› added 12 years ago

156

TIL Georgre Ohr, the “mad potter of Biloxi” had an 18" mustache that he curled behind his ears and tied behind his head. No one bought his wacky pottery for the ridiculous asking price of $25. Some of his work is worth up to 25 million today, as he predicted it someday would be.

b6mrE TIL that ducklings swim in a line behind their mother in order to reduce drag and propel themselves forwards
nYjW TIL of The Man Who Never Was. In 1943, a British Major’s body was found with papers detailing an upcoming attack against the Nazis in Greece. However, the Major never existed. It was a homeless man’s body planted with fake papers so the real attack on Sicily could take place with little resistance.
kOkOB TIL that Guinea worm disease (Dracunculiasis) is likely to be the first parasitic disease to be globally eradicated, and that treatment by slowly extracting the nematode by wrapping it around a stick hasn't fundamentally changed since at least 1550 BCE as described in an Egyptian medical papyrus
OobOL TIL about food scientist Robert Baker who invented the chicken nugget in a laboratory at Cornell University in the early 1960s. He successfully created a "chicken stick" that would retain form when freezing or frying. Instead of patenting the invention, he sent the recipe to hundreds of companies.
ly7a TIL: The Japanese had a negative view of antidepressant until a marketing plot renamed depression as “a cold of the soul”. After, the sale of antidepressant increased 6 folds.