› added 8 years ago

396

TIL of an ongoing soviet fox domestication experiment that selectively bred for 'friendliness'. After a few generations the foxes had other surprising traits like better social skills, larger litter sizes, curlier tails, droopier ears and showed skeletal changes (making them look 'cuter', like dogs)

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

pA4Q TIL that Kyoto was spared from much of the destruction of WWII. It was removed from the atomic bomb target list (which it had headed) by the personal intervention of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who wanted to save this cultural center that he knew from his honeymoon.
PYOmV TIL A an American school board tried to ban a book called “Making it with Mademoiselle”, as they believed it was inappropriate. They hadn’t bothered to research it. They reversed their decision after the book turned out to be a how-to pattern book about dress-making.
p8PDb TIL of the Gimli Glider. In 1983, Canadian plane was filled with 22,300 LB of fuel instead of in KG, leading the plane to run out of fuel halfway through the flight. With no fuel or power, the pilot successfully glided the plane onto a racetrack. There were no casualties.
9EaX TIL that there is an old Finnish unit of measurement used by the Sami people called ‘poronkusema’ which translates to “a reindeer piss”. It’s the distance a reindeer can walk before needing to urinate.
P1M1w TIL that Japanese mythology describes cats as nasty, evil creatures. Old gray and red or orange cats with long tails are the evilest variety, followed by tricolored ones.