› added 1 week ago

TIL that the ultimate test of the quality of an Orenburg shawl was whether it was fine enough to pass through a wedding ring or fit into the shell of a goose egg. At 5x5ft in size, only the finest knitted shawls could pass the test.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

gEML TIL that when author George R. R. Martin was a kid, he wrote stories about a mythical kingdom populated by his pet turtles; the turtles died frequently in their toy castle, so he finally decided they were killing each other off in “sinister plots”.
wLOPY TIL Samsung accidentally issued 2,000 employees 1,000 shares of stock for 37 minutes before realizing the error. 16 employees sold during that time for approx. $9,000,000 each.
ANAnB TIL that Father and Son (1970) by Cat Stevens was originally written as part of a musical about the Russian Revolution which got scrapped when Stevens contracted tuberculosis. It's a dialogue between a conservative farmer and his revolutionary son.
e0Abg TIL that a Spanish double agent, Juan Pujol Garcia got medals for spying from both Nazi Germany and the British Empire. He ran a fake spy network in London for Germany and recruited 27 fictitious agents all on German dime to provided them with fake intelligence during WW2.
8eN8Z TIl that as part of an agreement with the cast of StarShip Troopers in order to get them to film the infamous coed shower scene, director Paul Verhoeven had to direct it while also being completely naked