› added 5 years ago

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TIL that in the US at least, automobile safety — air bags, seat belts, etc.—is tested with female- and infant-sized crash test dummies as well as adult male sizes.

Read more nhtsa.gov

via reddit.com

xVnL0 TIL whilst filming 'Man on the Moon' at Universal Studios in 1999, Jim Carrey once dressed as Mrs. Bates from 'Psycho' and terrorised a tram of tourists passing the film's sets on the Studio Tour. As a result, the tour has included an actor that slowly approaches the trams as they pass ever since.
nWepb TIL: In 1909, Helen Taft, wife of President William Howard Taft, drove an electric car. It was a Baker Motor Vehicle and one of the cars in the White House fleet.
evbD TIL that in March 2012, scientist and blogger Jonathan Corbett demonstrated the ineffectiveness of full body scanners by publishing a viral video showing how he was able to get a metal box through backscatter x-ray and millimeter wave scanners in two US airports.
yVPwp TIL that the Four Season's hit, ""December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)", was originally set in 1933 with the title "December 5th, 1933," and celebrated the repeal of Prohibition. The lyrics were changed at the behest of Franki Valli to reset the song as a remembrance of a man's first affair w a woman.
Egb7d TIL of Bell, a slave of Bengali origin in 18th century Scotland, that may have been wrongfully convicted of infanticide after giving her child Hindu burial rights.