› added 11 years ago

326

TIL the mayor of Bogotá hired several hundred mimes to mock poor drivers, leading to a decrease in traffic violations.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

plg8 TIL that in April 2003 the 82nd Airborne Division fired into a crowd of Iraqi civilians who were protesting their presence at a school within the city of Fallujah, killing 17 unarmed Iraqis.
l71vV TIL an eggcorn is the alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used in the same context.
VB7Mp TIL In 1848, Poe wrote a prose poem called Eureka, in which he speculated that the universe began from a single point that expanded outward. While not scientifically precise, his ideas eerily resemble modern concepts of the Big Bang nearly 80 years before it was proposed.
1nLX TIL Leo Fender, the inventor of Fender Guitars never knew how to play the guitar
ep7nk TIL about the remarkable life of journalist Martha Gellhorn. She reported from 100’s of war zones and was the only woman to land at Normandy on June 6, 1944 where she interviewed the wounded and dying. Her famous husband accused her of loving war more than their bed.