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TIL that the Stasi is widely considered to be the most effective intelligence agency during the Cold War. 1/63 East Germans were collaborators. Including part-time informers, they had an agent for every 6.5 people. Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal called them more oppressive than the Gestapo.

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5VXm9 TIL that lower class Germans are stereotyped as giving their children names that sound exotic in German, such as “Kevin.” Prejudice against people with such names is strong enough that the term “Kevinism” was coined to describe it.
pYB84 TIL that, during his confirmation hearings in 1888, there was a debate in American newspapers over whether or not Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller's mustache was proper for an official. Some even claimed that it would distract attorneys.
JyOv TIL that Pyrrhus of Epirus lost so many men in his victories against Rome that he claimed, “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.“ This coined the term pyrrhic victory.
4DWJ TIL it is a mortal sin to withhold a just wage in Catholicism. Remuneration “should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level.”
XpB8 TIL Some older/less efficient worker termites will develop ‘backpacks’ of toxic chemicals that explode when the termite is threatened. They are essentially used as suicide bombers when the colony is being attacked.