› added 5 years ago

56

TIL Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. The first call was from Martin Cooper (Motorola) to his rival Joel Engel (Bell Labs). The phone weighed 1.1kg, had talk time of 30 minutes and took 10 hours to recharge.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

l7Ydr TIL that incarcerated prisoners make a contraband drink in prison called "pruno" which entails fermenting fruit, sugar cubes, bread, and water in a ziplock bag a several days.
BgQyd TIL Musical Anhedonia (the inability to derive pleasure from music) is considered a neurological condition related to Autism.
9dxX TIL the first known robot was created around 400-350 BC and was a steam powered “pigeon” that was able to fly about 200 meters before it ran out of steam
5Vorn TIL: William Bailey was a Harvard dropout turned salesman who promoted using radioactive radium as a cure-all. He claimed it can cure mental illness, diabetes, flus, etc. He became wealthy. He died of cancer and when his body was exhumed, it was found to be "ravaged by radiation".
16ge4 TIL the latest estimate for US life expectancy is 76.1 years, indicating a drop of almost 3 YEARS since 2019...