Post * VBjlD — Curious Curator

› added 2 months ago

3

TIL that FDR may have not had polio, but rather Guillain–Barré syndrome. Guillain–Barré was not widely understood as a distinct disease until after FDR’s death.

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0weVR TIL spiral staircases in medieval castles were deliberately made clockwise because it diminished the ability of attackers to properly swing their swords, since right-handed fighters would have had to to contend with the walls while making their striking motions.

Lkdop TIL that when helicopters kick up sand while they are spinning blades, the sand creates a static discharge from the friction of the rotor blades spinning. This generates a bright light surrounding the blades as they spin.

Br9mx TIL of Nebraska Man, a purported ape species found in Nebraska based on a set of teeth. Turns out the teeth actually belonged to a peccary and were just heavily weathered.

6JnQ TIL in 1972, Col. John Ripley under intense unrelenting enemy fire, dangled for 3 hours under the Dong Ha bridge in order to attach 500 pounds of explosives to the span, ultimately obliterating it. His action, under enemy fire, thwarted an onslaught by 20,000 troops

pYdW8 TIL as part of its foreign policy the Nixon administration actively portrayed the president as an out of control madman to try and convince hostile nations that he was capable of anything at anytime. Including nuclear war. Nixon dubbed this strategy "Madman Theory".