› added 11 months ago

26

TIL medieval polymath St Hildegard of Bingen constructed her own language from scratch, with a whole new alphabet and vocabulary, mainly based on Latin and middle german. It's one of the earliest constructed languages ever, and the purpose of it, remains largely unknown

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

yMn8 TIL when transport unions strike in Australia it often takes the form of a free travel day for the public instead of shutting down the transport system
0d4jR TIL Ralph Ignatowski a US Marine who was captured by the Japanese in WW2. He was tortured in a cave for 3 days, his eyes and ears cut out, his teeth and skull smashed in. Many wounds to his stomach that was repeatedly stabbed with a bayonet, and his penis had been severed and stuffed into his mouth.
vvEx TIL because they had banned nuclear power, New Zealand refused to let US warships dock in their waters. This led to a ban on NZ ships at U.S. defense and coast guard bases around the world, and being considered “a friend, but not an ally” for 26 years.
JpW1 TIL that when Malcolm McDowell met Gene Kelly at a party several years later, the older star turned and walked away in disgust. Kelly was deeply upset about the way his signature from Singin’ in the Rain (1952) had been portrayed in A Clockwork Orange (1971).
9xBM TIL when you look at a clock, and the second hand seems to freeze for a moment, your brain is actually generating a false memory, and your perception of time stretches slightly backward. This effect is called chronostasis.