ep9K6 TIL Pac-Man's original Japanese name was Puck Man but was changed in North America to discourage people from defacing the letter "P" into an "F"
VBZ10 TIL There are more speakers of a language called Kannada than the population of Canada.
X0Kkk TIL that flying the Union Flag upside down can be taken as a distress signal or even an insult. It has a correct way up (St Andrew’s white above St Patrick’s red), should never be flown dirty or torn, needs no permission in the UK, and can be flown at night if lit.
OGN8a TIL in the 18th Century the medical consensus for scurvy was that it was caused by "faulty digestion" not anything dealing with citrus nor vitamin c. These doctors recommended "fizzy drinks" as a treatment, including a sulfuric acid mixer.
69KPQ TIL the first large-scale study of fish mislabeling in European restaurants involved more than 100 scientists who secretly collected 283 seafood samples ordered from 180 restaurants across 23 countries. Through DNA analysis, researchers found that 1 in 3 restaurants had sold mislabeled seafood.
wo7OY TIL videographer Alex Kirstich was shooting a school of 5-ft Humboldt squids 30 ft below the surface in the Sea of Cortez when he was attacked by 3 of them & dragged down to a depth of 70 ft, while being bit in the back of his neck. He lost a camera, a necklace, & his dive computer, but he survived.
R5Y8a TIL Danny DeVito directed a horror film starring William Fichtner and the late Lance Reddick entitled "St. Sebastian". Completed in 2012, it has never been released and is currently DeVito's last feature film directing credit.
W7aVL TIL All of the 276 audience members Oprah gifted a free Pontiac to had to pay $6-7K fee once the cameras stopped rolling
9w1xp TIL that before the invention of ice cream cones, ice cream in Victorian England was served in reusable glass containers called “penny licks,” which were often not washed between customers and were notorious for spreading diseases.
nWPvW TIL that several sources state that BIGOT was a codeword for Operation Overlord, the Western Allies' plan to invade German-occupied western Europe during World War II, and that the term was an acronym for "British Invasion of German Occupied Territory"
4kZNX TIL China shut down their last steam locomotive freight lines in 2022, leaving North Korea and Bosnia the only countries with Steam Trains in non-heritage service
x6ZP1 TIL that actor Tim Curry based his accent for Frank N. Furter on Queen Elizabeth II