› added 12 years ago

201

TIL That Magpies hold funerals for their dead

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

vbO7 TIL the Virtual Reality Analgesia Research Center in Washington uses $35,000 goggles to obtain drops in pain ratings of burn victims by 30-50% through distraction. “VR not only reduces pain perception; it changes the way the brain processes pain signals.”
jNJjE TIL that nearly 1/4th of all Caucasian service members of the Union Army were foreign-born, coming from countries such as Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Russia among others. 9.7% of the Union Army were African American freedmen from the north, half being ex-slaves.
bV40 TIL that Boeing plane models are always 7X7 not because of the Lucky number 7 but because the 700 division was in charge of transport aircraft after WWII. They started with 707 and kept the pattern from there.
VMJd4 TIL of the Man in the Iron Mask. An unidentified prisoner held for 34 years, until his death in 1703, who was forced to wear a mask to ensure no one knew his true identity. His cell had multiple doors so no one could listen; if he spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed.
avp9 TIL that Marvel Comics owned the trademark to the word “zombie” until 1996