› added 11 years ago

89

TIL: China has a National Pole Dancing Team.

Read more english.peopledaily.com.cn

via reddit.com

QWjd TIL That a robotic chess machine called ‘The Turk’ toured the world in the 1700s, easily defeating prominent statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. A human chess master was long suspected to have been hidden inside, but wasn’t exposed for 84 years.
N6mE TIL that big educational companies like Pearson have allowed plugs (ads) for consumer products in their standardized tests
yQy1X TIL that 1 in 4 U.S. auto accidents are caused by distracted driving (cellphone use), and that distracted driving is considered 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.
NXXbb TIL that Alzheimer’s disease can be caused by a brain immune response to herpes infection. This theory dates to the early 1900s, but was ignored because the scientist was Jewish, while Alzheimer, who named the disease, was German.
lmXa TIL after Czech resistance assassinated brutal Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, the Czech town of Lidice was razed and nearly all of its citizens, pets and livestock were shot. In response to Hitler’s desire to wipe Lidice off the map, Venezuela, Brazil, Panama and Mexico renamed towns to Lidice.