› added 10 years ago

384

TIL the mercury everyone is so scared of in vaccines (thimerosal) is actually ethylmercury, while the toxic mercury which can damage the nervous system is methylmercury. The same way that we drink ethylalcohol (ethanol) but methylalcohol (methanol) will cause you to go blind, or just plain kill you.

Read more health.ny.gov

via reddit.com

7yZ7 TIL there is a Christian cult in China that tortures former members for leaving and killed a woman for refusing to join
Blmr TIL: During the Deepwater horizon crisis, two Dutch competitors, owned cleanup technologies that were superior to anything owned by the U.S. However, the Jones Act, required that all goods transported between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed, owned and crewed by U.S. citizens.
GlDN TIL that there is a card game in which asking about or explaining the rules is against the rules: “New players are expected to join a game and deduce the rules of play by observation, trial and error.”
rN59o TIL the Hillary Step on Mount Everest was destroyed by an earthquake in 2015.
wLo7W TIL that the ADE 651; an inert rod of metal with a plastic hinge, was sold as a bomb detector. It was used by the militaries of Iraq, Afghanistan and more than a dozen other countries for years before anyone noticed that it did nothing at all.