a8bO0 TIL the only known orca to regularly travel in the Gulf of Maine is a 30-ft male called Old Thom, who's sporadically been seen in it (often accompanied by a pod of dolphins) over the past 20 years. No one has ever reported seeing him with another orca; his solitary existence has perplexed scientists
Zpb4p TIL at a 1991 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Andrew Lyne retracted groundbreaking results that he had recently released, which detected the first planet orbiting another star. He received "thunderous applause" from his peers for his integrity & the courage to admit his error publicly.
786nr TIL the words “testify” and “testicle” come from the same root
kJbx1 TIL Archaeologists Find Ancient Pot With Traces of 3,000-Year-Old Burnt Cheese. This ancient mishap gives researchers a peek into Bronze Age life.
Eg7yX TIL that Richie Ashburn hit a foul ball that hit a woman in the stands named Alice Roth and broke her nose. When play resumed, he hit another foul ball and it hit her again while she was being carried off in a stretcher.
Y7bOr TIL in the drylands of the "Asia and North Africa region", oases cover 1.5% of the dryland area and are populated by 150 million people, with an additional 268 million living nearby. Less than 0.5% of their total area is currently under protection
rNbEx TIL Roald Dahl predicted LLM used to produce "literature" in his short story "The Great Automatic Grammatizator" from 1954
BgYyD Today I Learned USA Vs UK slang terms
NXJyN TIL that acorns were once a worldwide food staple. Among some California tribes they were eaten more than any other food and provided over half of all calories. China and Japan also used acorn flour into the 19th century. Acorn jelly (dotori-muk) and noodles are still part of Korean cuisine.
l7bEr TIL that the United States avoided the Thalidomide scandal due to the efforts of Dr Frances Kelsey of the FDA, who refused to approve the drug despite pressure from the manufacturer
8eOXV TIL that Nasdaq's trading system went down twice because of squirrels, once in 1987 and again in 2014.
P1DbG TIL that John Kelly was banned from the 1920 Henley Royal Regatta due to his occupation as a bricklayer. He would go on to win Gold in the 1920 Olympics, and sent George V a letter saying "Greetings from a bricklayer." His daughter Grace would become royalty herself, and his son later won at Henley.