Post * p8grp — Curious Curator

› added 3 years ago

81

TIL the speed and direction of your computer mouse is measured in a unit called the Mickey, which is equal to the smallest movement your cursor can make on a computer screen

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VMZK0 TIL that in the 1790s a meteorite about 10 tonnes in mass crashed into what is now the suburbs of Melbourne Australia. No white people saw it, but the Boon Wurrung aboriginal people did and it was a source of profound feelings for them. Later, white people stole it and sent it to a London museum.

nejkW TIL one of the most brutal prisons in the US was Angola, Louisiana, which was run like a plantation. In the 1930s, hardened prisoners broke down upon learning of their sentence there. At one point, 10% of Angola prisoners were stabbed.

8aBxK TIL about Clarence Dally, perhaps the first person to die of man-made radiation in 1904. He was an assistant to Thomas Edison on a new x-ray machine. He had to have both of his hands amputated but eventually died from cancer. Edison refused to work with x-rays ever again.

ZpRe4 TIL that the 22nd amendment only has provisions for electing a president to more than two terms. It says nothing about vice-presidents ascending to the presidency.

oRjYR TIL about the Krill Paradox. Krill's chief predator are whales and as they've declined through hunting krill numbers have also paradoxically declined. Turns out, whale poo is a natural fertilizer for plankton (whale dung contains 10m times iron than sea water) which in turn are fed upon by krill.