› added 11 years ago

85

TIL that the ancient Romans possessed an herb that was so effective at birth control that they harvested it to extinction

Read more sisterzeus.com

via reddit.com

9w5LM TIL of the Gunnbjörn's skerries. A group of small islands roughly halfway between Greenland and Iceland, they were colonized by Norse settlers, with a successful colony of 18 farms by 1391. By 1456, they reportedly "completely burned up" and disappeared, presumably destroyed in a volcanic event.
6nW TIL The Sims was originally designed as an architecture simulator, with sims only there to evaluate builds
Re8Q TIL that 7 schools in New York City look exactly the same, apparently because they only had money for 1 set of blueprints.
kOBM1 TIL there is a philosophical concept called the explanatory gap which is used to describe the inability to describe concepts. For instance, it is impossible to describe a color to a blind person and have them accurately understand and visualize that color.
ADb47 TIL The word "Cappuccino" comes from the Capuchin friars of the Franciscan order of monks! The color of the espresso mixed with frothed milk was similar to the color of the Capuchin robe.