› added 1 year ago

96

TIL A community close to the jungles in Uganda received $50,000, the area's 20 percent share of annual income from gorilla tourism and now villagers are motivated to protect gorillas. In the past residents didn't realize gorillas were rare or special as some people even ate them

Read more sfgate.com

via reddit.com

R79kl TIL that availability of potatoes played an important role in spurring economic growth in the 18th & 19th centuries. The introduction of the potato explains the 25–26% of the increase in old world population and 27–34% of the increase in urbanization between 1700 - 1900.
vB0R TIL that the first unofficial mascot of the USPS, Owney the Postal Dog, actually went “postal” in 1897. After biting a worker, the “Toledo postmaster summoned a police officer, who shot him, thus ending the career of the famous little dog.”
N7NeN TIL that coppicing -- cutting a deciduous tree to the ground when it is dormant -- produces multiple stems growing out of the main trunk. This method of pruning allows the continual harvest of wood from the same tree for centuries.
awlyb TIL that Canadian Senators have a mandatory retirement age of 75.
NXy11 TIL that infamous Wild West outlaw William Bonney aka “Billy the Kid” may have survived until 1950 under the alias Oliver “Brushy Bill” Roberts. On the night The Kid was supposedly shot and killed by sheriff Pat Garrett, one of his deputies exclaimed “You shot the wrong man!”.