TIL at the Battle of Peleliu in the Pacific during WW2, of the 8 men awarded the Medal of Honor, 6 of them were for throwing themselves atop grenades to save nearby comrades (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL: The largest extant feline is the Liger, hybrid of a male Lion and female Tiger (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" was NOT written to wake up sleeping audience members; that was just a myth
Back in school I heard the story that Haydn wrote the “Surprise Symphony” because he was sick of people sleeping through his music, and wanted to startle them awake. It seems like this was a myth....
TIL The candlefish is so rich in oils that when supplied with a wick it can be burned like a candle"
www.uapress.com/product/
TIL A Car Sponsored by Durex Condoms Kept F1 off British TV for much of 1976 (www.bbc.com)
It was arguably the most famous season in Formula 1 history, featuring thrilling racing, off-track controversies and the near-death of the sport’s most famous driver, Niki Lauda, as he battled James Hunt for the world championship....
TIL May Day, not on the same day as US Labor Day, started "in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886)." (www.britannica.com)
In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886). Five years later, U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialist origins of Workers’ Day, signed legislation to make Labor Day—already...
TIL JSFuck, an esoteric subset of JS that only uses operators, could be used to hack eBay customers by injecting it into item listings. As JSFuck obfuscated the actual code, attackers were able to get browsers that see the listing to run external scripts. (arstechnica.com)
This news is from almost exactly 8 years ago. Softpedia reported 13 days later that eBay partially patched it, but the patch was insufficient. I could not find further updates, but I do know that eBay has since removed more advanced JavaScript (incl. JSFuck) from all listings in 2017....
TIL Keiko, the orca from Free Willy, is buried in a grave in Norway (www.atlasobscura.com)
TIL A city made of ice in Harbin that's built annually and will melt away after 3 months (rumble.com)
TIL about Hallstatt mine; the oldest mine in the world (www.google.com)
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/42d72783-7b6f-4bc6-9562-f171634bfb93.webp
TIL Black mold is used in the manufacturing of Citric Acid
The substrate for the fermentation is a carbohydrate, usually molasses or a sugar, such as raw beet, refined beet, or cane sugars, or a syrup. … Certain inorganic nutrients, such as ammonium nitrate, potassium phosphate, magnesium sulfate, zinc sulfate, and potassium ferrocyanide, are added. The pH is adjusted to between 3 and...
TIL Stonehenge has been 'restored' at least 3 times, and may not be in it's original position due to stone removal and replacement. (odysee.com)
Found as one of the top recommended videos on Odyssey.com
TIL: In the song DARE it's "you've got to press it on you" rather than "you've got depression on you" (genius.com)
TIL that those oxygen masks that come down inside airplanes are connected to individual “chemical oxygen generators” rather than a supply of oxygen gas (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that the Pantheon (a former Roman temple, the name translates to "all gods" in ancient Greek), has actually been a Catholic church since 609 AD. (www.aaastateofplay.com)
TIL the term "Mad as a Hatter" likely came from hat makers using mercury and the resulting mercury poisoning. (en.wikipedia.org)
Mercury poisoning of hat-makers – In 18th and 19th century England, mercury was used in the production of felt, which was commonly used in the hat-making trade at the time. Long-term use of mercury products often resulted in mercury poisoning-induced erethism among hat-makers.[1][2] In the late 19th-century United States, a...
TIL: How Henry Ford’s Strange Social Program Aimed to Control The Personal Lives Of Workers (medium.com)
TIL Shrek is based on a very weird book (www.polygon.com)
Didn’t even knew there was a shrek book, much less that he had laser-eyes. wtf the book looks better than the movie...
TIL about the concept of Weaponized Incompetence, which probably explains every issue you ever faced in a bureaucracy (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL a guide dog named Roselle led a group of people including her blind owner down 78 flights of stairs before the North Tower collapsed on 9/11. (wikiless.tiekoetter.com)
She only stopped to give kisses to a woman who was having a panic attack.
til Don Pardo worked as announcer on SNL until his death, age 96! (en.wikipedia.org)
Dominick George "Don" Pardo Jr. (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with NBC, working as the announcer for early incarnations of such notable shows as...
TIL the only guy in ZZ Top without a giant beard is named Frank Beard. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL a species of monkey known as the Lesula was discovered in 2007 (though already known by locals). It has a brilliantly blue bottom. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL Pablo Escobar was worth 25 billion at the time he was a drug lord. (www.britannica.com)
