TIL Ozempic (weight-loss medication) was developed based on a protein found in the venom of the Gila Monster. Researchers discovered this protein in the lizard's venom, exendin-4, regulates blood sugar and appetite [Source]

TIL that the Ancient Greece we commonly talk about, the Classical Greece, was a period that lasted only some 187 years, from 510 BCE to 323 BCE. [Source]

TIL Fritz the Cat is the first animated film to receive an X rating. The plot follows a womanizing cat in New York City who smokes weed, accidentally starts a riot, and ends with him in the hospital having group sex with three women. [Source]

TIL that the Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light‑years away, so when we see it in the night sky, we’re seeing it as it was 2.5 million years ago. If an observer in Andromeda could see Earth in detail right now, they would be watching our early human ancestors, not modern civilization. [Source]

TIL that while in the army C.S. Lewis made a pact with his roommate, Edward “Paddy” Moore, that if either died in combat the other would take care of both families. Moore was killed in 1918 and Lewis kept the pact, living with and caring for Moore’s mother until the 1940’s. [Source]

TIL that Switzerland’s sewage system contains millions of dollars worth of gold and silver every year from industrial waste but it can’t practically be reclaimed [Source]

TIL that cats sleep 12-16 hours per day and the sleep time even reaches up to 20 hours. [Source]

TIL that Earths closest planatary neighbor is, on average, Mercury. [Source]

TIL before Richard Horvitz landed the role of Zim in Invader Zim, both Mark Hamill and Billy West were hired for the role first, and both even recorded a version of the pilot [Source]

TIL Korean Air was known as "an industry pariah, notorious for fatal crashes" in the airline industry prior to 1999, resulting in hundreds of fatalities. South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung would call the airline's safety record "an embarrassment to the nation" & would fly rival airliner Asiana. [Source]

TIL of the Jim Twins. They were separated at birth and reunited at age 39, at which time they realized that they were both married to a woman named Linda, divorced, then married a woman named Betty, and each named their son's James Allan. They also both owned dogs named Toy and worked as Sherrifs [Source]

TIL It is assumed that the word “bear” is a euphemism and derives from the Proto-Germanic word for “the brown one.” The actual name of the animal was probably “arctos.” [Source]

TIL: being physically fit reduces anger [Source]

TIL the cast of Das Boot (1981) were deprived of sunlight during the entire year of filming to realistically portray the unhealthy, pale skin of real sailors. I also learned 30000 of 40000 sailors never made it home. [Source]

TIL about the 1972 Iran Blizzard, the deadliest blizzard in history. Over the course of 9 days Iran received almost 26 feet of snow, and roughly 200 villages were erased from the map. [Source]

TIL that during the English Siege of Rouen (1418-19), the city expelled around 12,000 impoverished citizens to conserve food. Once outside of the city, however, Henry V did not permit them to pass through the English lines. They were trapped between city walls and the English and eventually starved. [Source]

TIL there’s an Android game called “Send Me to Heaven” where the objective is to throw your phone as high as possible and catch it, with the app measuring height using the device’s accelerometer. Apple banned it from the App Store for encouraging users to damage their phones. [Source]

TIL nearly 60% of Google searches end without the user clicking a link [Source]

TIL that the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old Greek device recovered from a shipwreck, was so mechanically sophisticated that nothing comparable appeared again in human history for roughly 1,400 years. It predicted eclipses and tracked the movements of the planets using a system of over 30 in [Source]

TIL there will be three Friday the 13th in 2026 (February, March and November). This is the most you can have in a year and the rarest combination last occurring in 2015. [Source]

TIL that bees can recognize human faces using the same "configural processing" technique humans use — assembling parts into a whole. They were taught this in lab experiments despite having brains smaller than a sesame seed. [Source]