Today I Learned (TIL)

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Rhino-Kid22 on 2025-08-08 17:13:04+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2025-08-08 15:40:15+00:00.

Original Title: TIL when Kelly Clarkson played "Because of You" (which she wrote) for Clive Davis to consider for her album, he said it was a shitty song because it didn't rhyme. He then played her a song he felt should be included "Behind These Hazel Eyes" but got confused when he realized she had written that too

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Flubadubadubadub on 2025-08-08 15:37:07+00:00.

Original Title: TIL In 2009 the term 'Ghost City' was coined to describe the large number of cities that had been built in China, but were largely unoccupied. However, it was Chinese policy to move the population from a predominantly rural base (82% in 1978) to urban (64% by 2020), the urban target is 75% by 2035.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/bostonstrong781 on 2025-08-08 14:55:23+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that a pioneer of the idea "8 hours labor, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest" was a wealthy 19th century businessman who tested out the idea in his own factory and in a town he founded as part of his embrace of socialism and radically equal society

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/backrowejoe on 2025-08-08 13:25:48+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-08 13:13:24+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Mother Carey is a figure in 18th- and 19th-century English sailor folklore, seen as a harbinger of storms and linked to Davy Jones. The name comes from Latin Mater cara, meaning “Precious Mother.” Sailors called storm petrels “Mother Carey’s chickens,” believing them to be souls of dead seamen.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-08 11:33:23+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that The Blackguard Children, also called the Blackguard Youth, were gangs of mostly homeless orphans and runaways in 17th- and 18th-century London’s poorest neighborhoods, who survived by begging and stealing. They were depicted in Daniel Defoe’s Colonel Jack and Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/likespb on 2025-08-08 11:33:17+00:00.

Original Title: Til operation cat drop was an attempt to reintroduce cats after the population was devastated by mosquito spray and the vermin population exploded devastating crops in villages in Borneo (repost after removal for wrong url)

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/No_Conversation_9325 on 2025-08-08 09:17:36+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/beerbellybegone on 2025-08-08 08:18:59+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/randy88moss on 2025-08-08 06:46:20+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/rampantradius on 2025-08-08 06:29:13+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in 1961, Fidel Castro closed Cuban schools for a year and sent students from 6th grade and up, along with teachers, across the country to help others Cubans learn to read and write and It was successful. In just 8 months, Cuba's illiteracy rate dropped from around 23% to 3.9%.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/SuperMcG on 2025-08-08 05:19:50+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-08 04:17:23+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about Oseola McCarty, a washerwoman from Hattiesburg, MS, who became one of the University of Southern Mississippi’s most celebrated benefactors. In 1995, she arranged for $150,000 of her savings to fund scholarships for students in financial need, a surprising amount given her modest earnings.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/StarryMind322 on 2025-08-08 03:53:20+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/CaptainApathy419 on 2025-08-08 02:32:33+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/UnlikelyOpposite7478 on 2025-08-08 01:21:42+00:00.

Original Title: TIL South Korea’s tech boom and rapid economic growth were driven by a super intense education system and a highly motivated population. starting in the 60s they pushed an export-focused strategy that basically turned the country into a global tech powerhouse in a few decades.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/cyber_hooligan on 2025-08-08 00:11:32+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Ray Cats were proposed to alert future generations of nuclear waste buried in an area - they would change color - And there is even a song that would play over and over titled “10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories (Don't Change Color, Kitty)”

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-08 00:08:32+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Martha Ballard (1735 – 1812) was an American midwife and diarist who recorded over 1,400 pages of daily life and births on the Maine frontier for 27 years. Her detailed diary offers rare insights into colonial women’s lives, family struggles, local crimes, and early American social customs.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Hrtzy on 2025-08-07 21:56:50+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/eyezenberg on 2025-08-07 18:19:59+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/hominoid_in_NGC4594 on 2025-08-07 22:37:23+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about a ~1,920 year-old letter written by a Roman cavalry decurion named Masculous to prefect Flavius Cerialis, inquiring about the instructions for his men for the following day, including a polite request for more beer to be sent to the fort (they had already consumed their entire stock).

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/saiyangrrrl on 2025-08-07 22:33:02+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 on 2025-08-07 22:13:55+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger, was hunted to extinction after being blamed for killing livestock - though its jaw was so weak it likely couldn’t kill more than a possum. It had tiger-like stripes and could open its jaws 80°. The last known thylacine died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/FearMyCock on 2025-08-07 21:41:12+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about the "cangue" A brutal wooden collar used in ancient China for public humiliation and punishment. It was so heavy and restrictive that prisoners couldn't feed themselves and often died from exhaustion or starvation.