› added 5 years ago

118

TIL that in the post-war Soviet Union, Russian mafioso that joined the army were referred to as "suka", or bitch, for allying with the government. The outcast suki formed their own gangs which became powerful enough to fight the original gangs. Their fighting is known as the "Bitch Wars".

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

jNVGp TIL "Going troppo" is an Australian term for being driven mad by heat, as a result of spending too much time in the tropics. A study in Darwin found those who do not work in air-conditioning had higher levels of negativity, anxiety, aggression, and alcohol use, and lower levels of general health.
9YgyQ TIL GDP was invented just 86 years ago.
lWWr TIL that NASA wanted to send Caroll Spinney, the actor who plays Big Bird to space via the ill-fated Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986 to interest children in space. However, the Big Bird suit was too big for the shuttle, so he was replaced by teacher Christa McAuliffe.
VM87p TIL Viking women’s faces were more masculine than today’s women, while Viking men's faces looked more feminine than today's men, with a less prominent jaw and brow ridges. The ambiguous facial features mean that it is difficult to decide upon a Viking skeleton’s sex based on the skull alone
xVOMo TIL that the handrail around the turret in some early WW2 tanks is an antenna. The presence of a handrail antenna would reveal to the enemy that the tank is a command tank, which made it a primary target in the combat. Because of this, it was eventually replaced with a whip antenna.