› added 4 months ago

21

TIL: Pythagoras feared fava beans due to a common enzyme deficiency in Mediterranean people which makes them toxic (favism)

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

yAkX TIL former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson was a sexual maniac who nicknamed his penis “Jumbo” and he would often urinate in public. If anyone confronted him while doing so, he would turn around and say “have you ever seen anything as big as this?”
l9rK TIL of Ignaz Semmelweis who made doctors wash their hands between autopsies and deliveries. He was later shunned by the scientific community, and beaten to death by asylum guards.
E1g1o TIL the British Army developed a salute with the palm facing outwards. The Royal Navy instead adopted a version with the palm facing downwards, as many men working on ships had dirty palms and to display them was disrespectful. The United States Armed Forces would later use the Royal Navy's version.
e0Np5 TIL about the Schweinemord - In 1915 due to World War I food restrictions and rationing, Germany decided to regard pigs as co-eaters with humans and tried to preserve supplies. Five million pigs were massacred in the so-called Schweinemord (pig massacre) to both make food and preserve grain.
l7EjA TIL: Scotland names its snow gritters funny names like Hansel and Grit-all.