Post * RN8 — Curious Curator

› added 12 years ago

98

TIL the Molotov Cocktail is not Russian, despite the obvious Russian name. The petrol bomb was mass produced by the Finnish in the Winter War, and the term itself was coined to mock Soviet propaganda.

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XEkyj TIL of the Flying Wedge, a popular football play in the early 1900's where the entire team would form a V and charge down the field, sweeping down the field like a tank. Teddy Roosevelt threatened to abolish the sport after 18 players died and 159 were badly injured during that season.

RrK6 TIL Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman’s second wife wrote in her divorce complaint: “He begins working calculus problems in his head as soon as he awakens. He did calculus while driving in his car, while sitting in the living room, and while lying in bed at night.”

VM9kQ TIL that Alfred Hitchcock was afraid of Eggs. He also found egg yolk more revolting than blood because of its yellow color. It affected him so much that he avoided eating eggs so he would never have to taste it.

6EPjJ TIL the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving, was the first person to refer to New York as Gotham City in 1807. Irving borrowed the name from the Nottinghamshire village in England, which was reputedly inhabited by fools.

NkdM TIL after meeting a homeless veteran in 2011, a UC Berkeley Student created an app called Feeding Forward that connects events with surplus food to those in need. One IT convention had enough leftovers to feed more than 4,279 people at eight different shelters and food banks.