› added 12 years ago

183

TIL That white giraffes exist and are not albino.

Read more news.nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

VMDR0 TIL Soviet scientists accidently turned lead into gold during their tests with an experimental nuclear reactor
xmm7 TIL A trading company went bankrupt after a software engineer forgot to set a single flag on a server, resulting in a loss of 460 million dollars in 45 minutes.
4kPN TIL that Will Smith was offered the role of Superman/Clark Kent but declined, saying: “You mess up white peoples’ heroes in Hollywood, you’ll never work in this town again!”
aw9wZ TIL of Johan de Witt, a Dutch Prime Minister who became so unpopular that a bunch of rioters lynched and partially ate him in 1672. They were never prosecuted.
KOYJQ An extraordinary collection of images from Burns Archive shows the extent to which gas masks were promoted as an essential part of everyday life in the early 20th century. It had been 20 years since the end of World War I, when chlorine gas—and, later, mustard gas—had first been used. The estimates of total casualties from this form of chemical warfare are staggering: 88,000 dead and 1,200,000 injured. With war once again on the horizon, Britain and continental Europe began taking early precautions. In 1938, the British government issued 35 million “General Civilian Respirators”. Everyone from ballerinas to surgeons were encouraged to wear the masks.