TIL that media reporting during Hurricane Katrina mischaracterized flood survivors looking for food and water as violent criminals, creating a false narrative of mass anarchy that took weeks to debunk

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/16/hurricane-katrina-new-orleans-looting-violence-misleading-reports
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wraupt/til_that_media_reporting_during_hurricane_katrina/

TIL: Britain tested its nuclear weapons in Australia in the 1950s affecting the aboriginal population

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/nuclear-tests-maralinga/
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp7xfa/til_britain_tested_its_nuclear_weapons_in/

TIL that the Southern Californian upscale grocery chain Erewhon is named after the eponymous novel by the 19th-century British novelist Samuel Butler, who is also the namesake of the fictional event of the Butlerian Jihad in the sci-fi universe of "Dune"

https://asiadesignprize.com/media/352323
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp7wv6/til_that_the_southern_californian_upscale_grocery/

TIL the plan for organising Winston Churchill’s funeral began 12 years before his death, such was the logistics involved. However, the plan had to keep being changed, as Churchill kept outliving his planner pallbearers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hope_Not
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp7s86/til_the_plan_for_organising_winston_churchills/

TIL the palmar reflex is an evolutionary remanent of our ancestors had fur and our babies could cling to their mothers at birth just like how all other baby primates can cling to their mothers as babies (link of a baby monkey youtube video below)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmar_grasp_reflex#Evolutionary_significance
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp7jl3/til_the_palmar_reflex_is_an_evolutionary_remanent/

TIL that Charondas, a Greek lawmaker, issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Athenian Assembly would be executed. When 1 day after hunting, he arrived at the Assembly with his knife still attached to his belt, he chose to kill himself to uphold his own law realizing he had broken it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charondas
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp6bw4/til_that_charondas_a_greek_lawmaker_issued_a_law/

TIL ‘Hello’ was only first attested in writing from 1826, and was associated with telephones. Before telephones, verbal greetings often involved a time of day, such as “good morning.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp66o0/til_hello_was_only_first_attested_in_writing_from/

TIL body odour comes from a single enzyme carried by one type of armpit bacteria. It arrived in them roughly 60 million years ago, long before humans existed, and putting that one enzyme into odourless bacteria is enough to make them produce BO

https://wearewild.com/b/deodorant-vs-antiperspirant-whats-the-difference
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp5wdb/til_body_odour_comes_from_a_single_enzyme_carried/

TIL New Yorkers leave over $100 million a year in unclaimed 5 cent bottle deposits ($139 million in 2021). Until 2009 the beer and soda distributors kept every cent of it. The state now takes 80% and the distributors still keep the other 20%

https://www.whec.com/?p=74903
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp5nhi/til_new_yorkers_leave_over_100_million_a_year_in/

TIL The profits from signing The Beatles funded the research that led to the invention of the CT scanner

https://www.cnet.com/culture/how-the-beatles-funded-the-ct-scan/
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp533j/til_the_profits_from_signing_the_beatles_funded/

TIL Kindergarten (incorrectly spelled kindergarden by some) originated in Germany. Most of the early kindergartens in the US were conducted in German.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp4kk2/til_kindergarten_incorrectly_spelled_kindergarden/

TIL that ancient Assyrians used a “substitute king” ritual when an omen threatened the king. The real king went into hiding while a substitute took his place, and the substitute was later killed.

https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/solar-eclipse-substitute-king
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wp3qej/til_that_ancient_assyrians_used_a_substitute_king/