› added 4 years ago

60

TIL Pope Clement VIII loved coffee: he supposedly tasted the "Muslim drink" [coffee] at the behest of his priests, who wanted him to ban it. "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious, that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it..."

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

R76E4 TIL: During WWII, armies deployed Searchlight Units to aide night time movement, detect enemies and dazzle enemies. They were called "Moonlight Batteries". On cloudy nights, the units could bounce the light off clouds to provide diffuse lighting.
mPnR TIL studies show that people eat worse than they normally would if the restaurant offers healthy alternatives. Merely seeing a healthy menu option satisfies the goal to be healthy.
8exGZ TIL an Afghan immigrant invented and sold the process for Minute Rice to General Mills.
EgE5o TIL that the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora wiped out an entire civilization: it killed all of the inhabitants of the island of Sumbawa, resulting in the extinction of their culture and language. The remains of their town, which had about 10,000 residents, were rediscovered nearly 2 centuries later.
aKLN TIL that Ultra-pasteurized milks like Organic Horizon and Stonyfield do not need to be refrigerated. They are put into the cooling section at the store cause People don’t trust unrefrigerated milk especially in the US.