/f/todayilearned
TIL John Matuszak, best known for playing Sloth in The Goonies, was a state champion in the shot put, was the #1 overall draft pick in the NFL, was served a restraining order during a game, had a head coach perform life-saving CPR, won 2 Super Bowls, and acted with Ringo Starr before ODing at 38
profootballhistory.comSubmitted by PasghettiSquash t3_zys5nk
TIL about Willem Arondeus, a gay painter and artist. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands he joined the dutch resistance. He participated in the bombing of the Amsterdam public records office to hinder the Nazi German effort to identify Dutch Jews. He was caught and executed soon after his arrest.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by Random_German_Name t3_z3g4hi
TIL that in an effort to save $43.5, the Canadian Mint mailed the dies of the new $1 coin via a discount courier over using an armored car- which were promptly stolen and have never been found. This would lead to the adoption of the Loonie design as an emergency replacement.
ottawarewind.comSubmitted by Padgriffin t3_y7xaxy
Submitted by TrevorIsTheGOAT t3_z35w2g
TIL Margaret Knight (1838-1914) invented a machine to mass produce flat-bottomed paper bags and, after winning a lawsuit against a fraudster who copied her design, the patent was issued in 1871. Her first invention was when she was 12 years old (and began working in a factory). She had 87 patents.
americanhistory.si.eduSubmitted by WonderWmn212 t3_126a0pt
TIL: Thanks to poor internal communication at NASA, information about a spacesuit water leak wasn't properly communicated. Later, Astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowned on a July, 2013 ISS space walk, his helmet filling with several liters of water before they could get him back inside.
abcnews.go.comSubmitted by OvidPerl t3_121eza5
TIL about the famous American novelist Winston Churchill who was the reason why the British prime minister referred to himself as Winston Spencer Churchill. They met on occasion, but gradually Spencer Churchill’s rise to power steamrolled the American into obscurity.
wikipedia.orgSubmitted by OneLastConquest t3_yaqi45
TIL that due to "Subjective Age" most children and adolescents feel older than they really are. But this switches at around 25. By age 30, around 70% of people feel younger than they really are, with the discrepancy between actual age and subjective age growing over time.
bbc.comSubmitted by AspireAgain t3_11egnqj
TIL Why Dog Paws Smell Like Fritos. Even the cleanest, healthiest pooch has trillions of bacteria and fungi living on their skin. That yeasty, corn chip smell is actually a normal byproduct of harmless bacteria, usually Proteus or Pseudomonas, both of which are naturally present in our environment.
hamptonveterinaryhospital.comSubmitted by Rossknight65 t3_zuypwt
TIL John Steinbeck IV wrote an article in January 1968 about marijuana usage among the troops. This set off a media firestorm, & the Army began clamping down on marijuana usage, arresting ~1000 G.I.s a week for possession. Many G.I.s switched to heroin, which was odorless and thus harder to detect.
history.comSubmitted by The_Critical_Cynic t3_zzhptn
TIL: If you cut 2 different sponges up, disaggregate them (push them through a sieve), and mix the 2 cell-slurries together - the sponge cells reassociate with their own cells, but not cells of the other species. This is being studied to understand tissue repair and transplant rejection.
tandfonline.comSubmitted by Geek_Nan t3_116vvau
TIL in 1962 a General Electric engineer named Nick Holonyak developed the first LED light bulb capable of emitting visible red light. The same bulb was used in the 1964 stop animation animated TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Rudolph’s bioluminescent nose.
smithsonianmag.comSubmitted by undergroundgeek t3_zr9n8b