› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the British Army does not have “Royal” in its name (unlike other British armed forces) because it was formed in the interregnum when the UK had no monarch

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nerbr TIL of Aeroflot Flight 593 - a plane that crashed, causing the deaths of all on board, because the pilot let his kids fly it.
w0R6 TIL There was scandal that came to light in 2008 which involved judges giving harsh sentences to young people over relatively harmless crimes for kickbacks from private prison owners.
v1QZj TIL Robert Clive, a British Governor and General in India had a pet tortoise named Adwaita. Clive died in 1774. Adwaita died in 2006, 232 years later at the age of c.255. She was born before the 7 Years War, the founding of the USA and the French Revolution.
Weo8 TIL the words ‘Fascist’ and 'Faggot’ both derive from the Latin term for a bundle of sticks.
kOjWB TIL our brain has shrunk over the past 20,000 years. On top of the gradual effects of modernisation on our brain size, chronic stress and anxiety will, if not attended to, shrink your brain further and far more rapidly than you might imagine.