› added 8 years ago

255

TIL the expression “turn a blind eye” comes from Admiral Nelson, who was blind in one eye; when he was signaled to stop attacking a fleet of ships, Nelson raised the telescope to his blind eye and said: “I have only one eye, and I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal!”

Read more aao.org

via reddit.com

R5NoQ TIL about Capitol Hill's mystery soda machine. Operating from around the early 1990s to 2018, this machine would dispense rare discontinued beverages. Supposedly the nearby businesses had no idea who was restocking the machine. After the machine disappeared a note was left saying "Went for a walk".
nWjPW TIL of a Spokane fraudster who ran a car accident insurance fraud scheme that involved many conspirators. He would fake car crashes that involved ramming the cars himself, inflicting injuries on selected fake victims, with them even carrying bottles of urine to pour over themselves for the act.
rRPMy TIL about the Disney movie "John Carter" (2012), one of the most expensive films ever made, with a net budget of $263 million, and simultaneously one of the, if not the worst box office bomb ever, even adjusted for inflation. The movie resulted in a $200 million loss for Walt Disney Pictures.
0dOxv TIL that the famous “Wilhelm scream,” a stock sound effect used in hundreds of films, was first recorded in 1951 and is still used today as an inside joke by sound editors.
Zp0NG TIL of Seleucus VII Kybiosaktes King of Syria, translated Seleucus VII: the foul-smelling work of cutting tuna fish.