› added 10 years ago

372

TIL that a decimal point was misplaced when the iron content of Spinach was measured in the 1870’s, leading people to believe it had 10x more iron than reality, and made you stronger. This is why the creators of Popeye decided he would eat spinach to grow his muscles.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

WkkrX TIL South Korea has completely Autonomous Turrets, SGR-A1 developed by Samsung, deployed along its entire 160 mile border with North Korea, making it the most militarized border in the world.
xje0 TIL Vin Diesel is a huge Dungeons and Dragons fan, having played for more than 20 years. So much so that he even wrote the forward to Thirty Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons and Dragons.
gMK5A TIL that the real "Last Samuraï" who inspired the movie with Tom Cruise wasn't American, but rather a French officer named Jules Brunet
16MyW TIL that the word "robot" was first used in a play titled "R.U.R.," written by Czech writer Karel Čapek in 1920. The term comes from the Czech word "robota," meaning "forced labor" or "drudgery."
8a68X TIL measles can cause immunosuppression that lasts for up to two years, and this immunosuppression has been related to 30% to 90% of childhood death in impoverished countries.