› added 4 years ago

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TIL one of the first mass produced Treadmills were by Sir William Cubitt in 1818, who used it to torture inmates in jails of England. It consisted of 24 inmates side by side, with partitions. This pointless labor was meant to deter poor people from committing crimes to just get in jail for shelter.

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8aDPb TIL that a diet that's consistently high in fat and / or sugar reduces cognitive ability.
nYA9 TIL that Michel Siffre, a French scientist, contributed to the understanding of the endogenous biological clock, also called circadian clock, by staying two months cloistered in the abyss of Scarasson without time cues on a glacier from July 1962.
d8WEK TIL that Female dragonflies fake a crash-and-die scenario in order to prevent males from harassing them to mate
EgnJ0 TIL the average Swiss resident takes the train about 70 times per year, more than any other European country
ne4kG TIL Henry VIII had someone who’s job it was to wipe his bottom for him. They were called ‘Grooms of the Stool’ and Henry VIII had 4 of them during his reign, all of whom were knighted!