Post * nWLMr — Curious Curator

› added 8 months ago

116

TIL: The father of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved concubine, Sally, was also the father to Jefferson's wife, Martha.

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R5B8l TIL instruments found in King Tutankhamun's tomb were played on a BBC radio broadcast in 1939 after a silence of over 3000 years

LV4d TIL that in 1847, a doctor performed an amputation in 25 seconds, operating so quickly that he accidentally amputated his assistant’s fingers as well. Both later died of sepsis, and a spectator reportedly died of shock, resulting in the only known procedure with a 300% mortality rate.

0dXVy TIL There are consumers who are known as Harbingers of Failure. They have a knack for buying products that turn out to be market flops. "when the harbingers buy a product at least three times, it’s really bad news: The probability of success for that product drops 56 percent."

0w1Yj TIL The entire four-minute music video for REM's Imitation of Life took 20 seconds to shoot. According to Michael Stipe, "What you're watching is a loop that goes forwards for 20 seconds, backwards for 20 seconds [...] with one camera, static, and then using a technique called 'pan and scan'..."

pKrp TIL Michael Crichton had an MD from Harvard, although he never obtained a license to practice medicine. He also believed patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors.