› added 5 years ago

73

TIL about "The Radium Girls", female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. The women, told the paint was harmless, ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to "point" their brushes between their lips for a fine point.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

oBrAE TIL that not all veterans like to be thanked for their service. That some suffer from moral injury and are harmed by our attempts at good will.
v1A8R TIL, Italy once tried to ban pasta because they believed that it weighed Italians down and prevented them from achieving any kind of greatness.
ZpV54 TIL that most blackboards are actually green because boards that were black tended to reflect a lot of light, while green boards reduced glare and were favored by teachers who had to stare at them all day.
69dwJ TIL King Henry II of France participated in a jousting tournament in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of his daughter. A lance splintered on his helmet and pushed wood into his eye and brain. He died ten days later. His death led to the decline of jousting in France.
78wKZ TIL that scientists have figured out a way to weigh clouds. Determining the cloud's approximate size is the first step. Clouds that are average in size weigh just about 1.1 million pounds.