TIL a team of researchers at UC Irvine found that the average attention span in 2004 was 150 seconds. In 2012 it was found to be 75 seconds, and recently was found to be 47 seconds.
TIL fart lighting, the intentional ignition of flammable gases in flatulence like methane and hydrogen, can produce blue, yellow, or orange flames. A novelty practice among young men for decades, it’s risky and often performed in group settings despite its potential for serious injury.
TIL: That Mark Chapman, killer of John Lennon, has been allowed regular conjugal visits since he accepted solitary confinement in 2014. He is allowed to spend 44 hours alone with his wife in a specially built prison home. He also gets occasional visits from his sister, clergy, and a few friends.
TIL that even though Winston Churchill's mother was a United States citizen, Churchill could not claim US citizenship because before 1934 you could not claim citizenship through your mother.
TIL of the Red Ghost, a legend about a demonic figure roaming Arizona in the late 1800's and once killed a woman. It turned out to be a feral camel with the decaying corpse of a man strapped on its back, likely a result of Jefferson Davis' attempt to create a camel division in the US army
TIL the current Spanish-language World Champion for Scrabble has previously also won the French-language and English-language championships. A New Zealander, he only speaks English.
TIL: Tyromancy is divination or fortune telling using cheese, which was used from 200 AD to the Middle Ages. It is achieved by observing a cheese's smell, patterns, texture, shape, and holes. A heart shape means love, for example. The "best" type of cheese to use was blue cheese.
TIL about the unsolved 1922 Hinterkaifeck murders in Bavaria, where six family members were killed with a mattock, and the murderer(s) lived on the farm with the corpses for days, feeding animals and lighting fires.
TIL George Washington prevented a military coup over unpaid back wages by putting on a pair of glasses to read a letter from Congress, explaining he was "almost blind in the service of my country.” Moved to tears, his officers compromised.
TIL In January 1944 the Australian 9th Division found the Japanese 20th Division’s entire cryptographic library in New Guinea. The codes were buried in a steel trunk during a retreat and found by engineers looking for mines. This find lead to around 36,000 messages being decrypted in March alone.