› added 2 years ago

152

TIL that Alexandra of Denmark had such a strong influence on fashion that when a bad case of rheumatic fever left her with a permanent limp, it became trendy for wealthy women to walk around with a fake limp themselves. They even wore shoes with different sized heels for a more authentic limp.

LQ65m TIL NASA worked on the Toyota Prius to determine if the unintended acceleration problem from the late 2000s and early 2010s was a problem with the car's computer systems.
ZpJ1B TIL of La Nueva Jerusalén, a community of fundamentalist catholic doomsday cultists that run a tiny Mexican town with fear. They ban members from having sex with exceptions, modern tech and are in conflict with the towns nonbelievers. In 2012, they gained notoriety for destroying a public school.
P1E0e TIL about London's "Frost Fairs" back when the river Thames used to freeze over about once a decade. People would set up shops, pubs and ice skating rinks on a layer of ice thick enough you could walk an elephant on it. The last fair was held in 1814, that was the last time the river ever froze.
m1Zdx TIL of a Kugelblitz a theoretical astrophysical object predicted by general relativity. It is a concentration of heat, light or radiation so intense that its energy forms an event horizon and becomes self-trapped. The concentration of energy can warp spacetime so much that it creates a black hole
yrjJ TIL that Elephants use their teeth in sequence and when the last molar wears out, the elephant dies of starvation.