› added 6 years ago

143

TIL how the UK military recruiter mistook "cryptogamist" (algae expert) for "cryptogramist" and sent Geoffrey Tandy to join the code breakers; he wasn't so useful until captured German papers arrived water-logged; with his expertise they salvaged them, cracked the code, and hastened the victory.

Read more nhm.ac.uk

via reddit.com

5Yp8R TIL that in 1984, Disney was almost bought by MCA, the then-parent company of Universal, with the deal only falling through because of Disney’s insistence that Ron Miller, the Disney CEO at the time, be MCA president.
698MZ TIL a criminal named James Allen requested a copy of his deathbed confessions be bound in his skin and given to a man Allen had previously attempted to rob. The family kept it for years, using it to spank their kids and grandkids when the children misbehaved.
0w8wp TIL that kids falling victim to tampered Halloween candy is an urban myth. None of the reports have found to be true. In one case a child died from heroin found at a relative's. In another a child died after eating cyanide-laced candy from his father who'd taken out a life insurance policy on him.
5yln TIL the whiptail lizard is an all female species, the males have gone completely extinct. They’re not hermaphroditic, the females actually lay, and hatch from unfertilized eggs
Wkd5d TIL JFK’s senior thesis, which defends Britain’s pre-WWII actions, actions JFK’s father, Ambassador to Britain at the time, supported, sold 80000 copies. Political theorist Harold Laski declined writing a foreword, stating the book was immature and only being published because of the writer's father