› added 10 years ago

451

TIL of the Bagger 293, the biggest vehicle in the world. It is an excavator that is 315 feet tall, 740 feet long, and weighs over 31 million pounds.

Read more sometimes-interesting.com

via reddit.com

m1mMY TIL The first piano was called a “Gravicembalo col piano e forte” which means “harpsichord with soft and loud.” in Italian. The name was shortened to pianoforte and then to just piano.
NX79M TIL Precursors to chewing gum date back 5,000 years with the first commercial chewing gum released in 1848. To sweeten these early gums chewers would repeatedly dip the gum in a plate of powdered sugar to reconstitute the sweetness while they chewed.
4X8Wo TIL Terrence Howard thinks 1x1=2. He has detailed a system called “Terryology” that he believes is “true universal math”. For a time he also devoted up to 17 hours a day to cutting up wires and plastic to form building-block-like contraptions he believes will bring truth to the universe.
mxKME TIL that context terms used in internet searches change the search results, often leading to confirmation bias. For example, if you search “is X good for you?”, the top results will be sources stating X is good for you. And vice versa.
6b5w TIL that when sailors in the Navy pass over the equator for the first time, there is a “Crossing the Line” ceremony and the sailors receive the title “Shellbacks” and “Sons of Neptune.” They get a certificate and its “signed” by Davy Jones and Neptune.