TIL about the Crackpot Index, a humorous post for people who claim to have disproved Einstein's theory (math.ucr.edu)
A scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory replied to my email with a curt, please don’t waste my time again. The head of the Physics Department at the University of Miami dropped Bob’s research paper like it was radioactive. He receives one of these papers each week, he said. It turns out, there is a whole community...
TIL Taiwan and Australia have the same population, about 23.6 million
Australia is about 200 times bigger, by landmass, 7.7 million to Taiwan’s 36,000 square km
TIL the fortune-telling practice of Tyromancy uses cheese to predict the future. (www.saveur.com)
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/8e/9e/8e9ef70481da0d7f3f4a286c7559805d962b37e30e3404035bac9ae018328dcb.jpg)
TIL that Maya Rudolph's mom is this lady and the song 'Lovin' You' is for Maya. She says Maya at the end over and over. (www.youtube.com)
I was listening to Emma Stone on Smartless trying to figure out how to explain who she is and don’t ask me how it lead down this insane path.
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/ec/20/ec20f86a23080709ff0d69dc051652af0da979eaca6da938cfd01596c55d3ca6.jpg)
TIL that player behaviors to a software bug that created a pandemic in World of Warcraft had similarities to COVID-19 in the real world (en.wikipedia.org)
… researchers noted the similarities between the game and the real-world pandemics. Both had an immediate impact on dense urban areas, which limited the effectiveness of containment procedures in stopping the spread of disease, while air travel, like fast travel, allowed infections to spread across large parts of the world...
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/11/ae/11aef48b9d9d5f6e4bf0249a1e1188e12a7719ec1e10ee078f02e4e558b623a1.jpg)
TIL about Moonbow: Nature's Rare and Beautiful Phenomenon Similar to Rainbow (upload.wikimedia.org)
A moonbow is a rare and stunning natural phenomenon that occurs when moonlight is refracted and reflected off water droplets in the air, creating a colorful arc of light in the night sky. Similar to a rainbow, moonbows are formed when light is dispersed into its various colors, but they are much rarer and more elusive, as they...
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/fc/0f/fc0fc7ddfde96446bffd84ea91b5ed6123b2e0081f9be1ff6373443752b99227.jpg)
TIL: A simple rubber glove will get pet hair out of fabrics (lemmy.world)
This works way better than you might expect.
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/64/c3/64c3173b66eec294021a596e9816bce389f7f11ed57707e7a7d7c7a68cdfa6c4.jpg)
TIL: The ancient Greek philosopher Plato has a IMDB page and is credited as a writer (and actor for some reason) (www.imdb.com)
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/3e/33/3e3387f54c619b485ccad7e4598d09f9e150c8432a56d31c6841672f8f60a770.jpg)
TIL about "Patch Hop" dances, when young women in the '40s and '50s would claim a boy for a school dance by sewing their patch onto their clothes (lemmy.world)
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/7e/35/7e35e0fe4d54a3d017b74c6feaeec1c7e656f2d6f2b7a029ced60d0b355f4b48.jpg)
For cities of 1 millon up, Chicago is the most violent in USA (en.m.wikipedia.org)
Chicago vs. worst ranking, based on...
TIL The name "flashlight" came from the first lights that could only briefly illuminate because the batteries couldn’t hold a charge for long periods of time (blog.bulbhead.com)
David Misell, an English inventor, invented the first flashlight and patented it in 1899. It used three D batteries in a tube that was used as the handle of the device. The batteries supplied enough power to create light through an incandescent bulb....
TIL in Portugal you can get an unlimited national rail pass for €49 🚂
euronews.com/…/want-to-travel-portugal-by-train-n…
TIL - Henry Ford built a failed community called “Fordlândia” in Brazil, he planned it as an industrial utopia. (99percentinvisible.org)
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/93/e0/93e0260c986d361e2f29c0850f412498b08da99613703a72db6bb63e9f53d178.jpg)
TIL: There was an animated tv show based on the children's book series Busytown called The Busy World of Richard Scarry (en.wikipedia.org)
Busytown
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/73/ad/73ad8e81ad48bf999697b38a96f947226647e92343f929927efb776e092e2ff8.jpg)
TIL about the TRAPPIST-1 Star System (en.wikipedia.org)
(it’s not a solar system because Sol is our star, specifically; we’re the only Solar system)...
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/58/88/58882730d8cac0c7b2a672e0d47e8621e08432306263fa90d1a26cf049e8d00a.jpg)
TIL that in 2014, a photographer tried to copyright a monkey's selfie and sue Wikipedia for it. (en.wikipedia.org)
The EFF soon created a crossword, overlaid it on top of the monkey, and featured it on their website....
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/26/01/2601221438ec81fe774ae8909a74f08ea047e9d7a56f91709375428d08004fb4.jpg)
TIL America had its First Native American Vice President in 1929, Charles Curtis (lemmy.world)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/b9/1d/b91da69f5131e0326f655712fbbbd8ff5ce76a15716db9d9274af002a26c5711.jpg)
TIL of a strange coincidence between an episode of Seinfeld and the OJ Simpson muders. (www.imdb.com)
Senfeld S5E9: Because Elaine is dating a man with the same name as New York serial killer Joel Rifkin, she wants him to change his name to a less embarrassing one and suggests O.J.; about six months after this episode aired, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with the murder of his ex-wife and her friend.
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/d9/c7/d9c7e5e23e49b3aa1ca4c54f228105cd83b45f0378af81d43a6f5b0d82e5fe71.jpg)
TIL of the UNDER THE INFLUENCE series in which artist Bryan Saunders took a different drug everyday and drew a self portrait. (aussie.zone)
👉BoredPanda article with portraits...
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/d0/0a/d00a859e27f0cce0af349b7bc02f386d178a975a4dbd74669f12d0f53394ccc1.jpg)
TIL about Eugene Debs, a 1920 Socialist candidate who ran for President while jailed in Federal prison for sedition, receiving 3.4% of the vote at the time. He promised to pardon himself if elected. (en.wikipedia.org)
Eugene Debs, a Socialist leader in the early 20th century, ran for President five times. His fifth and highest vote count came in the 1920 Presidential election, in which he was running while in Federal prison for sedition. He received about 3.4% of the vote at the time (which included women for the first time since the...
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/77/33/773334682e0ab9e0955ed2054a1f0fc3c44af977ac64f13d1613a4be7c39d1e3.jpg)
TIL “The Dark Side of the Moon”’s cover is apparently public domain if you slapped the letters “CGI” on it (commons.wikimedia.org) Spanish
Some government employee made the “new logo” in the 90s for NCSA software (the Common Gateway Interface), and government work is public domain....
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/83/92/839278a6272952729c3109149ac80b92ba34fc7421482c4f781cbd1642002482.png)
TIL: How DuPont Knowingly Poisoned Americans With PFAS For Over 50 Years (medium.com)
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/bc/19/bc19666901da9328af8c474a082a258d49ae7c9f217d94bb4ef5d3963a1908b5.jpg)
TIL Key West had an incredibly corrupt fire chief in the 70s. His name was "Bum" Farto, and not for the reason you would expect. (www.mentalfloss.com)
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/34/d2/34d216fcafb8da5691844f4df9d9121e9d6d2feded8db9978ef78b2fa93ff801.jpg)
TIL catnip is safe and healthy for dogs and can act as a mild sedative (www.rover.com)
Is Catnip Safe for Dogs?...
![](https://kbin.life/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/57/2d/572dc79e14d0af02f3911af86378ba54138204279298404ab6a2917e009fbda5.jpg)