› added 9 months ago

190

TIL Civil War photographer Matthew Brady ended up destitute

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yQAy8 TIL about the mythical isle of Thule. The Ancient Greek explorer, Pytheas, was the first to write about Thule during his travels between 330-20 BC. Thule is described like a land of fire and ice in which the sun never sets, about six days sailing north from Britain.
DQxDr TIL in 1993, in order to reduce the media attention and law enforcement pressure brought on by drive-by shootings, the Mexican Mafia prison gang in California declared they would kill any gang member sent to prison for a drive-by.
epgY5 TIL The Bacterial Flagellum is a naturally occurring motor that spins up to 100,000 rpm with nearly 100% efficiency and can reverse its rotational direction in milliseconds
XEkAD TIL that after 9/11, Martin Scorcese was pressured to remove the Twin Towers seen in the ending of the 2002 movie "Gangs Of New York". Scorsese chose to keep the scene in, saying that "The people in the film ... were part of the creation of that skyline, not the destruction of it."
7rrLr TIL Local cemeteries refused to accept the Boston Marathon bomber's body and protesters actually took up a collection to try to have his body shipped to Russia.