› added 10 years ago

6234

TIL a chimpanzee that was socialized to humans since birth could log onto a computer to look at pictures, watch television using a remote control, brush his teeth, feed hay to his owner’s horses, water plants and learned the schedule of passing ice cream trucks.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b9Oop TIL that the first vending machine was invented 2000 years ago in Roman Egypt and sold Holy Water. When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever which let some water flow out. A counterweight snapped the lever up and turned off the valve once the coin was tilted off the pan.
orlL TIL someone created a homeless family in the Sims 3 and documented their journey.
LQQoV TIL that Kim Il-Sung's parents were devote Christians. Father was part-time Protestant Missionary and Mother was presbyterian. Mother's name, Pan-Sok, is derived from Saint Peter. They married by arrangements of American missionary L. Nelson Bell, the father-in-law of Billy Graham.
YvKA TIL in 1999, Ben Stiller made a pilot starring Jack Black as a former astronaut. He was exposed to inappropriate levels of solar energy, giving him superintelligence. And Owen Wilson played Heat Vision, a talking motorcycle.
wLoZo The numbers tell the story: Of the 648 people killed by lightning in the U.S. from 1995 to 2008, 82 percent were male. And as much as we were hoping to uncover a biological cause—extra iron in the male cranium, perhaps, or the conductive properties of testosterone—it turns out men are... just kind of stupid. “Men take more risks in lightning storms,” says John Jensenius, a lightning safety expert with the National Weather Service.