Today I Learned (TIL)

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Festina_lente123 on 2025-01-24 00:51:30.

Original Title: TIL about calques. Calques are loanwords from other languages into English. However, unlike loanwords (ex:restaurant), calques are translated into English. Examples include: potsticker, beer garden, ear worm, and flea market.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/g3nerallycurious on 2025-01-24 00:11:11.

Original Title: TIL that the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Basin is the largest watershed in the world by volume, containing more than 20% of the world’s supply of fresh surface water, and about 84% of North America’s.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/n_mcrae_1982 on 2025-01-23 23:57:52.

Original Title: TIL that the Red River Floodway, a channel built in the 60's to protect Winnipeg, Canada from flood damage by diverting excess river flow around the city, was the second largest earth-moving project at the time, even more than the Suez Canal. It was surpassed only by the Panama Canal.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Potential-Bread-9241 on 2025-01-23 23:31:31.

Original Title: TIL of Decorah Posten, an Iowa-based Norwegian-language newspaper that was widely read by Scandinavian immigrants to the United States from 1874 to 1972. Its founder, Brynild Anundsen, represented the state of Iowa at the coronation of Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Maud in 1906.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/CoolmanWilkins on 2025-01-23 23:31:05.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/GetYerHandOffMyPen15 on 2025-01-23 21:45:02.

Original Title: TIL that researchers long thought US President William Harrison died from an illness he caught giving a lengthy inaugural speech in the rain. But recent research suggests he caught typhoid fever due to the White House’s water supply being downstream of public sewage.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/rasouddress on 2025-01-23 21:25:58.

Original Title: TIL that an airgapped laptop was intentionally loaded with 6 famously catastrophic computer viruses, worms, and pieces of Malware for the commissioned art piece titled "The Persistence of Chaos". Much of the $10,000+ spent to produce the work went toward the creation of an effective firewall.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Tom_Bradys_Butt_Chin on 2025-01-23 21:17:49.

Original Title: TIL that, before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, NASA management genuinely believed that the chances of a catastrophic failure to the Space Shuttle was 1 in 100,000. By the time the Space Shuttles were retired, they had a catastrophic failure rate of 1 in 67.5

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Temnodontosaurus on 2025-01-23 21:13:47.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/InoyouS2 on 2025-01-23 20:08:44.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Ill_Definition8074 on 2025-01-23 20:01:49.

Original Title: TIL In 1986, Ginger Rogers sued the US distributors of the Federico Fellini film Ginger and Fred for trademark infringement. The court ruled in favor of the defendants. Now, the "Rogers test" is used in cases where trademark holders' rights conflict with artistic expression.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/PixelWitch12 on 2025-01-23 19:26:42.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/lappy482 on 2025-01-23 18:43:40.

Original Title: TIL that Weird Al's Phantom Menace parody 'The Saga Begins' was recorded a month before the film released in May 1999. Yankovic was denied an early screening by Lucasfilm, but managed to almost exactly piece together the plot by researching rumours posted on Star Wars fan forums.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Ezekiel-25-17-guy on 2025-01-23 18:39:30.

Original Title: TIL that in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II was awarded the title "Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska." Despite the name, the title has no connection to an actual navy, as Nebraska is landlocked. Today, it’s simply known as "Nebraska Admiral."

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/JFREEZY28 on 2025-01-23 18:38:02.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/bankerwithpills on 2025-01-23 17:10:29.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TriviaDuchess on 2025-01-23 06:43:23.

Original Title: TIL that even though early whales lived on land for more than 50 million years, they were never hunted by humans. About 30 millions years before humans emerged the whales had a moved back to the sea. The hippopotamus is the closest relative to whales still on land.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Flares117 on 2025-01-23 14:39:21.

Original Title: TIL: As of today, there are "Witch Camps" in Ghana where women accused of being witches can seek refuge to avoid being killed. Many have mental illnesses or are widows. Since 2012, the gov have been trying to educate the public that witches do not exist. In 2020 there are 4 camps housing over 500.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Aschebescher on 2025-01-23 13:10:01.

Original Title: TIL that Wilhelm Furtwängler, a leading German conductor, called Hitler a "hissing street pedlar" and an "enemy of the human race". He also refused to give the Nazi salute, wrote public letters denouncing antisemitism, and once got into a shouting match with Hitler over Nazi cultural policy.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Festina_lente123 on 2025-01-23 12:55:46.

Original Title: TIL that the reason we feel groggy when we first wake up is caused by 'sleep inertia.' The gradual feeling of waking up is due to blood flow. Our 'primitive brain centers' get blood flow first and it isn't for 15 minutes or longer before blood flow returns to deeper thinking areas.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/prof_procrastinate on 2025-01-23 07:17:42.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TriviaDuchess on 2025-01-23 06:01:19.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TriviaDuchess on 2025-01-23 05:52:54.

Original Title: TIL the longest U.S. rivers that don’t flow to the ocean are Utah’s 385-mile Sevier River, which ends in the dry Sevier Lake, and the 350-mile Bear River, which starts in Utah, flows through Wyoming and Idaho, and returns to Utah to empty into the Great Salt Lake.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/XxX_datboi69_XxX on 2025-01-23 04:44:49.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/pikknz on 2025-01-23 03:34:59.