› added 1 month ago

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TIL that from the 1940s through the 1970s, all Ivy League colleges and Seven Sisters colleges (as well as Swarthmore) required all incoming freshmen to pose nude ostensibly to gauge the rate and severity of rickets, scoliosis, and lordosis in the population.

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via reddit.com

X8V8 TIL In 27 AD a wooden amphitheater collapsed in the ancient town of Fidenae which resulted in the death of 20000-50000 spectators. The Roman senate responded to this by raising building standards and banishing the creator of the theater, Atilius.
wjG6 TIL that because Koalas get so little energy from their diet of eucalyptus leaves, they limit their energy use and sleep 20 hours a day, with only 4 minutes a day being active. They spend most of their waking hours eating and sleeping from a single tree.
JYgAm TIL that Jack Black's mom was a famous satellite engineer who worked on the Minuteman Missile and Hubble Space telescope project
VbRB TIL that research has found that everyone is able to sing well - it is a learned skill that gets better with practice and worse with disuse.
ANDvx TIL about Will & William West, two felons who looked visually similar and even had similar anthropomorphic measurements. Officials needed fingerprints to “prove” they were different people. While mugshots still persist, most body measures have given way to fingerprints.