Post * 7ZMb — Curious Curator

› added 11 years ago

152

TIL There exists a, “Devil’s Interval,” a series of notes so dissonant and alluring, musicians would be put to death by the clergy during the middle ages for playing them.

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0dy8v TIL of the Turpan water system, an ancient network of thousands of hand dug wells and 5000 km of underground canals built under the Taklaman desert to channel groundwater to the Oasis city of Turpan, used to irrigate agriculture and provide water to the many caravans traveling the Silk Road.

n86P TIL that the first living creatures to go into orbit and return safely were, 40 mice, two rats, a rabbit, some fruit flies, plants, and 2 dogs. One of the dogs puppy was given by Khrushchev to Jacqueline Kennedy. She mated with a Kennedy dog, and JFK referred to their offspring as pupniks.

LklPP TIL that in the 19th century, obstetricians did not wash their hands before examinations. In 1861 a guy called Semmelweis recommended hand washing to decrease very high mother mortality rates. He faced fierce opposition, had a nervous breakdown and died in a mental hospital 4 years later.

Om8L TIL of Anti-Monopoly, a game designed to show how hurtful monopolies can be to a free-enterprise system. The board starts off looking like a game of Monopoly had just been completed, and the aim is to return the board to the free market system.

orN8 TIL, 90% of U.S. media: television, radio, news; is owned by only 6 corporations. One of which owns the top newspaper on 3 continents: The Wall Street Journal, The Sun, and The Australian.