› added 11 years ago

115

TIL that J.R.R. Tolkien once started to write sequel to The Lord of the Rings entitled The New Shadow, but stopped only 30 pages in.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

DJOr TIL that in Batman’s early comics, he used guns and killed criminals
yQBEa TIL that the Hawaiian battle of Kuamo’o featured weapons ranging from slings and stones to a swivel gun mounted on the platform of a double canoe.
Y7mPd TIL that car horn testing is important, and countries like India get highly reliable horns. People honk almost constantly in that part of the world.
b60l9 TIL that, even 35 years after the disaster, Chernobyl will be habitable again in about 20,000 years. Visiting is now considered safe, but there are still risks associated with touring due to the structural instability of the ruins.
VBwGZ TIL that traditional lacquer is made w urushiol sap, aka the rash-causing toxin in poison ivy & poison oak. In fact, "urushi" (as in "urushi-ol") is the Japanese for the Chinese lacquer tree (also toxic) & an English word for lacquerware. They all fall in the genus Toxicodendron, or "poison tree".