› added 6 years ago

223

TIL: At a church gathering in 1870, a bishop said, “Man has invented everything that can be invented.” Someone challenged it, “I think man will learn to fly.” Bishop called it Blasphemy, “Flight is reserved for birds and angels”. That bishop was Milton Wright, father of Wilbur and Orville.

QJ60X TIL people suffering from schizophrenia or autism are less likely to be fooled by "hollow face" illusions or other optical illusions that mess with depth perception and perspective. After successful treatment for schizophrenia, the illusion is more likely to fool them.
PYAdG TIL the Great Pyramid at Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders and the only one still standing today. The Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus were destroyed. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is still unknown.
OoZv1 TIL that the first proposal for space travel in English history was made by Oliver Cromwell’s brother-in-law in the 17th century, who thought that we just needed to fly 20 miles above the Earth to be released from its magnetism and sail to other planets to trade with the inhabitants.
VMj8Z TIL about “Peter Bergmann”, a man that visited Ireland 11 years ago under an alias, was found dead on a beach and has never been identified.
l7Mba TIL: Average american toilets clog far more than European ones (by design choice) and that's why they are always talking about plungers.