› added 2 years ago

79

TIL France hadn't become a linguistically unified country (under French) until the end of the 19th century. By 1914, almost all French could read and understand the national language, though 50% still understood or spoke a regional language of France compared to today's 10% of French who can do that

VBjgm TIL at the 2003 Nickilodeon kids choice awards, in the award for favourite movie : Ice Age, Spider Man 2 and Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets were all beaten by eventual winner Austin Powers: Goldmember
ADWy4 TIL that Theranos employee Ian Gibbons killed himself to avoid being deposed and fired for disclosing company's false claims. His wife called the CEO to report his death but instead received an email from a Theranos lawyer requesting she immediately return the company laptop.
XN8R TIL that a famous study – showing that people supposedly do better on “trick” questions when printed in a blurry font, which makes them concentrate – was debunked as an artifact of small sample size. (The study was cited in Nobel-Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow.”)
N76p1 TIL the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang , a leftist breakaway of the main Kuomintang, is one of eight registered minor political parties in the People's Republic of China and is seen as second in status to the Communist Party of China.
7DlZ TIL that ancient egyptians used moldy bread as treatment for infected burn wounds, possibly already utilizing the antibiotic effects of molds accidently discovered by Alexander Fleming.