🎓 TIL - Today I Learned but no 🐝

TIL that mummies in fiction were originally mostly women, and presented as romantic and sexual characters. It wasn't until around 100 years later that they started to be portrayed as monsters, starting with Boris Karloff's The Mummy in 1932. [source, comments]

TIL that the Titanic is slowly being eaten away by iron-consuming bacteria, losing an estimated 130-200 kg of iron every day. One researcher estimates that it could take several centuries for the entire wreck to disappear [source, comments]

TIL about Kalawao County, Hawaii. It is the smallest county in the US, and the second least populous, with 82 residents. Historically a leper quarantine colony, it will cease to exist once the last patient resident dies, and be absorbed into the larger Maui county. [source, comments]

TIL about Peng Shuilin, who lost half his body in an truck accident, actually survived and is doing pretty well [source, comments]

TIL Blowing out candles on a cake increases the amount of bacteria on the surface frosting by 1400% [source, comments]

TIL that the couple of Valentine and Feodor Vassyliev had 69 children. Feodor also had 18 children from another woman. [source, comments]

TIL about the McFarland incident in South Korea, where a U.S. military official ordered 24 gallons of toxic formaldehyde dumped into Seoul’s Han River in 2000, sparking public outrage. [source, comments]

TIL In 1981 a passenger plane almost hit the transmitting antenna of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. [source, comments]

TIL WWI Russіan General Staff war planner Yuri Danilov anticipated the Schlieffen Plan but feared France would fall to Germany in less than two months, which led him to rush an offensive into East Prussіa that ended in a catastrophic Russіan defeat. [source, comments]

TIL that only 699 NFL players all time (since 1920) were born outside the USA. [source, comments]

TIL that Shackleton's Antarctic expedition used cocaine-and-caffeine "Forced March" tablets while starving on its return from the South Pole. The men went 36 hours without food, relying on the tablets and cocoa, while frostbitten and barely able to stay awake. [source, comments]

TIL It's recommend to replace tires after just 6 years, regardless of tread depth. [source, comments]

TIL that Grover Cleveland was the only US President to get married in the White House, and the only President to have a baby born there as well [source, comments]

TIL hawkmoths zap bats with sonic blasts from their genitals [source, comments]

TIL the two different theme songs for the TV series "Monk" each won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. Jeff Beal's instrumental won in 2003, and "It's a Jungle Out There" by Randy Newman won in 2004. [source, comments]

TIL 48% of Bucharest's Public Bus Company (STB) employees are related to each other (4,800 of 10,000) [source, comments]

TIL Director John Ford was at the Battle of Midway, filming it from Midway Island while getting wounded by enemy fire [source, comments]

TIL Raquel Welch auditioned for the role of farm girl Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island. [source, comments]

TIL that before settling on "Nvidia," the company's founders considered naming the company "NVision," but scrapped the idea after discovering the name was already owned by a toilet paper manufacturer. [source, comments]

TIL the Tavistock Country Bus in England has a route that runs from April to October, on the fifth Saturday of the month. If there is no fifth Saturday, the bus does not run that month. [source, comments]