Recent comments in /f/todayilearned
DoinItWrong96 t1_je4p4tz wrote
Reply to TIL that children born earlier in the academic year have a higher chance of participating in upper echelons of sports or academia. This is known as the Relative Age Effect. by ThatFaultyGamer
And kids born later in the year are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328520/
AngelSucked t1_je4p28g wrote
Reply to comment by Da_Brootalz in TIL that after a flood killed thousands and devastated the economy, California legislators and State employees worked unpaid for a year and a half. by WhatsAMisanthrope
People are not supposed to work for free, and you are conflating legislators and public career employees.
fanghornegghorn t1_je4otyj wrote
Reply to comment by wegqg in TIL the majority of ancient Greeks and Romans that were literate read out loud. Reasons for this include a lack of space between letters and no formalized system of punctuation that helped with pauses in reading. by Ask_Me_If_Im_A_Horse
No. Isn't it because English is a Germanic language?
dmr11 t1_je4ot7q wrote
Reply to comment by horseydeucey in TIL that after a flood killed thousands and devastated the economy, California legislators and State employees worked unpaid for a year and a half. by WhatsAMisanthrope
Could legislators get votes by promising to repeal such an outdated tax policy, or does the tax money outweigh even that incentive?
zuniac5 t1_je4oido wrote
Reply to TIL that the official motto of Fall River, Massachusetts was ‘We’ll Try’ from 1843-2017. by Sea_Entertainment754
Local authorities say citizens prefer Fall River’s new motto: “Eh.”
wegqg t1_je4ob8t wrote
NanditoPapa t1_je4o7ex wrote
Reply to comment by StPatrick174 in TIL that Chick-fil-A started in 1961, after founder S. Truett Cathy found a fryer that cooked chicken as quickly as a fast food burger. Chick-fil-A licensed the sandwich to 50 restaurants, including Waffle House, until 1967, when the first standalone Chick-fil-A was opened. by jdward01
I'm glad, in that one instance, they were good to gay people. It doesn't make up for them as a national corporation donating to restrict the rights of gay people every day before and after. Not all franchisees agree with the corporate stance, but unfortunately they have to take the good with the bad.
packetfire t1_je4nvjb wrote
Reply to TIL that children born earlier in the academic year have a higher chance of participating in upper echelons of sports or academia. This is known as the Relative Age Effect. by ThatFaultyGamer
Yes, obvious - I was born at the end of August so I was as much as a year younger and a head smaller than the rest of my class, who would have started school a year later if born only a few days later than me.
backupKDC6794 t1_je4nd4n wrote
Reply to TIL that the official motto of Fall River, Massachusetts was ‘We’ll Try’ from 1843-2017. by Sea_Entertainment754
Reminds me of when Rhode Island's tourism motto was "cooler and warmer"
Sindri556 t1_je4lojz wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
Pigeon Guided Missile > Drones
jaa101 t1_je4ljjc wrote
Reply to comment by JetScootr in TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
Another amazing technology that helped beat the kamakazi attacks was the proximity fuse. Without that, you have to set your AA shells to explode at some fixed time from firing which is hard to get right against incoming aircraft. Proximity-fused shells would automatically explode when they got near something—a huge advantage—but it involved having vacuum tubes survive being fired from a gun.
KiaPe t1_je4l9tw wrote
Good thing America dropped several million tons of bombs on them!
The US dropped more than a ton of bombs for each citizen of Laos.
electronp t1_je4l11m wrote
Reply to comment by nowhereman136 in TIL the New York Times, in 1944, Introduced Readers to an Exciting New Food: Pizza by FatherWinter
They probably did.
-reddug- t1_je4kvvi wrote
Reply to TIL The oldest musical instrument in the world, a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute, is made from the left thighbone of a young cave bear. by gonejahman
What do you want to be? A musician? Gotta kill a cave bear first!
Squirrel851 t1_je4krss wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
Check out the Pigeon Bomb. Weird shit back in that day.
Porkamiso t1_je4kqto wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
made by kodak and sears
outerlabia t1_je4kqil wrote
Reply to comment by Fulminero in TIL The oldest musical instrument in the world, a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute, is made from the left thighbone of a young cave bear. by gonejahman
Imagine if 60k years from now someone found a kazoo in some mud and thought that was something we considered highly sophisticated lol
paigezero t1_je4kgn6 wrote
Reply to comment by EffectiveSalamander in TIL The oldest musical instrument in the world, a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute, is made from the left thighbone of a young cave bear. by gonejahman
Something something thigh-bear-punk.
BCF13 t1_je4kdrh wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
War always drives new technologies.
JetScootr t1_je4jyyu wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
My father was in the Navy during WWII, and was stationed on an aircraft carrier. His job was maintaining the drones that the gunners used for target practice.
When the kamakazi attacks started, the Navy ordered the drone pilots to fly the drones into the ship if the gunners didn't shoot them down. The aircraft carrier's command crew was not happy about these orders, but it was from Washington, so they had to.
I've had a hard time the last ten years or so even convincing people that radio controlled drones were even a thing that far back. Thanks for finding this link.
[deleted] t1_je4jjwz wrote
jamescookenotthatone OP t1_je4jj14 wrote
Reply to TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone
I was listening to an episode of the radio drama X Minus One from 1956 when a character says they are going to send out drones and was startled to hear a reference to what I thought was a recent word. I first assumed they just lucked into it but nope, 'drone' dates back to 1936.
Link to the radio drama:
mytrickytrick t1_je4j43f wrote
Reply to comment by Who_DaFuc_Asked in TIL the majority of ancient Greeks and Romans that were literate read out loud. Reasons for this include a lack of space between letters and no formalized system of punctuation that helped with pauses in reading. by Ask_Me_If_Im_A_Horse
>3 weeks later, you die of an infection from the cut after your doctor prescribed a treatment of ground-up spices and herbs that did literally nothing to help.
But would go on to become the Colonel's famous recipe.
MagnificentOrchids t1_je4iklu wrote
Reply to TIL that in Chinese Folk Religion, a mortal human being could ascend into godhood not through the decisions of a clergy/church, but by the sheer number of people who believe that their extraordinary achievements led to apotheosis, which forced Confucian/Taoists clerics to canonize a person as a God. by Khysamgathys
By the nine!
AngelSucked t1_je4p5gp wrote
Reply to comment by jhonnymazed9 in TIL that after a flood killed thousands and devastated the economy, California legislators and State employees worked unpaid for a year and a half. by WhatsAMisanthrope
It should never happen. People shouldn't work for free.