› added 9 years ago

271

TIL the blanket octopus is known to rip off the venomous tentacles of the Portuguese man o’ war to use them as weapons

Read more science.sciencemag.org

via reddit.com

78wL TIL Moscow has more Billionaires than any other city in the world, beating out New York City and London
nWL5Y TIL Papua is at war - Inside The West Papua Liberation Army
m10Ro TIL between 1400 & 1782, around 40k-60k people were killed on suspicion of practising witchcraft, primarily in Europe. Some witch hunts would last for years and some sources estimate 100,000 trials occurred. Some regions burnt the suspects at the stake, of whom roughly 80% were women, most above 40.
Egdgd TIL that in 1984, Sweden introduced a 0.5% tax on financial transactions. 50% of traders in Stockholm moved to London by 1990. The reduction in market activity resulted in the money raised from the tax being minimal, and actually reduced overall tax revenue due to reductions in capital gains tax.
69YDX TIL: The most sampled song in the world is "Amen, Brother" by the Winstons. A seven second drum break known as the "Amen Break" has been used in thousands of songs