› added 12 years ago

73

TIL Richard Simmons’ career in promoting fitness and healthy living has helped humanity to lose approximately 12,000,000 pounds.

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Y5R7 TIL ‘Macaroni’ was an 18th century expression for fops who dressed in high fashion with tall, powdered wigs. The joke being made in “Yankee Doodle” is that Americans were allegedly naive enough to believe that a feather in the hat was a sufficient mark of a macaroni.
EgglW TIL that Scotts Miracle-Gro Company knowingly sold poisoned bird seed for over 2 years. They sold 70+ million bags of bird seed with a pesticide toxic to birds to help with insect control during storage. Scotts paid a fine of $4 million and give an additional $500,000 donation to wildlife study.
Z8KLp TIL that the term "fragging" comes from the Vietnam War. Soldiers would throw live frag grenades into the quarters of officers they thought were incompetent. "Fragging" unwanted officers became so common that Gen. Colin Powell, a Major at the time, moved his cot every night from 1968-69 to avoid it
pDXN TIL a Seatlle punk band The Gits had a lead singer who was murdered in the 90s. DNA found her murderer a decade later.
e6P6 TIL that during World War II in Australia, there was a dog whose hearing was so acute that it could warn airforce personnel of incoming Japanese planes 20 minutes before they arrived, and before they showed up on radar. “Gunner” could also differentiate the sounds of allied and enemy aircraft.