Post * Xwgr — Curious Curator

› added 9 years ago

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TIL Shakuntala Devi, an Indian mental calculator,was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds. Her answer was confirmed by calculations done at the US Bureau of Standards for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.

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0d41M TIL: There's a rare disorder called Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis, turning people's skin into tree-like bark with wart growths due to HPV. Also known as "Tree Man Illness," the disorder is inherited when an individual inherits one copy, from each parent, of a defective gene.

x6pr1 TIL The G.I. Piano (a.k.a. Victory Vertical) was a piano made by Steinway for the US military. Meant to be used in all kinds of theaters, it was designed to be small enough to be carried on a ship or parachuted from a plane and to be able to cope with the humidity of the South Pacific.

LkaM9 Today I learned that guests at a wedding in Serbia accidentally shot down a small plane with celebratory gunfire.

x6ja0 TIL: In 1865, Edouard de Laboulaye organized a meeting for a commemorative gift for the United States that would recognize the liberation of the slaves. That gift ended up being the Statue of Liberty. However by the time it was unveiled in 1886 the original meaning had been lost.

7rEGZ TIL The chemise cagoule, was a heavy nightshirt worn by Catholic men and women during the Middle Ages in order to permit a husband to impregnate his wife without having more physical contact. The chemise cagoule covered all sexual areas, but left an opening for necessary contact.