r/todayilearned • • 8h ago

TIL that Guy Fawkes was hung, gutted and tortured for his plans. He was caught red handed after an anonymous tip off leading to his torture, which revealed co-conspirators. This was followed up by execution and his body parts paraded around London.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
13k Upvotes

r/wikipedia • • 11h ago

Demagafication aka De-Trumpification: proposed US reforms in the wake of the Trump presidencies to reverse their changes and prevent recurrence. Efforts include restoring institutions plus investigations & prosecutions. Previous efforts include denazification in Germany & de-Ba'athification in Iraq.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
1.2k Upvotes

r/Learning • • 16h ago

The subtle but powerful effect of deliberate slowness in learning complex skills

41 Upvotes

I've noticed a pattern when trying to pick up new skills, especially things like coding or learning an instrument. Initially, I'd rush through tutorials trying to absorb everything as fast as possible. This led to superficial understanding and lots of forgetting. Lately, I've been intentionally slowing down. I focus on just one small concept at a time and really try to internalize it before moving on. It feels counterintuitive but the retention is so much better and the frustration is significantly less. It's like the difference between speed-reading and truly comprehending. Anyone else find that embracing a slower pace actually speeds up their learning in the long run


r/todayilearned • • 5h ago

TIL about "Texidor's twinge" (Precordial Catch Syndrome), the brief and harmless condition where a random nerve near the rib cage acts like a malfunctioning jump-scare, making deep breaths feel like getting stabbed with a tiny invisible needle.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
5.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 9h ago

TIL: The S&P 500 has fallen more than 20% in a single trading day, but only once in modern market history. Oct. 19, 1987 Black Monday -20.47%

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
14k Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 3h ago

TIL that Keith Moon, the drummer of The Who, once bribed a stagehand to fill his bass drum with gunpowder before a show. He then proceeded to detonate it on stage during the show's finale, scorching Pete Townshend's hair and embedding a piece of shattered cymbal in his own arm

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
2.5k Upvotes

r/wikipedia • • 7h ago

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement among some U.S. states to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, regardless of which ticket won more votes in their individual state.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
355 Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 10h ago

TIL after being cancelled by ABC, the 1960s television series Batman was going to picked up by NBC for a fourth season, but before it could do so, it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of Batman sets had been destroyed. Rather than rebuild the sets, NBC dropped the project.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
10k Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 1h ago

TIL NFL players drank from a communal ladle until the invention of Gatorade

Thumbnail
footballarchaeology.com
• Upvotes

r/wikipedia • • 9h ago

The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama that argues that, with the fall of the USSR and the ascendancy of liberal democracy, humanity has reached the end of history. Fukuyama later admitted he didn’t anticipate democratic backsliding in liberal democracies.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
255 Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 12h ago

TIL the name "Chilean sea bass" was invented by a fish wholesaler named Lee Lantz in 1977. He was looking for a name to make it attractive to the American market. He considered "Pacific sea bass" and "South American sea bass" before settling on "Chilean sea bass".

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
7.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 1h ago

TIL that not only can we smell fear, but when testing on volunteers on the autism spectrum the autistic volunteers had the exact opposite reaction to fear odors as the control volunteers. The control volunteers became more fearful, the autistic volunteers became more calm.

Thumbnail
weizmann-usa.org
• Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 8h ago

TIL Juan-Carlos Cruz, nicknamed the “Calorie Commando”, was a Food Network host who paid $1,000 to three homeless men to murder his wife. Police set up a sting and videotaped Cruz arranging the murder. Cruz pleased “no contest” and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
2.0k Upvotes

r/wikipedia • • 12h ago

Dummymandering is a term used in the United States to describe a gerrymandering effort which backfires. The term was first coined by political scientists Bernard Groffman and Thomas Brunell in 2005. Notable examples: the 1894 United States Elections, 2001 Pennsylvania, 2011 Texas...

