› added 4 years ago

876

TIL that the owner of a brand name can lost their legal protection for it if people started using it as the common or generic name for a type of product or service. This is what happened to Cellophane, Escalator, Flip Phone, Frisbee, Hovercraft, Kerosene, Sellotape, Trampoline, and Videotape.

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pY7KA TIL it is nearly impossible to knock someone out with a Chloroform-soaked rag as someone needs to inhale it for at least 5 minutes, and a continous volume must be administered to keep them unconscious
x6Nd1 TIL Veronica Lake was six months pregnant at the beginning of production Sullivan's Travels (1941), a fact she did not disclose to director Preston Sturges until filming began. Costume designer Edith Head was tasked to find ways of concealing Lake's pregnancy.
d8Yv8 TIL Naomi Watts' father, Peter, was a roadie for Pink Floyd, who died of a heroin overdose when she was 7. Pink Floyd provided financial support to the family.
wLB5W TIL that in 1985, while taking a break from the Geneva Summit, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to ally with one another if aliens attacked
YpybW TIL all vertebrates (except fish) have the same basic skeleton design: a column of vertebrae that supports the body and head, a skull that houses and protects the brain and sense organs, ribs that protect the heart and lungs and 4 limbs. Every limb also shares the same basic pattern and has 5 digits