Nixon by dispatching his monorail train before the Secret Service could get on. The agents ran after the train and attempted to jump onboard but the doors had already closed. Monorail pilot Bob Gurr was terrified; Nixon got a kick out of it.
144 words TIL an American woman needed her husband's permission to open a bank account as recently as the 1960s
117 words TIL a 75-year Harvard study found close relationships are the key to a person's success. Having someone to lean on keeps brain function high and reduces emotional, and physical, pain. People who feel lonely are more likely to experience health declines earlier in life.
145 words TIL about terminal lucidity, a phenomenon in which patients with degenerated brains from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's suddenly regain lucidity, personality and memory before death. There is no known medical explanation for this phenomenon.
126 words TIL that over 90% of the planet's coal is from the 'carboniferous' era. An era that had evolved trees, but not anything to break them down. Trees died, fell down, and piled on top of each other eventually compressing all the trapped carbon into coal.