› added 7 years ago

473

TIL Japan has two completely separate and incompatible power grids

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WkXvX TIL that in 1729, Jonathan Swift published a satirical essay in which suggested that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to rich gentlemen. This satirical hyperbole mocked heartless attitudes of the British towards the poor and Irish in general
LQ7yP TIL early in his life, poet Lefkadio Hearn was abandonded by his father, then his mother and was adopted by his great aunt. Eventually, she abandoned him as well and send him to live with one of her former maids
XmgP TIL a spear becomes a pike when it is long enough that it cannot be wielded with one hand in combat
jNKWa TIL that the normal intelligible outdoor range of the male human voice in still air is 180 m (590 ft 6.6 in). The silbo, the whistled language of the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of the Canary Island of La Gomera, is intelligible under ideal conditions at 8 km (5 miles).
GPRg TIL a Canadian student attending a lecture on out-of-body experiences approached the professor after saying, “I thought everybody could do that.” She is the first person studied who can induce them at will.