› added 5 years ago

1144

TIL the stem that connects your eye to the brain takes a small space in the back of your eye where photoreceptors can't be. This makes a natural blind spot for everyone that is only overcome because your second eye compensates.

VMDVm TIL that William McBride, an Australian obstetrician who helped determine the link between thalidomide and birth defects, was years later de-registered for falsifying scientific data to claim that another drug also caused birth defects.
R7wpQ TIL, the reason why US has quarters instead of some coin acting as fifths of the US Dollar is because the US currency was based off the Spanish Dollar which had 8 reals per peso, "pieces of eight".
4XkGb TIL While filming The Hateful Eight Kurt Russel mistakenly smashed a priceless 1870s Martin Guitar on loan from the museum when the prop department forgot he was holding the original. The Martin Museum says "the company will no longer loan guitars to movies under any circumstances."
oeno TIL that Hervé Villechaize, best known as the diminutive Nick Nack in ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’, helped deal with child abuse in the 70s and 80s, going to crime scenes to help comfort victims. He would often confront and chastise spousal and child abusers in person, despite standing only 3'11".
Wkpnd TIL that Texas still has a mutual combat law. This means that duelling is still legal according the Texas penal code. The law states that any two individuals who feel the need to fight can agree to mutual combat through a signed, verbal or implied communication and have at it (fists only, however).