› added 10 months ago

210

TIL that Orthostatic Hypotension is the term for low blood pressure that can cause dizziness or fainting when rising quickly after sitting or laying down after long periods of time.

Read more mayoclinic.org

via reddit.com

5YwRQ TIL that the gun Vincent van Gogh used to shoot himself with was recently sold for €162,500 (£144,000; $182,000), almost three times more than expected. It was billeted as "the most famous weapon in art history".
bM1Z TIL that in 1968 famous Science Fiction writer and atheist Issac Asimov published “Asimov’s guide to the Bible”. Asimov treats the secular aspects of the Bible with intellectual instead of theological commentary.
rRLl4 TIL: Rodin's famous sculpture of Balzac was so controversial when it was first exhibited in 1898 that vendors in Paris sold parodies of the work, including this one of Balzac as a seal.
GYPpG TIL the reason we write from left to right is to not smudge ink. The Greeks (from whom English is derived) mostly had right handed stone workers and when they began to use papyrus, left to right allowed them to see what they were writing as well as prevent ruining the paper by smudging the ink
GO84 TIL of French Treasury Chief Etienne de Silhouette, whose penny-pinching ways inspired the term ‘à la Silhouette’ for things perceived as austere. These included a newly popular form of portraiture using a shadow profile cut from black paper.