Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

RJFerret t1_jea3lf5 wrote

Reply to comment by BigCountry76 in TIL that the world's largest snowflake on record measured 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. It fell in Fort Keogh, Montana in 1887 and was reported to be "larger than milk pans." by KodyBerns99

Milk pan, abbreviated "mp" is part of the metric system, hence not being taught to most Americans.

Ten times smaller are individual egg pans, or "ep".

Ten times larger you've got pizza pan, aka "pp".

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_Maxolotl t1_jea36ic 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

Here's a second fact that I always tell people to add some perspective about this flute:

I live in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn is part of Long Island. Long Island is a glacial moraine, formed after the last major glacial retreat.

That flute is older than Long Island. And the short version of my factoid is "Music is older than Long Island".

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arbivark t1_jea31ww wrote

Reply to comment by doterobcn in TIL that when former White House press secretary James Brady died in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide because it was ultimately caused by a gunshot wound he sustained in 1981, during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by IAmTiborius

I don't know, but it made me think of a case from torts class.

In 1891, the Wisconsin Supreme Court came to a similar result in Vosburg v. Putney.[10] In that case, a boy kicked another from across the aisle in the classroom. It turned out that the victim had an unknown microbial condition that was irritated, and resulted in him entirely losing the use of his leg. No one could have predicted the level of injury. Nevertheless, the court found that the kicking was unlawful because it violated the "order and decorum of the classroom", and the perpetrator was therefore fully liable for the injury.

here, the death is labeled a homicide, the source being two newspapers that are behind adwalls. but homicide here is not the same as chargeable as homicide, because the death was not within a year and a day. i don't remember why the common law rule adds that extra day.

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morerubberstamps OP t1_jea2nd1 wrote

Reply to TIL over the course of his 23 published adventures, Herge's Tintin was knocked unconscious 43 times. Between 1929 and 1973, he was hit with a rake, a brick, a whisky bottle, an oar, a giant apple, a camel femur, a block of ice, and countless punches and clubs. by morerubberstamps

This led researchers to publish a tongue-in-cheek study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which concluded that these repeated blows to the head contributed to his short stature:

>It appears that his perennially prepubescent look is due to a growth-hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, conditions likely brought on by repeated blows to the head.

>"We believe that the multiple traumas Tintin sustained could be the first case of traumatic pituitary injury described in the literature," said Claude Cyr, an associate professor of medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Que."

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DavoTB t1_jea2aov wrote

Reply to TIL that Walt Disney World began as "The Florida Project". Dummy corporations were used, by Walt Disney Productions, to buy up 27,000 acres of land to avoid bursts of land speculation in the Orlando area. Early rumors assumed possible development by NASA, Ford, the Rockefellers, and Howard Hughes. by jdward01

Those who live in the area have experience with the “hidden” side of the manner that Disney operated then, and even in more recent years. One friend lives in the area near Cape Canaveral, usually called Cape Kennedy at that time. They heard of land being bought up, and figured it was related to the space program and speculated that it was driven by NASA expansion during that time. Later, when Walt Disney World opened, the area saw tremendous growth, which later dissipated with the shrinkage of the space program.

Sadly, when we last visited relatives in the Orlando and Space Coast area, (especially the Cape Canaveral area), there was widespread foreclosures and abandoned houses in some neighborhoods where contractors, engineers and technicians from NASA and companies like Hughes and Martin Marietta once lived.

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TaliesinMerlin t1_jea1rx4 wrote

Reply to comment by doterobcn in TIL that when former White House press secretary James Brady died in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide because it was ultimately caused by a gunshot wound he sustained in 1981, during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by IAmTiborius

>Would the person who pushed me during the basketball game be held responsible for my injury and ultimately, my death?

Probably not, since that would be an accident and the player wasn't attempting to commit a crime. (They were committing a foul.)

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