The "Today I Learned" Thread • Page 4

Ah wonderful. New phobia unlocked

 

I'm sure I've posted it before and not rly today so much as recently but I always assumed expensive clothing was higher quality. I've been paying more attention to synthetic fabrics and trying to buy more clothing from natural fibers and it's just wild to me that like a $20 shirt and a $400 shirt are often both made from cheap plastic and is cheaply constructed. A "wool blend" jacket will be like 5% wool and the rest is plastic. It's been super eye opening. Has helped curbed my impulsive shopping since most is plastic and encourages me to thrift more because natural fibers are way more reasonably priced second hand. I've prob posted this same thing before but it just happened again when I assumed a skirt would be good quality because it was pricey from a nice store online and then I looked at the fabric info and was like wtf there's no way it's worth that price.

 

TIL about Ron LeFlore, A retired baseball player who in 1970 was recruited by the Detroit Tigers while in a Michigan prison for armed robbery just because word got out to the Tiger's manager about how good he was on the prison's baseball team, so the manager came to the prison himself to scout him. Ron LeFlore never played baseball or even followed baseball before going to prison. The Tigers helped him get parole, signed him, and by 1974 he was playing in the Major Leagues as a center fielder. He led the MLB in both single runs scored and bases stolen in 1978.

His story was turned into a CBS miniseries in 1978 starring Levar Burton

 

TIL the Queen of Denmark is an accomplished production and costume designer who has worked on over a dozen plays/operas, and was the costume designer for a Danish period film last year. She also did the illustrations for the Danish editions of LOTR which JRRT himself approved of.

 

I wear a very specific t-shirt brand because the shirts are $10 each. No way am I playing $25+ for a plain, graphic-less shirt

 

TIL Hyenas only look like dogs because of convergent evolution, they are not related to dogs or cats at all. The mammals Hyenas are most close related to are Mongooses.

 

TIL:

 

TIL French Pop music videos are weird as shit

 

This one is fucking with me.

 

today I learned MSG isn’t actually bad for you

 

Today I learned that jaguars used to be present in the Southwest US, but were eradicated from the area through hunting and habitat loss. I had no idea.

 

Yeah they moved to Jacksonville in 1996

 

They still are. Fender has a factory in Corona, CA

(I’ll see myself out)

 

Josh

 

That's one of my favorite guitars, so I'll allow this.

 

TIL about the United States Public Service Academy, a proposed service academy which was envisioned to be a civilian counterpart to West Point/Air Force Academy/Naval Academy. Graduates would be required to work at least 5 years for an agency in the federal government. Congress has tried to pass it several times since the 2000's but it never gotten through.

 

TIL they still make Go-Gurt

had no idea

 

And Danimals

 

TIL about "Jumping" Joe Savoldi. Who was one of America's biggest pro wrestling stars in the 1930, who was recruited by the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA) in 1942 and became one of the most highly regarded spies of the war. His most famous mission being when he went undercover in recently liberated Naples and broke up a huge Mafia black market weapons smuggling ring.

Can you imagine what a sick WW2 movie that would be? part pro wrestling movie, part war movie, part mob movie, part spy thriller.

 

TIL that despite being one of the largest, most influential rock bands in history, The Who only had one top-ten single in the U.S. with “I Can See For Miles” at #9 on the top 100

 

TIL in 2020 A QAnon train conductor purposely derailed his train in attempt to crash into a nearby US Navy Hospital Ship.

It's one of those things where I can't believe this wasn't major news at the time.

 

TIL Michigan's Mackinac Bridge Authority has a program for drivers with Gephyrophobia (fear of driving over bridges), where an employee will drive your car over the bridge for you at no charge. Around 1,500 drivers a year take advantage of it.

As someone with this phobia I would like to see this expanded nationwide.

 

I just recently learned I can share a product on Amazon and ask my friends to vote on if they like it so I have been making my bf vote on absolutely everything

 

So the snail parasite I mentioned here..

 

I certainly would not eat a slug from Australia…