› added 7 months ago

13

Today I learned that Merv was once the largest city in the world

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via reddit.com

vB5j TIL it only took just a little over a month before Silkroad was back up and online again after being shut down by the FBI last October.
woDgo TIL Italy used to be the 4th largest economy on Earth in 1991, behind only the USA, Japan and Germany, however unsustainable budget deficits and massive public debt eventually caught up to them, flatlining their economic growth
xV14b TIL While dining with the Saudi King, Chruchill was told he could neither smoke nor drink, for religious reasons. He replied that, “My religion prescribed as an absolute sacred ritual smoking cigars and drinking alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and the intervals between them.”
LQEVd TIL several people who were in permanent catatonic states as a result of the Spanish Flu later regained full function in the 1960s as a result of treatment with the medicine L-DOPA. Unfortunately the treatment was only temporary and all patients reverted to permanent catatonic states.
J19Kv TIL that birds rub ants on themselves. This behavior is known as 'anting' and is thought to serve self-maintenance functions