› added 3 years ago

91

TIL that “The Bone Wars,” a fierce rivalry in the 19th century between two paleontologists involving bribery, fraud, and theft, concluded with one of the scientists donating his brain in hope that it would be bigger than that of his rival.

Read more museumofidaho.org

via reddit.com

E7mw TIL: William Wrigley Jr. originally started in the baking powder business. With his powder, he gave a free pack of his gum. He later abandoned the baking powder business when he learned that people were buying it just to get the gum.
BGnW TIL that the Great Pyramid of Giza used to be a pearly white because of its limestone covering.
rNaLW TIL that the loudest animal in the world is the 2cm long Pistol Shrimp. It can create bubbles that pop at a volume louder than a gun shot and produce temperatures of over 4,000 degrees Celsius. It shoots these bubbles at it’s prey.
77xX TIL that the Xbox 360’s “Red Ring of Death” problem was so widespread that, in 2007, more than 30% of consoles failed. Repairs cost Microsoft $1.15 billion.
1aAOO TIL priest Joseph Müller told a joke of a dying German soldier who asked to see people for whom he was laying down his life. The nurse laid a portrait of Hitler and Göring next to him. The soldier said "Now I can die like Jesus Christ" [between two criminals]. Müller was executed for the joke.