› added 9 years ago

235

TIL that when Robert Picardo auditioned for the role of the Doctor (sophisticated medical software in hologram form) on ‘Star Trek: Voyager’, he ad libbed “I’m a doctor, not a nightlight” not knowing that it was similar to the lines Dr. Leonard McCoy often said. Picardo got the job.

Read more sci-fi-online.com

via reddit.com

wL1K7 TIL about Mary the Jewess, one of the first alchemical writers, living between the first and third centuries AD. She is credited with the invention of several kinds of chemical apparatus and is considered to be the first true alchemist of the Western world.
e0BgE TIL Vietnam is building its first 2 metro systems: one in Hanoi (capital) with Chinese funding/money and the other in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) with Japanese expertise. Hanoi's is progressing more quickly but has had multiple accidents, one deadly. HCM City's has had more delays but no accidents.
o418 TIL smallpox infested blankets were never given to Native Americans by the US Army, or anyone. Some scientist even tried their best to provide the native populations with vaccines
x4bB TIL that baked beans started with a bean native to the Americas exported to France/Italy in the 1500’s, were brought back to America with European colonization, then exported to the UK as an “American delicacy” in the late 1800’s, and are now reimported to the US as “UK Baked Beans”
044M TIL La Rinconada, Peru the highest elevated city on earth has a goldmine where miners work for 30 days without pay. On the 31st day they are allowed to take as much ore as they can carry on their shoulders.