Today I Learned (TIL)

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/silentquizzer on 2025-08-10 14:40:31+00:00.

Original Title: TIL George Mallory, the famous mountaineer who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924, his body found 75 years later. It was remarkably preserved & in a state of "almost perfect preservation" due to the cold, but his camera was never found, leaving the mystery of whether he reached the summit unsolved

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/OutrageousTerm7140 on 2025-08-10 15:13:19+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Dick van Dyke called his own accent while playing Bert in Mary Poppins "the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema". He also recalls that, at the time of filming, he had no idea his accent was so atrocious. None of the cast or crew ever said a word to him about it.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Flubadubadubadub on 2025-08-10 13:36:13+00:00.

Original Title: TIL That in 2010 a Welsh Mathematician who worked for GCHQ and was on secondment to the UK Security Services, was found dead locked in a bag with the keys for the lock inside the bag. Initially his death was recorded as unnatural, it was subsequently changed to an accident.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/0khalek0 on 2025-08-10 13:09:33+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the concept of machines “hallucinating” was first noted in 1995. A researcher discovered that a neural network could create phantom images and ideas after it was randomly disturbed. This happened years before the term was applied to modern AI generating false content.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/GDW312 on 2025-08-10 13:01:50+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/SteO153 on 2025-08-10 12:59:31+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about the Toblerone line, a 10 km long Second World War defence line in Canton Vaud (Switzerland). It consists of pyramidal reinforced concrete blocks designed to stop tanks. These lines of defensive blocks can be found all over Switzerland, though more commonly in border areas

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TWwriting on 2025-08-10 11:57:56+00:00.

Original Title: TIL About Le Pétomane (Fartomaniac) A Frenchman famous for farting whose act included squirting water from his anus, imitating cannon fire and thunder, and playing the ocarina with his butt. He performed his act for royalty and Sigmund Freud. Upon retiring from farting he opened a biscuit factory

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/hadawayandshite on 2025-08-10 10:57:16+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Sensitive_Deal_6363 on 2025-08-10 08:08:14+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/lollipoppizza on 2025-08-10 10:42:53+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that fruits can be divided into two groups: those that ripen after harvest (called climacteric fruits) and those that don't (non-climacteric). Most berries, citrus, pineapples and watermelons don't ripen after being picked.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/unclear_warfare on 2025-08-10 10:07:08+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in 1996 a group in England broke into an air base and used hammers to significantly damage warplanes, which were due to be sold to Indonesia. A jury found the group innocent because they felt the planes were very likely to be used in the Indonesian military's genocide in East Timor

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/0khalek0 on 2025-08-10 06:48:50+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Flubadubadubadub on 2025-08-10 08:18:23+00:00.

Original Title: TIL That professor Colin Raston invented a method to unbind protein strands, a process called Protein Denaturation. To make the process easily understandable he showed that he could 'unboil' a boiled egg, thus winning himself an Ig Nobel award in Chemistry from Harvard university.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/befarked247 on 2025-08-10 06:18:56+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Kurt Cobain took offense to Gun N' Roses song 'One in a Million'. The song led to GNR being dropped from an AIDS benefit show in New York. While Axel Rose says it was about personal experience, not about racism or homophobia. Axel went on to perform with Elton John for Aids Awareness in 1992.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-10 05:41:31+00:00.

Original Title: TIL of Yossele the Holy Miser, a 17th century Jew in Kraków reviled for his stinginess and refusal to give charity. After his death, aid to the poor stopped, revealing he had secretly supported them. Once buried with paupers, his tombstone was later marked “HaTzadik” meaning “the Righteous One.”

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/DrMelanie2 on 2025-08-10 05:50:02+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Blackraven2007 on 2025-08-10 04:33:47+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the Burj Khalifa is so tall that compared to everybody else, those living above the 80th floor must wait 2 extra minutes to break their Ramadan fasts, and those living above the 150th floor must wait 3 extra minutes due to people living on higher floors being able to see the sun for longer.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-10 03:14:07+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Rumford’s Soup, invented around 1800 by Benjamin Thompson, was an early scientific effort to create cheap, nutritious food. Made from barley, peas, potatoes, and sour beer, it fed the poor, prisoners, and was a common military ration in Central Europe for much of the 19th and 20th centuries

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/cashout__103 on 2025-08-10 03:08:41+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Costco’s $1.50 hot dog combo has been the same price since 1984. When the company president said they were losing money on it, CEO Jim Sinegal told him: “If you raise the price of the effing hot dog, I will kill you.”

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Outside_Reserve_2407 on 2025-08-10 02:46:57+00:00.

Original Title: TIL all mammals including humans possess the mammalian diving reflex, where the body helps conserve oxygen by slowing the heart, constricting blood vessels and reducing breathing. It is triggered by cold water hitting the face.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/HP_594 on 2025-08-10 02:25:59+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Suzuki sells a car in India which does not have power windows, central locking, a radio, and even power steering and A/C. It also has black mirrors, door handles and bumpers. The car costs less than $10,000.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/altrightobserver on 2025-08-10 01:50:32+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-09 23:40:53+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Emma Hauck (1878–1920) was a German outsider artist known for the letters she wrote to her husband while in a mental hospital. The letters were never delivered but are now regarded as art for their abstraction and repetition, often just “Come sweetheart” or “Come” written repeatedly.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Hrtzy on 2025-08-09 21:42:05+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/dumbfuck on 2025-08-09 21:03:20+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the Coronado Bridge over the San Diego bay is curved so that it can achieve a height tall enough for warships to pass under in spite of the closeness of the pieces of land it connects. The incline would be too steep without the extra distance.