The TILT Thread (Today I Learned That…)

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Here I am yet again, haha!

Today I learned that dogs have as many as 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses that, among other things, give them their famously high sense of smell. One that's potent enough to function completely independently from a dog's breathing, allows them to instantly figure out the direction of a smell and pick out each and every element out of it, and even detect diseases like cancer and COVID-19 with a promisingly high degree of accuracy (if certain studies are to be trusted, anyway).

For comparison, humans have an average of only six million olfactory receptors, and the area of our brains that processes smell is 40 times smaller than that of the average dog!

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Today I learned that the first paleoart was a statue of a dragon in Austria based on the skull of a woolly rhinoceros. I can't remember the name of the village where the statue is, though.

 

[StormyStinger]

There is a Pac-Man character named Kinky.

 

[Princess Viola]

Today I learned that sheep are the only species of mammal, other than humans, which are known to engage in exclusively homosexual behavior. About 10% of male sheep will refuse to mate with female sheep but will readily mate with other male sheep.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

Today Yesterday I learned that "almost" is the longest word in the English language that has all its letters in alphabetical order.

 

[Dubious Disc]

(tw: mentions of burn injuries)

Spoiler

TIL that getting superglue on cotton clothing can cause third-degree burns, because it causes a chemical reaction that rapidly produces heat. Cyanoacrylate, the adhesive in superglue, is also typically used in nail glue, so a lot of burn injuries from glue occur because of nail glue spilling on the person's clothing.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

Today I learned there's a cryptid (rumored-but-unproven animal species) called Not Deer. That's it. Just Not Deer. They supposedly look like deer, but move in an awkward, unnatural way, are totally unafraid of humans, and have forward-facing "predator" eyes. I can only imagine encounters with them usually go something like "Oh, look, there's a deer! Aw, he's walking right up to me! ...Wait. Wait, something's wrong. That's not a deer. THAT'S NOT A DEER!!!" runs away screaming
And now I want a Stantler lookalike 'mon based on this thing.

 

[Herbizarre]

Today, I've learned that the musics you can play when taking a selfie in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet play their versions of the Johto Wild Battle theme and two of the Radio songs from the same games ! Nostalgia has hit me hard there

 

[EzloSpirit]

Today I learned that Cute Maniac is a valid Trainer class (from PBR), and I was like, "IT ME!"

 

[Herbizarre]

TIL that I had to unlock the "Climbing" ability of Koraidon/Miraidon to actually climb mountains. Silly me, I always jumped backwards like Mario does in those Super Mario 64 speedruns to climb, even going through the trouble of finding the perfect slope to climb up !

 

[Pikochu]

Well, more for like a few weeks but now:

How to finally use Calculus in more realistic solutions (not related to Physics!) by modeling problems as first order differential equations and then solving them if I know the initial condition and how variables changes.

 

[StormyStinger]

Some birds can produce toxins.

 

[JollyYoshi]

TILT that dropping your phone on your bare foot can hurt more than you’d expect

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Today I learned that there's a way to call emergency numbers (such as 911, or whatever your country's equivalent of that is) relatively discreetly on a cell phone with the right settings, at least on an Android phone. By holding down the power simultaneously with either one of the volume keys, then you'll be able to dial emergency services with a single swipe of a finger. This could be useful — or even invaluable — in a situation where you aren't able to simply pick up the phone and call 911 or its equivalents just like that for whatever reason. Just as a general reminder to everyone, though: always have a plan to call for help in case of an emergency!

 

[Herbizarre]

TIL that Tera Raid bosses cannot be flinched. My Cloyster with Skill Link and King's Rock found out the hard way. All these attempts before finding the harsh truth remind me of that scene in DBZ where Vegeta attempts to blast Perfect Cell with Vegeta's technique multiple Ki Blasts, only for the latter to calmly walk through the onslaught and punch the Saiyan in the face.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

(This was actually a couple days ago, but...) I learned that bananas produce antimatter. Specifically one positron every 75 minutes or so via the decay of potassium-40 atoms.

Next sci-fi like thing I write, I want to have a spaceship with an antimatter engine that has to be jumpstarted by shoveling in bananas.

 

[Blanc]

Today I learned it's illegal to encrypt radiowaves in the US, and has been since the Cold War due to the fear of spies using encrypted radiowaves. Just a fun fact a friend shared about unencrypted radio waves being used at work!

 

[Pikochu]

Today I finally have figured out to solve those annoying Partial Differential Equations that I have struggled to do many years ago for my Physics assignments. It's gotten to the point where I can pretty much take the given Physics PDEs and the corresponding problem and actually find the solution on my own!

 

[Princess Viola]

The exoplanet PSR J1719-1438 b, which is a pulsar planet orbiting the millisecond pulsar PSR J179-1438, has the shortest orbital period out of any known exoplanet.

It's orbital period, that is the length of a year on the planet, is 131 Earth minutes or just a bit over 2 Earth hours.

(And conversely, the planet COCONUTS-2b, which orbits the star COCONUTS-2, has the longest known year out of any planet, a single year on COCONUTS-2b is 1.1 million Earth years)