› added 9 years ago

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TIL that in the 1960s, Wham-O made a “giant” Super Ball, roughly the size of a bowling ball, and dropped it from a 23rd story window as a promotional stunt. It destroyed a parked car on the second bounce.

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v16vR TIL prolonged exposure to felt containing high levels of mercury would cause mental disfunction in 18th century hat makers, ushering in the phrase "As mad as a hatter".
N9bE TIL that the beard of Tutankhamun’s golden mask fell off during the cleaning process in the Egyptian Museum in 2014. The workers used epoxy glue to reattach the beard, but since that was not the professional method and permanent damage was done to the mask they were prosecuted for this in 2016.
9yWp TIL Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka originally said “The whole is other than the sum of the parts” but is often incorrectly translated as “greater” rather than “other”. Koffka firmly corrected students saying “This is not a principle of addition. The whole has an independent existence.”
6NY7 TIL Jesse Heiman from the GoDaddy commercial was given an offer from a porn company to be in a film of his choosing. He responded with “Think I’ll hold out for Playgirl.”
4kadR TIL that Lise Meittner, the co-discoverer of nuclear fission, never won the Nobel Prize. She was nominated 48 times in both Physics and Chemistry.