› added 2 years ago

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TIL people who were born blind use their visual cortex to solve math problems

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rvOy TIL in the 1960’s, US spy planes were taking photos of Cuba. Those who analyzed them noticed something peculiar. They were building soccer fields. Cubans don’t like soccer, they like baseball. Russians like soccer. This is how the Cuban Missile Crisis started.
grol8 TIL The last captive Carolina parakeet, Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918, in the same cage as Martha, the last passenger pigeon, who died in 1914.
KOQ9w TIL about bacha posh, a practice in Afghanistan where a family with no sons will dress one of their daughters as a boy so that someone can run errands, work, escort the other sisters, etc. They cut their hair short and answer to male names; when they reach puberty, they revert to being female.
eX76 TIL that Air Force One is not a single plane but is simply the name for whatever plane the president happens to be on.
7rMDX TIL that the London Underground is so hot because the clay through which the tunnels are dug has spend decades heating up and is now insulating the tunnels. It was originally thought that the tube would remain cooler than the streets above.