› added 12 years ago

81

TIL that the wrinkling of fingers after long exposure to water is not due to water absorption, but is a nervous system response that can be disabled by nerve damage.

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neYEW TIL: 19th century investor, Jay Gould, mastered short selling stocks by selling borrowed stocks and then publishing negative rumors about the company he borrowed them from in a newspaper he owned so he could buy the stocks back at a profit.
wo6mW TIL in 1854, Dr. Jules Baillarger depicted a mental illness expressed by switches between mania and depression. He named it dual-form insanity. Dr. Jean Falret described the same illness but named it circular insanity. They spent their lives disputing who first conceptualized it.
loEa TIL that Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, formerly of Steel Dan and The Doobie Brothers, is now a defense consultant and chaired a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense. He is self taught, and got into defense consulting as a hobby.
DNDV TIL there is a cemetery for German WWII soldiers maintained in Normandy, France
WbGY TIL Congress wrote the Freedom of Information Act so that they are exempt from it (among a list of many other laws)