› added 9 years ago

75

TIL the word “mesmerize” comes from 18th century German physician Franz Mesmer, who used the sounds from Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica to induce “animal magnetism” in patients. “Animal magnetism” would later be renamed “hypnosis” by Scottish surgeon James Braid in 1841.

mxREx TIL that the Coolidge effect is a biological phenomenon seen in animals, whereby males exhibit renewed sexual interest whenever a new female is introduced to have sex with, even after cessation of sex with prior but still available sexual partners. It is named after President Calvin Coolidge.
mxZgp TIL During the 2015 active shooter at the Navy facility in Chattanooga, TN, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, one of four slain Marines, directed his junior troops to clear a nearby neighborhood park that was packed with children. They rounded up all of the children and hunkered down in a building nearby.
EPaw TIL on the night of Grigori Rasputin’s assassination, he was poisoned with enough cyanide to kill five men, shot four times, bound in a rug, and then tossed in a river. An autopsy showed that he died by drowning.
oyB7 TIL that a pig in Australia stole 18 beers from a campsite, got drunk, and then tried to fight a cow.
Y77mx TIL "Cityspeak", the pidgin street language incorporating Japanese/Spanish/German/etc.. used in Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 wasn't in Philip K. Dick's book, but was actually devised by "Gaff" actor Edward James Olmos while researching his character for the film.