› added 12 years ago

96

TIL that the father of “The Three Musketeers” writer Alexandre Dumas remains the highest ranking black military official in European history

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

pKE4 TIL Ancient Rome was the first jurisdiction where euthanasia was allowed. Citizens could apply to the Senate and get free poison.
Zem4 TIL there is a 5 minute survey that predicts suicide risk in the person polled with a ~66% accuracy for 6 future weeks. It is called the “Hopelessness Scale”… and is exclusively available for around $60 from Pearson, a text book company that hyper-aggressively defends the survey’s copyright.
pY70N TIL about The Guatemalan Syphilis Experiment was a medical experiment conducted by the United States government from 1946 to 1948, which involved intentionally infecting Guatemalan prisoners, soldiers, and mental health patients with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases without their con
R50Oa TIL Professor Brian C. Kalt of MSU discovered the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment is flawed in that it allows for situations in which a jury is impossible to assemble. If someone ever appealed this to, say, the Supreme Court, the loophole would certainly be closed. However, as is, it DOES exist.
OoY5a TIL that adolescents who smoke marijuana as early as 14 do worse by 20 on some cognitive tests and drop out of school at a higher rate than non-smokers. But if they hold off until age 17, they're less at risk, and performed equally well as adolescents who did not use cannabis.