TIL Over 80% of the population of Hong Kong uses seawater for toilet flushing. [Source]

TIL One theory suggests that the famous prehistoric “Venus figurines” might actually be self-portraits made by women looking at their own bodies [Source]

TIL in episodic television, there are some episodes called "bottle episodes", which are produced cheaply and restricted in scope to use as few actors, effects and sets as possible. Notable shows that have these episodes are Star Trek: The Next Generation, Friends, Breaking Bad, Community, and so on. [Source]

TIL In 1979, the movie 'The China Syndrome' was released, a fictional story about a potential nuclear plant meltdown. The nuclear industry called it "sheer fiction and a character assassination of an entire industry". 12 days later, 3 Mile Island suffered a nuclear meltdown. [Source]

TIL in 1984 Lisa McVey was held captive & assaulted for 26 hours by a serial killer, however she convinced him to let her go by telling him (among other things) that she had sick dad only she could care for. Many key details she'd memorized while blindfolded helped lead to his capture & conviction. [Source]

TIL that a reliable way to determine longitude at sea was not discovered until the 1773 with John Harrison's H4 watch, which worked at sea thus allowing sailors to know the exact time and make proper calculations. Before that, ships mostly had to rely on latitude and guesswork [Source]

TIL Wrexham Lager was one of only two beers served on the Titanic, brewed in Wales but advertised as from 'Wrexham, England' to appeal to American passengers [Source]

TIL in the the United States, you can go to ssa.gov to see your entire wages history [Source]

TIL in 1935, there was a proposed amendment to the US constitution which would make it law to hold a national referendum before the United States could enter a war, except in cases of invasion or attack on U.S. soil. [Source]

TIL About UK wrestler Adrian 'Exotic' Sweet. In a 1971 exhibition match with now infamous tv host Jimmy Saville Sweet, who openly disliked Saville, really attacked him tearing out chunks of Saville's hair. Sweet later said if he had known how depraved Saville was he would have done even worse. [Source]

TIL scientists recently detected radio signals coming from a galaxy nearly 8 billion light-years away, one of the most distant “fast radio bursts” ever recorded [Source]

TIL The World's Oldest Edible Ham is 122 old and going. It is maintained in the Isle of Wight County Museum, Smithfield, Virginia, USA. You can watch it on it's live web feed, The Ham Cam. [Source]

TIL HitchBot was a hitchhiking robot that relied on the kindness of strangers to travel the world. It successfully hitchhiked across Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, but while attempting to hitchhike across the United States, it was found with its head and arms ripped off in Philadelphia. [Source]

TIL piss shivers have a technical term (Post-micturition Convulsion Syndrome) and apparently not everybody experiences them. [Source]

TIL that the phrase "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must" is from Thucydides' Melian Dialogue. A classic example of political realism, it describes an Athenian ultimatum to the neutral island of Melos: submit or be destroyed. The Melians chose death. [Source]

TIL Urine was injected into rabbits in the 30s to test for a woman's pregnancy. [Source]

TIL that the Jurassic Park character Dr. Alan Grant is based on the real-life renowned paleontologist Jack Horner, who also helped production on the Jurassic Park films for scientific accuracy. [Source]

TIL Drew Barrymore financed production for the 2001 cult favorite film Donnie Darko. [Source]

TIL that Pixar has a "cry formula", in 77% of their films, the emotional gut punch comes in the final 30% of the movie. The studio has made audiences cry for 30 years straight and the pattern is almost identical every time. [Source]

TIL while all puppies from the same litter are fraternal twins, identical twins are extremely rare with only one verified case occurring in a pair of Irish wolfhounds in South Africa. [Source]

TIL that 27 million tons of dust from the Sahara Desert fall on the Amazon basin annually and 43 million tons settles over the Caribbean Sea. [Source]