› added 1 year ago

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TIL that surgeon August Bier tested a form of anesthesia that involved injecting cocaine directly into the spine on his own assistant, and to test its effectiveness, he stuck a needle in his leg, hit him in the shins with a hammer, pulled out his pubic hair, and even squeezed his testicles.

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97rD TIL that the Vikings essentially invented rap battling during the fifth century.
D1mAr TIL the game Bravely Default, an ultra-traditional jrpg released in 2012, was so successful globally, Square Enix had to reconsider their strategy of game making, as they were planning to only make action-focused, real-time based games to appeal the western audience.
krlE TIL that the world’s highest speeding fine was $200,000 and it was issued in Finland. The fine was calculated according to Finnish law allowing speeding tickets to be relative to the offender’s last known income.
66p8 TIL that the personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperor were primarily Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons. They comprised the “Varangian Guard” which was also an Elite Unit of the Byzantine Army. The loyalty and honor of these “axe-bearing barbarians” became a trope of Byzantine writers.
VBdrp TIL about the 1956 “Battle of Palmdale” an effort by the US Air Force to destroy an out of control target drone. Two jets fired 208 rockets at the propeller driven drone. Every one missed the target, started fires that burned 1000 acres, damaged homes and destroyed a pickup truck.