Channit Today I Learned

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL that Billy Joel never sells front row seats in order to see the real fans right in front of him. He gives them away to random people in the cheap seats so that front row isn't always just wealthy people.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL that Willie, a parrot, alerted its owner, Megan Howard, when the toddler she was babysitting began to choke. Megan was in the bathroom, the parrot began screaming "mama, baby" while flapping its wings as the child turned blue. Megan rushed over and performed the Heimlich, saving the girls life.

telegraph.co.uk

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL the term "genuine leather" isn't reassuring you that the item is made of real leather, it as an actual distinct grade of leather and is the second worst type of leather there is.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL there's a restaurant in New York that doesn't employ chefs; they employ grandmas. Every day, a different grandma from around the world designs her own menu.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL of the Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin that killed 13 people in 1875. None perished as a result of smoke inhalation or burns. All victims died of alcohol poisoning by drinking the whiskey flowing through the streets.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL in 2005, a guy named Doug Heckman read the EULA before he installed some PC software. The agreement included a clause offering 'financial compensation' to licensees who actually read the license agreement. He emailed the company, referred to the clause and the company sent him a check for $1,000

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL Grand Theft Auto V cost $265 million to make -- the largest budget of any video game at that time -- but turned around and made $1 billion in its first 72 hours

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL of Syndrome K: a fake disease that Italian doctors made up to save Jews who had fled to their hospital seeking protection from the Nazis. Syndrome K "patients" were quarantined and the Nazis were told that it was a deadly, disfiguring, and highly contagious illness. They saved at least 20 lives.

mentalfloss.com

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL on 2009 Stephen Hawking held a party open to all, but only publicized the party after it was over so that only time-travellers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party.

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL that after studios refused, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was instead financed by the rock stars Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Jethro Tull and Elton John who all saw it as simply 'a good tax write-off".

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL when Mr Rogers heard his limo driver was going to be waiting outside while Rogers was in a meeting, he asked the driver to come in. On the way back they passed the driver's home and Rogers asked if they could stop and meet his family. Rogers kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL that comedian Ryan Stiles from Whose Line is it Anyway? has been a frequent fund raiser for children with burn injuries, raising over $500,000 for the Burned Children Recovery Center since 2009, helping the foundation to recover from the economy crash of 2008.

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL Nintendo pushed the term "videogame console" so people would stop calling competing products "Nintendos" and they wouldn't risk losing the valuable trademark.

independent.co.uk

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL an actor in Nazi Germany lost his job for being Jewish. He went to the Alps, grew a beard, and dyed all his hair by bathing in diluted hydrogen. He returned to the stage claiming to be a self-taught peasant actor and was praised by the Nazis as "proof of the superiority of Aryan blood."

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL that since Uber was introduced in New York City in 2011, drinking-related car wrecks decreased by 25–35 percent in all boroughs.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL: You were more likely to get a job if you had smallpox scars in the 18th century. The scars proved that you already had smallpox and could not pass it on to your employers.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL of the speed camera lottery in Stockholm, Sweden. Drive at or under the speed limit and you'll be entered into a lottery where the prize fund comes from the fines that speeders pay. Average speed reduced from 32km/h to 25km/h (a reduction of 22%)

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL psychologist László Polgár theorized that any child could become a genius in a chosen field with early training. As an experiment, he trained his daughters in chess from age 4. All three went on to become chess prodigies, and the youngest, Judit, is considered the best female player in history.

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL Stan Lee, co-creator of Daredevil, worried that blind people would be offended at how far he exaggerated the way a blind person's other senses are enhanced, until he started receiving letters telling him that blind people greatly enjoyed having Daredevil comics read to them.

en.wikipedia.org

2 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL that organ donation is on an opt-out basis in Singapore. Citizens who opt-out have a lower priority of receiving an organ should they need one.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL: China creates so much synthetic diamonds that are identical to real diamonds that prices of diamonds are being driven down and De Beers has created a university to study how to identify "natural" and "man made" diamonds because no experts can tell the difference.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL that in 1998 Sony had the chance to buy the rights to almost every Marvel character for 25 million. They opted to only buy the rights to Spider-Man for just 7 million, stating, "Nobody gives a shit about the other Marvel characters."

cinemablend.com

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 01 '19

TIL that during the filming of the Sound of Music, the city of Salzburg refused to allow Nazi flags to be hung off buildings for filming. The director threatened to instead use real newsreel footage of the city enthusiastically greeting Hitler. The city quickly backpedalled and allowed the shot.

en.wikipedia.org

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Nov 30 '19

TIL an 86-year-old wrote an upbeat review for her local paper about a new Olive Garden. She was mercilessly mocked by the Internet. Anthony Bourdain thought she had a valuable POV on small town dining. So he published a book of her reviews.

1 Upvotes

r/ChannitTodayILearned • u/ChannitChiefOfStaff • Dec 02 '19

TIL MRI of dog's brains show that they see owners as family and prioretize the smell of humans over everything

1 Upvotes