› added 1 day ago

TIL that up until the 1970s, American insurance companies put vending machines at airport ticket counters which sold plane crash life insurance policies. This practice ended when courts started strictly enforcing the policies against the insurers.

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D1OWP TIL that Goliath from "David and Goliath" might have suffered from visual field restriction (bitemporal hemianopsia) as a consequence of the brain tumor that caused his gigantism. He was likely easy pickings for the small and nimble David.
4XA8b TIL that in 1963, contractor Amos Peters constructed a small suspension bridge to facilitate safe squirrel crossing over a busy street in Longview, Washington. “The Nutty Narrows” is now on the National Historic Register.
VMRYB TIL Eating a polar bear liver will kill you, because it is overloaded with vitamin A which is far too toxic for humans
NXgQP TIL: Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes
89ML TIL it took early “humans” 110,000 generations of using stone tools before controlling fire, another 20,000 generations until written language was invented, and only another 250 generations until we put a man on the moon.