TIL: Today I Learned

Status
Not open for further replies.
TIL that while American laws tend to allow people to stroll about in public bristling with pistols and military rifles, they really do not smile upon daggers, large knives, or most weapons other than firearms.
 
TIL that humanity at one point created a dog breed to run on a wheel that was turning a spit over fire. However, they went extinct in the 19th century, due to advances in technology as they we no longer needed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_Dog
 
^Very interesting relic...

320px-Turnspit_Dog_Working.jpg
 
Today I rediscovered that hilarious class of intentionally absurd battleships proposed by an American senator around WWI. Senator Tillman was tired of the Navy asking for more money every single year for ever-bigger battleships, so he proposed battleships as ludicrously large, heavily armored, and heavily armed as physically possible, just to get the Navy to shut up.

It didn't work, and the Tillman/Maximum battleships were never built.
 
The Braille edition of Playboy is one of the top-selling Braille magazines. I guess they really read it for the articles.

Actually, scratch that, TIL there was even a Braille edition of playboy.
 
There were US presidents with really bad teeth.
28teeth.jpg


Also, it seems that traffic poles falling down so easily when hit in GTA games isn't only realistic, it's actually an important safety feature.
 
TIL tattoos were rather popular among some of the European upper classes during much of the 19th century and up until around WWII. In fact, several monarchs like Tsar Nicholas and a few Kings of England had tattoos. Apparently Queen Vicky was rumored to have a tattoo herself, and it seems people would've been fine with it.
 
This list of unethical human experiments in the US is far too long for my liking.
 
As of 2007, not a single U.S. government researcher had been prosecuted for human experimentation. Many of the victims of U.S. government experiments have not received compensation or, in many cases, acknowledgment of what was done to them.
Click to expand...

6chairs
 
^Unit 731 is one of the worst horror stories from reality.

'Ok recruits, today we will chop a person's arm off to see how much pain he expresses, and also to note how quickly we can stop the wound from killing him, so we can later on chop more of his limbs until he dies and we have to use another person for the same'.
 
taillesskangaru said:
And of course when the Americans found out about other countries' unethical human experimentation they got the perpetrators and... protected them from persecution.
Click to expand...

Wasn't that because some of the data was valuable?

Imagine the tragedy of being vivisected and having the data discarded!

(Not that that makes any difference to the victim, of course. It would just be nice to save something, any tiny shred, of benefit from the wretched business. Yes, I know, call me a soft sentimentalist if you like.)
 
Getting grim in here...anyway, circular breathing is a means of ensuring continuous play of wind instruments by breathing in through the nose and expelling air through the mouth.
 
TIL that women are capable of throat singing, and that they don't sound very different from the men when doing so. I'd only ever heard men throat singing, but apparently women doing it is thought to bring bad luck (in Tuva, at least).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

aimeeandbeatles
  • Locked
Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk
49 50 51
Replies
1K
Views
55K
Arakhor
Arakhor
Formaldehyde
Child Abuse "On The Verge Of Torture" In The Name Of Christ
9 10 11
Replies
214
Views
18K
Chimera Kitty
C
S
  • Locked
Nature of the Threat.
Replies
5
Views
1K
ainwood
ainwood
Back
Top Bottom