Post * jNLEa — Curious Curator

› added 5 years ago

96

TIL that 21st century humans grow taller, and reach sexual maturity earlier than ever before in recorded history

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1VkX TIL that work on the first commercial home video game console began in 1966. There was a working prototype completed by 1968, and it was released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey.

R7Mjj TIL the taunting Frenchman in Monty Python and the Holy Grail was historically accurate. John Cleese had the idea after reading in a history book about mediaeval soldiers whose sole purpose were to launch insults against enemy soldiers prior to battle.

nkkG TIL Instead of donating money to the New York Food Bank, Toyota offered kaizen, a Japanese word meaning “continuous improvement”. Toyota sent its engineers to the soup kitchen and reduced wait time from 90 to 18 minutes.

loAvN TIL that Imhotep was an Egyptian architect, physician, and advisor to four pharaohs. He lived around 2667-2600 B.C. Imhotep practiced early medicine nearly 2200 years before Hippocrates and designed Djoser’s step pyramid at saqqara. He is the only Egyptian besides Amenhotep to ever be fully deified.

mJQp TIL that in 1951 the managing director of Guinness Breweries became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe (the golden plover or the grouse). He was unable to confirm the answer using reference books of the time. Shortly after, the Guinness World Records were born.