› added 7 years ago

99

TIL that David Robinson grew so tall (7'0" by graduation) at the Naval Academy that he could not have served at sea, hurting any career in the US Navy. Instead of leaving the academy, as a compromise he was assigned to shore duty as an engineer before becoming a basketball superstar in the NBA.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

1Eed TIL HIV was circulating in the US decades before Patient Zero, the flight attendant usually believed to be the source of the AIDS epidemic
B4BK TIL the reason rubbing alcohol burns when you put it on cuts is because exposed nerve cells in the cut that normally detect hot temperatures have their pain threshold lowered by alcohol - which causes our body temperature to cause a burning sensation.
xOk5 TIL that during WWII, the Gestapo’s most wanted person was New Zealand born Allied agent Nancy Wake. Among her numerous exploits, she killed an SS soldier with her bare hands, to prevent him from raising the alarm during an undercover raid.
lQO1 TIL Will Smiths ‘Hancock’ was originally a script called Tonight He Comes, about a superhero alcoholic who could not make love because if he climaxed, he would kill a woman with the power of his climax.
mEnR TIL Women don’t have a higher pain threshold than men, and that at a biological level both are the same.