› added 7 years ago

145

TIL of retronyms, words created to differentiate between two words, where previously no clarification was required, like acoustic guitar.

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5KRn TIL that in WWI, the Germans converted liner SMS Cap Trafalgar into an armed merchant cruiser, which they then disguised as the British liner HMS Carmania. Off the coast of Brazil, Trafalgar was attacked and sunk by a British ship. That ship was also an armed merchant cruiser; the real HMS Carmania.
7mXZ TIL learned that Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 but didn’t pursue it since film was their big moneymaker.
awN8N TIL Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan was born in England, grew up in the Home Counties and attended a private school
w871 TIL the Placebo effect also works on dogs.
LkEQP TIL scoring on bread loaves was originally so families could find their loaves after baking in community ovens