› added 1 year ago

103

TIL: Using data from 60 countries on road quality, traffic deaths, and vehicle crime rates, researchers ranked the most dangerous countries to drive in. Lebanon is #1 overall. Thailand has the most deaths. The US - #12, Russia -#10. The safest were Singapore, Switzerland, Japan.

W7EPL TIL that in 1943, the hull of the tanker ship SS Schenectady cracked in half while docked in Portland, Oregon. The sound of the fracture was reported to have been heard over a mile away, and the cause of the failure wasn’t fully understood for another 50 years.
PYNgZ TIL the reason I can no longer get my favorite '90s reception sticks is because the maker sold the recipe to a company that then sold it later to a food company. They are holding onto the recipe as they don't produce food items but just food ingredients like canola oil.
Oopy6 TIL early versions of the Thompson submachine gun used a "Blish Lock" to hold the action closed. It was based on a theory that two dissimilar metals would resist movement under extreme pressures. The lock had no useful effect on the action and was eliminated in the WW2 redesign of the SMG.
WkP0L TIL The neuroscience of free will is still very hotly debated. Experiments that try to determine predictability of choice show that both unconscious and conscious operations are involved in decision making. Philosophers used these studies to argue both hard-determinism and compatibilism.
YpAXd TIL there is a 1,700 year old Ethiopian counterpart of the Rosetta Stone called the Ezana Stone. The inscription commemorates Ethiopian military victories and their conversion to Christianity in their native language Ge’ez, as well as ancient Greek and South Arabian Sabaen.