› added 11 years ago

82

TIL that when Ellery Schempp won the landmark case which banned prayer in public schools, his high school principal wrote letters of disrecommendation to every college he applied to. He was accepted to each one.

Read more secular.org

via reddit.com

jA6N TIL That Christopher Columbus punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery
4XG5N TIL That 16000 Hz Sine Waves are used by some grocery stores to deter teenagers after curfew. The reason these sounds work is because kids and teens hear them, but adults can’t. This is caused by the ears’ “age”. For people in their 30’s and older, they can’t hear these specific 16000 Hz sounds.
v1P1D TIL that Ivanpah, a solar electric generating system inadvertently created a solar death ray and has killed a lot of birds.
X06a8 TIL Mel Brooks was the executive producer of David Lynch's The Elephant Man, and gave him final cut, which technically he did not have.
OG5e1 TIL that the ornate wooden detailing on houses is referred to as ‘gingerbread’