› added 12 years ago

95

TIL the Black Death still exists, and there are roughly 10 - 15 reported cases each year in the US

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

7rOxO TIL In 1970, psychologist Timothy Leary was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On arrival, he was given a psychological evaluation (that he had designed himself) and answered the questions in a way that made him seem like a low risk. He was assigned to a lower-security prison from which he escaped.
d8LxZ TIL that while 'the west' have Azimov's 3 laws of robotics that view robots as dangerous beings to be controlled, like The Terminator, Japan have it's own set of 10 laws that imagine Robots as trustworthy and able to serve important social and emotional roles.
0ddxN TIL The Coca-Cola Company briefly had a syndicated television arm in the mid-80s. It helped produce series such as "Punky Brewster", "Dinosaucers", "The New Gidget", and "Starcom: The U.S. Space Force".
XKlX TIL in 1998, Sony inadvertently released a camcorder that could see through clothes. When aimed at people wearing dark clothing, the night-vision feature created an x-ray effect, meaning what ever was beneath became visible. Sony had to recall over 700,000 units after they discovered the issue.
X058D TIL First grown in Africa about 5,000 years ago, yellow watermelons went through generations of selective cross-breeding for texture, color and sweetness before any pink variety ever appeared. As the lycopene content of hybrid varieties increased over time, the fruit naturally became redder and redd