Today I Learned (TIL)

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/UbiquitousNibs on 2024-12-02 05:23:00.

Original Title: TIL about Carlos Kaiser, a Brazilian con artist, who made a career playing for 10 different professional football teams (including three clubs where he was able to get a contract for a second stint after a break elsewhere) without ever making a senior appearance for any of them.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/mrhuggables on 2024-12-02 05:11:14.

Original Title: TIL of the Cypress of Kashmar, a 1450 y.o. giant Cypress tree said to have been planted by the Prophet Zoroaster in Iran. Despite prophecy warning against it, it was chopped down by the Caliph because he did not want to travel so far to see it. The Caliph was murdered soon after.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Used-Dimension8742 on 2024-12-02 04:57:28.

Original Title: TIL In 1848, Poe wrote a prose poem called Eureka, in which he speculated that the universe began from a single point that expanded outward. While not scientifically precise, his ideas eerily resemble modern concepts of the Big Bang nearly 80 years before it was proposed.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Used-Dimension8742 on 2024-12-02 04:52:58.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/GoinThruTheBigD on 2024-12-02 04:46:52.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Ozem_son_of_Jesse on 2024-12-02 01:04:14.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/BeachesAreOverrated on 2024-12-02 00:30:35.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/ryansaystuff on 2024-12-01 23:23:59.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/ObjectiveAd6551 on 2024-12-01 21:52:00.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Ainsley-Sorsby on 2024-12-01 21:39:08.

Original Title: TIL Ars Amatoria, the most famous work by roman poet Ovid, is just dating advice in the form of a poem. It was written in 2 AD and contains advice such as "never forget her birthday", "let her miss you but not too much" and "never ask her age". He also wrote a sequel with dating advice for women

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/0---------------0 on 2024-12-01 21:31:09.

Original Title: TIL of Sister Exchange, a type of marriage agreement where two sets of siblings marry each other. In order to get married, a man needs to persuade his sister to marry the bride's brother. It is practised as a primary method of organising marriages in 3% of the world's societies.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/hl3official on 2024-12-01 20:23:45.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/UndyingCorn on 2024-12-01 19:44:56.

Original Title: TIL Rare Earth Elements are actually fairly abundant. The rarest of REEs (thulium) is still 125 times more prevalent in the earth's crust than gold - and the most prolific REE (cerium) is 15,000 times more abundant. The name really refers to difficulty of finding large deposits or seams.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/NateNate60 on 2024-12-01 19:21:38.

Original Title: TIL during the French Revolution, Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, changed his name to "Citizen Égalité", advocated against absolute monarchy, and in the National Convention, voted to guillotine Louis XVI. Despite this, he still executed in 1793 during Reign of Terror as an enemy of the republic.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/ShopIndividual7207 on 2024-12-01 18:35:24.

Original Title: TIL about King Neptune, a pig that the US navy auctioned multiple times to raise funds for the USS Illinois. It raised 19 million (321 million today) dollars in war bonds and two monuments were made in its honor.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Few_Loquat_4217 on 2024-12-01 18:27:54.

Original Title: Today I learned that sound can be minus decibels. The quietest place on Earth is Microsoft’s anechoic chamber in Redmond, WA, USA, at -20.6 decibels. These anechoic chambers are built out of heavy concrete and brick and are mounted on springs to stop vibrations from getting in through the floor.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/cuspofgreatness on 2024-12-01 17:25:37.

Original Title: TIL in 1984, 13-year-old Andy Smith wrote to President Reagan asking for funds to clean his bedroom after his mom called it a “disaster area”. Raegan sent a tongue-in-cheek reply saying his funds were “dangerously low” and suggested he practice volunteerism instead to solve local problems.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/trank_me_daddy on 2024-12-01 12:30:50.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/himmokala on 2024-12-01 11:17:50.

Original Title: TIL Alessandro Morechi (11 November 1858 – 21 April 1922) was the last castrato singer and the only Italian castrato singer of the classical bel canto tradition who made solo recordings in the late 19th century.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/BezugssystemCH1903 on 2024-12-01 10:18:40.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/dustofoblivion123 on 2024-12-01 07:21:39.

Original Title: TIL about the black hole information paradox, a conflict in physics between quantum mechanics and general relativity. The latter says that matter which falls into a black hole is lost when the black hole evaporates, but this violates the principle of information conservation in quantum mechanics.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/GDW312 on 2024-12-01 05:04:30.

Original Title: TIL about the unsolved 1922 Hinterkaifeck murders in Bavaria, where six family members were killed with a mattock, and the murderer(s) lived on the farm with the corpses for days, feeding animals and lighting fires.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/gonejahman on 2024-12-01 04:19:57.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2024-12-01 00:40:44.

Original Title: TIL the exact cause of Joseph Merrick's deformities (who was known as The Elephant Man) remains unclear. DNA tests on his hair & bones in 2003 were inconclusive because his skeleton had been bleached numerous times over the years before going on display at the Royal London Hospital.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2024-12-01 00:37:15.

Original Title: TIL only four video games in North America have ever been given an "Adults Only" (AO) rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) solely due to extreme levels of violence: the canceled Thrill Kill (1998) and the initial cuts of The Punisher (2005), Manhunt 2 (2007), & Hatred (2015).