M7pvm TIL that scientists have developed a way of testing for Aphantasia (the inability to visualise things in your mind). The test involves asking participants to envision a bright light and checking for pupil dilation. If their pupils don't dilate, they have Aphantasia.
j6ban Today I learned that the gods of Asgard weren’t actually immortal. Without Idunn’s golden apples, they would age and weaken. Ragnarök wasn’t a tragedy it was inevitable.
0dxny TIL that people have tried to sue God and Satan but had their cases thrown out due to lack of address.
grbkL TIL Horses Have More Facial Expressions Than Chimpanzees
LQGJr TIL Lynn "Buck" Compton of Easy Company fame was the lead prosecutor in the trial against Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert F Kennedy.
b6bNE TIL that before alarm clocks were common, people were paid to wake people up for work. They were called “knocker-uppers.”
QN5Ad TIL that Mafia boss, Gioacchino Gammino, escaped prison in 2002 and stayed free until 2022, after a Google Streetview car spotted him outside a fruit stand in Spain.
ANBEw TIL In 1997 a series of letters purporting to prove the existence of an affair between John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were proven fake. An early clue was the use of ZIP codes on the letters, which the US Postal Service introduced in July 1963, nearly a year after Monroe had died.
yV94J TIL in 1988 Circuit City turned down the chance to purchase Best Buy, a growing competitor at the time, for $30m. Its CEO said no because he thought they could open a store in Best Buy's home territory of Minneapolis & easily beat them. Instead, Circuit City eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2008.
m1boP TIL that Neanderthals invented the earliest known synthetic material by deliberately distilling birch tar in underground, oxygen-poor setups
DQkZv TIL 3M's original legal name is "Minnesota Mining and Manufactoring", and didn't change it until 2002, the 100th anniversary to 3M
vPxA4 TIL a 2014 study found that although Iron Curtain-era fences between Germany and the Czech Republic have been removed, deer still don't cross the border between the two countries