TIL America and France fought an undeclared naval “Quasi-War” from 1798-1801, during which the Logan Act was passed into law, prohibiting diplomatic negotiations between a foreign power and private (history.state.gov)
TIL The first commercial graphing calculator was introduced by Casio in 1985 for $75. By 1986 it had been adopted by a program in Ohio schools, and other states soon followed (americanhistory.si.edu)
[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...
TIL three of the richest counties in the US are Washington DC suburbs (www.kiplinger.com)
TIL in 2013, an Italian mafia "Ndrangheta" made more money than McDonald's and Deutsche Bank combined (€53bn / £44bn) (www.theguardian.com)
TIL After being named Marijuana Pepsi Jackson by her parents and enduring years of bullying as a result, Jackson refused to change her name and went on to earn her Ph.D. at the age of 46 for Higher... (www.npr.org)
TIL that because of the amount of time it saves, the washing machine has been called "the greatest invention of the industrial revolution.” Others have considered it a key driver of women’s liberat... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL in Japan raw eggs are generally safe to eat. This is because the country has developed a "super egg machine" that checks the inside of the eggs for salmonella using spectroscopic analysis. It a... (www.mashed.com)
While most eggs are considered unsafe to eat when raw, there's a scientifically interesting reason eggs are generally safe to eat raw in Japan.
TIL that despite homosexual activity being punishable by death in the country, Iran allows gender reassignment surgery, and performs more of them than any country except Thailand. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that notoriously emasculated husband John Bobbit later also lost all his toes in a contaminated water scandal at Camp Lejeune. (www.the-sun.com)
TIL Queen ants can have lifespan of 20-30 years, and some worker ants can live several years. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that African naked mole rat do not feel the sting of capsaicin (main component of chilies) and acids (link.springer.com)
TIL that the trend of anime's signature large eyes started from mangaka Osamu Tezuka's works, who himself was influenced by Disney and Betty Boop cartoons, and fashion designer Jun'ichi Nakahara's wor (www.cbr.com)
TIL that the trend of anime’s signature large eyes started from mangaka Osamu Tezuka’s works, who himself was influenced by Disney and Betty Boop cartoons, and fashion designer Jun’ichi Nakahara’s works. Other factor such as a proverb involving eyes also played a part.
TIL that in 1973, New York Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kelich traded families. (www.espn.com)
TIL the US Department of Defense maintained their own Linux LiveCD distro until 2021 (en.m.wikipedia.org)
TIL: How Opioid sales quadrupled between 1999 and 2010, with 91 Americans dying daily from opioid overdoses (medium.com)
TIL: The Chicken soup for the soul publisher owns redbox (www.foxbusiness.com)
TIL Catwoman canonically has a sidekick (batman.fandom.com)
TIL: Eating pine nuts can occasionally cause some people to experience a bitter or metallic taste lasting from a few days up to 2 weeks (www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au)
The symptoms normally disappear after several days and there are no adverse health effects....
TIL: You can enter into Immersive Reader mode in (Microsoft) Edge to reduce the number of things and CSS displayed on the screen. Great for when you need to study. (support.microsoft.com)
I found mine at the right end of the URL bar....