› added 10 years ago

99

TIL that a U.S. court once debated whether the X-Men are human or not, because “dolls”- which represent human beings - are tariffed at twice the rate of “toys” - which represent something other than human (monsters, robots, etc.). The court decided that X-men are not human.

Read more radiolab.org

via reddit.com

R6R6 TIL that Treblinka guard Kurt Franz would hide a small pistol in a boxing glove. He would then challenge prisoners to boxing matches. Right before the fight was to begin, Franz would shoot the prisoner dead.
p8WyQ TIL that the artificial banana flavoring was based on the Gros Michel: the predominant banana that went extinct in the 60's (replaced by the current less flavorful Cavendish). Today, when you eat something "banana" flavored, you're tasting species of banana that went extinct long ago.
vBRR TIL of Mexican singer Chalino Sánchez failed assassination attempt on. In 1992 while he was performing at a club, a patron came up to the stage, pulled a gun, and shot Sánchez in the side. Sánchez immediately pulled a gun of his own and returned fire, the would-be killer was shot to death.
DDpj TIL eight of the July 20th, 1944 conspirators to assassinate Hitler were punished so severely, that they were slowly strangled with piano wire and revived multiple times only to be killed again. And all of this was filmed for Hitler to personally view at his leisure.
5VlJr TIL: Charles Darwin spent 6 months in South America looking for a lesser rhea (an ostrich-like bird) only to have one served to him for dinner. Halfway through the meal, Darwin realized what he was eating, gathered the parts and sent them to England for taxidermy and formal classification.