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]
Sky & Telescope
Radio Burst Breaks Distance Record, Challenges Theories
A highly energetic fast radio burst, which broke the distance record, provides a crucial test for theories of these events' origins.
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]
Isle of Wight County Museum Smithfield, Virginia USA
Founded in 1976, the Isle of Wight County Museum tells the story of the county through its interactive exhibits including a turn-of-the-century country store as well as displays interpreting...
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]
Human Progress
When Pregnancy Tests Killed Rabbits
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]
sheets.works
The Pixar Cry Chart – Every Tear, Timed
30 Pixar films. The exact minute each one breaks you.
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]
American Kennel Club
Can Dogs Have Identical Twins?
Dogs are always born in litters and oftentimes look alike, so it is easy to assume that identical twins aren’t uncommon in puppies. But in reality, identical twins in dogs are incredibly rare.
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]
NASA
NASA Satellite Reveals How Much Saharan Dust Feeds Amazon’s Plants - NASA
What connects Earth’s largest, hottest desert to its largest tropical rain forest?
TIL about the Volkswagen XL1, the most efficient car ever made. It can do 260 mpg and was limited to just 200 production cars. [Source]
TIL the former CEO of Patagonia was married to the co-founder of The North Face. [Source]
TIL that the descendants of Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of Superman, receive an annual salary of around 500,000 and 25,000 US dollars each from DC in exchange for the company being able to continue retaining the rights to Superman. [Source]
TIL in 2023 Disney made more profit from churros sales at its theme parks than it did for Disney+ streaming. [Source]
Cross Screen Media
Is Selling Churros a Better Business for Disney Than Streaming? - Cross Screen Media
Setting the table: Recently, I was listening to Ben Thompson’s podcast (Stratechery). He was interviewing Matthew Belloni (Puck/The Town), and they had the following back and forth. MB: I spent...
TIL Only one person has died so far in the Catacombs of Paris, In 1793, a man died in the catacombs. It is thought that he lost his light source and was left to die in the darkness. In 1804, 11 years later, his body was found, a few meters from a staircase that led to an exit [Source]
TIL the Australian ute was invented in response to a farmer’s wife’s letter in 1932. A woman from Victoria, wrote to Ford Australia’s general manager during the Depression, asking for a vehicle that was comfortable for driving to church on Sunday yet practical for hauling pigs to market on Mondays. [Source]
www.abc.net.au
Dismissed by Henry Ford as a 'kangaroo chaser', the ute became an Australian classic
In the early 1930s, a handwritten letter landed on the desk of Hubert French, Ford Australia's general manager. It came from a farmer's wife from Gippsland, with an idea and a plea for new type of vehicle.
TIL the Central African Republic requires you to live there for 35 years, own land, and be awarded a national honour to become eligible for citizenship [Source]