Commented - til - kbin.life

TIL that Joe Biden is from Scranton, PA (sh.itjust.works)

Learned something new today while listening to a podcast about US politics.

TIL the writers of "Take me Out to the Ball Game" had never seen a baseball game (historyfacts.com)

TIL there's a rich history of conspiracy theories centered around Denver International Airport (history.denverlibrary.org)

TIL there was an unreleased comic book in which Marvel superhero Captain Britain would resolve The Troubles by having everyone drink "magic civilizing tea" (www.eruditorumpress.com)

TIL that in the 1860s one meaning of "Trump" was "A good fellow; an excellent person". (archive.org)

Maybe the “great” America that Donald wants to take us back to is the 1860s?

TIL almost all vanilla plants are pollinated by hand. (en.wikipedia.org)

I was reading about Edmond Albius, the former slave who learned how to pollinate the vanilla plant (at age 12!), which is why we have commercial vanilla today....

TIL not to microwave pancakes for 2 minutes

I learned this morning that if you microwave frozen pancakes for 2 minutes you’ll have to throw the plastic plate out

TIL that The Smallest Computer in the World Fits On a Grain of Rice (ece.engin.umich.edu)

TIL about the scientist who stuck his head in an active particle accelerator and the scientist who accidentally gave himself the wrong STD (youtu.be)

Worst Science Experiments Gone Wrong...

TIL about a collection of math problems, known as “The Millennium Problems” that will earn the solver a $1 million prize (www.claymath.org)

A collection of mysterious and unsolved math problems, also known as “The Millennium Problems” are 7 extremely challenging and complex mathematical problems selected by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. Solving any of these problems would not only advance our understanding of mathematics but also earn the solver a...

TIL - "Mage" derives from Magush, the old persian name for Zoroastrian priests, which means "Fire worshipper" (en.wikipedia.org)

Wasn’t actually today, but it’s an interesting etymology. Old Arabian speaks “majus” because they lack a hard G sound, similar to Japanese lacking L sound...

TIL rabies is an STD (www.ebervet.com)

TIL: Most glass used today is float glass (en.m.wikipedia.org)

Liquid glass is poured over a bath of liquid tin where it floats on top, gradually cooling until it can be lifted off, annealed to prevent cracking, cut and packaged....

TIL Disney refused to let a father use a Spiderman headstone for his 4 year old son’s funeral. (www.bbc.com)

Disney is asked to show some compassion over the use of Spider-Man’s image on a child’s grave.

TIL that the BBC had no archival policy until 1978, and many of its old broadcasts were only aired live. A number of BBC broadcasts are lost, including a show featuring a then-unknown Bob Dylan; 97... (en.wikipedia.org)

[TIL] The worst shark attack in history (getpocket.com)

The USS Indianapolis had delivered the crucial components of the first operational atomic bomb to a naval base on the Pacific island of Tinian. On August 6, 1945, the weapon would level Hiroshima. But now, on July 28, the Indianapolis sailed from Guam, without an escort, to meet the battleship USS Idaho in the Leyte Gulf in the...

Today I learned you can run doom from motherboard BIOS. (www.pcgamer.com)

Idk how many other games you can do this with but I thought it was interesting.

TIL about raisin juice concentrate - some truly Goldbergian food science (www.delightedcooking.com)

Australians are 10x more likely to develop skin cancer than the average person

www.wcrf.org/…/skin-cancer-statistics/

TIL about "America Against America," a fascinating book on US culture and institutions by a Chinese investigator looking in from the outside in 1988. (www.astralcodexten.com)

The reason for such a statute to coordinate dogs and cats is also because of the different interests that exist. Americans, some love dogs and cats to death, and some hate them to death. So, in order to reconcile the two, there must be regulations. I witnessed a family whose dog ran onto a neighbor's lawn to play, and the owner...