› added 9 years ago

123

TIL a 15 year old Roman Emperor named Heliogabalus, was a notorious prankster. He would get his party guests black out drunk and then dump them into a bedroom full of toothless leopards, lions and bears. He also created the 1st known ‘whoopee cushions’ using inflated animal bladders.

Read more modernnotion.com

via reddit.com

j6GdQ TIL in the 1960s, NASA developed the Maximum Absorbency Garment (MAG) for astronauts, incorporating superabsorbent polymers to help manage bodily fluids and solids during space missions. The technology inspired the highly absorbent materials used in modern disposable diapers.
GDQ TIL that there is a pill called Modafinil that allows you to go without sleep for 40+ hours without feeling “wired”, crashing afterward, or other major side effects.
69ARm TIL that during the state opening of parliament in 1845, the Duke of Argyll accidentally dropped the Imperial State Crown, causing £150 (23,000$ today) worth of damage. Of the accident, Queen Victoria wrote in her diary:" [The Crown] was all crushed and squashed, like a pudding that had set down."
v1Waj TIL that after tomatoes were imported to Europe they were deemed poisonous and only used for decoration. Eventually poor people ate them for their low cost and they became popular nearly 300 years after their introduction.
6EwQZ Today I learned about a Welsh Christmas tradition in which a hobby horse, made of a real horse's skull, called Mary Lwyd is taken from house to house. Mary and her group is allowed to enter the house for food and drinks if they win the exchange of rude rhymes with the house owner.