Post * MeRmV — Curious Curator

› added 6 years ago

105

TIL Edgar Allan Poe wrote Eureka, an obscure book, in 1848 in which he insisted that the universe began in "one instantaneous flash" - more than a century before astronomers hypothesized the Big Bang Theory.

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9YRjQ TIL in Mexico prison breaking is not illegal. The legal system notes that all citizens have a fundamental desire to be free, so you cannot be punished from attempting to escape jail. If no other laws are broken, those who are caught must only return to jail to complete the rest of their sentence.

wL8e7 TIL that, without seeking the consent of the people of Oklahoma City, the FAA sounded 1,253 sonic booms in the sky to see if the citizens would mind. Six months and hundreds of broken windows later Oklahoma City residents were furious, and soon after the supersonic flight initiative was canceled.

BrvPK TIL: Klaus Kinski was described as 'one of the greatest actors of the century, but he was also a monster and a great pestilence' who caused filmaker Werner Herzog to try to murder him. Spielberg offered Kinski the lead in Indiana Jones, to be told 'This script is a yawn-making, boring, pile of shit'

VMLYB TIL in the 1920's newly hired engineers at General Electric would be told, as a joke, to develop a frosted lightbulb. The experienced engineers believed this to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment not realizing it was a joke and succeeded.

wNKW TIL that there is no “garbage island” made up of floating plastic in the ocean. While there are particles of micro plastic, the island(s) as such is an urban myth.