› added 6 years ago

79

TIL: School bus yellow was specifically created for use on school buses at a conference in 1939. Attendees at the seven-day conference included paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paints. The color was chosen because it attracts attention and is noticed quickly in peripheral vision.

n6Pd TIL: The last Sauna contest between Finland and Russia left one man dead, and the other in the Hospital for severe burns
JY9k1 TIL Sherpa people have a small number of names and children are often called by days of the week. They also give names according to certain virtues. By mistake of the enumerators in Nepal, their nationality was added as a surname. Otherwise, they have no last name.
6Y78 TIL Henry Ford was an anti-semite and a Nazi supporter, and used his company, money and influence to spread and legitimize antisemitic views. He blamed every national problem on Jews, from strikes to depressions, and received the “Grand Cross of the German Eagle” from the Nazis in 1938.
gD7X TIL that because babies listen to the languages spoken around them while still in the womb, they develop distinctive cries that reflect this when they’re born. Thus - babies cry with an accent, making it possible to distinguish a French baby from a German baby, based purely on the way they cry.
GYQgE TIL: the “selfie stick” was once considered so unnecessary that it was included in a Chindōgu book consisting of 101 Un-Useless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami. Chindōgu are things that are almost completely useless, but not quite.