Post * wolJ — Curious Curator

› added 12 years ago

66

TIL that Mother Teresa did not administer painkillers to those infirmed in her homes for the dying (one could “hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief”), believing that pain brought them closer to Christ.

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DngY TIL that a school in Pennsylvania got students to donate money to Katrina victims by playing “MMMBop” in the halls, the only way to make it stop being to donate. In response, Hanson matched the school’s donation and sent every student a copy of their latest album.

YpJdr TIL Ian Fleming named his character "Goldfinger" after the stern architect Ernő Goldfinger, whom he despised. When Ernő filed a suit over the name, Fleming threatened to rename the character "Goldprick". Ernő dropped the suit in exchange for legal fees and six copies of the book.

kO7ME TIL one horse’s power is greater than one horsepower

WkOOX TIL Brugmansia, a common ornamental flower, is a potent hallucinogen, and was once used in South American cultures "as a treatment for unruly children, so that they [would] be admonished directly by their ancestors in the spirit world".

A5Xa TIL 35 years before the Holocaust, Germany committed one of the first genocides of the 20th century in modern-day Namibia. German forces sealed off the Namib desert leaving up to 100,000 native Africans to die of starvation and exposure.