› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician and astronomer (276 BC), measured of Earth's circumference by using the shadow angles from the sun in two locations. He calculated it was 39,375 km, which is 1.4% less than the real number of 40,076 km

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nerJb TIL the modern polo shirt was designed so the collar would intentionally be popped, preventing the sun from burning tennis players' necks.
neYY TIL that performing whales and dolphins at SeaWorld are force-fed antidepressants to reduce their likelihood of suicide.
m1ELv TIL that following an Asiana airline crash in 2012, a summer intern working at the NTSB "confirmed" the names of the flight crew to a local TV news station as Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Ow. The intern and 3 producers from the station were later fired
OGyba TIL that Mauritania’s Moor population historically views female obesity as a status symbol, and higher-income girls are fattened with milk to make them more desirable to potential suitors.
v1m9K TIL that Rosemary Kennedy - little sister to JFK - developed violent moodswings at 23. Their father secretly took Rosemary to the notorious surgeon Walter Freeman, who used an ice pick to disconnect her frontal lobes. The lobotomy disabled her & she spent the rest of her life in an institution.