› added 1 month ago

2

TIL that the "achoo" sound is a learned cultural behavior, not a biological reflex. This explains why people who are born deaf typically do not vocalize a sneeze, and why sneeze sounds vary significantly by country.

Read more popsci.com

via reddit.com

P1VwV TIL that after the Battle of Waterloo, sugar factories were specifically built near the battlefield to mass-extract soldiers’ bones and char them into bleach for beet sugar — meaning 19th-century Europeans unknowingly sweetened their tea with the remains of fallen men
1je8 TIL that 37% of public school teachers use personal money to buy food more than once a month for their hungry students. They spend an average of $35/month. With 3.1M teachers in the US, teachers are spending about $400M/year of their personal money to feed hungry students.
loPgK TIL in Detroit in 2012 a gunfight broke out during an argument over who makes the best Kool-Aid.
X05jP TIL The first case of a DUI was a London Cabbie named George Smith who was swerving all over the place on September 10th, 1897 shortly after midnight. He was fined 20 schillings and told to be more careful next time.
oBDnA TIL a pulp and paper mill in Ontario was a NAZI pow camp in WWII, and a captured navigator drew a map of the world by hand that is still there behind glass.