› added 10 years ago

144

TIL all human languages can be expressed with an alphabet that contains 107 letters, 52 diacritics, and four prosodic marks.

Read more princeton.edu

via reddit.com

6rNw TIL the US government poisoned alcohol as a deterrent during prohibition. This backfired when people didn’t stop and thousands of people died before prohibition ended.
D0VJ TIL a group of teenagers known as the “Bling Ring” tried robbing Paris Hilton’s house perceiving her as ‘dumb’, finding the key under the doormat and front door unlocked. They robbed her house 4 more times over the next 3 months taking $3M worth of her clothing and jewelry before being caught.
E16Z7 TIL Apollo 12 was struck by lightning during launch and was on the verge of being aborted before a single Flight Controller realised that flipping a little known switch would restore enough systems to save the mission.
R7beQ TIL a man committed a perfect crime and was caught anyway. While in jail, he investigated how this was possible and discovered a secret new surveillance device the government developed.
78AXX TIL one of every five mammals living on the planet is a bat.