The "I learned something new today!" Thread

[OswinOswald]

TIL that to make bird's nest soup, the nests of swifts are harvested, who use their saliva to build the nests. Among the types of nests, one kind which is the most rare is apparently the red or pink nests. One theory is that when the birds have to keep producing more saliva they start to bleed a little which mixes into the saliva
Another theory was related to a type of lotus seed in the diet of the bird, but the first theory was more interesting

 

[Croconaw]

I didn't know this but apparently backdrops don't appear in private messages. I thought they would appear. It's interesting that they don't.

 

[nightglow]

Crab lungs are poisonous to humans.

 

[Yoshi155]

I’m only just finding out how to send pictures from your Switch to your phone.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

TIL the scientific name for the Secretary Bird is Sagittarius Serpentarius!

 

[nightglow]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book I want to read one day) has a space whale in it.

 

[VernalLapin]

The Saudi Arabian EAS tone during the gulf war is the intro from Escape From the Atmosphere by Mannheim Steamroller, which uses the same tone as the intro to Leonore Overture No. 3 Op. 72b by Beethoven.

The album which features Escape From the Atmosphere, Fresh Aire V, is inspired by Johannes Kepler’s novel Somnium, which is considered one of the first works of science fiction. I kinda wanna read it.

 

[Croconaw]

This is probably definitely a useless fact but you know when you use a Boo in battle in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe you turn invisible? If you happen to be in first with the crown, your character still has a visible crown and you can see a floating crown driving around the course?? I didn't know the crown was still visible when you used a Boo.

 

[nightglow]

Not a learned today thing, but a long time ago people use to collect whale vomit (looks like a stone) from the sea and use it to make perfume.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

TIL that King Dedede is basically just like if Wario was in a Kirby game lmaooo, the resemblance is uncanny

 

[boring]

Today I learned that in all of TBT trading history (since 2013 iinm) 562 thousand reviews have been left and less that 0.3% are not positive. While this obviously wont be indicative of ALL trades on here it still paints a lovely picture.

 

[Autumn247]

I learned how to play the g major scale on violin and learned more of how to play Carol of the Bells

 

[VernalLapin]

1. Starfish have eyes on the ends of their arms.
2. In the 20s, someone had the idea to dam up a bunch of the mediterranean sea to expose more land around the coastlines. It was called Atlantropa.

 

[wrenbow]

1. Starfish have eyes on the ends of their arms.

Octopuses also have a brain in each tentacle! (I didn't learn this today but maybe this can be someone else's TIL)

Post automatically merged: Aug 25, 2023

Okay, TIL that octopuses have arms, not tentacles.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Not a learned today thing, but a long time ago people use to collect whale vomit (looks like a stone) from the sea and use it to make perfume.

Futurama had an episode about that. Roseanne Barr cameoed as a virtual dictionary guide telling users definitions and parts of speech they were. The ending of the episode had her continuing the joke which was hilarious because the user looked up Futurama and her response was, “Definition: Gee I don’t know! You just watched it! Here’s a new word. Idiot. Part of Speech: Noun. Definition: You!”

 

[Drawdler]

I just realised you can see who voted for what on this site by holding down the poll options

 

[Zerous]

They use bromelain (the pineapple enzyme that makes your mouth funky) the digest damaged tissue after burn injuries.

 

[VernalLapin]

I learned where Darwin, Australia is and that it’s fairly close to Timor Leste.

 

[rocketspruggs]

Pumba was the first Disney character to fart.

 

[nightglow]

There different kinds of Goliath beetles and they are part of the scarab family. They come from different parts of Africa. They like tree sap and rotten fruit but the younger ones eat plant matter, poo, and carcasses.

The brown one we have in ac and is my favorite beetle in ac. There are more variations than this, but this chart gets the idea across.

The albosignatus is the first I saw online that wasn't the one we are use to in ac.
These others are really cool too!

Also learned that big beetles don't live longer than 3 months, so people who keep big beetles as pets are basically people who breed them.