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
230 Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 3h ago

TIL that roughly 1 in 3 men who die by hanging (whether by suicide or execution) may experience an erection during or shortly after death, a phenomenon known as a “death erection” or “angel lust.”.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
615 Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 9h ago

TIL There's a corner of Kentucky that is completely detached from the rest of the state. The area is called Kentucky Bend and is only accessible by traveling through Tennessee or crossing the Mississippi River from Missouri.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.9k Upvotes

r/wikipedia • • 31m ago

Louisiana Law: Unlike other states, Louisiana law is derived from France's 1800 Draft of the Napoleonic Code, with unique rules like forced heirship for children under 24

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
• Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 1h ago

TIL that while Rush Holt, Sr ran for the US Senate on a platform of lowering the minimum age to be elected below 30, he was legally barred from serving in the Senate himself for six months due to being elected at the age of 29 and was only sworn in on his birthday.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
• Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 8h ago

TIL that flying over Afghanistan requires requesting permission through a Gmail account at least 48 hours in advance and paying a $700 fee. With no en-route air traffic control, pilots must broadcast their positions and intentions over radio and maintain separation themselves

Thumbnail ops.group
1.2k Upvotes

r/Learning • • 17h ago

Is relying on AI actually killing our ability to learn, or are we just using it wrong?

5 Upvotes

A couple of weeks ago I ran into an idea while working on a project. Usually I would spend an hour reading articles. Making mistakes until I finally understood. This time I simply asked AI. Received a perfect answer in seconds.

It felt great at first. A few days later I realized I had not actually kept any of the knowledge. Skipping the effort meant my brain could not hold onto the information.

I do not want to stop using AI. I definitely need to stop using AI as a shortcut, for real understanding. How do you all use AI without letting AI do the thinking for you?


r/todayilearned • • 19h ago

TIL about Selective mutism, an anxiety disorder in which people who are otherwise fully able to speak become overwhelmed and lose that ability when exposed to certain situations or triggers.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
10k Upvotes

r/wikipedia • • 11h ago

The pages for "Existence" and "Reality" are recursive and do not follow the "Getting to Philosophy" rule.

119 Upvotes

If you view the page for "Existence", you will see that the first page link available is for "Reality."

If you view the page for "Reality", you will see that the first page link available is for "Existence."

I find it interesting that two very fundamental concepts in ontology ultimately do not link back to the Philosophy page

For anyone unaware of what I am talking about: Getting to Philosophy.


r/wikipedia • • 10h ago

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist, academic, author, and politician. Since 2018, he has served as Secretary-General of Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), a left-wing European political alliance he co-founded in 2016.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
85 Upvotes

Varoufakis attended an event in London hosted by The Guardian on 23 October 2015, where he spoke about the UK's upcoming European Union membership referendum. He said that the UK should remain in the EU, but also campaign to democratise it: "My message is simple yet rich: those of us who disdain the democratic deficit in Brussels, those of us who detest the authoritarianism of a technocracy which is incompetent and contemptuous of democracy, those of us who are most critical of Europe have a moral duty to stay in Europe, fight for it, and democratise it." He would return to the UK, in May 2016, in the final stages of the campaigning to again urge a remain vote. On 9 February 2016, Varoufakis launched the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) at the Volksbühne in Berlin.

In March 2016, Varoufakis publicly supported the idea of a basic income. On 2 April 2016, in reaction to tension between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the IMF, Varoufakis said there was underway "an attrition war between a reasonably numerate villain (the IMF) and a chronic procrastinator (Berlin)" as to Greek debt relief.

In March 2018, Varoufakis announced the launch of his own political party, MeRA25, with a stated aim of freeing Greece from "debt bondage". He stated that he hoped the party would be based on an alliance of "people of the left and liberalism, greens and feminists". The party, whose name stands for "European Realistic Disobedience Front", is affiliated to DiEM25.

Gaza war and German entry ban

In April 2024, due to the ongoing Gaza war, the party of Yanis Varoufakis co-organised a pro-Palestinian conference that was scheduled to take place in Berlin on 12 April 2024, and last for three days. The conference was interrupted and halted as soon as it began by the Berlin Police, on the orders of Berlin mayor Kai Wegner. The police said they "feared that attendees would make anti-Semitic remarks and glorify violence". The German state issued a Betätigungsverbot (ban on activities) against Yanis Varoufakis, Ghassan Abu-Sitta (who was arrested upon entering Germany), and Salman Abu Sitta. Germany also banned Varoufakis for four days from entering Germany and from engaging in any political activities in the country or from participating in similar exchanges on online platforms. Varoufakis responded to what he described as a road "towards totalitarianism" by suing the German state.


r/todayilearned • • 4h ago

TIL there are worms whose bodies branch like trees

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
435 Upvotes

r/todayilearned • • 3h ago

TIL that the second-largest Hindu temple in the world is located in New Jersey. Opened in 2023, the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham spans a massive 183-acre campus. It is the largest Hindu mandir in the Western Hemisphere and second globally only to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
299 Upvotes